#the unscrupulous hydra

[reefsharkivist]

new hydra lore

[jame7t]

“you have too much scrup”

— the unscrupulous hydra

Well, you’re not getting any of mine, unscrupulous hydra.

[lazyvase]

A Closer Look Required

Let’s focus on my next creations.

Big Brain. The prime example of an evil scientist. Experiments on his own brain resulted in rapid growth, causing his scalp to be stretched and subsequently discolored. Big Brain will experiment and invent for anyone. He does this because he loves to.

The use of Red Skull’s jacket and the Hydra logo makes it very clear that this guy is not moral in the slightest, willing to ally with the most unscrupulous characters.

His mischievous grin was wonderfully provided by Tony Stark’s iconic “Clearly you don’t own an air fryer” grin.

Big Brain’s forehead was provided by a mini figure pack. His head was from Tony Stark in a Mighty Micro. His body was from Red Skull in a Mighty Micro. His pants was from an alien criminal in the Space Police line.

Through a partnership with Alchemax, Oscorp developed a new Green Goblin serum. This resulted in the Green Goblin growing a pair of wings, regulated with an Alchemax suit. A special gauge is used to monitor the serum-blood ratio.

The head came from Green Goblin in a Mighty Micro. The body came from Kirby Bat. The suit is from the Agents line.

The Shredder. Need I say more?

No idea where I got the silver cape. The legs are from Zane Ninjago. Body is from the final wave of Power Miners, where they fought against magma monsters. Weapon on his right hand is from the Rebooted sets of Ninjago. Shoulder pauldrons and sword holder combo is from Zane Ninjago. Twin swords are from Leo TMNT. Red head is from Kai Ninjago. The weapon on his left hand and the helmet are both truly the Shredder’s.

That’s me. Hair from Han Solo. Clothes from a Toy Story army man. Face most likely from the Lego City line.

[georgiapeach30513]

Steve Rogers Masterlist

Cuckolding

Must Be So Tired

I Can See You

Mark My Territory - Captain Hydra

When I Hear Your Name

Part 2

Just Pull the Trigger

All or Nothing at All COMING SOON - Steve Rogers always doubted your feelings for him.  He was supposed to be your everything, but he fell for someone else.  Bucky Barnes was supposed to be your best friend, and nothing more.  Good thing they both got lost in time.  Or did the?

A Losing Hand -  Mafia AU, nothing is what is seems. Trust no one, and listen to everything. Alliances will form, and they will fail, but who is playing who?

A Snowflake Melts - Your ex Jack O'Malley is an unscrupulous man. An excellent bounty hunter that comes alive in winter. He is winter. He terrifies you. Running away from him and your family, because even they couldn't keep you safe from the winter chill itself, you find yourself in a remote area. Living alone for almost a year when your new neighbor Steve Rogers arrives. He was curious instantly, and you were smitten just as quickly. Can you and Steve deny each other all winter long? And what will the other seasons bring? Will it bring you real true love?

Captain/Soldier -  When Steve Rogers is on the run, what’s his girlfriend to do when after a year she’s had no response from him?  Well, she gets in a relationship with Soldier Boy….

Desperate Affairs -  Engaged to Andy Barber, and deeming him too safe, and only wanting to be intimate to get you pregnant, you start a sex only relationship with Ransom Drysdale.  Nothing is ever easy, and you get yourself into a web of lies.  Are you the only one lying?

The End As It Begins COMING SOON - You are cordially invited to this season’s marriage market. Becoming the rare and sweet Rose of the Ball. Just the perfect and chaste eligible bachelorette. Bring your dance card, and search for the perfect match. Will it be the General Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers the Duke of Lavenham, Lord Dean Winchester, or Prince Charles Brandon. You have caught all their eyes. But be careful, they’re not the only ones watching. Lady Rose Waterton is also watching and reporting on the gossip of the evening. Make sure you have your chaperone…

Entangled Lust -  Beyond frustrated with Frank Adler, you go in search of a way to work off some of that pent up aggression.  Finding yourself right in the midst of the mysterious Bucky Barnes.  He was patient and kind.  Listened to your wants and needs, at first.  You knew you shouldn’t have got involved with your student’s guardian, but you and Frank couldn’t stay away from each other, until Bucky.

Hear That Whippoorwill COMING SOON -  Going back to the mountains.  You didn’t even realize you had ever been there.  But when your last relative in those mountains dies, you were left with everything, including all the family secrets.  Now there was too many rules; stay out of the woods, that bridge is dangerous, black cats are bad luck, don’t listen to the whippoorwill, girl.  Too late.  And now Steve has finally found you.  He won’t stop trying to get you, until the curse is finally broke, and now you’re here....

Just Like the Caged Bird -  You are a widow who moves back to her husband’s hometown after selling your in Georgia home.  Moving in above your brother in law’s garage.  Sharing the space with his friend Bucky Barnes, but your other brother-in-law Andy causes problems, along with your overprotective brothers.

Keys in Your Ignition -  Caught up in a sexual relationship with your father’s Vice President, and trying to not get caught.  Blind to everything else that’s going on in the club, and even your old crush, Bucky Barnes.  Not even noticing your brother and best friend flirting, until your father suddenly passes, and things in the club drastically change.

The Legends of Collingswood Glade -  Deep into the woods, and past the veil is a beautiful place.  Beautiful but dangerous.  Faeries are not to be trusted, and in their world rules often change.  Each court is different, but one rules them all...

Man Out of Time -  After Charlie’s parents died in a car crash she moved in with her Uncle Clint and Aunt Laura Barton. Clint helped her work through her pain by training her. She knew his job and knew where he was going the times he would leave. One day Clint and her friend Nat appear at the farm to ask her if she’s interested in joining the Avengers. Charlie doesn’t hesitate to join, but she’s nervous about meeting everyone. Especially Steve Rogers. Once her and Steve meet it’s instant that they are both clearly attracted to one another. Charlie wants to protect the man, and will follow him anywhere. Will he cause her more problems or is a good fit for her? What happens when she meets his best friend, Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier?

The North Princess & the Seven Men -  You are betrothed to Prince Charles, but what happens when he doesn’t want someone so pure, he tests your want to marry him by being corrupted by the seven men who have vowed to protect you.

Nothing You Could Do -  You were just a sassy bartender minding your business, and then he showed up.  America's prince, soon to be king, or in other word's future President of the United States of America.  Things kicked off way too fast.  You just want to be your normal self.  But Steve Rogers needs you.  Can you navigate being a self sufficient woman in DC, and the woman on his arm?  

There Goes My Life -  Steve was your weakness.  He was the person you loved the most, and then he was on the run.  You had tried to tell him something important, and then the blip happened, and you weren’t able to.  But your secret sure was able to tell him.  Now Steve has to navigate this new life, plus find comfort for himself.  But he never gives up on somehow being able to change what is going on in the world.    

What’s Wrong & What’s Right -  You were the perfect Omega.  Soft, quiet, ready to please an Alpha, but you were used for the folly of desperate Betas.  Betas who wanted to treat an Omega like they were the Alpha.  Nick Fowler kept you mostly guarded.  You were his golden star, never been sullied by an Alpha...and then there was Johnny Storm.

Your Mark On Me -  When you need something to help you stay alert study, you found a whole lot more than you were looking for. Tatted and massive. He was what your dreams were made of, but is he a nightmare? He claimed you, and now he intends on keeping you. No matter what the cost.

[crazyunsexycool]

Can we have a peek of what you're writing 🥺🥺

Hi darling,

Omg of course!!!!! (Low key I’ve been waiting for someone to ask)

One shots:

Steve Rogers:

Leave your lover

(Based on the Sam smith song of the same name)

Steve has known Y/N since the avengers were form. She was his PR rep, Y/N was in charge of all the media circus for him, Nat, Sam and Bucky. Steve has been in love with her since the beginning but he’s never made a move, he says he’s happy with just being her best friend. He lets his chance pass him by yet again when she starts dating someone and it gets serious rather quickly and right before his eyes. Steve has to watch the woman he loves love someone else. Will he get a chance to confess his true feels or will it be too late?

Old love, New love (working title most likely I’ll change it)

Steve and Y/N have recently ended there relationship after a year. Unfortunately for both of them they still have to work and practically live together since they work with the Avengers. During a mission the team finds Peggy. She traveled through time to be reunited with her one true love but the issue is that Steve has moved on. The longer she’s there the more he realizes that Y/N is who he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Once Peggy realizes that she’ll stop at nothing to make sure that Steve and Y/N don’t get back together. Steve will have to choose his old love or his new love.

Series:

Steve Rogers

What happens in Vegas

It was supposed to be a bachelorette trip for her best friend, but somehow Y/N wakes up hung over in a strangers hotel room. The stranger is none other than America’s golden boy Steve Rogers. In the span of a few short minutes Y/N learns that not only did she sleep with Captain America but now they’re also married. Before she lands back in New York the media has already picked up the story so an annulment is not an option. Y/N will have to deal with a fake marriage, her parents disappointment, her best friends wedding and a secret that will turn her already crazy life more chaotic. She can only hope that she can turn to Steve for better or worse.

Bucky Barnes mob AU

Is it a crime?

(Based on the Sade song by the same name)

They met when they were 6. They were best friends by 10. At 15 they were boyfriend and girlfriend. By 18 they had already been training to become the next mob bosses and take over their family’s legacy. At 20 Y/N loses her father, the only family she had left. Taken from her by his right hand man. An attack on her home has left her vulnerable and without resources. She turns to Bucky but his hands are tied, he can’t protect the love of his life. He only manages to give her some cash so that she can leave before she’s hunted down by the unscrupulous leader of hydra, Alexander Pierce. She has no choice but to flee for her own safety. 10 years later Y/N comes back with a vengeance to reclaim what’s rightfully hers. Bucky has now taken over for his father and is engaged but with Y/N so close he’s willing to risk everything and do what he couldn’t do so many years ago. Is it a crime to still want him?

I also have some requests that I’m writing as well as some series for Sam Wilson x reader, Sam/Bucky x reader and Thor x reader but these series will come later on!

Requests are still open so if you have a request you’d like me to write please feel free to send it in!

Thank you so much for reader!!!

[tangleweave]

❝   Even the Gods wouldn’t stop me from reaching you.  ❞

She'd been so concerned with the mere possiblity of Thern, she'd completely missed the schism forming beneath their own feet. When Hand sent a team to take her into custody, they'd taken her by surprise with a sedative. She never saw it coming. Her captors never took into account how much time she'd been spending with Agent Coulson, nor how close they'd become.

To be fair, it was a surprise to them as well.

[ Dejah is drugged and taken prisoner by HYDRA during the attack on the Triskelion. Phil had been working closely with her to find Kree artifacts, and also maybe to go dancing at the local VFW every Thursday (it's Big Band music night). He uses a newly found connection with her to locate and rescue her. ]

It hadn't been meant to go down like this. SHIELD was crumbling all around them and it was happening in real time. Already, they'd been confronted by two drones intent on taking the plane out, and Garrett had outed himself as the mysterious Clairvoyant -- the crazed look in his eyes had been perhaps even more concerning than the knife he'd slashed Coulson's arm with.

Hydra. Hydra had enacted a resurgence, by creating an insurgence. It had burrowed into the heart of its enemy, a poison blade that had penetrated deep and infected the best and the brightest among them. The people that had been taken in. Maybe brainwashed. Hard to tell now... and does it even matter? They've sold each other out for the promise of power. The commission of willful violence against the helpless "for a better future."

The Bus had been rerouted to the Hub. Fine. That's where Simmons, Tripp, and Dejah were anyway -- and Simmons and Tripp had already found a convenient place to hide and get in touch with the Bus. There was fighting still taking place on every level of the Triskelion. The sounds of gunfire, punches landing, and the environment all around them being destroyed rang loudly in his ears.

The hangar bay was a catastrophe in action. It was at least emptied of most flying machines. The Helicarriers had already taken to the sky and were inexplicably firing on one another. At least the Hydra sleepers were easy to identify, they were the ones with an advantage in weapons and body armor.

But they had no heart. No soul. And that was an advantage that he would lay odds on any day of the week.

His sport coat was gone; in its place was a tactical vest, decked with rounds of ICER ammunition. There were a lot of people to punish here, but killing them would be an undeserved mercy. A routing of justice. And justice would be served here. He'd see to it.

He could feel Dejah's wooziness through their tenuous empathic connection. He had taken the Voice weeks ago, for the covert mission in Chechnya, on her assurance the process could be reversed if it was intolerable. But it never had been... and in fact had been a boon to them both as they'd uncovered the Kree artifact and snuck it out of the hands of unscrupulous would-be buyers.

It had also led to a most surprising turn of their relationship.

He doesn't allow thoughts of those circumstances to disturb his concentration, though, as he unloads round after round of sleeper shots into Hydra agents scurrying through the corridors. What he does focus on is the odd sense of muzziness tickling the periphery of his awareness, because that tells him that she's both alive, and most likely under the influence of some sort of drug -- this is the first time he's ever sensed her not clear-headed. Even when sleeping, she's had oddly specific emotional output.

But here, it's slowed. Torpid. Still identifiably her, though... he can feel a sea of rage welling up, all lava and carefully uttered threats. Everything she says she'll do to them, she means. And then counterbalanced by a cool sense of anticipatory satisfaction when they clearly don't believe she'll do any of the things she says she'll do. Whether it's because she's restrained, or because they see her as a prissy diplomat... well, that doesn't matter. She'll be doing it just the same.

He hesitates for a moment, waiting at a corner until the coast is clear. And as he waits, he sends her an entreaty of emotion, hoping she'll hear it. He is coming to her. He'll reach her, if she can somehow let him know where she's been taken.

Even the Gods wouldn't stop me from reaching you.

The warbling thought takes Coulson momentarily by surprise. This wasn't just clarity of emotion. It was words. Language, insofar as language can be developed within the pure landscape of the mind. Perhaps the declaration is a little ironic, given the predicament she's already recognized herself to be in... maybe whatever sedative they'd given her was still making her feel a little addled. But there can be no mistaking the intent behind her declaration.

Good thing you don't have to test the metal of gods, he thought wryly. Just turncoats.

Even just thinking the term forced another swell of fury through him, though that fury was as cold as the Arctic tundra as he twisted about the corner and put two more sleeper rounds into oncoming Hydra operatives.

[docgold13]

Although I guess Rosenberg was on my wavelength regarding Fury Jr. Because he apparently went through a personality shift to be more akin to Late-Ultimates/MCU. He was all "good soldier" trying to make a SHIELD less secretive like his OG!Fury while being an operative, to giving Punisher the keys to the War Machine armor to hunt down Hydra goons.

The key to making Nick Fury likable is to have him not be in charge. There’s no way of leading an intelligence and espionage department without being unscrupulous. Power corrupts. Being in charge corrupted Fury Sr., it corrupted Maria Hill, as well as Tony Stark and Daisy Johnson.

Fury’s best moments in the MCU were when he defied the secret security council and when he went up against his evil superior (forget the character’s name but the dude played by Robert Redford). His worst moments were when he was in charge and went all in on manipulating people and acting shade. James Bond is fun because he can go rogue and follow his own code. We’re he made M and put in charge it would make for a pretty lousy movie.

Most of the folks writing comics today are in their forties or fifties… meaning they grew up in the wake of the end of the Cold War where spies stopped being seen as heroic and re-conceptualized as agents either fighting for or against a sinister government or bureaucracy.

[vagrantblvrd]

Supervilain(TM) Tony AU where Clint infiltrates his lair(s) to laugh at him and his life choices while raiding his fridge and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Like, the first time was for actual superhero-stopping-the-supervillain(tm) purposes, but afterwards it’s to laugh at Tony and his life choices...and raid his fridge

(Tony sets up traps in the vents for him, but they’re not exactly death traps, and Clint gives him a rundown later on how to improve his security because he worries about the glaring flaws in it such as people-sized vents rife for exploitation by unscrupulous figures.

“Like you?”

“Hurtful, Stark. Very hurtful.”)

Also assorted other Avengers stopping by for reasons no matter how many times Tony changes lairs.

Tony wanders into the kitchen and the Black Widow is drinking tea while, idk, doing her report on the latest scuffle with Doom’s stupid robots.

Whenever Tony has a lair that isn’t underground Captain America likes to sit on the roof if the weather’s nice because Tony always picks somewhere with a nice view.

Bruce usually has an experiment running in one of the labs and he helps Tony come up with Hulk countermeasures in case of emergencies and other dire situations.

(”You do realize I’m a supervillain, right?” Tony asks and Bruce gives him this little smile and a shrug and Tony is *SIGH*)

Bucky follows him home and just never leaves after they run into one another while raiding a HYDRA base.

(It was all kinds of awkward like when you and a stranger get your seat numbers mixed up on a plane or something, only with raiding a HYDRA base instead.)

Tony’s like why??? and Bucky’s like ¯\_(ツ) because things got a little out of hand (”Wait, am I allowed to make those kind of jokes too or would that make me insensitive?”) and Steve mentioned something about Tony being good at fixing things, and anyway.

Yeah.

The spider-kid just shows up one day because he’s having problem with this project for school and Tony’s kind of an expert and Tony is just ??? because what is going on?

Tony Stark is a Supervillain(TM)!!1!

Why are all these superheros (and Clint) regularly breaking into his lairs like this?

(Also, here’s your problem, kid, as he proceeds to walk Peter through whatever’s giving him trouble.)

Tony’s going for a glass of water one night and this asshole portals in - like, A+ on the facial hair and the sentient cape? - to give him the typical superhero here to stop your nefarious schemes speech.

And Tony standing there like, why is his life like this? and no one told him the supervillain(tm) life would be like this (Pepper, please stop laughing) and he just wanted a glass of water?

Sure, he could call the suit and get into an ~epic fight in his own home lair in the middle of the night? But it’s like. So late, and he’s got an SI meeting in the morning that Pepper would absolutely murder him if he missed, so -

“Good talk, buddy,” he says, and walks around the guy to get his water before going back to bed.

Meanwhile Strange is just “...” because that didn’t go the way he planned? He stands there until it gets awkward and then portals back to the Sanctum because Stark was right about it being late and he can always come back in the morning, and anyway, yes.

[fsmarsxlla]

She hides behind the face nobody knows.

Chapter 15: You Forget To Be Kind.

Chapter summary:

"Wow, that was a big statement, did it hurt?" Jemma smiled.

He liked this version of Jemma, fun, direct and secure of herself, why did she hide?

Summary:

Jemma Simmons is an unattractive but very intelligent woman who starts working as a secretary in the important intelligence and science company, Hydra. Her boss, Leopold Fitz, who has just been appointed as the head of Hydra and who is engaged to Ophelia Sarkissian, is an unscrupulous, egocentric, and womanish man who lives under constant pressure from his father and Grant Ward who wants his job.

Together they will work for Leopold to do all the goals he promised to have the presidency of Hydra, and along the way they will discover much of themselves, overcoming their demons and perhaps finding love.

[flayjunior19]

some words against "Steve Stan" fanboys of a Steve Stan fan.

(in advance, I apologize for any lack of spelling, since English is not my first language, and I am hardly learning.) I do not understand how some shameless people call themselves "Steve Stan" or fans, after the big scam they did to the character in Endgame. For these fanboys (that's how I'll call them), most of these are Anti-Tony Stark or Anti-Iron Man. I admit I am one of the few who do not like Tony's character, but I respect those who like it. But most of their Anti, I can see that they come from "Steve Stan" fanboys (and I'm doubting this). they criticized Russos, Feige, RDJ, Marvel, fandom, M & M, Sebastian Stan, etc. In an almost psychotic way. What is contradictory because if someone else is "Steve Stan" (as I would not say fan, but if I like the character of Captain America, I read some of his comics, and prefer it to Iron Man) they defend to death the final Steve's shit in Endgame, supposedly because in the end, "Steve was happy". Are we talking about the same character or the OOC that we saw in Endgame? Stupid phrases they write, how are you: "this world does not deserve you, and it burns you that Steve was happy"; or others that I capture here in Screen:

Do they really suffer from cognitive dissonance? Or is it slight mental retardation? Steve / Cap is a fictitious character, which is used by writers of different agendas to make use of the way they please, sometimes well sometimes wrong. And these same idiots are noticing how much they have hated as they have characterized Steve in the MCU since Civil War all because according to them, the directors clearly indicated a preference for Tony / Iron Man (which is true), they complain about that like complaining girls, but before the greater damage of characterization of the character in Endgame, they idiots turn against their own fandom comrades, against the same fans of the character, and begin to defend the same directors / writers who were criticized before? How does the mind of these people work? I'm sure they would defend the whole character of Captain Hydra who was so controversial in the comics, and who caused so much bitterness and division, by unscrupulous writers who used political symbols and images without any responsibility, as some comics companies criticized to Marvel Comics for that. And is that their cognitive dissonance is so much, they lash out against another Steve Stan, against the Tony Stan, and from what I see against the Bucky / Sebastian Stan. Maybe because those who have complained the most have been the Stucky fandom out of which more is Steve Stan. Now, let it be known that I am straight, and I am respect the Stucky fandom, I do not mess with them, but it has always been clear that as seen, both Steve and Bucky in comics and movies are straight men, and friends almost brothers I do not like it when a relationship of that nature is sexualized, because it would be like sexualizing a brother, a member of your family, and it would be quite incestuous. I can see them angry because Steve's cold goodbye to Bucky, without any emotion, and that Steve did not want to say goodbye to the family he did in the present, which include Sam and Wanda (said in interviews by the same actors) seems rushed, mediocre and deplorable. Minimum something emotional, a last goodbye and last line, but even that is not obtained. Because being honest or not, the whole movie is used as propaganda for political agendas of third parties, it denotes the line that a family composed of man, woman and children is more important (that is denoted in Tony retired without doing almost anything in five years after the Snap with Pepper and Morgan, or that Natasha had to die for Clint to live, since he has a family and according to that, his "life is worth more than Natasha's") and that has been denoted in Marvel Studios since a long time ago, Captain Marvel is an example of that. Putting yourself to defend decisions of companies and corporations based on political agendas of third parties, and only show them that you are a sheep and cattle.

Chris Evan did not even know what he was doing in Endgame, because unlike RDJ, he and most actors, did not get a full script, and some scenes to film were false. So he had to trust and rely on the Russos, M & M and Feige for that. So do not tell me that the character was not OOC, because even the actor did not know what he was doing, RDJ was the only one who knew, how that impromptu scene when Tony insults Steve shows it.

[fryordie]

@rlyehbound | starter call

A black hand finds purchase on a hunched shoulder, crushing in its grip. Without apologising, the unworthy one tears Aaron away from those he was conversing with, hijacking all discussions to fix him with crucial questions. “You venomous snake! All this time, you worked for Hydra?” The signs were clear to see, his true allegiance not so hidden that those wise to deceptive games could miss it. The Odinson himself did not realise the truth until it was too late-- when the resilient organisation had lured him into its embrace through other means, leading him along with false promises. 

   “ I was a fool to ever trust someone as unscrupulous as you.”

[thenewnio]

Wadia: The Life and Times of a Magical Princess

An expansion of this: https://thenewnio.tumblr.com/post/681609755567046656/my-version-of-an-arabian-nights-tale-the

Early Days

In the city of Shiraz, Sultana Kameela al-Akmar gives birth to her second daughter, Wadia, whose red hair is said to be a distinguishing feature of a talented magician. Wadia’s older sister, Samraa, is initially skeptical, but is later convinced when, as a five-year-old, Wadia befriends a young female Burmese python brought to the palace as a gift, naming her Hissa. At nine years old, she meets the unemployed sorceress Melika, whom she asks to teach her magic. In exchange, she convinces Kameela to hire Melika as the Royal Vizier. Melika tutors Wadia on how to be a skilled sorceress, blessing her beforehand in order to allow her to understand the animal language.

The Troublesome Parrot

When Wadia is fourteen, she and Hissa head outside the palace. At the same time, Iago, a long-suffering talking parrot, flees his master, Tazim Al-Tabbal, entering the city bazaar at the same time as Wadia and Hissa. After stealing from some merchants, Iago is caught and nearly drowned in a water barrel, but Wadia and Hissa come across the scene and rescue him. They bring him to the palace, where he selfishly takes advantage of their hospitality. Finally fed up with his attitude, Samraa forces him to leave, only for him to be recaptured by Al-Tabbal. Upon learning of this from Samraa, Wadia goes to Melika for help, and the sorceress uses her crystal ball to find Al-Tabbal’s hovel. While Hissa, transformed into a human by Wadia’s basic magic, distracts Al-Tabbal, Wadia frees Iago, but Al-Tabbal becomes wise to the trick. Iago finally stands up to his ex-master and saves Wadia and Hissa, in the process destroying the hovel as the three manage to escape. As Al-Tabbal attempts to pursue them, he is arrested by the palace guards. Everyone forgives Iago and he is officially accepted into the palace, where he teaches Wadia how to fly once she learns how to transform herself into a bird.

The Clockwork Pegasus

On New Year’s Day, Vikrant Nag, an unscrupulous Bengali craftsman and inventor, presents Kameela with a mechanical winged horse, using it to bribe her into allowing his marriage to Samraa. When Kameela refuses, Nag tricks Wadia and Hissa into riding the flying horse, not telling them how to control it. Outraged, Kameela imprisons Nag. Meanwhile, with the help of Hissa and Iago, as well as her own skills in magic, Wadia figures out how to operate the horse, landing in the city of Zinjibar, where the three come across the captive prince Saleet al-Nahar of the fallen kingdom of Sa’na. Saleet’s captor, King Oktan, confronts Wadia, Hissa and Iago, but they narrowly escape on the horse. The three return to Shiraz, but Wadia, guilt-ridden at having left Saleet to his fate, mounts the horse with Hissa and Iago, and returns to Zinjibar, disregarding Iago’s advice to “forget about that guy”. They attempt to sneak Saleet out of Oktan’s palace, but they are discovered and captured, Oktan unleashing his pet hydra against Wadia. However, Wadia manages to slay the creature. The four escape on the horse just as revolutionaries storm the palace and take Oktan prisoner. Back in Shiraz, a celebration is held in honor of the heroic act. However, Nag manages to escape from the dungeon, overpowering Iago and Hissa and taking Saleet hostage as he flees on the horse. To rescue Saleet, Wadia musters enough of her magic to turn Iago into a giant, on whom she and Hissa fly to the Kingdom of Cashmere, where Saleet is rescued by King Theofilos, who imprisons Nag for life. However, Saleet, believing that he’ll never see Wadia again, falls into a silent depression. Wadia, Hissa and Iago, upon learning of this from the locals, enters the palace of Cashmere under the pretense of being healers. When Saleet recognizes them, his vigor returns, at which point Wadia reveals the truth. Theofilos allows the four to leave Cashmere on the horse and return to Shiraz.

Fight for Shiraz

The warlord Khaunn plans to lead his army to Shiraz in an attempt to take the throne by force. When a soldier warns Kameela of the invaders, Wadia volunteers to ask help from a female Djinn who lives in the desert. Thus, she sets out with Samraa, Saleet, Hissa and Iago, the latter of whom has heard of a golden idol at the Djinn’s tower. At an oasis, they discover a lonely wayfarer named Bairam, who joins them on their quest. They reach the tower, meeting the Djinn, Odradi, who tells them that they are prophesied to save Shiraz. Odradi also reveals that Khaunn had used dark magic to contain his soul in the urn around his neck in order to become invincible. After Iago fails to steal the idol, the group sneak into Khaunn’s camp to steal the urn, but are discovered. Bairam and Hissa evade capture and free the others just as the army approaches Shiraz. Wadia warns the city guards, exposing Khaunn and his men. As a battle breaks out, the group pursue Khaunn to the palace, where he attempts to kill Kameela, but Wadia intervenes and challenges him. While the warlord is distracted in fighting her, Iago snatches the urn and passes it to Wadia. Khaunn chases them, trying to get the urn back, but when he corners them on the balcony, Wadia crushes it under her foot, destroying him forever. In the aftermath, the rest of Khaunn’s army flee upon learning of their leader’s death. With peace restored and the prophecy fulfilled, the city celebrates the heroes, with the mechanical horse which they had used becoming a monument to them.

CAST:

Myself as Princess Wadia

My sister as Princess Samraa

My mother as Sultana Kameela

Monty the female Python as Hissa

Majorika (from Ojamajo Doremi) as Melika

Iago (from Aladdin) as himself

6 (from Shane Acker’s 9) as Prince Saleet

B.E.N. (from Treasure Planet) as Bairam

Oblina (from Aaahhh!!! Real Monsters) as Odradi

The characters in the story who are not listed are all original characters.

[kayla1993-world]

Germany seizes world's largest illegal market on darknet with US help

German authorities took down the world’s largest illegal marketplace on the darknet with the help of U.S. law enforcement agencies, they said.

Hydra Market was a Russian-language marketplace that had operated via the Tor network since at least 2015 and they became known for extensive drug trafficking, according to German authorities. They also became known in the 17 million known customers to buy and sell forged documents and stolen credit cards, they said. In 2020, its sales amounted to well over $1 billion euros.

German authorities said they seized Hydra’s server infrastructure and about $25 million in bitcoin on Tuesday.

���They preceded the seizures carried out today by extensive investigations that they have conducted…since August 2021 and in which several US authorities were involved,” the German federal police announced.

Many U.S. agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS Criminal Investigation and others were involved in the operation, they said.

The investigation targeted the operators and administrators of Hydra, according to German authorities. Authorities said the market was being used for criminal transactions, money laundering and abundant sales of illegal narcotics.

Hydra was the illegal marketplace with the highest turnover worldwide, German authorities said. Its sales amounted to at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020 alone. It also offered a service for obfuscating digital transactions, complicating crypto investigations for law enforcement agencies.

Besides the law enforcement actions taking down Hydra's illegal marketplace, the U.S. sanctioned the company, along with a virtual currency exchange based in Estonia, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

“The global threat of cybercrime and ransomware that originates in Russia, and the ability of criminal leaders to operate there with impunity, is deeply concerning to the United States,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement. “Our actions send a message today to criminals that you cannot hide on the darknet or their forums, and you cannot hide in Russia or anywhere else in the world."

Hydra accounted for some 86% of illicit Bitcoin transactions in Russia in 2019, according to the U.S. Treasury, while they used Estonian exchange Garantex for over $100 million in virtual currency transactions associated with illicit actors. Estonian authorities stripped Garantex of its license in February, but it continued to operate "through unscrupulous means," the department said.

These sanctions are an attempt by the Biden administration to show that virtual currency cannot evade U.S. and international sanctions on Russia or other criminal actors.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control "is closely monitoring any efforts to circumvent or violate Russia-related sanctions, including through the use of virtual currency, and they committed to using its broad enforcement authorities to act against violations and to promote compliance," the department said.

[kalofagas-ca]

It's Sunday evening, time to watch another movie that transports us back to Greece. Boy on a Dolphin, starring Sophia Loren, Alan Ladd and much of the filming done on the island of Hydra. Sophia plays a sponge diver, an ancient statue is found, unscrupulous artifacts dealers and of course some island romance. To watch the movie, go to linkinprofile or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MXtWFd76MI https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtx1UhpaJn/?igshid=1ql7ae29yb5bt

[majingojira]

120 Years, 120 Monsters Day 11

Well, at least I’m getting them done one a day! 

40) Mothra  (1961) – Mothra

Mothra is a first for this list.  She is not (just) a mutant or other easily write-off-able monster.  She is a goddess.  To challenge Mothra is to challenge divinity, and it makes sense she is brought to our world to punish sins.  Mostly, greed.  All of the evils she punishes stem from greed.  But the horror of Mothra comes from her relentlessness and exaggerating the impact that unfettered greed has on its surroundings.  Collateral damage is the name of the game.  Mothra is not a precise instrument by any means.  As she tramples and destroys to get what she wants, we are treated to reminders of the innocent in her wake.  She later reveals true sentience and personality as one of the kindest giant monsters in existence.  She does what she has to, but feels bad about it.  Which is something, I guess.  But here, she is the wrath of a god.  Not something seen in many horror films, but there are a few more there.

And none are as angelic as she is.

41)   Gorgo (1961) – Ohgra/Gorgo’s Mother

Two movies in the same year featuring badass lady monsters?  Why yes, that did happen!  Gorgo is Britain’s answer to Godzilla and aside from some unfortunate editing practices, is one of the better giant monster movies.  A standard aquatic 50s Carnosaur type monster with armor plating and head fins, it still manages to be a distinct design.  But the real fun for Gorgo (and his mother Ohgra) is the plot.  Basically, it’s Mothra but with the monster baby being a captive of unscrupulous humans and its mother coming to the rescue.

I could probably do an essay on how Gorgo represent Irish workers taken to England and placed under deplorable conditions while Ohgra is an incarnation of Mother Ireland who comes to rescue her son from England’s oppression, but that’s one hell of a read on the whole thing!

Isn’t film analysis fun like that?

42) Jason and the Argonauts (1963) – Hydra

This is often considered to be the best Harryhausen movie, and it’s hard to argue against.  While the climax of the film features a battle with Ray’s iconic skeletons, there are many other standout monsters.  The Harpies, Talos, but . . .  the Hydra is my favorite.  Mostly because it is simply the best hydra we have gotten on film.   It may only have 7 heads, and never regenerates, but its writhing mass of beaked serpents is utterly hypnotic, and the hissing and rattles it makes with its binding tails just adds to its mesmerizing quality.   Very appropriate for a mythical snake.  

43) The Birds (1963) – Birds

Hitchcock had to be on any list of great movies, but he only has one real ‘monster’ movie, and it takes something utterly innocuous and turns it into a source of tension and terror with his usual mastery.  Hitchcock believed that the more the audience knew that the characters didn’t, the tenser the situation became and it is definitely in evidence here.  What makes it work even more is what ignorance the audience is left in.  We don’t know why the Birds are attacking people, that’s a true McGuffin.  But it leads to the excellent ending.  That unknown factor leaves the fate of the characters and the world in a terrifying unknown.

The best kind.

Plus it’s just so . . . Innocuous.  Many monster movies going forward will turn mundane things into sources of terrors.  It started with Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, and it’s going to be a reoccurring thing. For good and for ill.

But enough of that, have some fun with the original premier trailer for The Birds!

[therightprometheanfire]

While I agree with you that Erik would NEVER join any kind of Nazi group, I can't agree that marvel as a company is leaning towards the far right based on this bull shit. That's ridiculous. It's just stupid decisions made by idiotic people, nothing more nothing less.

I disagree. I think that Marvel is starting to lean towards the right in their main characters and stories, and therefore the ones that gain the most exposure and money. 

All of my examples come from Nick Spencer, admittedly. But they have released an issue of the new Captain America where they not only mock college student’s activism and safe spaces, but he has Sam Wilson musing on his own activism past and internally apologizing to Steve “if he was ever like that”. I will concur that the “activism” of certain college students is nothing more than an excuse to bully others with, but mocking the aspects of student activism in regards to misogyny and trigger warnings is mocking real, honest issues. Spencer claims that it was satire and that people can’t take a joke, but it’s hard to see how that’s possible, considering that the takeaway from this issue seems to be “activists are just whiny college kids who can’t take a joke”.

There are also problems inherent in a black man apologizing to a white man for his past in activism. I’m white, so I’m not going to going into this super deeply, because I don’t want to lay claim to struggles that aren’t mine, but FangirlJeanne on Twitter has an excellent thread discussing the racism of this situation and I would advise checking it out. I will say, however, that Sam apologizing for activism is some bullshit.

Then you have the disastrous “Captain America is HYDRA” business. Steve Rogers was created by two Jewish comic creators to fight Hitler. There is something majorly disrespectful by having a character with that kind of heritage be a member of a group that has always been and still is displayed as white supremacist. This isn’t hyperbole: when EW noted that HYDRA bears a resemblance to “ISIS and white supremacist organizatons”, Spencer answered “that’s exactly right” and went on to say “the Red Skull obviously has a lot of experience with fascism and Nazism and white supremacy movements.” 

When The Daily Beast noted that this treatment of the character seemed contemptuous of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s legacy and reasons for the creation of the character, Spencer evaded the question, saying things like “look, everybody who’s working on this story loves Captain America” and “we are approaching it from a different angle, but I think it illuminates the character in a way that we’ve never seen before”. 

And now we have this. Which is far worse than the Captain America is HYDRA debacle. I’m not going to go into why this one’s fucked up because you know this one, and I don’t think Marvel or Spencer have responded to the anger about this yet. 

Marvel’s done a lot of good shit, I’m not gonna lie. They’ve had openly LGBT characters like America Chavez, Billy Kaplan, Teddy Altman, David Alleyne, the list goes on. They’ve also got POC characters such as Kamala Khan, Amadeus Cho, and the aforementioned America Chavez. There are good writers within the company, and they are doing good work.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that with their major characters (which the above heroes, as much as I adore them, are not) who are therefore the ones to make money and gain more public attention, they are leaning to the right. When Spencer is asked about the company’s resistance to the idea in the same Daily Beast article (linked again for complete sourcing), he answers “it’s a really funny thing, there was not an enormous amount of debate about the story” and “I know that I went into the first [retreat] really expecting to have to fight for it and for there to be pushback, and there was very little”.  When Spencer suggested the idea, they apparently did not fight him on it. In addition to this, the CEO of Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, has not only donated one million dollars to the Trump campaign during the election and an additional five million to a Trump Super Pac, but has been placed on his veteran affairs staff.

Marvel’s most outspoken anti-fascist characters being unashamedly aligned with the equivalent of Nazis is troubling enough on it’s own. When you add in Ike Perlmutter’s political leanings, it seems even worse. To me, Marvel is starting to inch closer and closer to the far-right with their major characters.

This is not to say all Marvel comics are bad, or everyone who works at Marvel is a bad person. I still adore the works of writers such as Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and G. Willow Wilson. There are, of course, good comics within the company.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to their most public works and characters, Marvel is leaning towards the right. They’re providing protagonists that are traditionally heroes (I will agree that Erik Lehnsherr, who has gone back and forth on the scale of hero-villain, may not necessarily count as a hero all of the time) with either fascist backstories or enough scorn of activism for members of the far-right to look at them and see themselves within these characters. This is morally unscrupulous and mildly dangerous, and that they seem to keep getting deeper and deeper into this trend is worrying to me.

I would also argue that the far right is absolutely full of stupid decisions being made by idiotic people, and that’s part of why we are in the mess we’re in now, but I think that is a different discussion for another day.