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stxleslyds · 3 years ago

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WHAT THE HELL IS TASK FOR Z - REVIEW

Hello and welcome to my first audio (and written) review! This is my second time recording myself making a review, the first one was for Task Force Z #1 (the review of that will be linked here!) but it was very rough and the audio was horrendous.

I will like to thank @hood-ex for listening to both audios and giving me her opinion on them! Thank you, Emily, you are the best!

Now, you don't have to hear the review because I will write a version of what was said there down here, but if you want to hear me talk shit about Batman, thirst over Jason and hear me figure out in real time that the FBI might not be the real FBI, I suggest hearing the audio, I enjoyed myself when I recorded it and I liked how it turned out after I heard it myself.

The written review won’t be a perfect match to the audio because I repeated myself a lot and I wanted to re-write some thoughts so they could be understood better. Basically, if you hear and read this review you will be receiving two reviews in one, the general thoughts are the same but I express myself differently.

Also, just a heads up, English isn’t my first language so I made a lot of mistakes but I am trying to get better at it, the “recording” myself part of this review is to help me get better at English.

Here is where the written review begins.

Part One – Detective Comics #1041

We start our journey in Gotham and this is a Red Hood story but the person narrating isn’t Jason (or Bruce), it is actually a journalist named Deb Donovan.

(Having already read the three-part story already I can honestly say that I want to see more of her. And I hope she appears in Task Force Z, because her character is amazing and I enjoyed every second of her presence in this story.)

She is talking about how new reporters want to know how to get a good story and she says this “it is never the stories that you try to find that matter, it is the stories that find you”. Well, funny you say that Deb, because that’s exactly how things turn out here.

Here is the thing, Matthew Rosenberg is very clever, so we have a whole scene with Deb trying to get information from some guy, they hold a conversation and all that BUT that scene is meant to distract us from what is really going on. What we are being distracted from is seeing Jason.

You are not supposed to notice him at first glance, in fact, when I first read this part, I only noticed him when I went back and read it again.

If you realised Jason was there or you had to go back and read it again, you will notice that Jason caused trouble just to leave a note on Deb’s pocket without her noticing. But, I mean, when I say that Jason “caused trouble” I am saying that he made a fight break out, was there really a need for Jason to do that? No! Jason is just being his dramatic self and that’s beautiful. I love it when Jason is overdramatic… it is one of the things that make him special!

When she gets the note and reads it, that how the “story” finds her.

Through the note Jason gets Deb to go to the morgue to investigate why bodies are disappearing. When she goes there, she learns that is where the Arkham patients that died in A-day are, but while she is there one of the bodies appears to be missing.

Deb seems to be interested in pursuing the investigation but it is extremely bizarre for her. When she leaves the morgue, she gets attacked by an unknown individual that tells her that she should drop the investigation about the missing bodies.

Deb doesn’t get to talk much with this person because Batman appears and knocks out her attacker, when he sees that she is safe, he also tells her that she shouldn’t get involved in that situation. Which is, I believe, the final push that Deb needed to pursue this story. She even tells him “Are you my editor now, Batman? Because I don’t like it when strange men tell me how to do my job, and they don’t come much stranger than you”. She is a queen your honour!

How many times have we seen people stand up to Batman? Not many, so, she is definitely something else! She was so firm in her statement that Batman left her alone! Bye loser!

The next thing Deb does is chat with Vicky Vale and ask her for advice in a bar. It is clear that Deb really wants to write about this story but as she tells Vicky about her attacker and Batman telling her to not get involved, Vicky also suggests to not get involved because she believes Batman knows better. For a moment, Vicky even thought that Deb was giving her the story, like hell Vicky!

Deb just wanted advice because she had never written about that kind of situations, crime, or should I say, crime in Gotham, weren’t something Deb used to write about.

After her chat with Vicky, Deb goes home, and that’s when we see Jason for the first time… yeah, this man broke into her home and was sitting there eating her cereal. What an amazing first impression Chonky, you truly are a piece of work.

As I mentioned earlier, Jason is wearing his Red Hood suit, but not the “classic” one or the “outlaw” one, he is wearing the suit that Batman gave him at the end of Urban Legends: Cheer. This, of course, confirms what we already knew, this story picks up directly from Cheer and they are both currently canon in this timeline.

Part Two – Detective Comics #1042

This is the best part of the story; this is where all the Jason Todd/Red Hood content gives you a warm hug and boops your nose. This is pure bliss for me Jason Nation. I read this and Urban Legends: Cheer was washed away from my system.

It is very Matthew Rosenberg-like, if you know me you know that he is one of my favourite writers and I have talked fondly about his work. In this part is where I can see hints of Clint’s (Hawkeye) funny characterization but Jason is still his own man. Their humour is similar but Jason isn’t laid back, he is constantly alert and he seems to have his head in the game.

Jason is also a little shit and I mean that in the best way because little shit Jason is my favourite Jason and I missed him SO MUCH! He is back! Tell a friend, little shit Jason Todd is back and he is being extra annoying. (I love this bitch).

Anyway, back to the actual story, we see Jason and Deb at a restaurant and for some reason Jason cannot stop eating. As they get the food Deb tells Jason that he is being weird and that he is making everyone look at them, but Jason (the little shit that he is) tells her that the reason why they are looking their way is because she smells (like alcohol, she is drunk from going to the bar with Vicky). Can you believe this man? Deb is also a little shit though, which makes their dynamic absolutely perfect.

Jason tells Deb that it was indeed him the one that put the note on her pocket and the one that caused a fight to break out, and he confirms that he did that because he thought it would be the only way to get Deb’s attention.

Jason and Deb really are one great pair, they match each other in all the levels. He tells her something, she questions further, he teases her, and she teases back. I see it, a new dynamic duo incoming!

This Jason really wants to know what is going on with the missing bodies but he also seems to believe that he cannot do it on his own so he is looking for a person that has more connections than him to do the most difficult investigation without needing to use force or scare tactics of his own.

He probably read her stuff and learnt about her because he tells her that she would be really good for the job, that he likes her writing and that if he is alive at the end of this whole operation Deb might get a Pulitzer from her work. This is obviously something that Deb wants and Jason seems to know that he is saying all the right things.

And that is amazing, how long has it been since we saw this version of Jason? The one that plans, and works on the ins and outs of his ideas, this man probably stalked Deb, so he could know exactly how to convince her to do a job that he couldn’t probably do. And that is also amazing, Rosenberg is writing Jason as a competent and skilled vigilante but he is also setting some boundaries in a good way, why would Jason compromise his work by scaring and interrogating people when he can choose another path, Jason has never been above “using” people to get information or to get a message across. Duality and interesting vigilantes, I see you.

But that’s not all, when Deb gets tired of Jason’s bullshit and the whole “I am the Red Hood and we should work together” thing, Jason (the annoying little shit that he is) tells her that if she leaves, he knows who to give the story to, Vicky Vale.

That seems to make her stop and when Jason says that he likes her (Deb’s) writing better, he fully convinces her to work with him, or so he thought… Deb (the little shit that she is) tells him that she accepts and that Red Hood can be her “angry little sidekick”, fine DC, I will let this one pass because I am in a good mood and Rosenberg doesn’t make much of a big deal out of it.

Jason and Deb start brainstorming about why would someone steal Astrid Arkham’s body, Deb suggest she faker her death but Jason tells Deb “A town like this has a lot of uses for a corpse like hers… Just because she was dead doesn’t mean she still is”, I don’t think Jason understood how creepy that initial comment came out as, like we know all the shit Gotham has going one and the Lazarus Pits and all that but… shit Jason, you need to be less creepy! Maybe we should start calling you the “masked creep” like Deb suggested!

Jason gives Deb a place for her to start a new investigation and leaves, yup, he just leaves after he ate all the food he asked for. She left her alone and made her pay for his meal! Chonky you are mean!

Don’t worry though, Deb was already thinking that whatever new information she might get she would not be sharing it with her new sidekick.

Deb really wants to write about this story and she wants to be recognised for the work that she does, so she goes the extra mile and gets information from a guy that works closely with the mayor, but here is the thing, by doing that she compromised one of Vicky’s stories, but Vicky stops being mad the moment that Deb tells her that the new in formation that she got might never be passed down to her new friend (Red Hood). But joke is on them both because Jason bugged Deb’s phone and is being sneaky.

Jason Todd planning ahead, working with people to make the investigation smoother but also tracking and bugging people’s devices, this is brilliant! I love competent Jason being back in the game, he is lovely (and hot)!

Going back to Deb, she is watching some very shady men do shady things, because she cannot just go there and ask what they are doing, she decides to go to her car so she can do an improv stakeout. What she didn’t expect when she got in her car was Red Hood also getting in, and this is where more funny interactions between these two happen.

She is angry, and asks him if he has been following her or had her phone bugged and Jason (the little shit) says “Yes, I put a bug on your phone that morning on the subway. You think I would stage a fight just to put a note in your pocket? I had to make sure I could trust you. I can’t by the way”, I love him, that’s all I have to say. He is so invested in telling her all that that he doesn’t see that Deb isn’t paying attention to him because she is watching the shady men steal dead bodies.

This is where Jason makes an executive decision, a stupid executive decision, but would it be fun and interesting if Jason had a plan for every outcome? No, the answer is no. And that’s why Batman is a boring piece of shit “I am always prepared”, oh shut up you ding dong, nobody asked you!!!

The panel of Jason saying “let me go ask”(what they are doing with the dead bodies), along with the panel of him looking like he is modelling his way towards the shady men, is fantastic. Is it dumb? Yes, but Jason is a dramatic bitch and that has to be accepted.

Jason starts the fight by doing some acrobatic moves and Deb gets knocked out just when she had started to call the police.

Part Three – Detective Comics #1043

The last part starts with Deb just recovering from being hit, she wasn’t really a target to this people but she wasn’t lucky. And I bet Deb would have preferred to stay down because Batman comes again pretending to save the day (go away bat, go!). Do you guys remember when I said that Deb was as much a little shit as Jason? Well, when Batman tells Deb that he had told her to not get involved she says “I was going to, but he dragged me back into it”, while pointing at Red Hood, I swear she and Jason could take over the world just by annoying everyone!

The police are coming to the place, which is very strange because Deb didn’t get to say much when she called them initially but the police being close means that the Bat has to go, so he takes Deb with him even though she doesn’t want to leave Red Hood alone… she cares about Chonky, Jason Nation, she is one of us!

I am not going to waste much time speaking about Bruce and his annoying presence but he NEEDS to understand that he is not the only one that cares for Gotham, and he is not the only one who is ready to get their hands dirty in order to help. He might be vengeance and whatever else he wants but people like Deb can help in other ways, writing a story and making more people aware of the shady stuff that is going on can also be a good thing. Maybe it is time for Bruce to be pushed down his high horse and be taught that he isn’t the only one that wants Gotham to be better and safer.

Meanwhile Jason is still fighting the baddies but then the police also appear, they don’t get to do much because the Bat disarms them or whatever but here is where a wonderful thing happens! Batman tells Red Hood to leave it alone, to not get involved and Jason says this “You can go, Batman. I’m seeing this through”

CHONKY! YOU DID IT! OH MY GODS I NEVER THOUGHT WE WOULD SEE THIS DAY EVER AGAIN! JASON TOLD BRUCE TO FUCK OFF!

Hell yeah baby, that’s my Chonky right there! I don’t even care about the fact that him not leaving got him captured because guess what! That means that getting captured had to happen in order to give Jason an ongoing and I am happy about it, call me dumb but a Red Hood ongoing is what I was missing!

Now here is the mystery part, which I hadn’t realised up until I recorded myself making the review (if you want to hear me losing my mind over this, check out the audio), the baddies that were stealing the bodies and Jason was fighting were actually FBI?

I mean, it is funny no? We know, now, that Crispin in Task Force Z said that he took Jason from the FBI and he was the only one keeping him from being a fugitive… what if these people aren’t FBI? What if they work for Crispin? I mean, Crispin should have been the one stealing the dead bodies because he had Astrid, Bane and Man-Bat as zombies working for him…

Hmm, this Crispin person gets shadier and shadier by the second. He sucks big time, Chonky be careful baby, don’t trust the speaker person, they are mean!

After the FBI shows up we jump forward in time and we get to see that Deb published a story titled “Red Hood Captured and Dead Bodies Lost”. It seems that she at the very least go half a story out but she doesn’t seem satisfied.

On the other side we also see the Mayor and a mystery man discussing Deb’s article and feeling like their project (Project Halperin) has been compromised but the mystery man isn’t very worried.

Maybe mystery man is Crispin, and maybe the FBI wasn’t really the FBI and all he wanted was to get Jason to lead his team of undead people. Maybe Crispin knows of Jason’s connection to the Lazarus Pit and that’s why he needed Jason and not just anyone for the job.

The final pages from this party show us Jason in a chair, someone is talking to him and offering him a job. Having read Task Force Z we can speculate that the one talking is Crispin and that was the first time Jason got to know about the Task Force Z and why the hell dead bodies where disappearing.

Well, that is all! I LOVED this story; it was extremely well written and it gets even better after you read Task Force Z!

Jason’s characterization is excellent and I am very pleased with how Rosenberg chose to display some of his abilities and skills. For a three-part back up story, I have to say, this is the best piece of Jason content we have had this year.

This review should have come out earlier than the Task Force Z one BUT I think that having read this again after Task Force Z was a great idea. Some things started to make more sense once I had more information!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this review, tell me what you thought of it and if you hear the audio let me know what you thought of that too!

#jason todd #red hood #task force z #dc comics

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marblesphere · 2 years ago

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Happy Birthday Gojo Satoru! 2022!

So, yep! I totally forgot about our dearest menace's birthday until I scroll down tumblr and someone posted about it. And here it is! A quick one shot that is from the future (again)!!!! Ahahaha!

Happy Reading!!! Enjoy!!!!

"[Name]-chan!!! My love!!! What day is today?!!!" Satoru exclaimed that very loudly I might add right after meeting me.

"Today? It's Wednesday." I blinked. "And please be quiet. You are disturbing the neighbours." I sighed.

"Of course it's a wonderful sunny Wednesday and?"

"And?" I tilted my head. "Is there anything going on?" I knitted my forehead, trying to remember what kind of event should happen today. But nothing comes to my mind. Exam is still a week away, I have no plans with Yae or the man in front of me for that matter. And there is no training for today.

"You seriously forgot?" His jaw dropped, even his blindfold comically slid down from his eyes.

"I don't think there's any event worth remembering." I sweatdropped at his overdramatic reaction but silently looked at Michizane to help. Michizane shakes his head, indicating he also didn't know, while Tanuki-san is making fun of overdramatic Satoru.

"Oh!" Satoru perked up by himself. "I got it!" He suddenly beamed. "You must be pulling that kind of surprise! I get it! I totally get it! I will act surprised later!" He spouted. "But don't make me wait too long or I will have a lonely death like a lonely bunny." He gave me a quick hug.

'What is he talking about?' I looked at Michizane, hoping his ancestor can somehow interpret his bizarre's behaviour.

'I don't know.' Michizane gave me a shrug. Then as usual, Satoru gave me a lift to school, spending quality time he said. And yes, there's no way I will tell him that I somehow enjoy this, just a teeny bit though. ~"~

So, the first thing I asked Yae is what kind of event this week Wednesday has. Yae also shoots me a confused look before I narrated this morning bizarre phenomenon. 'He's probably just bored and wants to spice up something.' Is the conclusion I came to. It's not a far-fetched theory, remembering him literally teleported into my apartment at midnight and just to whine that he is so lonely and wants to stay for the night. If I didn't love him as much as I do, I would have broken up with him then. Well, the man did reflect on his mistake after being almost kicked out from my apartment. And swore he would call me first before randomly teleporting into my personal space, and he offered his handmade breakfast which turned out to be an amazing meal even though it's his first time doing it. Tsk, curse him, I couldn't even say they were a dark matter and white matter.

The school is over as quick as it started. At least, for today it seemed like that. Giddy Satoru is already waiting for me along with 2 kids who he forcefully dragged along. "Let's go!!!" He cheered.

"Go to where?" I dared myself to ask. I just want to go home and finish my Pokemon Violet though.

"Anywhere you want to go." Came his reply.

"Then, home."

"Oh? So you are doing it at home? Sorry kids, I will send you back now." He grinned at the two.

"...I don't know what you are talking about. But I am very happy that you are taking us home now." Megumi rolled his eyes. After sending the kids home with some compensation in form of sweets because they were dragged into annoying stick man shenanigans, he walked me home as usual.

"Pardon me!!!" He called out as he entered my house.

"Why are you coming in?"

"Huh? Aren't we doing this in your house?" He tilted his head.

"Do what exactly? Please elaborate." I frowned, glaring at two on-ryos that were suggesting some less than innocent ideas.

"We are still playing this? Okay, I will wait." He plopped his body to the sofa.

"Play what?" I looked at him full of confusion, but didn't pay anymore heed. I go straight to have my shower and dinner and then plopped down on the sofa with a nintendo switch on my hand, playing pokemon. I didn't pay attention to the man beside me until I feel the living heater moved away, slowly but surely, and finally realised he is not talking.

"Why are you sulking now?" I asked without looking up from the screen.

"..." Silence.

"Are you ignoring me now, Satoru?" I mused as I looked at his countenance. Face turned away with pout and a pillow on his lap.

"Oh? Are you not having enough attention?" I sighed as my character is on its way to the last event of the game. Still no answer, “Satoru, did I do something wrong?” Satoru turns to me so fast, his mouth opens and closes and finally settles down in another pout.

"You really forgot?"

"I don't know what are you-" My phone buzzed, a chat notification popped out. "Just to make sure you didn't forget today is Gojo-san's birthday."

'...Ah…' That's when I realised why our conversation didn't match at all and the reason why the man child is literally pouting and sulking. "Wait here." I went back to my room and changed into another much thicker piece of clothing. "Let's go." I put on my sneakers and waited for Satoru.

"Go where?"

"I want to eat gelato." I said. So, this is maybe the second time my outing with a very quiet Satoru. The first time is well…a story for another time. Fortunately, the gelato shop is still open. I had Satoru wait on the bench while I ordered them. His is the biggest with almost all flavours crammed in, while mine is only two scoops of chocolate and matcha.

"Here." I handed him his 'birthday cake' alternative, not that he knew it. Satoru wordlessly takes it and I sat beside him, licking my own gelato. "Hand." I said without looking at him. I can sense him having a long look at me. "Just give me your hand." I sighed, and then a big palm was extended to me.

I take out a small rectangular box wrapped in sky blue paper and put it on his palm. The gift that has been sitting for a month in my drawer. "For me?" He finally talked again. I give him a small nod.

"We, old timers shall retreat, you two youngsters enjoy your time. Hohohoho" Michizane giggled as he dragged away Tanuki-san.

"Can I open it?" Another nod is given to him. Inside the box is just a pendant brooch shaped in his clan's symbol and his initials.

"I… am not sure if that was to your taste… if you don't like it, just melt it down and sell it." I grumbled. 'Tsk, giving a gift to rich man is really hard. They already have it all.'

"I am not going to sell it!" He exclaimed suddenly, making me jump.

"O…okay." I nodded.

"[Name], pin it on me now." He said excitedly.

"Pin it on your own. Besides, we are having a gelato right now." I grumbled, feeling my cheeks warming and I blame it all on the cold, not because I am embarrassed.

"I will finish it right now so you have to pin it on me."

"You will get brain freeze…ah, it's too late." I saw Satoru froze from the sudden pain in his head.

"Hehehe, as I thought, there's no way you would forget my birthday." He beamed as we walked home.

"...mhm.. yeah, of course." I nodded along.

"You sure?" He suddenly bent his head and appeared in front of me, eliciting a small shriek from my throat and my body jumped.

"Of course." I calmed down my beating too fast heart.

"Then, why haven't you said happy birthday to me?" He whined.

"Happy birthday, Satoru."

"Thank you, the love of my life." He gasped dramatically with his hands on his heart, acting as if he was being proposed to.

"Don't be so overdramatic." I rolled my eyes. "Let's go home."

"I am going to stay for the night."

"Why?"

"Because you haven't pinned the brooch on me. Or better yet choose what kind of chain I should wear."

"Do it yourself."

"[Name]~~~~"

Omake

“So, you did forget about his birthday? Some girlfriend you are.” Yae laughed.

“It’s just slipped out from my mind, okay.” I protested.

“You didn’t put a reminder in your calendar?” She raised her eyebrows. “Or were you confident enough that you will still remember his birthday no matter what?”

‘Bulls eye.’

“Ah, it was the second option, I see.” She nodded. “Well, you did prepare his gift like what? Two months ago?”

“Why are still talking about this?”

“Of course we are talking about this. This is a new blackmail material. If I sell this to Gojo-san, I wonder what kind of favour he would give? Or…” She glanced at me.

“Don’t you dare tell him.” I scowled.

“Then, I will be expecting your treat in our upcoming sweet buffet.”

“You will get fat if you eat too mu-“

“Gojo-san, did you know yesterday [Name] actually-“

“YAE!!!!!”

#gojo fluff #happy birthday 2022 #jjk fluff #FTaJSDM #quick one shot #soft gojo #established relationship #sneak peek to the future?#gojo birthday

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 4 years ago

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Riverdale 5x03 Review

Wow I’ve got to say I’m actually impressed with Riverdale this episode, I really enjoyed it and I got emotional soo many times. I think it was well written for the most part and a really good send off for the characters as teenagers. I think it would have hit even harder if it had aired as a season finale like it was meant to but overall I really liked this episode which I’m glad because I was a little wary going into it after 5x02 which I didn’t really enjoy that much. Anyway we’ve got lots to talk about so lets jump in. As always these are just my own views and opinions and naturally there are spoilers.

Jelly Bean and FP.

So first I figured we can talk about the fallout from last episode and the reveal that Jelly Bean was behind the tapes. One little thing that did make me laugh a was when Jughead is narrating over the opening and he talks about the darkness in the people of the town and he lists Cliff Blossom, The Black Hood, The Gargoyle King and The Stonies you know all these murders and attempted murders and then he adds Jelly Bean to the list. I mean Jughead sweetie I get that you are upset about your sister making those tapes and that’s completely understandable I’m just not sure its quite on the same level as all the other people in the list in the grand scheme of things. I mean I get what the writers were trying to get at with that statement but it just tickled me a little is all, don’t think it was supposed to but well I’m weird, I’m a weirdo so I found it funny and kinda overdramatic. But onto more serious things I actually loved the way Alice and FP handled the situation I mean kudos to Alice for doing the right thing and suggesting not just therapy but a therapist that specialises in child therapy. I think that is exactly what Jelly Bean needs (and all of the characters really) so I’m really glad that Alice suggested that. At the same time I do think FP was right in deciding to take Jelly Bean back to her mum and stay so that Jelly bean has the support of both of her parents there. I do think that alot of Jelly Bean’s anxiety about Jughead leaving comes from her abandonment issues. If you think about it first her family is split in two with her being in Toledo with her mum and her brother and dad being in Riverdale, then her family comes back together again and she’s then abandoned by her mother. Then her brother leaves to go to school and is nearly killed. All of this was probably really traumatic for her and obviously had a huge effect on her. I think having a stable support system away from Riverdale and its influences for a little while will be good for her and help her recover with some help from therapy, lots of therapy.

One thing I didn’t really understand and think could have been better explained is what happened with Jelly Bean’s friends. I mean for one thing we are never told why they are hiding out in Archie’s gym like don’t they have homes? Also they had Tom Keller reinstated as Sheriff and they took him with them to find the kids so does that mean they were arrested? And if they were arrested then why did Jelly Bean get off scott free? I have so many questions about that scene.

FP’s send off was really well done in my opinion. I had a lot of respect for him putting his foot down and telling Jughead no he was going to Iowa when Jug said he wanted to go to Toledo with his dad and Jelly Bean. Also that speech about how Jug going to College and being successful will be good for the Joneses is so true. I mean seeing Jughead go to college and making something of himself will give Jelly Bean something to look up to and for her to know that just because she comes from a family that is underpriveledge doesn’t mean that she can’t strive for success and chase her dreams and I think that is an amazing message to send. That being said seeing FP and Jughead say good bye was really sad and you could feel the emotion in that scene of a father having to let go of his son and let him make his own way now and also Jughead’s worry about going out on his own again and being without his family. It was just a touching scene and one that I relate to so much because it reminded me of when I said goodbye to my mum when I went to Uni and that mix of excitement and terror at having to be on my own, I left home at 16 but I had never been that far away from my family before so despite knowing that I could take care of myself (I had already taken care of myself for 3 years at this point) I was still really anxious at being away from my mum so I could really relate to Jughead in that moment. He knows he can take care of himself he’s done it before but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t anxious about not being in the same town as his dad anymore.

Speaking of heartbreaking scenes Alice saying goodbye to FP. It was beautiful, sad and yet hopeful at the same time. I mean when she asked if this was the end of their story and he replied ‘god, I hope not’ it really made me tear up. Also I love that Alice understood why he needed to do this and even says she loves him for it. FP has grown so much over the last 4 seasons and now he’s become a man who will do anything for his kids and I think Alice really does love that about him. Also I’m going to be honest I felt so bad for Alice this episode especially when she was talking about how she had imagined Thanksgiving and having her whole family there Betty and Polly and the twins, Jughead, Jelly Bean, FP and Charles and now she’s going to be alone that is just so sad and feel really bad for Alice despite mistakes she may have made in the past she doesn’t deserve the deal she’s been dealt. Also as a side note I’m glad they at least made a small mention of Charles and how Alice is sad about that situation, I actually wasn’t expecting his name to be dropped at all this episode so it was better than nothing.

The last thing I will say about this plotline is that I loved the shot of FP and Jelly Bean riding away in their Serpent jackets and being escorted by the Serpents. It gave a feel of royalty on the move like a motorcade or something which I thought was a nice touch and a little reminder of how Serpents stick by each other.

The Graduation

Obviously the big theme of this episode was the teens graduating and those scenes were really touching. First there was the whole debate about whether Jug and Arch would be graduating. I was happy for Jug but felt so bad for Archie when he find out that not only was he not graduating but he would have to repeat his whole senior year. I do like that Mr Weatherby reassured him that nobody would hold the year against Archie because Archie really did have a crappy year so it’s not really surprising he isn’t able to graduate. I’m also glad that Weatherby said he could walk with his friends and wanted to make him feel included by asking him to write and record a song for the ceremony. I’m also really glad that they got to have their year books.

But what I think made these moments so much more emotional were all the little nods to both Jason and Fred. I got the feels so much when Archie was standing in the hall looking around at all the other teens with their parents and fathers and you could just see that in that moment he was really missing his dad. Another moment that was really sad for me was a little earlier in the episode when Archie has the same dream his dad had when he had been shot and its fred taking pictures for Graduation and says he never thought he’d live to see this day. It is so heartbreaking because he really didn’t and its not fair. Also Cheryl was in her feels about her brother. I mean it must make her really miss Jason when you think he should have been graduating alongside her.

Betty’s speech at the ceremony was good too. There were so many moments in there that punched you right to the gut. When she talked about how it wasn’t fair that so many of their classmates weren’t there to walk with them, I couldn’t help but think of Jason, Midge, Ben, Dilton Doiley and even characters who didn’t die but left riverdale just to escape like Moose and Josie. Then she gives another punch to the heart when she talks about how its not fair that some of their parents aren’t there to see them and I’m back in my Fred feels. I also liked how she said she hoped the Riverdale they all remembered was the sleepy quiet town that existed before all the violence and how she wishes that town for the next generation. But my favourite part of her speech was when she said to stay young to stay innocent even if it was just for a moment.

Another scene I really liked was when they buried the time capsule. I liked all the items they placed in there, I don’t think that they would be much help to teens opening it in the future to see what it was like back then but each item was personal to each character and I really liked that.

Cheryl, Toni and the Blossom Legacy.

First off can I just talk about Penelope for a moment and how funny that scene at graduation was. She literally just popped out of the bushes and was kinda sweet in a very weird way I mean it was nice that she wanted to see Cheryl graduate but at the same time she still called her a nightmare child which I don’t know maybe it’s a term of endearment. Also I love how she’s decided to turn herself in but has done it in a way that best suits her, like she’s spoken to Hiram to make sure she is comfortable and protected in his jail and also she’s only planning to be in there a few years. Lets be real I think mostly the only reason she is doing this is because she’s tired of hiding in the walls so she figures a few years behind bars won’t be so bad if it means she can walk around freely afterwards.

Now onto Cheryl I was surprised that she decided not to go to College and instead she wants to rebuild Thorn Hill and the Blossom name. Also as sad as the scene where they kind of break up is I do think it will better for Toni now that Cheryl has let her go. I do think they will come back together again but I think they need a little distance from each other as Toni has become too wrapped up in all the Blossom drama. I think Toni needs to focus on herself for a while and Cheryl knows this. I also love that Cheryl is doing all of this so that she can be a person worthy of Toni and escape the curse of her family’s name. It is interesting to me that Cheryl is choosing to kind of return to her roots and regrow and I am excited to see how they have both grown come the timejump.

The Core Four

So alot happened with the core four this episode and you know I actually kinda liked what they did with them. As a Barchie shipper at first I was upset that Archie and Betty didn’t get a one on one scene like the others did. At first it made no sense to me I mean Veronica and Archie got one, Archie and Jughead got one, Veronica and Betty got one so it seemed really odd to me that Betty and Archie who have been childhood friends didn’t get a big goodbye scene or an emotional talk about the kiss like the others did. But then I figured that actually it bodes really well for Barchie that they didn’t get that emotional scene. Why you might ask? Well I’m sure B*ghead and V*rchie shippers will disagree with me and that’s fine this is just my interpretation of it but I do feel like they closed the book on the original couples this episode. To me it did kinda feel like a goodbye to V*rchie and B*ghead. Now I’m not saying that they’ll never reopen those books, I don’t know what the future will hold but for now it definitely feels like those couples have come to an end and gotten closure. However Betty and Archie never got that and I think the reason for that is because their story isn’t done yet. There are a couple of other reasons why I think that they are deliberately leaving the Barchie storyline open and that’s the shot at the end of the episode when Jug a year later is at Pop’s and when the door opens and he looks over its Barchie look a likes. I thought this was really interesting. Like why choose to have two people who look like Betty and Archie come through that door. Was it because they are the two who Jughead misses the most? I mean lets be honest he wasn’t that close to Veronica (which was criminal in my opinion but I digress). What I find most interesting is that these two look a likes are clearly a couple. One theory could be that this is suppose to show that Jughead is still hurt by Betty and Archie’s kiss. But I think it could also be a little nod of what’s to come I mean this scene is shot with Jughead narrating about the future over the top and how they would all be different people. Of course it could be wishful thinking on my part. Another reason I think they might still have the book open for Barchie is because of something RAS said a while back, I can’t find it now but it was something along the lines of how we still hadn’t heard all of Archie’s song and that Betty had kept one of her diary’s and so the door was still open for Barchie. He specifically mentioned these two things. Well since then we have now heard the whole song but the diary still hasn’t come back into play yet which makes me wonder if it will after the timejump. Of course it could just be that the writers forgot about it or changed it but I’m choosing to cling to that little bit of hope. Also there is the fact that KJ talked about how he’s been working alot with Lili so I do still think we should be getting plenty of Barchie content in the next coming episodes.

So now I want to talk about Veronica and Archie. When I saw the promo and realised that they were probably going to have another love scene I was a bit wary about it as I wasn’t sure it was at all necessary. But surprisingly I actually didn’t mind it. I could understand the feelings behind it. They both knew that their relationship is over but that doesn’t mean that the love they have for each other has just disappeared it doesn’t work that way. So I can understand why they wanted one more night together, to live in a moment and not worry about anything else. I actually thought it was really sweet. I also think Veronica’s reaction to Archie joining the Army was understandable. I mean she already feels like she is losing him, she’s going away to college and their relationship has come to an end and then on top of all that she finds out that he is joining the army and will likely end up in a warzone where he could be hurt or even killed that must be terrifying for her. On top of that whilst I think she suspected that he was thinking about it his decision is sudden and so she might feel like he hasn’t thought it through properly. I really felt it when she was talking to Betty and said that the thing that was eating her up was the way it was ending, that it was unresolved and that she had wished she had said goodbye and hugged him on more time. Which brings me to one of my favourite scenes of the episode. I loved when Archie is looking at the photo of his dad and he has the flashbacks of all the things he’s leaving behind in Riverdale, all the things he’s saying goodbye to then he looks out his window and sees Veronica, Betty and Jughead in the Jalopy. I don’t know why but something about this scene made me feel a little choked up and the soundtrack that went along with it was chilling. I think the goodbye scene between Archie and Veronica was again really sweet and I think it was a nice end to their romantic relationship.

Ok Betty and Jughead next. Now I might not have been a B*ghead shipper but I didn’t hate them as a couple and I like and care about their characters so seeing their break up was so painful. My heart really did break for them. I mean the moment Betty says that she has to tell him something and you see his eyes well up and him whisper ‘oh no’ our boy knew what was coming and I think it was something he dreaded but also always believed would happen eventually. Just like the V*rchie love scene I really did think I would hate the B*ghead love scene but again I think it made sense for the characters in that moment. They were both in pain and looking for comfort and were just clinging to that moment because deep down they both knew what was coming but wanted to hold it off as long as possible. It wasn’t at all the healthiest way of dealing with it but it was a very young teenage response. I do want to just say that Cole’s acting in that moment when he finds out the truth was on point he did an amazing job. I mean you can literally see him go through so many emotions in those few seconds, first the dread and realisation, then the shock and pain, then anger, then heartbreak and then desperation. I was surprised that the reason why they break up is ultimately because of the kiss it seemed like from RAS’s interviews that it was going to be the distance that broke them up and whilst it played a part ultimately I do think that it was the kiss that was the main reason. I think alot of what causes that distance between them in those final weeks before Betty leaves is that Jughead knows that its not just a kiss that there are real feelings behind it. I think this is a big reason why they don’t talk about it because I don’t think Jug was ready to actually hear her say it and I don’t think Betty was ready to confront that she does have feelings for Archie. I do feel like Betty and Jughead’s goodbye was sadder because of that distance that grew between them. Whilst I think Archie and Veronica had already excepted that it was over for them Betty and Jughead held on longer and were more in denial in my opinion. But that’s just my interpretation of it.

Another thing I want to touch on real quick is that I know alot of people didn’t like the reactions Veronica and Jughead had to the whole cheating storyline and thought that they weren’t angry enough but I didn’t mind their reactions. I think they were obviously upset its just that there were bigger things going on in their lives. I mean Veronica says she can’t be angry at Betty right now because of everything that is going on with Archie. That doesn’t mean she won’t go through those stages of anger later, we just either won’t see them or will see them in flashbacks. It’s the same with Jughead he clearly isn’t uneffected, he tells Archie its fine but then we see him and Betty drifting apart because of it so to me their reactions made sense within the context of what was going on at the time. I do think those feelings of anger will come through and that could be why only Jughead shows up a year later. I did think that end scene of seeing Juggie on his own was so heartbreaking. I do wonder why none of them show up. I mean if I was going to guess then I’m assuming Archie was deployed and couldn’t. I’m not sure about Betty and Veronica though unless like I said that anger does eventually come through and her and Betty have a falling out and so its too awkard for them to come but I’m just guessing with that one.

Now I want to talk a little more about Barchie, I know I touched on it a little before but I want to talk about a couple of other things. The first is Betty’s reaction to hearing Archie was joining the Army. I know alot of people felt like it came across as Betty not caring that Archie had joined especially when you compare her reaction to Veronica’s but I didn’t see it that way at all. Sometimes the best way you can love a person is by accepting and supporting their decisions even if you yourself have doubts about it or fears about it. I think this is what Betty does. If you look at her facial expression in that moment you can see that she’s not happy about the news and that she is concerned but she also knows Archie and she trusts him to make his own decisions and to trust his own judgement so she chooses to support him. Right before she says that she supports him he says that for the first time he doesn’t feel scared or uncertain about the future and I think Betty trusts in his certainty. Also I loved their hug goodbye. It might only have been short but it was adorable I especially liked how Betty buried her nose in his shoulder so she could smell his jacket one last time. I also thought it was cute how he said see you in a year to her even if that didn’t end up happening. Another thing that I thought was interesting is going back to those flashbacks I mentioned earlier, it was odd and interesting that none of those flashbacks had any one on one scenes of Betty, she was included in some of the group shots but no Barchie moments not even just friendship moments. Again I said I did feel like this moment was Archie saying goodbye to those things he was leaving behind, this episode as a whole felt like a goodbye or a closing of a chapter but at no point in the episode did I feel like he was saying goodbye to Betty. Even when they hug it ends with him saying see you in a year which to me is interesting and again really does make me think that they are leaving that door open for Barchie. Of course it could just me but I do feel like the writers made a consious decision to make sure that it didn’t feel like Barchie were getting closure.

Time jump/ 5x04 Theories.

To finish off I just want to throw out some theories of what I think is going to happen in the next episode and maybe a little further into the time jump and I am basing these off some spoilers we got but largely the two promos that have been released. So if you are trying to stay completely spoiler free about the time jump then stop reading now.

So I am going to start with the first promo that was released and go through it sort of shot by shot and talk about any notes I have if that makes sense.

1) We know that Archie went to war and I’ve already made a post about this but the first few shots was scenes of war on a football pitch which I did sadly see quite a few people laughing about. The reason why that saddens me and I’m trying not to judge anyone here because I know people sometimes use humor to deal with dark subjects but this is obviously a flashback Archie is having from his time at war not actual scenes of the war if that makes sense. I think the scene will be Archie coaching the boys and maybe he sees one of the boys get tackled to the ground and that triggers a flashback which is why in those scenes you can see football players laying on the ground as well as soldiers. Personally this isn’t something I can laugh about just because of the serious nature of the topic but then people might not have realised what those scenes were showing so like I said trying not to judge.

2) This is kinda linked to the one above but I made a theory post way back when season 4 had just finished up and we had just got that casting of Archie’s friend Eric who lost his leg and I said I reckoned the show was going to use Eric to show the physical trauma war can have on a person and that I thought whatever event caused Eric to lose his leg would also injure Archie and that’s why he would return home and that they would use Archie to show the mental trauma that war can have and how Archie was going to be struggling with PTSD and survivor’s guilt. Judging from the scenes in the promo where we see Archie surrounded by explosions and then him in a hospital bed with a officer asking if he was ready to go home I’m sticking with this theory.

3) It looks like Jughead successfully managed to publish one book but is now struggling to write another it gives me a lot of Lucas vibes from OTH. I reckon once he is back in Riverdale and he finds a new mystery he’ll get past that writers block and I reckon Tabitha will be a help with that as I heard some spoilers that her and Jughead become friends which I am excited to see.

4) It looks like Betty who is now an FBI agent is going to go through something tramatic as hell in the shots it looks like she is stuck down a well in a barn or something like that and there is a masked figure looking down at her, the whole scene looks terrifying and I’m going to guess that she was working on a case and got captured.

Ok now I’m going to move on to the next promo.

5) I’m going to start with this one because it kinda links back to the one above but it looks like Betty is having flashbacks to her captors. There’s a shot of her screaming and a masked man that looks similar to the one in the first promo coming at her with a chainsaw. Now this could be real and there could really be someone invading her home but something makes me feel like she is hallucinating. Also theres a shot that looks like its Archie breaking down Betty’s door and knocking out a guy in a leather coat so maybe this guy breaks in and Betty hallucinates that its the guy who captured her, Archie hears her scream and comes to her rescue.

6) My eyes could be decieving me on this one but it looks like Barchie are going to get a shower scene. Which as a Barchie shipper obviously I’m excited about that. But I do think the fact that they both seem to be suffering from PTSD and flashbacks is what’s going to bring Barchie back together and they’ll help each other through that. I could see this scene happening right after the invader scene where Archie is trying to comfort Betty.

7) Toni is an absolute queen. This isn’t really a theory I just wanted to say that I mean did you see those shots of her pregnant on stage all decked out and dancing with the serpents.

8) This is a theory though Toni as we know is pregnant and my theory for this is either one she had a one night stand with some stranger and that’s whose baby it is or two which I like better she is acting as a kind of surrogate for Kangs but the baby is also hers and Cheryls and the four of them are going to raise it together. Think Silver and Teddy and Shane from 90210.

9) It’s possible that Cheryl and Toni are married. There’s a shot of Cheryl sitting at a desk and the name plate says Ms Topaz. However it could also just be that Cheryl is sitting at Toni’s desk so I don’t want to get my hopes up too high. Also if they are married it doesn’t explain why Toni is living with Kangs and Cheryl isn’t unless part of the surrogacy deal (if there is one of course) is that Toni has to live with them during the pregnancy.

10) It looks like the whole gang are going to band together against Hiram who has been wrecking Riverdale I mean there was that shot of Toni and Archie and it looks like the homeless population has gotten out of control so most likely Hiram has been buying then pulling down homes so now alot of people have no where to go. Also it looks like Hiram is trying to shut down Riverdale High so the gang all become teachers to try and keep it open. I don’t think this is going to lead anywhere good and will probably lead to an all out war between the gang and Hiram.

This isn’t really a theory just a thought I had on a theory but I’ve seen one going around that they think Archie is going to be the dad of Toni’s baby. I don’t think this is likely I just think they might have some friendship building which will be nice to see as I’ve said soo many times now one thing I want from Riverdale is to see different characters interacting so it looks like we are going to get that. Also one of the biggest reasons I don’t think Archie is the baby’s dad is because we see him arriving back in Riverdale so its likely he hasn’t seen Toni to impregnate her but this is Riverdale so who the hell knows pretty much anything is possible.

Anyway I am going to wrap it up here. I am very excited to see where the season goes so I’ll catch you all on the flip side.

#riverdale #riverdale spoilers #riverdale review #riverdale 5x03

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sparklyaxolotlstudent · 5 years ago

Text

Justice Girl

I rewrote the first part I had already done and made a cohesive one shot instead of doing my usual of making one part and then forgetting about it :p

What if Hawk Moth had been quicker to get his first akuma?

WARNING: A bit salty, but I don’t think enough to be classified as outright “Salt”

“Many centuries ago, magic jewels bestowing extraordinary powers were created. These were... the Miraculous. Throughout history, heroes have used these jewels for the good of the human race. Two of these Miraculous are more powerful than the others; the earrings of the Ladybug, which provide the power of creation; and the ring of the Black Cat, which grants the power of destruction. According to legend, whoever controls both these jewels at the same time, will achieve absolute power.” The little butterly like creature know as Nooroo narrated, finishing in a sad tone. Remembering the other Kwamis always made him felt nostalgic, and sad at the idea that he might never see them ever again.

“I want that absolute power, Nooroo” replied the man, his now owner and holder. “I must have those Miraculous!”

“But nobody knows where these Miraculous are! It would be an incredible contrived coincidence if they are even in the same continent we are now!”

“I found you though, my little Nooroo.”

“Yes, in Tibet. We’re like a million kilometers away from that! Seriously there’s a fat chance you’ll…”

“ Your Miraculous... remind me of its powers again.”

“The Moth Brooch allows you to give someone their own superpowers and to make that person your devoted follower!”

“And when it comes to luring superheroes, what could be better than creating supervillains?”

“But master, the Miraculous are not meant to be used for evil purposes! Wouldn’t it be way easier if you use my powers to make a super hero healer to cure your wife from her Soap Opera Coma?”

“…. Where is the fun in that? I must have this absolute power! Your Miraculous is in my control! I am your master now, and you must obey me.”

“Aw, fuck… I mean, Yes, master” nodded Nooroo sadly, aware that he had landed on the hands of a drama queen supervillain. He even thought his wife was just an excuse for his super villain agenda. He saw how he put on the brooch, and wished if the man would have been as enthusiastic if his Miraculous had been a hair accessory or something more girly.

“Nooroo, dark wings! Rise!” Nooroo went inside the brooch and Gabriel Abigail Agreste grew a foot taller, using the magic to transform himself. Apparently he had height issues. And a fetish for Luchador masks. “From this day on, I shall be known as... Hawk Moth!” he claimed, and then laughed evilly, despite being alone in the hideout. He made a mental note to tell Nathalie how well his first transformation had gone.

“Master, Master!” The little turtle like creature known as Wayzz woke up from a nap and immediately panicked through his holder and current Guardian of the Miraculous Box of Creation and Destruction massage shop. Unfortunately, his master was with a client, and he almost got caught.

“Uh… Master, master... chanting, it's all part of the treatment. Master, master... “ He made the customer stand up and pushed him out the door rather quickly. Thank goodness he gave his massages to fully clothed people or that might have been awkward. “Thank you for coming, see you again next week!”

“Master, the Moth Miraculous, I felt its aura.”

“Damn, I forgot to charge him… Wait, what? I thought it had been lost forever!”

“You mean, you lost it forverer”

“Same difference. How did you feel it anyway?”

“Uh… But Master, it's a negative aura. I fear it may have gotten into the hands of a dark power!”

“You and your overdramatic ass… Someone probably found it at a flea market or something… either way, we must find Nooroo and his Miraculous. If it has gotten into the wrong hands, there's no telling what evil will come upon the world!” Master Fu raises his arm, in which Wayzz Miraculous rests. “Time to transform! Wayzz... “

“… I’ll bring your medicine”

“ I'm only 186! But you're right, Wayzz. I can no longer do it alone. We'll need some help.!”

Fu opens the gramophone, revealing the Miraculous chest box

An alarm is off. The owner of said alarm hasn’t even made an attempt to turn it off. Typical teenager.

“Marinette!” yelled the teenager’s mom from downstairs. “Your alarm's been going off for fifteen minutes! You're going to be late for your first day back at school!”

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a normal life with a normal life, crawled out of underneath her bed covers, still half asleep. “Got it, Mom!” She turned the alarm off and went to prepare for class.

During her routine, she couldn’t help but get a bad feeling overall. She would return to class this morning, after an uneventful break. Uneventful, boring, friendless break. It’s not that she didn’t try, but with Chloe Bourgeois as a classmate, the bitchiest bitch that has ever lived, and herself as a constant target of her bullying, it was rather hard to stand up to her, not to mention everyone else just looked away, afraid what would she do if they ever dared to show kindness to her. She sighed, and hoped against hope that Chloe wouldn’t be her classmate this year.

Hawk Moth feels it, for the first time, someone else’s feelings. He had to compose himself at first to remember those are NOT his own feelings… Such strong feelings... the anxiety… the fear… the outright despair of a teenage girl who doesn’t want to go to school today. Somewhat cliché, he thinks, but beggars can’t be choosers, and once he focus on someone, as Nooroo explained, he can’t track anyone else.

He digs in the feelings. The more he does it, the less foreign it feels, the clearer he gets what’s the girl is feeling... what he is feeling. Another girl bullies her, and the teachers don’t do anything. She also doesn’t have any friends, not for lack of trying, but from fear of retaliation of the other mean girl… Even he starts to feel bad for the poor girl. But if everything goes according to his plan, this girl will get sweet revenge on the Mean Girl, and he will get the Miraculous… or at least confirm if they are somewhere nearby after all.

“Fly my little Akuma, and evilize her!”

Marinette was ready for the day. Or as ready as she could be, anyway. She sighed again.

“Coming!” she announced herself, walking down the stairs to the family kitchen, where her mom was waiting for her. “I bet you anything Chloe will be in my class again.”

“Four years in a row, is that possible?”

“Definitely. Lucky me!”

“Oh, don't say that! It's the start of a new year. I'm sure everything will be just fine!”

Marinette smiled and nodded, trying to put on a brave face for her mom, and setting down the cereal. Several things are knocked over, spilling and falling to the floor. She groans.

After cleaning up and finally getting breakfast, both of them go downstairs, where the family business is located, a bakery. They find Tom, Marinette’s dad, singing while preparing a box of macaroons.

“Dad, these are so awesome!”

“Glad you like them.”

“Thank you Dad, my class will love them! You're the best!”

“We're the best, thanks to your amazing designs.”

Marinette hugged her dad, dropping the box. Fortunately, he caught it on his terribly huge foot and gives it back to her

“Thanks.” Marinette gets her backpack from her mom and with the box of macaroons, she says goodbye.

Marinette then tried to cross the street, but a car passes by and prevents her from it. She remembers her bad luck… and the possibility that Chloe will be her classmate and make her year miserable. Again.

Without paying attention to it, a little butterfly got inside her purse. OR rather, the butterfly fused with her purse, turning it a dark purple color, and made it look more like it was made of shadows.

“Hello, I am Hawk Moth” said the villain after his Akuma flied into Marinette’s purse. “You have suffered enough at the hands of that bully girl. You have suffered because no one had come to your rescue, not your classmates, not your teacher, not even your parents. But you’re not alone anymore, I offer you my powers. I offer you to make Justice for yourself, and to help everyone else, so no one has to felt like you did. Do you accept?”

Marinette dropped the box of macaroons, and didn’t notice an old man on the other side of the street clearly panicking when he saw her saying “I accept”

And she transformed. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was no longer, replaced by… a super hero. Justice Girl was her name now, her normal clothes replaced by a (somewhat tacky) super hero costume. She was wearing a domino mask that was supposed to hide her identity, although a lot of people just saw her transform in the creepiest of ways.

She then smiled, and went flying to the school (Which people later thought it was hella dramatic of her, as the school was basically in front of them).

She was sure she could find Chloe

She was sure she could make Chloe pay.

“Nino, Why don't you have a seat in the front row this year?”

Miss Bustier, the kind and kind of pushover teacher asked a boy hanging in the back row, minding his own business. Without saying a word, the boy complied and took a seat at the front.

“You better treat Adrien right, Lahiffe” he heard someone said to him. He looked at the girl, who took a seat in the bench behind him. Chloe Bourgeois, resident Queen Bitch. He didn’t like her, but also didn’t want to get on her bad side, as he knew that would be trouble.

“Who?”

Chloe looked at him in disbelief, and let out a haughty laugh. Her sidekick, Sabrina, who was sitting beside her, followed her example.

“Can you believe he doesn't know who Adrien is? What rock have you been living under?”

“He's only a famous model” replied Sabrina, just as haughty as Chloe.

“And I am his best friend. He adores me.”

If this Adrien was Chloe’s friend, Nino could help but hate his guts, and dread to be his benchmate for the rest of the year.

“Has everyone found a seat?” asked the teacher, ignoring Chloe’s bitchiness despite it happening literally in front of her. “For those of you who don't yet know me, I'm Miss Bustier. I'll be your teacher this year.”

“Ugh, he should have been here by now.”

No one seemed to notice that Marinette hadn’t arrived yet either. The door suddenly opened, kicked by Justice Girl. She got inside the classroom and smiled in a creepy way.

“Oh, but I am here!” she smiled. Everyone looked at her, first in shock at the door being kicked, then in confusion. None of them seemed to realize she was Marinette, even if all she had was different clothes and a mask.

“Excuse me miss” Miss Bustier tried to confront her. “I think you have the wrong classroom”

“No, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be” she looked at the whole classroom, and immediately noticed that Chloe wasn’t in her regular seat, but instead had decided to take a claim on her. “I have come to make her pay for her crimes.” She said, pointing an accusatory finger at Chloe.

“And who are you supposed to be?” Asked Alya, the only one who wasn’t as confused (and afraid) as the rest of the class.

“I’m Justice Girl”

Outside the school, Adrien Abigail Agreste, Teen Model, was having his own battle.

“Adrien, please reconsider! You know what your father wants!” asked a very worried woman, his father personal assistant that also took care of Adrien’s schedule.

“Sucks to be him then, this is what I wanna do!” He said, running to the school’s entrance. He knew he would be in trouble the second his father learned that he was attending public school, but he also knew that it would look very bad if he pulled him from school after being seen by everyone there. Not to mention the temper tantrum Chloe, his childhood friend would throw.

Luckily for him, Chloe had already told him his classroom and schedule, and how to get here.

He had seen a lot of anime and manga and movies and obviously he didn’t expected them to burst into song (Although he hoped so with all his heart, brain, kidneys and assorted internal organs).

“Sorry I’m late I…” he said after entering the classroom.

He wasn’t prepared for this.

All his classmates were in the back, he could only see a couple of guys and a tiny pink haired girl. Everyone else was trying to hide behind them. On the front, what he supposed was their teacher had her hands on her head, as if she had a migraine.. He took a second to notice, but recoiled when he noticed that her eyes were wide open, but she was no pupils. Her eyes were a deep purple, and in one of her wrists, she was wearing a bracelet, which gave him a bad vibe. In front of him, three girls stood. Chloe was behind a girl with glasses that he didn’t know, and another girl was in front of them, looking like she just came from an anime convention.

He was pretty sure there were no anime conventions, otherwise he would have gone (Disguised, of course.).

He then noticed the anime girl was floating a few inches above the ground.

“I don’t care that you fancy yourself a super hero” said the girl with glasses. Adrien assumed she was protecting Chloe. Or knowing Chloe, she was being used as a human shield. Probably a bit of both. “This is wrong!”

“You must be new here.” The hero said, looking at the girl with glasses. “She’s a criminal. A Bully.”

“Name’s Alya, nice to meet you”

“Likewise”

“Still, Superheroes shouldn’t be jury, judge and executioner”

“This girl’s father is the mayor of Paris. She has everyone wrapped around her little finger. Students fear her. Teachers can’t do anything about her. Believe me; I’m doing everyone a favor.”

“Have you seen everyone?” said Alya, gesturing to her new classmates, who were still cowering. “IF she’s a bully, you’re no better than her”

Justice Girl looked at the others… sad?

“And look what you did to our teacher! Did she deserve that too?”

Justice Girl looked at Miss Bustier. Unlike with her classmates, she just cocked her head, almost in confusion.

“Actually, my power makes people feel how their crimes have made other people feel. This teacher’s inaction hasn’t made anyone any favors.”

“SHUT UP! She’s the best teacher ever!”

Justice Girl looked surprised. It had been Chloe who talked. And it sounded sincere. She smirked. Of course Chloe would like the teacher who gave her free rein. Of course Chloe would like the teacher who allowed her to bully and mistreat and make everyone miserable without any sort of punishment.

“We all hurt other people, even when we don’t mean to. You are hurting all of us” said Adrien finally. Justice Girl turned around to see the newcomer.

“Adrikins!” yelled Chloe, still behind Alya. “Don’t get any closer, she’s crazy!”

“Another new one? Beware of Chloe. She’s the worst.”

“AM NOT!”

“I know Chloe can be a handful…”

“Hey!”

“But she has a good heart!”

Justice Girl laughed.

“You don’t know her at all.” She said to Adrien, matter-of-factly. She then faced Alya again. “And why are you protecting her? You don’t even know her!”

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing” said Alya solemnly. Justice Girl raised an eyebrow. “Well, girl, you are literally terrorizing a bunch of teens, ergo, you’re evil, and I like to think I am good, so I can’t let you get away with this.”

Justice Girl raised her arm, giving Alya and the rest a start. Adrien bravely jumped in front of them (Later, people would point out that it would have been easier to tackle Justice Girl instead of trying to perform a heroic sacrifice).

Justice Girl recalled the bracelet on Miss Bustier. It went inside the bag on her hip.

“You have given me a lot to think about, Alya. I applaud and respect your conviction, even if I don’t agree with it.”

She bowed to Alya, who awkwardly bowed back.

“You too Adrikins, but don’t go performing heroic sacrifices for others… especially when they’re no necessary.”

“Duly noted” replied Adrien from the ground, were he landed face flat.

She floated higher in the air, and went out through the window, shattering it.

“… Why she didn’t use the door?”

“Justice Girl” She could hear Hawk Moth on her head, just like before. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to…”

The girl in question was helping an elderly woman cross the street, carrying her groceries. After reaching her house, the old lady gave her a croissant. It was good.

“I’m doing some hero-ing” she said, and then she spotted a kitty stuck in a tree, and went to rescue it.

“That’s not… WHY aren’t you attacking that mean girl?”

“Because I would be a villain if I attacked her unprovoked” Replied the girl, while helping a man change his flat tire.

“What”

“Don’t worry, she will attack me sooner than later… but not like this”

She went to the school again, and entered through an open window in the locker room. She tapped her hip bag that had become her purse, and all the energy of the transformation went inside it. She was Marinette again.

“What… How did you…?”

“You made me a super hero, didn’t you?” she said, walking out of the locker room. “And super heroes have secret identities”

Hawk Moth was annoyed. He detrasnformed and looked at his Kwami. As long as this girl held his akuma, he wouldn’t be able to create another one.

All his plans ruined, before they even started, all because he decided to use his powers in a girl who wanted Justice.

Yeah, I’m not 100% satisfied with my drawing, but that’s the basic concept. I only used olors that were already on Marinette’s palette, and her symbol is one of her flowers (Which obviously no one will recognize).

I tried to give her a bit of a chinese flair, but still make it a silly super hero costume, hence the half cape.

I might add more colors/details if I draw her again, but for now I’m happy.

Feel free to make suggestions headcanons of this oneshot!

#ml fic #Justice Girl #ML AU #ML fanart #Marinette Dupain-Cheng

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unnursvanablog · 4 years ago

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All the books I read in 2020 / part 2.

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker: ☆☆☆☆☆

Loved how these myths and legends were used within this story. It is a beautiful tale of immigration and friendship and how Wecker conveyed that was just beautiful. The text did drag its feet in some places, but this story is also so character driven; their experience with the world, and their longings, so I understand that slow pace. Everything about it felt really sincere and it truly is a book that leaves you with something. I have never read anything like this before and I felt like it bridges the gap between historical history and fantasy well.

Naturally Tan - Tan France: ☆☆☆

I listened to this book in one sitting as I drove from the capital area and all the way home to the countryside. And I really enjoyed it because I really like Tan France and he narrated the audiobook himself. The text, the chapters and therefor the book itself goes a bit all over the place and it feels a bit vapid at times. It was about everything and nothing, really.

The Silence of Bones - June Hur: ☆☆☆

I am not so much for these types of mystery novels, so it was not something that drew me forward, but I did find the atmosphere that Hur created within the story and the historical elements really great and made the story quite enjoyable. I felt like learning a little more about certain parts of Korean history that I did not know before, and I really enjoyed that.

In the Labyrinth of Drakes - Marie Brennan: ☆☆☆

The world that Brennan has created continues to wow me. It is complex and it’s so much fun to travel around it. I love getting to know these characters at different stages of their lives and it just makes you like them even more. The story often runs into the same problem for me and that is that I find the first parts of the story so exciting, it is an adventure, but then it loses me a little towards the end.

The Will to Battle - Ada Palmer: ☆☆

After the amazing storyline of the second book, this book really lacked any excitement within the plot to propel you further and instead we got a lot of philosophical lessons and musings. In the previous books I felt like Palmer managed to strike a balance between those things, but not here. So little was going on. This story is deep, beautifully written, and complex and all that, but the text is often so long and dense, and my dyslexia just wants to skip these walls of texts that often just feel like statements about something philosophical but not real conversations or reflections from the characters.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep - H.G. Parry: ☆☆☆☆

I was hoping for a 'grown up version' of Cornelia Funke's Inkheart, and although that was not quite what I got, I really enjoyed this. I thought the world was well thought out, and the idea of the readers interpretation of the characters and even literary criticism can affect how they would appear in our world was a cool concept. In some places I felt that the story was a bit stunted or towards the end I was starting to predict where it was going, and there was a lot of misunderstanding between the characters so the story could continue, which got on my nerves. But for the majority of the time, it was a really fun read.

Midnight Sun - Stephenie Meyer: ☆

You can judge me for this. I judge myself too. It was strange to fall back into the Twilight world after completely falling out of it after reading the last Twilight book. But out of sheer curiosity, I decided to give this one a try. But wow… this was not fun and added almost nothing to the original story and Edward is just so damn boring and having to spend time in his mind was just kind of a torment.

The Absolute Sandman, vol 1 & 2 - Neil Gaiman: ☆☆, ☆

I was going to listen to the whole thing via the new and shiny audible version of the Sandman comics, but I could sit through more than the first two volumes. I could not tolerate the violence against the female and queer characters. Oh my god! You do not have to go that far to make your story edgy, or create a complex, dark world. Nothing that happened seemed to move me or make me want to keep listening to this story. It does not really seem to revolve around anything. Or maybe I am just too annoyed to pay attention to the story. Fortunately, Gaiman seems to have improved as a writer since.

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman: ☆☆☆☆

Listened to this and although contemporary YA is is usually not something that hooks me or interest me in any way, Oseman manages to make the story so genuine and down to earth despite all the teenage drama, and the character felt so real that it just draws you in. The daily problems of teenagers often seem too dramatic or unreal to me in books like this, but that was not here. The text is not to flowery, but not too simple either. The story just as a really good pace going on. Everything just flowed together.

Wicked Fox - Kat Cho: ☆☆☆

The story did sound like a kdrama to me and I was hoping it would be that. Just fun and cute and fluffy with some loveable characters and sprinkle of myths and legends. It was fun, it didn't go into too much depth with most things within the story. It kinda brushes over a lot of things. For me the book started of well, but then towards the middle of the book things start to happen to fast and there was not enough time spent on bulding things up, so in the end the story kinda went nowhere for me. The little bits of the Gumiho legend, at least how the legend was presented in this book, inbetween the chapters was my favorite bit.

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien: ☆☆☆☆

You can tell that worldbuilding and just spending time making things up for this magical world that he crated was one of the things Tolkien enjoyed the most when it came to writing. The stories about Middle Earth, even the backstories, are so rich and lushus. I do struggle with the writing style, it does feel a bit dry to me at times, and it does feel like short stories set in the world of Middle Earth and not at tightly knit story which isn't always my cup of tea so it did take me a while to get into it.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix: ☆☆☆

The story really throws you straight into the action and you just have to find your bearings as best as you can while the story goes on. It was really fast paced and the story never really stops for too long to give you a breather. It was light and funny, a little weird and the character were whimsical, which I enjoyed. Sometimes I felt like I was in a Doctor Who episode, except with magic and not aliens. I just wish it would have let the story breath a little more for me to really enjoy the world that Nix had crafted and such things.

A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik: ☆☆

I do not know what happened here, but wow, this was so not Novik at her best. Neither the characters or the worldbuilding that I am used to getting from Novik was in this book and for the most part there wasn't a whole lot going on in this books. I can deal with a slow burning book and really just enjoy a good fantasy world but there was very little interesting things here to explore. I can deal with a unlikeable main character, but this one didn't grow at all during the book, she just kept on reminding us why she was cranky all the time and how much she delighted in it. There was a whole lot of telling about this magical school and the diverse world outside of it, but very little showing so it all seems rather empty and after a while I just started to skim over the text. And there was really no story there that kept me going and I could not see the purpose for anything that happened.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab: ☆☆☆☆☆

Oh, wow. The feeling that this book created inside me and the sincerity within the text just grabbed me and would not let me go. I made me feel a lot of things, and I love when a books do that. There are so many emotions behind it and you can really feel them. The atmosphere that Schwab creates in the story is great and it hooks you in, but it is the character and their stories that make you stay. I don't usually enjoy timejumps, but Schwab did them so well and they do explain the story and the motivations for each of the characters really well, although it get's a bit repetitive at times, especially towards the end.

The Moomins: The Exploits of Moominpappa, Moominsummer Madness, Moominland Midwinter - Tove Jansson: ☆☆☆☆

I love the Moomins, but there's just something so cozy about these stories and characters. They are part of my childhood, they are so light, whimiscal and funny, yet have depth to them, which is a balance that is difficult to achieve in my opinion. My journey through this book took me almost a year, as I only occasionally picked it up to enjoy the text and my stay in this small, strange world that Jansson created. I was savoring it.

Shine - Jessica Jung: ☆☆☆

SNSD, the band that Jesscia Jung was in, is my favorite kpop band since I started listening to kpop more than 10 years ago and their music is one of the main reasons why I got into kpop to begin with. So of course I was intrigued! The story here is something that I think could be inspired Jessica experiences within the kpop industry, or that thought never left me as I read it even if there were lot of unbelievable things going on within these pages. But it's definitely overdramatized at times. But how she talks about gender discrimination between female singers and male singer, from other people in the business and from the fans and the expectations that people have towards these singers and such. That felt really authentic to me. For all the glamor and the dazzle of the kpop world within this book the plot and the characters are a bit dull, and some of the more unbelievable events (like all of those trips and secret cafes) often pulled me out of the story. And I did not find the clichéd YA romance fun to read at all.

#book reviews #book review

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moveslikebuckywrites · 5 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Good Omens (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) Characters: The Bentley (Good Omens), Crowley's Plants (Good Omens) - Character Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Moving In Together, Crowley's Plants (Good Omens) Series: Part 4 of Weeklyverse Summary:

“Alright you lot,” the Gardener surveys his charges with a judgmental gaze, “today is the day we’ve been waiting for, that I’ve been waiting for. And I won’t have anyone sticking a leaf out of line.”

Gardener marched among the greenery like a general preparing them for battle. Not that plants understood such things.

They did understand that Gardener was anxious, nervous, and possibly, deep down where he’d never admit it, just a little bit scared.

A scared Gardener was a vengeful Gardener, even the Seedlings knew that.

------ Gardener is acting strangely and all the plants are more terrified than usual.

READ IT UNDER THE CUT:

Dramatis Personae:

Puck, a Fiddle-Leaf Fig – Planted 1987, the youngest of the named ones. Very kind and considerate, although fairly naïve. Was stolen from a neighbor taking poor care of him.

Benedick, a Dracaena Massangeana – Planted 1967. Purchased on impulse during a depressive episode. Because of this, they are highly volatile and very negative. Does not get along with Hamlet.

Hamlet, a Diffenbrachia – Planted 1964. A gift from a certain angel to a certain demon, and therefore the demon could not get rid of it. Soft and kind, but not naïve like Puck. As a gift from a being of love, Hamlet is generally good-tempered, but does not get along with Benedick.

Eve, a Devil’s Ivy – Planted 4004 BC. The first time. Has been replanted several hundred times by now. Intense and intimidating, keeps the others in line.

The Seedlings – Planted two weeks ago. Tiny sprouts of we-aren’t-sure-what, newly clinging to life and amazed at the world around them.

Bentley – A car with a bit of a mind of its own.

Gardener – A demon

Sunshine – An angel

For convenience’s sake, and because it is the assumption of the narrator that most individuals do not, in fact, speak plant; dialogue has been translated into standard English and actions have been described with approximation to things of human understanding where applicable.

Thank you and have a nice day.

---

Gardener marched among the greenery like a general preparing them for battle. Not that plants understood such things.

They did understand that Gardener was anxious, nervous, and possibly, deep down where he’d never admit it, just a little bit scared.

A scared Gardener was a vengeful Gardener, even the Seedlings knew that.

They cowered and trembled, which seemed to placate the Gardener slightly.

“I don’t see any spots now and I don’t want to see any in the future,” the Gardener grimaced at them all, “you know what happens then. Just because we’ll be in a new place, doesn’t mean that changes. I want you all to have it straight before we go there.”

He gave the room one last glare, “I’ll be back for you lot soon.”

And Gardener left, shutting off all the lights and slamming the door on his way out. The sound reverberated through the empty flat. The plants were the only things left in the apartment at this point. Statues, paintings, furniture – all gone.

All in the flat was silent for a few moments, before a rustling of leaves could be heard.

“Is he gone?” Puck asked quietly.

“Believe so,” said Hamlet, “wonder what all of that was about.”

“Gardener said we were going somewhere, that’s never a good thing. What could it be? Who here has spots! Did someone get spots?” Benedick was prone to panic, and today wasn’t going to be any different.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hamlet tutted, “he just said none of us have spots.”

“Spots! Spots! The dreaded spots,” the Seedlings shivered and shook, “what will we do, what will we do!”

“Hush now, little ones,” Puck cooed at them, brushing one of their leaves across the tops of the Seedlings in a comforting gesture, “there’s not a spot to be seen on any of you, it’ll all be fine.”

“Fine? FINE?” Benedick shook violently, “listen to yourself, Puck, he’s taking us somewhere, Gardener only takes plants somewhere when they’re destined for the landfill! We’ve disappointed him somehow!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Benedick,” Hamlet piped up from his place across the room. Gardener had learned a long time ago (relatively) not to put them near each other. Pots would be mysteriously broken the next day, “We’ve no sooner disappointed him than we’ve sprouted wings to fly.”

“Shut up, you insufferable old fool.”

“I most certainly will not, especially not for you. Everyone knows who the insufferable pit of despair is around here is.”

Would that one could see a plant sulk, one would’ve seen a sulking Dracaena.

“Now see here,” Hamlet continued, ignoring the sulking, “if I have told you once, Benedick, I have told you a million times! We are all stuck here together and that is that, we must at least try to get along!”

“I’d sooner be engulfed in Hellfire.”

“Oh, don’t be so overdramatic.”

“Don’t be so insufferable!”

“Everybody, quiet!” Eve, the ancient Devil’s Ivy in the corner of the room shouted, “you youngsters are all the same, panicking at the smallest change.”

“Easy for you to say,” Benedick shook in a very beleaguered way, “you’ve been with Gardener forever!”

“Since the beginning, yes, and this will be fine as well. Gardener may bluster, but he is a loyal one. He cares for all of us deeply.”

Benedick scoffed in a plantly way, “He’s got a connection with you! Don’t you remember what happened to Prospero?”

Prospero, as it were, was an aspidistra that Gardener had acquired in 1956. They are commonly known as “Cast-Iron Plants” for their hardy nature and are, generally, very difficult to kill. This one had been a bit overly sensitive to Gardener’s methods. He lived until 1975, when his leaves started to wilt and brown and he met his fate at the hands of the ever-ruthless Gardener. And possibly a flamethrower.

“Prospero was weak of both mind and leaf, Benedick, you know that as well as I do. Too soft, that one.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that we’re in danger, Eve, surely you must notice?”

“Gardener works in his own mysterious ways. Whatever happens to us will happen, and there’s very little we can do to change that.”

They had always had a way of bringing conversations to a halting conclusion. They exuded a particular intensity that only came from being over 6000 years old.

Eve, just as their namesake, had been here since Eden. Carried in the folds of a black robe as a small clipping; grown into a behemoth on the walls of Babylon. In some form and in some way, Eve had always been with Gardener. He would take clippings of them, even when they flourished, and preserve them. If anything happened to Eve themselves, they would come back just as surely as the sun rises.

Eve had seen thousands of other plants over the years gain this semblance of sentience. If they were honest, they liked this group best. If they were honest, they were looking forward to seeing what kind of plants the small Seedlings would become.

If they were honest, they were a bit concerned.

Eve had seen Gardener this nervous before; Eve had seen a lot of things. Most recently in 1967, right before Benedick had joined them all. Once in 1862, which had led to a very long nap that (if it had not been for Sunshine) would’ve been the death of them1.

Eve had survived that; they would survive this too.

Eve remembered the first time Gardener was this nervous. All the way in Eden, while he had tended to those gardens. They had another gardener in Eden, a being in white. That gardener didn’t understand them, didn’t understand motivation.

Gardener, their Gardener, could. He saw the potential in them way back then, to spread across and choke off other life. To invade and to conquer. The Devil’s Ivy was a plant with ambition2.

Behind the back of the one in white, Gardener tended to the plants of Eden. He would wait until nightfall, keeping the guise of a serpent during the day. He made sure they were motivated, made sure they stayed green. The trees and shrubs held the most succulent and juicy fruits and berries that the world would ever see (they would never see the likes of these again).

Eve (then of no name) had been his favorite, and thus had been imprinted with this being’s occult energy. This led to sentience, quicker than one might presume. This one was a demon, Would-Be-Eve had surmised. This demon had too many emotions to keep to himself.

He talked to Would-Be-Eve, quite a bit in the early days. That’s how Eve had known about Sunshine.

“Bright as the blasted sun, wouldn’t even believe it!” Gardener had told them once about the angel he would watch guarding the gate.

But then the apple, then the end of their little garden. Gardener had lashed out. At Not-Yet-Eve, at the fruit trees, and the shrubbery, at all of it.

“I just needed a bit more time, sod this, everything blows up in my damn face!”

Not-Yet-Eve could see through this, Gardener was scared. Scared to talk to the one who was as bright as the sun. He’d had his tantrum, then he’d sunk to the ground with his head in his hands.

Soon-To-Be-Eve had done the only thing they could think to do, they stretched out a tendril of vine and softly stroked it through his hair. A simple gesture, from a simple Ivy.

“Bollocks to this,” Gardener had shot straight up from the ground, “it can’t be that bloody difficult, can it? I can just…talk to him, right?”

Nearly-Eve gave an unnoticed approximation of a nod.

“Right, that’s what I’ll do then, yes,” and with that Gardener had started off (no less anxious or scared) in the direction of the Eastern Gate, and the one who shined like the sun. At twenty paces, he turned on his heel and came back.

“But first, I think I need a souvenir,” he produced a thin blade from his robes and took a cutting of Nearly-Eve, “I’ll call you Eve, love a plant with ambition. She had ambition, too.”

Gardener had grinned mischievously as he tucked the clipping safely in his robes before shifting into his snake form and ascending the wall. Eve had been with him ever since.

This mood that had come over Gardener was, admittedly, a bit distressing. Things usually went badly for at least one of his plants in these moods.

“When was it we last saw Sunshine?” Eve asked their surrounding brethren.

The air grew a bit thicker with the effort of several sentient -albeit unwittingly- beings trying to think. Puck finally spoke up.

“He was here two weeks ago,” the fiddleleaf says thoughtfully, “right before all of Gardener’s things started disappearing.”

The plants all stood stock still, coming to a daunting realization. One they’d had several times over their combined decades.

“Oh no,” said Benedick, “you don’t think…it's...it's been months!”

“Oh dear, I think I do,” Hamlet answered shakily.

“He couldn’t possibly, after everything?” Puck stammered, “Eve, what do you think.”

If a plant could look deep in thought, Eve did. They sat silent for several minutes formulating their answer.

“My friends, my fellow botanicals. I believe we must come to terms with the fact that Sunshine has left Gardener once again.”

A gasp amongst all the flora. The Seedlings start to cry.

“Sunshine! Sunshine! No! No!”

“He’s very volatile in this state,” Eve continues, “there’s no predicting what he will do.”

“Last time he was in this state I got stuck with this insufferable bastard,” Hamlet gestures towards Benedick with one of his leaves.

Before Benedick can form a response, the door slams back open.

“I’m back,” Gardener coos in a demented singsong voice, “I hope you’re all ready to go to your new home. I hope you’ve had time to think on yourselves and how you’ll behave in your new spaces.”

Gardener picks up the tray of Seedlings, who start to shiver and tremble. He stares into their tiny leaves.

“I hope you won’t disappoint me,” he spits out the venom-laced words, as much a promise as a threat.

“I will make one exception for this lot because they are fragile,” he glared around the room at the shaking leaves, “the rest of you be ready you’ll be downstairs soon.”

Gardener walks out the door with the tray of Seedlings, impervious to their screams for help, slamming it behind him again.

“Oh dear, oh dear, not the little ones,” Puck starts to fret, “they’re so young, narry a spot to be seen! What on earth could be going on?”

“Please don’t let us be going to that god-forsaken car,” said Benedick, who had no fondness for the Bentley or it’s extreme speeds. They still had nightmares (or the plant approximation of them) of the day they’d been purchased.

“Where else do you expect us to be if he’s taking us somewhere, you idiot,” Hamlet huffed.

“Everyone just be calm,” Eve said with authority, “fret too much you’ll get a spot; wherever we’re going is wherever it will be and that’s all that we can know. The curse of being a sentient plant, as it were.”

Eve had barely had the chance to speak when they heard the telltale pop of a shift in existence. One second they had been in the flat, absorbing what sunshine the floor to ceiling windows would allow, and now they were all secured in the Bentley; back seats miraculously gone, and cabin expanded to fit them all snugly.

“Uncle Puck! Uncle Puck!” the Seedlings chorused from the front passenger seat, where their starter tray had been secured.

“Oh! My little dears!” Puck reached out a leave to stroke the tops of them again, “You aren’t hurt, are you? Of course, you’re not! Oh, thank goodness!”

Though the space had been extended, it was still fairly limited. As such, Hamlet and Benedick are shoved into each other’s personal space in a way they’ve never had to contend with.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, not you why you! Blasted metal contraption!” Benedick said in a panic, “And you get out of my leaves!”

“You get out of mine first, imbecile!” Hamlet retorted.

The Bentley’s motor just hummed contentedly.

Eve actually rather liked Bentley. Besides them, the old car had been around the longest. They’d had a few nice conversations in the past. Occult-made sentient beings that should never have been sentient in the first place were rather few and far between, and Eve liked to keep their social channels open.

Eve reached out an ivy leaf and patted the back of the driver’s seat, “How’ve you been, old friend, I rarely get to see you these days.”

A slight shift in engine noise that could be mistaken for a Oh, you know, same old same old.

“Right, of course. Any idea where we’re going today?”

Before Bentley could answer, Gardener had returned. He climbed in the driver’s seat and turned to face the four of them.

“Alright now, we won’t be on the road long, but I don’t want to see a single leaf out of place,” he grimaced at them, “If you get dirt on my car, you’ll meet the disposal.”

The plants shivered in terror as they usually did, but Eve couldn’t help but notice Gardener stroke a reverent hand over the top of the Seedlings before giving them a quiet smile.

Hmm, that’s interesting.

Before Eve could finish the thought, the Bentley shot off like a lightning bolt.

They must’ve been going well over 100, weaving and dodging through the midday London traffic. Wherever Gardener wanted to be he wanted to be there in a hurry. This didn’t stop him from continually glancing in the mirror, almost more than necessary.

Benedick and Hamlet screamed, wrapping what leaves they could around each other. Puck tried his best to reassure the Seedlings, who were terrified in their own right.

Eve, always stalwart, was beginning to think their initial assessment may have been off. The reverent hand almost petting the Seedlings, mentions of a new home, the way Gardener had made sure all of them would be safe and secure.

Gardener was nervous and anxious, but this was a different kind altogether than Eve had seen before. And Eve realized, his glances in the mirror weren’t at traffic, but at them.

His prized plants riding in the backseat of the fastest car in London.

“Everyone,” Gardener shouted as they hit the heavy traffic of Piccadilly Circus3, “this is the last thing I’m going to say before we get there. Things are going to be different now; very, very different. For all of you. For all of us.”

Eve rolled Gardener’s words over their roots. The other three continued to shake, and the Seedlings continued to cry.

“I hope,” Gardener said with a sigh, “that this is the right thing. I hope we don’t have to go back.”

We, the Devil’s Ivy puzzled, we, we, we. Curious.

“Because if we do, I don’t know how I’ll survive it.”

Was it just Eve’s imagination or did Gardener’s voice just crack? Couldn’t be, semi-sentient plants didn’t have that much imagination. Gardener was very, very scared.

“You’ll all be lovely, and he’ll love all of you,” the distinct hint of a sniffle, “it’s if he can deal with me or if I’m gonna break this.”

The others had now caught up with the situation. Hamlet and Benedick had relaxed and were trying very hard not to look like they’d just jumped out of each other's leaves. Puck seemed to be on the verge of crying themselves, though that was nothing new.

“I don’t know how much you lot actually listen to the shit that I say,” Gardener continued, “but I’ve always felt like you could hear me in some way. I’m terrified. Absolutely scared shitless right now.”

He took a long steadying breath, the Seedlings leaned towards him in their tiny plastic starter pots. Eve began to reach out a tendril.

“What if I’m not what he expects? What if we do this, and he regrets everything? He can’t go back to Heaven there’s nowhere else for him and if I fuck this up…Go-Sat-SOMEBODY if I fuck this up there’s no going back to how things were.”

And there it is, Eve thought to themselves, that same old fear from the garden. Rejection.

The traffic at this point is at a standstill, and Gardener’s knuckles are white on the steering wheel. Eve continues reaching and snakes their tendril up to run through Gardener’s hair, comforting him just like they did 6000 years ago.

Gardener freezes.

“I knew I hadn’t imagined that,” the coldness in his voice gives Eve pause, “you’ve all gone sentient, haven’t you?” Eve answers by flicking his ear. “Well, you have at least. Old sod.”

A crackling of static from the radio, and the voice of Freddie fills the car as it has so many times before:

It's a hard life

To be true lovers together

To love and live forever in each other’s hearts

It's a long hard fight

To learn to care for each other

To trust in one another right from the start

When you're in love

“Oh, now the bloody car is gonna give me advice? You too, then?” He raps his knuckles on the dashboard, “got a bit of unknown brainery going on in there I need to know about, eh?”

The Bentley vrooms in response. It might’ve sounded something like for about thirty years now, thanks for noticing.

Eve suppresses a shake that could be mistaken for a chuckle as the traffic starts to thin.

“Alright, fine, you’re right. And, unfortunately, that does make sense,” Gardener runs a hand through his hair exasperatedly, “taking advice from a fucking car what the Heaven comes next.”

As they pull up in front of the bookshop, the plants can already feel the glow from Sunshine inside. Given how fast he moves, he’d been watching from the window for Gardener to arrive.

“Crowley, there you are,” he says, sounding fidgety, “I was starting to worry you might’ve changed your mind.”

Gardener closes the distance between them, planting a kiss on Sunshine’s forehead, “Never, Angel, just had to get the rascals in line, you know how it is.”

He circles the car and picks up the tray of Seedlings, who immediately lean towards Sunshine.

“Oy! Traitors! Every last one of you!” Gardener starts towards the door, “just gonna put these on the roof, make ‘em a nice little place outside.”

“That sounds lovely, dearest, I’ll be up to help once I take care of the others.”

“Y’don’t have to, Angel, I’ll be back down for them.”

“No,” Sunshine says, looking pensive, “I think if I’m adopting them, I must get better acquainted, yes?”

“Ngk,” is all Gardener can manage to say as his face goes red and he stammers incoherently on his way into the shop. Sunshine chuckles to himself before leaning into the car towards the rest of them.

“Hello lovelies,” he says, radiating that glow that leads them to call him Sunshine in the first place. All four of them are drawn to it like moths to flames. Or plants to sunlight. Pick your metaphor, if you’d like.

“I understand this will be a bit different for you,” he pauses and spares a glance behind him to the open door, “it will be a big change for all of us, I believe.”

He absentmindedly strokes a hand over one of Hamlet’s leaves, “A change for the better, of course.” At this, Gardener finally returns to join him.

“Hey, don’t give them ideas.”

Sunshine smiles at him, “Oh but they’re so lovely, darling, you’re just too hard on them.”

“I’m just as hard on them as I need to be,” Gardener glowers at them, “aren’t I, my friends.”

The immediate shaking of four large plants in a big black vintage car assuages him for now, and with a snap of his fingers all four of them find themselves relocated to their new homes in the bookshop.

“We could’ve just carried them, dear,” Sunshine says, looping his arm through Gardener’s.

“Eh, possibly,” the demon shrugs, “But this keeps them on their toes. Er…roots. I don’t speak plant.”

Though maybe I should learn, he thinks to himself.

---

Epilogue…6 months later…

The corner window of the bookshop is a lovely place to exist, Eve thinks to themselves often. Lots of sunlight, a lovely view, and their new favorite pastime.

Target practice.

Having a sentient plant around the bookshop has done wonders for the customers, and Sunshine has never been happier.

Neither, it would seem, has Gardener. There’s an old wingback chair posted by Eve’s position and, during the day, it’s one of Gardener’s favorite places. True to his thoughts, Gardener had somehow learned to speak plant. Which was a good thing, because with Puck minding the Seedlings (now fully immersed in their ‘rebellious teenager’ phase) in the rooftop greenhouse, and Hamlet and Benedick taking up a peaceful cohabitation in the kitchen; Eve had been feeling quite out of the loop.

“Sorry it’s a bit spaced out, old friend,” Gardener tells them, “It’ll get better though. Good work with the customers, I’ll never get tired of them running from creeping vines.”

Eve notices a woman reaching for one of the Wilde first editions and lashes out a tendril to snap at her hand.

“Your aim is getting better, too.”

Eve would wonder sometimes if Gardener talked to the others like this now, without the venom and the threats4.

You seem happy these days, Eve entreats with the various swaying of leaves, moreso than I’ve ever seen you.

“Yes, I suppose I am,” Gardener was smiling more these days. He was content, something Eve had never thought their anxiety-ridden Gardener could be. Plants weren’t the only beings who needed Sunshine, it would seem.

“Thank you, by the way.”

Whatever for? Eve rustled, confused.

“Eden," Gardener said quietly, seeming a bit far off, "you listened back then, too. Helped, a bit, I guess. If, and that’s a big if, I had to admit it.”

There isn’t a need for that either, you’re the reason I’m not still there.

“In any case, if I hadn’t talked to Angel that day…” he trailed off as he sipped his coffee.

It had been so apparent, even in those first few weeks, that this was where Gardener belonged. Not this bookshop, necessarily, but wherever Sunshine was. Even through the tussles that come with any blending of houses, they never faltered in their love for each other. No matter who left the dirty dishes in the sink or forgot to take out the trash.

“We’ll move out of London at some point, of course,” Gardener said, “nice place in the country, with big windows. We’ll get the gang back together; I know you miss them.”

Oddly enough I do, it’s awful quiet without Hamlet and Benedick’s bickering.

“Truth be told they aren’t doing much of that these days,” Gardener said with a smile.

“That’ll be quite enough customers for today,” they heard Sunshine say on the other side of the shop as he flipped the little CLOSED sign on the door, “ready to head up, dearest?”

“At three in the afternoon, Angel?” Gardener laughed, “Any special reason for closing early?”

“Do I need a special reason to spend time with my husband?” Sunshine asked before taking Gardener’s hand and pulling him up from the chair.

“Lead the way then,” he gestured grandly towards the staircase, kissing the hand entwined with his own, “husband.”

Sunshine led Gardener back up the staircase, and he looked back one last time at the Ivy and gave them a wink.

If plants were able to smile, Eve would. Instead they focused on a rather pesky housefly that had been bothering them most of the afternoon. They'd get the bugger this time.

In a couple of years there would be a little cottage in the South Downs, with too many windows for too many potted plants. The Seedlings would grow and come into their own, Hamlet and Benedick would grow almost as close as Sunshine and Gardener, and Puck would continue to watch over whatever new sprouts came to be.

Eve, however, would become part of the back garden, helping Gardener make sure the trees and shrubs held the most succulent and juicy fruits and berries that the world had ever seen.

A six-thousand-year-old Devil’s Ivy is a very intimidating thing.

Especially one with absolutely impeccable aim.

---

1 – Sunshine, unbeknownst to Gardener, had made a habit of coming by and watering the plants. However, Sunshine had whatever the opposite of a green thumb was and none except Eve had survived. Eve had survived solely because they didn’t want to disappoint Sunshine.

2 – Devil’s Ivy, as it is, is extremely invasive in tropical climates. It has a habit of completely devouring forest floors and causing extreme disruption in the environment. And if Gardener can take credit for the destruction at his job, well, it’s just a symbiotic relationship.

3 – There are only two motorways that are impervious to Gardener’s and the Bentley’s occult powers. The M25 and Piccadilly Circus in rush hour.

4 – He, of course, is not as nice to the other plants. Some considerations had been made for the one member of his garden that had been there since the beginning.

#good omens #fic #my fic #crowley #aziraphale #crowley's plants #ineffable outliers #this is 4.5k words of fic from the perspective of some plants #and I'm not gonna go through and fix all the italics #they're right on ao3 #xD

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 6 years ago

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Episode 115: Adventures in Light Distortion

”There's no time.”

Steven recently had a really long day. It began with checking out an art exhibit at the barn, and ended in a spaceship grappling with his mother’s dark and secret past. It had its moments, like fusing into Smoky Quartz, but all in all it was life-changingly bad. It’s not fair that another such day has come for him so soon, but here he is.

We don’t have a moment to waste as this follow-up to Steven’s Dream opens, because every second spent on Earth is a second where Greg is speeding further from it. Steven is already blaming himself for the abduction, adding a more personal sense of rush to the affair. The irony is that while Blue Diamond’s actions aren’t his fault, the guilt he harbors causes serious mistakes that are his fault. But considering the dire circumstances, who could blame him?

Even the exposition here is swift and economical, as Garnet gives Amethyst and Pearl the lowdown on our last episode and Pearl dusts off her old Pearlsplaining cap from Season 1 to tell us about the Zoo. As is standard to this show, we learn important plot details while developing the character relaying them: in this case, on top of being a great showcase of Pearl’s nerves (“Amethyst, turn into a chair, I need to sit down!”), we add new wrinkles to her past. Her terror is informed by how anxious she was at seeing the palanquin in Steven’s Dream, and that brief moment of her eyes darting away from “When I still served...Homeworld” speaks volumes. We’ll go into more detail later about the implications of the Zoo and Pink Diamond’s efforts to help Earth through half-measures before going full Rose, but for now, it’s a terrific beat in retrospect that Pearl only knows where Greg was taken because she served the creator of his new prison.

With the Gems all caught up, we get straight to business prepping for takeoff, and it’s here that Steven makes his first two mistakes. First, he brushes off Peridot, the planet’s most qualified expert in modern Gem space travel. He doesn’t even invite her along, despite how obviously helpful she would be. Impatience trumps any sense of caution, and while it doesn’t make much sense for him to leave a helpful ally behind even in his frazzled state, her inability to grasp the importance of the situation (mixing serious travel concerns with pointless aesthetic quibbles) perhaps makes her a liability in his mind. Regardless, his second mistake is even bigger when it comes to his personal life, and it also involves leaving someone behind.

Yes, there’s no time to waste. So no, he probably shouldn’t have waited for Connie. He even tasks her with defending Beach City, showing that he does value her as a fighter as well as a friend. By itself, this probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But alongside his second foray into space down the line, it’s understandable that Connie starts to think that Steven doesn’t take her as seriously as he should. While there’s truth to that, the bigger issue is that Steven thinks that he alone should bear the burden of his perceived mistakes, and while it’s only hinted at now, that sense of martyrdom only gets worse as his guilt grows. This is a throwaway moment in the episode, but has major ramifications down the line.

And then we’re off! I’m honestly not into the gag of Pearl still not getting that 70 years is a long time for humans—it works early on, such as in Space Race, but she definitely would know better by now—and it’s joined by her not knowing the word for “birthday” despite several episodes introducing her to the concept. She’s grown a lot, and at times the show doesn’t seem to want to reflect this when an easy joke can be made. But at least she’s good at winding her way through a variety of space rocks, including tiny sentient ones.

Upon remembering the whole reality warping element of modern Gem space travel, Steven makes another hasty decision in boosting the speed, despite acknowledging that it might kill him. I mean, he makes a joke about how syrup can go with his new pancaked form, but it’s still an acknowledgment that self-sacrifice is a badge he’s proud to wear. And while it’s obviously a good thing that he survives, it can’t be healthy for his self-image to be proven right when he takes actions that might hurt or kill himself to help others.

Perhaps not wanting to delve too deeply into that topic quite yet, we get an extended comedy bit about the weird distortions the Gems face as physics gets wonky, as well as a small lesson about how light constructs work (complete with unusually cartoony diagrams, such as the one above comparing heights). I’m surprised by how effective the humor is; it’s not riotously funny to me or anything, but considering the stakes it really ought to feel annoying and in the way, and it works just fine. Part of the reason is that there’s nothing else to do while we’re waiting for the ship to arrive, so nothing feels interrupted. But I also appreciate it because it finally starts to show how destructive Steven’s rashness can be.

Activating the gravity engine was a choice that was reckless, but made sense: Steven needed to get to his dad in fewer than 70 years. But frantically pressing buttons he doesn’t understand to fix the Gems, instead of letting a more experienced hand figure it out, is almost frustratingly dumb. I say “almost” because it’s crystal clear by now that Steven is losing it, and the sight gags of our growing and shrinking Gems can’t hide that something is going to go wrong. When it inevitably does, and Steven is alone for the first time since Greg’s abduction, all that manic energy collapses into the grief he’s been trying to put at bay.

After the little visualized diagrams and the distorting forms of the Gems, we get an even more impressive animation-exclusive sequence: the striking use of onion skinning to convey the mindbending speed of the ship. Together with the ruby red lighting and the immediate disappearance of the Gems’ bodies, the tone lurches from one form of alarm to another. What was once a frenzied dash to fix things becomes a life-threatening race against the clock, and allows for one of the best performances of Zach Callison’s tenure on the show.

Steven has panicked before, but the greatest asset of this episode is Callison’s ability to crank it up a notch and sell the sheer stupefying terror of not knowing what to do in a crisis. He’s amazing throughout the episode as he practically hyperventilates his lines without delving into overdramatic emoting, but his despair as he’s left all alone on a doomed ship is heartwrenching.

It takes a strong performer and good, earnest writing to make a scene like this work, because verbally laying out all of your problems could come across as just telling instead of showing, and openly weeping can falter in any number of ways. It could’ve been melodramatic, it could’ve been overly childish, it could’ve been incoherent, and instead it’s a raw and moving outburst of sorrow after an episode where huge tears were a reaction to danger instead of emotion.

It’s also a great choice to follow up this moment of anguish with quieter determination. Instead of narrating his newfound resolve as he tries again to turn off the warp speed, this time eventually succeeding, the sequence is wordless and tense. Steven doesn’t need to tell us why he’s trying so hard, and after such a strong speech there’s no need to gild the lily when visuals work on their own.

The return of the Gems coincides with the return of regular light and animation, creating a palpable sense of relief despite it being sort of a given that they weren’t really going to kill off three main characters in this episode. Garnet provides Steven some much-needed reassurance, and while it doesn’t solve his martyr complex forever, it’s a welcome capper to the episode.

The logistics of an episode that’s literally just getting our characters from one place to another can’t be easy to navigate. If the crew wanted, we could’ve used that warp speed to jump straight to the action. Still, despite moving faster than light, it’s nice to slow down from the huge cliffhanger of Steven’s Dream to let our hero have a moment to collect his thoughts. Now that the initial shock has had a chance to pass, we can proceed with the rescue operation with a competent Steven that isn’t unrealistically okay with how things are going, and as a bonus we get our second episode since Bubbled that explores Steven’s increasingly sacrificial mindset. Everything working out for the best may seem like a neat way to finish Adventures in Light Distortion, but we’ll see the downsides in time.

Future Vision!

Yes, Steven leaving Connie behind is a catalyst for the Breakup Arc. But perhaps more importantly, they combine with Garnet similarly tasking Peridot and Lapis to protect Beach City to form the Crystal Temps!

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

A perfectly good entry in the Steven Universe catalog, bolstered by an amazing performance from Zach Callison, but ultimately an episode that isn’t too special on its own. It needs Steven’s Dream to pack its full punch, and the victory at the end is just reaching our next episode safely. Still, I like it!

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#adventures in light distortion #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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lyricswrittenbythesecretdreamer · 6 years ago

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I’ll Cover You

Five times Marinette references Rent and one time she can't.

The first time she does it, her class are having a quiz. "How many minutes are there," Miss Bustier pauses for dramatic effect, smirking at her class. They're on the edge of their seats, hands ready to fly up into the air, "In a year?" There's a chorus of groans as people begin to try and calculate in their heads. Max is halfway there when a shrill voice from beside Alya shouts out: "Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes! Five hundred twenty-five moments so dear!" Alya looks over at her small friend who is flushing crimson head to toe. "How on earth do you know that?" Marinette shrugs, giving an embarrassed smile. "Rent - I saw it with my Nonna. I couldn't stop singing it for the whole weekend." The second time she does it on patrol. She and Chat are slinking through the dark Parisian streets and notice a couple arguing behind a dumpster. "Well if you hadn't been flirting with that woman in the - what's it called?" "Rubber?" "That's right, rubber! If you hadn't been flirting with her then I wouldn't have got angry-" "Oh, so it's my fault, is it?" She looks pointedly at her lover, not noticing the two teenage superheroes watching them. "There will always be women in rubber flirting with me!" Hisses Ladybug under her breath, causing Chat to jerk his head around at her, a wild expression on his face. "Excuse me?" The two women look up at Chat and Ladybug. Chat offers an awkward wave, but too caught up in the moment and not able to resist, Ladybug jumps down from the roof and points at the angry woman. "There will always be women in rubber flirting with me! Give me a break!" And she promptly bursts into song, only stopping after being dragged away by Chat who whispers countless apologies to the two women, who can only stare in amazement. The third time she does it, it's at karaoke night at the local youth club. Nino drags the three of them there if just to enjoy the music. It's when a familiar tune crawls out of the speakers that Marinette gives out a cheer. Letting go of her fears, she drags Alya out of her chair and up to the stage, when then promptly begin singing a slightly out-of-tune version of 'Out Tonight'. It's not meant to be a duet, but they just about manage it. Of course, when the song is over, Marinette regrets it all. Especially singing it in front of Adrien. The fourth time she does it is after moving out of her parent's house, and going to University. Juggling three jobs and with an eviction notice hammered onto her door, she is tired of living in expensive squalor and hides under her fabric. Then: "How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day?" She sings softly a small tear running down her cheek. She wanted to prove to everyone that she could be independent. She wanted to prove to herself she was like Ladybug. Strong, brave, resourceful. "How we gonna pay last year's rent?" Transforming, she leaps out of the window and jumps from roof to roof. "The music ignites the night with passionate fire! The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit!" And then, from behind her: "How do you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart?" Shrieking, she leaps around to discover her feline companion giving her a weak smile. "Chat! You scared me!" "I'm sorry, My Lady." "Draw a line in the sand and then make a stand." "When they act tough, you call their bluff!" And then, in unison: "We're not gonna pay; last year's rent, this year's rent, next year's rent!" The fifth time they're at a cafe where a group of suspicious-looking teenagers are sitting, whispering. Alya is desperately trying to catch what they're saying, but the voices are too quiet, too quick. And one of them starts having an argument with another group of teens behind them. And then: "Who died?" And Marinette can't help herself. "AKITA!" She belts. The teenagers laugh and cheer. "EVITA!" Alya looks from the teens to Marinette. "What just happened?" "La Vie Boheme." Breathes Adrien. Marinette giggles. Then enter a flash mob. She joins in, of course. "Dearly beloved, we gather here to say our goodbye's...here she lies, no one knew her worth...the late great daughter of mother earth..." "German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein..." "To S&M!" It's a couple of months later and the heroes find themselves fighting a gang of bank robbers holding half a dozen people hostage. They've called in the big guns - Rena, Queenie and Carapace. Carapace and Rena are defending the hostages from two of the gang - brilliantly. Queen Bee has recharged twice now, taking two men down with her. Ladybug and Chat are fighting side by side, as per usual. The robbers won't kill them - they know that. As much as Hawkmoth wanted them dead, even the lowliest criminals accept that Ladybug and Chat Noir are the reason Paris remains safe. After the terrorist attack, no one wanted to take any chances and the two then-teenagers were made the official security of Paris. Alongside the police, of course. "This is exhilarating, M'Lady!" Bellows Chat, hitting one of the criminals over the head with his baton, causing the delinquent to fall over, out cold. Ladybug throws her head back and laughs. "Exhilarating? You're an odd one, Kitty!" "You love me!" He teases, throwing her a flirty wink. This was their routine. It was what made them such good friends; the not-so-intimate intimacy; the slightly on edge way Ladybug turned him down. "You wish, you mangy feline!" He fakes a sign of mock hurt as she tangles another one of the masked thieves in her yoyo string. She giggles and then it turns into a full-blown laugh and then a bullet leaps out from nowhere and there is a bang and suddenly she is bowled over, face contorted in pain. Chat lets out an unholy scream that is not a cry of pain, not a cry of anger but both and neither at the same time. And Ladybug falls. He drops to his knees and takes her head in his lap. The fighting around them has stopped (except for Queen Bee, who was using all her efforts to find and tranquilise the shooter) but it could have carried on and he would have stayed, still, by her side. A fat tear rolls down his cheek and onto Ladybug's nose. He wipes his eyes furiously, but there is no stopping time. She is going to go and it is his fault for being an idiot and flirting with her. She coughs, trying to say something, but it won't work. All voice has been lost. And then, from behind: "Live in my house, I'll be your shelter," Carapace begins to sing softly, his deep voice still carrying over the deathly silence. His holds Rena to his chest, who looks up as he sings. "Just pay me back, with a thousand sweet kisses," Her voice wavers, but she sings on anyway. Why are they singing Rent? How do they know... He looks down and Ladybug is no longer there. It's Marinette and her transformation is up. How could he not have seen this? She lies, broken, in his arms and he doesn't know what to do. "Be my lover..." Sings Queenie, and Chat didn't even realise Chloe had even seen the goddamn musical. He decides to sing along. "And I'll cover you," Marinette's eyes are full of sorrow, full of apologies. He smiles down at her and kisses her forehead, calling his transformation off. If anyone is shocked, they don't show it. "Open your door, I'll be your tenant," "Don't have much baggage to lay at your feet," "But sweet kisses I've got to share, I'll be there," "And I'll cover you!" "I know that they meant it," "When they said you can't buy love," "Now I know you can rent it," "And at least you were my love!" One by one, the heroes release their transformations, singing Marinette's pain away as she falls further and further away from them. Or at least until the ambulance arrives. When she's better, Marinette scolds them for being overdramatic and "Ow, Chloe, I've still been shot and your bear hugs hurt!"

#ladynoir #adrinette #marichat #miraculius ladybug fanfiction #rent #i just love rent so much #i also love our idiot children #one day

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i-gotta-pencil · 6 years ago

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I watched Into The Woods.. here's my thoughts :)

Just a heads up this contains spoilers for this show

Here's the version I was watching it's most of the OBC and it's proshot

youtube

ACT 1

Thenarrator is in a modern suit I'm d y i n g

I don't like that the bakers wife that old

Jacks mom just kinda bugs me

Cinderella is pretty cool

Little red is a mood

I really like the step sisters dresses tho

I like the hair twisting part

I FUCKING STAN THE WITCH SJDJDJSKSK

I hate the wife :/

"I could've turned him into a stone. Or a chair. Or a jddhksak"

"I had a brother?" "NooOoO"

I really love the witch. She's so overdramatic and I would die for her.

SHE HIT HIS D I C K

SHE LEVITATES WHILE SCREAMING

Jack is a full ass adult

He also has daddy issues

He's also pretty I'd die for him

The step mother's dress is so pretty I want it

I like that the bakers wife is taller then him

Back to Jack he has to be like 6'1 atleast

I don't like little red's "Into the woods to grANdmother's house" she's trying tho so I can relate

CINDERELLAS MOM IN THE TREE. SHE'S JUST IN A TUBE IN A FAKE TREE

Cinderella dress falling? Iconic.

I love how dumb little red is cause mood

I absolutely hate hello little girl

I think the wolf has a dick and I don't stan

Little red reminds me of Shirley Temple

THE WOLF HAS A DICK WHAT THE FUCK

I love how much of a coward the baker is

He's also a dumbass so we stan

I hate the bakers wife so much

I like the set

Rapunzel is also a bit of a dumbass

Little Red is like the same height as the baker and she's wearing flats

I really like how little red delivers her lines cause she delivers them like her teacher forced her to be in the schools spring show

Her costume is also very cute

The baker kissed little red's cheek and she wiped it off and that made me laugh

Also jack is taller than his house

I live for Cinderellas dress for the festival

The bakers wife is a fucking hoe

I really like one midnight gone and I'm so mad it's not in the version were doing:(

I'd die for Jack's actor and that's the tea

Cinderellas prince looks like eddie redmayne

Both of the princes are snacks.

"mooo. mooOOoo"

Rapunzels a dumbass part 2

THE BAKERS WIFE IS SO MEAN

I love rapunzels outfit tho

I also high key love stay with me

The witch and rapunzels are like the only sopranos in this show but go off I guess

I know I'm supposed to hate the witch but you can't make me

I have a love hate relationship with the mysterious man

LITTLE RED'S LAUGH OMG

Also Jack is supposed to be either younger or the same age as Little Red and he is so much taller than her

Rapunzels Princes fall, scream, then another fall is a mood

I'd like to say again that Cinderellas dress is really pretty

Like I'm gonna be really disappointed when she goes back into her village outfit

"Ah don't do that"

The stewards hair makes me concerned

"Shut. Up"

"AhhhhhhhhhhAhAhAhAhAh"

The baker just picking up the cow the yelling that it's too heavy

That bakers little dances

I FUCKING LOVE THE WITCH SHE CAN FUCK ME UP

SHE'S A HOT THOT

CAREFUL MY TOE IS AMAZING

Cinderellas prince leaping onto the horse is a mood

RAPUNZELS PRINCR FUCKING TRIPPED AGAIN

The witch said tits out and I'm here for it

When her cane/wand broke in half smoke came out and I like that

I wish we did a "huge" dance thingy for our show in Ever After

There's like no dancing in our show and that makes me salty

ACT 2

Jacks a man now

Cinderellas queen dress is so pretty

One of the stepsister just full on ran into Cinderellas Prince

I also really like the stepfamily outfits (I haven't seen the dad's outfit yet but it normally sucks :/)

Rip the Baker' s house

THE WITCHES OUTFIT FOR ACT 2 ALSO FUCKS ME UP

I LOVE HER

"who you gonna tell?"

The bakers wife outfit is still the same as act 1 and I still hate it

"I haven't been OUTSIDE all day!"

"allRIGHT"

I just realized little red's wolf cape is just the whole wolf fur

I don't think I've mentioned how cool the stage is

Rapunzel just like me is easily frightened

Rapunzels whole character is just a mental breakdown

Agony (reprise) is a bop

RIP THE NARRATOR NOW THERE'S NO OUTSIDE VOICE

The giants voice bugs me

I really love Rapunzel entering by screaming cause mood

RIP RAPUNZEL WITH YOU DYING HERE I GET TO SIT BACKSTAGE FOR LIKE AN HOUR. YOU ALSO CAUSE THE BOP OF WITCH'S LAMNET.

RIP JACK'S MOM YOU WERE KINDA A BITCH TO JACK. BUT YOUR DEATH WAS DEFINITELY THE STUPIDEST.

this is the only moment the wife is caring and she's gonna die in like 2-3 songs

HERE'S THE WIFE IS A FUCKING CHEATER SONG

Tbh the only reason why I don't like Any Moment is because I like the guy who plays Cinderellas Prince in our show and I might be jealous but shhhh

THEY GONNA FUCK

RIP CINDERELLAS MOTHERS GRAVE. I LIKED HOW IT WAS SET UP.

I still really love Cinderella and I guess this outfit is ok...

I really like the wife's hair down and it's only been down for like 1 song and she's gonna die soon

I really like her song tho. It's really fun to act out

But she still is a bitch during it sooo...

RIP BAKERS WIFE I ABSOLUTELY HATE YOUR CHARACTER. AND YOU HAVE NO REDEEMING QUALITIES BUT YOUR DEATH SCENE IS KINDA COOL.

I really like how nonchalant the witch says that the wife is dead

I LOVE YOUR FAULT OML

I like that little red was running around throughout it to place blame

Jack and little red shove off is great

I also wanna know where the baby went

I ALSO LOVE LAST MIDNIGHT

Jack hid behind Cinderella and little red even tho he's like 6'1

I FOUND THE BABY

I love the witchs cape

RIP WITCH YOU WERE ONE OF MY FAVORITES. YOU WENT OUT WITH A BOOM SQUISH!

The bakers outfit looks like the dad from full house

No more just rips out my heart and stomps on it

Little red's jump when she says I'm excited

No one can hold the baby correctly can they?

Cinderella throwing shade at the Prince

I love the mother/daughter relationship between Cinderella and Little Red

I'd like to restate how much I love Little Red's costume

No One is Alone is going to make me cry

I just realized Little Red's skirt is poofy enough to do like a fallout spiny thing when she turns

I like how the baker does little affectionate things to the baby

Fuck the bitch is back again and her hairs back up

But the witch is back too so :)

I like the slight vocalizing behind the witchs solo bit in children will listen

I like the ending choreography

The baby is lost again

The show is over the end.

#into the woods #into the woods broadway

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magicalgirlmascot · 6 years ago

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Okay like it’s been the better part of a year and I’m still not over the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat we went to see for my dad’s birthday last year. I’ve loved this musical since I was a kid and we grew up listening to the CD where Donny Osmond played Joseph and like. It’s a good musical and I enjoy it a lot. It’s the only musical I know that can pull off having an old west cowboy type song and also an overdramatic starving Frenchman song sung by the same group of characters in a fucking Bible story and make it work. But this particular production was just so fucking perfect? You know how sometimes you see a production of a show and you can never watch another production’s version of it without comparing it to the other production because it was that good? That’s how this production of Joseph was for me. (I have similar feelings about my local community theatre’s production of the Drowsy Chaperone but that’s another post.)

I mean...first of all, the framing device they used was similar but different from how it usually goes. The general framing device used for Joseph is that the story is being told to...someone. Sometimes it’s the audience, sometimes it’s a group of schoolchildren, what have you. In this case it’s being told to one particular child who is mocked at the start of the show for not fitting in (more later). Said child is a fairly major part of the show, and this could have been extremely obnoxious, but it worked really well. (Also the Child was deliberately made to be androgynous and was referred to with they/them pronouns in the program which is cool.)

The show opened with children selecting robes from a box which matched robes being worn by couples (exclusively m/f couples, we’ll get to that), which dictated what family they were going to become a part of. It was all nice and whatnot until our main Child pulled a brightly coloured fanciful robe out, and not only did they not match anyone else but they were soundly laughed at and abandoned for not fitting in. This is when the play started for reals and the Narrator sang her opening song about dreamers and stuff.

Then the rest of the show happened. (More on this later because the show itself was excellent.)

At the end Joseph and the Narrator start the ending song and the Child goes and gets their robe from the chest again, and is welcomed into the arms of Joseph and the Narrator. The families from the beginning are all back again to join in the ending, but instead of all of them being mother/father/child, now we have two dads and a child, a mother and father and multiple children, a daughter/mother/grandmother family, just all kinds of families with all kinds of dynamics, and it honestly made me sob I was so happy.

Then also the production value was fantastic? The costumes! The set! There were two choruses, a child chorus and an adult chorus. They were kind of off to each side where they weren’t obtrusive on the main stage space (more on that later too) and occasionally during songs where they were singing but not present onstage they’d grab extra costume pieces and props and jam out. Like when they did Benjamin Calypso they all put on Hawaiian shirts and it was RAD. Everyone was clearly living their best life.

Also the guy playing Joseph had a fucking voice holy shit. That man could sing.

And like the last big thing wasn’t necessarily to do with the show itself but the venue it was in was super cool because it was in an old barn that was turned into a theatre. If you live in Ontario and have a chance to go to Westben Theatre you totally should just for the experience.

Just thinking about that show makes me so happy and I’m more than a little sad I’ll never be able to see that specific production again ahhhhh I love theatre

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penbeatssword · 3 years ago

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I like this take and would love to see it play out this way in season 2, and hopefully you don't mind if I add some thoughts: maybe Stede seems lacking and Ed seems amazing so far because Stede is our POV character

On rewatching, I realized I felt much more critical of Stede's choices (particularly in episodes 9 & 10) than I had been of Ed's all season and I wasn't sure why. It seemed easy to shrug off any of Ed's shortcomings (including almost murdering Stede) and to appreciate his weaker moments including crying. I'd argue he's just as overdramatic as Stede, yet Ed's flamboyance is presented as him being charming, and Stede's is often played as him being a little ridiculous. Maybe we appreciate Ed's kind and thoughtful moments more because of the expectations tied to the Blackbeard persona, and then take for granted that Stede is often kind and thoughtful. This makes sense if Stede is our "narrator", our lens for the story (shout-out to @redundare who pointed out Stede & Ed are unreliable narrators when talking to others about themselves!). He's more open about being himself (outfits, library, and all) than Ed is (Ed rather than Blackbeard) but he's also very self-conscious, and plagued with flashbacks of being told he'll never be anything but a little rich boy playing pretend. He seems surprised when Ed offers to trade knowledge with him, because he doesn't think he has anything to offer. OP @avelera says the question is "why the heck does Blackbeard like this loser Stede?" -- that's exactly what pre-finale Stede would say

OFMD Season 2 Prediction: The Redemption of Blackbeard

Ok ok, so, another thought around Stede's "glow up" at the end of Season 1 (I mean, just look at his hair, his posture, the romantic puffy shirt, the single hand raised like a beacon to hail his crew, the everything wow) but with Stede now looking so amazing and Ed being so fucking horrible at the very end, I think we're going to get a reversal of the S1 theme of "Why the heck does Blackbeard like this loser Stede?" turning into "Why the heck does Stede like this monster Blackbeard?"

(cut for length because of who I am as a long-winded person)

Quick context, but one thing I saw across my many years as a fanfic writer over many fandoms was lot of kvetching over whether one person in the ship deserved the other person. You write a fic where one of them supports the other and get the inevitable troll being like "OK but why does this person deserve this perfect angel of a character," or whatever. It's an irritating comment when used to ship-police people but there is an interesting kernel of truth in it for writers, because too often romances (especially generic male-gaze het romances) can ignore whether or not we have some evidence that the protagonist is actually worthy of this beautiful, incredible love interest's affections. (By the way, with Bagginshield I saw trolls pestering people about both characters not being good enough for the other so eh, I don't take the trolls too seriously.)

But the thing is, in "Our Flag Means Death" Stede is.... kinda pathetic in the first season. I mean, it's real, legitimate question that everyone is asking, especially Izzy Hands, of why the fuck the legendary pirate Blackbeard is giving this guy Stede the time of day, let alone swooning over him.

I mean, Blackbeard as a love interest is legitimately amazing. He's the most remarkable sailor a hard-ass like Izzy has ever met, his name strikes so much fear that he doesn't need to fire a shot. But he's also sensitive and vulnerable and wonderful about Stede's hobbies. He's A+ red silk boyfriend material, caring about Stede, being patient with him, and generally looking at Stede like he hangs the moon. It's wonderful stuff.

Now, we as the audience see firsthand how Ed and Stede complete and fulfill each other in intimate moments that few other characters see but let's be honest... Stede still kind of sucks. He's still a deadbeat dad, he's often self-absorbed and oblivious to what other people want (like when he barges into his wife's new life, or even just when he tries repeatedly to force his crew into his vision of a healthy lifestyle, regardless of what they want). There is a legitimate question to be asked if Stede is worthy of Ed. And by the end of Season 1 we have the answer, he's glowed up. Stede's a romantic hero now, he's dealt with his bullshit and he's become worthy of Blackbeard's affection as a self-actualized adult ready to be his full, authentic self with Ed.

Ok that's great and all, like that's a pretty standard emotional arc, especially in a romance, but what does that mean for Season 2?

Well, in Season 2, I think we're going to get the formula reversed. Stede is all windswept and handsome and self-actualized, he settled his family drama, he's realized who he is and who he loves and all his good qualities like caring for his crew are going to stop being silly unwanted eccentricities and really make him the "better" partner of the two, I mean goddamn he almost looks angelic in the last shot, it's the promise of the Gentleman Pirate that Blackbeard was swooning over in the first place.

But Ed? Ed has fallen into shadow. He's got messy eyeliner and he kills without blinking, tortures without remorse, and has clearly descended into a pit of self-loathing. He's a fucking mess. We might even have moments where we wonder if he's redeemable (IMO, Lucius is alive but that's a pretty serious line that Ed crossed by trying to kill a member of Stede's beloved crew).

As fanfic readers/romance watchers, that rather valid question of "Does Character A even deserve Character B?" is going to be deliciously flipped. Does Ed deserve someone as wonderful and caring as Stede? And my deepest, dearest hope is that we will get the same luxurious, intimate journey from the darkest pits of Ed's worst self to show how he's going to become worthy of the person Stede has become.

#I'm a big fan of the unreliable narrator concept #this is my first omfd meta so I hope it's not too rambling #omfd spoilers #omfd meta #Our Flag Means Death #blackstede #gentlebeard #stedeward #Stede Bonnet

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