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canary3d-obsessed · 4 years ago

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 09 second part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Blather)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Wen Chao’s Weird Bird, Redux

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walk away after killing the dire bird, and then Wen Chao, who was standing like 2 feet away, comes to collect its resentful little corpse. He totally heard Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji talking about him.

Wen Memorial

Now we visit the Wen memorial, which Wei Wuxian 2.0 won’t remember when he sees it again. Everyone who isn’t a Wen is confused and awkward while the Wens have an impromptu family conference. Agenda: 1. weeping 2. apologizing to ancestors for involuntarily being turned into temporary zombies. 3. getting the fuck out of dodge before it happens again

This is a burial place, and the non-Wen cultivators are deferential and tentative where before they were bossy. Wei Wuxian’s affect is particularly different from his normal swagger and decisiveness.

Look how gently he asks Wen Qing about this place, thinking carefully and making his expression conciliatory before he opens his mouth to speak.

(more after the cut)

The others react to this revelation by becoming even more awkward and uncomfortable...

But Wei Wuxian responds with shock and sympathy, once again showing why he makes friends wherever he goes, and why he is so vulnerable despite his many strengths. There is no “not my problem” setting in Wei Wuxian’s heart.

It occurs to me, in watching his reaction, that Wei Wuxian doesn’t have a single living blood relation, as far as he or we know, and at this point he has never met a single member of his own clan. Yes yes, he has an adoptive family, and that’s lovely; I’m an adoptive parent myself. But genetic family is also super important, particularly in the ancestor-revering culture we see depicted in The Untamed.

In any case, this moment of standing before the grave of Wen Qing’s people, with these few remaining members of her family--people who he will later get to know so well--seems to resonate with him.

Baby Wen

The scene at the shrine includes our first look at random cute kid massively important character Wen Yuan.

Let’s pretend Wen Yuan is a different age from however old he will be at the end of the Sunshot campaign, since the actor did not magically change ages. Here the character is probably two years old.

Rich Gege Lan Wangji in this scene is wearing the same gorgeous blue color he will be wearing years later when Wen Yuan grabs him and won’t let go. Maybe A-Yuan’s pre-fever memory was super good, and he remembered that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian belonged together.

Chicken Hunting

Wei Wuxian seems to be all in on this chicken hunt, making sure Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang join him, but then he circles back to talk privately with Wen Qing and Lan Wangji. This was a ruse to distract Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian is very good at manipulating Jiang Cheng and he does it frequently. He takes this ability way, way, way too far when he concocts the whole golden-core plan, which I’ll get into in the relevant episode. But this sibling dynamic is not great in either direction.

Incidentally, nobody asks about the giant chain mark on Wei Wuxian’s throat after he and Lan Wangji come back from their time in the woods together. What kind of rep does he have, exactly?

Having cornered Wen Qing, Wei Wuxian starts to question her seriously, but can’t resist an opportunity to flirt with Lan Wangji like an embarrassing dumbass.

Lan Wangji’s communication skills continue to improve, as he angrily tells Wei Wuxian "bì zuǐ! “ instead of storming off or shanking him with Bichen. [Chinese vocab OP has learned from watching CDramas: bì zuǐ (shut up), duì bù qǐ (sorry), nú cái zuì gāi wàn sǐ (your servant deserves to die for her offense)]

Wei Wuxian makes a visible effort to drag himself back over the line into propriety.

While Wei Wuxian apologizes to Lan Wangji with his eyes, Wen Qing wonders what she ever did to deserve being stuck in the middle of this crap.

Eventually the boys get the whole Wen backstory, and Wen Qing hits the road.

In what will become a repeating motif, Jiang Cheng asks Wen Qing to forget her family, abandon her clan, and bail on her little brother.

What the fuck, dude. You wouldn’t do that to Wei Wuxian and he’s your shige, not your didi. You are on this very road trip out of a sense of concern for him. As a female orphan who is the elder to her male sibling, Wen Qing’s obligation to Wen Ning is enormous even if she didn’t love him to bits. Not to mention she seems to be the clan leader for the Dafan Mountain Wens at this point. Jiang Cheng should understand her, but doesn’t.

Club Ruohan

God I’m boring

At some point in the episode we stop by Club Ruohan. Yawn. WRH tells Wen Chao he’s a dumbass for targeting Wen Qing’s people, and to get back to his fucking project already. Wen Chao talks about wanting to get “Wei Wuxian” and his homies - he doesn’t namecheck Lan Wangji, the ringbearer Yin Iron having person. Just bird-killer Wei Wuxian. That doesn’t bode well for Lotus Pier.

Wen Ruohan is actually fairly reasonable, for a power-hungry megalomaniac who’s busily corrupting himself with dark energies. Most of the atrocities in the “fuck all of the other clans” campaign were Wen Chao’s idea.

Downtown

The gang goes to Qiting and Lan Wangji gets ready to go doorknocking to find out where the next hunk of Iron is. Wei Wuxian stops him and says that his plan is stupid and it sucks.

In a truly amazing display of his developing trust in Wei Wuxian, socially awkward Lan Wangji asks WWX for advice on how to proceed.

Wei Wuxian’s answer is to go drinking. But...he’s not wrong. And he explains his reasoning to Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji before the grabbing and dragging part. Lan Wangji seems to be getting used to that part.

In fact Lan Wangji has already become a lot more comfortable with Wei Wuxian’s extroversion and high spirits than Jiang Cheng is, even though Jiang Cheng isn’t nearly as introverted as Lan Wangji. That’s love for ya.

Tavern Talk

Wei Wuxian slaps a heap of coins down on the table and proceeds to extravagantly order...three jugs of wine. That seems pretty moderate, but they all react like he’s a big spender.

Wei Wuxian: No worries, Rich Gege's got me covered

Wangxian’s old-married-couple dynamic appears on the scene fully formed, as Wei Wuxian slowly undresses a bottle of wine and Lan Wangji tells him to stop dawdling.

Chatting with the guy at the Inn works exactly as well as Wei Wuxian said it would, as he tells them about creepy doings at the old Chang place.

Lan Wangji’s bag of holding, which was definitely not tucked into his perfectly smooth chest placket a second ago....

bursts forth like the xenomorph in Alien, startling everyone and causing Lan Wangji a lot of pain and brow furrowing.

Wei Wuxian leaps over and puts a steadying hand on his shoulder, and tells him to relax and concentrate, in a bit of a role reversal from earlier. Lan Wangji doesn’t shake him off.

Once the Yin Iron settles down again, they dash off to investigate the creepy doings, leaving Nie Huaisang behind to meet up with Meng Yao. I’m sure everyone will be glad some day that they created an opportunity for Meng Yao to join them and the new enemy they are about to capture.

Cheng Compound

At the Cheng compound, the door is shut and there are creepy noises. Time for a talisman!

It’s sweet how when anything fucked-up and necromantic happens, these guys immediately look to Wei Wuxian for the right way to deal with it.

The outfits here form a nice a nice contrast, with the two clan lineal descendants dressed in near-matching blue with silver crowns, while Wei Wuxian has changed out of his blue and red robes and into his future signature black. The leather hair band is as fancy as he gets - he wears his outsider status pretty proudly, even at this early age.

The boys open the doors on a scene so grotesque, even gravity has become meaningless.

Lan Wangji: This is horrifying, so extremely untidy

Jiang Cheng: Do I know any of these people? No? Ok, this is fine then

Wei Wuxian: I wonder if I could kill this many people all by myself. That would be epic.

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #chen qing ling #the untamed gifs #wangxian #the untamed spoilers #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #weird stuff keeps happening with my keep-reading cuts #sorry if there doesnt seem to be a cut on this post #i swear it's there

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anon-e-miss · 4 years ago

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Broken Vows 6

It was difficult to remain angry with Jazz. His kindness, his generosity in so many ways made up for his failings. Prowl would speak to him regarding what he had told Smokescreen, but not in anger. Jazz was open about his emotions, honest in a way Prowl did not know how to be. Generally this was a more positive trait that Prowl’s own stoicism, but Smokescreen was so young, and so overburden for one his age. He needed to be better protected from the turmoil of those grown mechanisms around him. Prowl would ask that Jazz be more careful, and Prowl would be more careful too. Let Smokescreen just be a mechling again. Let him be mischievious. Let him be wild. Let him be free.

Prowl leaned into Jazz’s servo. One lapse was not enough to push him away. It was not so much a sin as to deserve to be barred from Smokescreen’s presence. They had clicked, progenitor and creation, instantly. There was a bond already forming that was deep and true. This was everything Prowl had ever wished for Smokescreen. He could not help but fear the suffering that would come if Jazz suffered the same fragmentation as he had before. Not only his, but Smokescreen’s. But also Jazz’s. There was no question that Jazz had suffered. Prowl loathed nothing more than to be measured by nothing but his glitch, and he would not measure Jazz simply by his illness. Instead, he willed himself to measure Jazz by his strength in overcoming that fragmentation. It could not have been a small feat of mental and emotional strength.

“There’s somethin’ else... a few somethings...” Jazz murmured. They both glanced to Smokescreen who at curled up at Prowl’s side, that plushie in his arms as he immersed himself in his story.

“You have given us enough,” Prowl replied. He did not want Jazz bankrupting himself out of guilt. That was the very last think he would want. “You have given him a piece of his life back.”

“I ran into the owner o’ Just a Jillion Things. The designation’s accurate, they got a lot o’ everythin’. There’s more... Anyway, he gave me a deal... and he gave you this.”

Jazz placed a dataslug in Prowl’s good servo.

“When y’re settin’ up yer habsuite, he wants ya to come ‘n pick what ya need.”

“Do I want to know how much is on this?” Prowl felt his voice crack. Smokescreen glanced up at him, and Prowl brushed his servo over his creation’s helm.

“My guess? No limit. He was real insistent that ya deserved it. We haggled for three breams before I could convince him to let me pay for anythin’.”

“How could he know anything about me?”

“Yer story went viral. A medtech sold out to the tabloids. Y’re identities are safe but a Miracle from Primus is all over the data-net.”

“Oh,” Prowl cringed as he sucked in a harsh intake. “I suppose it was not realistic to hope we could just integrate into Iacon.”

“Why are you scared, Origin?” Smokescreen asked.

“I want you and Bluestreak to have normal lives. I do not want Xeon to have any claim to you from the grave.”

“Well, he called you Pantera, and he called Blue Silverstreak. Everyone’s called you Prowl here already, and Blue Bluestreak.”

“Clever, Smokey. He’s right Prowl. No reason anyone’s gotta know ya ain’t just normal Praxians. Xeon ain’t around to claim ya.”

“He is not... Some must know.”

“Those in the know here are already in a world o’ trouble. Y’re on record as Autobot Prowl, ‘n Smokey as yer dependent. I can edit the record, put Blue in. No one’s gotta know the difference.”

“How do I explain Bluestreak’s parentage? I do not want to hide that Smokescreen is yours.”

“We just put me down as the progenitor. Simple.”

“Simple,” Prowl echoed.

“You’re gonna adopt Blue?” Smokescreen asked. He sounded so jubilant at the prospect that Prowl was taken aback.

“More or less. If y’re origin’s cool wit the plan.”

“No one would believe it.” Prowl’s argument was laced with regret.

“‘M Spec Ops, Prowl. Hidin’ a lover’s the exact sort o’ thing one o’ me ‘n mine would do.”

“Have any of your subordinate’s done such a thing” Prowl asked.

“If they have, they haven’t told me. Which is exactly what I’d hope. Secrets are worth more than shanix, ‘n they go much farther if ya don’t go spreadin’ them around.”

Why was he hesitating? Prowl could not imagine wanting anything more, but still he shied. Why was Smokescreen thrilled at the prospect? Could that question have been what was holding Prowl back? It had never been a secret that Smokescreen had detested Xeon at first sight. When Prowl had asked what had inspired such an ardent hate, Smokescreen had only replied that Xeon felt slimy. When asked to clarify if Xeon had ever laid a digit on him Smokescreen had said no. Xeon felt slimy, the sense of he mech, not his touch, or even his glyphs. The mech had kept his glyph to Prowl, he had provided the tutors Prowl had wanted for Smokescreen and he had never said a cruel glyph to Prowl’s beloved creation. He might have become a surrogate progenitor, if only for PR’s sake, but Smokescreen had made it his mission to avoid the Conjunx Endura of his originator whenever possible. Prowl had learned he servants’ passages well, but Smokescreen had known every nook, and every possible escape and he had made good use of this knowledge. Even when Prowl had commanded his presence, Smokescreen had simply been unwilling to suffer Xeon’s presence.

Prowl had wondered if Smokescreen simply did not want to share him with anyone, but he had embraced Bluestreak without hesitation and he seemed to embrace Jazz’s presence without any of his traditional wariness. He had spent the entirety of Smokescreen’s carrying mourning Jazz and he had spent the entirety of Bluestreak’s carrying wishing he was Jazz’s. Letting Jazz claim Bluestreak would not change his newling parentage. Xeon would haunt Prowl forever through him, but Prowl did not need to let it cripple him. Jazz wanted to claim him. If Prowl refused, he believed that Jazz would still dote on him as much as Prowl allowed, ensuring the mechling had no reason to be jealous of his brother. But he would hear Smokescreen call Jazz genitor. And he would ask about his own. Prowl did not want Bluestreak to ever know Xeon’s designation.

“If you want to be his progenitor, Jazz,” Prowl said. “I would welcome the claim.”

“Thank ya,” Jazz said. “I’ll take care o’ it.”

“Are we going to go home with you?” Smokescreen asked. Prowl took another sharp intake.

“My place ain’t big ‘nough,” Jazz replied. Smokescreen dropped his helm against Prowl’s side and his originator knew without looking that he was pouting. Jazz smiled at him. He looked so adoring and Prowl’s spark quivered. Prowl had known, had been certain, that Jazz would adore Smokescreen but seeing Jazz look at their creation with so much love brought tears to Prowl’s optics. It was what he had wished for most for so long. “But I won’t be far. I’ll see ya as often as ya want.”

“Every mega-cycle?” Smokescreen asked.

“If that’s what ya want,” Jazz promised.

It was what Prowl wanted. He wanted it from Smokescreen and he wanted it for himself. Prowl loved and that love terrified him. Would he be strong enough to endure if Jazz suffered another case of fragmentation? No, Prowl had learned he was not especially strong, but at if it occurred again, Prowl would at least know what was happening. There was a better chance he could actually see that Jazz was helped. Of course, Jazz had friends now who were better situated to see Jazz through out. Smokescreen nuzzled his helm against Prowl’s side and Jazz watched him, searched his face, always too perceptive.

“Perhaps we might be able to find a habsuite in the same block as Jazz,” Prowl suggested. Jazz smiled at him, the warmth of it soothed Prowl a little.

“I don’t live on base,” Jazz said. “But if ya’d prefer it, I mean... I could move. I could work it out.”

“You never liked living under prying optics,” Prowl remembered.

“Neither did ya,” Jazz replied.

“I am accustom to it at this point,” Prowl replied.

Living as Consort, Prowl had become used to his every movement being noted. This was why he had memorized the schedule of the palace’s servants as well the layout of the servants’ passages as well so that he could go about his clandestine activities unseen. Regardless where Prowl lived now, he would be watched and his movements would be restricted. Base housing would be the logical choice, it would the most security, in theory, but only in theory. The Autobots were not to blame for his choices, Prowl could blame no one but himself for his decision to bond to Xeon. Still, the only bright point of his service in Iacon had been Jazz. Their fellow Autobots had been everything but his friends or allies.

“I wonder if there is something I could rent near Mirror’s,” Prowl wondered out loud. “I liked that district.”

“I’ll look for ya,” Jazz said.

“How far is it from your habsuite?” Prowl asked. “It would make more sense if we focused the search in your district.”

“It’s close enough,” Jazz replied. “Anyways, I liked that district too. They still have that pretty park we used to walk in.”

“I missed that park,” Prowl whispered. The manicured paths of the Helix Garden and the Royal Estate had been poor substitutes.

“I’ll take ya, soon as Ratchet says yer fit,” Jazz promised. “Then we can walk down to Mirror’s ‘n introduce the mechlings to her.”

“I would like that.”

These had been his favourite kind of dates. Prowl did not enjoy pageantry. Quiet walks and cozy evenings in, those where his favourite dates. There was a quick rap on the door and Prowl stiffened. He understood they were safe, especially with Jazz so close. Though he was sore and tired, Prowl did not want Ratchet to send Jazz away. His processor was no where close to settled. Without being drugged to oblivion, Prowl would not be able to recharge and Smokescreen was nowhere close to needing a nap. If he argued that, perhaps the medic would leave them be. Maybe, he could convince him to let Jazz stay. Jazz turned away, towards the door, paused and waited.

“It’s Prime,” Jazz explained. “He’d like to speak wit ya if yer up to it.”

“Is he so much different from Sentinel or Zeta?” Prowl asked.

“As different as dark-cycle from light,” Jazz replied.

The way Jazz looked at him, Prowl guessed he had questions. Prowl had called himself a member of the intellectual class and that was the truth. His adoptive procreators, the procreators of his originator, had been minor members. They had refused to be tied to Zeta and his primacy. It was one of the few of their lessons Prowl was happy to adhere to. Seeing Prowl’s glitch as evidence of the weakness of Zeta’s character, they had been strict, loveless guardians. It had not even occurred to Prowl to tell Jazz of their deaths when they had died during his tenure in Iacon. He had not mourned them. Had they been alive when Prowl had returned to Praxus, they would have told him he was reaping what he had sowed by laying with a casteless thug. Despite the fact that they had not lived long enough to fill his audios with their vitriol, Prowl still heard it, in his helm and in his spark and he loathed himself for it. Jazz was not a thug.

“I’ll send ‘m off,” Jazz said. Prowl shook his helm.

“No, I am fine,” he said. “I will see him. You will stay?”

“As long as ya want me, Prowler,” Jazz promised.

#broken vows #broken vow #broken vows 6 #oops i wrote it again #tf jazz #tf prowl #ficlet #maccadams #anon-e-miss writes

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st-just · 3 years ago

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Barely coherent rambling about nation-states, culture, the Hapsburgs, and Canada

Because why have a blog except to occasionally purge one of the essays floating around half-formed in your brain. To be clear, it’s still half-formed, just on tumblr now. 1,666 words, here’s the Deveraux essay mentioned. Book is Martyn Rady’s The Hapsburgs: To Rule The World

So I’ve had like, nationalism on my mind recently.

And so there’s a kind of recurring beat in left-of-centre American political discourse (like, not ‘internet rnados screaming at each other’ discourse, ‘people with doctorates or think tank positions having debates on podcasts or exchanging op eds’ discourse) where you have some people on the radical end list some of the various horrible atrocities the country is built on, the ways that all the national myths are lies, and how all the saints of the civic religion were monsters to one degree or another – this can come in a flavor of either righteous anger or, like, intellectual sport. And then on the other end you have the, well, Matt Yglesiases of the world. Who don’t really argue any of the points of fact, but do kind of roll their eyes at the whole exercise and say that sure, but Mom and Apple Pie and the American Way are still popular, and if you’re trying to win power in a democracy telling the majority of the population that their most cherished beliefs are both stupid and evil isn’t a great move.

Anyway, a couple weeks back Deveraux posted an essay for the 4th of July (which I don’t totally buy, but is an interesting read) about why the reason American nationalism is so intensely bundled up into a couple pieces of paper and maybe a dozen personalities is precisely because it isn’t a nation at all. Basically, his thesis is that in proper nation-states like England or the Netherlands or wherever, there really is a core population that is the overwhelming demographic majority and really have lived in more or less the same places since time immemorial, and that once the enthographers and mythologists finish their work, all those people really do identify with both the same nation and the same state as its expression. America, by contrast, is by virtue of being a settler nation whose citizenry was filled by waves of immigrants from all the ass ends of Eurasia in a historical eyeblink, even before you add in the native population and descendants of slaves lacks any single core ethnicity that is anywhere close to a majority, as well as any organic national traditions or claims to an ‘ancestral homeland’ that aren’t obviously absurd (and we are trying to include the descendents of slaves and the native population these days, to varying levels of success). All this to say that his point is America is a civic state, not a national one, with the identity of ‘American’ being divorced from ethnicity and instead tied to things like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the whole cult around the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and [FDR and/or Reagan depending on your politics].

Which, like I said, don’t totally buy, but interesting. (to a degree he overstates how homogenus ‘actual’ nation-states are, he makes America sound very special but if his analysis holds that it’d presumably also apply to several other former settler colonies, in the American context there’s a fairly solid case to be made that the whole ‘nation of immigrants’ story and the racial identity of whiteness were constructed to function as an erratz national ethnicity, with incredible success, etc, etc).

But anyway, if we accept that the American identity is bound up in its civic religion and the mythologized version of its political history, it’s absolutely the case that there’s several segments of the left who take incredibly joy in tearing said civic religion and national mythology apart and dragging whatever’s left through the mud. I mean, hell, I do! (reminder: any politician whose ever had a statue dedicated to them was probably a monster). And, well, call it a greater awareness of historical crimes and injustice, or the postmodern disdain for idols and systems leaking out through the increasingly college-educated populace, or the liquid acid of modernity dissolving away all unchosen identities, or a Marxist cabal undermining the national spirit to pave the way for the Revolution or whatever you like, but in whichever case, that critical discourse is certainly much more prominent and influential among left and liberal media and politics types that is was in decades past.

And, okay, so I finished Martyn Rady’s The Hapsburgs a few days ago. And I mentioned as I was reading it that the chapters on the 19th and 20th centuries reminded me quite a bit of courses I’d taken in school on the late Ottoman Empire and Soviet Union. Because all three are multi/non-national states (Empires, in Deveraux’s terminology, though that’s varying degrees of questionable for each, I think. Moreso for the Hapsburgs than the rest) who outlasted their own ideological legitimacy. And in all three cases it just, well, it didn’t not matter, but even as all the ceremonies got more absurd and farcical and the politics more consumed by inertia punctuated with crises, things kept limping along just fine for decades. Even in the face of intense crisis, dissolution wasn’t inevitable. (The Ottomans are a less central example here, admittedly, precisely because of the late attempt to recenter the empire on Turkish nationalism. But even then, more Arab soldiers fought for the Sultan-Caliph than ever did for the Hashemites, and most prewar Arab nationalism was either purely cultural or imagined the Empire reformed into a binational federation, not dissolved).

But as Rady says in the book – losing WW1 crippled Germany, it dissolved Austria-Hungary. And in all three cases, as soon as they were gone, the idea of bringing them back instantly became at least a bit absurd.

And okay, to now pivot to talking about where I actually live but about whose politics I (shamefully) know significantly less than America’s. I mean, maybe it’s because most of my history education from public school was given by either pinko commies or liberals still high off ‘90s one-world universalism, or maybe it’s just a matter of social class, but I really can’t remember ever having taken the whole wannabe civic religion of Canada seriously (the only even serious attempt at sacredness I recall was for Remembrance Day). Even today, the main things I remember about our Founding Father is that he was an alcoholic who lost power in a railroad corruption scandal.

Really, in all my experience the only unifying threads of national/particular Canadian identity are a flag, a healthcare system, those Canadian Heritage Minute propaganda ads, a bill of rights from the ‘60s, and an overpowering sense of polite smugness towards the States.

And that last one (or, at least, the generally rose-colored ‘Canada is the good one’ view of history) is taking something of a beating, on account of all the mass graves really rubbing the public’s noses in the whole genocide thing. At least among big segments of the intellectual and activist classes, most of the symbols of Canadian nationhood are necessarily becoming illegitimate as Canada is, in fact, a project of genocidal settle colonialism.

But it really is just purely symbolic. Most of the municipalities who cancelled their Canada Day celebrations are going to elect Liberal MPs and help give our Natural Governing Party its majority in the next election, no one of any significance has actually challenged the authority of the civil service or the courts. And, frankly, most of the people who are loudly skeptical of all the symbols of the nations are also the ones whose political projects most heavily rely on an efficient and powerful state bureaucracy to carry out.

(This is leaving aside Quebec, which very much does have a live national identity insofar as the vigorous protection of national symbols is what wins provincial elections. If I felt like doing research and/or reaching more there’s probably something there on how pro-independence sentiment has largely simmered down at a pace with the decline of attempts to impose a national Canadian identity).

I mean, Canada does have rather more of a base for a ‘national’ population core than the US (especially if you’re generous and count the people who mark French on the census as a core population as well). At the same time, no one really expects this to continue to be the case – even back in Junior High, I remember one of the hand outs we got explaining that due to declining fertility most or all future population growth would come from immigration (I remember being confused when my mother was weirdly uncomfortable with the idea when it came up). I suppose our government gets credit for managing public opinion such that anti-immigration backlash hasn’t taken over the political conversation. Which you’d think would be a low bar but, well.

But anyway, to try and begin wrapping this rambling mess up – it does rather feel like Rady’s portrayal of the late Hapsburg empire might have a few passing similarities to the future of Canada. A multinational state whose constitution and political system and built on foundations and legitimized by history that no one actually believes in anymore, or at least no more than they have to pretend to to justify the positions they hold, but persisting because it’s convenient and it’s there and any alternatives are really only going to seem practical after a complete economic collapse or apocalyptic war. (Though our civil service is a Josephist’s dream by comparison, really.)

Or maybe I’m premature, and the dominant culture will just be incredibly effective at assimilating immigrants into that civic identity. Anecdotally, the only people I know who are at all enthusiastic about Canada as an idea are first generation immigrants. I could certainly just be projecting, really – I’ve never really been able to get all that invested in the nation-state as an idea of more moral power than ‘a convenient administrative division of humanity’, and certainly liberating ourselves form the need to defend the past would certainly rectifying certain injustices easier.

Or maybe I’m just being incredibly optimistic. Half the economy’s resource extraction and the other half’s real estate, so decent odds the entire place just literally goes up in flames over the next few decades. BC’s already well on its way.

#politics #political theory #nationalism #in this essay I will #this is theoretically a writing blog #the hapsburgs: to rule the world

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wearesorcerer · 4 years ago

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[5e] 9th-Level Spells

You may be wondering why I’m starting my review of 5e spells with the highest level spells available. That’s simple: you only get one.

The 5e Sorcerer table isn’t quite like the 3.x one, but it is like the 3.5 Warlock and Psion: at any given level, you can known X spells and have Y spell level as your maximum. The table is elegant, but you have to know to level your character from first level rather than reading the table straight across if you’re making a higher level character. (I’ve made this mistake many a time. It’s why I dislike this sort of table: it looks nice but isn’t actually helpful.)

If you’re trying to have as many spells of the highest available spell level as possible, you would have from 0th to 9th 6/3/2/2/2/2/1/1/1/1. I find it easier to work backwards in this case, as you can say “I want to reserve X spells known for higher-level spells” and then figure out how many low-level ones you can have instead of getting to a higher level and running into a corner.

The question with 9th-level spells is not “what’s good?” because they’re all good. Rather, it’s “what’s worth taking as my single most powerful class feature?” That should narrow things down a lot.

Primary List

gate · mass polymorph · meteor swarm · power word kill · psychic scream · time stop · wish

I’ve written about wish and time stop ZA WARUDO! (time crunchy noises), but not in the context of 5e. Wish has changed substantially; time stop hasn’t. You have a few options, but the majority of them are boom-boom.

Gate: you can hold open an interplanar portal for as long as you concentrate (up to a minute) at the cost of a 5,000 gp diamond; if you know the name of a specific creature, you can use the spell to summon that creature. For some odd reason, gate is both the most Warlock spell in the game besides planar binding, yet is only a Warlock spell through a UA variant. For a Sorcerer, this could be useful, but you’re making your best spell cost you money every time you cast it. Strategically speaking, this spell is situational enough (read: a Wizard spell) that if you wanted it in the first place you should take it with the Ritual Caster feat, but for some reason this most obviously ritualistic spell isn’t a ritual. There are better uses for your spell known, but this is by no means a bad spell. Save for a scroll or something.

Mass Polymorph: you polymorph (Wis negates) up to ten creatures you can see within 120 ft. for as long as you concentrate (up to one hour), just like with polymorph. It incorporates animal shapes into it. If you want animal shapes, you should find a way of getting it instead: you don’t need a 9th-level spell slot for it (so can cast it more often -- 8th + 9th level spell slots), it lasts for 24 hours, and you can affect more creatures (30 ft. area = radius = 96 squares - the one you’re in = 95 Medium creatures [more if they’re smaller and squeezing together]). I don’t care for the concentration aspect of the 5e polymorph spells. I mean, I get the rationale, I just find it odd for this particular spell -- and I’d rather not give my opponent a tactical reason to target me. Pass.

Meteor Swarm: four fireballs fall from the sky and each deal 20d6 fire + 20d6 bludgeoning (Dex half; average 140 damage), setting everything they touch ablaze. Beautiful. I love meteor-style spells, so this is high on my list even though it’s a boom-boom spell and I’m not particularly boom-boom oriented. The best part of this is that it has a range of one mile, so you can destroy enemy armies without risking getting killed! Yay! Yes.

Power Word Kill: one creature within 60 ft. of 100 HP or less drops dead (no save). 100 HP is more than the average of many high-level characters, so unless the DM gave a boss max HP you can use this to kill even major opponents reliably. An optimizer will tell you that a spell without a save is something you should always take -- and would be correct insofar as it makes you more difficult to stop. I, however, dislike that mechanic: there’s almost no reason a spell shouldn’t have a save. This one should have the choice of Wis (resisting the mental influence) and Con (staying alive despite the heart attack/stroke/whatever). A very good spell, but I’d call it OP.

Psychic Scream: 10 creatures of Int 3+ within 90 ft. take 14d6 psychic damage and are stunned (Int half [damage]/negates [stunning]); their heads explode if they die. The beauty of this one is that it goes off of Int rather than Wis (meaning Wizards are the only targets you really need to worry about) and it automatically avoids friendly fire. Yes.

Time Stop ZA WARUDO!: you get 1d4 + 1 rounds to act, but the spell ends if anything you do (including effects you create) affect other creatures or objects someone else is wearing or carrying or you move more than 1,000 ft. from where you cast the spell. The main purpose of this spell is to buff yourself a lot, run the fuck away, or stack delayed blast fireballs to deal a buttload of damage. That’s all very nice, but it’s a continuation of the 3.0 nerf to the spell: in 2nd ed, you could pull a DIO and attack people or an Over the Hedge and steal things. Now for my main quibble. 3.5′s Player’s Handbook II had the celerity line of spells, which you could cast as an immediate action (choice of reaction or bonus action). Each one dazed (incapacitated) you afterward, but gave you an extra move (lesser), action (no prefix), or round (greater) to do with as you pleased. I’m willing to guess that there are similar spells in 5e. In 3.5, there were ways of becoming immune to dazing; maybe there’s a 5e-compatible build for that. Either way, as a 9th-level spell, I should get to throw knives at people to my heart’s content before dropping heavy objects (like steam road rollers) on them. Good, but I’m going to go to my grave complaining about the restrictions.

Wish: you can do practically anything, but you have a one in three chance of losing your ability to cast your highest-level spell. IT’S A TRAP!

For very personal reasons, I’m torn between meteor swarm and time stop, but psychic scream is also up there. I think power word kill is unfair, but I cannot say that it’s a bad spell. I don’t like mass polymorph, but I think that’s more me not liking how 5e deals with durations. Wish is too big of a risk for a Sorcerer: you have the chance of losing the most powerful class feature you get and have nothing else that can compensate for that loss (unlike a Wizard); it’s better as a scroll. Gate really should be a ritual, but it isn’t, and it’s expensive, so it really depends on how badly you need to move lots and lots of creatures or summon forth an Elder God.

Divine Soul (Cleric) List

astral projection · gate · mass heal · true resurrection

I’ve already covered gate, thankfully.

Astral Projection: exactly what it says on the tin for you and eight willing creatures. I have never understood why this spell is so high-level. Mechanically, it’s riskier and more expensive than casting plane shift, which is two levels lower. Thematically, it’s a mass version of an effect which in folklore is almost always caster-only, which makes no sense, and it’s at max-level when this is fairly standard practice for shaman and shaman-like figures. (Heck, that’s what a bunch of the associated drug culture is about!) Maybe someone can explain to me why you would want to use this spell. Pass.

Mass Heal: heal 700 HP divided as you choose among any number of creatures (except constructs and undead) you can see within 60 ft.; also cures them of all diseases, blindness, and deafness. On the one hand, this seems like a great spell with a raid or during a cataclysm. On the other, you can accomplish everything this does with lower-level spells. Pretty good, but maybe hold out for...

True Resurrection: a creature you touch (or whose name you speak) is restored to life and perfect health (no wounds, no missing limbs, cured of all diseases and poisons, freed from any curses), even if there are no remains, provided the creature has been dead for no longer than 200 years and is free/willing to return. PICK THIS ONE!

Variant List (UA)

Foresight: for eight hours, a creature you touch can’t be surprised, gets advantage on most d20 checks, and causes all creatures attacking it to roll with disadvantage. This is better than the 3.5 version, which was already very good. Yes, this. Very.

Really Cool Spells It’d Be Great to Take If You Could

Or me lamenting about the limitations of the Sorcerer list

imprisonment · invulnerability · power word heal · prismatic wall · ravenous void · shapechange · storm of vengeance · time ravage · true polymorph · weird

Imprisonment: you know any of those fairy tale/folklore/mythology spells that trap someone for, like, ever? This is it. (Combines the spell of the same name, maze, and binding from 3.5.) You’ve got options if you want to seal someone away -- and it lasts until you say otherwise. Sure, it’d be nice if it were a ritual, but it ain’t; you just gotta take a minute to cast it (and throw in 500 gp. of material per HD of the target).

Invulnerability: you are immune to damage for up to 10 minutes (at the cost of “a piece of adamantine” [in D&D, that’s closer to depleted uranium than it is to diamond] of 500+ gp.). Maybe you don’t like the cost for a spell of that level, but hey, invulnerability.

Power Word Heal: target (non-construct, non-undead) regains all HP; has the charmed, frightened, paralyzed, and stunned conditions removed; and can stand up as a reaction if prone. This is a Bard spell, but it’s on the Cleric and Druid variant lists, so probably is an option for Divine Souls. I can see it being handy, but you’d think mass heal would be a better choice.

Prismatic Wall: you conjure up a rainbow wall/sphere (as prismatic spray) that’s a bitch to get rid of. You want an abjuration? This is it.

Ravenous Void: a miniature black hole that needs some errata (how many spaces do creatures and objects getting sucked in move each round?). It’s ludicrously awesome, though.

Shapechange: other than true polymorph, this is what you want out of polymorphing magic.

Storm of Vengeance: let’s say you want all of the boom-boom of meteor swarm but are more meteorologically focused. Here’s your answer. You end up dealing an average of 49 damage (of three elemental types and bludgeoning) to each creature below a storm cloud (360 ft. radius) you conjure within sight. There’s an arbitrary distance beneath the cloud included, as it doesn’t say how far up the cloud has to be.

Time Ravage: you decrepify someone with timey-wimey magic -- but it’s somehow necromancy!

True Polymorph: you can transform almost anything into almost anything else. The limits on this spell are basically to keep you from thinking you’re a literal god and overall I’d think this would work better in a skill-based magic system, but nonetheless it’s quite clearly the best polymorphing spell in the game.

Weird: this is mass phantasmal killer. It’s directly comparable to psychic scream -- Illusion rather than Enchantment, fear rather than stunning, and more potential targets in a smaller burst instead of headsplosions.

#5e #spells

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minecraftoworymode · 5 years ago

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bob the old builders

#OK I KNOW WANDA PAINTED THIS I JUST KNOW SHE DID #WHY DID THEY CUT THIS THUIS SO FUNNY #MCSM #also the steve placeholder.. bro im telling u.. they keep confirming my lore #it keeps Happening #Many Thoughts Head Full. #ok but the fact its Just Fred raises many questions like binta knew about xara and rom but they arent considered on the same level as fred #even though the three of them created the universe together... so is it just like the three divided communities rewriting their own religio #steve here is very likely just a placeholder like hes been in concept art before but like... i have no doubt in my mind soren would be here #i stand by my fucking lore to the grave that the first ever steve avatars were the first builders and soren was a part of them #and thats THAT. on THAT. period.

@b0x TO BORROW A PHRASE, YOUR THIRD EYE IS NOT ONLY OPEN BUT SHOOTING DEADLY LASERS (I HOPE ITS OK TO TAG YOU/SHOW YOUR TAGS AHHGHHDFHGDFHGK) I’D LOVE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT YOUR LORE?!?!? N AS AN OFFERING I WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND MY OWN THOTS ON THESE FUNKY LITTLE CUBES

(related to my ideas on classes and worlds)

SO steve n alex do factor in to my mcsm au but they weren’t the first humans (or humans at all for that matter but. thats another post)- those would indeed be the old builders (tho i also like to call them ‘moderators/mods’ bc, ha ha admins and mods... n i kind of like the idea of referring to them collectively as the moderation bc none of them have ANY impulse control except maybe soren and otto once every century or so.)

i think the admins took on (at the very least) three “proteges” among them and we meet most in game. i’ll be naming the groups by the time-honoured convention of ‘shared flawed mindset that bites them in the tushie’.

“WHO NEEDS HEALTHY COPING MECHANISMS WHEN YOU HAVE GODLIKE POWERS? IF I’M HAVING FUN EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD BE TOO!”: mevia, hadrian, cassie rose, with romeo’s favourite probably being hadrian. all obsessed with being extra, getting what they want, and being generally choleric. i mean you couldn’t just sit down and talk things out like a reasonable adult, you had to build a death mansion murder mystery complete with scooby doo style killersona? you couldn’t just keep your games fun and balanced, you HAD to turn it into a minecraft hunger games where no one is there by choice just so you can be amused by the struggles of people you dont see as people? you couldn’t just offer a good enough reward to entice jesse to come to your icy palace of doom willingly, you had to trash their town and then threaten their entire world?? guys, please go to therapy. please.

"I KNOW THIS SITUATION ISN’T RIGHT BUT I NEED WAIT UNTIL I CAN BE SURE I’M MAKING THE BEST AND FAIREST DECISION I- OOPS THERE GOES MY WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO ACT. WELP, TIME TO TRIP AND SPILL ALL MY TICTACS”: otto, soren, (binta?? i have no canon justification for this one but making it make sense is,,, another post ghklfHGLKD). as it seems that the old builders all have (or had until it got stolen/destroyed) an enchanted flint and steel, soren having had one would explain his books being in almost every other world the gang visits (including, notably, fred’s keep in the underneath..). though it doesn’t explain why soren’s ended up in a random loot chest. (at least, canon doesn’t- i have som hcs about why soren wouldn’t want to draw the admin’s attention to himself, n using a flint and steel would definitely do that- so in this case it was probably ivor’s crowbrain going “ooo, shiny artifact! might as well steal that too for when i’m done with this whole command block stuff.”)

“I’M ABOUT TO GO ABSOLUTELY OFF THE SHITS AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME. MAY MY PATRON SAINT MUMBO JUMBO BE WITH ME TODAY, BECAUSE THIS MAY OR MAY NOT GO HORRIBLY WRONG. FOR SCIENCE!!!”: harper, isa, (yeah i dont really know who could be the third one in canon- idt ellegaard was an old builder- so this ones a big ole ???), with harper being xara’s favourite. admittedly i’m not sure about isa, she’s only really here because of the eversource- but considering the only others who mention those are the old builders, well... wrt isa’s lack of old builder powers, i think that xara’s old builders liked to try doing things that had never been done before (or any visionary-aligned individuals, really,, hence the name ghklfdhglkd). for harper that was building pokemon red in minecraft pama, and for isa that was renouncing her old builder powers so as to live amongst her people like one of them (tho this was more of a social experiment).

finally, the purpose of the old builders (DELVING STRAIGHT INTO HC TERRITORY HERE)- in addition to having beings to interact with other than the villagers- were to be sort of microcosms of what romeo is/was to the mcsm universe as operator/op, but for individual worlds (bc the admins aren’t going to be in all of them at once, even if they can inhabit multiple bodies). the role of the operator is to be the creator and catalyst, to keep the universe/server running, to introduce new factors into it so that it can grow and become something better than it was before. (this also means that romeo literally cannot die/be killed, bc the universe is dependent on his existence.)

it’s not that worlds can’t take care of themselves, but in the event of potentially catastrophic threats emerging, it’d be good to have someone with admin powers lite to step in and stop things before things escalated n potentially spread to other worlds- tho only as a very very very last resort, bc otherwise how are u gonna farm champions?

anyhow this post is getting. pretty loNG so, on a last note- my stance on canon lore (esp mcsm lore, or what little of it there is) is that they’re more guidelines than actual rules so i’ll admit some of my au (new game +) does just yeet canon, tho i tried to keep the absolute wildest shit out of this post. again, i’d be SUPER interested in hearing more about your own takes on the lore/plot/literally any aspect of this game?!?!?! my hyperfixation level has been at 418% for the past few months and it hasnt gone down and i am. s o thirsty for content... i hoPE IT WASN’T PRESUMPTUOUS OF ME TO MAKE THIS POST N ALSO THAT UR HAVING A GOOD DAY/NIGHT/PERIOD OF THE 24-HOUR CYCLE WE BASE OUR LIVES UPON AAAAAAA

#mcsm #minecraft story mode #msg #F for cassie rose im so sorry there werent enough poses in the original meme bas #e

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thebiblesalesman · 6 years ago

Photo

A Knowing Grin: Relationships in What You Left Behind, the New Overwatch Short Story

Baptiste & Mauga

Nguyen & Sainclair

Overwatch & Talon

The Middle East Scenario

Baptiste & Mauga

Baptiste and Mauga moved in tandem, with the practiced ease of soldiers used to fighting together. It had been years, but it came back quickly, as natural as breathing.

“I missed you, you know,” Mauga called over the roar of gunfire. He was enjoying every moment of the battle, relishing the adrenaline. Baptiste could feel that same rush in his veins, too. “All those years you were on the run, and we could have been doing this instead. Don’t tell me you didn’t miss it, too.”

Had he? More than he was willing to admit. He’d spent so many years running, and this felt right—not being part of Talon, but having a place where he belonged, with a dependable team at his back. That was what he’d found when he joined the Caribbean Coalition, and later with Mauga and their squad. Taking care of people centered him, made him feel whole.

Baptiste and Mauga are two people who exist on the same wavelength, uniquely capable of reading how each other are feeling. Their friendship does not require niceties because it is fundamentally about sensitivity. Baptiste was seeking a sense of belonging, and Mauga is the life raft he happened to cling to. Mauga is isolated even among killers for various reasons, but quickly discovered he could refuge all of himself in Baptiste- both his friendly, charismatic exterior, and his colder but more genuine thoughts. Baptiste sees straight through him, and that turns out to be something he appreciates.

Baptiste, along with Sombra and Mercy, is an orphan of war. Throughout his life he has sought a place to take shelter and find meaning in dependable people around him. You can actually compare him to Ashe, who retains her blood relatives and appears blissfully unaffected by the Crisis, but who did not receive the satisfaction of a well-connected family and ultimately invented her own. But unlike Ashe, Baptiste did not have a wealth of opportunities. Overwatch—an organization he dreamed about as a child—never even came to his home country of Haiti. In that organization’s absence, the islands of the Caribbean formed their own Coalition, and he took root there.

He proved an elite medic and prime special ops material. But all things end, the Crisis included, and his service. Baptiste was faced with the threat of no longer belonging, and sought an organization that could make use of his skills. Talon was “a well-paying mercenary group that took on security missions that were sanctioned by official organizations or corporations”. Once inducted, he made fast friends with another recruit, Mauga. Specifically, Mauga “pulled Baptiste into his orbit”, fulfilling that fundamental need in Baptiste to have someone to serve and care for.

“Watch your back,” he shouted instead, taking down a mercenary who’d been about to shoot Mauga.

“That’s your job!” Mauga laughed. His gun tore a path through the guards swarming the top of the staircase, and they ducked for cover. He was in his element, wild and unleashed. He’d been like this on their missions, a hurricane of a man.

With you at my back, we can do anything, he’d told Baptiste once. You’re the best medic in Talon. You keep me alive, and I’ll protect you. No one stands a chance.

Baptiste and the others in their Talon unit—Doubleday, Mazzei, and Pacanowsky —operated as troopers, the same as many other ex-military agents from around the world. Mauga took the role of Heavy Assault, described as follows in the Venice Memorandum: “Believed to be the products of extensive genetic engineering, these elite troopers employ an extremely powerful exoskeleton and stimulants to increase their combat effectiveness.” While violence is a path Mauga chose, it is worth keeping in mind that his brutality is further fueled by engineering, or drugs, or both.

For a time, Baptiste was content with Talon, even as his missions grew increasingly questionable. Four years ago, two years after Talon’s newest leadership figure was jailed by Overwatch, Baptiste realized that his “security missions” were perpetuating the cycle of suffering, that he was creating more Baptistes by his own hand. His closeness with Mauga proved a selfish thing, one of the many comforts Talon offered in exchange for his soul. He fled from the Monte Cristi battlefield, but Mauga proved as attuned to him as ever, and was the first to find him in his escape.

“Cuerva told us that those missions were on the level,” Baptiste said weakly. He’d known the truth, even then. But he hadn’t wanted to believe it. And from the look on Mauga’s face, he knew that, too.

“Of course he did. And of course they weren’t. But who cares? We’re in too deep, Baptiste.” For a moment, all his bravado dropped away. It was just the two of them, no audience, standing beside the water. When he spoke, it was quiet. “There are no good people. Not you, not me. All we can do is have fun while we’ve got the chance.”

And Mauga challenged Baptiste’s narrative of his life. He highlighted two other missions, Makati and Singapore, that had been just as heinous. According to Mauga, Baptiste knew it was wrong the whole time. It was just that in Monte Cristi he encountered something personal—saw a ghost—and that his flight from Talon was just another self-indulgent act. Mauga ultimately let Baptiste go, but he also did not go with him. Baptiste, likewise, never thought to offer that possibility to Mauga.

Unlike Baptiste, who grew up dreaming about a world that could be and an Overwatch that never came to save him, Mauga has made his judgement of the world and the people in it. It makes sense for him to have no interest in deserting: the entire world is as awful as Talon in his eyes, but Talon is where he has the most fun wading through it. But he retains a weakness for Baptiste, his own personal mind-reader, and ultimately he becomes one of the ghosts that Baptiste leaves behind.

Flash-forward four years and Baptiste is consumed by the nightmare of his choice, which has left him without a home or a family. He travels from place to place, trying to outrun the invitations Talon constantly sends after him. It’s not as simple as fearing for his life. Talon prefers his talent, not his blood. His old captain, Cuerva, describes the potential capture of him in the most idyllic sense:

If all goes well, everything will be settled and we’ll be on our way home by tonight. Hopefully Baptiste will be among us, playing cards and drinking rum, instead of lying in a shallow island grave. [Cuerva Strike Team Log]

The threat for Baptiste is playing cards and drinking rum with his fellow soldiers is something he would prefer to running and hiding too. But given it was the behavior of his squadmates and Cuerva that led him to flee Monte Cristi, he has no trouble dispatching all of them when they come to call.

It’s Mauga who becomes the problem. Mauga, his perfect foil, comes hunting Baptiste in Port-de-Paix, stalking out Baptiste’s habitual safety net, inserting himself in Baptiste’s old home—offering himself and Talon as a replacement. Mauga does not do this at the whimsy of some higher-up, but for his own attachment to Baptiste. He comes offering the horror of constant killing, and the chance to belong again.

Even the mission Mauga shuttles Baptiste into is tailored to play on his desire to find purpose in serving others. Mauga’s manipulations are expert, a send-up to the fact that he only plays the role of a brute, and that in truth he is sly and dangerous—unfortunately this too is a trait Baptiste likes about him. Theirs is a friendship compounded by years of fighting beside each other, and as Baptiste embarks on the Port-de-Paix mission, he finds himself coming back to Mauga’s style “as natural as breathing”.

The mission itself seems to be dancing to Mauga’s tune too. Baptiste finally meets a member of Overwatch, and he is man invested in causing suffering to his own city, a man who gave up his comrades for gold. Mauga uses this man to test Baptiste, to get him to break his final code: that he will not kill an unarmed combatant.

But for a second time, Baptiste and Mauga cannot find agreement. Thus when Mauga comes again after Baptiste’s escape, all he offers is death. Just as Baptiste was never able to completely relinquish the comforts of friendship to do what is right, Mauga refuses to relinquish the comfort of Talon for friendship. The two of them are divorced from the larger conflicts of Talon and Overwatch or omnics and humans except as collateral victims, and in Mauga’s case this has produced a demon who is smiling at you as he kills you.

Mauga stood in the full-length window, scanning the canopy of trees. All of the glass panes were blown out, shattered by the bullets from his massive guns. “Baptiste,” he called. “Buddy, I just want to talk.”

The story’s dramatic showpiece of Baptiste and Mauga’s connection sees Baptiste working Mauga out of a battle-lust using nothing but his voice. There are a couple important features to this scene: 1) that Baptiste only gets to Mauga to behave like a friendly human being for a moment, that Mauga smiles, then kills a helpless man anyway, 2) that from the very start Mauga understands Baptiste’s thoughts too.

Mauga spends a lot of his time smiling like he does to Baptiste in the scene, either acting a role, or confident he has worked out everything Baptiste will do. When Baptiste does not behave to his expectations, he goes straight to violence, as it’s the only other skill he has. Their relationship has all the hallmarks of being toxic, but What You Left Behind is seeking a degree of understanding, trying to explain why Baptiste would return to someone who is no good for him, and why he nearly recalls to a life of brutality despite being a “good person”. And in the end, almost the only distinction between Mauga the Berserker and Baptiste the Healer is that somewhere inside Baptiste a shred of hope remains.

Baptiste stood, and Mauga stood with him. “Whatever you’re worrying about, don’t. Get in, get it done, and get paid,” Mauga said, only loud enough for Baptiste to hear. He hefted his pair of machine guns, each as tall as a full-grown man, like they weighed nothing. The coolant tanks on his back gleamed in the scant light. He raised his voice, letting it carry across the dropship. “Now, who’s ready to have some fun?”

Nguyen & Sainclair

“You see what I’m up against, Baptiste? I got him a hat, but he won’t wear it.”

Nguyen looked at the panama hat on the bar top like it was the filthiest thing he’d ever seen. There was a pink sunburned stripe across his nose.

For your reference if you are unfamiliar with Nguyen’s name pronunciation:

youtube

At first Talon Senior Analyst Trung Le Nguyen exists to provide an example of a personality that is absolutely repellent to Baptiste, whereas Mauga is an inescapable attraction. Nguyen does not like Baptiste very much either, but there is one other lesson to take from this story: despite Baptiste’s inability to appreciate Nguyen as a person, they are able to work together without issue. Baptiste sees Nguyen as dependable, which makes sense given that Nguyen provided his unit with analysis through all their missions. Nguyen is also more flexible than he may seem, agreeing to meet with Baptiste at Mauga’s insistence despite his own reservations.

Mauga is not as vested in disliking Nguyen as Baptiste. In fact he constantly seems to be trying to rope Nguyen in as he does with most people, but it does not work with Nguyen because Nguyen is impervious to charisma. Despite Mauga and Nguyen not really getting each other like Mauga and Baptiste do, they are also content to work with each other. Mauga and Nguyen also happen to be the only named members of Baptiste’s old unit who are still alive.

We don’t enjoy as deep a look into Nguyen in this story as we do with Mauga, but let’s take a peek at some words and phrases used to describe him from Baptiste’s point of view:

clinical and cold

cold as frostbite

cool, expressionless eyes

[Nguyen’s] voice cut through the air like a knife. Mauga sighed. “Sweet as always.”

From anyone else, the gesture would be courteous. From Nguyen, it felt like a threat.

Nguyen is an easy read as a clinical workaholic, not inclined to emotion, making him a good foil to Mauga’s impulsive brutality. He notably wears the same adequately professional attire, impeccably laundered, day after day. His detachment from excess is strange in Talon, an organization where many of the day-to-day troops are getting their first taste of luxury and end up feasting on it.

But his professionalism cracks toward the end of the story, after he learns that their target Vernand Sainclair has betrayed and murdered Talon forces—the same kinds of grunts as Baptiste and Mauga—stationed at his mansion for his protection, and Vernand further tries to shoot Mauga after promising he is loyal (the bullets ricochet harmlessly off Mauga’s shield and break some windows).

Nguyen stalked forward, Mauga covering him with the shield. “You sent us into a trap. You murdered the forces we stationed here for your protection,” he snarled. Nguyen yanked the gun from Sainclair’s grasp and slammed it onto the desk. “I even set up an appointment. And yet you continue to inconvenience us. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put a bullet through your head right now.”

Unlike Mauga, Nguyen appears to display his emotions raw and honestly...it’s just that his most common emotion is disappointment, followed closely by irritation. His anger here probably comes from a variety of sources, but one of the strangest aspects of the story is that Nguyen is on the ground at all. He is an analyst, and despite his John Wick-caliber pistol work, it is not clear why he felt the need to personally handle Sainclair. Nguyen ran analysis for Baptiste’s unit and also for Cuerva’s attempted recovery mission, but it’s not apparent that he has any particular affection for Baptiste...or anyone really. When Baptiste attempts escape, Nguyen’s professional response rules over all others:

There was a gunshot, and pain tore through his left arm. He almost lost his grip on Sainclair. He didn’t have to look to know who had fired that shot, and that he was lucky to have survived.

It is unlikely that Nguyen is any sort of hero candidate at this point, but he is a well-realized accessory to the story and its themes. Everything in What You Left Behind comes in matched pairs—Mauga and Baptiste, Baptiste’s childhood friend Dr. Roseline Mondésir and Dr. Angela Ziegler, Nguyen and Sainclair. But whereas most of these pairs harmonize with each other, exuding similar personalities or goals, Nguyen flatly rejects his counterpart at every turn. Vernand Sainclair is a man of excess, an analyst like Nguyen, but he abhors field work, betrays casually to feed his own self-interest, and like so many members of Talon, he originally worked for Overwatch.

Overwatch & Talon

“You were Overwatch?” Baptiste said, stunned. He’d never met one before. All the dreams he’d had as a teenager, the recruitment poster he hung above his bed at the orphanage, the secret hope that somehow, someday, Overwatch would come in and make everything better. And now one of his childhood heroes stood before him, a man willing to throttle his country to turn a profit and betray his organization to spare his own life.

“I was never in the field. I was just a handler, like you.” Sainclair nodded at Nguyen. “Overwatch always took me for granted. That organization was poisoned from the very start, and the longer I was there, the more I could see that it was slowly rotting from the inside out.”

When the Retribution mission came out, people were quick to note the similarities between the elite Talon units and existing Overwatch agents. The Heavy Assault has a rocket-powered charge just like Reinhardt, the Assassin blinks from perch to perch like Tracer, the Sniper appears in a puff of wraithform smoke. Most fingers ended up pointing at Moira, whose hero profile states:

After Overwatch was disbanded, O'Deorain was forced to turn to unconventional sources of funding. This time, she was invited to join the scientific collective that had founded the city of Oasis. Yet some have whispered that the shadowy Talon organization had already been supporting her for years, aiding her experiments in exchange for utilizing the results for their own purposes. [Hero Profile: Moira]

But What You Left Behind tells us is that the fall of Overwatch and rise of Talon was inevitable, and not the fault of one single betrayer or leak. Towards the end of its life, Overwatch ceased to look like the promise on its recruiting posters—or if you prefer Sainclair’s outlook, Overwatch was never the same as the idea of Overwatch. This also goes back to Mauga’s philosophy: there are no good people anywhere, so even if something like Overwatch was founded with good intentions, the people inside it would eventually fail its honorable mission.

Blackwatch enjoys an especially close connection with Talon. We learn in the story that Talon HQ is in Rome, which is also where the Blackwatch facility was located until it was destroyed by a Talon bombing eight years ago. The Blackwatch Commander and his attending geneticist both became Talon council members, the top sniper in Talon is the widow of a Blackwatch agent, and as we previously saw in Train Hopper many Blackwatch grunts happily became Talon grunts.

But Overwatch also created Talon operatives whenever it failed to reach out enough, such as in Haiti. And Nguyen’s reflective examination of the Recall dossiers at the end of the story also suggests that some existing agents or some who have yet to officially respond may actually be traitors lying in wait.

The mirror of Overwatch and Talon is not as simple as saying “Actually Overwatch is really the evil one!!!111″ Talon is a bunch of terrorists and profiteers. In fact this story tells us that Talon has the exact same issue Overwatch did: it has leaders like Doomfist invested in powerful ideals and visions of the world, but the rank-and-file like Baptiste and Mauga end up engaging in the same petty ravaging that armies have since the beginning of time. The Council is never sharing their entire hand with the grunts either, trusting that their lofty ideals will be accomplished on the backs of handsome mercenary payments.

At this point maybe it’s easy to throw up our hands and say “okay, everything is bad, so why care about any of it?” That’s the exact conclusion Mauga reached. But Baptiste thinks differently. After forcibly escaping Mauga’s clutches at the end of the story, he reviews the Overwatch dossiers and recognizes Dr. Angela Ziegler. They met in their travels because of one shared idea: that they wanted to help communities in need, without violence. Baptiste goes on to recognize how Mercy is very like the local clinic doctor in Port-de-Paix, and very unlike her glossy image on the Overwatch recruitment posters. It is because of his personal connection and personally witnessed strength that he reaches out to her, and not because of an ideal or a formless dream.

I think what the story is trying to get at here is that any organization, regardless of name or mission, is only as good as the people in it. There isn’t good and evil, Overwatch and Talon—there are individuals, and all of them have relationships just as complicated as the one between Baptiste and Mauga.

The Middle East Scenario

Baptiste tapped the glowing dot marking her last known position on the map. He’d thought that Overwatch was dead, but maybe it wasn’t. If Talon was coming for Dr. Ziegler, then she had a right to know. He’d need help tracking her down, but luckily, he knew just who to ask.

Baptiste opened an encrypted app on his phone, entered the password, and hit the call button on the bottom of the screen. It only rang twice before a familiar voice came through the speaker. “Hey, mijo. It’s been a while.”

“Hey, Sombra,” he said, looking at Dr. Ziegler’s profile. “Can you do me a favor?”

Time to gossip about god programs again, yippee!!!

A couple things about this section: 1) It’s going to be more speculative than the others by necessity, so feel free to ignore it!, 2) Ultimately I don’t know what the plot is here...just admitting that up front. I do make a guess though!

So recent Overwatch media has a pattern of introducing a tease at the end. The Blizzardworld map trailer showed Winston, Tracer, Bastion, and Torbjörn chilling in a living room at the end. Reunion ended with Echo. Storm Rising ended by introducing some omnic no one has ever seen before. And What You Left Behind ends by introducing Baptiste’s friendship with Sombra and indicating that he is shipping off to find Mercy with her help. Some of these teases contribute to what I am going to call the “Middle East Scenario”, where a lot of plot threads seem to be orbiting around the Middle East and Mercy, with the potential for converging.

First let’s look at what individuals are actively pursuing Mercy:

Ana & Soldier 76 - Soldier has a documented aversion to Mercy in Bastet, but in the follow-up animation Bastet Rises, Ana ends up hauling his useless carcass all the way to Mercy’s doorstep. Bastet tells us that Ana for some reason knows where Mercy is, and Soldier’s wounds in Bastet (from an attack by Reaper in Old Soldiers—still with me?) are not healing correctly, necessitating a slightly more advanced medical approach than Ana’s field stitching. I guess you could argue the canonicity of Bastet Rises, but it was commissioned by Blizzard and I’m pretty sure that Genjicat in the final shot is the only wink-wink.

Baptiste - Of course What You Left Behind ends with Baptiste seeking Mercy out to warn her of Talon’s interest in her and the other former agents. He’s checking for a physical location, so he probably intends to meet her in person. The only complication here is timing: Baptiste’s story takes place three days after the Recall, the events of Bastet take place around the same time as Reflections (where you can see Ana and Soldier moping together at Christmas), so whatever Baptiste is doing he’s either taking a really scenic route to Mercy or he actually meets her separately from Ana and Soldier meeting her. Reflections also shows us that Mercy is still chilling in a tent somewhere, so if anybody has met with her they have yet to disrupt her post-Overwatch routine of traveling from one humanitarian mission to another.

Reaper - In a general sense Reaper operates as Talon’s executioner and would be seeking Mercy for that reason. Baptiste seems to think Talon is a very present threat at the end of the story, though he may not know Reaper personally. There is a second reason Reaper may show up at Mercy’s house, which is his pursuit of Ana and Soldier. Soldier specifically worries about staying in one place too long because of Reaper in Bastet.

Sombra - Likely to be in touch with the good doctor, at least virtually, due to Baptiste calling in a favor. Baptiste and Sombra met while they were both working at Talon, per the Developer Q&A.

Next we should consider what other forces are operating regionally or who otherwise might get pulled into Mercy’s orbit:

Pharah & Helix Security - From Bastet we know Ana has written a letter to Pharah, but Pharah has yet to respond. Soldier speculates that Ana will request Pharah to manage some artifacts at the Necropolis, and encourages her to contact Pharah again. If Pharah does seek out Ana, the trail will inevitably lead her to Mercy. Helix Security, the private military Pharah works for, is also active in the post-Recall timeline. The Anubis god program broke out of a Helix facility, and so did Doomfist, quite effortlessly. Despite this there is nothing currently indicating Helix is a Talon puppet. Talon has an interest in their properties but has been unable to access them freely. Reaper notes that Helix is unaware of the true value of what they are guarding. It’s hard to imagine Helix being unaware of the importance of keeping Doomfist imprisoned, which along with Sombra’s involvement suggests Talon’s interest is in a software asset—Anubis, or something like it.

Helix Security should have upgraded the Anubis facility after we took it over a few years back. And now the worst has happened—or it’s about to. The Anubis A.I.—one of the “god programs” Overwatch quarantined after the Omnic Crisis—broke its containment at 2300 hours.

Anubis - Pharah and her team destroyed Anubis in Mission Statement. Ten years before that, Overwatch quarantined Anubis for the first time. Overwatch’s intervention led Egypt into a state of famine and ruin, which suggests very strongly that Anubis was originally some sort of post-Crisis A.I. infrastructure initiative. In fact the first panel of Old Soldiers shows some graffiti on a wall that reads “A.I. is our right”. It seems that whatever Overwatch did, they not only goofed it up hard, but that their intervention was not necessarily desired in the first place. A further incident occurs in Cairo three years after Overwatch’s Anubis intervention, while the humanitarian crisis is in full swing, but no details are given—it’s a background headline in the Uprising comic. By the time Mission Statement comes to pass, the Anubis A.I. was badly malfunctioning and its containment facility lacked the necessary security upgrades to handle it (remember Reaper’s comment about Helix not knowing what they are guarding...). We don’t know what Anubis was like when Overwatch originally intervened in its operation, but we do know that the humanitarian crisis sparked by that intervention was of special concern to both Mercy and Ana. Even with all this information, I feel like there is a catalyst missing. After all, Anubis is dead, and Talon has not been successful in getting whatever it is they want out of Helix Security’s protection. But Storm Rising may have offered the missing piece...

We learn that Doomfist is in collusion with whoever that mysterious omnic gentleman was. […] No, he’s not a part of Talon. […] Even though we’re in the past here, we’re learning about something that’s coming up, that’s unfolding… We know there’s going to be a minor detour because Doomfist has to spend a few years in jail because he’s going to get captured shortly after this. But then, the plan will unfold. [Jeff Kaplan]

Storm Rising Mystery Omnic - There are multiple reasons to believe this omnic is a member of Null Sector, but the remaining weirdness to his appearance is that he meets Doomfist in Egypt. Why would either Null Sector or Doomfist be in Egypt? The only clue we have is Jeff’s comment, that the two of them had a plan to execute six years ago, but it got put on hold after Doomfist was jailed. The possibility exists that this plan requires access to a powerful infrastructure A.I. like Anubis, and what we see in Old Soldiers is that Talon is trying to get access to property guarded by Helix Security... It would be interesting if Overwatch’s apparent mistake in Egypt came back to haunt them ten years later. There’s a lot of ghosts in this game.

Moira & Oasis - A lot of these orbiting issues are centralized in Egypt, but Mercy’s position on the map in Recall is closer to Iraq. We know she isn’t precisely in Oasis because Oasis is hardly the site of a humanitarian crisis, but it’s not unfathomable that she would know people working there. That includes the Minister of Genetics, Moira, who is also on the Talon council, and who also gets regular visits from Reaper to further treat his condition. If, say, Soldier 76 showed up on Mercy’s doorstep with a stubborn wound caused by Reaper, the temptation might be there to reach out to Moira to help treat him. One of the weirdest unresolved plot threads in Overwatch is also potentially connected to Oasis—Dr. Hamid Faisal, whose excavations at Petra and Ayutthaya make use of Oasis-style drones. Faisal works for an unknown benefactor, and also has work at Ilios, a site from which Talon has been attempting to steal artifacts. As revealed in Bastet, Ana also knows Faisal and has a favorable opinion of his work.

Genji - Genji, you say? Well at the time of Reflections we know Genji is aware of Mercy’s location since he is writing her a physical letter that presumably is addressed and mailed and not just delivered by a dragon Fed-Ex. He and Zenyatta appear to be chilling in Nepal (geddit), but there is nothing saying Genji isn’t going to walk over for a visit sometime. Wouldn’t it be just fun if he happened to arrive at the same time as all this other stuff was going down? Zenyatta could come too and enter directly into the middle of this big vengeful Old Soldiers plot and save some lives! What? No? Okay, back to my corner then.

In speculative conclusion: another animated short ala Infiltration, introducing a new hero (MO?) while simultaneously advancing the plot? There are a lot of moving pieces here though, and a lot of characters to render in an 8-10 min runtime. Bear in mind that Mission Statement was originally supposed to be an animated short and was cancelled for similar reasons. So there might be some additional media interventions building up to some showpiece cinematic.

But know that I will always consume and digest to a paste more short stories and comics Blizz, you can count on me!

References

What You Left Behind [short story]

Cuerva Strike Team - Log Recovered [blog post]

Venice Memorandum Declassification [blog post]

Baptiste Developer Q&A [forums discussion]

Baptiste [hero profile]

Baptiste [origin story]

Mercy [hero profile]

Moira [hero profile]

Sombra [hero profile]

Storm Rising [voicelines/cinematics]

Storm Rising [Creator Residency stream] (Jeff Kaplan/OhNickel/Fareeha - 2019.4.16)

Bastet [short story]

Bastet Rises [animation] (by Dillongoo, commissioned by Blizzard Entertainment)

Train Hopper [comic]

Mission Statement [comic]

Old Soldiers [comic]

Reflections [comic]

Masquerade [comic]

Uprising [comic]

Retribution [comic]

Recall [cinematic]

#overwatch #baptiste #mauga #nguyen #myrestxt

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years ago

Note

So, Squiggles :) What do you think of the newest episode?

Hey Mizu. I’m not sure if you’re asking me for an overall review of theepisode or one that’s more in depth which potentially goes into more spoiler territory. Just to be safe, I’m going to do it both ways. I’ll give my generalspoiler-free thoughts on the episode before I go into the specifics of somethings I liked and didn’t like about the episode. But undercut for obvious spoilers.Cool?

Overall, chapter 3 was another solid episode. Similar to how V6 started off, CRWBY Writers really aren’t giving any room for downtime with these episodes as we’re immediately chucked into the meat of the episode— the mission with the Aces. I figured we would have at least gotten to seeing our heroes settling into Atlas and adjusting to their new surroundings before the big mission but…NOPE! Mission time! So I’ll at least give you that bit about the episode since it was highlighted in the synopsis for this episode.

Overall, I enjoyed CH3. It was cool and it showed everyone in action. However there were some specific things that stood out to me that I wanted to give my opinion undercut.

[Spoilers Ahead! Nuff Said!]

Rosebuds:

First off, the brief conversation between Ruby and Oscar. With theway how the episode chucked us straight into the mission, ya girl was worriedthat Oscar wasn’t even going to be in this episode since his absence from themission has been highlighted since as early as the V7 Trailer. But thankfully,the little barn prince shared one scene with Ruby.

Turns out we were all right about Oscar confronting Ruby about her stunt in Ironwood’s office. It was a little shorter than I expected but… then again, it wasn’t the key focus of the episode so I gave it a pass.Still it is noteworthy that Ruby entrusted the Relic of Knowledge back to Oscar. This is interesting to me since it brings to light a point of concern I made in my very last theory post from this week. With Oscar now having the Relic back in his possession, I wonder if history will repeat itself with the roles reversed.

Could this moment from the episode be a possible foreshadow to Oscar using the Relic to out Ruby in a similar fashion to how she used the Relic on Oz last season?

Could Oscar simply just threaten Ruby with the Relic leading to the two having a big fight or…could Oscar potentially end up using Jinn to show Ironwood the truth behind Ruby’s back?

All of these are possibilities now to add to the table of events brought to you by this small exchange. It’s quite fascinating really. I don’t want Oscar to come tothis point. But for now, it’s definitely a probability with the Relic in his hands.

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Aces:

The Ace Ops were all very, very cool in this episode. I loved their comradery with each other. I especially wanted to point out Vine and Elm’s dynamic. While I’m still unsure if they’re a legit couple, I did like how the chapter paired them off to work with JNR while Bunny Bites—Harriet and Marrow—worked with RWBY.

Clover was also placed to work with Qrow and might I say this—I’m strangely fighting the urge to ship Qrow and Clover now.

There is a moment in this episode where Qrow explains his semblance to Clover only for Clover to confirm what us RWBY theorists predicted. His semblance is good fortune which is excellent.

Clover complements Qrow in a good way. Not to mention that look Qrow gives Clover after he told him his semblance while the camera literally lingers on him for a couple of frames made me wonder.

I couldn’t help but feel as it this moment sparked Qrow potentially being infatuated with Clover or…it could just simply be a respectable man-crush. Y’know a bromance. Nothing really gay about. Not that there’s anything wrong with Qrow being gay (technically bisexual). For all we know, Qrow just loves Clover…in the very heterosexual way. If you caught the reference then y’know what I’m talking about.

Anyways as I was saying about Elm and Vine, this episode definitely highlighted their strong teamwork. These two complement each other so well and the way they bounce off of one another really shines in their pair dynamic. Love it and love these two. This is, however, the least I can say for our favourite little Flower Power pair. This unfortunately which brings to light one of the things I didn’t like so much about the episode.

———————————————————————————————————————

Wilted Flower Power:

Ren’s sudden change in attitude with Nora—what the f***? I mean he isn’tbeing cold or rude to her. He just feels oddly closed off from her this episodewhich leaves me, as the viewer, asking the obvious question: Where is this coming from?

Sure we caught a glimpse of it in the first episode when Ren suddenly took off in battle while Nora sulked in the background. And while I was correct in this development in their rapport returning in a later episode; regardless, where isRen’s sudden mood change with Nora coming from?

It’s not to say that it’s been built up since V6? I mean I got the feeling that the Writers might introduce some tension between Ren and Nora given that we’re supposed to be learning more about her. But this still doesn’t give any rationale to this behaviour. If the Writers plan to have Ren and Nora break up temporarily due to Ren acting differently with Nora only to have them learn a lesson through observing Elm and Vine and come back stronger than ever as both a couple and a team partnership then…. that’s fine. Ijust wished they had done a better job at introducing this ‘issue’ inthe Flower Power teamwork if you know what I mean. Cause it feels very out of the blue; at least in my opinion.

I just didn’t enjoy seeing Nora being her usual self with Ren only for him to reply in a way that feels so uncharacteristic for him. Yes, Ren has shown exasperation at times with Nora but it’s never been to a level where he comes off annoyed with her. In spite of Nora’s big animated personality, that might tire some people, Ren has always been very patient with Nora often finding her behaviour amusing which was a big reason why I fell in love with shipping Renora.

In spite of their different personalities, the two have always complimented each other and worked well together. Having Ren be like this with her…I’m sorry. If this is how the Writers are going to do things with Renora then I’m already disliking the execution of it. It’s not terrible. Just seems a little forced to me.

—————————————————————————————————————–

Dem Bees:

Another thing that occurred for this episode that I sadly did not care for was the moment between Yang and Blake in this episode where Yang complimented Blake’s new hairstyle.

Some context for the scene: Blake notices Yang staring at her from afar. Yang reacts awkwardly and says, “Sorry. Not used to the new hair yet.”

Blake then asks, while blushing, “Is it bad?” only for Yang to respond many times “No” while fumbling over her words.

This moment. Y’see this moment right here, folks. Do you know what this immediately reminded me of?

It’s like the Legend of Korra Book 4, after Korra reunited with Mako and Asami. In that series, Asami and Korra shared a moment where Asami noticed that Korra had cut her hair and our Avatar blushed at this acknowledgement.

It is literally the same energy. While admittedly an adorable exchange, as I said, I didn’t care for it. As a matter of fact, this moment confirmed my biggest concern for the development of the Bumblebee pair going forward. I was hoping the Writers would’ve taken the time to show these two’s friendship growing a bit more before introducing the potential of romance. Some fans complained about the blatant pandering in favour of actually showing Yang and Blake bettering their friendship last season and it seems like the Writers are adamant on continuing this trend.

Who would’ve expected the CRWBY Writers to take a page from Bryke—the two creative minds who practically created the first most shoehorned LGBT couple I’ve ever seen in an animated series while having the chops to puppet it around as ‘good representation’. While Bryke was praised for what they did with Korrasami since Korrasami was said to be the first LGBT couple in an animated series targeted at children, I didn’t buy into it and didn’t think Bryke deserved their praise at all since Korrasami, in my opinion, was weakly written from the start.

As you can probably tell, this squiggle meister didn’t buy into the Korrasami romance. Not because it was LBGT (as I’ve said before—I have no issue with that at all) but purely because the showrunners didn’t develop the relationship between these two lead girls in a way that felt natural.

Rather than watching a beautiful friendship that grew into a sweet romance over the course of the series runtime, culminating in the birth of a great couple by the show’s finale, instead I watched two characters who were barely friends for two full seasons since they were involved in a ridiculous love triangle only to suddenly become quick besties in the third season. Fast forward 5 years for the show’s final season and now these two girls are in love with each other with their love not being apparent until the final shot of the very last episode. Good shit, right?

Korrasami felt so forced to me in the end which was made even more apparent by the finale. It seems like Bumblebee will be heading in the same direction as Korrasami.

I’m probably digging my own grave here by even talking about the Bees since it’s practically blasphemy now given all the discourse still surrounding this pair and I can only imagine how it is now after today’s episode. But still wanted to give my views on that moment given what it reminded me of.

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Marrow’s Semblance:

Getting back on track with things I liked from this episode—Marrow’s semblance man. As I said on Twitter, I really loved the take on Marrow’s unique skill. It’s perfect. He’s a wolf Faunus with a semblance that causes others to listen to his every command. A trained dog treating his opponents to be subservient to him. That is freaking neat as hell. Forget all the other Ace Ops, Marrow’s semblance is the most interesting to me.

What I’m curious about is what the extent of Marrow’s powers are? Does it only work on the Creatures of Grimm since they’re technically mindless monsters acting mostly on instinct or…can it work on people too?

Can Marrow use his semblance to get make another person obey his command? That’s what I want to know. I’m guessing that there is a limit to Marrow’s powers since, we see him using his semblance on the Sentinels earlier in the episode who were probably young Grimm given how easily the group took them down.

However I’m surprised Marrow didn’t use his power on the Geist Grimm. Clover did mention that the Geist they were targeting was an older Grimm. So I figured Marrow’s power wouldn’t work on it even if he tried.

Either way, this episode just made Marrow ten times cooler to me now. The Good Boy continues to impress and he’s definitely the one that stood out to me the most from the Aces.

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No Run Forrest, Run:

Whelp, if you saw the episode, y’know what this point means. Forrest, the dreadlocked Robyn supporter we met last episode died by the end of this episode. He was killed off by Tyrian so…RIP Forrest.

I feel so sorry for MurderofBirds since in his last Livestream Discussion on YouTube, he said he was hoping to see more of Forrest.

But in spite of his short time in the story, Forrest’s murder did help me to realize something about Tyrian’s tactics. Since last episode, it was shown by the end that Tyrian has been killing certain people in Mantle. However I couldn’t quite put my finger on a possible pattern in Tyrian’s targets. Now I think I have an idea. I think Tyrian might be targeting Robyn Hill supporters specifically.

On orders from Watts, I think the Scorpion Fauns might be singling out those folks from Mantle who were known to be heavily involved in rallying support for Robyn as another means of turning votes away fromher.

After all, if the supporters of Robyn are suddenly being found murdered thenit could force the People of Mantle from rallying behind Robyn and tank her chances of winning against Jacques.

Now this is just a theory for now. Either way, it’s very, very interesting how the audience receives more and more pieces to the plot with Watts and Tyrian as the episodes go back and it’s only been three chapters.

Very interesting indeed and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next episode drops.

------------------------------------------------------

And yeah, those my thoughts on the episode. I hope I answered you well enough Mizu. Thank you for your question.

And as an added point, I pray that my honest thoughts on the Bumblebee scene from this episode didn’t upset or worst offend anyone. My opinion is NOT meant to insult the RWBY ship or anyone who likes it. It’s just my opinion.

If you love the Bees and you were absolutely over the moon with that little scene from this episode, then that’s perfectly fine, fam. Just don’t mind me with where I stand on this pairing and how the show continues to portray the development of their ‘potential romance’.

And please refrain from leaving any disrespectful comments in my post just for sharing my opinion. As I’ll say again, I mean no disrespect and will not tolerate any thrown at me. With that said, that’s all folks!

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#mizuike #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby renora #rwby marrow amin #rwby volume 7

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datingsimreviews · 5 years ago

Text

Hustle Cat

Hustle Cat is a Short but cute dating sim that lets you choose your gender and date either male or female characters!

Beware spoilers incoming!!!

Summary:

So first of all I’d like to say I very much appreciate having a game where you can date girls as a girl. That always makes me happy to see.

Hustle Cat is about a cat café which is actually a coven of witches. The employees are cursed to be cats when they leave the café unless they can figure out their own individual magic. Each route focuses on a character discovering their true selves, a bit of romance with the main character and their chosen partner dating and defeating this rust witch named Natch that’s trying to get the café for himself.

It’s a good game, but it’s very short. Compared to other dating sims I played each path felt kind of rushed, I wanted more information on the characters and more development, but I very much appreciated the fact that there were cute cats and that this was a very pro LGBT game.

Not everything is perfect though. I encountered a lot of bugs while playing which hampered my enjoyment. My game crashed once minimum every route. Luckily they had a great auto save feature so I barely lost any progress but it feels like the auto save feature was there for the crashing. I wish the crashes just didn’t happen. There’s also images in the gallery that are glitched or at least all walkthroughs say you can’t find anything because they’re glitched.

The protagonist:

Avery is our protagonist and you can choose their skin tone and gender which is fun. You would think that with so many choices this protagonist would be someone you could project on and all. And I’m sure it’s easy for some people to project on Avery but I had a little trouble because I couldn’t change Avery’s name despite the game not being voiced and the fact that Avery’s magical talent is trash. It’s funny to think about but it doesn’t scream epic to me. I like it, a lot of people would have the magical power of “bending trash” but I wish we had seen more of it. Avery’s never able to beat Nacht the rust witch on their own despite their forceful nature. I would have loved to see the power in the player character.

Avery’s fine though.

Landry:

Landry was the first character I romanced, a sweet and sensitive sort of guy who helps you during work. He likes building cat trees which is fun.

Out of all the guys Landry has the most backstory I think or at least, the most “feels complete” backstory. Landry is an Adept so he has innate magical ability that lets him see through glamorous. He saw a kid at a bar once who was a witch and was trying to be invisible and the kid cursed him in to “have his heart explode if he ever lost his temper.” He felt a burning in his heart and ran off and met the owner of the cat café who’s solution to the problem was to double curse him into a cat??? Idk why this guy’s solution to everything is to turn it into a cat.

Landry hates magic because of this so he’s reluctant to learn magic from you. He eventually does and develops powerful lightning magic. He finds the kid and after a fight the two talk it out and kinda become friends? Turns out the kid just cursed him to have heartburn for an hour and he panicked.

He’s pretty strong and I like the side character of the kid in his route. I also like how he and the main heroine love pizza together. His route feels the most complete.

Hayes:

Hayes is the introverted barista character. I always like the shy glasses types so I was really interested in romancing him, and it was nice to see his character type!!! He’s got horrible anxiety which is why he doesn’t really talk to people and enjoys being a cat to de-stress. His anxiety is portrayed as an actual mental disorder instead of just cute shyness and he and the main character learn good coping techniques to help him through it.

His magic is to…Make anything he speaks through Poems happen??? It sounds OP and I’m not quite sure how it works but I would love to see how his magic developed more. He liked writing poems but if he messes his poems up and can’t find a rhyme his body turns into static.

I love that despite his anxiety he loves big romantic gestures. That’s cool.

Finley:

Finley was my favorite character because her interactions and dialogue just felt so organic. Once the main character and her got into a romantic relationship her relationship felt like a real relationship, or at least something I would like to experience. When she thinks that the main character and her might not make it she asks if they live if Avery will cosplay with her.

Finley’s really into video games, and is kinda nerdy. In the other routes she ships the main character and the person they’re pursuing. She’s also just really bubbly.

She’s the social media expert and to get traffic for the café she’s become an internet famous cat because she can control what her internet persona can do to do cat stunts that normally wouldn’t be online. Good for her monetizing that curse for cash.

She can block people in real life or report them, that’s her magic. If someone doesn’t really care about the internet though she has to come up with a phrase that resonates with them in the same way #blocked does.

I also like how at the end of her story she and the main character become vigilante superheroes.

Mason:

Another lady character! And this time she’s the silent and buff type. I loved Mason in the other routes because she was the only one who didn’t learn magic and still stood against Nacht because he never seemed to predict someone would punch him and was just so strong.

She does end up learning magic in her route (fire magic) but I’m not sure why it’s fire. Everyone else had something else that mimicked their personality or what they liked to do besides Landry. Mason’s really into cooking and I thought she’d have cooking magic.

Her route was very sweet and made me cry. It focused on her and her grandpa and how he thinks she’s just a delinquent so they don’t talk anymore so now to spend time with him she’s been visiting him as a cat instead. It was sweet to make them close again. But it was also the route where I realized how short the game was, or just how short it felt.

Mason was sweet and I love the muscle-y lady type but I would have loved more development between her and the main lead. I just wanted a whole lot more.

Reese:

Reese is Graves’s Apprentice and the only one who knows about magic before all this. I always wondered in the other routes why he turned into a cat if the reason they turned into cats was because they weren’t practicing magic.

In his route you learn that despite his boasting he’s not very good at magic because he’s practicing his father’s type of magic- drawing. His father is a designer and loves to draw. Reese’s talents actually have to do with sewing though and he develops sewing magic, which lets him open up portals or enchant clothing.

I wanted to see more of his magic actually happen because I’m still not sure the rules of his sewing magic. But his route was nice. He felt like he played off of Avery’s stubborn personality well.

He’s kind of a tsundere and very full of himself. In the other routes he has a crush on Graves despite knowing him all his life so it’s nice to help him out of that. In his route you barely talk about his crush on Graves and it’s only implied in the other routes. It feels like there should have been more drama concerning the fact that he has a crush on someone else in his own route.

Graves:

The final character is Graves the manager of the cat café and the oldest character (I’m not sure how old but there’s definitely a significant age gap there). He’s the one who cursed everyone into being a cat and the reasons weren’t clear until his route. I was excited to see all the secrets be uncovered like why Nacht is after him and why he doesn’t really teach you anything and why he curses people.

In his route however it feels short and rushed. His and Nacht’s relationship is only implied. It could have possibly been romantic and Nacht was just a jealous ex who turned to hunting people because he was mad??? I’m not sure.

He explains he cursed everyone to be cats because witches can sense magic and they weren’t strong enough to defend themselves so he glamoroued them. And apparently he’s cursed to not talk about magic??? I’m not sure his route just feels so rushed.

He himself isn’t a bad character. He acts very gothic and vampire like when in reality he’s not a vampire or scary he’s just a dorky LARPer. It’s funny. His magic is cat magic so to deal with Nacht he takes Avery’s advice to just curse him into a cat. When his solution to everything before was to turn it into a cat. Should have come up with that yourself buddy.

His route was by far the weakest for me, not only because it felt extremely short and didn’t answer a lot of my questions but also because I couldn’t get into the romance. There’s this line he uses when he learns Avery’s 19 where he’s like “I had no idea, you’re so mature!” which is just a classic…bad line to make people feel like they’re older and get in an age gap relationship.

I feel like he could have been done all right but he didn’t gel with me.

Overall the game is a good game. Very short but cute especially if you like cats. I really wish there was just…more content in the game though. But it’s very LGBT friendly which definitely is cool!!! I’m always desperate for w/w content in dating sims because it’s rare to come by. So thank you Hustle Cat for that. And I’m sure other people feel represented by it too.

The bugs definitely annoyed me though. Also side note that I realized while writing this review, the gallery is very clunky and not organized by characters. And in a dating sim that’s definitely something that they usually have.

#hustle cat #dating sim review #lgbt dating sims

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years ago

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Zi-O 41: *SCREAMING*

:THE BLOGGER IS NOT OKAY WITH THIS:

We open with the final scene from episode 40; Sougo charging Oma Zi-O, after getting a pair of Blade transformation screens (specifically, Blade and Garren’s) thrown at him, and a green-and-purple whirlwhind sent in his direction. Interestingly, when the whirlwind connects, the W emblem rises up along with the explosion. After attempting to trade punches – with zero effect on Sougo’s part – the kid summons Build with his Grand Zi-O panel, and. Oma Zi-O summons Kuuga.

Sougo uses the same technique as in 40 – he touches the figurine, the Build emblem appears while the name is announced, and a window reading 2017 moves backward, with Build appearing through it. Oma Zi-O, however, just holds out a hand, with the Kuuga emblem showing up with the same announcement. Notably, the emblem here is torso-sized, as opposed to figurine-sized. Kuuga appears in a bit of a blur, but there is a distinct lack of any other adornment.

Oma Zi-O’s jump over the two now-fighting riders has a bit of a flashstep effect to it, which is. Worrying. Also it breaks my heart a little to see Build and Kuuga fighting, which is not helped in the slightest by my having recently finished Decade and watching Showa V Heisei for the first time. But as Sougo attempts to hit Oma Zi-O, still with zero effect, Build and Kuuga launch their respective Rider Kicks at each other – no announcements from the Build Driver, which is probably for the best. Build disappears in an explosion, shortly followed by Kuuga winking out of existence.

Hm….

OH NO. SOUGO NO! YOU STILL HAVEN’T PROPERLY GOTTEN THE DRIVE WATCH! DON’T USE DRIVE!

See what you’ve done? Now Oma Zi-O’s taken control of him, with a scary red spark effect, and definite sounds of struggle that are very much Shinnosuke’s voice. His helmet’s eyes momentarily light up red, and the standard Tridoron horn sound plays – and then plays again, slowed way the heck down.

And it’s really nice to see the Type Speed finisher again, and to hear Krim announcing the Tridoron, but! Those are still Shinnosuke’s grunts of effort! And said finisher is being launched to great effect at Sougo! To the point of knocking him out of Grand, and back to being just plain old Sougo.

Woz warps in – with a very Time Jacker-y blur to his first few steps – and rushes to Sougo’s side, helping him up. And Sougo is angry when he asks why he can’t even touch his future self.

“You haven’t obtained the powers of all the Riders.”

And at least SOMEONE based in 2019 remembers that we still haven’t had a Drive arc! Namely, Woz, reminding Sougo, the kids at home, and the production staff, that the Drive watch we currently have was stolen from 2068 by Geiz.

…I wonder why they went with Ghost and Drive. I know that at least part of the reason is that the staff wasn’t sure if they’d be able to get the actors back, but that didn’t exactly stop them in other arcs.

SOUGO NO! You can’t go trying to fight him still! You’re not transformed! You can barely walk!

I don’t think we have ever seen Sougo actually angry before. Not like this – all furious and glaring, desperate to take. Him. Down. Not that it helps him at all, not with the massive explosions that Oma Zi-O is setting off around him.

Woz’s scarf is so handy. He sends it out to wrap around Sougo, warping him away.

“For personal reasons, I have decided to side with Past You.”

Oma Zi-O looks surprised, but then. Woz starts walking up to him. (Drive is still here, by the way!)

Oma Zi-O: “Well done, Woz. You’ve made a wise choice.”

Me: wait what.

Woz: “It is my pleasure.”

Me: Wait WHAT?

A multicolored rippling effect washes over the area, incidentally fading Drive out of existence.

Woz: wait what.

Oma Zi-O: Oh, looks like someone’s changed the flow of time...

The entire scene fades out – in a manner very reminiscent of what you see when film footage dissolves.

Sougo wakes up on the ground, in a location that we haven’t seen before. A mansion is at the top of the staircase. In front of said mansion…

Me: WAIT WHAT?!

In front of said mansion is a statue. The statue… is of Kakogawa Hiyru, Another Zi-O, in his not-so-civilian form that we saw in the preview. He’s holding his Another Watch at his waist, in the manner he previously used to transform, and is surrounded by Another Riders in action poses. It’s all grey and aged, with a plague at the base that I can’t read, because RiderTime didn’t sub it. But I’m willing to bet that it says “In commemoration of the first transformation of Kakogawa Hiryuu.”

I AM THREE MINUTES IN. THIS HAS TAKEN A HALF HOUR, WITH THE REWINDING TO CATCH DETAILS AND THE TYPING. SEND HELP.

Okay I made the grave mistake of jumping into Discord for a minute, and have promptly left Discord, but not before being cued in to look carefully at the Another Rider statues.

So, the first shot of them… From left to right, we see Kiva, OOO, Fourze, Ghost, Build, Ex-Aid, Gaim, and Wizard. Interestingly, all of them except for Build are doing their Rider’s signature poses, albeit with the standard corruption. Because Early Installment Weirdness is such a thing for Another Build that he was basically feral, and that has clearly carried over.

I can’t get over how the statues are just. Clearly still shots of the actual characters with a really bad filter over them, and terribly CG’d in. The budget for this episode must be going tot he fight scenes. … HUH. From the back, it looks like Another Build is trying to do Sento’s pose, albeit with considerably less success than everyone else. I guess the terrible filter made it really hard to see from the front, with him overlapping all of the other sections.

Okay, as the camera pans down to the plague, I see Another Agito on the right, and I can’t for the life of me make out who that is second from the left, but. The second from the right sure looks like it has Decade’s shoulders. And the head on the left sure looks like a warped version of Drive’s helmet.

Guess we’re getting Another Drive and Decade after all!

Woz’s Recap this week is him on an inexplicable bench swing in the middle of a wooded area, with Sougo none the wiser to his presence as he stumbles around the trees.

And apprently, by ‘the flow of time has changed’, we mean Woz warped Sougo to yet another alternate timeline, except this time it’s 2019, and he’s implying that the future where Sougo becomes Oma Zi-O has been completely derailed.

And that mansion is in a wooded area, alright. A large one, several city blocks worth. And we can tell.

Because we get a zoom-out, and see that it’s in the middle of a city.

With a whole lot of sirens in the background.

And a whole lot of buildings on fire.

!!!

New opening narration for the OP!

RiderTime translates it as… “The Heisei Kamen Riders have run through the era. Their powers now collected, the curtain of the final battle has risen! Clear the way! For the future of the True King!”

For reference, the previous narration, as subbed by RT, is “The Heisei Kamen Riders have run through the Heisei era. A new legend is starting that inherits all their powers. Rejoice! For the birth of the new King!”

And as translated by Overtime, it’s “The legacy of the Heisei Kamen Riders has carried on throughout the era. Once their power has been passed on, a new legend begins… Rejoice! For the birth of the ultimate king!”

The shot of () in the OP has been replaced by all the Heisei Riders striking their poses, and then coalescing into a ball of light, which breaks and shows Grand. First with just the helmet – then zooming out to a fullbody shot, with the 20 emblems fanning out behind him in a circle… and those odd circles of light dropping down around him, that I failed to mention from the first Grand transformation last time.

Sougo emerges from the forest into a city apparently at war. Rubble is strewn everywhere, and several people in fatigues with guns run by down the street, the sound of gunfire in the distance. Sougo, time-traveler that he is, goes to pick up a tattered poster, confirming that it is, in fact, 2019.

Our camera zooms out, freezeframing with the sound of a camera shutter and framing the scene.

Hey there, Tsukasa! Nice to see you again, you wonderful troll, you! He’s in fatigues – clearly what he was assigned when he arrived here – and. TWO cameras. Tsukasa, ffs. He’s still got his Magenta one, but also a brown one – that is some variant on a polaroid instant camera, since it ejects a photo right after he takes it. It’s about time he learned to carry something like that.

And his photos are still supernaturally bad – with all their eerie foreshadowing abilities intact. Case in point…

Tsukasa: “So, this is the end of this world.”

He pulls the printed photo from the camera.

Tsukasa: “Then what will you do now, Tokiwa Sougo?”

We see the photo. There’s none of the recurring double-imaging here that used to be seen in so many of Tsukasa’s pictures. Instead… Sougo is half faded from existence, the wall and abandoned shop stall showing through him in places.

(Also, Tsukasa looks exhausted. Get some sleep, sir.)

There’s barricades and fencing outside of 9-to-5. It’s not a clock repair shop anymore.

It’s a resistance shelter.

And one of the people, a woman tending someone’s wounds, asks who Sougo is.

And his uncle doesn’t recognize him – tries to attack him with a daikon radish, even.

Tsukuyomi’s voice comes in over the radio, saying that Another Riders are attacking a shelter, asking someone to send help.

Sougo asks where it is, and says he’ll be right back, running off.

Junichiro: (scandalized) “Young people these days act overfamiliar… even though we just met!”

Ow, my heart.

Another Kiva and OOO are attacking some refugees. Please note, literal machine guns have no effect on them! That’s! That’s just great!

(I’m still not okay with the eyes on Another Kiva’s shoulders, BTW.)

Geiz – in armor – and Tsukuyomi work to fight off the Another Riders and get the former civilians out of there, respectively. Geiz draws Another OOO away, and Tsukuyomi gets Kiva off of a group. At least the Faiz Phone X can make them flinch, if only a little. Enough to actually serve as a nuisance, before Another Kiva lifts her by the neck as Sougo runs in.

He knocks Kiva off of her, by vaulting over the staircase railing and nailing them with a kick, and asks if she’s okay. Tsukuyomi also does not recognize him!

Hey, Sougo, maybe at least try using your name when you’re trying to totally-not-re-introduce yourself to people who don’t know who you are? It might help, I dunno, jog some memories locked by the time distortion.

You know, I’ve commented before on how Sougo could take hits really well at the beginning of the season. But now he’s full body tackling Another Riders, knocking them back. Actually, no, scratch that. After Tsukuyomi paused time for everyone in the room sans herself – good for her – and grabs the Faiz Phone X to shoot Another Kiva, when time starts back up? Said Another Rider goes after her, and Sougo just blocks them. Just takes the hit, arms raised defensively, and Another Kiva is the only one to be knocked back. Sougo doesn’t even budge. This young man is made of iron.

And also very confused as to why Geiz would think that he would run, proceeding to pull out the Zi-O II watch, transforming.

Geiz knows who Zi-O is.

I somehow doubt he knows the same Zi-O as we do, though.

Also, for this Geiz, at least, the Time Burst kick can be channeled through just. Straight up holding Another OOO against the wall with his foot, and charging the attack down through his leg, exploding Another OOO with a notable coin effect amid the flames.

And although we can’t exactly seen Geiz’s face, because helmet, he’s probably sharing Tsukuyomi’s scared expression right now.

What, no stained glass effects when Sougo’s finisher takes out Another Kiva? I’m disappointed.

Tsukuyomi and Geiz come on the underground scene… and Tsukuyomi immediately shoots Sougo several times with her blaster. Geiz is ready to do a violence, and proceeds to start attacking.

Geiz: “So you’ve made your presense known, Zi-O – today you meet your end!”

Sougo: “Why?”

Geiz: “I’ll defeat the Great Overlord and save this world!”

Geiz: “That is our, the Resistance’s, mission in life!”

I noticed that he used the term ‘daimyō’ there – not whichever term it is he usually uses to refer to Oma Zi-O in the regular timeline. Interesting. Though, to be fair… the preview shots of Hiryuu looked like he was using a very different version of absolutely terrible taste than the regular Oma Zi-O.

A single direct blow from Revive Fury is all it took to knock Sougo out of his transformation.

He’s so confused, and scared, because nobody recognizes him, and he doesn’t know what’s going on. He can’t get any answers, and he’s so sad that his only family and friends, the only ones he’s had around him in years, have no idea who he is. Are all so willing to attack him.

To the point of when Sougo is practically begging to be told what’s happened. Geiz attacks him.

Still transformed.

Still using Revive Fury.

Still using the buzzsaw.

Sougo’s not transformed.

Me: :BARELY CONTAINED SHRIEKING:

There’s a painful looking slice on Sougo’s arm and cheek – there are scorch marks where his shirt was cut open.

Geiz refuses to listen to anything Sougo has to say… and readies another attack.

Aimed right at the prone Sougo’s neck.

Me: THIS IS NOT FINE.

I mean, yes, time paused, leaving Sougo free to move – BUT VERY CLEARLY HAVING BEEN AT MOST A SECOND FROM LITERAL DECAPITATION.

AHHHHHHH!

But… who paused time? UHR. Telling Sougo to run, unless he wants to die there. Sougo rolls to his feet, and stumbles away down the tunnel. When Uhr unpauses time, we see that Geiz and Tsukuyomi definitely still know about the Time Jackers, although not Uhr specifically, with her aiming the phone-blaster at him, and him just skipping off and presumably disappearing once he gets out of their line of sight.

He can’t let them kill Zi-O now.

Here on a roof – a decidedly shabbier roof than usual – we find out that the three Time Jackers are still around… and that they, at least, know who Sougo is. Know that he has an incredible power, and that going after him with brute force won’t work. So, Swartz is going to leave the new overlord to Hora, for now.

And here’s something interesting. I’ve always thought that Swartz was clearly their superior. But.

Hora thought their positions were equal. Swartz smirks as she storms off, followed shortly by Uhr leaving in the other direction.

And yet again, we have evidence for Swartz having a different plan than everyone else.

Hat!Woz called him ‘Sir Swartz’, and was acting largely according to a plan they shared.

The previews for Over Quartzer imply that Scarf!Woz’s outfit is a uniform for the group trying to stop Sougo from ever having the chance to obtain the Drive watch.

And they all have those grommets scattered all over their wardrobes.

Different sides of the same group? Different departments, where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing?

Interesting.

Back to the former shop…

The more things change, huh?

Junichiro is still a nice guy, offering to make something for Geiz and Tsukuyomi to eat.

Tsukuyomi has her doubts about Sougo being the overlord, since he did help defeat the Another Riders.

But Geiz has a point, too. An overlord probably wouldn’t hesitate to take out his minions to fool people. (You know. Like might be going on with Woz.) The Time Jackers are still the enemy, in some way, and Uhr helped him. And, most damning of all, he transformed into Zi-O.

Geiz vows… he’s going to take him down.

Sougo, in pain, is by a riverside. It’s… it’s really depressing to see the abandoned bicycles just laying there. And Woz, at least, still seems ot remember him.

…or, maybe not. He’s acting incredibly restrained, not even really looking at Sougo, and hasn’t… actually… indicated directly that he knows who Sougo is. But he has seen the statue, and knows it’s of Hiryuu.

He saw it because Hora took him there.

…Wait. Sougo. SOUGO DO YOU NOT KNOW HORA’S NAME?!

Okay, just gonna put the realization that our main trio might not even know the time jackers names aside for now, because we’ve got bigger issues.

Namely, that Sougo’s future as Oma Zi-O has disappeared from the book. (Dark Toei, give us the forbidden book backstory.)

Namely, that Woz has decided to serve a new Overlord.

Namely, said overlord is Kakogawa Hiryuu.

That he wants to pay back the humiliation of being told to live in the present, instead of the past, of ‘not being chosen’.

And, since we’re having a dark mirror of what Sougo could have been, if he’d grown up bitter…

Let’s have a dark reprise of one of Sougo’s old catchphrases.

Hiryuu: “So, I’m going to give this a try.”

Hiryuu: I’ll take everything away from you, and then you can try ‘living in the present’.

And now…

He’s not Another Zi-O.

He’s Another Zi-O II.

…Is it just me, or does he have an actual Driver? Because when he holds his watch at his waist, that black copy of the Ziku Driver appears first, and then the rest of his form as an Another Rider.

And that Driver looks an awful lot like a black copy of Oma Zi-O’s, but with a watch attached on the right-hand side.

Sougo is still heavily beaten up, and it looks like he’s struggling a bit to raise his arms enough to insert the watches, even though he’s not using his usual flair. He’s putting them in before he puts his driver on.

Grand Zi-O starts to charge at Another Zi-O II.

Geiz and Tsukuyomi are trying to find Zi-O, but not having any luck.

That is, not until Uhr shows up, saying that Zi-O is running amok, and offering to tell them where he is.

With an incredibly smug look on his face.

The right hand doesn’t know what the left one is doing, either.

Back at the Zi-O Vs Zi-O fight, Hiryuu just straight up summons copies of Another Agito, Den-O, and Gaim out of thin air.

Agito appears with green smoke and a single light, coming from right about belt-level.

Gaim still has the orange smoke and juice-droplet effect from last time we saw Another Zi-O.

Den-O has lines of light around him that look distinctly like the lines in Actual Den-O’s attacks.

(Where was this attention to detail in the first arc?! They got much better at it pretty quickly, actually, distracting forced-amnesia subplot be damned, but still!)

Sougo summons Den-O and Gaim to take on their respective Another Riders – both of whom have those windows, still – and takes on Another!Another Agito himself. All three Another Riders go down simultaneously.

But. You know. Hiryuu is Zi-O II now.

And Zi-O II can do more than predict the future.

He just reverses the attack, rewinding time for the three Another Riders, and incidentally turning daytime into night. The same rainbow ripple effect from earlier shows up as he does it.

The Another Riders de-spawn Sougo’s summons, and he tries to defeat them with his “Giri Giri Slash” finisher… only for Hiryuu to undo that, and turn it back into daytime.

Sougo is just getting his ass KICKED today!

…and then machine gun fire blocks Hiryuu and his mooks from going further after him.

Shots fired by one Kadoya Tsukasa, still in miliary fatigues, with a magenta button-up underneath and matching bandanna tied around his arm.

TSUKASA, you’re STILL wearing two cameras! At least. At least let the pseudo-polaroid not be brown. Maybe a nice violet color, you know, for Natsumi, or a bright Cyan for Daiki. Even a yellow or some such for Yusuke.

(Yes, I ship them as an OT4. Come at me. I’ll carry my Photo Studio Polycule forever.)

So, this speech Tsukasa’s giving… it’s a pep talk. Yes, in his standard, trolling manner, but a pep talk nonetheless. “So, you’re just giving up here? Because it got hard? Because they left you? You were all high-and-mighty, going on about being a King, but here you are, an Overlord. Did you want this because they came to you? Or did they come to you because you wanted this?”

“This world is coming to it’s destruction. The only way you can stop it is to defeat Kakogawa Hiryuu.”

And at one point, Tsukasa lifts the BSOD’ing Sougo up by the collar, and he’s almost entirely limp. Just, being jerked around, almost slumping back down to the ground when he’s pushed against the wall.

Sougo stumbles off at Tsukasa’s challenge. He! Is in no way able to fight at this point! He’s just gotten beaten up three times in less than a day, all of which were very brutal! This boy! Is not okay!

The three Another Riders show up.

Tsukasa: “Defeat them, and then we’ll talk.”

So, Sougo enters Grand Zi-O. Almost reluctantly, it takes him a moment to even pull out his belt, but he still goes into battle.

(I do appreciate that they don’t show the full Grand transformation every time. Unlike certain other anniversary riders. Tsukasa. Fricking. Six episodes having to watch the full transformation into Complete. UGH. That was painful. If it were a better form, or a better sequence, I wouldn’t have been as made. But Complete is ugly, and the transformation cutscene for it is just. Bad.)

Sougo summons Den-O and Gaim’s weapons to take out the respective copies, and that leaves Agito. Who, you know. Doesn’t always have a weapon – his and Kuuga’s are form-based, unlike the more recent riders.

SO INSTEAD!

Sougo pulls out a translucent COPY of Agito, and sort of. Just. Merges with it to do Agito’s Rider Kick.

THAT’S REALLY CLEVER!

Tsukasa seems at least a little impressed. But here comes Geiz, going straight into Revive Typhoon, saying that he’s going to take Zi-O down to save the world.

And while Geiz is attacking at normal speed, so Sougo could have dodged…

But he doesn’t.

He just takes the hit.

We close out to the end screen, with the Another Den-O and Another Agito watches in the back… and once again, the Zi-O watch, glitching and being replaced by the Another Zi-O watch.

In the preview…

Zi-O II, Geize Revive Fury, and DECADE fighting Another Zi-O II.

Sougo: “There’s no point in fighting Geiz.”

A bunch of fight scenes, with Swartz saying that someone will help him, and Hiryuu sitting on a throne.

Daiki’s coming back! And still going on about treasure, because of course he is. (Still mad at Tsukasa about the first Super Hero Taisen movie, I’m guessing)

Tsukasa – still in the army jacket, but seeming to have ditched the helmet – spin kicking Another Build away from Tsukuyomi, and holding an honest to Gaim PISTOL.

AND SON OF A-

SOUNDS LIKE TSUKUYOMI IS, IN FACT, SWARTZ’S SISTER.

Or, at least, that’s what she’s being told, and Uhr – who looks to have just been holding a Faiz Phone X to Tsukuyomi’s head, being just as surprised as her.

THIS IS FIN-

YOU KNOW WHAT NO NONE OF THIS IS FINE.

THIS EPISODE IS SCARY.

So, Tsukasa’s ‘pep talk’. That’s the voice of experience that he’s using. That’s a man who has done the whole ‘evil ruler’ thing, and would really rather not see his latest successor go down that route. He’s just. Kind of terrible at saying it.

And of course he’s trying to point out to Sougo that he needs to rely on his allies, if in a roundabout way.

It was only because of Natsumi, Yusuke, and Daiki remembering him that he came back to life, after all.

Memories are a powerful thing in Kamen Rider. We just came off of the Den-O arc, which is largely powered by memories, and to go right into people not remembering that Sougo exists… well. There can’t be a coincidence that it’s also a Tsukasa arc now.

Also, as a note, we had some of the first decent shots of Oma Zi-O’s belt in this episode. Previously, we only got to see one side of it, the one not obstructed by his sash. This time… well.

The places that used to be for Ridewatches? Those look an awful lot like the extensions on the Grand watch.

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says

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shaykeijser · 7 years ago

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riverdale 2x16

here are my thoughts/reactions to this weeks episode that no one asked for, which will include spoilers (obviously) so i’m putting them under the cut. i’ve already watched the episode so these aren’t my first reactions technically but they’ll be the same.

caution: i’m not a fan of jughead or the core four. so i’ll be poking fun/getting annoyed at them.

- why did betty not go straight to alice with the dna test? why would she give chic, who she thinks is capable of hurting her, the opportunity to last out at her? i also still don’t get why she didn’t just get a normal dna test. like you’re a journalist, get the full truth, not just some of it

- i fucking called it!! why do ya think hal wanted nothing to do with chic? remember when he said “you’re letting this stranger into our house”? he wouldn’t call his own son a stranger

- fp is the dad and that’s the facts (that wouldn’t make bughead wrong don’t even try to defend that)

- chic is such a good creep IM LIVING FOR IT

- if it wasn’t a for-profit prison it wouldn’t be the worst idea. but it is so :///

- southside high was falling apart at the seems. the old students were aware of that and were plenty happy to go away! yes the lodge’s had other intentions with shutting down the school, but overall it was a good thing. there’s other, more valid reasons to not like the prisons that aren’t being talked about!!

- lol we know that veronica running for stuco wouldn’t end up well

- fred getting more screen time <333 (even if i don’t totally agree with him)

- does everybody at this school watch the same tv shows how is jughead quoting scandal (which i had to google) universally understood? i’m actually a sophomore and my friends and i quote vines.

- why isn’t ronnie defending herself? she gave that look to archie so he could defend her. where did kick ass veronica i don’t take no shit’ lodge go??

- ‘hunger strike for southside high’ BOI

- ‘for it to re-open’ i had to pause this when i first watched this scene. he went there for like 2 weeks. toni was his only true friend for the majority of it. he didn’t like the idea of it and didn’t like what he had to do to survive there. the other students were happy with it closing!! why you gotta be so extra?? and if he really wants to get out of riverdale to be a writer he shouldn’t be trying to go back to a school that had teachers who gave up hope on their students

- ew ethel (i was eh with her all together but i’m still >:( over how she got mad at veronica for what hiram did to her father. veronica was one of the only people who was comforting her and tried to make amends. we can’t forget that when that all was going down veronica didn’t like her dad)

- WHY ARE KEVIN AND JOSIE SITTING ALONE

- wait jk i remembered

- HAHAHA ok i’m josie (don’t get me wrong i like veronica and is the only tolerable lead for me atm but that slushie thing is really funny. it was sorta uncalled for, but she is working with her father soz)

- props to veronica for being the bigger person in this scenario

- 'what are the odds your father’s gonna be the first inmate in that prison?’ #boomroasted #thatwasatheofficereference #didanyonegetit

- lol at least veronica kept her cool for a little bit (go her btw)

- MY POOR CHERYL NO

- mama blossom is shady and nana rose is sassy

- that tea’s gonna be poison i’m calling it

- why would ethel’s dad want a job at the prison? he was a businessman

- veronica’s own parents are threatening her UGH

- power to veronica for wanting to run but this isn’t gonna end well

- TONI’S HOT & even if her audition flopped cheryl still would’ve made her member #lovemybabies

- tbh i didn’t like the lodges being the main plot point and i’d still prefer for the serpents to get more screentime than them BUT this is getting interesting

- drag him archie

- i want to see other south siders fighting for this why does jughead get to be the leader of this revolution (that i’m here for!! except for the school thing bc it doesn’t make sense)

- y’all have been having friendship problems since the ms. gr**** thing i think the trains have been getting closer than you think jug

- FINALLY, THE CHONI I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

- something bad is gonna happen to cheryl i’m calling it, and nana rose

- (about what betty said after cheryl opened up) betty let chic into her and her family’s life can she not just be cautious from a distance and let her mom enjoy having her son back

- of course toni’s in the bed you sly little bird cheryl

- y’all gonna fuck? kidding this the cw that’s only for het couples

- THEY GONNA KISS AWE

- ok fuck why can’t we have some happiness for once

- penelope and claudius pushed her, i mean penelope had obviously prepared a back up plan incase she didn’t die (mentioning sundowners syndrome)

- #ProtectCherylBlossom

- aw archie’s mom is back i’m happy

- YES SCHOOL THAT BOY FOR DISRESPECTING FRED GO MAMA ANDREWS

- charles melton looks really hot with a bruised face oi oi (so does jordan connor)

- that lowkey sounds like a bribe veronica....

- fang, toni, and pea are in this scene?? new favorite scene

- honestly, if any other serpent was the one in jugheads spot i think i would be all for it lmao

- i thought mary (andrews) was gonna also give archie the safe sex talk that he archie never got dang

- mary’s giving good advice though let’s just hope archie will listen to it

- I LOVE KEVIN

- kevin had the right to tell chic, she was the one who forced him into the poorly planned catfishing (like seriously - she shouldn’t have been there and they shouldn’t have done it at a school). kevin has barely got any good storylines that actually continue and i’m so damn happy that he’s sticking up for himself. betty only reaches out to him when she needs help.

- betty talking about her darkness and saying ‘darkness’ in general is the most cringey thing ever. she has some sort of mental illness. i don’t know what but they shouldn’t have taken this ‘darkness inside of me’ approach.

- i wish V tried to become josie’s friend before asking her for an endorsement. actually, i wish the show resolved their friendship ages ago. they’re the one of the few WOC and overall i’m tired of girl x girl friendships being ruined like this

- it’s got so bad that veronica had to bribe josie to endorse her. i know this isn’t gonna go well

- sweet pea looking like an out of focus snack <333

- DRAG HIM JUGHEAD (lol you can tell how much i don’t like archie being up hiram’s ass that i’m praising jughead)

- give betty cooper therapy, you cowards

- ‘i caught the black hood’ bitch no you didn’t that hoe still out there & i’m taking that theory to the grave

- sheriff keller woah i forgot about him

- my boy fp!!

- omfg imagine when betty tells jughead that chic’s dad isn’t hal they better have him be like “...what if it’s mine” (i just realized that sorta sounds like jughead saying ‘what if the kid aka chic is mine’ and that’s not what i meant, i meant that chic’s dad is jughead’s dad but that made me laugh so i’m keeping it)

- oh sHIT something’s gonna happen @ this concert/rally for veronica’s campaign thing

- kevin’s filming it yeps something’s happening

- ope i knew it ethel is passing papers out

- woop there it is

- i don’t ~really~ get why betty’s mad

- JOSIE’S APART OF IT WTF I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING but i should have :(

- this show tries to be all about female empowerment but then they have two girls banding together to bully an already manipulated and hurting girl. smh

- again, i don’t ~really~ get why betty can’t trust her anymore

- :((( i feel so bad for ronnie. she’s being manipulated by her parents and i really want her out of lodge industries. she’s taking blame for the shit that her parents have done

- THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

- HAHAHAA THE WIG OH MY GOD

- “i was guessing” congrats betty, you’ve played yourself

- the offer that hiram made to fp actually sounds nice :((( if only he wasn’t so shady

- archie is so far up hiram’s ass he sounds exactly like him

- YOU GO MARY! SCHOOL YO CHILD

- finally a parent (alice) talks bout safe sex to their kid (betty)!!! my mom is gonna be so happy when she watches this episode (yes i watch riverdale with my mom, no it’s not awkward during sex scenes because we watch every show together so we’re used to it)

- “absolutely not.” keep telling that to yourself alice

- alice cooper is my favorite cooper

- “he’s dangerous.” bitch so are you? you held a lighter up to his face?

- i thought alice killed that drug dealer is that what betty is saying he did

- cheryl doesn’t have red lipstick on in this hospital scene something’s gonna happen

- nana was being poisoned by the tea :((

- i guess i’m remembering this wrong i thought alice shot him (about the scene in chic’s room)

- how did betty not remember that he didn’t touch anything

- CHERYL DROP AND ROLL OUT OF THAT CAR NOW

- look at archie being all smart aw

- why is betty next to kevin?? stay away from my baby (kevin)

- this scene is actually really powerful? even though them chaining themselves to the school is a repetitive and cliche thing to do, the aesthetics and the filming of it is really cool

- can we see all those young serpents more often pls

- what is jughead talking about why does he think they’re gonna lose riverdale high? is it because of veronica running? bc no one’s gonna vote for her after those flyers

- uGH i can see him being a good president

- why is betty so done with her and veronica’s friendship? i really don’t get why she’s so mad at her?

- jughead, betty, and fp all living together. that’s a concept

- SOMEONE WRITE A HEADCANON OF ALICE BUSTING INTO THE TRAILER TO GET BETTY BACK AND THEN WE GET SOME CUTE FALICE ANGST

- i’m happy mary’s staying bc maybe with her around we’ll get more fred screen time #canyoutellilovefred

- FUCK YEAH FRED IS RUNNING

- toni topaz is the caring type of girlfriend who goes to her girl’s house when they aren’t in school pass it on!!

- but really though where is cheryl what are they doing to her

- CHERYL DOESN’T DESERVE THIS SHE’S BEEN EMOTIONALLY ABUSED FOR YEARS AND HAS LOST A BROTHER, FATHER, AND BEST FRIEND

main takeaways

~ veronica is being manipulated by her parents and doesn’t deserve half of the shit that’s getting thrown at her

~ jughead is still cringey and extra

~ toni is the girlfriend of all of our dreams let’s be honest here

~ cheryl blossom doesn’t deserve this bullshit

~ betty cooper is mentally ill

~ chic is fp and alice’s son

~ #FredForMayor

33 notes · View notes

zombiiesque · 3 years ago

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Nocturne Alchemy Seth's Dinosaur Collection - PART TWO

Originally published on 6/28/2016

Hi y'all! I'm back at it again today. And crossing my fingers I don't get pulled away from the computer, so I can get this up for y'all. It's a gorgeous day out, and we haven't had any rain yet. I swear, we've been waterlogged here in Florida ever since hurricane season started.

So I think this review will be a little shorter - I'm sure you're all breathing a sigh of relief. Hey, I can remember when the internet was ALL TEXT, no graphics, no photos, just....text. Yep, true story. We've come a long way. Anyway, so today I'm covering the second release, which is when the Prehistoric collection name came about. There were six perfumes in that release. Of those, I have four - I'm missing Ankylosaurus and Caudipteryx. I actually had a full bottle of Ankylosaurus, and I traded it away (I think for Pumpkin #6, actually, if I'm remembering correctly!). I definitely have some regrets over that, I'm thinking I might want to try to get that one again if I can. Also, I'm kind of doing a *headdesk* moment over Caudipteryx - y'all, it's a chypre! Umm, why did I not get a bottle of this? Probably because I was too obsessed last summer over picking up my beloved Pteranodon and the others I didn't get in the first round, so in playing catch up I wasn't paying attention too closely for the note description of Caudipteryx. Anyway, so I have four perfumes to cover for you this afternoon, and two of them are quite complex, so let's just dive right in, shall we?

As a side note, if you missed my review of the first release, you can click here and it will take you to it, it has some pertinent notes about these perfumes. I want to go ahead and mention this again, though - these perfumes were designed to be "hatched" or layered, to bring out the complexity of the notes. They might seem a little flat or linear to you if you wear them alone, although of course you are welcome to do so. This is especially relevant to two of these I'm reviewing today, Giganotosaurus and Deinonychus. In addition to that, the notes again state that bits of resin may occur with aging, and it will enrich the perfume even more.

Deinonychus: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, VA Cemetery Musk Accord, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Sandalwood, Hungarian White Cedarwood, Kobalt SL (Vanilla Orchid of Cairo) and a drop of Egyptian Temple Oudh.

Okay, might as well get the two super complex perfumes out of the way right off the bat. No need to be intimidated, Niki, you got this girl! Haha. Erm. Well, see, when I know that something is particularly special, I get nervous about writing about it. I worry I'm not going to do it justice, so I won't properly capture what it's like for you. I'm going to give this a try though, as always! Hah. Deinonychus was a blind buy for me. Right off the bat, I knew I was going to get bottles of this, Giganotosaurus, and Velociraptor (BECAUSE IT'S VELOCIRAPTOR!! EEE. More on that later.) Okay, so looking over the notes, I see my beloved Egyptian Temple Oudh. Hnnnnngggggg I cannot express my love of this enough. It's eye-rolling good, life changing, and if you're into it? Great for a mediation perfume oil, it will totally take you out of your normal life and put you into that special place. Anyway, that's just one component. The other one that caught my eye was Cemetery Musk. Now, I've had some experience with this, it's also an accord used in my beloved Snow Amber, Underlord Akhenaten, and it looks like it's been in a few other LCs that sound pretty amazing, Zombie Grave Edition and White Zombie. Hmmm. Anyway, how to describe this musk that I like so much? It's sort of a sweet, dry, clean musk? Maybe sort of a light golden feel, or even a sort of gauzy white. It's deceptive, I mean it's a light and clean musk, but it packs more of a solid punch than say NAVA'S Egyptian Musk. As a note in these three scents that I have, it sticks around for a long time, which is what I mean by deceptive. I'm okay with that, I love that smell. So if you wear Deinonychus alone, it's a little more complex than some of the Dinosaurs. That's neat. You still won't get all of the nuances unless you add another oil, but I definitely get the Cemetery Musk right out of the gate, and I'm picking up the ambers in the undercurrent. They're so lovely, I really enjoy that sort of "freshness" of NAVA amber. It's quite distinctive. I've worn Deinonychus alone for an entire day, and it's pretty amazing, actually. I put it on in the morning, and then I made a trip to Clearwater. As I was walking around in a shop, something like 6 or 8 hours later, I got this lovely, smoky scent drifting up at me. I stopped dead in my tracks and tried to figure out what it was - bingo, Deinonychus. The Egyptian Temple Oudh just kicked in and the Cemetery Musk took a step backwards - HOLY WOW THAT IS AWESOME. I mean, I'm not kidding. So let's talk about layering. (I know, this is long. But it's complex and wondrous and it deserves a full review.) When you hatch Deinonychus, it's quite a changeling. Not as drastic as Giganotosaurus is, but depending on what you layer it with, you'll get more of the other notes - the Kobalt vanilla, the cedarwood, and the sandalwood all make appearances but if you layer it with a vanilla heavy perfume, Kobalt comes out even more to play. Honestly the two stars of this always remain the Cemetery Musk and Egyptian Temple Oudh, but layered all of the aspects come out and it is glorious. I'll give some examples below. By the way, the cedar in this is not at all pencil shavings - if you've not had the please of smelling Diamond, which you totally should by the way, you won't recognize it, but it's a light, sweet wood here, almost juicy, absolutely lovely.

TL;DR: CEMETERY MUSK PARTAAAYYY. Umm. Let me try to be a little more concise. Hatching Deinonychus, it's quite multifaceted, but the stars are always Egyptian Temple Oudh and Cemetery Musk. The vanilla, sandalwood, ambers, and cedar all make appearances.

Layering recommendations: So now, let's talk about how to make certain notes sing, shall we? If you layer Deinonychus with the aforementioned Diamond, it becomes a Cemetery Musk (CM for short), Egyptian Temple Oudh (ETO), and Cedar party, with the sandalwood, vanilla, and amber as supporting cast. The woods in Diamond are so beautifully done, and they really go so beautifully with this, it's quite a stunning combination. The guy loves this particular combination. And let's say you layer this with one of NAVA's superlative vanillas. Crystal, Crystalline, Kobalt, Kobalt Dark, Ember Vanilla, OP Pakhet, Phantasm Kiss. Wait, let's hold off on Phantasm Kiss, that one is special. All of these other vanillas though, then it becomes a CM, ETO, and Kobalt party, with the ambers, sandalwood, and cedar as supporting notes. Now let's get to Phantasm Kiss. Wow. This is a good one, because it's got both vanilla AND ETO. So this really showcases how incredibly multifaceted Deinonychus is. You already know who's at the party here, I'm sure you're following along by now. So it's also especially lovely with Santalum, Santalum White, or Santalum Ombre for the same reason. You might try it with Ambre Ombre to really bring out the two lovely ambers - it's actually kind of jaw dropping good with Ambre Ombre, or White Ambre Ombre, if you want something a little lighter. Umm, let's see, what else? Oh, you could easily do Egyptian Musk, Crimson, or Kashmir with it. As far as LC suggestions? Sky's the limit. It goes well with almost any of the Oudhs I think. I don't think I've tried it with Labyrinth, but I've tried it with ETO, Copal Oudh, Samar Oudh, Inferno...Snow Amber, Holiday Egyptian Gold Amber, Embalmed Mummy, Underlord Akhenaten, Underlord Bastet, Blood Moon, Holiday Egyptian Gold Vanilla and Sandalwood, Under the Moon - really the possibilities are endless. This is such a workhorse of a scent, it's amazing.

Giganotosaurus: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, Patchouli, Cedarwood, Ginger, Rosewood and Hungarian Teak.

Oh, girl. You had me at patchouli and rosewood. I was curious what the rest of it would smell like, but I knew I was getting a full bottle of it. Little did I know that I would blow through a half a bottle in six months! I actually saved this review for last, because as much as I love Deinonychus, I love Giganotosaurus even more. I have tried this with errydangthing. I mean it. And it's a total chameleon! With some perfumes, it turns light, feminine. With others, it deepens, becomes more earthy, woody. But I have not found anything I didn't like it with. It's been blowing my mind and I can't get enough. And the more I age it, the more delightful it becomes. I can't believe how the different facets come out with different blends. This; this is the reason I am such a fangirl for NA. I swear, they're magicians. They truly are. Now, you can wear this alone, or with another Dinosaur (see my note at the end of the review for more about this) and it is lovely. As it dries, it changes. More facets come out. At first, I get patchouli and amber, and hints of some lovely wood beneath. The rosewood comes out, and then the teak and cedar, and they are all playing together, as if they are creating a symphony. It's lovely, and sort of a yin and yang, both masculine and feminine, how in the world? I don't know, but when I do my layering experiments, this is further reinforced. It seems to somehow smell different with every perfume oil, even the SL vanillas - for instance, it's a little darker and more earthy/woody with Kobalt Dark, and sort of lighter and feminine with Crystalline. I don't know how to explain it other than telling you it's magical. I could keep going, waxing poetic, but I'm probably not very poetic, and I think you get the idea at this point. My initial plan last year was to get a backup of Cryolophosaurus, but I fell so hard for Giganotosaurus, I ended up panicking and getting a backup of that instead. Seth, you sir are a genius. First, you (and Bastet!) get me to dip my toes into the magical water of NAVA gourmands, and now this? I'm struggling for words here.

TL;DR: The most magical of all the Dinosaurs, in my opinion. This is extremely versatile and smells quite different depending on what you layer it with. It also is lovely and long lasting worn alone.

Layering suggestions: Oh boy. Here's where it gets crazy. I don't think there's anything I wouldn't recommend you try it with, because why not? I haven't had a bad experience yet. Tonight I'm wearing it with the incredible Byzantium Amber, and it's so lovely, sort of feminine. One of my favorite options is Labyrinth, a patchouli oudh, or Patchouli Ombre. Those are both rather heavy, earthy blends, and Giganotosaurus lifts them both, making the patchouli more wearable for those of you who might be a little nervous about a patch-heavy scent. Speaking of patch-heavy, Hessonite. Child. I understand Hessonite packs quite a punch, but please, try adding a dab to Giganotosaurus, you will thank me. So, everything else under the sun. Mummy Crypt. Holiday Egyptian Gold Amber, White Ambre Ombre, Santal Ombre, Black Raven, Bastet Amber, Gabriel, Pyewacket Cat, Anticipation, Carter, Enigma, Holy Grail, Cecilia, Horus Haven 2, Egyptian Temple Oudh, OP Baba, OP Hathor, Ozymandias, Under The Moon - okay seriously, just try it with everything. Hah!

Protoceratops: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, Crystalline (Egyptian Vanilla Orchid stigma Resin), Kobalt (Vanilla Orchid of Cairo), Crystal Absolute (Vanilla Musk), Vanilla Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream Accord, Vanilla Caramel, Bastet Amber and Egyptian Sugar accord.

Okay, I almost passed on this. Almost. I was looking at the notes and thinking, I can't wear that. It will come off as too sweet on my skin, I tend to make foodie blends too foodie. This is one of the reasons I love NA. Always expanding my horizons. I read a review from another blogger, and she said it was not overly foodie, so I though huh - maybe I can sneak in a bottle of this last minute. I somehow managed it, and Protoceratops showed me that I can start to branch out a little on foodie blends. This is...delightful. If you wear it alone, it's kind of an ice cream, waffle cone, buttery vanilla. However! The ambers lift this up and keep it from going too far into foodie territory. It's a little more light, and clean. Not overly caramelized, like some foodie vanilla blends do on my skin. And that Bastet Amber is the icing on the cake, I LOVE that stuff. It's incredible, so there are a melange of ambers in this to lift this up. And do you see what I see at the end of the notes? Vanilla Ice Cream Accord? WHAT IS THAT? I needs it. I do. Because although this is lovely and light, I'm catching whiffs of that, and it smells delightful. So, around the time that this was released, they very kindly included a sample of Bastet's Ice Cream Accord. There was no plan at that point to release a full bottle of it, but it was an instant hit. It's SO good. It's definitely a foodie blend, but I actually slather myself in it! Unfh. It's like vanilla ice cream in a fresh baked buttery sugar waffle cone. It's like walking into an ice cream parlour and being hit with that delightful smell. Anyway, not a review for that, but just so you know, if you want to emphasize the ice cream aspect of this Dinosaur, that's your best bet. They ended up releasing three versions of Bastet's Ice Cream Accord over the holidays last year. Anyway, back to Protoceratops. If you wear this alone, when you first put it on, you get a good whiff of the ambers - Bastet Amber really brings these to the forefront in this blend. As it dries down, it starts getting more creamy, and the waffle cone starts to come out a little bit. Yum. The amber is still there, so it never gets that overly foodie aspect. It's quite well balanced. This is pretty lovely alone, but when you pair it with other blends, it's really a star. Mmmm, that sugar is lovely, like a crust of sugar, that shows up when layered.

TL;DR: Lovely, lovely creamy vanilla ice cream with a sugared, buttery waffle cone. Lifted away from the foodie category by the addition of Bastet Amber, it's perfectly balanced - if you are nervous of foodie blends, this is a fantastic option for dipping your toes in.

Layering suggestions: Go crazy. This one is easy! Any of the vanillas go well with this. If you're lucky enough to have a bottle of the now discontinued SL Moonstone, that's a great choice, as it's a little more foodie, but it also easily goes with Crystalline, Crystal, Kobalt, or Kobalt Dark. If you want to ramp up the ambers more, add some Bastet Amber. I like it in the summer with Santalum White or White Ambre Ombre. I've worn this with some of the Tea Service blends and it's fantastic, like Coconut Milk or Sweet Santalum Milk. I have paired it with tea blends too, Black Oudh Jack, Underlord Bastet, Luxor Lemon, White Tea Vanilla. Try it with OP Pakhet or Tawaret. I've worn it with any number of fruit blends too - Ophelia, Egyptian Peach Blossom, Black Crystalline Black Fig, Raphael, Fig Noir Ombre, (I have a lot of NAVA fig!) Ichabod, Black Crystal Candy Apple. I like it with Vamp, Victorian Candy Cane Crystalline, Selket Anti-Venom Rez, Coconut Cockatoo, Adele. Offbeat but also works: Anticipation, Nag Champa Seahorse, California Redwood Crystal Musk, Holiday Egyptian Gold Amber, Halloween 2017. If you have a coffee blend, such as Seth's Secret Sweet Vanilla Bean Black Coffee, Protoceratops adds a lovely cream and sugar element. Over the top? Sure, Bastet's Ice Cream Accord, Spooktacular, Orb, Poison Pumpkin, or any of the 31 Pumpkin Library! This one pairs so well with all kinds of blends.

Velociraptor: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, Black Musk Absolute, Black Amber and a drop of aged viscous Velociraptor Kashmir red musk.

Oh, sir. OF COURSE I HAD TO GET YOU. Anyone who knows me knows my fondness for Jurassic Park. So no matter what the notes were, I HAD to have him. Hah! Well, remember our friend Utahraptor from the first collection? Velociraptor has emphasis of the Black Musk, rather than the Kashmir. This is absolutely glorious. Yes, you still smell the Kashmir, because of course, there's no way that Kashmir is going anywhere without getting noticed! But it's not the star of this show, and that's okay, because NAVA's take on Black Musk is perfect - it's not too heavy, it's balanced in just the right way. Often, black musk blends can be too overpowering for me, but never with NAVA. The amber in this is definitely noticeable too, with the addition of Black Amber. This is lovely to wear alone, but when you hatch it with something else, it really comes to life! This one is not shy. It's definitely as potent and long wearing as Tyrannosaurus and Utahraptor, so bear that in mind when applying. If you don't mind that, slather away - I do!

TL;DR: This Dinosaur is the opposite of Utahraptor, in that the Black Musk is the star, but don't worry, both Kashmir and Black Amber show up as well.

Layering suggestions: Oh, this is fun. Try it with any musks, I actually love this with Egyptian Musk, and of course it's beautiful with SL Kashmir. I like it with the SL Vanillas, but I also like it with Santalum, Myrrh Ombre, Ember, OP Osiris. I love it with the Oudhs like Egyptian Temple or Copal. Absolutely amazing with Kadmium Amber or Eternal Egypt Decade. Try it with the Holiday Egyptian SLs like Frankincense, Myrhh, Gold Amber, or Gold Vanilla and Sandalwood. I also like it with the Nag Champa Seahorses - all three, but particularly NCS Kashmir. I've worn it with Pandora Enigma, Egypt 1, Mummy Crypt, Blood Moon.

Something that I forgot to mention in the previous review and I need to edit is that these are lovely when you pair them together! And I've done this several times with different combinations. Pteranodon with Protoceratops or Deinonychus, Velociraptor with Utahraptor, Diplodocus with Giganotosaurus, Protoceratops with almost anything! Hah.

Another thing to mention, if you have eNVie Saphir, many of these are stunning when hatched with Saphir. Definitely worth experimenting with - I have Saphir, Ambre Saphir, and Encens Saphir, and they all do well with the Dinosaurs.

Phew. So, that wasn't quite as wordy as part one, but it was still wordy huh? I certainly hope my layering suggestions gave you some ideas for hatching these! I think some people may not be aware that these were designed with that in mind, although I do think they are lovely alone as well. None of them, alone, seem to be a single note, because of the ambers. Anyway! We are now two days away from the grand reopening, and I'm at the edge of my seat. Have a lovely evening folks!

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prettyfunkyunorganized · 7 years ago

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If Things Had Been Different - Gabe

Hello again! I’m so glad to be back! Things have finally settled down, for the most part, so here’s a post. Finally.

So, while I was absent I got a bit of writing done when I needed a distraction and this is the result. I kept thinking about Raper and how different things might have been for Gabriel if he had found out about little Sonya before she was born. So I wrote about it. And I fucking love it. A lot. So yeah, have just over 3,100 words about pre-fall Gabe getting a call in the middle of the night about his ex.

If Things Had Been Different - Gabe: pt 2

Daughter Series - Reaper Installments (the original story): pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4

Gabe was sitting in his office, staring blankly at the wall across from him. He had only been in charge of Blackwatch for about six months but holy hell had it been a mess. It was secret ops, so he knew it was going to be messy, but he had gravely underestimated how much work and time this job was going to be. “I agreed to this because Jack asked me to, because I needed a distraction after pissing off my woman and my side girl, but shit . . . Might have made a mistake.” His head lulled back as he closed his eyes. It was late, or maybe early, and he was exhausted.

He had a good team, but a team that was good for black ops. Shifty, ruthless, calculating, sometimes drunk, always ready to kill black ops soldiers. They were good operatives, they were, but they all had that same broken psychology and tons of emotional baggage they kept squirreled away.

Jack had asked Gabe to watch over them, keep them under control, contain them. Because Gabe wasn’t like them. But after six months? After reading reports of sickening corruption, deadly biochemical weapons, genocide involving women and children – so many disgusting, awful, gut-wrenching things – he could feel a callous growing around his heart. He’d held a dying child in his arms, he’d sent agents after a politician who was using a children’s home as a cover for human trafficking, he’d watched a woman stab herself in the abdomen with a shard of broken glass once she found out she was pregnant with a warlord’s child. Gabe had always known there were fucked up people in the world, everyone knows that, but coming face to face with their victims was getting to him. Most of the people he saved nowadays weren’t grateful and full of praise, they were drained, body and soul. He was quickly becoming just as empty.

And if terrified him.

But it was worth it. He could be a husk of a man if so many others could live their lives in peace. “I can handle it,” he murmured to himself. “I’ll get by. I’ll find a way. I have to.”

It was nights like this he missed having someone to go home to, someone to make him smile – or at least fake one. Fake it ‘til you make it and all that. Ruby, the woman he’d had an affair with, always made him grin, until the sex was over. Nora, the woman he’d betrayed, made him feel at ease, for the first ten minutes he was home, then it turned into a guilt trip about settling down.

None of that mattered now, though. Both of those relationships had crumbled into a sea of regret, quite catastrophically, too. He was alone with his work now. No reason to leave the base unless it was a mission, no reason to pretend he was fine unless Jack or Ana came around, and no reason to go back to his room. He would likely get back to work and fall asleep at his desk. Again.

Before Gabe’s fingers reached the keyboard the phone rang and he froze. A call? This time of night? “Nothing good comes from a ringing phone at 2:30 in the morning,” he sighed. “What atrocity am I dealing with tonight?”

The HR department’s extension number registered in Gabe’s mind just as he hit the speaker button. “Fuck,” he hissed. Human Resources. Someone on the team had made a mess. Pollas en vinagre.

“Good evening, Commander Reyes,” came a tense voice clearly trying to play it cool.

“It’s morning, miss, and I’m getting a call from HR, I doubt anything about this is ‘good.’ Just tell me what’s going on,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“The local hospital called, sir, they are asking you to head there right away,” the woman said hurriedly.

“I swear to God,” he growled. “Who did it? Who ruined my night this time?” Then again, his night had been shit long before this.

The woman on the other end hesitated and Gabe grew concerned. These calls were nothing new, and no one had ever struggled to give him the news quite like this.

“Is someone dead,” the commander asked gravely.

“No, no,” she clarified, sounding worried, “but there was a close call. With a woman named Angelica . . .”

He reeled. “Ruby? Why the hell are you calling me about her? That woman is no longer my concern and I intend to keep it that way.”

“I understand that, sir, and I told the hospital that but they thought – ” She faltered again. “They thought you might be concerned with the baby she’s carrying.”

Gabe suddenly felt very cold and his fingertips felt as if they were being pricked by needles. Baby? Baby? When the fuck had that happened . . . It couldn’t be his, could it? Yeah, they had been screwing a while ago, but – holy shit. Holy shit. He had probably gotten her knocked up.

He took a deep breath and forced the panic away from his mind. “Is this Lydia,” he asked the woman on the other end.

“Yes, sir.”

“Have you told anyone else about this?”

“No, sir.”

“Good, good,” he huffed. “Don’t. I’m leaving now, but I’ll be back as soon as I can and sort things out then.”

“Sure thing, Commander,” she agreed, “I’ll tell everyone you’re handling some Blackwatch business. They know better to ask anything more after that. Except for your agents, they might be suspicious, but I’ll keep them off your tail as long as I can.”

“Thanks, Lydia. I owe you,” Gabe moaned.

“No problem, and, uh, good luck.”

He laughed dryly, “Thanks, think I’m gonna need it.”

They both hang up and Gabe headed for the door, throwing on a hoodie with shaking hands. The cab ride was excoriatingly long, giving the man plenty of time to scream at himself for ever getting together with Ruby in the first place while subsequently praying she wasn’t hurt too bad. For the baby’s sake. “Baby,” he whispered in the back seat. “There’s a baby and it’s mine. Maybe.” He should have asked Lydia what had happened. Sitting here, wondering what had put his pregnant ex in the ER was killing him. He darted out of the car before it actually stopped.

A grumpy man behind a desk pointed him in the right direction. The two of them had seen each other before, usually when one of his agents got drunk and roughed someone up – or got roughed up themselves, but the nurse seemed particularly judgmental tonight. Guess he had reason to be. There was a doctor closing the door to Ruby’s room as he approached.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Gabe said, his voice slightly more high pitched than usual, “is Rub- Angelica in there?”

“Yes, she is,” the doctor nodded brow slightly pinched in a way that made Gabe feel weak. “You must be the father?”

“Um, yes,” he choked out, “I guess I am.”

“You didn’t know about this,” she asked in surprise.

“No, I had no idea. I would have . . . No, I didn’t know.” Gabe couldn’t say exactly what he would have done if he had known about all this earlier, but he would like to believe he could have kept Ruby out of the hospital at least.

“Well then,” the doctor began, seeming satisfied, “I’m glad you got here so quickly. Perhaps you can help us figure a few things out. She’s being uncooperative.”

“Sounds right,” Gabe sighed. “I’ll tell you anything I can, but I haven’t seen her in around half a year.”

“I see,” she frowned at the chart in her hands. “Was she taking any illegal narcotics when you last saw her? And please, be honest.”

“Na-narcotics,” he gaped. “No! Ruby likes to get a little wild, party harder than most, but I never saw her taking any heavy drugs. Not once.”

“She is now,” the doctor said pursing her lips, “and she’s clearly not been taking care of herself or the fetus in any other way. I’m stunned we haven’t seen her in here before now.”

Gabe felt cold all over again, but it permeated deeper this time. He swallowed hard. “The baby’s okay though, right?”

She pursed her lips and looked away a moment. “There’s still a heartbeat, but it’s not as strong as it should be, and the mother is very malnourished, meaning the child is too. In all honesty, you’re lucky there hasn’t been a miscarriage. We would like to do some testing and a proper ultrasound but she keeps fighting us. We’re worried that if we force anything we will hurt her or the baby.”

Gabe ran his fingers through his hair and hunched over. “Christ, Ruby, what the hell happened?”

“Look,” the doctor sighed, losing a bit of her professionalism, “she’s awake now and she’s said your name a number of times so maybe you can get through to her, convince us to let us help her. She has an IV she keeps messing with but she NEEDS it. That baby needs it, too. If you can calm her down that would help a lot.”

He scratched his scruffle and nodded despite his lack of faith. “I’ll do what I can.” She stepped out of the way and allowed Gabe to see the patient.

Ruby was almost unrecognizable. Her hair had been dyed some unnatural shade of black, her skin was marred with scabs and scratches, her face was hollowed and limbs unsettlingly thin. If it weren’t for that trademark red lipstick Gabe would have thought he was in the wrong room. A thin blanket was covering her lower body, but he could see the shape of a large bump at her midsection. “Mierda, Ruby, what have you done to yourself?”

She leaned her head up and scowled. “What are you doing here, goody two shoes?”

He came closer slowly, timidly, and leaned on the foot of her bed. “Docs called me. Said you were asking for me.”

Ruby scoffed and pulled her covers closer. “There’s no way I did that.”

“I sure as hell haven’t been keeping tabs on you anymore,” he said flatly, “you must have said something.”

“They were drilling me for an emergency contact,” she muttered, “musta let something slip.”

“I’m glad you did,” Gabe murmured more gently before looking from a nasty bruise on his ex’s arm to her face. “You should have told me, Rube, about the baby. You should have told me.”

They stared right into each other’s eyes, both refusing to give in. She had an awful glare, but it began to slip, bit by bit until she was biting her lip as tears formed in her eyes. “Don’t you fucking chide me, Gabriel,” she spat, “don’t you dare.”

“What do you expect me to do,” he said coming around to the side of her bed, “you’re pregnant, really pregnant, and I had no idea! Why didn’t you tell me?”

She picked at the nubs of her chipped, bloody fingernails. “Didn’t see the point – if this thing survives I’ll be dumping it off at an orphanage as soon as the cord’s cut.”

Gabe lost it, gripping the rail on her bed and leaning over Ruby as she jolted in shock. “What the fuck do you mean, if the baby survives?! Were you trying to kill it? And yourself? Is that why you picked up a needle and started jabbing yourself? WHY?! Ruby, I could have helped you. If you didn’t want the baby that’s your call, I would have accepted that, but pumping yourself full of poison and starving yourself is not okay. That’s not fair to our kid. It’s not their fault you got knocked up, it’s mine. Punish me if you want, but don’t become a junkie and torture yourself like this. Please. You’re better than this.”

“Gabe,” she whispered, wiping the tears from her cheeks and trembling, “I’m not better than this and you know it. I know I should have told you but I couldn’t. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t! That fucking pregnancy test came back positive and I just spiraled out of control. Christ, I hardly even remember the past few months. It’s like I just kept getting bigger and no matter what I did this thing kept living and every part of me kept hurting. I’m sorry Gabe, I am, but – but – ” She began to sob and shake, hands clamped over her mouth as she tried to control herself.

“Alright, alright,” he said softly, “deep breaths.” Gabe was still irate, but he wasn’t going to be cruel and berate Ruby while she was lying in the ER. He rubbed her shoulder until she stopped hyperventilating. She looked exhausted, as if the outburst had drained the last of her energy.

“This baby is better off never being born,” she whimpered, “I’m sure she’s already sick and rotten like me, and we all know I shouldn’t be a mother. I don’t want to be one.”

“No one is going to force you be a mom, Ruby. Honest, but that little guy is pretty big now, I don’t think an abortion is an option anymore.”

“It’s not,” she groaned. “I don’t know what to do now.”

“Well, I’m hoping you’ll try to take better care of the baby until its born and I take over,” Gabe said firmly. She frowned up at him.

“You’re going to take her? Mr. Overwatch man who has no time? The guy who got together with me because he didn’t want to get serious with his lady?”

“Things are different now,” he said somewhat aggravatedly, “it’s not Nora harping at me, there a kid. My kid. A kid who didn’t ask for any of this and needs me. I’m not saying I’m going to be father of the year, but I’m going to try.”

She eyed him thoughtfully for a long minute before sighing, sounding relieved. “You’ll take good care of ‘em,” Ruby nodded. “They’ll be okay with you.” Her eyes closed and she buried into her pillow.

“Hey,” Gabe said encouraging her to stay awake, “you gotta let these doctors know you’ll work with them, okay?”

“Fine,” she griped, rolling over onto her back. Her stomach looked massive on her withered body.

He hit the nurse call button, still staring at her belly. “Uh, Rube?”

“Yeah?”

“How far along are you?”

“I dunno, maybe seven months? Maybe more?”

“Wait,” he said pursing his lips, “you broke it off with me when you were already pregnant? Did you know?”

“Shut up and go find the doctor,” she snapped, waving him away with a disgruntled look. He knew better than to press the issue at this point. Besides, no changing it now. He’d be less pissed if he kept thinking about the future and not how things could have been.

There was some discussion, some paperwork, and a lot of Ruby rolling her eyes, but in the end, Gabe was given access to his ex’s medical information – he would be kept informed at all times on the status of both patients.

“Is there anything else you need from me,” Gabe asked.

“No,” Dr. Faraday, the woman from the hall, replied, “everything should be in order. We will let you know once the test results come in and when an ultrasound is scheduled. For now, Ms. Cotter needs to get some rest, we’ll start treatment tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” he said with a small smile. “Can I have another minute with her? I’ll be out soon, I promise.”

“So long as you keep it short,” she agreed, leaving the room. Ruby yawned and glanced to Gabe.

“What else do you want,” she asked sleepily. “I really don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

He leaned on the bed again, hands in his pockets. “All I want to say is thank you for being amicable about all this. I’m not going to condone what you’ve done, but I’m glad you’re trying to make it right.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she huffed, “I’m just glad it will be over soon.”

“If at any point you want to change your mind, if you want to see your baby – ”

“No,” she all but yelled. “I don’t want anything to do with either of you after it’s born! I’m putting all this behind me, like it never happened.”

“Okay, okay.” Gabe knew he should leave, let her be, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. There was just one more thing he –

“What is it, Gabriel,” Ruby growled, “I know you want to say something. Just do it so I can go to bed!”

“I was hoping I could, maybe,” he fumbled.

“Spit it out.”

“Could I . . . feel your stomach? Just once? I’ll understand if you say no, but – ”

“Will you leave if I say yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then go for it. Little shit won’t stop moving around so you may as well do it when I can’t ignore the kid.” She pulled her blanket down and exposed a filthy crop top and some unbuttoned jeans surrounding her mostly bare belly. There were bruises and what looked like cigarette burns on her tight skin. Gabe was equal parts enraged and entranced. His little mijo or mija was in there. A goofy smile blossomed under his curly mustache.

He placed his palm gently on a patch of unmarred flesh and rubbed his thumb along the curve of her stomach. “Hang in there, conejito,” he murmured.

One soft little pat thumped against Ruby’s skin just to the right of Gabe’s hand. He laughed and moved his hand to the spot and the baby kicked right in the center of his hand. “That’s my girl.”

Ruby squirmed awkwardly and yanked the covers over her. “I’m tired,” she said in a voice so meek Gabe hardly believed it came from the party animal.

“Sure,” he said moving away, thumb rubbing the spot on his palm where his child had kicked. “Get some sleep and try to take is easy on the docs, okay? They’re trying to look after you, both of you.” She nodded and closed her eyes.

“And take care of my girl for me,” he said just above a whisper as he opened the door.

“Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

“You really think it’s a girl?”

He thought a moment. “Guess I do. Just a feeling.”

“Don’t name her after me.”

He held back a snort. “Alright.”

“And . . . make up a story about her mom. Something nice. Don’t let her grow up knowing what I did to her. That I was this shitty.”

“I’ll do what I think is right for her,” he said determinedly, “but I’ll be gentle when I tell her about you.”

“’Kay. Night, Gabe.”

“Night, Rube.”

@watch-your-grammer @winchester-sonsandcastiel @envy-kitty

#mine #writing #overwatch #overwatch drabble #drabble #my drabble #gabe #sonya #if things had been different #daughter series

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buckyscrystalqueen · 7 years ago

Text

Family Matters: Part 2

Pairings: Chibs x Reader

Warnings: Mention of (canon) character death, swearing, fluff.

Word Count: 5,713

Part 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you wanna go down to Modesto with me today?” You asked your boyfriend as you stepped out of your bathroom in a tank top and panties, towel drying your now pink and blonde hair. Chibs opened his eyes to look at you; his brow pulled together at the bridge of his nose in confusion.

“What’s in Modesto?”

“Buddy of mine from the Corps owns a gun range down there. He lets me shoot off my just barely legal rifles and my not even remotely close to legal guns.” Your boyfriend laughed as he stretched out across your bed.

“I would but some of us have work t’do.” You smirked at him as your phone ‘ding-dong’ed; the noise signaling you that a vehicle bigger than a motorcycle was pulling past the sensor into your driveway.

“Play hooky and come with me.” You said as you pulled back the curtain and looked out your window. You could tell just by the type of car that your visitors were government related. “You expecting company I don’t know about?” You asked as you glanced back at the bed.

“No. I’ven’t told a soul about yer place, love.” He said as he got off the bed and came over to the window. You shrugged as you grabbed your gun and your military issue DEA credentials. “Oh, bloody ‘ell… It’s that ATF cunt.”

“Stay inside the house no matter what. She can’t come in unless she has a warrant and if she tries, I can shoot her for trespassing.” Chibs laughed as you tucked your creds in your shirt headed toward the front door. You stepped out on to the porch, gun partially raised and smiled at the two officers that were headed toward you. “You two look a little lost.”

“Ma’am, put the gun down.” The man who had been driving demanded as he reached toward his own.

“Can you tell me why you can’t read the no trespassing sign at the gate?” You inquired, not moving your gun at all.

“Miss (Y/L/N), my name is Agent June Stahl with ATF. I have a couple questions about your involvement with the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. Can I get you to put the gun down, please?” You saw a very thin folder in her had and a small smile spread across your face. She had absolutely no idea who you were. You heard the flick of a lighter behind you and you knew Chibs was most likely standing in your doorway.

“I don’t know anyone from SAMCRO.” You blatantly lied as you dropped the magazine from your gun and field stripped it in a matter of seconds. You watched Stahl’s eyes widen as she watched you. She looked up at Chibs, who waved sarcastically at her while you slowly bent down and put the dismantled hand gun on the ground at your feet. You heard a hum of approval of the view from behind you as you stood back up.

“You sure about that?” She asked as she looked pointedly at Chibs while opening the folder in her hands. “It says here…”

“Darlin’, I don’t give a fuck what your prissy little file says about me. Anything you think you have on me is all wrong. I can promise you, I ain’t saying shit to you.”

“For an veteran who served eight years for her country, you would think you would be more willing to cooperate.” She said without looking up from the file. You fake gasped, playing into her worthless threat while trying to fight the urge to roll your eyes.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry, you’re totally right. Let me go get my notebook and write down a full cooperating statement of everything I know. Here, we’ll start with this.” She looked up at you as you reached into your imaginary pocket and pulled out nothing except your middle finger. Chibs laughed behind you as Stahl scowled. You pointed toward the road behind her and smiled sweetly. “Now, can you get the fuck off my property?”

“I can have you court marshaled for…” She said as she snapped the file closed.

“Bitch, I would love to see you try.” You interrupted as you pulled out your DEA creds and flashed them at her. You watched a look of shock cross her face and your smile grew even bigger. “Yea… didn’t see that in your little folder, did ya? Missed the memo that I hold fed cred perhaps?” She nervously looked down at her folder again, checking to make sure she didn’t miss something as you closed your credentials and crossed your arms over your chest.

“You won’t find it in there. All classified information way above your pay grade. Now, final warning. Get the fuck off my property and do not come back unless you have a fucking warrant… Which I know you won’t get because I’ve done nothing wrong. Or shit, stick around and we can see how long it takes me to put my gun back together. Think you or Goose over here can draw yours faster than a Marine can put her gun back together?”

“OK! We’re going.” Steal said as she pulled out her card and took a couple steps back. “If you need to talk.” She set the card down on the path before her and her partner walked quickly back you the car. You stayed in the same spot watching them as they pulled out of your drive way. As they pulled down the road, you sighed and rubbed your hand over your face.

“I shouldn’t have done that.” You groaned as Chibs walked up, put his arms around your waist and kissed your shoulder.

“Done what, bluejay?” You held your creds up in front you in his line of sight and shook your head.

“She’s hounding the club for information; looking for any way in she can get. Without even meaning to, I just handed her a smoking gun… you.” You felt him pull back a little and you turned in his arms to explain. “Look at this from Clay’s point of view. We are together so there is a good chance that I have told you about my past with the DEA. Let’s say Stahl’s next stop from here is TM, and she picks up Clay to talk to him. He doesn’t say a word because… well it’s Clay. But Stahl turns around and says she knows I’m working undercover as a DEA agent from the inside and you’re my source…”

“Mothta’a Christ…” He took a step back and ran his hands through his hair. With a heavy sigh, you picked up the pieces of your gun and shook your head.

“I gotta call Jax… I don’t have a choice now but to tell the club.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“… Look, I understand if y’all can’t trust me after this. I am more than willing to pack up and leave Charming again, get far away from here if that’s what you think is best. But I swear to you on Donna’s grave that I am not working for the DEA or ATF or anybody now or ever again.” You said as looked at the members of SAMCRO as they sat in a special chapel meeting.

“I can back her whole story.” Ope said. You purposely left out the information that him, Jax and Chibs knew anything about your past so if there was any backlash, it wouldn’t come back at them. “I’ve known all of this since the day she got back into town and visited me in lock-up.”

“Same here.” Jax admitted. You looked across the table at him from where you were standing behind Chibs and Tig. He gave you a small nod and continued. “(Y/N) has been my best friend my entire life; she wouldn’t lie to me. I trust her.” You gave him a weak smile and a nod of thanks as he sat back in his chair and looked at Clay.

“I trust her as well.” Chibs chimed in.

“Well, you are sleeping with her.” Tig grumbled under his breath, causing a few of the guys to laugh and Chibs whacked him on the back of the head. Clay looked up at you, his face completely unreadable.

“Can you step out, hun?” You nodded with a weak smile and reached in front of your boyfriend to steal one of his cigarettes from the pack off the table before heading out into the clubhouse. You kept walking until you reached the picnic tables outside. Thoughts danced through your head as you lit your smoke and sat down; wondering if you had just signed your own death warrant with the club. You smoked slowly, waiting and wondering what the outcome was going to be.

“Are you hearing me, sweetheart?” You jumped slightly at the sound of Gemma’s voice and gave her a weak smile.

“Sorry Gem. What’s up?” She smiled at you and sat down on the bench next to you with a look of concern.

“I said I like the new hair color. Blonde looks good on you.” You smiled as you ran your hand through your hair and pulled it out in front of you to look at the pink and blonde strands for a second.

“Thanks. I change colors every other month or so. Makes my life a little more interesting for me.” She nodded as she pushed some pieces back behind your ear.

“What’s a’matter, baby girl?” You shrugged as you went to take a drag of your cigarette and realized it was just a burnt out butt in your hand. With a small smile you shook your head as you dropped it in the ashtray.

“Decisions I made in my past catching up to me.” She nodded as she offered you a cigarette. You took one and turned sideways on the bench to face her. “You know, every choice I have made my entire life was made to help someone else. But every single one of those choices that I thought were positive have come back and bit me in the ass in a negative way. How is that even fair?” She shrugged as she lit your smoke for you and one for herself.

“It’s not baby girl. But you can’t look at it as all negative. Look at the woman you have become because of those choices. When you were little and used to have sleepovers at my house with the boys, you used to stay up later than them no matter how tired you were. I don’t know if you remember this…” She said. You smiled and shook your head as she ran her fingers through your hair in a motherly way.

“You never let yourself fall asleep before them. I asked you once why you did that and you wanna know what you told me? You said, ‘because I wanna show them that just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean that I have to be weak’.” You laughed as she cupped your chin in your fingers. “You are so far from weak, sweetheart. You are a very, very strong girl and I am so proud of you. I know the choices you made couldn’t have been easy and I know you had your reasons. But those choices made you who you are today. Be proud of them and don’t let anyone take that away from you.”

“Thanks mom.” You said as you leaned forward and gave her a hug as the door to the club opened up.

“We need to talk.” Jax said as he strolled out of the club with Chibs right behind him. “Alone.” You sat back and looked at your boyfriend confused as they walked over to you.

“Is everything…?” You asked hesitantly as you stood up.

“You’re good, love. Unanimous trust.” You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and gave him a hug.

“I’ll take her home.” Jax said. You looked back and forth between the two men and Chibs put his arm around your waist protectively.

“Jackie…”

“Use the office.” Gemma said as she stood up and put her hand on her son’s shoulder. “I’m about to leave anyways.” Jax didn’t say a word as he turned and walked off.

“I’ll be right in the garage.” Chibs said in your ear. You nodded and kissed his cheek before following after Jax. He held open the door the room that suddenly seemed entirely too small and you slipped past him.

“I know you’re mad at me right now but I need you to listen to me, trust me and not react afterwards, OK?” He said as he closed the door and checked the one that lead into the garage. You nodded as you sat down on the couch closest to the door incase you needed to run for some reason. Jax sighed heavily as he ran his hands through his long blonde hair and sat down on the other couch. “The vote was unanimous. Everyone said they think your telling the truth. However, I don’t think everyone actually believes it.”

“Wait, huh?” He held up his hand to silence you and you tried to figure out what he meant. He scrubbed his hands across his face and sighed.

“Clay had Tig kill Donna.” Your stomach dropped and your jaw fell open as the information crushed your heart. Tears spilled from your eyes as you let out a strangled cry and your hands flew to your mouth. “The hit was for Ope. ATF set him up as a rat and Clay took the bait and ordered the hit behind the club’s back. Opie doesn’t know and you can’t tell him. I have my own plan for Clay on this one. Donna was never supposed to die.”

“Oh, D…” You said; your voice muffled by your hands. Jax got up and moved to your couch. He pulled you in for a short hug before leaning back and placing his hands on your shoulders, holding you at arms length.

“I’m sorry, (Y/N/N), but that’s not why we need to talk. Clay is losing his edge with the club because of his hands and he is grappling at any string he can to hold power. He’s making poorly planned calls and putting everyone at risk but he is also pulling shit like that. I’m concerned that with this shit coming out now, he’s gunna come after you.” You stood up and ran a hand through your hair as you took a few steps around the office to process the information.

“Please tell me you’re kidding.” You said as you turned around and looked at your best friend.

“Trust me, I wish I was.” You chuckled a humorless laugh for a moment and suddenly grabbed a metal container of pens off the desk. You threw it as hard as you could against the wall.

“Mother fucker!” You shouted as you turned to look out into the garage. You heard the clatter of a metal stool hit the ground and you held up your hand to Chibs, letting him know you were fine and to stay put. You met his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. With a small nod, you forced yourself to get control. He cocked his eyebrow at you questioningly; silently asking if you were alright and you nodded.

“Does he stay at your house every night?” Jax asked as he watched your half of the silent interaction. You shook your head and turned back to Jax as you ran your fingers through your hair again; purposely staying in view so Chibs didn't worry.

“Few nights a week. We’ve only been dating a few months.”

“I know you can handle your own, (Y/N) but I want you with me or him at all times when we aren’t with Tig or Clay. Ope is a little… out of it right now so be careful around him. Since Donna, he has thrown himself into the club. I know the three of us have been best friends since we were kids but if Clay could convince him that taking you out would be what was the best for the club, he would. I want you carrying again, too.” You pinched the bridge of your nose as a headache began to spread in your skull.

“How the hell am I supposed to suddenly become ‘clingy girlfriend’ to him and hang around you all the time? You two are always off doing God only knows what and you seem to have forgotten that Tara still hates me.”

“I haven’t forgotten… she still has the last bit of bruising across her face from your punch.” He said with a laugh and a smile you saw he was trying really hard to fight against. “You clocked her good.”

“Yea, well some punk ass I grew up with taught me well.” You said with a laugh as you looked at the man responsible for teaching you how to fight.

“Look, I’ll figure the details out on my end and I’ll tell Chibs to stay with you. He won’t know the whole truth but he knows Clay and I are at odds right now and how desperate Clay is getting. He also knows how much you mean to me. And the guy is clearly in love wth you, (Y/N). If you asked him to move in with you right now he would say yes.” You rolled your eyes as you glanced out at the shop at Chibs. He was sitting on a stool, talking to Half-Sack but his eyes were locked on you. You smiled and nodded.

“You’re probably right.” Chibs tilted his head slightly to the side like he did anytime he stared at you and smiled.

“God, you’re disgusting.” Jax joked, causing you to blush and look back at him in mock annoyance.

“Bite me.” He got and walked across the office and gave you a hug.

“I’m sorry, (Y/N/N). For everything I said. I’m sorry you had to leave Charming for me because of Tara. I hope you can forgive me.” You nodded as he stepped back and looked at you.

“I know you are, honey. I do forgive you. But you gotta talk to Tara. I’m not now nor will I ever be a threat to her.” You eyed him up and down as a cocky smile spread across your face. “Besides, I’ve had you once before. Sorry to tell ya but… you’re not that good in bed. I found better.”

“Ouch! Straight for the jugular!” He teased as he put his hands over his heart. “You’ve wounded me.” You shrugged as you kissed his cheek and moved to the door to the garage. “And that shit doesn't count because it was my first time.” You smiled with a shrug.

“It’s all about those first impressions. I wasn’t impressed.” You opened the door a crack as you looked over your shoulder at your best friend. “The Scot fucks better.”

“You’re such a bitch, do you know that?” He asked as you stepped out into the garage. He waved Chibs over as you shrugged.

“Meh… I’ve heard that once or twice.” Jax laughed as Chibs came over and wrapped his arm around your waist.

“I want you to stay at her place for a while. Can’t explain just yet but I don’t want her alone.” You looked at your boyfriend, who's brow furrowed slightly at Jax’s request.

“Somethin’ I should know about?” Jax shook his head.

“Gut feeling. Just wanna make sure she stays safe with ATF lurking.”

“Aye. I agree with you on that, Jackie boy.” He kissed your temple and rubbed his hand against your hip. “I’ll just grab some stuff then.” Jax nodded as Chibs gently pulled on your hip to turn you toward the clubhouse to go to his dorm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Christ… what’s wrong wit’it now?” Chibs asked as you got out of your doorless, piece of shit Jeep.

“Overheated... again.” You said as you put your sunglasses on the top of your head. He gave you a chaste kiss and kicked the tire.

“When ye gun’ get rid’a this piece’a garbage?” You scowled and lovingly pat the mirror.

“It’s OK, baby. He didn’t mean it.” He rolled his eyes as he lit a cigarette. “Can you look at it today?” He shook his head and exhaled his smoke toward the sky.

“Can’t today, love. Got little more ta do. Leave it though and I’ll look at it tomorra. I’ll be done in an hour or so.” You grabbed your purse from the passenger seat and gave your boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.

“You’re the best.” You said as you plucked the cigarette from his lips with a smile and walked away.

“You wench!” You giggled as turned around and walked backwards toward the club to grab a beer.

“Love you, too!” You said sweetly. You blew him a kiss as he lit another cigarette. He smiled, mouthed ‘I love you’ and headed back up to the garage.

“Hey (Y/N)!” You spun around at the sound of your name over the group of people that were hanging out and waved at Happy as he gestured you over. You nodded politely to Tara and Jax as you walked by and smiled as Hap stood up to greet you.

“I’ve actually been meaning to call you.” You gave him a quick hug and sat down on the bench.

“I’ll take one guess.” He teased. You nodded as you took a drag of your cigarette.

“I wanna do somethin’ special for her but I just can’t figure out what that’s gunna look like.” His brow furrowed in thought as he sat down backward on a plastic chair.

“Well let’s start with where on this already inked up body we are gunna do this and size. Then, we brainstorm.” You nodded as you took one last drag of your smoke and stood up.

“Well, here’s the thing. I wanna do it down my right side but I have these…” You pulled up your shirt slightly and showed Hap the scars. He whistled as he quickly ran his finders over them to judge the amount of scar tissue they each had and shook his head.

“I can’t go over those, mama.” He said as you put your shirt back down and sat down. “You have a tattoo on your back too, right?” You nodded.

“Yea, the upper half. Blade to blade and stops right about here.” You said as you gestured to a spot on your side that was level with the bottom scar. Hap nodded as he tilted his head to the side for a second.

“Anything on your lower hip or thigh?” He said as he gestured to the area on himself.

“My whole middle is empty. My arms are full, my legs are getting there and the tramp stamp area and my chest, neck and face are off limits.”

“But you want it here.” He gestured to his side once more and you nodded. His hand waiving paused for a moment as his eyes shot up to yours. “What about an hour glass? Gone before her time.” Your eyes lit up and you smiled. You nodded as tears stung your eyes.

“That is fucking perfect, Hap.” He smiled and scooted closer to you a little bit in his excitement.

“I can start it…” The sound of an explosion behind you cut off his words. You had a brief flash of your time over seas as you stood and whipped around in your spot. Everything stopped as you watched Chibs land hard on the ground; his head bouncing off the pavement as if it were a rubber ball. A choked cry escaped from your throat as you ran.

“Filip!” You cried as you got close, silently begging him to move; begging him to be alright. Someone caught you around the middle and held you back so that Tara could do what she could to help the man you loved. Every second that passed where he didn’t move seemed like an eternity. Tears poured down your cheeks as your body trembled in the tight embrace that seemed to be the only thing holding you together.

“He’s gunna be OK.” Opie said right next to your ear. You looked up at his not so convinced at his own words look and shook your head. Realizing that this time he was the one holding you together after the other loss you both endured, you lost it. Your tears turned into silent sobs as you laid your head against his chest; watching impatiently as Tara fought her heart out to keep Chibs alive. You couldn’t lose another person you loved.

You didn’t hear the ambulance pull in; your only thing you could focus being the rise and fall of your boyfriends chest, but you felt a panic grip you as Ope picked you up bridal style and carried you out of the paramedics way.

“No Ope, please. Please!” You begged as you tried to get out of his arms to go back. You had to make sure he was OK. You had to know…

“They need to do their job, (Y/N/N). I’m bringing you right here.” He set you down about 20 feet away where you could still see but you were no longer in the way. You held onto his arm as a safety net as you tried to focus on what Tara and the paramedics were saying.

“BP 90 over 60 and dropping.”

“Cranial hemorrhage. Call ahead and get OR prepped stat.”

“Critical condition, male, 43…”

Your stomach turned and you had just enough time to squat down and lean through the railing you were standing by before you threw up down onto the service ramp. You felt Opie pull your hair back for you as you got sick. Every time you closed your eyes, you saw either Chibs slamming to the pavement or flashes of the conflict in Zaire. Your stomach tightened as you finally began to dry heave.

“Here, baby girl. Drink.” Gemma’s voice said through the fog as she squatted down next to you with a bottle of water and a paper towel. You wiped your mouth off as you sat down on the ground. You pulled your hair up into a messy bun and took the water bottle from her.

“He’s gunna be OK, right? He has to be OK.” You looked up at the sound of the gurney being lifted into the ambulance and you scrambled to your feet. “Open your eyes, baby.” You whispered as you watched the man you loved being put in the ambulance. Your whole body felt numb as you walked toward the back of the ambulance, keeping your distance no matter how badly you wanted to stay by his side.

“… once he’s stable, they are going to let me know.” You glanced over at Tara, who was talking to Jax and Gemma with her back to you and you nodded subconsciously. That some how gave you the tiniest glimmer of hope. You returned your tear filled gaze to the ambulance and tears welled in your eyes once more as the doors were slammed closed and the ambulance pulled out of the lot.

“He’s gunna be fine, darlin’.” Jax said as he pulled you in for a hug. You shook your head as you clutched on to your best friends kutte.

“I can’t lose him, Jax. I can’t lose any more people.” He rubbed his hand along your spine as he squeezed you tighter and kissed the top of your head.

“You’re not gunna lose him. He’s gunna be back before you know it.” You nodded, not believing a word he said but wanting so desperately to.

“I gotta get my purse. I gotta go… somewhere.” You said as you pulled back and looked around. Your car was useless; there was no way you would make it home without destroying it even more. You couldn’t take Chibs’ bike; the keys were probably in his pocket. You blindly walked over toward the picnic tables, finally rinsing your mouth out with the bottle of water Gemma gave you before drinking half of it.

“I’m gunna head over to St. Thomas. I’ll call you if I hear anything.” Tara told Gemma. You looked up at her and swallowed.

“I know you don’t like me and all but… could I maybe ride with you to St. Thomas? My car is broken and I just… I…” You licked your lips and blinked back tears as she stared at you in shock. “Please?” She looked at you for a moment, her eyes boring into yours. You were just about to take your request back when she nodded.

“You’ll only be allowed in the waiting room until he is stable.”

“Better than nothing. Thank you.” She gave you a short nod as Jax walked over and touched her back to get her attention. You quickly walked away and grabbed your purse, digging for your cigarettes as fast as you could to smoke one quickly. You lit it as Tara and Jax began bickering back and forth about something.

“Hey…” You looked over as Opie touched your shoulder. “You need a ride home?”

“Tara is gunna give me a ride to the hospital. Thanks though. If you could, whenever you get a chance, can you get my bike from the house and bring it to me in the truck? My Jeep is on it’s last leg. Chibs…” His name caught in your throat and you shook your head. “He was gunna look at it tomorrow.”

“Hey, you got it. I’ll get it there tonight and bring you the keys. They on your dresser?” You nodded as you took a long drag of your cigarette.

“In the bowl as always. Thanks Ope.” He gave you a weak smile as Tara called your name. You took one final drag of your cigarette, threw it in the ashtray and jogged after her. You wordlessly got in the passenger seat and looked out the window as she drove out of the lot quickly.

“Here. You probably want these.” She said as she pulled up to a red light half way to the hospital. She pushed herself up so she could reach into her back pocket. “I took them off him so they wouldn’t get cut off.” She handed you a small pile of jewelry; the rings Chibs wore every day, his silver cross and his set of mala beads.

“Thanks for that. I’m sure he will really appreciate that.” You put the cross around your neck and tucked it into your shirt, wrapped the mala beads around your wrist and slid the rings onto your thumbs. You went back to looking out the window as you traced the designs on the rings with your fingers.

“You really love him, don’t you?” She asked after a few minutes of silence. You looked over at her and nodded.

“Yea, I really do. He’s the first man I have ever loved.” She glanced over at you with a slight look of confusion and you gave her a small shrug. “Jax, Opie and I have best friends our whole lives but that's all we ever will be. Those two are the only family I got left. Honestly, the only reason Jax and I slept with each other and dated was because it was convenient. We were just dumb teenagers. Do I love Jax? Yea… but not like I love Chibs. Not even close.” She didn’t say a word when you finished so you went back to staring out the window. As she pulled into her parking spot, she put the car in park and reached over and took your hand. You jumped at the unexpected contact and looked over at her.

“All I can say right now is I am sorry I never gave you the chance to tell your side of the story before I judged. I’m so sorry for how I acted at Donna’s memorial. And I am sorry that you are having to go through this with Chibs.” She squeezed your hand in hers a bit and tears welled in your eyes.

“Thank you. I am really sorry about your nose… and your ribs. You can blame Jax and Ope for teaching me how to fight like a man.” She laughed as you wiped away the tears that escaped.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m gunna go in and see what I can find out. Take your time, smoke a cigarette, and catch your breath. I’ll meet you in the chapel when I know something. It’s the most central part of the hospital since I don’t know if he will be in the OR or ICU. It may take me a little while so bear with me.” You nodded as she pat your hand. “Want me to leave my keys?” You shook your head and grabbed your purse.

“Fresh air will do me good right now. Thank you, for everything.” She gave you one last pat before the two of you got out of her car. As she headed inside, you dug through your purse for your cigarettes and phone. You lit up and went to call Jax to find out what he said to Tara but you found yourself calling your voicemail instead.

*First message. Today at 2:22 pm.*

(Y/N)… wad’r’ye doin’, love? Are you dyin’ ye ‘air again? I like the blonde! Stay blonde! Although ye would still be beautiful no matta the color. I’ll be home ‘round six. Maybe we can order take-out, pretend ta watch a movie in bed, aye? I love ye, my little blue jay.

*End of message. You have no new messages. To repeat this message…*

Tears welled in your eyes again as you listened to the voicemail over and over again while you smoked your cigarette. When you took the final drag, you stomped it out with your boot and pulled the cross from under your shirt. You held it tight in your hand and closed your eyes, begging God to not take your Filip away.

Part 3

Aesthetic by @sorenmarie87

#Chibs x Reader #Family Matters #Family Matters Series

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