#then they could have the characters find some alien translator device
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stardustinthesky · 7 months ago
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so apparently the whole universe speaks english in sg1 without any explanation whatsoever really a testament to good writing /s
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turnaboutdick · 6 months ago
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I love language. What's a random linguistics thing you've been chewing on?
rAAAGHHH A CHANCE TO BABBLE ABOUT MY INTERESTS?!?!?!? ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡I’LL TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK SO I’ve admittedly been thinking a lot about the universal translator from star trek lately because i started re-watching the st series deep space 9. i am fully aware that there's a lot of holes in the way the whole thing works since the concept is pretty much a plot device to have the story flow nicely but i like thinking about its implications just for fun! 
so. the UT translates every single language, even from new encountered cultures/species(!), and it works by (((as far as i remember)) analyzing the new language and comparing it to a massive database of other languages in order to deduce the new language's grammar. 
one of the things i think about for entertainment is: if i for any reason i was the first encounter with “The Aliens” and they had a universal translator like the one from star trek… how would That go?
Like, for example, if i used the formal form of spanish when i'm talking to them (because i am Polite), would the universal translator assume that Spanish only has that form? Or is there a way for machine translation to infer the existence of an informal form even if I only refer to the aliens in formal spanish?? ((in other words, is there something embedded in the way spanish is constructed that would hint towards the existence of an informal form? and could a super clever machine like the UT pick up on it))). Furthermore, if their alien language makes no distinction between formal and informal, does it even matter at all that i am trying to be polite with them??? (((i mean, it would matter to me in my heart but like objectively speaking,,,,,,, probably not??🤨 but even if i know it's not gonna carry out into their language i would still use the formal form and try to be polite.....))) 
also, in-universe i’ve always wondered why some characters are able to switch from English to their own language. shouldn’t all their speech be translated, if the UT is constantly running?? the only answer i can think of right now is that the universal translator somehow reads their mind (?) or is somehow aware of the speaker's intention/desire and can sense when a speaker wants to switch back to their language. Which would make sense. and i think that is part of the canon explanation for how it works –some technobabble about brain waves that i can't remember right now–, but if that is the case then it only poses more questions to me. like, for example, if someone makes a joke that would be hard for outsiders of their culture to understand then:
1) would the u.t. be able to tell this?  because maybe yes maybe the UT can deduce grammar and syntax but there's so much more of Us in the way we use language!!1! can it deduce culture or slang or idioms?? a lot of the language we use is so nuanced, which is precisely one of the limitations of machine translation.
but lets say the technology is so advanced that it can tell when things are jokes and when said jokes will be hard to understand for outsiders, then: 2) would it make use of equivalence OR would it opt for something like literal translation?  domesticating stuff (or finding an equivalence) could make communication “easier” or "more comfortable" for the receiver but aren’t these people in space precisely there to learn about new things and cultures? When you domesticate a text, part of its original meaning gets lost... wouldn't scientist or historians or whatever be apprehensive about losing that information about other cultures? Someties when i consume things that have been translated into my language, i wonder about all the inside stuff like that that i might be missing lol
SDJDSKDSFHDSJKHDSK ¿¿¿¿in sum ???? i have many thoughts and questions regarding the Star Trek Universal Translator** and literally no concrete answers. i just run around thinking about it. i think most of the answers depend on the situation i guess. (**many of which can be applied to translation itself)
this ended up not really being Linguistic Facts and just me voicing my brainrot. im sorry. i tend to go feral over anything that is about translation and/or language teaching bc that’s what i'm majoring in and the universal translator has always been such an engrossing concept to me. PLUS i had never actually shared any of my thoughts on this outwardly and i had a lot of fun rambling ((( you might be able to tell by the long ass wall of text i replied with. WHICH. AGAIN. IM SORRY))))
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hummingbird-of-light · 10 months ago
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Round 2: First story for @badthingshappenbingo ~
Title: Getting To Know Each Other
Fandom: Star Trek (AOS)
Character(s): Robert "Robbie" Scott, Original Alien Character(s)
Relationship(s): /
Rating: T
Words: 2,036
Prompt: Cave In
Warnings: Accidents, Earthquakes, Blood and Injury
(You can also find this story on AO3)
~ Getting To Know Each Other ~
Robert "Robbie" Scott didn't know what hit him at first when, out of nowhere, everything around him moved and people started screaming.
His eyes, which he had closed only a moment before to relax on the subway after a long day at work, quickly opened and before he could grab hold of anything, he was thrown around and to the ground.
A pain shot through his body when he hit the floor and he gasped, startled.
The shaking didn't stop and only a second later Robbie realized what was going on.
An earthquake!
He had been warned that there was an increased risk of seismic activity on the planet he had been sent to for an assignment, but he had also been promised that it was rare at this time of year.
Apparently the company he was working for had been wrong.
Robbie cupped his hands over his head to protect himself from any falling rumble and pressed himself firmly to the ground.
He squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to God that this wasn't the end.
When the world finally came to a halt again, the Scotsman realized that the subway had also stopped.
Of course it had. What else had he expected?
Robbie cautiously lifted his head and looked around. His heart sank and he felt his stomach twist.
Oh no. No, no, no.
In the light of the flickering lamps, he recognized pure chaos. People were lying all over the floor, some of them injured and bleeding. The ceiling above them was caved in and windows were broken.
But the worst thing Robbie realized was that what only the most horrible nightmares could be about, had actually happened.
They were buried alive!
~
It didn't take long for Robbie to get back on his feet. The arm he had fallen on hurt like hell and he was pretty sure that it was broken. From his seat at the back of the wagon, the Scotsman could see the locals helping each other up and talking to each other. Luckily, not too many people had been traveling by subway at the time of the day. It was already quite late, after all.
However, no one seemed to see or care about him.
Robbie had already noticed during his work over the last few days that the people on the planet were not particularly hospitable. They tolerated visitors from other species, but preferred not to interact with them too much.
The Scotsman's gaze fell on a female figure who was still lying on the floor and not moving. From her appearance, she did not appear to be of the native species.
The Trugeans were humanoid creatures with a very large head, yellow fur and four eyes. They also had six arms and a split tail.
The woman on the floor, however, had purple skin and snow-white hair, which she wore in a now rather disheveled bun. There were spots on her face and neck that shimmered in a darker shade of purple. Robbie discovered a laceration on her forehead.
Knowing full well that no one would probably take proper care of her, the Scotsman stepped over to the woman and shook her gently by her shoulder.
"Ma'am?"
At first, he got no answer. If he had known the best place to look for a pulse, Robbie would have felt for it, but he knew nothing about the violet figure's anatomy. So he shook her shoulder again, a little harder this time.
It took a second, but finally the woman moved her head, her face contorted in pain.
"Hey there, that's right. Look at me."
Gently, Robbie placed his hand on the woman's cheek and he gave her an encouraging smile as she opened her blue eyes flutteringly.
"Well done. How are ye feeling? Where does it hurt?"
For a moment, the woman stared at him with wide eyes and Robbie feared that she didn't understand him. Was her or his translation device broken?
But when the woman finally spoke, Robbie could understand her very well.
"You?"
His counterpart blinked in disbelief and Robbie cocked his head to one side questioningly. He laughed uncertainly as the woman sat up carefully and ran her long, pointed fingernails over his cheek, her eyes still wide.
"Ma'am?"
Only a few moments later, the lady shook her head.
"No... you're not... Pardon me... I've mistaken you for someone else."
Robbie just smiled gently as he helped the woman up so they could sit together on the long bench seat.
"That's all right. Ye've got quite a bump on yer head. Ye are allowed to be confused."
Irritated, the woman moved her hand to her forehead and felt the laceration.
"Does it hurt anywhere else?" Robbie asked worriedly, but his counterpart just shook her head.
"N-no... I don't think so. What... happened?"
Robbie sighed heavily as the woman looked around.
"There... There was an earthquake. The tunnel collapsed."
The woman nodded understandingly. She still didn't seem fully present.
Her eyes fell on a local woman who was holding her communicator in panic.
"But I have to call her! My little girl needs to know that Mommy is coming to pick her up from Daddy's soon. Otherwise she'll worry!"
"We don't have reception anyway."
"We can only wait for help."
Was Robbie mistaken or did the purple-skinned woman suddenly look incredibly disappointed and sad?
His heart tightened at the thought of a possible explanation.
"Do... ye have children too?"
Confused, the woman turned her head towards him, then laughed weakly.
"Me? No, no..." She hesitated for a moment and seemed to look Robbie up and down for a while. "And... You?"
There was something in her gaze that Robbie couldn't describe. It sent a strange shiver down his spine, but he put the feeling down to the predicament they were in.
He nodded.
"Aye. A son."
Again a shadow of disappointment flitted across the woman's face and Robbie suspected that perhaps she wanted children herself but couldn't have any. Perhaps it was envy.
"But luckily he's already all grown-up and studying. So... No child waiting for me at home."
His counterpart gave him a gentle smile. Maybe she was realizing that he was trying to cheer her up.
"I see."
They were silent for a while before Robbie realized they had no idea who the other was.
He quickly extended his intact arm and offered his hand to the lady.
"Oh, um, I'm Robert, by the way. But most people call me Robbie."
The alien woman eyed his hand for a moment and Robbie blushed, embarrassed. Was it a rude gesture on her home planet?
But eventually a smile crossed her lips and the woman took his hand and shook it.
"Miss Fa- Nomira. My... My name is Nomira."
Robbie nodded understandingly.
"What a bonnie name. Well... It's a pleasure to meet ye, Nomira."
"Oh, believe me, the pleasure is all mine."
~
Robbie didn't know how long they sat there waiting for help. He just did his best to keep Nomira happy and alive. She often showed signs of falling asleep and since Robbie didn't know if that was a good idea with her head injury, he tried to keep her awake.
Nomira asked him a lot of questions. She probably hadn't had much contact with humans. The things she wanted to know were all the more peculiar.
How tall and old and fat people grew on average. How they ate. How they lived.
There were a whole lot of things that Robbie had never consciously thought about, because for him, who had always lived on Earth, it was completely normal.
But he answered all the questions conscientiously.
Nomira also asked him a few questions about himself. About his friends and family. About his lifestyle.
Robbie wasn't sure if she was really interested in all of it, but as long as she was awake and occupied in this way, he was fine with it. He talked about his family in Scotland, about his son, about his girlfriend - blushing once more, of course - and also about his brother who worked for the fleet.
"A... brother in Starfleet?"
Nomira stared thoughtfully out of the window. And Robbie remembered the first reaction she'd had when she'd seen him.
"Oh, maybe ye know him? His name is Montgomery Scott. He's an engineer on the USS Enterprise. Maybe the ship visited yer planet sometime?"
Slowly, Nomira just shook her head, smiling gently. There was something strange in her gaze, but Robbie didn't notice it.
"No, I... I don't think so."
"What about ye? Where are ye from? Do ye have a family?"
When he saw the sad look on the female alien's face, he instantly regretted the question.
"Well... only if ye want to talk about it."
A wry smile crossed Nomira's lips.
"It's... it's all right. I'm from a planet whose name your race can't pronounce. I run a restaurant; a dream I've worked long and hard for. I... I had a family once, but... my parents are dead and my older brother..."
Her expression darkened and she swallowed hard, seeming to try not to lose her composure.
"He left me and my family to live his own life. Away from my kind."
Robbie nodded understandingly.
"I'm... I'm very sorry about that."
"You know, back in the day, my brother and I were one heart and one soul. I... I never understood how he could just give us up for a life that wasn't going to take him anywhere. He went behind my back."
Robbie thought of his own brother, who had left Scotland back then to pursue his big dream. Quit often, Robbie had felt alone back then, but in the end he understood that it had made Scotty happy.
"I... I dinnae think it was his intention to hurt ye. Sometimes our loved ones do things we don't understand. Things they have to do. But just because we go different ways doesn't mean we love each other any less. Maybe... maybe ye should try to contact him. Maybe ye just need to talk it out. As adults."
Nomira looked up and Robbie recognized tears in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand.
"Maybe. But... for that to happen, we have to get out of here alive first."
Robbie swallowed hard. Aye, of course he knew that the air was getting tighter and tighter, which they were all not entirely innocent of with their conversations. And he also knew that their chances of survival were diminishing by the second. But he had hope. This simply couldn't be the end.
"The life support systems of these subways are very good. It... It's gonna be okay."
Nomira said nothing.
~
They had long since stopped talking when something finally happened.
Robbie flinched as he heard noises and his heart jumped as lights shone through the rubble.
They were being freed! People were finally getting them out of here!
Relief spread through him and he grabbed Nomira's hand and squeezed it gently.
"I told ye everything would be all right."
His counterpart gave him a tired smile and squeezed his hand back.
"Thank you, Robbie. For keeping me awake. And... for the conversations. You... really are a valuable human."
Robbie just laughed and shrugged.
"Trying my best."
It wasn't long before they were back out in the fresh air and getting medical attention.
One last time, Robbie went to Nomira, who was lying on a stretcher.
"Well, I... I really hope ye'll learn to get along with yer brother. And... it's been a pleasure getting to know ye. Even if the circumstances could have been different."
A peculiar smile formed on Nomira's face.
"Oh, believe me, Robbie, you wouldn't have wanted to meet me under different circumstances. How else would I have seen what kind of being you are. A being who deserves a long life."
Nomira squeezed his hand one last time, then she was pushed into the ambulance.
Robbie just smiled. Maybe Nomira was right. It was precisely in emergency situations that one really got to know others.
At least he was grateful that he had met her and saved her life.
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baylardo · 1 year ago
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miscellaneous threshold au halfbaked thoughts bc idk ive been playing sims and frying my brain
had another CAPTAIN philippa arc thought about her becoming a wanted criminal by starfleet, framed for whatever reason,,, its vague in my head but im always looking for an excuse to explore trekverse outside of starfleet haha. her just out in space trying to clear her name. would not have a cringe court scene of people backing her claim. i would die.
was thinking that philippa as a field medic might be more prone to being stationed on PLANETS rather than ships for long periods of time, just helping out in planetary warfare.
with that ^ i was thinking about her helping out during a pandemic and her hyperevolved human blood helps find a cure in some way. was thinking id situate this around the time that shes a commander serving underneath Moidrah, her captain kinda 👀s her after discovering the cure with her DNA.
feel so sick in the head looking at irish girl names for a hypothetical peppa daughter but im not set on anything NOT CANON but i have a feeling ill be indulging in Sims lmao so im looking 😞😞😞 Mave/Mavis sticks out to me
was talking with tardi about maybe Liam and Jace flying planes together on earth seeing as theyre both kinda grounded there together. have a unique little telepathic sign language hybrid way of speaking with each other.
ALSO was thinking that maybe Liam would have a unique little padd that he carries around that writes out what people are verbally saying when hes younger and doesnt have lip reading down?? idk on that one haha i was trying to think of more “futuristic” ways he could seamlessly exist around so many different alien spoken languages. was wondering about the visuals of mouths moving, how the universal translators are an Audible adjustment, how itd maybe be unable to help with how aliens are Actually talking and moving their mouths speaking their native tongues. my thought was that Ed would help put all these languages in his lil padd device and it translates it all into written english (or whatever humans speak, Standard??? idk i feel like it has a name)
wanna work with amelia and ed during Protectors more,,,, QUITE HONESTLY a lot of the chakotay plot was just them talking,,,,, from what i remember lol its a blur. but i was yearning thinking about the end of that book when theyre on the ark planet with all the Protectors and theyre all helping to grow stuff and Liam (O’Donnell) in particular is playing with the Protectors hehe,,,, anyway thinking about amelia and ed being down there with their papa, particularly Ed being around weird animals. maybe Ed hangs out with ODonnell as hes analyzing the planet’s animals for those few chapters,,,,, i forget what all the other characters are doing during that book tbH,,,,,,,, i just want them to be equally having done stuff during those four months of Protectors yknow;)
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tinyozlion · 1 year ago
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Addressing the Troubles: Part 3 / 3
English Dubs and the Early Years of Figuring Out Anime:
Back in the 00’s, the television industry was still figuring out anime. At the time, there was still a general prevailing attitude in North America that cartoons on TV were for children– even the more “mature” cartoons of the 90's like Batman: The Animated Series, Reboot, Gargoyles (actually, the Gargoyles voice acting fuckin' ruled), Beast Wars, etc., as a loose tendency, were the realm of bombastic voices and over-the-top, scenery-chewing performances. And god bless those performances! Where would we be as a nation, as a culture, if not for Mark Hamill’s Skeletor, his Joker? 
But this approach was less suited for dubbing anime. Sure, if you put that kind of sauce on a Sailor Moon villain, or a fun little DBZ alien guy, it works out okay! But it falls apart when you get to the serious stuff, and even the average 90’s goofball anime had *serious stuff*. When those moments weren’t given the requisite amount of sobriety, the dub very quickly became a disservice to the spirit of the original, and even young audiences could tell. 
Different studios took different approaches of course, and some of them caught on more quickly than others-- but in a large number of cases, the Japanese voice acting was just guaranteed to be better. They had an industry of professionals that took that job very, very seriously, and for the most part Western shows hadn’t gotten that degree of legitimacy yet.
There's a massive divide between Japanese and English drama-- separated not just by language, but by hundreds of years of theatrical traditions that share no common ancestor. There are whole character archetypes we don't have a direct equivalent for in the West, levels of intonation that don't translate, portrayals of sexuality and gender expression that we had no cultural context for, types of dramatic timing we had no idea what to do with for a couple decades. North American television studios simply didn’t have enough experience with those cultural and theatrical differences to handle the conversion well. There are plenty of famous examples of early dubs trying and failing to find substitutes for Japanese terms, idioms, honorifics, foods (“donut” from “onigiri”, and so forth).
These were the years when the “dub vs. sub” war had any kind substance to it– because kids, you only got to buy whatever language was on the VHS tape that Suncoast or Blockbuster was selling. And if you didn’t show up for the subbed version of an anime, the less likely you were to ever get it. DVD’s, with their selectable audio options and subtitle tracks, were still on the horizon. 
This is also why fan-subs started showing up, because the kids were smart and wanted a better understanding of their favorite shows; they were fed up with these butchered attempts at localization. “All according to *keikaku… *Keikaku means: Plan” is hilarious in retrospect, but it was proof that you could show new words and concepts to English-speaking audiences, and they would learn and appreciate them rather than changing the channel. Fans were dedicated enough to the source material that they were doing this shit themselves– literally making blurry VHS copies with their dubs and distributing them like mix-tapes. It created an underground fan culture of anime in the USA that became a substantive market for less tampered-with Japanese media, and I don’t know what the media landscape would look like today if that hadn’t happened.
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--Voice actors work with what they're given; sometimes, that’s limited to just what’s in the script of the day, and in the early years of American localization, it would probably NOT have included any background from an untranslated manga, or the original director’s notes, or from cultural inference that was lost on unfamiliar Western listeners at the time.  So they’d be left to their own devices when it came to choosing character voice and intonation and what to do with pauses and interjections, and they’d be doing it without the benefit of the original cultural framework or context from the adapted source material. Then of course, there is the ubiquitous challenge of ADR: matching syllables to lip-flaps and the timing of a given scene, which I can only imagine has improved with more modern software.
All this lead to some memorably wild and incongruous readings that today strain belief, are unintentionally humorous, or in worst cases, ruin a scene. 
--This is the landscape we find ourselves in with early dubs. One's expectations must be modified to suit the medium and the times. It's all part of the challenge, the experience, the charm, the je-ne-sais-que of early dubs. It is the spice of life. Sometimes we all need a weird little background guy with a stupid voice to say the dumbest shit you ever heard. I find joy in this.
The English localization team on Gundam Wing was working with a very limited crew; almost everyone pulled double duty, and most “additional voices" are just the main actors wearing different hats. This led to some real big swings with the one-off character voices– because there are only so many ways to shout “IT’S A GUNDAM!”, and sometimes you gotta put some extra mustard on OZ Grunt #47 so you can tell him apart from OZ Grunt #46.
They were trying their very hardest to make it seem like there were more than twelve people inhabiting the universe, and the results… were mixed. But the effort was admirable.
My Humble Defense of the English Dub:
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Okay so listen-- I’m not gonna force anyone to listen to the English dub. Your mileage and tolerance for all of the dislocated strangeness and over-the-topness mentioned above may vary. And obviously, the original Japanese audio has artistic authenticity and charisma of its own.
-- SO ALL I’M GONNA SAY IS: if you tap out early, you’re gonna miss out on some of the rawest, coolest, emotionally pitch-perfect deliveries of all time.
Brian Drummond is absolutely heart-stopping as Zechs; it’s one of my favorite VA performances of all time. Enuka Okuma is by turns a chilling, ferocious, and sympathetic Lady Une. Mark Hildreth’s Heero Yuy conceals a depth of nuance and attention to detail beneath his superficial monotone. Kirby Morrow’s Trowa is a well of quiet empathy, his stoicism sometimes the vehicle for a tinder-dry sense of humor. Lisa Ann Beley as Relena runs the full dramatic range between naivety, to heartbreak, to conviction. Saffron Henderson’s Noin has a smoky sensuality that overlays her formidable competence, and moments of incredibly touching vulnerability. Michael Dobson’s cold eloquence as Duke Dremail brings the amount of aristocratic dignity and arrogance needed to lend legitimacy to the Romefeller Foundation and its terrifying power. And of course, Scott McNeil as Duo is utterly indispensable, a bright, bouncing point of contrast in a grim troupe, with the deftness of touch to deliver glimpses into the nihilism, the weary kindness, that his up-beat attitude belies. 
I could continue to embarrass myself and go on this way about the whole cast. I love the English dub very much-- I also, truly, deeply, understand that it is wacky as hell. But I still believe it's worth grinning and bearing the NPCs and occasional dud lines to get to the good stuff. And sometimes, honestly, the good stuff IS the wacky stuff.
 Side note: a fun game I like to play is Spot That Voice Actor! Take a drink every time you identify one of the main cast in a secret, secondary role! Take a drink every time you catch one of them putting some extra English on an unnamed character who dies immediately after they speak! Expire from alcohol poisoning by episode 20! Example: Did you know that Brian Drummond voiced both Zechs AND Doctor G? Now you know! And you can't unknow it! Ha ha! I've done this to you!
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fmp2wendyread · 2 years ago
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FMP Final story - in detail.
It all started when my main character Hoshi turned 18 years old her parents bought her first spaceship for her birthday because it was her dream to be the first youngest female space explorer to discover s new planet. She left with her alien pet ferret Fuyuko which she has had since she was 8 years old and found the ferret lost going through some bins and so she took it in and took care or it. Fuyuko is like a normal ferret but he is from another planet and can change colours like a chameleon and doesn’t age. Ever since Hoshi found Fuyuko they’ve been everywhere together so of course Fuyuko had to come with Hoshi when she was traveling. Hoshi and her family lives on earth, but not like how we know it. It’s much more advanced and it’s normal for people to go to other planets and it’s also normal to have aliens from other planets visit earth. People on earth developed this device that translates any language into their own and makes it so when the person wearing this device speaks it will automatically get translated into the language of the person they’re speaking to. This makes it much easier to communicate with each other and to other alien species. When Hoshi was first beginning her travels through space she had to stop off at the planet Emotavia because her spaceship was braking down because it was quite cheap because her parents didn’t have much money and even the cheapest spaceships are still very expensive. She had also run out of supplies because she didn’t pack enough. Once she stopped off at this planet she met Takeshi who helped her fix her ship, they became instant friends and he asked if he could join her in her travels and because she would prefer to travel with someone so she had someone to talk to other then her pet ferret she agreed to take him along with her. Normally when they are traveling in space they take it in turns on falling asleep so they don’t get too lost in space, but one day while it was Takeshi turn to stay awake, he didn’t because they were both so tired so they both fell asleep while their space ship was traveling very fast so when they did wake up they were in the middle of nowhere and got hit by an asteroid causing their spaceship to crash on this unknown planet. This planet had no sun and no moon all there was to light up the sky was billions of stars. Luckily this planet didn’t need a sun or a moon, because all the plant life on this planet was glowing and and all the animals here had at least one thing glowing on them and the rivers and water was glowing also. It is truly a beauty planet and they both stay here for many months studying the animals and plants that live here while also making their own brand new space ship. Hoshi is good a coming up with plans and drawing out maps and instructions and Takeshi is good at following those instructions and is really good at making things so together they made the ultimate spaceship called ‘The Jellyfish Spaceship’ original right? These guys aren’t very good at coming up with very imaginary names. The SAN’AKU have been living on this planet for a few years now because they got lost from their old planet and have no idea how to get back, so they stayed in this planet. They got lost from their home planet because the SAN’AKU were coursing a bit too much trouble. The SAN’AKU are pranksters and one of their pranks went too far and all the other creatures living on this planet has had enough of their jokes and they got into a lot of trouble. They felt bad, but they also felt misunderstood because all they wanted to do was have some fun, but nobody understood that and thought they were just dump, stupid or evil. So they left their planet to try and find somewhere they can have all the fun without consequences, but soon enough got lost in space with no way of getting back home. When the SAN’AKU saw Hoshi and Takeshi, they found them very interesting and being the curious creatures they are they followed Hoshi and Takeshi when they left the planet to tell others about their discovery, not knowing the chaos that was following them.
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earisridesagain · 2 years ago
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Earis Recs 3.1 - Sex Pollen. That's It. That's the Rec.
There’s something pure about sex pollen fic. It’s just compulsory fucking. That’s it. I’ve often joked that sex pollen walked so that A/B/O could run, but sex pollen does not have the societal complications of A/B/O and certainly does not require alternate anatomies. Sex pollen can run the gamut from crack fic (oh no, we’ve wandered into this mysterious greenhouse together what will happen) to heavy plot-driving devices (oh no, we’re mortal enemies who have been forced to have sex maybe we should work together.) Sex pollen can be considered to be a subset of a larger aphrodisiac-related trope. In aphrodisiac fics, there are all sorts of entities causing the need to fuck - including sand, moth dust, aphrodiasiac sap, alien pheremones, etc.. And while it usually rides the line of dub-con/non-con, it doesn’t have to mean that the characters themselves are forcing themselves on each other (at least until one party doses the other(s) without consent).
For my first iteration of this theme, I will be focusing on classic sex pollen in Reylo (but there will be background pairings, which I will note). 6 full fics plus a 7th microfic/drabble. As always, if you think there is a tag I missed, please let me know. And for some of these authors, I could not find them on Twitter or Tumblr, so please let me know if I’m missing someone.
General Warning: For sex pollen, most of these recs are dub-con, verging on non-con. Please read the tags in the fic!
On DreamWidth - EarisParticpates - Sex Pollen. That's It. That's the Rec.
On Twitter - Earis Recs - Sex Pollen. That's It. That's the Rec.
1. This Dust Survives
Author: RedRoseWhite; Twitter
Rey has houseplants in her pod on Ajan Kloss. She starts have sex with her friends. She learns about love, friendship, loyalty, strength, and kindness. When the Force Bond opens, she shares what she has learned with Ben and brings him home. While Rey is definitely horny because of the plants, she does not regret what she has done. I love this fic because it is sweet and languid and sexy in the best way. It does have non-Reylo sex, but the true emotional connection here is Rey and Ben and it is Reylo HEA.
Pairing: Reylo, Rey/Rose, Rey/Kaydel/Poe, Rey/Original Male Character Status: Complete Rating: Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen
2. Avaritia
Author: bbl8te; Twitter; Tumblr
Rey is lost and stranded on an unknown planet. In a panic, she reaches out through the Force to Kylo. When he gets there, he realizes that Rey has been exposed to a plant that causes living things to want to have sex. This fic a great example of one of my favorite sex pollen tropes - when one of the characters realizes what is going on and tries valiantly to resist the pull of the sex pollen, despite the fact that they want the other person, even without the botanical encouragement. Kylo Ren is tinged with sadness here and feels resigned to violence, but Rey brings him to a more hopeful place.
Pairing: Reylo Status: Complete Rating: Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen
3. L’etrange affair de Venerem Pollini
Author: ELopez; Twitter; Tumblr Language: French
Translated into English - The Strange Affair of Venerem Pollini
Translated by: ELopez, with help from Everren (Twitter; Tumblr) and annonna
Regency Era Sex Pollen AU. Need I say more?
Okay, okay. Miss Rose Tiloy-Connor needs Euryale Palpatine to chaperone her when she and her suitor Lord Armitage Huxley visit a greenhouse to witness the blooming of a rare flower rumored to be the incarnation of a fertility goddess. Unfortunately for Euryale, the utterly unbearable Lord Benvolio Kylopold Soloren is there with Hux. Hopefully the beautiful flower’s blooming will provide some much-needed entertainment.
Pairing: Reylo, Gingerrose, various other background characters Status: Complete Rating: Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, public sex, public orgy, period typically attitudes towards extra marital sex
4. Blue Flowers and Silver Skin
Author: blueyedgurl
FUCK OR DIE. Ugh, what a great fuck or die sort of medieval AU. Rey is looking for a specific flower to make a potion. The flower, she knows, has a pollen that, if encountered, makes people want to fuck, and if they don’t, they will perish. She’s carefully harvesting the flowers when the local woodsman, Ben, comes into the clearing, covered in pollen. Whatever will happen?
Pairing: Reylo Status: Complete Rating Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, rough sex, somnophilia
5. Apart From My Beating Heart
Author: ReyloRobin2011
A post-TROS fix-it fic (sort of). After facing Palpatine, Ben and Rey escape Exegol in the decrepit X-Wing. They crash land on a planet with some very interesting trees and are overwhelmed with desire. This fic is lyrical and lovely, especially for a sex pollen fic. The sex is wonderful, and the ending strangely happy.
Pairing: Reylo Status: Complete Rating: Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, mild somnophilia
6. Unto Dust
Author: LyricalRiot; Twitter; Tumblr
Post TLJ, Rey is searching the galaxy for works that can help her learn about the Force. She lands on a planet with the promise of deep knowledge about the Force, but her journey brings her into a cave populated by plants with a very specific purpose - increase fertility by causing a driving desire to have sex. Unfortunately, the desire for sexual pleasure is so intense that people exposed to the plant will waste away from dehydration while they are trying to satisfy their appetites. Hey, what do you know - it’s FUCK OR DIE again! When Rey is affected, the Force bond opens and Kylo recognizes where Rey is and what is happening. In addition to some very hot sex, this fic has great character work, as the two of them try to find a common ground.
Pairing: Reylo Status: Complete Rating: Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen
AND A BONUS MIICROFIC (DRABBLE)
7. Allergic (part 4 of Cap’s Explicit Reylo Microfics)
Author: CaptainMarvel42; Twitter; Tumblr
Basically, Rey’s been exposed to flower pollen and is sooooo horny. Kylo won’t touch her.
Pairing: Reylo Status: Complete Rating: Explicit Warning: Dub-con due to sex pollen, voyeurism
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kalinara · 3 years ago
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Dream Show 2.0
It’s time for the second annual “Dream Show Challenge”!
The rules are a little different this year: we were given someone else’s dreamshow cast from last year and asked to make a new show.
Since it’s very possible to end up with a cast list full of names we don’t recognize, we were allowed one trade.
This is my cast:
Jeff Goldblum, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Tudyk, Mandip Gil, Lee Pace, Elliot Page, and Matt Berry.
Since at the time I started this, I had no idea who Matt Berry was, I decided to trade him out for a different white British comedian: Jack Whitehall.
So now I present to you:
The Gates of Kallipolis
Synopsis:  When Lydia Nowlan receives an invitation from her estranged uncle, she has no idea what to expect.  She had no idea that she had an uncle.  And she certainly had no idea that he had invented a working time machine.  
But Dr. Nowlan called her for a reason.  Time is behaving strangely, and there are people scattered through time who need their help to get home.
Characters:
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Lydia Nowlan - Jennifer Connelly (2021 CE): For as long as she remembers, Lydia Nowlan never had much in the way of a life.  She worked, she slept, and she worked again  She had no time for things like friends or family, even pets.  But now her work is completed and she has no idea what to do next.  Fortunately, a mysterious letter from a long lost uncle comes at just the right time.
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Dr. Mark Nowlan - Jeff Goldblum (2021 CE):  Lydia’s estranged uncle.  An experienced time traveler with a temperament that makes Lydia look like a people person, Dr. Nowlan is in over his head.  But fortunately, he’s not in this alone anymore.
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Bibi Khunza - Mandip Gil (c. 1550 CE):  Widow of a king, mother to another, Bibi Khunza knows how to fight and how to rule.  But as to how this sixteenth century Indian warrior princess ended up at the center of a witchhunt in seventeenth century rural England is a really interesting question.  Especially since she’s not the only one lost.
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Augustus Cole - Elliot Page (1875 CE):  The life of a chimney sweep in Victorian London is a hard one, but Augustus Cole knows exactly how to translate those skills to something a bit more lucrative: cat burglary.  And never let it be said that the man will miss an opportunity: a futuristic sailing ship is the perfect place for a bit of breaking and entering.  But what’s that about an iceberg?
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Xavion Knox - Lee Pace (2320 CE):  Grown in a lab, built for war, Xavion Knox has known very little except violence.  He hasn’t cared much about anything since the death of his partner, but perhaps that will change now that the man’s stuck in the distant past, reliant on a couple of barely competent time travelers to get home.  Wherever that is.
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Zeta-5 - Jack Whitehall (2440 CE): An Alien.  Zeta knows his science.  He knows his technology.  He knows the intellectual capability of humanity, and he damn well knows that time travel is impossible.  But try telling that to Mark and Lydia Nowlan.  (He has.  Many times.)
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Grok - Alan Tudyk (c. 190,000 BCE):  The manservant of Dr. Nowlan, and human being who predates any recognizable culture or society.  He may even predate the development of spoken language, or at least any language that the translator can recognize.  Because of his communication difficulties, he has yet to provide Dr. Nowlan with sufficient information to get him home.  He seems happy enough where he is, and well, good help is hard to find.
--
Important Concepts for the Show:
The Reese-Hartnell Effect:  It is impossible for a living being to be in two places at once.  Because of this, it is very important that a time traveler never “cross their time stream”, meaning they should never visit a time when they themselves are alive.  If at any point, a time traveler ends up in the same time period as their past or future self, they will merge together.  
In the best case scenario, the knowledge and memories of the future self will remain with the past self, allowing the time traveler to make any desired changes to his own future.
In the worst case scenario, the time traveler’s mind is completely obliterated.
The Ultimate Translator: Lydia Nowlan’s life work.  The great translator is somehow able to take spoken language from any point in time and enable it to be understood by any time traveler in the vicinity.  Because of his origins, Grok is unable to use the translator.  Instead, he communicates through gestures, pictures, expressions, and occasional broken English.
Origin Time: In order to return a lost time traveler, the machine must be calibrated with the exact time and place that the traveler disappeared from, down to the nanosecond.  Too soon, and the time traveler risks the Reese-Hartnell effect destroying their mind.  Too late, and the resulting gap of “non-existence” could create catastrophic effects down the timestream.  
The Time Machine: Dr. Nowlan’s invention.  The Time Machine is not a ship, but rather a stationary set of silver gates that open into a pre-set location.  The gates can be concealed but not closed while the machine is in use.
--
Episodes:
Episode 1 -  Witchhunt (1645 CE)
Lydia Nowlan, linguist and engineer, has just finished her life’s work.  She unwinds by answering an invitation from her estranged uncle.  When she arrives, she finds a surprisingly high tech laboratory, a strange device and her uncle nowhere to be found.  She is startled by the sudden appearance of Grok, her uncle’s assistant, and accidently activates the device, which turns out to be a time machine.
Lydia finds herself in medieval England, where her strange appearance and even stranger knowledge quickly makes her the target of a witchhunt.  But she isn’t the only time traveler at risk.  She meets fellow prisoner, Bibi Khunza, and the unlikely allies work together to escape.  Lydia’s uncle, Dr. Nowlan, comes to find her, bringing with him a time-lost space marine and a lot of questions.
The foursome, assisted by Lydia’s invention, agree to work together and find out what’s causing all these time disturbances and try to find a way to return everyone home.
Episode 2 - the Titanic (1911 CE)
Lydia’s invention continues to facilitate communication between our heroes, with the exception of the caveman, Grok.  They investigate another anomaly, this time aboard the HMS Titanic, where they meet the Victorian, Augustus Cole.  Khunza encounters some racism, which does not end well for the racists, while Lydia repeatedly attempts to warn about impending doom, and learns the regrettable lesson that some things can’t be changed.  She is introduced to the concept of the “Reese-Hartnell Effect” which prevents any time traveler from being able to make multiple attempts to influence the timestream.
As the now fivesome return back to Dr. Nowlan’s lab, they meet Zeta-5, an alien from the far future, who is very armed, and very insistent that he be returned home.
Episode 3 - Ancient Greece (399 BCE)
A comedy of errors involving Zeta-5’s weapon (actually a zoological inseminator) and the time machine sends most of the crew to ancient Greece.  Dr. Nowlan has an interesting conversation with Socrates, while Xavion gets to punch Plato in the face.  Khunza and Augustus find unlikely common ground as they solve a Philosophical Conspiracy.
Meanwhile, back home, Lydia, Zeta-5 and Grok have to find a way to repair the time machine and get the others back.
Episode 4 - Utopian Dreams (3505 CE)
The concept of utopia comes up again, when Dr. Nowlan takes the crew to the futuristic city of Kallipolis.  The peaceful surroundings inspire introspection: Khunza revealing her desperation to reunite with her young child, while Augustus and Xavion admit that they don’t have much of a home to return to.  Lydia has a cryptic encounter.
Nowlan’s plans to access the Kallipolitan Hall of Records is thwarted when a sudden insurrection scatters the crew to the four winds.
Episode 5 - Dystopian Nightmares (3505 CE)
Loyalist factions capture Lydia and Xavion.  Augustus gets to plan the heist of any number of centuries to get them out, while Zeta-5 discovers his inner revolutionary.
Lydia’s interrogation has some particular after effects that lead to some shocking revelations: namely, both she and her “uncle” were members of the Kallipolitan Time Agency, but her mind had been destroyed by the Reese-Hartnell Effect.  Dr. Nowlan had set everything up in an attempt to restore her to herself.
Episode 6 - Finale (???)
Dr. Nowlan has fled into the timestream having accomplished his goal but at the cost of his career and reputation, and possibly his life, should the Time Agents track him down.  Lydia and the others race to find him first, engaging in a merry game of chase and sabotage against their rival pursuers.
Dr. Nowlan does ultimately surrender himself into Lydia’s custody, but reveals that his notes have been destroyed in the chaos, meaning that now he genuinely can’t return anyone home.  Lydia must reconstruct his work, which she does, with some unexpected assistance: the caveman Grok.  He had observed most of Dr. Nowlan’s work and actually comprehends a lot more than anyone realizes.  The crew are finally sent home...for the most part.
Bibi Khunza returns to her kingdom and her son, and is able to resume her Regency without much incident.
Augustus Cole does not return home to Victorian England.  Instead, seeking a new challenge, he appears in Khunza’s court and is welcomed as a new “foreign advisor.”
There was a “miscalculation” and Xavion Knox is not returned to his own time, but rather six months earlier, to the incident of his partner’s death.  Due to the Reese-Hartnell Effect, Xavion has an opportunity to save the man that he loves and he doesn’t intend to waste it.  And this time, he won’t be alone.
Zeta-5, citing his race’s long lifespan, decides to go to Xavion’s time instead of his own.  He realizes that there is a very good chance that the Reese-Hartnell Effect will come into effect in about fifty years, but it might be interesting to live his life again from infancy onward.
Dr. Nowlan is serving out his sentence at the Kallipolitan Time Agency.  He’s treated well and receives many visitors.  He is, by all accounts, quite content.
Lydia Nowlan has received tacit approval to continue her linguistic studies across the timestream.  She is accompanied in this effort by her new partner, Grok.
--
Bonus:
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As this is a Rip Chat challenge, of course I have slipped Arthur Darvill in here somewhere.  He has been cast as Dr. Pierce Draxton, head of the Kallipolitan Time Agency.  Because the man’s played a rebel.  Now I’d like to see him actually in charge.
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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago
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Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa:  The Isle at the Edge of Time (Thank You Comission For Rosie Isla)
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Hello all you happy people! Today’s review is a bit special as it’s the result of another review. See I had trouble finding a translation of the subject of last weeks’ mother’s day special, Family Ties. 
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No not that one. I have Paramount+. I can watch all the Family Ties I want and that’s a fact that i’m pleased as punch about. 
No it was the story 80 is Prachtig, called Family Ties in the copy used, Della’s first major comics appearance and one that explains what happened to her in the classic continuity, one that clearly served as the foundation for her far more fleshed out 2017 versions personality and backstory. It also had Pinocchio in it for some reason, and spent most of it’s large run time on a meta comedy plot that had nothing to do with the reason anyone wanted to read this story in the first place.
But despite being a vitally important story, it never got an english translation, something that baffled me till I read the story and found cameos of the racist indigenous stereotypes from Peter Pan. In 2014. You may commence booing. Even with how weird the story was I simply couldn’t find the story googling it and the Della tag is too vast and deep to go spelunking in.
So what’s all this have to do? Simple I put out a post last month when neither I nor Kev, who wanted to comission it as part of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my coverage of all three season 2 Ducktales story arcs, could find a copy and offered a review to whoever found it.  Weeks passed I got nothing.. then in the 11th hour I got a break as the lovely @rosieisla​ found a translation that was on this very site, one she seemed to have helped with. As a result I could do the review and as a man of my word, offered it up despite her clearly having not seen that part of the post and simply having done this to be nice. Still she gladly took up the offer and offered me my pick of two stories: The Carl Barks Story Back to Long Ago or this one. 
As for WHY I picked this one Back To Long Ago didn’t seem bad, i’m just not a fan of “The Cast is put in the past as their own ancestors” type deals. Or in some cases put the cast as people from that time period. It’s just not for me and is most often done in TV where it can get really goofy, Beverly Hills 90210 being a prime example of this, though Girl Meets World was no slouch in being embarassing... that being said I really need to finish that show and miss it. 
So yeah when put up against a story with two intresting hooks and FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, even if i’ts not the version that’s my boy, it was no contest. So what are these hooks you ask? Well join me under the cut and find out. 
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We open with a weird stylistic choice: This story has a narrator complete with caption boxes. Now for those of you familiar with comics or pastiches of comics in tv and film, this probably dosen’t seem like a big deal. It was a common thing in comics from their inception to 90′s to have caption boxes, big boxes of text narrating the action to help move things along faster. It did start to fade out by the 80′s and was gone by the end of the 90′s for the most part, replaced instead with first person narration. It’s the kind of thing you’d see most often in the Golden and Silver Ages, with stuff like tihs
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It’s not a BAD device, it’s good old cheesy and bombastic fun and some writers did get clever with it.. like that time Chris Claremont used the narration to yell at a greiving cyclops after he lost a teammate early in his long and storied run on the uncanny x-men. 
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This is a objectively weird scene that’s still somehow effective by the by. On the one hand it does come off as Chris Claremont essentally bullying Cyclops who already feels guilty for a death that was not in fact his fault as Thunderbird was told the plane he was attacking with fleeing villian Count Nefaria was about to explode and refused to listen.. and that they needed to get rid of either him or Wolverine as both served the same purpose and chose the non-white guy. 
On the other htough it comes off just as much as Scott beating himself up in his grief and anger over the event and his perceived failings as a leader. It’s good stuff and shows why this run caught on as this was only three issues in. Also the rest of the issue features the X-Men fighting a giant cyclopian demon that Cyclops accidently freed in his rage by destroying the stone thing keeping him imprisoned. No really here’s the cover
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Huh so tha’ts what Nifty’s dad looks like. Neat. Also I REALLY hope we get the X-Men fighting aliens or demons in the MCU. Unlike the XCU the MCU isn’t alergic to getting batshit.. and for the record Deadpool and New Mutants are the exception, not the rule.
My point that I swear I do have is that this was common practice for most comics.. but never really for Disney Duck comics. It popped up ocasionally, like with Scrooge’s introduction, but Barks and those after him never really used them that much. Sure they’d have caption boxes for flasbacks and what not but Barks and Co geninely only used this sort of thing to set up a story. The most i’ve seen it in a duck comic is life and times and even then i’ts usually only used for gags or to set up the passage of time, as the story IS covering decades and thus often needed to have montages to show time passing, and in the case of chapter 11, had to cover decades in the span of a single chapter, so it’s not like they had many other options. So even Rosa as a personal quirk didn’t really use these often. 
Rosa used this specifically because he felt the plot was complicated by the use of the international date line. As for what it is, it’s essentially a line marking calender dates from one side of the hemisphere to the others. To use the offical defentition from the National Ocean Service I found via a quick google:
“The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.
The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time."
Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.”
Rosa felt this made the story complicated.... and that... really isn’t remotely true. The narration is mostly used for gagas and really dosen’t clarify anything. it’s mostly used well in the opening.. but the actual explinations for the date line are clear enough in the story that even if I hadn’t looked the thing up, I still would’ve got it and i’m sure a kid would’ve too. It just feels like a weird thing to ruminate on, especially because he’s got actual things to make up for: while to his credit the native american characters he cribbed from carl barks are sympathetic, their culture respected and treated decently and used for a green aseop, their dialouge is stitled and sterotypical something he dosen’t even comment on (And these trades ewren’t THAT long ago) 
And of course it dosen’t help that he dosen’t even comment on using a common device in american superhero boooks.. in the same volume where he ONCE again makes an unwanted and outdated diatribe about superhero comics. I’ll probably cover the Super Snooper Strikes again so I can throughly tear this apart but higlights include: Calling superhero comics “Unwanted” just because he dosen’t like them personally, when people like me would disagree and they’ve lasted through a LOT of highs and lows, outdately saying they took over the American market as the only suitable comics which while true for a TIME,but by 2015 when this book was printed is laughably out of date, as non superhero works like The Walking Dead, Saga, and Scott Pilgrim were massively popular, one of my faviorite comics that is entirely slice of life and would go on to bea huge hit, Giant Days, re-debuted that very year. He also has the fucking gal to insult The Uncanny X-Men by name and I swear to god I did not know this when I made those references earlier, but as you probably guessed REALLY god me livid. 
And this is just on his COMMENTS on the story I can’t imagine just how bad the content itself is and having read the first few pages which come off as Rosa using Donald to essentially do an “old man yells at cloud rant” about superhero comics, I really don’t want to. Might make htis a patreon exclusive or again would do it on comissoin. You all make the call.... the point is I don’t likes his elitist bullshit about superhero comics, and this is clearly something that gets my hackles up as I just spent a good two paragraphs of an entirely unrealted review yelling at the guy for it. I don’t like when he does this and this authors notes entirley felt like an excuse. I GET the dark age of comics were bad, they REALLY were that bad, but I will NEVER accept painting an enitre genre as bad just because one work in it is bad. And I wont accept it from someone who himself writes about an often throughly unlikeable anti-hero for a living.  Scrooge may not have a gun on his gun on his gun or get to stabbing or have pouches, but he DOES finacially abuse his nephew, scoff at people’s personal troubles, and often refuse to use his wealth to help others in general. So yeah in conclusion Rosa really needs to say less about this subject. 
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Okay so where were we.. right the story hadn’t even started yet. Jesus. 
Okay so our story begins with the narrator. Whose going on about time and what not. The main point of this speech about time is that it’s night in Duckburg and Scrooge is going to bed as, even being the workhorse that he is, he can’t keep going 24 hours. While he’s snoozing though something major happens and it’s the hook that made me pick this story along with the international dateline one.. an island rises thanks to volcanic erruption.. and the lava is GOLD. That’s just pure unabashed classic Duck Stuff: a mysterious treasure or phenominon of gold bound to bring scrooge in. 
But Scrooge isn’t stupid: the sun comes up and the world still spins while he sleeps, so he set up a satalite to monitor for this sort of thing. The thing naturally goes nuts.. and even more naturally breaks down becasue Scrooge bought cheap parts. A nice gag and a fully in character way to bring our antagonist into the picture, as the Satellite of Loaded falls in the middle of South Africa... right on the property of my boy Flintheart Glomgold. 
This is something Rosa brought up in his commentary for the story i’d never thought about. It turns out Glomgold being a citzen of Duckburg WASN’T an invention of the original Ducktales but the comics: some overseas had understandably moved him from his home country of South Africa. Him bieing in the same town as Scrooge instead of half a world away allows for easier setups and more intresting ones.
Rosa however being obdient to Barks Version of things, ketp Glomgold in South Africa like barks did, which was an .. ifffy decision given Apartheid had JUST ended at the time of this story. Not so much in the reboot as not only had apartheid been long gone by the time of the reboot, but that’s more fair. Still we do get some gorgeous vistas as a result as Glomgold’s minon goes to look at it and finds it’s from McDuck Mining company... Glomgold’s reaction is obvious. 
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So on that note we cut to Scrooge rushing to Donalds house and forcing him awake and not telling him anything at first. Look his Ducktales Counterpart straight up kidnapped his donald in my last review, I’d call this a win. He also tries to dress Donald while explaning both his panic to find the crashed satlitle and what it found: the golden island. The end result of him dressing donald is worth a chuckle
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So after Donald puts his shirt and little hat on our heroes get rollin rollin rollin what keep rollin rollin rollin who to Manilla. On the plane we get the scene I mentioned: The boys make a quip about Scrooge having lost a day and the group go over the international date line. It’s a fun little scene especially Donald trying to get paid early at the end. Classic scrooge and donald stuff without the abusive undertones some of their classic stuff has. 
Meanwhile Glomgold works out the data and finds out about the gold island, and his excitement accidently wakes a giraffe outside.. welll it was nice knowing him, Giraffes are the deadliest species known to man.. here’s an educational video t back that up....
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So at Manilla Airport, Scrooge finds out abotu the south african crash, figuring he’ll get a laugh out of glomgold being there ... only for Donald to spot the Jet. Scrooge figures this can’t be anything good... now come on man maybe he’s just promoting his energy drink. 
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As super sayin god super sayian as my witness, I will never get tired of Ultra Instinct Glomgold here. 
Scrooge isn’t so nice about that though and figures he better find out if Glomgold knows about the island and bribes one of the fueling crew for his uniform. He sucesssfully eavesdrops on Glomgold talking to his pilot, finding out from him exactly WHERE the island is. He ends up hilariously botching the mission though: when getting ready to leave Glomgold complains abotu the price of gas and that naturally causes Scrooge, just as cheap, to join in... and Glomgold to find out it’s Scrooge. The two wrestle outside the plane but before this can progress to a game of Naked Robber an airport security guy comes up and Scrooge cleverly claims that Glomgold’s plane has an infestiation, requring it to be quanrantined and allowing Scrooge to jet on.. thoguh not with an actual jet. With Glomgold seemingly dispatched, he can afford to save some money and take his time with a seaplane and I know just the man for the job. 
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Oh nope looks like he’s busy. So one time related rambles later we meet Keoki, their asian pilot from the tiny island of Wookawooka.. and no that’s not a real place i checked... and no Fozzy dosen’t own it his check bounced. That being said it is a very well done represntation of someone from a smaller country: he’s doing this job to try and bring money back home, but being a seaplane captain just isn’t enough and his island is dying. Scrooge naturally is about as sympathetic as you’d expect, having apparently never even heard of the idea of a bonus when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests it. 
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Even less suprising is that Glomgold streaks by in his Jet:turns out Manilla was already overun with the bugs Scrooge claimed and Donald rubs it in that had Scrooge got a JET this wouldn’t of been an issue. 
So Glomgold easily beats them there, and to add insult and actualy injury to a cash based one, our heroes get blasted by golden lava on the way in and crash. Should’ve gotten launchpad... got the crashing professional. Keoki is dispondent as this means his people are doomed. He also dosen’t know waht staking a claim is when Scrooge mentions it and the boys bring him up to speed with the poor guy saying he wish he could for WookaWooka. Donald also makes a valid point about how greedy and heartlress scrooge can be.. and really billiionares in general.
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No no YOUR the Grouch who refuses to have one drop of emapthy. Donald’s just pissed at your general selfish and terrible behavior. 
Glomgold glomgloats and has seemingly won... but naturally that rant that seemed extranious at the time about the date line comes into play: turns out the Island is on it, and since glomgold put his marker int he west, Scrooge simply puts his in the east which is a whole day before. Now GRANTED there’s nor eal legal prescendice for the intetaoinal date line itself , as noted above... but there’s enough witnesses in Scrooge’s favor that it simply does not matter anyway. Scrooge SEEMINGLY wins.
But Huey, Dewey Or Louie instead backs another claim: Keoki’s from earlier. While it was made in gest, he and the others along with Donald back it as witnsses instad. WookaWooka is saved and SCrogoe ends the story yelling at the narrator.
Final Thoughts: Don Rosa.. did not like this story, feeling it wasn’t one of his best and apologizing for it. I however.. really loved it. It’s not PERFECT: the narration feels not entirely necessary and the gag isn’t as funny as he thinks, though the payoff of scrooge saying “it’s time for this story to end” is fucking hilarous. I also feel it’s a bit too compressed: the story is only 16 pages and was only THAT long because Rosa added a few for exposition, a worthy addition. This feels like one of his 30 page adventure stories but slightly crammed into half the length. I also feel the golden island bit was BADLY underused as it’s such a cool setting but barely shows up in the story. 
But despite that.. it’s still a fun story: as is standard for Rosa the art is gorgeous and the humor is great. And unlike some stories where Rosa casually ignores how terrible scrooge is, here it’s his own greed and hubris that do him in: had he actually agreed to help Keoki, the boys likey would’ve let him keep the island but his own cold refusual to be a human being does him in, just as his cheapness nearly did. Flintheart is also decent here.. not the deepest foe but frankly most classical duck antagonists really aren’t all that fleshed out, and we still get some good bits with him. The dateline bit, while telegraphing that it will be important, as I said REALLY isn’t that hard to understand. All in all while i’ll agree with Rosa this isn’t his BEST, it’s still a really damn good story and one he shoudln’t be ashamed of. 
Tommorow: Green Eggs and ham is back for some train shenanigans! Kay. 
Saturday: The Tom Retrospective returns for it’s last detour! Eclipsa and Moon team up to stop meteora but grapple with diffrent wants: One to save her daughter.. the other to stop waht she clearly sees as an out of control monster. The result.. will only lead to tragedy and a hell of a two parter. 
If you liked this review consider joining my patreon, patroen.com/popculturebuffet. At as low as 2 bucks a month you get accesss to my patreon discord, exclusive reviews, and to pick a short when I do one of my shortstragavanzas, a marthon of theatrical shorts honoring a characters birthday. And given Donald’s is next month, now’s the time to get on board. 
But if you go up to 5 you get a guaranteed review of whatever you want every month, and will get me to my next milestone, which will give everyone including yourself a monthly public darkwing duck review, reviews of the two Ducktales minis’ I haven’t covered (Time is Money and SuperDuckTales) and a reivew of the Danny Phantom film the Ultimate Enemy. So please join today and if you cannot, like this review, subscribe and give me your opinions on it bellow. Or even if you can feedback is always appricated and I will see you at the next rainbow. 
21 notes · View notes
ka-writes · 3 years ago
Text
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Notes- Did I decide I was gonna write a fic at 2:00 AM? Yes yes I did... anyways I don’t have an archive account yet but I wanted to get it out there.... um here is chapter one of my space AU, because I absolutely fell in love with the AU.
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Inspired by:
Humans are Space Velociraptors
By:FreshRoses_InMyGarden_NeedTheRain
Some kids come from storks, others come from crashed spaceships
By: mmmajora
Home Again, Home Again
By: teeth_eater
All works can be found on Ao3
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Ohh also challenge if you wanna do it, fill in the Title! And another one... if you were an alien what question would you ask a human other than basic questions, like name and age.
Also suggestions are always appreciated! And if you wanna support my main blog it is kadoodle.. also I have no updating schedule so I will when I want to.
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Warnings: Cussing, mentions of tight spaces and characters being trapped, mentions of corpses, and needles.
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“Humans are [Insert text here]”
Chapter 1: Idiots kidnap the wrong kid..
Honestly, life hasn't been bad. His needs were met, most of the time, and he had a.. place to sleep…
Yeah no life wasn’t great.
Tommy was easily, barely, avoiding Social Services. Sleeping on benches and occasionally grass. He got whatever wasn’t wanted and had an official bag for the first time. He had some spare clothes, and no money. The authorities stopped looking for him after a while and the only main challenge was getting essentials.
No one would miss him. No one would look for him. Therefore he was the perfect target among many others. The only thing setting him apart was his sheer ability to survive, not a want, like many of the others, it was a fact he would survive. Not that his captors knew that of course.
Alternative: Tommy gets kidnapped by aliens and sbi rescues him.
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He woke up in a cage.
Not a cell or a room, a fucking cage.
There were a few others in various cages around the room. All of which were either dead or close to it. Most of the ones still alive had been there for months, possibly years. No one knew of course.
The smell of rotting bodies stenched the place with a coppery coating. The room wasn’t large but not quite small. It was dull grey with layers of grime settling on the floor and cages. The room was long and skinny, lined with cages against either wall in a zig zag format. The only light was coming from the small door window, which happened to be positioned right in front of Tommy. It glowed a faint yellow and was blurry, not allowing Tommy to see into the hall.
Shadows would occasionally pass by the window. None ever stopped at it. Causing the ever growing hunger to grow more. Once one had stopped at the door, not for more than a second, before it screeched. It was inhuman and sounded like a hurt hawk from one of those nature documentaries. Tommy shoved his hands onto his ears and waited for it to stop. The thing chuckled, not like a human, but something close to it.
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Tommy waited for what seemed like hours before something happened. The door opened, sliding into the ceiling. A weird looking creature stepped in. It looked like it had a porcelain mask over its face with a painted smiley face. There were no ears or hair, instead just more porcelain, which formed a spear which sat on shadows. The thing was wearing a lime green hoodie and black leather pants that seemingly faded into the creature's legs. The knees bent inwards causing it to look awfully awkward as it crouched near Tommy’s cage. The hands were long and lanky with no real palm. The creature also had a tail that looked close to how Tommy pictured a devil's tail to look. This was the first time in ages Tommy was glad to be behind bars.
The thing pointed at itself and said,
“Dream.”
In the most heavily accented English Tommy had ever heard. That didn’t matter as much of the fact that the seemingly painted smile moved with the words.
“Come.”
The creature unlocked the cage and half dragged Tommy out of the cage into what Tommy presumed to be the lab. He noticed a window. The only thing for miles was stars. He was in space. He had been kidnapped by Aliens. Fuck.
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Humans were a heavily avoided species. The things were what kids would expect to come out of their closet. They were feared, and for good reason.
The first ship to find Earth was ecstatic. Finding another intelligent species in what would’ve been deemed as a planetary desert was a scientific breakthrough. Causing the entirety of the media to go insane for a couple of years.. That was until the first ship ventured onto the planet. It was immediately shot down. The entire crew was killed and the entirety of the ship was destroyed in a matter of minutes. The ISF (Intergalactic Safety Force) deemed it as a no flight zone and claimed to punish anyone in the desert. Even so poachers smuggled humans and within days had their ship crashed.
The only ones allowed to take humans were scientists, who were specialized in taking care of difficult species. They were allowed to test on said species and do whatever they wanted, in the name of science of course. Most people didn’t care how they treated them and were really only interested in what could kill them.
Which is where Wilbur came in. He was a toxicologist, a scientist studying poisons, he also dealt with various potions and other chemical mixes. This knowledge is what gained his entry to the Dream Team Ship.
He had been testing on around nine different humans for the past six months on the celestial calendar. This time Dream, his boss and the captain, brought in a juvenile human. He was skinny and lanky. Clearly had been starving before being taken. He felt bad before shaking off his pity.
“V74 and V83. Make sure he can communicate beforehand.” Dream promptly stated before leaving the kid in the room.
Wilbur tried not to think about his terrified face, before he clipped on the translator. Usually it is worn on the back of the head, since humans brains are vastly different than most species, it is clipped to the left side of the head.
The translator looks like a simple device when in reality it took dozens of celestial years to perfect it. It’s a small silver disk that ingrains into the part of the brain that controls communicating. After the body gets used to the device it can translate any language into one you understand instantly.
It took a couple more years for the translator to incorporate the estimated 7,000 languages spoken on Earth. For a planet that has been isolated it has a more complex and diverse set of cultures and languages, than Pellucidian has had in centuries. To say Wilbur was jealous, wouldn’t be far from the truth. Not that he studied cultures for a living. It was something that always interested him.
He put the device on the kid’s head and grimaced at the pain that was on the kid’s face. He quickly dried up the blood and mixed a solution that would ease the pain. It was clear and tasted like water, which is the only way they got humans to take the pain reduction.
The kid relaxed for a spilt second before tending at the unfamiliar setting.
“Where am I?” He snapped, causing Wilbur to jump back a bit, before collecting himself and standing up.
“The Dream Team craft’s labatory.” The kid’s face flashed with panic for a split second, “You have two testings scheduled for today. It will go quickly.”
“Will it be painful?” The kid asked. As standard for testing, Wilbur ignored the question and measured the substances. He quickly cleaned the puncture spot before giving him the needle.
The kid winced in pain. Wilbur swiftly led him to the testing chair. It had restraints that moved with the patient's body, which prevented bruising while keeping them in place. Wilbur clicked them on and sat at the desk located to the left of the kid.
“What did you inject into me?” The kid asked clearly trying to fight off the anesthetic.
“A dosage of Lidocaine, which is an anesthetic for your species. It’s only to numb pain that may come with the solutions we will be using today.” The kid’s face flashed with a deeper panic than before, causing Wilbur to tense. “We won’t start yet, since we have a list of questions to go through before we begin.” Wilbur lied. He hated testing people, especially kids. Dream of course didn’t care, like the rest of the Dreamon species. It made him sick. That was when he made a split second decision. Hoping he could get a distress signal out, without alerting the other crew members. He was gonna get the kid off the ship, at the next stop of course. Which was in three celestial hours.
The kid scoffed, clearly not believing the lie. He paused a moment thinking over his options before he smirked,“Fine. Ask me what you want bitch-boy!” Wilbur gasped, clearly not anticipating the insult.
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Chapter 1 End
1406 words
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End notes: Why the hell does google docs make it so hard to copy and paste??
Also I had to do some intense googling for this... I hope you enjoyed!
(Also also this is my first ever fanfic... please give feedback and reblog!!)
Minor mistakes are forgiven... don’t expect me to be perfect... I am dyslexic.
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Tommy: ....
Wilbur: ....
*intense starring*
Wilbur POV: I am kidnapping it.
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Chapter 2:
18 notes · View notes
the-goddessfighter · 4 years ago
Text
[ Alien vs Predator Batarou AU - Part 1 ]
by: Little1993lamb
for: Temperans-sama / @the-goddessfighter Word count: 7252 Warning: Background characters' death. Some violence and gore mentions, but not too explicit.
Not exactly a fanfic but more of a long scenario AU headcanon. Caution for bad English and very limited vocabulary as I'm not native English speaker and still not fluent enough, OOC characterizations, and lots of inaccurate concepts compared from the movie plotline as this headcanon is just loosely inspired by it, so please forgive me if this not so good I'm so sorry ���💦
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This AU headcanon was based on my weird "Alien vs Predator" movie-like dream I had weeks ago. But for this AU, the story has slightly modificated to fit Batarou situation:
• Badd as a Spaceman, working for the extraterrestrial research scientists organization, unexpectedly met Garou in one of his mission.
• Garou as one of the Yautja/Predator warriors, aiding Badd on fighting against the Xenomorphs Aliens.
The other headcanon concepts, like Garou's concept designs for the AU, are written on the notes at the end of story below.
As I promised before, this is my present for you to begin the year 2021, Temperans-sama (and of course also everyone in the fandom). I hope you enjoyed this AU headcanon!
Let's get started! 😊😉👌💖
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Badd was working for Space and Extraterrestrial Research Organization as their Spaceman. Not as the researcher because he hates to work in a lab, he rather to do some actions in the field or outdoor works. There were several divisions for Spacemen jobs in the Organization, but what Badd specialized was the ones who could do fighting or combat. Basically like security guard to ensure the safety of Research Organization members. Sometimes he also being included in a rescue team when there was something life-threatening emergency situation happens.
One day, he got a mission along with his other coworkers in rescue team to save their crewmates, who previously were sent to investigate an unknown spaceship that was approaching Earth's orbit but then they were trapped in there.
Just after arriving on the ship and navigating their crewmates' location, they found a bunch of terrifying monstrous Xenomorph aliens attacking them. Battle was ensued, many of them died because they weren't expected these creatures' presence in the spaceship. None of the hostages crewmates informed them because turned out either they were already dead or incapable to send complete information to the base.
In the middle of fighting inside an alien spaceship, Badd finally met one of the hostage crewmates who is also one of his bestfriend and he joined to fight along with his friend against the creatures.
At the end of exhausting battle, Badd and that one friend survived on escaping from the ship along with some few other crewmates. When Badd asked him on a private room, "Why didn't you send help request more sooner?", the friend just answered, "Because I was waiting for this moment".
Badd saw his friend's appearance changing into an unknown stranger figure: a spiky white haired humanoid alien with heavily intricate armored body. Surprisingly, he is not so hideous like the other alien creatures but still has an otherworldly figure.
Badd was stunned when the stranger alien explained his intention using some language translator device on his helmet armor,
"Initially, my warrior troops were gonna invade your precious Earth but unexpectedly our spaceship was infested by those creatures you've seen before. I'm the Leader and the only survivor during the ambush and that's when your naive crewmates coming to our already wrecked ship. They sent SOS signal to your base when they were under attack. Because I want a chance for long-term survival, I borrowed your dead friend's appearance by shapeshifted as him".
He continued, "Luckily, you found me and think of me as your friend! I must gained your trust by playing along as your crewmate the whole time so I could hop into your ship together with you, thus fulfilling my intention to invade the Earth. Thanks for bringing me along, tiny human..".
The alien warrior ended his speech with a growling voice into the still stunned Badd's ear. Then he reached on his armor helmet mask and slowly took them off, revealing the true face of him:
A humanoid monster-like face with wide ridged forehead, intimidating-looked narrow hollowed eyes in which have round big golden-coloured irises, no nose, has these huge mandibles complete with two sets of long pointed tusks on them, and when they opened a bit Badd could see rows of sharp teeth inside. This alien warrior also has swept-back long spiky white hair, it was the most eye-catching feature on him.
Realizing Badd was observing his unmasked face, the white-haired alien suddenly snarled by opened his mandibles up in front of Badd's face to scare him. He wanted to test if this human would weirded out or cowering in fear from seeing his real appearance or not. But Badd only jolted back in reflex from getting surprised, without any hints of fear detected in his eyes. "You.. aren't scared by me?"
Badd was taken aback by the question, "Huh? Nah. I've seen much worse and it wasn't you, obviously".
"Not for a little bit? Nothing at all?", the alien didn't convinced by Badd's statement at all.
"Yep. 'Sides, I rather looked at your face than have to witness those Lovecraftian abominable creatures in that spaceship before. Hey what are you trying to do, by the way, huhh??", Badd could swears this white-haired alien just wanted to make fun of him. 
The white-haired alien just humming and nodding to himself, "Hmm.. You're indeed an interesting one.", as he placed his hand under his chin and rubbing it, it seems like he found some amusement in Badd.
Although he was indeed caught off-guard by the surprise snarl, Badd didn't afraid of him on a slightest, instead he actually was mesmerized by the alien's charm. Badd blurted out, "Are you gonna eat me?".
The white-haired alien just giving a funny look for a second and then grinning widely after hearing that silly question, showing all of his sharp teeth and fangs inside his mandibles, "No, not yet. Not until I know you better..", a chuckling sounds like a cat's purr was heard from him as he caressed the human's soft cheek with his long claws.
Badd frowned on what the alien had said, 'So in the end he will devours me if I'm not useful anymore?'. He didn't wanna think what he should explain to Zenko when the time has come.
When Badd said he didn't afraid to die, it doesn't mean he wanted to leave his beloved little sister alone, not when she hasn't finished her education in college and reaching her dream! Also, sure as hell not by being eaten by this strange alien!
Seeing Badd was slightly affected by the threatening words, he retreated his hand back. "Well I'm just joking, I never and wont eat humans, don't worry. They make a good prey but totally not good for consumption at all". Then he laughed loudly at Badd's dumb-strucked face. Badd started to feel pissed off: they both had just met and this alien already have the guts for teasing him twice??
The laughing finally ceased, "I think we should cooperating from now on. What is your name, little human?", the alien curiously asked, those bright yellow irises staring deep into Badd's rich dark chocolate eyes, searching for any hints of fear emotions but instead found some fire ablaze in them.
"Badd. My name's Badd, just remember whose human who had saved your sorry ass", he answered while removing the clawed hand that caressed his cheek, boldly swatting it away from him.
The charming white-haired alien quickly caught Badd's hand and clasped it with his palm, "Ooh a feisty one! Seems like I was right for choosing to fight along with you minutes ago, you're quite strong for a mere human. I like that. And you can call me 'Garou'. Nice to meet you, Badd..".
From the corner of his eye, Badd saw 'Garou' took something from his pocket. It was a small piece of the Xenomorph's sliced finger. He squished it a bit until the green-ish blood residue leaked out from the cut, then slowly moved it closer towards Badd's face.
"Stay still, Badd", the warrior instructed him.
"WHOAA NONO NO NO, GET IT AWAY FROM MY FACE!!", the young spaceman tried to swat that finger thing from Garou's hand and moved away as far as possible, refusing Garou's request.
"I said stay still! Calm down it's just a quick little brush", Garou insisted as he keeps holding Badd's hand to prevent Badd from swatting and moving too much.
The moment Badd's forehead being brushed by the blood as Garou carved a symbol on him, his skin sizzled from the contact of corrosive acid fluid and those left red scratched marks as the result.
"OUCH OW THAT HURTS! IT BURNED MY SKIN, JACKASS!!", Badd shouted then grimaced at the burned sensation on his forehead, he let out pained moaning. "Uuh.. What's that for?"
"I'm 'marking' you. You fight along with me, you even managed to kill those creatures despite being a human. Therefore, you earned my respect to bear an honourable mark from me," Garou smiled proudly at Badd, genuinely happy to find such a strong fierce human at the first meeting.
Badd didn't know how he should reacted at the explanation, but after seeing Garou's genuine proud expression he thought maybe it was actually a very rare honourable thing to be given outside his clan. From the spaceship window glass reflection, Badd could see the fresh carved scratched-like mark. He was admiring how neat the mark Garou has carved onto his forehead. An honour mark.
"Umm.. Honestly I didn't expected it, but.. Thank you, I guess?", Badd muttered while caressing his freshly marked skin.
"You're welcome, tiny human. So, right now we are heading towards your precious Earth, right? Do you have any spare room in your house for me, hmm?", Garou grinning confidenty, expecting for more interesting things from Badd after they live together.
Badd felt an impending huge migrane forming in his head, as well as the sudden urge to facepalm so hard, "... Goddamnit."
This would changed his normal daily life.
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As the consequence of accidentally helping Garou, Badd must hide his existence from the Research Organization. So, after arrived back to the Earth, Badd must gives false-report for the base that their rescue mission was failed and only a few of team members were survived.
During that time, Garou made himself invisible but also could shapeshift into anyone for more advanced stealth tactics. Badd allowed Garou to live temporarily in his house, as long as Garou wont harming his beloved little sister Zenko and his cute cats.
At first, Garou forgot to shift into his human form in front of Zenko when Badd sneakily brought him into his house at late night. He didn't know Zenko was still awake at that hour because she was waiting for his comeback.
Badd wanted to smack himself after noticed Garou's big mistake, but after staring intensely at Garou for a full minute, Zenko just nonchalantly said,
"So you've got back from the space and you're bringing an alien boyfriend home? Hmm.. Not bad. Nice choice by the way, I always know your type, big bro", and she gives Badd thumbs up of approval.
Garou takes a liking on Zenko's bravery, maybe he could get along with her more easier later. On the other hand, despite his attempt at correcting Zenko that Garou isn't his alien boyfriend (yet), it makes Badd feels relieved that his little sister doesn't really mind of him bringing an extraterrestrial being as a new roommate in their house.
Garou spending most of his time at Badd's home by trying to learn human's behaviour and any other knickknack Earth-y things out of curiousity, that he slowly forgetting his original intentions and getting more interested on building a newfound relationship with Badd.
Badd also slowly growing fond of this charming alien, especially when Garou becomes more protective to him and his family, not to mention Garou actually learning humanity better than actual human. He was actually surprised that Garou had decided to develop a new "adaptive" form, in which a mix between his real form and human form, to help him communicate better with Badd while still maintaining most of his real appearance. Especially when it requires him speaking by human language more fluently.
Sometimes when Badd wasn't working or taking a day-off, they would spending time together at home and exchanged stories of their life. After Badd promised Garou that he wont tell any information to the higher up in the Organization, Garou explaining his life as a Warrior from his own planet, the secret history behind the invasion mission toward Earth and the super advanced technologies they owned compared with what human have currently.
It's kinda fun to have someone from another world to talk casually with, since Garou himself didn't have many close friends in his own troops. Not even to the old Elder warrior, Bang, who Garou regards as his adoptive father and his former trainer.
In return, Badd telling Garou about his favorite things, his childhood stories, his family including his late parents, everything about Zenko as he adores her so much, also about the reason why he took such adventurous yet dangerous job as Spaceman for the Research Organization. If Garou ever curious for some Earth-y stuff that he still didn't understand (as he called those things "outdated ancient stuff"), Badd will also explaining about them to him.
On special occasion, Badd would brings Garou and Zenko out to go shopping together or having fun on amusement park. He thinks it's good idea to take Garou with him and introducing many fun things humans usually do in daily life. It feels good to have a sense of having a full family again after he lost his own parents years ago. Besides, seeing how adorable Garou trying to enjoy human's entertaintments or bonding with Zenko was amusing.
To blending himself in public when they're going outside together, Garou usually shifted onto his "human-persona" so he wont attracts unwanted attention from people. But when he's around Badd's house, Garou just shifted back to his original form or his adaptive form since Badd loves it so much and wants Garou to be comfortable as himself at home.
Fortunately, it seems Badd's neighbourhood was inhabited by chill people. They never questioned further or suspicious about who Garou really is, especially after Zenko purposely introduced him as "her big brother's new boyfriend who just moved in from another city". Badd immediately blushed or flustered everytime they mentioned his "handsome boyfriend", as they also greet Garou warmly and saying that Badd was so lucky to have this gorgeous man as his lover.
Garou persistently asking Badd what is this "boyfriend" supposed to meant and why did Badd always deflecting his genuine questions while being all bright red faced with higher heart rate. Despite never got the answer, Garou likes to tease the cute little spaceman that he adores so much.
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After staying on Earth for months in Badd's home, Garou started to questioning himself.
Garou wondered if his original mission is really worthy or not, because in truth what he had said to Badd about the reason why he comes to Earth is not entirely true.
The real story was, Garou was just wanna visit the Earth for sportmanship and training himself to become the best hunter warrior. He was going to prove the Elites that he is worthy enough to get more superior rank that the one he currently is. That's why he also brought the Young Blood packs along with him to train them once they arrived on the Earth.
Until that accident happened because of a miscalculation: the Xenomorph alien larvaes that supposed to be used on humans, the supposed hosts, for initiation and hunting ritual were infesting his packs when they were still in the middle of their journey towards the Earth. Garou's plan was destroyed spectacularly, he lost all his pack members before he reached their destination. At least on the better side, because of that accident he could meet Badd along the way, so it feels not too bad.
On the other hand for personal fulfillment, he wanted to seek different challenges in another planets to polish his hunting skills and adding new experiences. So, the invasion plan was actually just his secondary mission, in fact it was actually just a bluffing. But it sounds like a more cooler way to threatened Badd back then. 
Not that he ever cares about human civilization and the entire human population in Earth, as he remains indifferent for them and regards them as mere weak prey for hunting sport. But he found out this one particular human is very fascinating to him: Badd. The more he interacted with Badd, the more he gets attached.
Not to mention lately Garou sensed something wrong with himself that only occured everytime they spend time or hanging out together, like there's warm feeling in his chest or sudden protective instinct whenever he is near Badd.
And while Garou considers humans are ugly, for some unknown reason he thinks Badd, in human's expressive language, is "beautiful". Inside his fierce hot-headed appearance, Badd has the kindness and all the sweet personality package in his heart. Which is total opposite with Garou, who is ruthless and cunning. Those contrasts has really melted Garou's own cold heart, surprised that he could managed to find such special human being.
Badd was supposed to be his prey, not a companion. If only Badd were born as the same kind like him, without doubt Garou was 100% sure Badd would be a perfect Warrior partner to fight along with, as he had already seen Badd's remarkable strength as a human. Such the best dream-like scenario ever that will never happens to them, but still very good 'what-if' situation.
The moment Garou saw Badd could kill the Xenomorph aliens alongside him in a combat and capable to defend himself, he respects Badd so much. It made Garou wanted to initiate Badd as one of his kind, a honourable strong Warrior. Or taking Badd with him to train as his personal human Apprentice.
For his bravery and incredible fighting abilities, Garou presented Badd a gift as a sign of respect for him. It was one of his exotic Yautja warrior's weapon collections that he managed to bring along in last expedition: an unbreakable metal bat.
Garou thinks it suited Badd's brawler fighting style, and because the bat made from special metal from his planet it can't be destroyed with anything on Earth. Except if it was smeared with corrosive acidic Xenomorph alien's blood, it would slightly melt. Whoopsie. But anyways, still an honourable thoughtful gift! Garou hopes he can witness the day Badd will using the metal bat in a combat.
Maybe it's not really bad he prolonged his stay on Earth for the sake of Badd and Zenko, although just for a bit. Garou wanted to have more "connection" with Badd before he continued the original plan. He wanted to know more about this special human, always being near him and protected him.
At least before the old man Bang realizing Garou has been missing for awhile after last Xenomorph attack and doing some search party for him by sending reinforcement army towards the Earth. 
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At the same time on his workplace at the Research Organization, Badd was contemplating his life decision.
Badd was thinking why should he still insisted to hide Garou's existence? He could just secretly reported the truth to the Organization behind his back, handed him to them as new research subject and thus ended the Earth's next possible threat.
But that's so wrong!
Just thinking about Garou being treated as a test subject like some lab guinea pig made Badd's blood boil. Not that they can ever catch Garou and managed to survive from him, though, as he knows how strong Garou is. Surely Garou is an extra-terresterial being, but in reality he's not so different from human. There's also alot things that separated him from another Alien species he had encountered before.
Garou has a good heart and moral despite being an asshole sometimes. He's super intelligent and quick to learning something new, willing to cooperate once they're bonded over mutually trust.
Speaking of morality, Garou has better grasp of humanity than most people. Although he is a ruthless warrior, he wont bringing harm to those who are already weak or sickly people, unarmed opponents, childrens, or females especially the pregnant ones. Those are basically the Yautja Clans' Warrior Rules, as they only do fair fights. Badd thinks Garou's own kind are very cultured people, that's cool.
One thing Badd didn't expect before was the fact Garou is kind of "nerdy guy". He thought Garou was a ruthless jock-type warrior who only likes hunting or chaotic things, but in reality he is just the biggest nerd Badd ever known. Garou has always been curious about anything he deemed interesting enough, like human's lifestyle, social classes, education, or even the cuisine. Currently Garou is obsessed with martial arts and his homemade food, also when they're going out together he always asked for buying some fast food preferably with Cola for the drink. Truly an example of alien with unique taste.
The more Garou learned from Badd and observing people around them, the more he understand what human and their "humanity" is, both good side and bad side. Garou said he considered himself on grey area. But he would try to be on the good side, just for Badd.
About Garou's appearance, Badd never got scared of Garou's real form. In fact, he finds Garou in his full warrior armory looks charming and kinda handsome. He had seen Garou in the middle of daily training to sharpen his instincts during his stay at home, surely Garou got a lots of cool fighting techniques and movements, both bare-handed or with weaponry. Truly showing a professional experienced Warrior skills. Or when Garou shifted into the adaptive form so he can spar with Badd more comfortably without really hurting him.
Not to mention his unusually bright golden irises when Garou stares intensely at him, the way Garou tilted his chin up with those long slender clawed hand, that teasing smug grin with those sharp teeth show-off, and those surprisingly soft slicked back spiky white hair..
Yeaah okay, Zenko was totally right about him being into monsters. Fortunately to Badd, she wont and never judges his taste on men.
And Garou is actually a very good friend.. Or maybe more, if only his feeling ever reciprocated. Badd wondered if he could asks Garou to just stay forever on Earth together with him.. 
------------------------------
Badd was just coming home early in the afternoon from the work, as he only finishing yesterday's home paperworks and delivering it to the office. Time to get some rest after working the whole night filling the mountain pile of papers, Zenko still in school at this hour anyways so he would take a brief nap before picking her up.
Strangely, the house was too quiet. He usually hear some noises from across the room, whether it was Garou watching some tv programs or news or movies, or sneaking around the kitchen as he attempted to raid Badd's fridge contents (nowadays he often found out all the meat stocks or even any of homecooking leftovers in his fridge vanished thanks to Garou's huge appetite).
Badd tried to calling for Garou and checking on his room upstairs but there still no sign of him. He guessed maybe Garou went to their sparring place in the woods, training by himself to polish his hunting skill. Or maybe Garou was lurking on city downtown again?
Badd wished it was the former, he doesn't want Garou to make some trouble with humans when Badd was not with him. Even if Garou indeed goes to town he hoped he just do sightseeing or observing people from afar. Whatever, Badd will take a nap while waiting for Garou.
Just as Badd started to sleep, he heard the bedroom window clicked open suddenly. He immediately jumped out of the bed and grabbing his metal bat, ready to whack anyone who dared to sneak into his house like this. Nothing on sight, though, until some invicible force putting down Badd's metal bat and revealing it was Garou in his "adaptive" form, who just deactivated his invisibility cloak after entering his room from the window.
"Yo Badd!", he grinned widely, happy for successfully surprising Badd again. 
"Oh for fuck's sake Garou, please just use the front door! I already gave you my spare key, right? What if someone sees you and thinks you're a robber- Forget that, you were in invisible mode nobody could ever see you anyways, Mr. Ninja Warrior". Badd flomped down on the bed again, feeling ridiculously tired by Garou's antic yet relieved that his favorite alien is back. "Where did you go?"
Garou sets his knapsack down while explaining his disappearance, "I was so bored doing nothing in your house and my instincts will slowly dulled if I don't practice my routines, so I sneak out to nearby forest hoping to get some good prey for hunting practice. But it seems like Earth's creatures are not challenging enough to become my prey. It's either too small, too tame, too weak, or too pitiful it can't satisfy my hunting urge".
Garou sat beside Badd on the bed and stared at him, "Why can't I fight your people? It would makes alot things more interesting..", he whispered the last sentence with a naughty shit-eating grin on his face.
Badd propped himself up from the bed to grab Garou's arm and pointing his index finger in front of Garou's face, "No, I wont allowed you to do that! No hunting on humans, not on my watch. If you want some fight you can spar with me like what we always do. I'll take you on in a fair fight. Was that still not enough?". Was I'm not enough for you, Badd left it unsaid. He frowned at the though of Garou not satisfied with his effort.
"Ugh, what a let down, I would love to add human skulls on my trophy room when I get back to my planet soon. But your wish is my command, Badd. I promise not doing that for your sake", Garou huffed and rolled his eyes, but his tone softened. "About our sparring, while yes we can still spar with eachother, it doesn't fullfil my hunger for hunt. That's different", he shifted closer to Badd and gazing deeply into his rich dark chocolate eyes.
He continued, "You're not a prey anymore and I hate to see you getting hurt everytime I went overboard in our fights. You're my human companion, I only wish to protect you. But thank you for letting me spar with you every week, it was really fun", Garou touched Badd's forehead, where an initiation mark as fellow Warrior was given by him after their first encounter. Then slowly he put his clawed hand on Badd's cheek, caressing the soft skin gently while looking at Badd with much tenderness.
Badd just averted his eyes from Garou's uncharacteristically tender gaze, face heating from blushing too much as his heart-rate spiked. Of course Garou would know he was flustered by his touching words, he could see it by his vision, by the way. Not that Badd hated to be treated like this, in fact he felt so happy that Garou considered him as a human companion, a "someone special" for Garou.
"Umm yeah you're welcome, then.. Don't worry I know you will never really hurt me. Besides, I'm a tough guy, y'know? I can totally revive through fighting spirit and have another go with you", Badd placed his own hand on top of Garou's, letting the charming alien caress his face more. It's very comforting he loves it when Garou showing some rare affection to him.
They enjoyed the heartwarming moment until suddenly Garou moved away from Badd, "Oh I just remember something! Wait here", he let go his touch on Badd as he rushed to get his knapsack on the floor, picking its content and shoved it in front of Badd's face. "Here I got this for you, accept it!".
It was a flower bouquet. A simple makeshift one, but what made Badd astounished was Garou's choice of flowers: all of them were rare exotic flowers, which only grows on mountain or on the deepest part in forest. All of the flowers were wrapped by a wide green leaf as replacement for plastic wrap ('is that a banana leaf??'), and tied together by a thin rope.
"Wow.. Thanks, Garou, these are very pretty ones", Badd carefully took the beautiful bouquet from Garou's hand, still mesmerized by the exotic colourful flowers. He cradled it close on his chest. "Where and how the hell you get these flowers? I didn't even know that they grow or ever existed around our sparring place??"
Garou scratched his head, "After I got bored by pitiful failed attempt of hunting and start heading back to your house, I saw one kind of wild flower plant growing at hidden small valley near our sparring place. I though you would like it so I took some then continued searching for more wild flowers in the middle of forest until on the top of hills. Worth it for a passing time aside from going hunting", he shrugged like it was no big deal.
"But why?? What's the real reason?", Badd was honestly baffled by Garou's whole effort to flatter him.
"I saw from TV or on the street when we were going outside that you humans like to giving and receiving flower present as, what is that, "courting attempt"? Also you always go 'Aww that was so sweet~" or swooning like a fool everytime you and Zenko watched that scenes in some sappy drama movies. I don't understand why humans feel an enjoyment from getting a reproductive part of plant. Is that something meaningful behind that?", Garou raised his non-existed eyebrows in honest wonderment.
Badd tried to answer him, "Well.. It was--".
Garou continued his rants, effectively cutting Badd's explanation, "On my planet everyone courting their companion with a head or remnants of deadly dangerous prey, showing how great their hunting skills are. The more kill count the better. While your people giving a flower bouquet, a plant, really? You humans are just weird", he was shaking his head.
"So.. You didn't deny that you were courting me, right? You realized what I like and tried to do it for me even though you didn't understand the meaning of it, so that you can make me happy. Was that true, Garou..?", Badd slowly connecting the dots and stated the conclusion to Garou. He clutched the flower bouquet tighter, as once again he feels warmth in his heart. Not expecting the ruthless alien warrior has a soft spot.
So this meant his feeling is reciprocated? Garou feels the same as him? 
"What-- I'm-- Okay, you're right I was! There you have it now. Happy? Damn, this still weird to say..", Garou awkwardly confessed to Badd, not sure what should he says next. If he were in human form at that time, Badd was sure he was flustered heavily.
"Mmhm..", Badd hummed in agreement, as he placed the pretty flower bouquet on the nightstand carefully. Then Badd clung his arms around Garou's neck and pulling him down together with him on the bed, so now Garou was on top of Badd.
"Whoaa what are you doing?!", Garou propped on his elbows not to crush Badd directly with his weight. He wanted to protest but stopped himself when he saw Badd smiling softly full of fondness at him.
From very close distance, Garou could see how Badd's eyes are twinkling and the pinkish blush on his cheeks made Badd looked more prettier than usual. Those are something that made Garou was at lost of words when he tried to describe how beautiful this human is. His own companion.
Without saying anything, Badd released his hold around Garou's neck. He was caressing Garou's jaws and then cupping his face gently, before pulling Garou down towards him to peck his forehead. Looking briefly at Garou's softened eyes, Badd smiling again then finally kissing his lips. It was a light kiss but also a lingering one.
After a minute that feels like eternity, Garou released himself from the kiss and asking Badd in a soft whisper, "What was that for?". Not with the tone of rejection but instead searching for confirmation.
Beside the "human's courting", Garou also had seen this kind of acts on TV dramas or in real life, where a couple of "lovers" touching their lips onto eachother's for the purpose of showing their affection. So, he wanted to know if Badd was also meant it.
"Do y'know, when someone accepting the other's courting attempt, they would hug or kiss them. To show how much they loved and appreciated the other. I was doing the same to you, Garou.. You don't understand how long I was waiting for this moment", the raven-haired human answered while caressing Garou's face, the adoring smile still haven't leaving his face.
"Huh, I guess this proved what Zenko told me weeks ago was right, you have the hots for monster guy", Garou was smirking in victory, glad he was the one who captured Badd's heart.
"Don't be such a bighead, you silly alien warrior", chuckled Badd while he ruffled Garou's spiky hair. "You were the one who fell so hard on me, as far as making me your companion, swore to protect me in the name of warrior honour and do the whole 'weird human courting' for me. While noone ever dared to do the same as you. Admit it, you're a dork".
"What did you say?! A dork?? How dare you--", Garou offended complaint was halted as he processed Badd's entire words. "Wait, you said noone ever trying to court you before? Why? You seems more than average people in appearance or attitude", he showed pure confused look to Badd.
Badd gladly took Garou's appreciation remark before answering, "Have you seen my temper? Or listening on my way of speech? Or knowing my habit on ditching someone for Zenko if I'm not very interested in them? Nobody could handle that, Garou. Maybe except you, you're the only one who ever wanted me..", he pulled Garou down again for more soft kisses.
Garou hummed in their kiss, "Hmm, then it was their loss. For not considering you an amazing person". He swept the wild strands of Badd's hair away from his forehead, peppering kisses on it gently. Garou has learned it from Badd and now he tried to do the same for him.
"Aww thank you, Garou. Besides, I like my man being tall, strong, dangerous, loyal, and have lots of adorable soft spots behind the whole cocky bravado", Badd purred in bliss from Garou's affection.
"Says the one who said he hates skyscraper-like tall man. Which was the truth, hmm, Short-stack?", Garou lifted one of his non-existed eyebrow in amusement. He likes to tease Badd with that endearment term.
"Sssh it was for the public, lemme have my preference in secret. And don't call me a Short-stack, say that once more I'll bash your head using your metal bat gift!", he pushed Garou aside then hit his sternum hard enough before closing his eyes and snuggling his head on Garou's chest.
Garou just let himself being pushed aside while chuckling, "Whoa okay Short-stack, I wont call you with that name again-- Badd?", he found his companion looked sleepy.
"Mmmh lemme take a nap for awhile, there's still 2 more hours before I have to pick Zenko up at her school. Please staaayyy with meee..", Badd slurred the last line from sleepiness, he curled his body against Garou's own big body, snuggled even more closer to him.
Garou just taking Badd into his embrace, made sure his human companion feels comfortable in his sleep. He caressed Badd's soft silky raven hair, "So, are we 'boyfriends' now?".
"Whut are you talkin' 'bout? I already introduced ya as mah 'boyfriend' to our neighbours, right? Always has been..", Badd tried to answer despite getting more sleepier.
"Oh right", Garou nodded at the memory. So Badd was really meant it that way? Glad to know.
Badd purring at Garou's caresses on his head, "Mmhm.. Love ya, Garou". After the unconsciously big declaration of love, he finally went to sleep, peaceful smile still plastered on his beautiful face.
Garou was at lost on words again. He heard the Love word and his mind just exploded. Badd loves him. The human loves him, an extraterrestrial being.
Thinking about it again, is that even allowed? To love someone from different world and different species? He wasn't sure if the Warrior code would let him taking a human as anything else outside as a prey, an apprentice, or a companion.
Honestly this is the first time Garou received a romantic love, not a friendly love or familial love. Because as a warrior who dedicated himself to be the best hunter, romance is not even listed on his priority list. He can't say for other fellow Elites who seek love interests by charmed them with their hunting abilities, but for himself Garou doesn't even interested on that thing back then.
But with Badd? How can he rejects his love, not when this special kind of human is compassionate, wonderful and not to mention worthy of his full respect. Badd is also the only human who doesn't cower in fear in front of him at their first meeting. Even as far telling him that he adores his soft side.
Him, a ruthless hunter, a "monster", was loved by a kindhearted human.
"... I love you, too, Badd."
Garou whispered it softly into Badd's ear, he embraced the sleeping boyfriend's body tighter before following him into the dreamland.
Both were smiling in their sleep.
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-Few months later-
There was another new exploration mission from the Research Organization to obtain alien egg or larvae samples from the same wrecked spaceship on the previous expedition, so they could studying and observing the newfound alien species.
The newest mission was successful as the researchers team bringing the samples with them and be able to come back with minimal casualty. Thus Badd didn't need to join because he is working in rescue team.
At first week, everything was okay according to the plan. It seems the autopsy of larvae samples was successful as the Organization researchers have gotten some new informations from it.
Until an unexpected accidents occured during the second week of research.
The alien eggs samples in the special laboratory room were suddenly hatched and bursting out the new "facehugger" larvaes. Some of the lab staff were infested by it, while the other larvae strays were killed on the spot to prevent any infestation happening on more victims. Therefore the research was cancelled and the lab staff who became its alive hosts were quarantined until further notice.
The higher-ups were tried to keep it down so nobody outside The Organization know about this accidents. All the scientists and other staff members also tirelessly forced themself to solve this emergency situations. They tried to save the victims who currently become the alien's host, as far as preparing extraction operation for them hopefully it will have successful result.
But just a few days after that incident happened, all of the matured embrios inside the alive hosts bursted out from their body when they were still in the middle of intensive body examinations. The victims were died immediately, leaving a bunch of terrifying creatures that emerged from the wounds and crawling out attacking people in the laboratory.
Everyone was shocked by those horrible gorey sight, some of them were panickly calling for help while the others trying to escape from the room but stopped by the juvenile aliens' quick attack. When the security team came to rescue, most people in the room were either already dead from fatal wounds or barely alive still struggling to avoid getting attacked by the creatures.
The team quickly eliminate the rest of juvenile aliens by shooting it all, ensuring it wont leave past the entrance door. After ensuring no more alive aliens detected, they immediately sent the survivors to the hospital while the dead ones were sent to the Organization's morgue.
By this horrifying incident, the Organization executives hold the emergency meeting on that day They discussing how to solve this unexpected catastrophe during the research, how they should tell to the victims' family about the incident, or if this research are really worth it with these casualties. The higher-ups commanded them to call or reaching everyone who were involved on the newest expeditition mission, to make sure if there is nobody else got infested among the crew members.
Someone reported that most of expedition members along with other spaceship passengers on that mission have gone missing for days, and a few of them were found dead at their home with the same wide gaping hole wound on their chest. Two recordings from CCTVs on one dead victim's home clearly showed 3-4 Xenomorph alien younglings that just born or bursted from the victim's body, crawling outside the house towards neighbourhood area.
From those reports and evidences, it was confirmed that the crew members who participated on the newest exploration mission actually contained alive Xenomorph larvaes before they landed back on Earth, and somehow the infestation itself couldn't be detected because it was still on very early stage at that time. By the calculation of every "chestburster" larvaes that would be born into juvenile Xenomorph aliens from the total 30 suspected victims, it could be up to 120 individuals. And one of the juvenile aliens could be the next Queen that will reproducing new batch of eggs on somewhere else right now.
The plan has failed. This accident has shaken the Research Organization to the core as they prepared for worst scenario: the Xenomorph alien has already reproduced and multiplied itself inside or outside the Organization building complex. Not to mention they haven't managed to supervise the suspected victims current whereabouts prior the incident. Thus, as for the first step action to prevent bigger fatalities happens, they alerted all of the Research Organization members.
At home, Badd got the emergency messages from his higher-ups as he also explaining Garou about what was happened at the moment, that there was infestation of Xenomorph aliens among the researchers in the Research Organization. The higher-ups already deployed all of their hunter squads towards several different locations based on victims' last sighting or their home address. The higher-ups also instructed him to join the hunter squad for outside building complex area or near the suburban area to search the rogue Xenomorph aliens or at least for any survived suspected victims.
Garou suggested that he will also doing the hunt with Badd as it's the Warrior's duty to banish those alien species' existence, as it was their main prey. He asked Badd to always stay near him during the hunt so he wont get hurt by those beasts. Garou promised Badd that he will protect him, no matter what. But he wont promised to do the same for the others, no guaranteed he will helped them. Mostly they will be on their own. 
Both had agreed to eachother, they set their own combat gears. Garou wore his warrior armor and brought all his hunting weapons. Badd also did his part, not forgetting to bring Garou's metal bat gift, he couldn't wait to finally trying it out to smash those aliens' head off. He strapped it on his backpack, shoving all of other combat equipments on his car trunk, then driving his car out along with Garou towards their destination.
Before they go to the mission location, Badd dropping Zenko first to their neighbour family house to make sure someone watching over her and keeping her safe during dangerous situation. Garou shifted into invisible stealthy mode on their way to the squad assembly point, secretly blending with the rest of Badd's hunter squad members.
They started to investigate the forest near the suburban area which was previously has been reported for most recent Xenomorph alien sighting.
----- ⭐To Be Continued⭐ -----
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Notes:
So I made this headcanon because I had a dream which was strangely similar like the movie's plot, although not exactly same. Still don't know why and how I got that kind of dream since I haven't watch the movie again for so long 😅
The dream was about where I was accidentally saving the Queen of Xenomorph who infested my friend and took control of her mind, then turned out I must ensured the Queen's next survival 😱😰
But the difference between my dream and this Batarou AU is that I met a Queen of Xenomorph alien, while in the AU story Badd met one of Yautja warriors as I've decided to make Garou as The Predator instead. I thought it would be cooler than him being a Xenomorph alien, lmao! ✌😁
Coincidentally, besides getting an inspiration from my own dream, this AU especially for Garou as Predator also inspired by the fact we getting his Awakened Monster form from Murata 😳✨
Combining both the ideas, his Murata-styled Monster form and the amazing Predator figure appearance, WHAM, we got badass concept of Predator Warrior Garou! 👏👏😤
By the way, because I've made Predator Garou and his entire clans can do some shapeshifting as the more advanced hunting skill, he has 3 forms in this story:
1. Original form:
Exactly like the Predator in the movie, but the differences are the hairstyle, body build, and the ability to speak human language. Instead of dreadlocks, his hair is swept-back long spiky white hair. His body is more on slender-built than buff as Garou is an agile-type warrior, but he is so much taller than his canon-self, approximally 200 cm, unless he was shapeshifting into another form. He can speak human language in original form, but a little bit difficult to do it because of his mouth's structure so whatever he spouted when he talks would sounds like either growling or hissing. 
It's Garou's default form when he was among his own kind. Showed this form the first time he met Badd in rescue ship to threatened him (but failed as Badd didn't afraid of him at all), or when he was facing off some Xenomorph aliens in combat during the research organization's incident catastrophe.
When Garou revealed himself in front of the Organization executives at the next part (spoiler!), he refused to show his true face as they aren't worthy enough to see it, unlike Badd and Zenko. Hence he only shifted into adaptive form at that moment before Badd comes to defend him.
2. Adaptive form:
After living together with Badd for months, he has adapted into a new hybrid form, a mix between his own original Yautja form and human form. The result is like Monster Garou in Murata's style! No more arthropod-like mandibles with tusks, but instead human-like jaws with rows of sharp teeth and fangs (just imagine it like Murata's Awakened Garou). His hair is just like his canon-self with the iconic long horns-like spiky white hair, but at some point Badd cuts his hair shorter for more easier maintenance, so it now looks like Awakened Garou with short hair-style.
Mostly Garou showed this adaptive form when he was around Badd and Zenko at home. He knows Badd likes it so much thus alot of teasing, so he decided to make this adaptive form as a new default appearance during his stay on Earth. More practical to use as he doesn't do much hunting at that time, also the new set of jaws makes him easier to communicate by human language with Badd without his tech-armor helmet mask.
In this form, Garou still in his super tall self even though the height can vary around 185-190 cm, depends on the situation, ex: sleeping as he's a big boy Badd's bed or couch wont fit, so he'd shrink a bit. Sometimes Garou and Badd would spar at their secret place in the middle of woods using this form.
Despite the adaptive form is not quite suitable for hunting strong prey like Xenomorph aliens, Garou prefers to use it whenever he was training with Badd. Also, he can kiss Badd while in this form. Actually even more easier when he was in human form, it's just Badd loves this form more. Don't kinkshame Badd, he is one of monsterfucker, lmao. 
3. Human form:
Because he has shapeshifting ability, Garou can create his "human persona" everytime he blends into human crowds, especially when Badd asked Garou to go outside with him, occasionally also along with Zenko. Exactly like Garou in canon, but now with short-hairstyle as Badd said it suits him more. Garou interpreted it as a way to say "You look more handsome" but denied profusely by Badd.
He still maintained his lean-muscled physique like his other forms, but Garou shrink his height down into 177 cm because not only being too tall would catch many attention from people (Garou: "It's not my fault you all humans are just so goddamned short!"), Badd hated it when he was being towered by his own "boyfriend" when they're walking together in public. Although Badd accepted his tall monstrous height when they're only with eachother.
Badd's neighbours were successfully charmed by this "camouflage" appearance, Garou in a very cocky way tried it on Badd but it seems Badd only tolerates Garou's human form. Honestly, Badd loves his adaptive form as it shows Garou's own will to connect more with Badd while still maintained personal aspects of himself. Badd also totally didn't mind his original form as it was Garou's true face, and to be shown the real Warrior's face behind the mask is a great honour for Badd.
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I just remember that I've been in Batarou fandom for a whole year since January 2020, so you can think this headcanon AU as a new year gift and a thankful gift for the fandom 😆😚🎂🎁🎉🎊
Special thanks for:
🌸 @kaincuro​ and @the-goddessfighter​
Thank you so much for being huge inspirations! You guys introduced me about the beautiful side of Batarou ship via your awesome blogs and encourage me to also participating by sharing ideas to the fandom. Because of you, I managed to stay in this fandom for 1 year full despite 2020 being a hard year.
Thank you Cain, for being a wonderful person and providing us the Good Quality™ Batarou contents, both headcanons and arts! Whenever I'm on bad days and want to read Batarou stuff, I always go to your blog, it never fails to makes me feels alot better! Seeing your fluffy Batarou drawings and your amazing explanation on headcanon about them are absolute mood booster, it really helped me going through my hard days, seriously. So I wanna thank you from the deepest pit of my heart, because of you I could passed a difficult year more easier.
Please keep running your amazing blog, you're great and we love you! 😉👍❤🌸
Thank you Temperans-sama, for being one of greatest Batarou artists I've ever known in the OPM fandom and for your dedication on always working hard making many beautiful Batarou drawings to deliver to the fandom! Everything you've made are PERFECTION, really a God-tier artstyle. Not to mention your Batarou art always the Softest and Fluffiest! 😚👌💖💖
Thank you for kindheartedly willing to listening my super random headcanons or AUs, even as far liking it and drawing the illustrations for it, all of the arts are magnificent I'm so grateful for that AAAAA thank youuuu- *sobbing happily* 😭🙏💕💖 I feel so happy for being able to talk and sharing ideas with an incredible artist like you waaah THANK YOUUU!! Please accept my promised thankful gift for this year, I hope you like it 😚💕🎁♥
Biggest respect, support, and neverending love for you~ 😘❤💜💙💖💝💐👏
🌸 @lovelybutnot-ablankcanvas​ and @guby1620​
You guys are such very good friends during my stay in the Batarou fandom throughout the year, thaaaank youuu! Both of you deserved the best! *hugs tightly and never let go*
Thank you Eir, for being one of the most talented Batarou fanfic writers and most supportive understanding friend! I feel blessed to ever know you through your first Batarou fic a year ago, I still remember being one of your first reviewer and we shared alot of new ideas or random stuff. Now you already become a multitalented artist on both as fic writer and art drawing I'm so proud of you! 👏👏😤✨
Also, thank you for writing so many Batarou fic gifts last year, all of them are my favorite stories until now I really appreciate them! Keep being awesome, Eir, and yes you have my endless supports~ 😉💖✨
Thank you Ruby, for being a very talented Batarou artist with the most loveliest artsyle and I really admired you for that! You always have fluffiest ideas for arts and I love your handsome Garou + adorably sweet Badd drawings. I always enjoyed our interactions whenever we talk about our HCs, you're very easygoing and fun person to talk with, also you always successfully cheer me up with your cutest Batarou art 😉👍💯✨
I should thank you for liking my AU stories, even making one of them into a Doujin THANK YOU SO MUCH I didn't expected you would included the Reincarnated Demon/Angel AU into your long project I feel both grateful and honoured AAAA THANKS A LOT! *died from happiness* 😭💞💖💝
Undying supports and greatest appreciation for youuu, Ruby! I will always waiting for your new creations 👏💝🌸🌻💐
🌸 @garous-nipple​
I wanna say thank you for being one of the most talented Garou-centric fanartists in the fandom, you're amazing and I always love seeing your progress on evolving your artstyle throughout the time. You have great drawing skill and trust me you have already on the path to become next Murata! May this year will becomes Garou year as his inevitable comeback in the manga is near, so you will get loads of new art inspirations 😤👍💯🌟
Thanks alot for always accepting my requests or art idea suggestions! You absolutely deserved all of the best appreciation for your hardworks, we the OPM fandom are loving you 😉👌💖
I hope you enjoyed Garou's "the Predator" concept design headcanon as a humble new year gift from me 😆💝🎁🎉
And lastly for special mention:
🌸 @himbo-in-limbo​
I know we haven't interacted yet, but knowing that you love both Garou and AvP after stumbling into your lovely blog, I've decided to include you, too! As someone who only saw AvP once and not too familiar with the story, I honestly kinda embarassed of myself and afraid if my headcanon wont makes any sense so I apologized if there's alot mistakes and inaccuracy in here or if it's too OOC, please forgive me 🙇💦
I realized it's not perfect but I hope you like my concept design of Garou being a Yautja! Also sorry for the Batarou hints I hope you wouldn't really mind about it 😅😉💕💝🎁
(btw, all of your OCs are fantastic and very thoughtful-made! ❤)
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Once again I'm so sorry if my writing sucks, I wanted to share the idea but I don't have good writing skill at all please forgive me.. 😭🙇
I hope I can continue for the second part which is also the last part, it's currently on 1/4 way of completion. I'm currently stuck on the action scene why does it so hard to write battle scenes heeeelpp! 😫💦
So please wait for me, yeah? Wish me luck I could finished the story 😅🙏
Thank you so much, we will see again on the final part! 💖
-Little1993lamb-
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Temperans:
Anon! Thank you very much for sharing another fantastic fic for this fandom! Sorry for taking time to post it here. You know? My vacation will be over soon and I'm getting ready for TuT school
I would like to have dreams as interesting as yours, I hardly dream anymore, and it is nice that you can capture an idea from that. Honestly I've been a bit off these days, I miss our guys a lot and the way the webcomic is unfolding really distresses me (I'm so scared for Badd X'C). But your fic lifts my spirits every time I read it! So I wanted to reward your hard work with a drawing. I really like H. R. Giger's art and I tried to give that vibe to my art (I tried X'D). Thank you anon for always being there to support the fandom unconditionally! I hope you have a better year and health! 😘❤💜💙💖💝
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noteofnaught · 3 years ago
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Dante's memory of his mother
Fiddled with what I had written earlier.
The translation was done for me by deepl (translator).
Please let me know if you think it's strange or if there are any mistakes.
The above is purely a personal opinion
Feel free to discuss and exchange.
Dante's memory of his mother
Dante's memory of his mother, or rather that night, seems to have been formally depicted once in DMC5 since DMC1.
So let's start with the DMC1.
In the DMC1 novel, there is a scene depicting Dante recalling the events of his mother's death.
「母さん、母さん……ねぇ、母さん!」
幼子が、地に倒れ伏した母親の身体を揺さぶり続けている。母親の息がすでに絶えていることは、誰の目にも明らかだ。
だが幼子は──すでに自分でもそうとわかっているのだろうが──無
駄な努力を止める気配はない。
「兄さんもいなくなっちゃったんだ! 母さん! ねぇ、母さん!」
亡骸からは未だ、温かな血が地面へと広がり続けている。
幼子は半狂乱だった。
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We can see in the description that Dante tries to wake his mother up next to her dead body, even though he realises that she is dead but he is still trying to wake her up. This is a reluctance to accept his mother's death, a normal emotion and attitude for a small child to have.
And the second half of his sentence [兄さんもいなくなっちゃったんだ!] It is as if he had searched for his brother, but his tone is one of powerlessness, of helplessness, of feeling negative about the outcome. So here I want to convey not so much that he has searched for his brother to no avail, but a sense of powerlessness about the situation. He tries to wake up his mother in this way.
It's close to one: Mom, wake up. My brother is not here/is gone and I don't know what to do/I'm scared, please get up Come on.
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And then in the scene of Neal's death, Dante recalls this as Neal's sacrifice to protect him, just as his mother did that day.
After that he heard the voice of his father's sword, and out of fear and insecurity he was completely drawn to it, thus obeying its words and changing his name until he gained the power to fight against it.
Then, in the battle with Gilvi, when Gilvi stabbed Dante and was covered by the necklace, Dante's internal activity was as follows.
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He credits his mother with protecting him (again) as a child.
Where the mother sacrifices herself to save/protect Dante this is consistent with the DMC1 in-game scene. In DMC1 Dante has a similar line after Trish sacrifices herself to save him. This is the diagram from Precious Tears, with Japanese and English, but both Japanese and English convey that Trish sacrificed herself to save him, as did her own (Dante's) mother.
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This is in line with the content of the DMC3 comic.
In the DMC3 comic, Dante has a nightmare at the office after his encounter with Vergil, a dream that is not in fully recreated form but like a fragmentary form.
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Here the mother has more dialogue than in DMC1, and it is obvious from the comic's footage that there are huge hands behind her that are about to crush her, and Dante reaches towards her as if to retain his mother, who is feeling very scared, while her mother shouts for him to hurry up and hide/hide and not come out no matter what happens. She is then crushed by the huge hand. In the next panel we can see that the demon looks like a bird and says the terrible words "all die". like it is glowing, and on the next page you can also see the huge three foot shadow on the ground, which also looks like the claws of a bird, and the door behind it is the image of burning, while a long shadow is drawn under his feet.
Of course, we know from the comic that Arkham says there was a fire that day, and Vergil's fearful recollection of the house being on fire makes DMC5 even more certain that it was indeed on fire. The glowing eyes, the long, thin shadows and the subsequent bloodstained house in the comic give the impression that something ominous, unsettling and alien is about to happen.
The cartoon after that also shows us Dante waking up with a jolt, his face covered in water, looking at his hand but with only a drop on his end finger, giving the illusion that he has pulled a hook with someone. There is no sweat on his body, however, and of course there are problems of expression in the painting, so it is not painted.
But it is also true that these same fragmentary memories and dreams give Dante unease and fear.
Well, the memory, the feeling of his mother in Dante's vision so far is the following: his mother told himself to hide and not come out, and sacrificed himself to save himself. It is the great selfless motherly love that belongs to Dante.
Although it was a great mother's love, the memory of that day still makes Dante feel uneasy and afraid. The last memory his mother leaves Dante with is the one that tells Dante to hide, and implicitly the will to let him live. If we add the DMC1 novel to the mix here, it is at this very moment that he is drawn to his father's sword.
Again within these memories and fragments, the mother is rendered unknowable to Vergil, meaning that we do not or cannot see in Dante's recollections that the mother ever went looking for Vergil, if not for the presence of the phrase [兄さんもいなくなっちゃったんだ!] we would not even know in this recollection of Dante that he knew that he had a brother. What we can see or what Dante perceives in his vision is that his mother loved him so much that she died in the process of protecting/saving him.
However, it is also a writing device that can be lifted off as suspense.
But again, this doesn't do any damage to the image of Eva as a great mother, because based on what happened that day, the great mother had to choose to save/protect (potentially the closest to her or that she could find) one child and had to give up the other in the face of force majeure. Dante also never said before DMC5 whether his mother loved Vergil or not, whether she ever sought him out or whether she cared for his brother as well.
What we see in Dante's vision is basically what Dante can know, but it doesn't mean all of it. After all, comics or game scenes have an obligation to show us the scenes, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the characters actually see all the textures. We, as players/readers, are a kind of God's eye and we can notice things that are not right or different (also a storytelling technique) but as protagonists we are not necessarily fully aware or in the same position as us.
I think if you have seen suspense films, you will also often see that kind of bridge, we all know that this bomb is going to explode this person to kill that person, although there is that kind of explicitly shown in the footage, but the protagonist is still unaware of the appearance, many viewers are in order to pinch a cold sweat, for this reason anxious hope that the protagonist quickly realize.
And DMC5 gives us a formal depiction of that day, not through snippets like a nightmare, you can see in the game's overstory description that it says Dante dreamed of what happened before, which means this time you are shown real memories.
After all, a nightmare is not necessarily a real memory, it is a condensation of a certain memory. Sometimes we have a nightmare like dreaming of a giant cockroach because we are afraid, so we reproduce and amplify this fear in our nightmares, so that a small cockroach we see in the house becomes enormous in our nightmares, the giant cockroach is not necessarily real but the fear is real. Of course, we are not talking about the formation of nightmares here, but only about the fact that nightmares and some fragments of our memories with fear and anxiety may be a recreation of what we felt and what existed at the time, but not necessarily a completely real recreation.
In the DMC5 Eva process screen.
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There is a slight difference between Japanese subtitles and English subtitles, or even Japanese dubbing.
The overall meaning is actually similar to the DMC3 manga, Eva is all over Dante not moving and telling him to hide/hide, the only difference is that she says more words to make Dante forget his past and forget his name and start a new life from scratch/not being Dante but another person to start over. All also contain the mother's wish for him to live well.
The difference is that in the Japanese subtitles, Eva clearly expresses the possibility that she may not return and so tells Dante to listen well to what she says next, whereas in English it is expressed as I promise you will return.
In the English context, although the mother says she will come back, she immediately reverses the 'come back' in the next sentence, saying that she knows it will be difficult, but you're old enough so you'll have to do this if I don't come back. They both mean the same thing, a mother who knows she might not come back and tells her child what she will do if she doesn't come back, as if making a pact with her child: we agreed that if I don't come back, you will remember to do this, I know you can do it.
If you look closely at the animation of the process, you can even see Dante's hand trembling on the cupboard door, he is very scared.
And the BGM here also happens to be called: More Fear
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And of course it is here that we first see Eva looking for Vergil, and it turns out that Eva has looked for Vergil! This doesn't exactly match the information we got on Dante's side earlier.
But are you saying that the DMC1 message contradicts the current message? The DMC1 novel only mentions that he cried next to his mother's body, not that she said anything to him before she died, after which he became obsessed with his father's sword out of fear and terror. And his father's sword statement is the same as his mother's deathbed statement but in a very different series.
The meaning of the mother's words is very clear, the words are all about the desire for her child to live well and to stay away from these things that will hurt him, a good expectation and blessing for her child and the expectation and belief that her child will be able to do so.
「今はその名を隠し、目を眩ませ、逃げ延びよ」
“Now go incognito, confuse the enemy and flee far away!”
The overall meaning of the phrase is that it is dangerous to hide the name, confuse the enemy and run away, and the phrase even takes the form of a command that the child must do what he says.
It's a phrase you'd put in the context of a superior to a subordinate, a captain to his teammates, and in the context of a tense battlefield man telling you to run fast is perfectly fine and appropriate. But Eva's words could only be said by a mother to her child.
When all the memories are linked together, our facts about Eva become a little more complete, and at the same time what effect does it have on Dante?
If his mother only died saving him and he hated his father for her revenge which is quite reasonable, this has to be a blowback from his father's enemies. What is necessary to mention here is what Dante's mindset was regarding DMC1 killing the Black Angel.
In the official publication of the 3124 collection, Dante is said to have killed the Black Angel with "no thought", a word synonymous with "remnant", which is generally translated into Chinese as: regret.
And the DMC1 how-to book has a direct description of his ideas.
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Dante is talking here about Mundus killing his mother and brother.
This is not the same as what we generally think of as objective perception. In the game we see over the course of the game, the Black Angel looks as if he still has a heart, so naturally we think there is still salvation, after all, he is still alive.
But here Dante does not think that it was his own hand that killed the Black Angel, but that Mundus killed Vergil.
Of course we can parse this to mean that killing the man who was Vergil means, but even so within this passage of Dante he is not one of the reasons for Vergil's death, he has no responsibility in Vergil's death and is not responsible for any act occurring in the process, but rather Mundus should need to take full responsibility.
In other words, it means that even if it was he who killed the Black Angel in the course of the battle, then he is not responsible for it, but Mundus is responsible for it, because it was Mundus who arranged it, and how could he have killed it if he had not arranged it there, it was not his problem, it was Mundus' problem.
than what we generally think of as objective factual rational logic going into the judgement: although Mundus turned Vergil into a black angel like that, he himself didn't recognise the killing, more or less he was responsible for it or felt particularly guilty that he didn't recognise it.
Dante's logic leans more towards total emotional logic: It's all Mundus' fault!
And in DMC5 just as Vergil used to think it was a matter of not having enough power, now it's a matter of having too much power, and now that Mundus is gone, not recognizing Vergil (V) for killing Vergil can only be his active choice, not a passive one, and it can only be that his responsibility has nothing to do with Mundus.
Returning to the mother, what arises is in fact the same question. If before it was his mother's great love for him, which was selfless and exclusive to him, now, at this moment, her love is equal, not just his but also his brother's. The "he" whose mother sacrificed herself to save him in the flashback (DMC5) is not really a "he". His mother's did not hesitate to rush out to save her brother, knowing the danger.
Of course we must also mention nell, arguably the designer of Dante's double shot.
In the novel, Thor wants Neal to commission and pay a deposit for a double gun for himself, one of which is a secret-made gun he stole from a robbery, and the other is the same type of medieval gun that Neal himself received.
nell is so good to Tony, as is clearly described in the DMC1 novel, because Tony looks so much like her child, and her love for her child is projected onto Tony, and she holds on to her job before she eventually dies, not only because of her love for Tony but also her love for her own child, and more so for the work ethic she has taken on this job and should complete.
But all the same, the person she missed most on her deathbed was her own child, something Tony could never replace, nor could he if he wanted to, which of course didn't mean that nell's love for Tony was false, nell's love for Tony was also real, indeed it was love, it was precisely because of the person of her own child that nell loved so deeply that Tony was loved by her.
Whether it is nell or the mother Eva, their love for their child is not solely Dante's alone and only his, or why they love Dante/Tony, it is because they both love their child, and if they were not such, then Dante would naturally not be loved by them.
His mother's protection and sacrifice is something he feels and desires, something that is personal and emotional for him. It also explains Dante's statement to Trish in DMC1 that "his mother died to protect herself", because Trish, like his mother in his feelings and understanding, has what he calls a "heart".
Of course, because DMC1 is entirely Dante's vision of storytelling (DMC1 is Dante's story), his mother is human in Dante's eyes, and Trish acts like his mother to protect him, or even Dante's ideal mother, so Trish is also a person with a "heart", as to how Trish feels or if that is the case. We will not discuss this issue here.
Surely the mother did not save Dante? This is necessarily a negative, but was it to save him that his mother died, or to hold back the demon who tried to kill him so that he could escape? Again, that is a negative. Wouldn't his mother have done that in that situation? That too is a negative. Wouldn't Dante have wanted his mother? No. Must Dante have never been afraid of not wanting his mother to stay by his side to give him security and protection? Did Dante only want to protect his mother and never wanted her to stay by his side to protect him? All the information above seems to be in the negative.
DMC5 is simply a reinterpretation and addition of information from the past, the only thing overturned is Dante's belief that his mother died to save himself.
This message provides us with an explanation of the origin of Dante's hatred for his brother, as is often the case in many films and novels, in which he blames the child for the death of his beloved wife, even though it was not the child's fault, and believes that if it had not been for him, his wife would not have died. He stubbornly believes that his mother died to save him, not to save his brother, and not because of this he is unable to love his brother; he acts as if he wishes he could have the mother's love all to himself.
For if we are to acknowledge the fact that his mother died to save his brother, we also have to acknowledge something else, and that is that he equally did not want to be left/abandoned by his mother.
Of course, this is not a contradiction or a conflict; it is only natural that a child should be afraid and want to protect his mother, and it is equally natural that he should want to protect her.
The above is purely a personal opinion
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bluebellhairpin · 4 years ago
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As We Can
Thor Odinson X Immortal!Reader
A/N: Am I doing another self-projection fic? Yes. Do I want to get the point across that I love you, no matter what you look like, and I will help you take care of yourself? Hell yes. Some of my closest companions are on the chunky side. I would kill for them. - Nemo
Warning(s): Idk but there’s a hell of a lot of talk about self-worth, and hence self-love. So talk about Insecurities, character Death (very brief - Loki hoes might cry), Angst, but also a buttload of f l u f f ! 
Summary: We all need to give ourselves some care sometimes. Thor is one of those people, so you give him a little help - and sometimes that comes in a many few different ways; words, music, flower crowns. 
Masterlist  
[Gif was a Google find since Tumblr tags don’t have the representation. Creds to the maker, we love your work!] 
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Saying you’d lived for a long time was the understatement of the century. 
You’d lived through too many natural disasters to count - Mount Vesuvius one of the more memorable of such disasters - plus hundreds of wars, and as many ‘collenizations’ of ‘new worlds’ to poke a stick at - not to mention the sicknesses that passed by as well. 
By now you were pretty damn tired of it all. 
But then, on top of everything, you could add something that had never happened before. In much more recent years, Earth had taken to being invaded by aliens. The first and most obvious was that of the Chitauri in New York. The most recent was Thanos and his Army in Upstate New York. 
By this point in your life, you’d started to become ‘exposed’. As most immortals do, over time you showed up in different photographs and paintings over the years, and with access to anything from one place - a.k.a the internet - some started to put things together. 
You even had your own online conspiracy club. You were proud of that. 
While it didn’t exactly bother you, you could see it causing some problems in the future - especially if you showed up in more places more often. So you made a decision. You needed to get off Earth. 
Luckily, timing then had you neatly close to Tønsberg, having watched the events of Thanos’ newest attack on the news in your hotel room in Oslo, you fast-tracked your journey there - to ‘New Asgard' - forward a week. 
There you sought out Thor, and through him a passage off into space. 
__________
Days, if not weeks passed - honest to god by now you couldn’t tell the difference - and while he was in no way the worst person to hang around, Thor was acting off. 
You’d never met him before your of-hand trip to space, but you had seen him on the news, online, and in papers. He was nothing like he was then, now. 
If you’d learn one thing in your age-less life it was that everyone needs a cause, a purpose. You’d spent the last three-hundred years - at least - devoting yourself to different causes, including the two World Wars, and it was clear to you that Thor currently did not have one.
So you decided to help him find it. 
Naturally you started with the subtle things. Being on a ship full of delinquents, also known as ex-space criminals, subtlety wasn’t always the best bet if you wanted something. Especially when it came to Drax. Hints went over his head like a frisbee in a hurricane - but you figured Thor wouldn’t be that… Unwittingly ignorant. 
By the time a couple days passed you had your answer. 
He was that unwittingly ignorant.
You didn't know how anyone else felt, but you knew it went a bit deeper than what others might’ve thought.  __________
“Thor, may I pull you aside for a moment?” you asked, appearing behind the Asgardian as the ship floated lazily through space outside. 
He jumped slightly, completely unaware of his surroundings, but nodded in agreement once he saw it was ‘just you’. Luckily no one else was around this part of the ship, either opting to rest or oversee Peter up in the cockpit. 
You fiddled with your sleeve, eyeing Thor as he settled in one of the seats across the room. You decided then and there to not beat around.
“Are you okay?” His eyes snapped up to yours, being me with your ever-so-slight scowl. 
“Am I okay?” he asked, scoffing out a laugh, “I am fine, why? Why wouldn’t I be?” 
You turned your head, taking a couple steps forward. 
“I can tell if you are, or if you aren’t.” He rolled his eyes at that, crossing his arms and pulling up his guard. “Do you remember what I told you, back on earth when I asked to come with you here?” you asked softer, gesturing to the ship and the stars outside.
He grumbled, rubbing at his eye and ruffling his hair before staring at you expectantly.
“I promised I could help.” 
“Look at you, how the hell could you help?”
“I am almost two thousand years old, Thor Odinson. If I know anything it’s how to help you.” He kept his eyes on you, watching as you dragged a chair out and sat in front of him. You took in a deep breath, searching his body language for any signs that meant he didn’t want you to continue.
“Are you really that old?” he asked, leaning towards you slightly.
“Aye, that I am,” you nodded, “Was born in Ancient Rome. The first notable event I lived though was when I was about ten, word spread around about that volcano erupting - not that we knew what it was back then.” you smiled little at the memory, looking down at your hands sadly. 
Apparently he wasn’t too bad a reading body language either. 
“No one else was like you, though - being able to live forever. Were they?” You shook your head no, and he hummed. “Maybe then we could help each other?” 
“Sure thing Sparky.”  ___________
You’d been working together with Thor for a good couple months, and in between searching for Gamora with the Guardians, and - in your opinion - hopelessly looking for Loki too, you thought Thor was doing much better.
He was less recluse, took care of himself a little more, and backed off Peter’s leadership a little (the latter may have been barely noticeable). Even if those things all came under your urging, you still counted them as steps forward. 
Anything positive, no matter how small, was still positive.
“(y/n)!” Thor boomed, rattling you from your bunk in the ship, “Are you ‘Holding out for a Hero’?” 
Nebula and Mantis poked their heads out from the bunk above you, ceasing their game of Paper Football to watch for your reply. You rolled your eyes, sliding off your comfy spot to lumber out to Thor.
“Pardon?” Thor cleared his throat as he held out Peter’s Zune. 
“This song speaks of a hero. Do you need one?” You took the player from Thor, scrunching up your nose at the 80’s song. 
“Not currently, but if I do you’d be the first person I’d call for, you can count on that.” you said, scrolling through the song list, looking for a song you preferred more. You missed the proud grin that reached Thor’s face. 
“There,” you pressed ‘Hold the Line’, and tried shooing him off so you could get back to your cozy corner, “Try that one Sparky.” 
“Much thanks.” He said, turning off with the device in his hands. You made it back to the doorway and watched him go.
Thank goodness Peter wasn’t here, otherwise he would’ve snatched that thing from Thor even before he got hold of it. __________
The planet you’d stopped on to replenish supplies was one of the most Earth-Like ones you’d seen since you left Earth. The only major difference was the inhabitant’s fashion choices, and the large array of flowers - they were literally everywhere.
If Rocket hadn’t  latched onto Groot’s shoulder the moment they stepped off-ship, you’d probably have lost the humanoid among the greenery.
“Great Zeus.” You breathed, slight disbelief at the sheer amount of flowers. 
“Who is ‘Great Zeus’?” Mantis asked, you cast a glance back at her.
“Um, basically him,” you pointed at Thor, “But much older, and more horny.” 
“You are going to be more horny when you are older,” Drax said, clapping Thor on the shoulder, “Congratulations!” 
“I meant a -” you stopped yourself, snickering, “- Nevermind.” You step off into the crowds and mazes of flowers, not waiting for Thor - your ‘Supply Buddy’ - to catch up. It never took him long anyway.
“Is Zeus one of your ‘Roman Gods’?” Thor asked, sidling up beside you as you maneuvered around the crowds.
“Nope. Zeus is Greek. In Roman his name is Jupiter.” 
“And in Norse he is Thor.” he said. You looked up at him, cracking a smile. 
“Mhm, I think I prefer Thor over Jupiter or Zeus though.” you said, eyeing a patch of flowers that was inhabited by a small crowd - and they were making flower crowns. 
Thor had no choice but to follow you as you made yourself comfortable among the multi coloured blooms - distracted and off task as ever. But he made no effort to join you, standing off to the side instead. 
You eyed him as you pulled a few flowers into your hand, weaving them together in the same way you remember your mother doing a hundred lifetimes ago. Patting the spot next to you, you grinned.
“Come over here Sparky.” you said, flicking your eyes down to the flower patch to pick a few more. “I need to make sure this fits.” 
You weren’t taking a no. The nickname you gave him in itself spoke volumes. 
He came over, slumping down beside you in the sunlight. You made quick work of the flowers, tying them together neatly before laying it atop Thor’s half pulled-away hair. It fit perfectly. 
“A crown fit for a king, I’d say.” 
“Pity I’m not much of a king.” he said, reaching a hand up to play with some of the petals.
“‘Ζώμεν γαρ ού ως θέλομεν, αλλ’ ως δυνάμεθα’.” you blurted, not once breaking your stare at Thor. His eyes widened, then moved to looking very confused, so you translated. “‘We live, not as we wish to, but as we can’. A Greek Dramatist said that. It was one of the few phrases we knew it greek, and our father taught it to us. He always implored us to do our own best, not the best anyone else can do.” 
All the while you explained, you weaved together another crown, one slightly smaller than the first, yet still almost identical. Tying it off, you sat it on your own head.
“Our best can sometimes be a lot, or a little even if we wish it to be a lot. But it doesn’t matter. Our best is still our best.” Thor looked between your crown, and your eyes. 
“I don’t think it’s that easy.” 
“Because it takes practice.” you plucked another flower, this time sticking it in his beard. “No one gets everything right the first time. Yet everyone does do their best at the time of their first time. Accepting that they did their best - that’s what they struggle with.” 
You poked in more flowers into his beard - your words seemed to plunge him into deep thought - he made no effort  to stop you, if he even noticed. 
After a time, he looked down at your hands, still piling flowers into his flower-filled beard, and smiled lightly.
“How about you make some for the other Asguardians of the Galaxy.” 
“Flower crowns?”
“Yes,” he grinned, “Your best ones.”
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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years ago
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July 17: 2x26 Assignment: Earth
Finally finished up S2 of TOS yesterday. That was... a rough episode tbh. I’m just gonna say it: back door pilots are bad! They’re bad. If I wanted to watch that other show, I’d watch it.
Wow, they’re just really jumping right in, huh? “Here we are, on a routine mission into the past, using a time travel method that we invented nbd.”
Investigating desperate problems in the year 2020...2016.... no wait 1968.
Ooh, Spock in the transport room today. Does he have a whole extra random station there? That’s so weird; I’ve never seen that before. It’s like hidden in the corner.
Cat!! Cat!!
What a good actor. I’m still bitter that wikipedia has a whole section about the casting for “Isis the cat” that talks entirely about the human who played Isis for 2 minutes and nothing about the talented feline actor. Where did they find her? How did they teach her to act?
She has a lot of thoughts about Kirk.
I wrote down “Scully, you’ve got to see this” in my notes and I’ve already forgotten what it refers to lol. Some moment that I thought would fit well with my favorite x-files meme.
Change history, you say? Spock is intrigued. ...Admittedly, Spock is often intrigued.
“What if it turns out you’re an invading alien from the future?” Honestly...let him invade. You’re not supposed to be here anyway.
I’m pretty insulted by this. The aliens went through all this trouble to help in 1968...where are our alien helpers NOW?
The cat straight up attacked his face.
Kirk is so fond of Spock being fond of the cat.
“It’s a lovely animal. I feel myself strangely drawn to it.”
Kirk is way too confused by Seven--an allegedly human person with super-human abilities that he says come from aliens--and yet, he’s met Charlie X so??? Is this not the same?
Kirk’s got the whole crew checking in on zoom.
(I actually do like this sequence of him getting video calls from different parts of the ship.)
“Weren’t orbiting H-bombs a huge problem in 1968?” Looks at the camera like he’s on The Office. Not the subtlest bit of writing in the “social commentary” genre. I do say this with love, though. I always enjoy when they comment on contemporary problems.
“He has a totally perfect body.” Lol don’t distract these two bisexuals.
[soft meowing]
“The prisoner has escaped.” The way this is shot, it looks like he’s talking about the cat.
Hmm, I do love the decor. Very 60s. This honestly immediately feels like a different show, and a much more dated show; even when the Enterprise time travels, it tends not to time travel to... office space.
Love the little sounds the computer makes.
So is Isis supposed to be one of the fancy aliens? It’s never explained but one must assume she is.
Aw, he’s petting her paw.
So I assumed the cats sounds are real, but just dubbed. They’re not lol. Which I guess isn’t surprising: this cat makes a lot of noises! They were provided by a human voice actress.
Damn.... I want a secret bookshelf that turns around to reveal a super computer with a big screen. “Computer... play Netflix.”
That’s what Seven does in his spare time.
The computer is an AI. “Beta 5 snobbery” lol.
Where are OUR alien overlords to stop US from destroying ourselves before WE can mature into a peaceful society?
This is really masterful exposition lol. Not forced or awkward at all.
ST sure does love the snooty female computer trope.
“Get us the proper costumes.” Yes, get Spock his Requisite Hat.
Omicron IV....that’s one of the names they use in Futurama lol. Such nerds.
Another excellent Spock Hat.
I love Seven’s various IDs. Great style. I wish my driver’s license looked like those.
“Who do you think you are?” He hasn’t decided yet. That’s why he was shifting through his IDs.
Seven is not smart lol. Like, he should have figured out way faster that this lady isn’t one of the Alien Overlords. He asks her the code question, she doesn’t understand it, and he... assumes she’s just really in character? Dude, that’s what the code questions are for!!! To help you identify people! Otherwise you could just straight up ask: are you an alien?
Instead he’s like “oh, you silly alien, you’re playing with me,” and then is forced to trap her, reveal his whole mission, and ultimately ensnare her in his plan.
I want that typewriter. Voice recognition typewriter.
"My incompetence has made you aware of very secret devices." Well at least he knows.
Trained cat!
The alien overlords were killed in a random car accident. That’s ironic.
Oh look, a real rocket!
Brown pants + short sleeved shirt + tie is such a Classic 60s look.
This security guard doesn’t think it’s weird that this random dude has a cat with him? Is this part of Isis’s alien power?
Except for the part where it’s a weapon, it’s pretty cool to see all this build up to, like... launching stuff into space. Exciting.
Isis likes to be on shoulders. Just like Little Guy.
New hat for Spock. His outer wear hat, and now his fancy hat. There is something to be said for this ep, and that is Kirk and Spock in suits.
Amazing how they literally launched rockets with computers that old. Like seeing the big bank of primitive computers is totally wild. We put people on the moon that way! Amazing.
“Meow.” Lol, Isis is stressed so she’s speaking like a cat. That’s a pretty funny joke actually.
Seven is so incompetent. If he’d just let the Enterprise help, Scotty could have fixed that rocket issue in like 3 seconds.
Lol everyone’s just pulling Gary through space. Now on the Enterprise. Now in the office.
Why does this computer have a hug black screen if it only displays images on the small white circle?
"Spock and  I in custody. Main characters, doing nothing, knowing nothing, totally useless and irrelevant. I have never felt more helpless." Literally what is even the point of them today? Does Spock even have lines outside of “I like the cat”?
Isis is jealous of Roberta. Is she.. in a relationship with Seven lol?
Uhura is listening to everyone in the world. She probably has a universal translator on, but I do feel like this scene implies she just...understands all the languages.
So now the warhead is armed and heading to somewhere vague... in other words, everyone has collectively made the situation worse.
....Or this was Seven’s plan all along? To scare people into ceasing to be so careful with nuclear weaponry? As someone who knows humans better than this guy, I think this is a dumbass plan.
“That’s why so many people in my generation are kind of crazy and rebels.” Same, sweetheart.
Really this is just a story about bad communication. If Seven had told Kirk his plan upfront, Kirk would have helped him. And if Kirk weren’t so insistent on involving himself in something just because he happens to be somewhere he probably shouldn’t be, we wouldn’t have this issue either. The hubris of everyone.
Overall, just a really forced narrative imo.
Or that’s how it was supposed to be lol. The Irony of time travel. By it’s nature, everything has already worked out.
Kirk and Spock are like “You’re welcome. Peace out.”
Honestly... Isis was the only good part. Such a talented cat actor!! Or trio of cat actors, I guess. Had to do all those stunts and stuff.. .amazing. I also liked the concept of Isis. How she turned into a human later just to troll Roberta. How she’s never really explained--one must assume, an alien? Plus I pretty much never get tired of human + animal teams where the animal makes animal noises and the human just understands and answers in English.
As a stand alone sci fi concept...it was okay. Kinda dated by now. The alien tech was nifty and Roberta could have grown on me. Maybe even Seven, though he left a lot to be desire. That said, the narrative relied a lot on people getting in each other’s way for no reason, which I find very frustrating.
But as a Star Trek episode....no. The main characters were just nuisances on the side lines!! I’m not even sure what Kirk’s mission here was--to try to figure out what Seven was doing? And stop him if necessary? But he never really decided if it was or not, until the point where not trusting him would basically cause a nuclear war? I don’t know, I found it all very frustrating. The melding of the original show and the spinoff was not smooth.
If I were watching this in 1968, I’d feel very cheated. THIS was the season finale? That’s it? I don’t even get a real Star Trek episode and now I have to wait months for anything new?
And what I get after all that waiting is Spock’s Brain?? I’d be tempted to quit. If I had a tumblr in 1969 I’d be writing multi-paragraph rants about how the best show on television has completely nose-dived lol.
But then there’s The Enterprise Incident, which is one of the best episodes... I don’t know, man. It’s a conundrum. I’ve only seen maybe half of season 3 but from what I remember it’s very uneven: some of the best eps (The Enterprise Incident, For the World Is Hollow, Day of the Dove) mixed in with some of the worst (Spock’s Brain, The Paradise Syndrome), plus some that are good concepts but shoddily executed (The Way to Eden). So we’ll see what I think about it when I see it all in one piece, in air date order.
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ashes0909 · 4 years ago
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Planet Z - Natasha, Sam, Bucky (gen)
Characters A, B, and C have to come up with a fake background story/secret identity on the spot due to the situation they're in. This doesn't go well.
Natasha brushed the dirt off her tracksuit and tried to get all the twigs out of her hair. Her parachute had landed her in what looked to be the end of the tree line of a very thick jungle. Totally normal, except the trees were bright purple. She’d never really get over alien planets. 
“That you Romanoff?” she heard from her left, and it was Wilson, pulling an endless amount of leaves from his wings. 
“On my better days,” she replied. “Right now I think I landed in whatever this planet passes as a beehive.”
Sam winced. “You see Buck anywhere?”
“Knowing James he barrel rolled his landing and is already running towards the town over there.” 
A shifting of branches from behind them and Bucky emerged, looking like he managed to dodge every tree and branch and leaf in his descent. “What are you two waiting around for?” he asked and Sam snorted while Natasha did her best not to roll her eyes. Instead, she turned and walked into the town.
They had a plan, sort of. It was more of a guidepost. They were to land, make contact, integrate into society, find influential leaders that they could warn against the VeryBad that was coming, while also siphoning their knowledge on the most effective renewable resource this side of Orion’s belt. 
The town opened up in front of them. There were similarities from an Earth town, a street and buildings on either side but that's where all familiarity ended. Natasha had never seen that texture wall before..was it oozing? There had to be a reason. The inhabitants were all staring, probably because there was only one humanoid on the whole street and he looked like he barely made the cut. There were bipods and tripods and something scuttled by with more pods than she’d ever seen. She took a step closer to Wilson and James. 
“Remember the cover story? Sam asked. 
Natasha snorted. “You mean the one where the two of you a couple on their honeymoon and I’m the reclusive relative that likes to be found in vents and in their archives. Yeah I remember.”
“You may want to leave the last part out,” James said through an invisible smirk. 
“Why don’t the two of you just leave any and all socializing to me,” Sam said. “Compared to the two of you I’m practically Miss Congeniality.”
“Fine by me,” Barnes said replied and Natasha nodded.
They turned into what appeared to be an Inn, based on the sign with a bed drawn on it. They took one step in and the lobby quieted completely, not even a pin dropping on what looked to be some sort of stone flooring. 
“Hello,” Sam greeted, the translator device Stark had equipped him with doing it’s job because the creature on the other side of the desk seemed to understand. “We need two rooms.”
The creature replied by widening his eyes and hissing. “What did you say to him?” Natasha asked. 
“What you heard me say to him.”
“Well he didn’t seem to like it.”
“Winter Soldier!” the creature screamed.
“Ah, fuck,” Sam said and Natasha silently agreed. Cover blown, there was only one thing to do. Natasha stepped forward. “It’s fine.” She met his gaze, all three of his eyes, and held it, then smiled, positively predatory. “A room, and it’ll be fine.” 
Sam stepped forward on one side and James on the other. The man nodded, and slid a key across the desk. 
“Come on,” Sam said as he grabbed it. “Time to think up plan Z”
----------------------------------------------------
This was one of three ficlets I wrote during the @marveltrumpshate monthly party! Thanks everyone for the inspiration!
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dillydedalus · 4 years ago
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january reading
why does january always feel like it’s 3 months long. anyway here’s what i read in january, feat. poison experts with ocd, ants in your brain, old bolsheviks getting purged, and mountweazels. 
city of lies, sam hawke (poison wars #1) this is a perfectly nice fantasy novel about jovan, who serves as essentially a secret guard against poisoning for his city state’s heir and is forced to step up when his uncle (also a secret poison guard) and the ruler are both killed by an unknown poison AND also the city is suddenly under a very creepy siege (are these events related? who knows!) this is all very fine & entertaining & there are some fun ideas, but also... the main character has ocd and SAME HAT SAME HAT. also like the idea of having a very important, secret and potentially fatal job that requires you to painstakingly test everything the ruler/heir is consuming WHILE HAVING OCD is like... such a deliciously sadistic concept. amazing. 3/5
my heart hemmed in, marie ndiaye (translated from french by jordan stump) a strange horror-ish tale in which two married teachers, bastions of upper-middle-class respectability and taste, suddenly find themselves utterly despised by everyone around them, escalating until the husband is seriously injured. through several very unexpected twists, it becomes clear that the couple’s own contempt for anyone not fitting into their world and especially nadia’s hostility and shame about her (implied to be northern african) ancestry is the reason for their pariah status. disturbing, surprising, FUCKED UP IF TRUE (looking back, i no longer really know what i mean by that). 4/5
xenogenesis trilogy (dawn/adulthood rites/imago), octavia e. butler octavia butler is incapable of writing anything uninteresting and while i don’t always completely vibe with her stuff, it’s always fascinating & thought-provoking. this series combines some of her favourite topics (genetic manipulation, alien/human reproduction, what is humanity) into a tale of an alien species, the oankali, saving some human survivors from the apocalypse and beginning a gene-trading project with them, integrating them into their reproductive system and creating mixed/’construct’ generations with traits from both species. and like, to me, this was uncomfortably into the biology = destiny thing & didn’t really question the oankali assertion that humans were genetically doomed to hierarchical behaviour & aggression (& also weirdly straight for a book about an alien species with 3 genders that engages in 5-partner-reproduction with humans), so that angle fell flat for me for the most part, altho i suppose i do agree that embracing change, even change that comes at a cost, is better than clinging to an unsustainable (& potentially destructive) purity. where i think the series is most interesting is in its exploration of consent and in how far consent is possible in extremely one-sided power dynamics (curiously, while the oankali condemn and seem to lack the human drive for hierarchy, they find it very easy to abuse their position of power & violate boundaries & never question the morality of this. in this, the first book, focusing on a human survivor first encountering the oankali and learning of their project, is the most interesting, as lilith as a human most explicitly struggles with her position - would her consent be meaningful? can she even consent when there is a kind of biochemical dependence between humans and their alien mates? the other two books, told from the perspectives of lilith’s constructed/mixed children, continue discussing themes of consent, autonomy and power dynamics, but i found them less interesting the further they moved from human perspectives. on the whole: 2.5/5
love & other thought experiments, sophie ward man, we love a pierre menard reference. anyway. this is a novel in stories, each based (loosely) on a thought experiment, about (loosely) a lesbian couple and their son arthur, illness and grief, parenthood, love, consciousness and perception, alternative universes, and having an ant in your brain. it is thoroughly delightful & clever, but goes for warmth and humanity (or ant-ity) over intellectual games (surprising given that it is all about thought experiments - but while they are a nice structuring device i don’t think they add all that much). i haven’t entirely worked out my feelings about the ending and it’s hard to discuss anyway given the twists and turns this takes, but it's a whole lot of fun. 4/5
a general theory of oblivion, josé eduardo agualusa (tr. from portuguese by daniel hahn) interesting little novel(la) set in angola during and after the struggle for independence, in which a portuguese woman, ludo, with extreme agoraphobia walls herself into her apartment to avoid the violence and chaos (but also just... bc she has agoraphobia) with a involving a bunch of much more active characters and how they are connected to her to various degrees. i didn’t like the sideplot quite as much as ludo’s isolation in her walled-in flat with her dog, catching pigeons on the balcony and writing on the walls. 3/5
cassandra at the wedding, dorothy baker phd student cassandra returns home attend (sabotage) her twin sister judith’s wedding to a young doctor whose name she refuses to remember, believing that her sister secretly wants out. cass is a mess, and as a shift to judith’s perspective reveals, definitely wrong about what judith wants and maybe a little delusional, but also a ridiculously compelling narrator, the brilliant but troubled contrast to judith’s safer conventionality. on the whole, cassandra’s narrative voice is the strongest feature of a book i otherwise found a bit slow & a bit heavy on the quirky family. fav line is when cass, post-character-development, plans to “take a quick look at [her] dumb thesis and see if it might lead to something less smooth and more revolting, or at least satisfying more than the requirements of the University”. 3/5
the office of historical corrections, danielle evans a very solid collection of realist short stories (+ the titular novella), mainly dealing with racism, (black) womanhood, relationships between women, and anticolonial/antiracist historiography. while i thought all the stories were well-done and none stood out as weak or an unnecessary inclusion, there also weren’t any that really stood out to me. 3/5
sonnenfinsternis, arthur koestler (english title: darkness at noon) (audio) you know what’s cool about this book? when i added it to my goodreads tbr in 2012, i would have had to read it in translation as the german original was lost during koestler’s escape from the nazis, but since then, the original has been rediscovered and republished. yet another proof that leaving books on your tbr for ages is a good thing actually. anyway. this is a story about the stalinist purges, told thru old bolshevik rubashov, who, after serving the Party loyally for years & doing his fair share of selling people out for the Party, is arrested for ~oppositional activities. in jail and during his interrogations, rubashov reflects on the course the Party has taken and his own part (and guilt) in that, and the way totalitarianism has eaten up and poisoned even the most commendable ideals the Party once held (and still holds?), the course of history and at what point the end no longer justifies the means. it’s brilliant, rubashov is brilliant and despicable, i’m very happy it was rediscovered. 5/5
heads of the colored people, nafissa thompson-spires another really solid short story collection, also focused on the experiences of black people in america (particularly the black upper-middle class), black womanhood and black relationships, altho with a somewhat more satirical tone than danielle evans’s collection. standouts for me were the story in letters between the mothers of the only black girls at a private school, a story about a family of fruitarians, and a story about a girl who fetishises her disabled boyfriend(s). 3.5/5
pedro páramo, juan rulfo (gernan transl. by dagmar ploetz) mexican classic about a rich and abusive landowner (the titular pedro paramo) and the ghost town he leaves behind - quite literally, as, when his son tries to find his father, the town is full of people, quite ready to talk shit about pedro, but they are all dead. it’s an interesting setting with occasionally vivid writing, but the skips in time and character were kind of confusing and i lost my place a lot. i’d be interested in reading rulfo’s other major work, el llano en llamas. 2.5/5
verse für zeitgenossen, mascha kaléko short collection of the poems kaléko, a jewish german poet, wrote while in exile in the united states in the 30-40s, as well as some poems written after the end of ww2. kaléko’s voice is witty, but at turns also melancholy or satirical. as expected i preferred the pieces that directly addressed the experience of exile (”sozusagen ein mailied” is one of my favourite exillyrik pieces). 3/5
the harpy, megan hunter yeah this was boooooooring. the cover is really cool & the premise sounded intriguing (women gets cheated on, makes deal with husband that she is allowed to hurt him three times in revenge, women is also obsessed with harpies: female revenge & female monsters is my jam) but it’s literally so dull & trying so hard to be deep. 1.5/5
the liar’s dictionary, eley williams this is such a delightful book, from the design (those marbled endpapers? yes) to the preface (all about what a dictionary is/could be), to the chapter headings (A-Z words, mostly relating to lies, dishonesty, etc in some way or another, containing at least one fictitious entry), to the dual plots (intern at new edition of a dictionary in contemporary england checking the incomplete old dictionary for mountweazels vs 1899 london with the guy putting the mountweazels in), to williams’s clear joy about words and playing with them. there were so many lines that made me think about how to translate them, which is always a fun exercise. 3.5/5
catherine the great & the small, olja knežević (tr. from montenegrin by ellen elias-bursać, paula gordon) coming-of-age-ish novel about katarina from montenegro, who grows up in  titograd/podgorica and belgrad in the 70s/80s, eventually moving to london as an adult. to be honest while there are some interesting aspects in how this portrays yugoslavia and conflicts between the different parts of yugoslavia, i mostly found this a pretty sloggy slog of misery without much to emotionally connect to, which is sad bc i was p excited for it :(. 2/5
the decameron project: 29 new stories from the pandemic, anthology a collection of short stories written during covid lockdown (and mostly about covid/lockdown in some way). they got a bunch of cool authors, including margaret atwood, edwidge danticat, rachel kushner ... it’s an interesting project and the stories are mostly pretty good, but there wasn’t one that really stood out to me as amazing. i also kinda wish more of the stories had diverged more from covid/lockdown thematically bc it got a lil repetitive tbh. 2/5
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