#full sorcerer supreme mode

[tales-of-magic-and-chaos]

The probability of Loki having a gigantic crush on Stephen upon meeting him is 100%.

[rei-ismyname]

What if? Magik became Sorcerer Supreme Highlights

There's a saying (that I made up) - any What if that doesn't destroy the universe will eventually be introduced into the main continuity. Magik isn't Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, but she has been trained by Doc Strange. In this alternate happening, she's just broken out of Limbo and is trying to stay alive. It's Strange's job to deal with magical threats.

Ilyana stumps him a bit. I guess the X-Men didn't tell him about her demonic kidnapping. From their POV it happened very quickly, but still... Anyway, Strange can't at first tell if Darkchilde or Ilyana is behind the wheel, but he'd like to find out. It doesn't take long for him to realise she's in need of help, not defeat, so he offers the former. Yana isn't very interested in that, so she uses her discs to escape him. See you later buddy.

Ilyana has good reason to mistrust anyone who denies her freedom of action or offers her help. 'Not the first sorcerer to trap me in his home' indeed. Belasco is such a creep.

Strange manages to tire Yana out, and he offers the poor malnourished gal lunch. Well, she doesn't really get a choice in the matter but she's keen on food. Magik is surprised that he's Sorcerer Supreme, being very different to the only other one she's met.

Lunch and conversation happens, but Yana is looking for the trick. She asks Wong if he likes his 'master' under the assumption that he's a slave, as it is in Limbo. It probably would have been wise to establish that Wong is loyal to the office, and functions as Strange's master in many ways too.

Ilyana shares her story about Belasco and Limbo, highlighting the bits where he kidnapped her to his house and made her his apprentice while grooming her literally. Strange misses a beat and does the same thing, without the grooming, not understanding that he's presenting himself exactly as Belasco did. Not a good look, doc.

Unsurprisingly, Ilyana flees the first chance she gets. From her perspective, it's happening again, and she tells his dumb ass how insensitive he's being. He admits his mistake and lets her go, though he does follow. As Yana is leaving, he reframes his offer as one of altruism, and importantly highlights her agency in the matter. The offer is a place to live and tutelage, either of which she can leave at any time. Ilyana accepts.

Training and healing begins, though the fuckery of Limbo magic clashes with Strange's Ditkoesque fractal 7th dimension shit. Strange has difficulty truly understanding what growing up in Limbo has done to the poor gal, and creation magic is her big stumbling block.

Instead of her iconic Soul Sword, Ilyana manages to create a Soul Staff. It takes months, but the symbolic difference is stark. She's delighted at this breakthrough, but Belasco shows up in full creepy ex mode (she's 16.) Fuck this guy. Strange agrees and regulates him. Outside Limbo he's not so tough. Ilyana is in trouble though, something soul related.

It's not explained all that well, but magic runs on symbolism and metaphor. Ilyana's trauma, grief and rage is manifesting as hurting herself with magic. Strange brings her to a doomed dimension where she can't hurt anyone else and instructs her to let go of it all. I can't decide wether the kitchen privileges bit undercuts the seriousness of her trauma killing her, or highlights just how young she is. Maybe it's a way to reach her - the parts of Ilyana Rasputina that didn't die in Limbo.

She lets it go, or at least she stops killing herself with the trauma. That tracks - trauma doesn't just go away, but being kind to yourself is a good first step. The world will do its best to beat you down; ideally refusing to help it at least allows you to begin healing. Ilyana falls into some kind of magic pain vortex, landing on a rock surrounded by trappings of her stolen childhood. 'What now?'

Lunch, it seems. Kindness without reservation and safety. Choice and guidance. Mini Sorcerer Supreme robes and further training, to take over the mantle once she's ready. I'd love to see Wong training Ilyana in martial arts and whatnot. Magik doesn't seem like she's heading in this direction at the moment, and I believe she's not a pupil of Doctor Strange anymore. She was teaching at Strange Academy, but it's DOOM Academy now. Time will tell.

[doctorstrangereview]

0059: Strange Tales #164

Cover Date: January 1968 On-Sale Date: October 3, 1967

We're in the Strange Tales home stretch as Doc enters his final arc before the magazine splits into two titles. There are a couple of firsts. Doc stories expand to 11 pages with this issue. This is also the first time Doc's story appears first, relegating the S.H.I.E.L.D. story to second place. The cast for this arc is small, mostly Doc, Vicky and our villain a la mode, Yandroth. Vicky mainly fills the role of damsel in distress. Well, this is pre-Barbarella.

Doc is on his way to the next hellhole, courtesy of The Living Tribunal, to rescue Victoria Bentley. Doc's reward for rescuing the universe from untold evil is to thrown into more extreme danger. I guess Trib-y was too lazy to send Vicky to Doc; or maybe he realized that he needs to keep Doc in danger to keep the kiddies spending their spare change. It gives Adkins the opportunity to draw an nice collage of images on the splash page where Doc sees Vicky and some technology. The extra page give Adkins more opportunities to draw BIG panels and stretch out that story.

Doc's vision of Vicky and The Machines fades and he lands on the planet. It seems suitably weird to keep Doc busy as he goes about his rescue business. There's no record of who colored this story, but they limited themselves to pastels and earth tones. We've got decent weirdness going on, but it doesn't pop like the Ditko days.

Even the giant slug is pale gray and pink.

This, naturally, is his first challenge and he spends a couple of pages flying out of its range and zapping it unconscious. Considering the superhero propensity to fry anything that isn't human this is a good thing!

Doc spends the next page and a half walking around and feeling sad. Why? He misses Clea. He wanders onto the next beast which Adkins draws as a full page with just enough distortion to be really menacing. Another bonus, it's pink! It's not quite day-glo, but it stands out more than most things in this issue. Doc's reaction isn't 'I'm the awesome sorcerer who just went toe-to-toe with one of the most powerful beings in the know multiverse' but rather 'I'm gonna run away.'

The pink ain't having none o' that! It starts flying after Doc, who dives into a nearby cave. It turns out this is a plot device to get Doc together with his antagonist. Clever Jim Lawrence! In the cave he stumbles across a big gun looking thing with a fractured lens in front. I have a feeling it's not meant to be fractured, but futuristic. But, as someone who occasionally works with big camera lenses, this looks like one that's been hard bumped into a door knob. As soon as he notices it, it starts being all evil.

Doc attempts to resist the machine's mind control efforts and our villain, Yandroth, uses the opportunity to introduce himself.

Yandroth goes on to explain how awesome he is, how useless it is to try to stop him, and how he intends to marry the woman who just appeared on his doorstep moments ago and make her his queen. Next, the rest of the universe will fall before him. How original. Adkins gives us a nice big and impressive image to drive the point home.

Of course, Yandroth now invites Doc to challenge him. Doc ponders what the science vs. sorcery battle will be like.

While we may never know what was going on in the heads of the creative team who conjured these stories, I think Yandroth was meant to be Doc if he stuck with science and got even more selfish. They are both extremely arrogant, although Doc has been tempered from early days. They are both masters of their fields. They are both supremely confident.

Also, we are being led into unique territory. Until now, all his foes have been mystical ones. Now he'll be confronting a scientist. While Doc is an actual (non-practicing) medical doctor, he isn't a physicist. This is unfamiliar territory for him. What happens should be original at least.

These stories still feel padded. The extra page really doesn't help. Is Jim Lawrence deliberately indulging Adkins habit of giant panels and repetitive action as writing shortcuts? We may never know. At least next time we'll get a battle that isn't against zoo creatures.

[aelaer]

“Nobody asked about my writing” meme

Thanks for the tag, @tea-understands :) Thankfully I have a small handful of folks who ask me about such things but I do love these memes.

 1: what are you currently working on? 

The Big Boy Fic! The finale of Earth-197320, which I'm 99% certain I am calling Above the Shadows. And I'll have a fun update on Write Every Day June in a couple days.

2: summarize your current project 

It's the fifth and final fic in a series that I started 4 years ago from an anonymous prompt sent to @amethyst-noir. I really clicked with it and she gave me her blessing to pursue it as a full-fledged fic, and here we are today.

Here's my first stab at a proper summary that I wrote for this questionnaire (tell me what you think y'all??):

2019 starts off in crisis-mode as rifts within the borders of reality begin spiraling out of control, drawing the resources of the Masters of the Mystic Arts thin. Tony now juggles the problems of a suddenly-absent Stephen, keeping his work with the sorcerers a secret, and Pepper's uncertain future. Stephen does what he can to maintain the stability of reality while keeping the promises he made. And somewhere out there, the other Stephen Strange is still hiding, putting his own plans into play.

3: summarize your current project poorly 

An author split up what should have been a single work into five separate stories because she wanted to fulfill Bingo cards in 2019, leading to a series that the readers are probably going to need to reread because there's so much detail in Fic 5 that calls back to stuff that happened in Fics 1-4. Fics 1-3 match the length of Fic 4, and Fic 5 is well over the length of Fics 1-4 combined, making for even poorer fic splitting choices. Whoops.

4: describe your favorite character or characters

I mean. Do I really need to? If you're on my blog you know who my faves are.

I guess quick summary as they are in the series in particular:

Stephen Strange: Has an enormous guilt complex that he's been working through a lot. He got better with the help of new friends. His work has endeared them to him quite a bit.

Wong: Has taken a leadership role, but not the title of Sorcerer Supreme for reasons not yet established to the readers. Carries his own secrets. Excellent poker face, but not emotionless.

Tony Stark: Has been blatantly ignoring the Accords ever since he went against Ross's back to find Steve in Siberia and has been continuing that trend since. Seeing the feds turn their eyes on Peter changed his opinion quite strongly. The Steve Issue is still difficult.

Other Strange: He thinks the Avengers and Masters of the Mystic Arts have failed their duties and that he can protect all of reality by himself. He just needs more power.

5: post a line from your current project without any context 

Closed my eyes and scrolled and went to a random page. This is what came up.

Oh, Jesus Christ. This explained so much about the man.

6: how do you get through writers block?

If it's not something health-related which just makes it physically very hard to work on items, I'll switch projects with my shorter fics. For a long fic like this, I'll put on a sprint and just power through 15 minutes at a time to get the harder bits out.

For health-related stuff (including mental), you sometimes just need to work on that first before you can be in the right space to write.

7: would you want to live in the world of your current work? 

Hell no. Superhero worlds are terrible for normal people.

8: briefly discuss your outlining process, if you outline 

I write an outline with the main beats of what I want in that chapter. Then when I get to the actual chapter, I'll sometimes expand the outline with more detail in that chapter section itself. I often go back to the main outline and add new things as I come up with them, or switch around elements in the story to a new chapter. This is how the planned outline has grown from around 12 normal chapters and 1 interlude chapter to 18 normal chapters and 2 interlude chapters (with potential for more growth seeing as I'm getting into some areas that have original outlining that I no longer am certain I want to use as they were ideas from over 2 years ago and the story's evolved a lot since then).

9: what is the aesthetic of your current project?

So much plot. Rewriting a lot of the end of phase 3 to push my Found Family agenda. Fix it vibes, but I think it's a natural fix it arc from the canon drama that could have happened in canon if the Russos gave a damn. A lot of character exploration into their own separate journeys and growth arcs. Pretty accurate on Marvel tones with action, drama, a bit of snark and humor. An itty bitty dash of canon romance but we all know I'm including it only because it needs to be there due to the plot and character arc reasons and not because I'm all googly-eyed for the genre.

10: what song sums up your current work the best?

Each chapter in the series takes a song lyric from a specific song and I identify that song with the story pretty heavily. For instance, Illuminating the Shadows took "The Light" from Disturbed.

For Above the Shadows, it's "Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy (who I'm seeing live in concert in a couple days, yay).

Tagging those who I know are writing/trying to write: @mckiwi, @sobeautifullyobsessed, @burglarhobbit, @amethyst-noir. No obligation either way. Also if I didn't tag you please feel free to take this (and you can poke me here if you'd like as a reminder that you're still actively writing fic regardless of the fandom and I'll try to remember for these sorts of things).

[waterhorseyblues-ao3]

WHB’s Guide To “Non-Canon” & One-Shot Comic Loki Content

This won’t be in any real order because it doesn’t matter and also there’s DEFINITELY more I haven’t read that I’ll come back to at a later date maybe

Loki (2004) - This is very beautifully painted and explores the idea of (classic) Loki winning and how he copes on the throne of Asgard, but I found it pretty slow and dry. There’s some good emotional complexity in it though.

Loki (2010) - This is just a retelling of existing Norse myth with a Marvel skin over it. I genuinely think if you wanna read Norse mythology then there’s much better versions of it and this doesn’t add much more to make it fit comic Loki’s character. Check it out if you think this suits you best.

Thor & Loki: Double Trouble - This is a banger. It’s one of my favourite artists over 100% pure goofs and gaffs and japes and jonks. This is all Loki and Thor sibling spats and presents us with possibly the MOST amazing take on Loki’s character design by having him be just a little guy. Goblin mode fully activated. Very fun.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - Okay, some will argue this is canon, others will argue it’s not. For the most part, USG does not follow Marvel 616 canon but imho this makes it way more accessible to new readers. This comic is a fucking DELIGHT. I cannot recommend USG enough. USG’s take on Loki is such a campy, dramatic, mischevous scamp full of sillies and I LOVE them. I could write essays about USG. I’m shaking this comic series in your face. I’m kissing it.

Now, some of this DOES overlap with canon events running at the time. A brief period of the USG comics covers the War of the Realms arc when Loki is Sorcerer Supreme, though I... coulda sworn those weren’t happening at the same time... This is basically the only part that has canon timeline in it and it treats Loki a million times better than the other comics at the time did. Also one of the characters introduced in this series appears in Thor (2020) so it does have multiple ties to the main canon.

If Im not selling it enough, THIS comic series is where the “This is why you get a genderfluid demigod to be your fashion designer” panel came from.

Also this series introduces some AMAZING new characters, all of which appear in the podcast The Unbeatable Radio Show which takes place just after the comics. If you want more help knowing the reading order for this comic series specifically, DM me and I will help you out.

Alligator Loki - This is as it says on the tin. It’s one of the new Marvel webtoons about gator Loki having some adventures. It’s silly and entirely visual and it’s very fun.

Marvel Voices: Pride (2022) - There were TWO Loki comics in this year’s issue. One is tied to the Young Avengers comics (a personal favourite of mine) and the other set in Loki’s current situation. Both of them are very funny and silly and full of Loki being his best self.

Thor (2020) - But didn’t I list this as canon? Yes! However there’s a handful of one-shot comics in this series. Issue #25 has another Marvel skin on a Norse myth, “Thor’s Wedding”,  which in my opinion is much better than Loki (2010) ever did and it’s extremely funny and silly, an absolute hoot.

 Marvel Voices: Iceman - Another of the webtoons. Loki pops up in #3 and is an absolute treat. I recommend reading all of this tbh because it’s fun and very gay.

There’s also TWO Loki novels!

Loki: Mistress of Mischief

Loki: Where Mischief Lies

I’m yet to read either of these but I will update and report back when I have

[canadianhottmess]

Like picture Clea showing up to the Hellfire Gala. Full Sorcerer Supreme mode. Rubbing it in Doom's face while looking hott doing it.

Bonus is she shows up in faltine form.

[notagamersdey]

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Review! full spoilers ahead. Is kinda long...

I thought this movie was good but i cant help but feel a little disappointed. I might get attacked for not liking it because it "DidNt hAVe EnOUgH CAmeOS" but honestly, I could give a flying a fuck about that. What disappointed me most were how they handled the Characters, the magic and the overall story.

Lets go through what I liked first. First we see Dr. Strange and Star Girl getting attacked by a Demon while trying to obtain the book of vishanti. I liked the established relationship between strange and America Chavez. Their relationship, though seen briefly, sets up America's fear of betrayal for the rest of the movie. America Chavez as a character was also really interesting.

Next we see strange at Christine's wedding. This was the portion of the story meant to kick off his arc. I'm all for it. I'm glad he doesn't end up with Christine, and the reasons behind why they are not together make sense.

Wong is honestly perfect in my eyes. 10/10 recommend sorcerer supreme.

The parts where they really stick with the horror theme are very good. Especially the scene in Earth 838 where Wanda is chasing them through the tunnels actually brought me to the edge of my seat.

When Strange Dream walks into the corpse and makes the dark souls into his new cloak caused an eye-gasm. it was beautiful.

Now for what I didn't like. Everything else. I'm not even sure where to start but let's start with the magic. What the hell were those cringy animated monster hands he was conjuring?? I get not using the regular spells and wanting to try something different but good god. When he began to use those spells I immediately knew that this movie was going to disappoint me. Don't even get me started on Wanda. Just like Captain ship-Destroyer, Wanda is Scarlet Energy Blast. She is supposed to be OP as shit but it took her a whole 10 minutes to destroy the fucking kamar-taj??? and only a few seconds to obliterate the illuminati? I'm all for being OP but make it consistent. It's insane to me how they built up this epic take down of the kamar-taj with lines like "it was me being reasonable" only for her to barely do anything. Not everything was bad. There were some good elements from the magic like the iconic maestro battle with sinister strange or... no that's it. That was the best fight scene involving magic.

Next, the illuminati. This was lost potential. These characters are supposed to be established fighters. Smart characters. Best of the best. Honestly, during my first watch of the movie, I get why. This is Wanda being OP, but why didn't Wanda killing BlackBolt fucking kick everyone into fighting mode??? Why did she have to kill him and fucking spaghetti man only for the two women of the group to look at each other as if their assistant brought them the wrong coffee order?? Why didn't wanda give them the same brutal take down? There was potential to actually make a good fighting scene, or to use Wanda's manipulation powers to good use. If you're gonna kill them so easily, make the reactions of others believable.

The characters. As I mention before, Dr. Strange doesn't feel like Dr. Strange. There are a few reasons. So, we know that Dr Strange was a righteous asshole, only to be beat to the ground after his accident. He learned to let go, accept his pain and move onto something that is bigger than anybody. We see him in other movies such as Thor, Infinity War, Endgame and Spiderman No Way Home. Throughout, we establish that he has in fact become wise and has somewhat let go of what he used to be. He's grown and has let himself become the protector of his reality. He is still calculating, and very much understands the weight of his decisions and actions. We see this in infinity war. The problem with this movie is that instead of letting Strange deal with the aftermath of the past few years, the audience is told by other characters. Christine, his old co-worker, America Chavez, the illuminati, 838 christine, fucking wanda. Everyone, at some point, tells strange either that he is a control freak or that he's sad and isnt admitting to it. It's story telling 101, dont tell the audience, let us see his pain. Let us see his physical and moral struggles. That is what this character is based off of, how this character and many others grow. I think this story would have really benefitted if they didnt change how his sister died. In the comics, the sister was sick (I cant remember with what) but it was the reason he became a doctor. I think if they put more focus onto that aspect of the character, a lot of other story flaws wouldn't occur.

America Chavez. I actually think America Chavez was very interesting and good. But again. There are some things when it comes to her story and how it plays into Stranges story that could be reworked. As I said previously, her established relationship added an interesting relationship to our strange. She is untrustworthy of Strange, and frightened. Rightfully so, she's just a kid. I think by emphasizing stranges sister would've added a deeper layer to America and Stranges relationship. It would've been interesting to see him try to protect her and for her to be hesitant to trust him. Past relationships and experiences matter, and if it was utilized would've made for a more interesting story.

Wanda. I liked wanda for the most part. I liked that she has become a villain. I like her reasons and the mcguffins hold on her. However, I think her involvement in Stranges story was too much. She overtook the story. Didnt let the other characters breathe with her strong arc. I think she should've gotten her own movie, OR a season two of wanda vision and we could've seen how the darkhold takes a hold of people, how it manipulates and controls. Her involvement in Strange's story takes away from Strange and... I know that probably wasn't the goal, but it's what happened.

Lastly, another big disappointment for me was the music. Maybe the mouse was annoyed that the theme of Dr. Strange got overused over the past few years but what I missed most was the style. Micheal Giachinno used certain psychadelic elements in the music of Dr. Strange that it played a big role in the actual character. and again, I dont mean the main theme. Michael Giachinno has a way of drawing big emotions with simple music produced by big ensembles but Danny Elfman doesn't pull the same effect. Sometimes you can hear it in the movie but other times it sounded as if this movie was made in the early 2000's. The music itself is not bad by any means but again, doesn't fit the character or established style.

Overall, I DO NOT HATE THE MOVIE. It was good for what it was. I dont think I would put it at my top ten favorite marvel movies but it wasn't bad or horrible. Just a little disappointing. I also feel that there were too many strong characters if that makes sense. Like, stephen, america and wanda all kinda mix mashed together into a soup of random heroes. It didnt let the audience either learn about a new character enough, or experience what the characters are experiencing (i.e strange or wanda). A friend of mine had a good suggestion. Get rid of wanda and put her into her own movie, make sinister strange the main villain, and leave america for the end credit scene/3rd movie. Idk, maybe in another universe.

Rated 6/10

[stxphxn-strange]

protected

a/n: stephen angst about the Dark Dimension ft: wong being Fancy in the background and tony being flirty but caring and loving and supportive

Stephen shuddered. “There’s a roach in our bathroom.”

“Did you do something about it?” Tony asked, the light from the TV illuminating his face.

“No! Those motherfuckers are scary!” Stephen replied. “Pardon my French. I would sooner fight Thanos again and make another thousand bargains with Dormammu before dealing with one of those things.”

Tony rolled his eyes affectionately. “I don’t blame you, but I’ll take care of it.”

Tony turned away just as Stephen blanched. He hadn’t meant to ever actually tell anyone about Dormammu, outside of those sorcerers who had a vague understanding of what happened. No one knew the full story, and no one needed to.

As Tony walked towards the bathroom, his brain caught on an unfamiliar word Stephen used. What was a... a Dormammu? It was probably some kind of Mystic Arts thing that was far too complicated and storied for Tony to understand, but he didn’t fail to notice how pale Stephen suddenly was.

“This thing is a monster,” Tony called, “At MIT if I ever saw a bug like this, I’d hide under Rhodey’s quilt. Except, of course, for that time when the bug was under his quilt.”

Stephen laughed through gritted teeth. Just mentioning the demon of the Dark Dimension made the sorcerer panic, his hands trembling as he tried to stop himself from casting spells in the air. Even still, he felt the golden burn of magic in his veins and its longing to be freed from the cage where Stephen kept his emotions. He felt a bit more relieved when Tony reemerged from the bathroom, his hands still dripping with water and vanilla soap as he climbed back into bed.

“Well, Prince Stephen, the beast has been dealt with,” Tony said coyly, laying down and facing his partner.

“How dare you, bitch? I’m a King,” Stephen replied, pulling Tony into a hug.

Tony snuggled closer to him, alarmed at how fast Stephen’s heart was beating. “You’re my King,” Tony murmured, trying to make his voice reassuring.

Stephen hummed. He was trying to breathe, trying to relax and convince himself that he was fine, just home in bed with Tony... but the darkness of their room suddenly felt suffocating. The lights of the city looked more like the hazy purple shadows of the Dark Dimension. And then Tony’s voice, the thing that usually kept Stephen so grounded in this reality, made it all worse.

“By the way, what was that thing you said earlier? A Dormammu? What’s that?”

He was so innocent and curious it hurt. Tony didn’t mean to harm, he just wanted to learn and understand. But this was one of the sorcerer’s worst moments.

How could Stephen bring himself to let his love in?

How could he explain his irreversible mental scars that he gave himself by breaking the rules voluntarily?

Stephen shivered. “Oh it’s nothing. Can I be the little spoon? I’m cold.”

Tony nodded against Stephen’s chest, leaning up to kiss him before settling again and pulling him close. “Is that why you’re so tense and shaky?”

“Yeah,” Stephen replied, not at all convinced by his own answer. “I guess I could get a blanket but I don’t need one as much when I have you.”

Tony smiled in the darkness, pressing a sweet kiss to the nape of Stephen’s neck. “I’ll always be here to be your blanket.”

Stephen yawned. “I know, and I love you for it. Goodnight Tony.”

“Goodnight Steph,” Tony whispered. “I love you.”

++++

It didn’t take long for the nightmares to start. It was almost as if Stephen closed his eyes and went instantly to the Dark Dimension, into fight or flight mode. 

He began to fight against everything in his path, from blasts of energy and stabbing shards to the sheets tangled around his legs and Tony’s arms holding him still. 

Tony woke up when Stephen (accidentally, of course) elbowed him in the face. He loosened his embrace, whispering to the sorcerer to try and calm him down.

It was almost fifteen (15) minutes later when Stephen woke up, accidentally opening a portal to the Sanctum in the process of relaxing his body and mind. On the other side of the portal, Wong frowned as he lit a tea tree scented candle.

“Stark, take care of him,” Wong said.

“I’m fine Wong, goodnight,” Stephen replied, his voice short and taut as he closed the portal. He turned to lay on his back, pressing a trembling hand to his head.

“FRIDAY, lights at 25% please,” Tony said quietly. He slipped out of bed, adjusting the thermostat until the room began to cool.

Stephen then realized how warm he was, but it wasn’t the same warmth he fell asleep to. He was sticky with sweat and tasted blood as he bit the inside of his lip.

Tony gently took Stephen’s hand, the one clamped on his head. “What do you need?” He asked, his voice almost a whisper.

“I’m fine Tones,” Stephen replied. “It was just a bad dream.”

“It seemed like more than a bad dream,” Tony ventured. “You were defending yourself against something, fighting for your life even in your sleep.”

“It felt real,” Stephen muttered numbly. “It felt like I was there all over again.”

Stephen shifted, resting his head on Tony’s lap. His stupid brain and cursedly supreme memory had given him the opportunity to be open with Tony about what he’d done. This was the chance he’d been waiting for to just be honest.

And yet here he was, a coward afraid to face it again.

Tony clearly wasn’t willing to let this go. In the dim light of the room, Stephen could see concern and empathy all over his face. He just wanted to understand, and Stephen couldn’t deny Tony that chance.

“There are beings out there, extradimensional beings I mean, that are bigger threats than even Thanos,” Stephen began.

Tony flinched at the mention of the Mad Titan. “Are you about to tell me that you’ve faced them?” He asked gently, beginning to card a hand through Stephen’s sweat-damp hair.

“Not all of them, just this one called Dormammu,” Stephen replied, taking his turn to flinch. “It was really early in my training, before we met and before Thanos. I didn’t know how to handle him, and long story short I...”

Stephen exhaled annoyedly.

“You don’t have to tell me the full story now,” Tony said.

“But I do! I have to tell you because the fact that I haven’t yet is tearing me up,” Stephen replied, shaking in frustration and exhaustion.

Tony hummed. “Okay. But hey, listen to me: it’s just me here, we’re home, and I promise no matter what you say it won’t change anything about what I think of you. I know it’s usually you saying that to me, but I think it’s important that you hear your own words.”

Stephen sat up, resting with his back to Tony’s chest. He smiled as Tony continued to play with his hair, holding him close. He sighed and continued his story.

“I chose to do what I did, y’know?” He began. “I went to the Dark Dimension and trapped myself in a time loop with him. I let him kill me over and over again until we made a bargain and he left. It was agonizing, but anytime I get upset about it I remind myself that I chose to do that. I brought it on myself. I—”

“You’re one of the strongest people I know,” Tony interrupted, his tone laced with sadness and awe. “And hey, regardless of the circumstance you still went through something traumatic that still affects you deeply. There’s no shame in that. Anytime you want to tell me about these things or anything else as a means of healing is more than alright.”

Stephen shuddered at Tony’s affectionate speech. “Why should I let you get dragged into this? I brought it on myself, now I have to deal with the mental consequences.”

“You’re not alone, Steph. Your shoulders aren’t broad enough to carry the entire world, lovely as they are. You don’t need to handle everything by yourself, including trauma. If you want to, that’s respectable, but you don’t have to,” Tony replied. “You know me, by the way, you know I’d follow you to the end of the Earth. I’m here for you.”

Stephen yawned. “Did I kick you in my sleep?”

“I got an elbow to the face, but I’m fine,” Tony replied.

“Sorry,” Stephen muttered. “I’ll try not to do that again. Will you hold me for the rest of the night?”

Tony nodded. “Gladly.”

“Actually wait, I feel gross. Before I go back to sleep I’m going to take a shower,” Stephen said, sliding out of bed. After turning the water on, he turned around to face Tony. “That was your cue to join me, by the way. I’ll need you to protect me if there’s another bug lurking anywhere.”

[popculturebuffet]

Mickey and the Roadster Racers: “Mickey’s Perfecto Day” and “Daisy’s Grande Goal” review or “I think i’m going out of my headcold”

Saludos Amigos!  I”ve been sick, and as such have had no energy or state of mind to continue my look at every apperance of the CABs in the us, concluding with a look at every episode of legend of the three caballeros. 

And today’s stop is one i’m only passingly familiar with: Mickey and the Roadster Racers. MATRR.. wait really that’s what it spells?

No Larry the Cable guy on this blog thank you.  Anyways, Roadster Racers is surprisingly complicated for such a simple show. For starters it’s the successor to “Mickey Mouse’s Club House” another CGI Disney Junior show, Disney’s equivalent to Nick Jr because their clever like that. And to continue the theme of ripping off other properties, the show was Disney’s stab at following the big fake interactivity craze started by Dora the Explorer. And it’s annoying as that sounds with a lot of pasues and an annoying recurring hot dog song that’s obnoxiously catchy. It was mostly just slice of life shenanigans with the mickey mouse crew and when retoolling it they decided to drop the now dated fake interactivity, turn up the slice of life and add some of those nitro burning funny cars vroom vroom. IN a sense genral g rated soft boiled mickey shenanigans with a racing theme. 

Not a terrible series but not terribly intresting hence why i’ve never covered it. It’s a bland inoffesnsive cartoon for toddlers. Enough effort is put in for me not to hate it, as even a toddler show can have effort, but not enoguh so that I really care. I’ve seen better, i’ve seen worse. The only intresting things are the racing gimmick and the fact that as said gimmick diminished they switched names to “Mickey’s mixed up adventures” in season 3. Hence the complicated part as it’s not counted as it’s own series but unlike other disney title changes they aren’t just slapping another label under the logo like the marvel shows. This is  a full on retool. But it still has the same cast and prodcution crew and is counted as part of mickey mouse. Point is it’s weird and not relevant since our boys didn’t show up in that season. Oh and as a final note I learned while writing this/ there’s a THIRD Mickey Mouse Disney Junior Series, Mickey Mouse Funhouse, coming next year. 

But with so little to cover I ended up throwing in a freebie. See normally I charge the same for 11 minute and 20+ minute shows. It’s fair as most 11 minute shows these days pack in as much character as the ones that use the full half hour. It’s just a diffrence in tactics is all. But here I felt obligated to do at LEAST two diffrent, but cabs related, 11 minutes here, so if I had nothing to talk about I could pad it out and If I had everyhting to talk about.. eh I still tried to do the right thing. I regret nothing. But yeah i’m sick, this series is eh, let’s gooooo. 

Mickey’s Perfecto Day So Mickey and Friends are preparing to drive to spain.

No i’m not making a joke. Wish I was would be one of my best but no, Mickey and Friends are just.. casually going to drive to Spain. To explain why this hurts my head a map, on which i’ve drawn the route they’d have to take to get to spain from, let’s say Calisota, the fictional state where Mouseton, Duckburg, New Quackmore, and thus probably Hot Dog Hills, the show’s setting, reside. 

This is a crue map, they oculd’ve gone down through mexico or central america.. but the point is THEY DROVE ACROSS THE OCEAN. And I genuinely do not know if their cars can do that but apparently they can. So either the writer didn’t know where Spain was or didn’t care and either way it’s bad. LIke at least give their cars a plane or boat mode. Go full DKR up in this bitch, give em diffrent racing vehicles. But it wouldn’t be as aggrivvating or bizzare if they MENTIONED how they were driving to spain, like maybe Donald’s car that’s also an old boat and goofy’s that’s a tub have aquamodes and can tow the rest. I get 5 year olds don’t care about this.. but still? I guess? Also MIckey is either the sorcerer supreme or jesus at this point. He can cross oceans by car, astral project, cross into other dimensions.. the only thing missing is raising the dead and  he already did that in the 30′s. 

So as for why the sorcerer supreme and his buddies are going all the way to Spain, Donald has a concert with the three caballeros and this time they all remember him as a memmber and Daisy’s a huge fan. Which is sweet. Then we hear donald duck talk and...

Yeah, Daniel Ross is not the best Donald. Now I will cut the guy some slack here: He’s a voice actor more known for doing bit parts who just got the role in 2016, since racers aired in 2017 and animation lead time and all that. He’s not going to be nearly as good as Tony or Clarence out of the gate. Even Tony wasn’t. He also had a valid reason for picking up the role as Tony likely had two series in production at that time, Rise of the Three Cablleros and Ducktales, and thus had to split his time between both. And having Chris Diamaptolus do mickey in the new shorts instead of his usual voice actor Bret Iwane despite Iwane not being in any serious danger of dying soon has worked out super. So having multiple actors isn’t the problem. Hell after the tragic loss of Russi taylor and with how bad the world is, having an understudy in mind for such an important role is a grim but understandable necicisty. While I belivie tony can go on for decades, he’s only human. 

So my issue is not on Donald’s voice being diffrent or new.. it’s that it’s not very good and the second episode featuerd here shows Daniel Ross really hasn’t improved despite now having worked as the character for a while.I can forgive taking some time to grow in but being this sloppy after a full season is just unacceptable. He’s BETTER but he’s still just not very good and doing the bear minimum. I don’t doubt he’s a good va in other rolls, I don’t want to hate on the guy, but I can hate on aperfomance when it’s bad and it’s not good here. It’s just not. Not in either episode not in any way shape or form. It just feels like a lazy donald duck impression. Disney can do better and Ross can hopefully find better work in the future. But for now this just hangs like a wet fart on his resume. 

Moving on, thankfully, we have our three stories split pretty evenly and all stock plots. “Horay”.  Mickey and Minnie: Mickey tries to have a “perfecto” day, hence the title with Minnie, but instead gives her a rose a baby bull likes.. or maybe it’s SUPPOSED to be full grown but while Mickey and Minnie treat him like a grown bull and react to him like one.. the boy dosen’t look at all, even in the series style, like an adult bull. he looks like a calf. Mickey.. is initimdated by a small child whose horns aren’t sharp enough to hurt him. 

It’s just REALLY distracting and takes me out of the plot which itself is as bland as plain toast and twice as dry. They flee him till the end where Minnie figures out the rose thing at the concert and they make an ew friend. NOt TERRIBLE but not great.  Goofy and Cuckoo Loca: Okay first off who and what is a cuckoo loca? Well she’s a wind up bird that lives in Daisy’s Cuckoo Clock and makes sarcastic comments in a brooklyn accent because nikka futtterman voices her. Still makes more sense than driving to spain. She’s not a bad addition to the cast.. not even that weird as most kids based franchises have an adorable animal sidekick to market. Goofy wants to try some “flamingo dancing” while in spain, with Loca going along to make sure he dosen’t die somehow.. which would be unjustifable for anyone but goofy. Also.. Flamingo Dancing...

But yeah Goofy goes up against ... world famous flamingo dancer horace horsecollar?!

Now apparently this is a common thing for him in this series, apparently, but still it feels like if one of those weird variant ninja turtle figures from the 80′s was a plot point in an episode. Like if we actually had an episode based around birthday magician raph. 

It feels just as odd and out of place for down to earth if showy horace to suddenly be the best flaminco dancer in spain, despite being very much white coded, as it does for the angriest ninja turtle to be pulling a rabbit out of kids hats. Now Rise of the TMNT raph I could totally see as a party magician but any other? He’d probably break his wand over some kids head. 

Goofy ends up winning anyway because he’s stupid, though Flamingo dancing should be a real thing even if this joke is bad and it shoudl feel bad. What an ODD subplot Okay one more then i’m free of this prison. 

The Three Cablleros Plus Daisy:  Okay finally we get to what I came here for. The Three Caballeros! And..they look a tad off. Not terrible but clearly the animators weren’t as skilled with non duck beaks as both of them look ready to do this to donald. 

While Panchito’s color varies. Sometime’s it’s a deep brownish crimson, sometimes it’s poop brown and there’s no classy way to put it. When he’s in this cheap cgi, he looks like a shit chicken. This gets to a larger issue though... the animation here is not great. It’s not TERRIBLE.. but it’s pretty freaking sub par for disney. And i’ve SEEN their other cgi shows around the same time due to having a young niece and nephew. Sherieff Callie, Doc McStuffins, MIles from Tommorowland, and after this T.O.T.S. and Rocketeer. I’m not saying these are masterpieces of the genre, but they have more effort in botht he animation and writing put in. Here it just feels like they do the bear minimum which feels really fucking wrong. These chracters deserve better and have thankfully gotten better. YOu can make a show for preschoolers that’s cutsey and harmless and still have it at least be creative god dammit. It’s why I don’t like covering this show. It just feels so.. lifeless. They try a bit here and there but outside of cuckoo, there’s nothing really new or intresting to really make kids love these characters and it bothers me. it bothers me a lot. 

Moving on thank god, the plot is bare bones as is the boys characterization. So far at least their character has been pretty consitent across all mediums. i’ts something I haven’t really touched on but their seen as world traveler’, Panchito being a Gaucho and Jose being such a ladies man this will probably happen to him eventually. 

I swear to god that was the only part of this movie I can remember. I’m  better off that way. But yeah without Panchito’s pep or Jose’s smooth talking ways, there’s just nothing for disney junior to work with so their just.. friends to donald who are nice to daisy. Which is very nice to see, but isn’t very intresting or gives me a lot to talk about. Donald eats a food that’s too hot, continues to talk poorly, and Daisy has to fill in. He gets back in at time and they sing probably the most forgetable cabs song yet. It’s.. not much honestly.  This was worth covering for completions sake but it dosen’t really add much. If nothing else it at least made me realize so far each mile of the ride has added something fresh to the characters: The original was the foundation, rosa gave them depth and made them feel like real people, and house of mouse made them feel like a big deal to other characters and made donald’s history as a cabllero part of his legacy as it should be. Each one so far has felt like it added.. this one just made me realize that and that is all. It builds on nothing adds nothing and there’s really nothing here other than MAYBE the brown/crimson design for panchito that carries over from the looks of it. The next two versions build on what rosa, the movie and to a lesser extent the house of mouse built. This one adds nothing. This plot is just.. inconqueintal. not bad for kids to know about them but even then it feels like a disapointing introduction. I fondly remember hte cabs episodes of house of mouse and even on rewatch they mostly held up despite some weak parts. This .. this will just be forgotten and I only hope legend and ducktales have done a better job keeping my boys alive in kids minds. God i’m depressed. Well at least this is over right.. right? 

Daisy’s Grande Goal

Okay as I said I was doing two, and rather than do this episode’s paired episode I decided on Season 2′s “Supercharged: Daisy’s Grande Goal”.. and cut the supercharged out of the title for the most part because why would you put the sutitle in your actual title. And only in some episodes. But yeah this season had a new gimmick, SUPERCHARGING... which basically means our heroes roadsters can go into super sayian tron super sayian mode and go real fast. They look real nice though and it has it’s own neat theme tune so there’s that. Otherwise the only other change is the animation which improves greatly. Seriously look at that shot above. That’s quality lin line with the ohter disney juinor shows. It’s still not as CREATIVE, but it’s not as slipshod as it started and I have to give them credit on that. 

So our heroes are in Brazil.. and as far as I can tell they drove there again.. but the diffrence is 1) you can actually DRIVE to brazil and 2) they have super fast super cars now, meaning even if the super charge mode has a timer, it can help with the commute. It’s also one of the boys actual home countries this time. I mean the episode isn’t built around the cabs.. but neither was the last one. Seriously I almost missed that: it’s three unrleated plots and really you could’ve just lenethed the bull and goofy plots a bit and left donald and daisy out. If your not going to use the cabs right hten don’t use them at all. Here though their used BETTER.. still not in the lead unforunately but at least them being on the brazilian soccer team makes sense as jose is from brazil and while panchito is it he’s his best friend, sometimes lover and always there when he needs him. So spending some time in brazil to play soccer/football isn’t a stretch. But that’s about it for their involvment: they say a few lines, are part of the brazilian team our heroes face, and we get Not-Donald saying “No Way Jose”.,,,

Sadly I can’t leave but the main plot is about Daisy’s Cousnt Almonda. She was in the previous episode which I did not watch but I do like both there being a valid reason why our heroes are here, and connection between episodes. While this season isn’t MUCH better.. it’s still better by some metric.  The plot is very basic: Almonda always wins at soccer ever since she and Daisy were kids, and it’s your basic “hero gets overcompetitive to finally win plot and learns to just have fun and to use teamwork heart of the cards and all that” It goes how you’d expect with Daisy hogging the ball and causing disasters and then a ten car pileup before cucoo yells at her, she realizes she was bad and also realizes Almonda had to practice hard to beat her, and ends up beating her through teamwork and you get it. IT’s not much But yeah ten car pile up.. that’s where it is intresting and rediculous as their playing soccer with cars. Which given i’ve always been an advocate for card games on motor cycles, seriously it’s not more rediculous than Yugioh was before that: in the anime and manga before 5ds we had table hockey but the puck is ice with nitrocylcrine in it, a battle with an escaped convict involving vodka and only using one finger, a chinese puzzel box that devoured souls, a dueling monkey, a whole hogwarts style school for dueling, duel spirits, our heroes childhood creations coming to life to help him, our hero merging with his androgynous childhood friend to fight the light of all evils, and on top of all of that, kaiba building a giant murder theme park soley to kill yugi and, even with how rich is he is, not even going to prison for the two months he’d get for that. My point is Yugioh is fricking weird and I love it so and card games on mortocyles is awesome.  Soccer with cars is alright. The teams are mickey, minnie, daisy and donald, for the US and Almonda, Jose, Panchito and.. Pancho Pete for the Brazilian team. Pete’s cousin. He apparenlty has a lot of em. Eh as long as we don’t get petkeem the african dream we’re fine. 

Why why did I make this. Why. But yeah it’s fine, not the best action ever adn the supercharge segments as I said look nice but as I also said ther’es just not a lot here. Daisy’s cousin is intresting, but likely more in the other segment. Here she’s more of a plot device to make daisy into an asshole for the episode so the plot can happen. There’s just not a lot to talk about> Hence me doing two of these. I will say it’s a better episode than the other one: it felt like more actually happened, it was more cohesive, had way more enerjgy and it had billy beagle... the series resident overexcited and loveable announcer voiced by the far from loveable jay leno of stealing conan’s job he gave him and last man standing, for some reason, fame. 

Overall these episodes are.. eh. The first one is kind of a mess, the second one is slightly better but these clearly werne’t meant for adults, let alone older kids and it shows. But I found some material here and made a horrifying combination of a terrible racist wwe gimmick and pete so.. I win/ I guess. I dunno, until next time, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

[elisaphoenix13]

A Half Day

It was probably a bad idea.

Okay, it was a terrible idea.

But Stephen needed a day off. From everything. Sorcerer Supreme duties, parenting, being a doctor, being a housewife, being a husband (he was pretty sure he heard someone make the correction of 'wife' from the other side of the ocean)...and really...doing everything. By the Vishanti, he practically parented the Avengers too! They came to him for a lot of issues or to patch them up, he's stopped three attempted food fights this month, and he had to stop Quill and Bucky from taking some of Harley and Peter's jokes seriously.

Like the one where Peter said he had to jump off the roof and Harley told him to do a flip.

Stephen was tired, and actually willing to risk leaving Valerie with her father (and everyone else) just so he could have more than an hour of peace. Tony was capable of raising a baby, but at the same time, half of their friends had been gone so no one bothered him. Now the tower was full again, plus Quill, and the god himself was part of the problem. With Valerie. Natasha was another part of it. Those two were constantly fighting over the baby--

Why was he thinking about this? Stephen did not remove his nanotech (with the knowledge that he would be getting an earful from Tony when he got home) and leave his phone behind just to spend his day off thinking about the chaos back home. Nope. He came to France for a quiet cup of tea that he could finish before it got cold and eat all the croissants he could stomach in one sitting. He even pulled out cash before coming so Tony couldn't track him if he used the card.

He did leave a note for his husband before he left early this morning (New York time), and simply wrote that he would be back soon. That was about two hours ago. A nice two hours of two cups of tea and probably about three or four croissants, and then he paid for his meal before walking around the streets of Paris. He took in the sights, breathed in the fresh air, and enjoyed the fact that he didn't have to grab his children's shirts to keep them from toppling over the bridge into the water below. Harley and Peter would have probably made a bet to see who could lean over furthest before falling or chickening out (Peter of course not allowed to use his spider grip), and Diana would either call them dummies or push one of them over.

With how much time she spent with Cassie, the boys still seemed to be rubbing off on her in all the worst ways. Then again, Cassie would do the same thing...maybe the young girl had a bigger part in raising Diana than Stephen initially thought. Maybe raising wasn't the right word though.

"I can't even go an hour without thinking about the kids." Stephen mumbles to himself.

Or anything else for that matter. He was having a hard time enjoying his peace when all he could think about was the doubtless disaster waiting for him at home already. He could visualize it now. Diana probably smuggled glitter into the tower and made more glitter bombs for Harley to shoot throughout the tower (and at Quill since Stephen was positive his oldest had a death wish), Peter with his webs, Tony and Tibbs down in the lab ignoring the disaster the kids and the team were creating, and Valerie was probably being pawned off between Avengers.

Athena was out of the overall equation since she was currently walking around Paris with him, and while they got some curious glances, they weren't bothered since the wolf stuck firmly to Stephen's side. She never ran off after stray animals or barked at other dogs that other people were out on walks with...she always waited for Stephen's permission and it still left him appalled. He only ever used magic to communicate with her the one time when she first came home with them, but she still ignored her instincts. Of course, if anyone or anything was a threat, that was an entirely different story. If Stephen was attacked, Athena would pounce without command. If there was a threat, she got defensive until Stephen commanded her.

Athena really was Stephen's.

"I guess a few hours for myself is better than nothing." Stephen muses aloud and looks down at the white wolf. "Might as well get the cubs souvenirs and get you some meat before we head home."

The sorcerer heads back toward the shops and commands Athena to stay outside while he goes into a butcher's shop, and after paying for the wolf's meal and asking the owner not to bother wrapping it, he carries it out by the paper it's sitting on. Stephen leans over to set it on the ground in front of Athena and quietly praises her for waiting patiently, and pets her head before leaving her to her lunch. She would remain in the spot by the bench while he went into a nearby cafe and ordered some crepes to go (for the kids), and also grabbed some coffee beans for Tony. A favorite of his that could only be found in France and that he had run out of a week ago.

Tony had been too absentminded to ask FRIDAY to order more coffee. He just moved on to the remains of other coffee beans he had sitting around. At least these would help pacify his husband's wrath to some degree. Tony had a billion and one reasons to worry about Stephen's and their children's safety...and even the rest of the team. The team acting as and being a family was spreading around the world (and some parts of the universe because of their battle with Thanos...and Quill's temper), and while some of the people with less than savory intentions thought twice and backed off, there were still a few morons.

Stephen buys the coffee and leaves the shop to return to Athena and he throws away the paper the meat had been sitting on into the nearest waste bin. He then motions for the wolf to follow as he slips out of sight to open a portal back home, and they barely step through when Harley snatches the bag of crepes as he runs past. Peter dashes after him, no doubt smelling the crepes, and they stumble into the kitchen where Dia and Cassie had been making something (thankfully glitter seemed to be absent) and they put it aside when Harley unloads the crepes for them.

Well the kids were easily taken care of with food, but how much of the disaster had the tower turned into in the few hours that Stephen had been gone? He looks around to assess the damage that had been done…

...but there was none.

It was as clean as he had left it that morning. The only thing different was that Tony was passed out on the couch with their youngest sleeping peacefully on his chest. Even while the engineer snored. The fact that the tower was clean and his husband was sleeping made Stephen start to wonder if perhaps he accidentally stepped into the wrong dimension. A few inconspicuous spells only proved that he was in the right place and Stephen looked around the floor some more. Kids eating at the table, Tony and baby daughter sleeping on the couch, Tibbs curled up with Athena on the floor...wait.

Some of the Avengers were sprawled out on the living room floor too. Quill was snoring (purring) on his back, and Scott was using his stomach as a pillow as he and Sam watched tv and Bucky threw popcorn at them from one of the couches. Steve sat next to the soldier drawing in a sketchbook, and Clint and Natasha were playing cards...how did Stephen miss them?

Probably because it wasn't the usual disaster. Everyone was quiet and everything was clean.

"Oh, hey Mama Bear. You're home a lot earlier than we expected." Sam says from his reclined position against one of Quill's bent legs.

"I...was expecting a mess to clean up." Stephen admits.

"Tony initiated the 'Mom Needs A Break' protocol." Bucky explains and the sorcerer blinks at him.

"There's a protocol for that?"

"You're married to him. You should know by now that there's a protocol for everything." Scott says. "There's even a protocol for when this guy goes berserk and I'm not home." He smacks the back of his hand against Quill's shoulder who doesn't even flinch and just keeps snoozing.

"Beast Mode Protocol." Tony elaborates sleepily as he looks at his watch. "You're back early tesoro."

Stephen sighs as he walks into the living room and retrieves his waking infant daughter off of the engineer. "All I did was think about the kids and the possible disaster I would come home to. I did enjoy two cups of hot tea though." He drops the bag of coffee beans into Tony's lap when he sits up and the older man grins.

"France? I'll pretend you didn't leave behind your tech and phone this time."

"How compassionate." Stephen teases and steals a kiss after his husband stands up. "Where are you going?"

"Down to the lab to make you tech that you can't remove. Come on furball." Tony heads over to the elevator as Tibbs unfurls himself from Athena's side and follows the billionaire into the elevator.

"I remember a time when Tibbs was my cat." Peter grumbles from the kitchen when the elevator doors close.

Stephen only smiles as he joins the kids in the kitchen and sets Valerie in her high chair. There was no heat behind Peter's words. Tibbs may spend time with Tony in the lab whenever he was down there, but he always slept in Peter's room every night. All of the cat's things were still in the teen's room, and he had originally belonged to Peter anyway. Tibbs just liked everyone. Their alpaca Gerald...and even Athena, a dangerous predator. He truly was a cat that didn't care.

"When's the last time your sister ate?" Stephen asks the kids, and Cassie was surprisingly the one who answered.

"Bucky fed her some cereal about three hours ago."

"I'm still convinced there's some of that in my arm!" The man calls from the living room.

"Buck, just go down to the lab and ask Tony to take a look." Steve says with a chuckle.

Stephen grabs a jar of baby food from the cupboard as Bucky relents and disappears onto the elevator and the doctor sits in a chair in front of the high chair. The moment Stephen fed her a small spoonful of pureed apples and blueberries, she was eating it so fast that he barely pulled the spoon away from her mouth before she was opening it again for more. Valerie loved fruit and it was always the least messiest meal, unlike the attempt to feed her pureed green beans. She was always a quiet baby, but if anyone put green beans anywhere near her...she threw a fit. Quill had been the one to figure that out the hard way. Stephen had his hands full that day and the celestial offered to help feed Valerie, so the sorcerer gave him the jar of green beans to feed her.

Stephen happened to watch that first spoonful disappear into Valerie's mouth, and then the look of pure betrayal appeared on her face. Betrayal because her Uncle Quill fed her that atrocious toxic waste and was trying to feed her a second spoonful. The god took a green bean shower that day, and Stephen made a mental note to keep green beans off the list of pureed vegetables to feed her.

Thankfully she liked everything else fed to her.

So far.

"Thanks for the crepes, Mom!" The boys jump up from their seats and toss the to go containers into the trash before they also disappear onto the elevator.

"I remember a time when they liked to cuddle." Stephen sighs heavily as he feeds the last of the fruit to Valerie.

"I could use some Mama Bear cuddles." Cassie says. "Papa Bear cuddles are great and all but his are more secure while yours are comforting."

"Me too!" Diana chimes in. "I want Mama Bear cuddles in a pillow fort!"

Stephen smirks. "You better get Uncle Quill to move then."

"Pfft. That's easy." Diana waves her hand at her mother. "He's like you."

"Like m--?" The doctor starts to ask until the little girl screams.

The sorcerer hears Scott and Sam squawk as the snoring suddenly stops, and he watches in mild amusement as Quill vaults over the couch closest to the kitchen. The celestial stumbles over to the girls and looks around for whatever is threatening Diana, and when he finds nothing, he narrows his eyes.

"What were you screaming for?"

"We needed you to move so me and Cassie can build a pillow fort and cuddle with Mommy."

Quill rubs his eyes. "You could have just asked."

"Well that's no fun." Stephen says with a smirk.

"Just for that, I'm sleeping in your bed." The celestial turns and makes his way up the stairs toward the master bedroom.

The doctor laughs. "Go sleep in your own bed!"

"Nope! Too late!" Quill disappears into the bedroom and Stephen looks at his daughter.

"No more of that unless you're really in trouble."

"I promise."

"Good. Now go build a fort."

[amethyst-noir]

_DS2-anon again-1_ Oh dear, you're definitely not the only one who doesn't feel the line 'And I'm Iron Man' right. Same here. Same. I know for sure that I'll stay around until the movie then... we'll see. There was two men I cared for, now it's the only one in there and I HOPE at least Sorcerer Supreme will stay with us after it. Gee... Pessimistic, I know. And speaking of ST2. I knew, I saw gifs etc, but the shock, the impact were still huge, and I cried, literally, then, but it's Trek

Yeah. I loved Tony since I saw IM1 and 2 back-to-back with his scene in the Hulk inbetween and I loved Stephen from the moment I saw his movie. But I needed those two dorks together in one movie, looking and winking at each other like they did, to push me into full-out fangirl mode with reading, writing and generally interacting with fandom.

I love Trek because of the hope. I always say that I want the Star Trek future and I mean it. The TNG/DS9/Voy era means so much to me because they show us that there is hope for us. That humanity can, if it wants. I was desperate for another show or movie to be set in the late 24th century and not yet another prequel and now I get not only that but I get a show featuring my favorite Trek captain. I love Jean-Luc Picard and all that he stands for and I can’t wait to have him back on my screen, being a bad-ass pacifist and diplomat.

The MCU has gone in such a grimdark direction lately and, for me, that takes a lot of enjoyment out of it. A little bit is okay but it needs to be balanced with humor. IM3 or DS1 did that brilliantly and they gave us happy or at least hopeful endings. IW and EG didnt’t do that, they just make one sad and desperate for fanfic to fill the void and fix things.

[marvelsuperfangirl]

Mornings ( Stephen Strange x Reader)

A/N: An imagine to show off my hatred of mornings. There’s not really a purpose to this imagine but it’s an idea I got and wanted to write.

Warnings: A little violence

Words: 1060

Stephen has always been a morning person , it wasn’t a problem when he was a talented surgeon and had a big apartment for himself. But itw as now that he was living in the sanctum with two other people. Luckily for him, Wong was also a morning person, he got this habit since he set foot on Kamar-Taj and became the librarian of the mystical city. But you, on the other hand, hated morning.

You expressly warned your two sorcerers of roomates not to do some things in the mornings to prevent the perfect living conditions of the place. You didn’t like to be woken up by someone, and especially loudly.

That’s exactly why Stephen bargged into your bedroom every morning, slamming the door open and singing you a good morning at the top of his lungs before walking away like nothing happened. And the second thing you tried to prevent them to do was talking to you before you had the time to completely be awake and aware of your surrounding, which if you read well what happens every day wasn’t being respected. The sorcerer supreme thought that he was above everything and you would damn well prove him wrong.

This morning, Stephen had guests coming over and obviously when they arrived at the sanctum you were the only one of the sorcerers not to be there. Those guests were the one and only Avengers.

After exchanging greetings, he looked at the stairs leading to the bedrooms like there was any possibility that you could appear.

Then he looked at the cloak.

« Go wake her up and don’t go easy on her ! »

The cloak left Stephen’s shoulders and flew over to your room under the eyes of the mightiest heros before Stephen led them to his office.

« My other colleague will be there soon »

There was only a few meters separating the group to the room they were walking to. A scream pierced the silence making everyone go into « ready to fight » mode.

« Don’t you worry about this » Stephen said

He hurried the Avengers toward his office and made them entered the room as quickly as possible

He then turned to Wong

« Don’t let her in. I think she will be in a worst mood than usual » he said before going in and closing the door behind him.

Wong stood in front of the door, blocking the path with a anxious expression on his face. He was a sorcerer but it dosen’t mean that he wasn’t scared of your reaction.

 The cloak of levitation was holding you above the ground by your ankle.

« What’s your problem you stupid piece of clothing ! » you yelled.

She instantly released you and you collided with the floor in a loud thud you saw her floating out of the room before the pain flash in your body. Letting out a groan you decided to stay like this, sprawled on the floor of your bedroom and try to calm yourself and also let the pain subside. That damn magician and his equally damn cloak. He will pay for all those horrible mornings and this time he will regret it !

You got up and grabbed some clothes and put them on as quickly as possible before exiting the rooms in angry steps.

Walking straight to Stephen office, knowing that he would obviously be there because he wanted to give that mystical vibe of being the sorcerer supreme.

After rounding the corner you saw Wong standing in front of the door in the distance but that didn’t stop you. When you arrived in front of him you stopped yourself at a few inches from his face. He tried to keep a neutral expression but you could see a drop of sweet lingering on his forehead.

« Let me in, Wong. Please »

The librarian swallow loudly and nodded his head « no ».

You put your hand in your pocket and took out a hundred dollar bill.

« If you let me in I’ll give you this » you said and agitated the bill in front of his face. «  Imagine it, you could have all the sandwich you’d like »  you were taunting him, a devilish smile playing on your lips.

Wong looked between you and the bill and he sighed.

« Deal »

You gave him the bill and he stepped aside letting you full access to Stephen’s office.

Placing yourself right in front of it you kicked the wooden door full force, it opened easily under your blow. The loud noise of the door cracking open startled everyone inside. Without caring about that you grabbed the old, round door handle and ripped it from its place. You looked at Stephen sitting in his armchair and threw the door handle right at his head. The sorcered tumbled back and fell over on the floor under the shock, taking the chair in his fall. You walked in to the room and straight to him. Bending down you grabbed his collar and lifted him up to your level.

« I’m warning you for the last time, Strange ! If you wake me up again, you or your damn evil relic I’ll kill you, understood ? »

Stephen just smiled and you let him fall on the ground with any care and turned around.

You were now face by a big blond guy holding a hammer in his hand. It didn’t scare you and you still went up to him and when he didn’t move out of your path you simply grunt and make a move like you would hit him and he stepped back a scared expression washing over his features. Content with you actions you walked to the door and before stepping out you turned again to your roomate and his guests.

« I’d like silence, please. It would be regrettable for me to come back» you threaten and point your eyes with two of your fingers then point it to them to add a little bit more to your threat.

Walking out the door to go back to bed you wished for you outburst to at least offer you quieter mornings and someone might have heard you because from now on your morning became too peaceful to be true.

[allmoddedapk]

MARVEL Realm of Champions Mod 5.1.0 Apk [God Mod]

New Post has been published on https://www.allmoddedapk.com/marvel-realm-of-champions-mod-apk/

MARVEL Realm of Champions Mod 5.1.0 Apk [God Mod]

MARVEL Realm of Champions 5.1.0 Mod Apk [God Mod]

Customize your ultimate Marvel Champion with weapons and gear, then team up with your network of friends in real-time high-action brawls. Play your part in an epic war of planetary proportions as you rise from a rookie Champion to become a legendary hero of BATTLEWORLD!

YOUR CHAMPION. YOUR WAY.

*Customize – The only Marvel game where you can become your favorite Champion and customize them to reflect your personality and battle style.

*Enhance – Earn gear and upgrades as you brawl through the mayhem. Gear and weapons will add to your Champions’ abilities and strength. The more powerful your Champion becomes, the more successful you will be!

*Play the Perfect Role – Tank with your Hulk and soak up hits while you attack hard with area disruption. Bring your Black Panther to inflict devastating damage at close range. Use high-powered ranged attacks with your Web Warrior and Iron Legionnaire. Amplify your allies with your Storm and Sorcerer Supreme and deal bursts of damage to vanquish groups of foes.

EXPERIENCE BATTLEWORLD

*A New Marvel Universe – Marvel authenticity with a twist! Experience the deep story of Battleworld, full of mystery, intrigue, and ferocious battles with characters from across Marvel history.

*Marvel Inspired Battle Arenas – Fight in the barbarian wastelands of the Hulk Gamma Horde, high-tech cityscapes composed of Iron Man’s Stark Tech, and much more!

*A Visually Stunning World – Witness awe-inspiring graphics and representations of iconic Marvel characters, battle arenas, and spectacular special moves.

EPIC REAL-TIME MULTIPLAYER BRAWLS

Strategize with your team to select the right mix of Champions to dominate over the competition in action-packed team battles!

*Arena Conquest – Engage in real-time 3v3 team brawls! Takedown the opposing team’s Baron and claim your victory!

*Arena Deathmatch – A wild 2v2v2 battle for supremacy, gain points by vanquishing your foes in battle. Use epic power-ups to upgrade your Champion’s abilities and lead your team to victory!

*Stronghold – Team up and battle waves of enemies to protect your ISO Core. The difficulty increases as you progress, along with your rewards!

*Onslaught – A rotating Strike mode, fight off 15 waves of increasingly difficult enemies that bear down on you and your teammates.

YOUR TEAM. YOUR ALLIANCE.

Join an Alliance or create your own to forge a community of Champions ready to tackle Battleworld’s challenges! Whether you are looking to round out your Arena Conquest team or the key to your perfect Stronghold defense, Alliances are the best way to find your next teammate.

MAKE MARVEL YOURS! Your Champion. Your Team. Your Realm.

Join the intense, team-based multiplayer action and put your Champion to the test in action-packed brawls where skill and strategy will earn you a place among LEGENDS!

[ofmysticisms]

I’m a bit late because I had the wonderful idea of applying while I was at school but hello lovies It’s Belle back at it again with a new muse Doctor Stephen Strange. Now I’m actually terrible at canon intros so apologies in advance but there’s some bits and pieces under the cut.

STEPHEN STRANGE  is a PROFESSOR of NEUROSCIENCE & THE STUDY OF OTHER DIMENSIONS at Age of Heroes Academy who looks a lot like LUKE EVANS. HE/HIM identifies as MALE and rumor has it they’re MARRIED to CLEA. They’re described as DRIVEN & ARROGANT and still are a hero under the alias of DOCTOR STRANGE.

Ok I’m presuming you’ve all seen the film with beetroot cucumberpatch but just a quick explanation of who Stephen is if you haven’t

His brother and sister both died during his childhood and teenage years pushing him into medicine, he then became a phenomenal neurosurgeon at a really young age but this caused him to become really reckless arrogant and proud.

He was then involved in a really nasty car accident that ultimately ruined his hands effectively stripping him of both his career and his identity.

Quick headcanon about that: years later he does have some movement back in his hands but he still struggles with doing more than picking anything up. Buttons are a definite no while writing and zips are simply really difficult. They also ache a lot, especially when it’s cold outside and he shakes quite a bit.

He then went and spent all his money in the east trying to find a cure. Instead he found the ancient one studied under the ancient one and eventually became the sorcerer supreme we all know and love today.

Later on he met the love of his life Clea but you really are best of googling that train wreck

Now having Stephen at the academy is a strange thought because he’s also still keeping up with all his work as a guardian of earth at the same time.

When he first got involved it was more to make sure that the avengers didn’t mess everything up but he’s found that he rather enjoys lecturing though the marking not so much.

Whoever his ta is has their work cut out for them I’m just saying.

As far as teachers go however he’s a good one, especially since his passion for his subject means he doesn’t refuse answering a hundred questions at a time.

He listens to his students (mostly) and is definitely the type to bring in chocolates and things to throw at them when they get the right answer even though that’s a fact no one ever actually addresses.

Whatever you do don’t ask him about any of his or his kids achievements because he will happily gloat for hours at a time.

You want to see photos? I’ve got photos

Though He’s a bit awkward around kids who aren’t his own and definitely prefers the young adults to the sixteen year olds running around

This leads me on nicely to talk about Stephen as a Dad. He’s definitely the type to think his kids are a gift to the planet

He also spoils them rotten, because he really can’t say no to them.

#1 cheerleader for all his kids endeavours l, tho he had a terrible habit of managing to connect it back to himself.

When he’s not being too self important he is a good dad tho, and their good for him because he gets a little caught up in work sometimes.

What do you mean I can’t use magic to help look after the kids Clea???

He was also the worst when they were sick when they were little because he just went into full on doctor mode.

Stephen is 100% not here for teenage drama, but at the same time definitely has favourite student

He’s also one of the harsher markers in the school because he expects perfection

Stephen can be objective when he needs to be and isn’t afraid of making harsh decisions when he needs to meaning that he can be terribly self sacrificing.

TL;dr he’s a really arrogant nerd who loves magic and science!

[furederiko]

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 was held on June 13-15 in Los Angeles, USA. Meaning, it has once again come and gone, and now comes the time to talk about some of its biggest news (ones that matters to me, at least). That's right, it's a Video-Game Special Random-News-Digest this time around...

NOTE: In general, the topics below are categorized under the company that released them. But in some cases, they go by their separate franchises instead. And one more thing, this was supposed to go up yesterday, precisely one day after E3 2017 ended. BUT... due to unexpected technical issues (internet connection, and... my health), I had no choice but to postpone it. Better late than never, I guess... *sigh*

Marvel vs Capcom

Let's kick this off with a collaboration of Marvel and CAPCOM. Aside from another "Monster Hunter" title that I honestly couldn't care less, "Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite" was one of CAPCOM's big showcase this year. Remember that leak that arrived earlier this month, the one that spoiled the game's roster? Looks like that report might be true after all. CAPCOM has officially unveiled several more playable characters: the Marvel side has been added by Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange, cosmic warrior Nova, assassin Gamora, and the Mad Titan Thanos; while the CAPCOM side was expanded by silver haired Dante of the original "Devil May Cry" (so NOT the latest reboot "DmC"), Zero from "Rockman X" series, cyborg Spence of "Bionic Commando", and goofy knight Arthur from the action comedy franchise "Ghosts 'n Goblins". Considering all eight of these names fit that roster report, I'm pretty sure the credibility of that leak has been confirmed. Everyone was revealed through the new Story trailer, that also announced that a Story Demo has been made available to those who want to experience the game first-hand. You can also check out some of these characters in action, as well as possible in-game pairings (like Gamora-Strider, Strange-Arthur, and so on), through the official gameplay video.

As I've commented on my previous R-N-D, most of the names (with the exception of two) revealed here are 'has been' characters. So while some people were happy about them, many were equally disappointed, which isn't good considering the internet hasn't been kind towards this title. An issue that stemmed from public's disappointments to "Street Fighter V", really. Thankfully, there was one pleasant surprise that came along with this trailer. And it's Black Panther! Those X-Men enthusiasts who cried foul when Wolverine is omitted from the game, can stop whining because the character officially has a replacement now. I'm pretty confident that Panther is going to share a similar 'slash and dice' movesets, if not simply a re-skin version. Panther's inclusion made a lot of sense, considering his first-ever solo movie is arriving in February 2018. The same logic goes to Thanos, as "Avengers: Infinity War" that will put him in the spotlight will arrive a few months after in May. And thanks to Thanos' importance in the story mode, now I understand why Gamora (who shares a famillial link) is necessary to be included in the core cast. Somehow I suspect she's going to be a re-skin of Jill Valentine though, and that might be an issue. Speaking of problem, Panther's not among the core roster. He will be part of the upcoming 6 character DLCs that already includes Ultron and Sigma, though seemingly will be available on launch as part of the 'Deluxe Edition'. And since we already have Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and also Groot (who has been confirmed to be an official assist of Rocket, as they come in one package), I wouldn't be surprised if Star-Lord will follow suit among this DLC wagon as well.

Story is usually not a fighting game's forte. Even the seamless touch of "Mortal Kombat" couldn't hide the fact that it's... ridiculous at best. And well... this one is no different. Jugding from the trailer, this game seems to rely heavily on the Infinity Stones, or as Captain America suggested, "Infinite Six". Again, it also makes sense, due to the movie based on it happening in less than a year. After all, why would the title even bothered to have 'Infinite' as the sub-title, if that's not the whole point, right? The universe-shattering plot somehow reminded me of "Street Fighter V" all over again, which wasn't that great. So I'm not too sure CAPCOM will be able to pull this 'cinematic experience' off into something significantly better. The CAPCOM characters already felt... what's the word... out of place? And yikes, what happened to Chun-Li?! Subjectively speaking, she's not as 'ugly' as NetherRealm Studios' design for female characters, but I've certainly seen the Chinese Interpol agent in a much better shape before! On the other hand, never thought I'm gonna say this, but Thanos totally kicked-ass with his Infinity Gauntlet. Getting me more and more excited for the "Infinity War" movie, which might be the other primary goal of this game from the very beginning.

I don't know what you think, but overall this game doesn't look half bad. The design might need some getting used to, but I think it feels closer and closer to the previous 3 titles the more I see it. Unfortunately, as I've said before, the general sentiment of this game is definitely leaning on the side of negative. Fans who have 'tasted' the Story Demo have expressed a similar pessimistic tone as well. With a release date crawling closer and closer, how would CAPCOM react to this? I guess we'll just have to wait and see when the game is officially launched. "Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite" will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 19.

Sonic the Hedgehog

SEGA released a new trailer for "Sonic Forces", and this time around, they introduced the set of villains that Modern, Classic and Custom Sonic will be teaming up to face. I was already sold by the inclusion of a Custom character, but seeing all those arch-nemesises in one place just turned me into... a pure happy camper. And that's not all, because a new powerful and mysterious enemy will be joining, if not commanding them. Infinite, no relations to the above category, will be teaming up with Doctor Ivo Robotnik/Eggman (from... duh, almost every game?), Metal Sonic (who debuted on "Sonic CD"), Chaos (of "Sonic Adventure"), Shadow the Hedgehog (of "Sonic Adventure 2"), and Zavok (from the recent "Sonic Lost World") to take over the world. Seriously, that new villain looks scary, and he's totally stealing my attention. Dang it, I totally wish I can play this game. There's no release date so far, but "Sonic Forces" will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC this holiday.

Dragon Ball

I actually couldn't care less about any "Dragon Ball"-based games beyond the ones released during the 90s, but this one... "Dragon Ball FighterZ"? This totally got my attention! Indeed, it was that good, that it was stealing many E3 attendee's attention with its high speed action, flashy moves, and colorful anime graphics. For some reason, the "Marvel vs Capcom" style felt strong in this, to the point that many people have come to loving this more than that franchise's upcoming release. Ironic, huh? I guess nostalgia does play a crucial factor...

This title is under Bandai Namco, but developed by Arc System Works, and somehow was leaked a few days ahead of its planned official reveal. The latter is the company that is known for franchises like "BlazBlue", "Guilty Gear", and also the "Naruto" series. But unlike the Naruto ones that went full-on 3D style, this one utilized a 2.5D style, which once again, is the right call! Why? The development is in 3D, which as producer Tomoko Hiroki has confirmed, makes some technical elements much easier to pull off, but the visual is of 2D animation. And I say, not just that. "Dragon Ball" IS and has always been an anime, thus the anime style is definitely the way to go when it comes to adapting Son Goku and other character of the long-running franchise. It also easily reminded me of those classic "Dragon Ball" fighting game I used to play on my SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive with my family. Aaah, the good 'ol times when the world was still kind, and people hasn't been corrupted by the irony called... growing up.

The game's official reveal trailer only included 6 characters so far: Son Goku, Vegeta, (child) Son Gohan, Cell, Frieza, and Majin Buu. But since the game will be based on the whole "Dragon Ball Z" arc, it's obvious we'll be seeing many more characters like the twins Android 17 and Android 18, Krillin, (future and child) Trunks, and even Son Goten. Especially with Bandai Namco stressing out that "famous scenes from the Dragon Ball anime reproduced in 60 frames per second and 1080p resolution.". A closed beta demo will be held on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One before the end of summer, so fans who are intrigued to give this game a shot, just need to wait a bit longer. For the time being, we can indulge ourselves with several gameplay videos taken as direct-feed from the E3 hall. You can visit Gematsu (HERE, and HERE) to view them. "Dragon Ball FighterZ" will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC worldwide in early 2018.

Nintendo

Contrary to previous report, Nintendo did take the stage this year, as they announced numerous exciting titles that made MAAANY people happy. Not a surprise as well, because Nintendo Switch was just released 4 months ago, and there haven't been many softwares to complement the hybrid console.

Let's start with what's probably the biggest signature title for Switch. A game that IGN has even crowned to be the "Game of Show", "Best Platformer", and "Best Nintendo Switch Game" of E3 2017. It's none other than... "Super Mario Oddysey"! In this game, players will take Mario on a globe-trotting 3D adventure to collect Moons, a fuel for the airship 'Oddysey' that is necessary to rescue Prince Peach from Bowser. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. How many effing times do Mario needs to walk through the same scenario, right? But never mind that, because this game looked super fun.

I haven't purchased Switch yet, but even I'm already itching to play this game. For so many reasons. That great and catchy theme song that made me dancing like a child. That white broadway top-hat, or Mexican sombrero? And Mario 'possessing' practically any living beings around him with a cap throw? Dang it, if only I can play it right NOW. This looked a lot like "Super Mario Galaxy" on Wii, but with its own... spin. Get it? Here, just take a look at its reveal trailer, or the gameplay videos (available on Gematsu), and tell me if you're not easily charmed by this game. Because if you're not, then I seriously pity your sad childhood (just kidding, no need for death threat!). "Super Mario Odyssey" will launch on October 27th, 2017... only on Nintendo Switch.

The second Switch game for Mario is "Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle", that combines the world of Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom, with Ubisoft's "Rabbids" franchise. Yep, this worst-kept secret collaboration title has been developed by Ubisoft, hence why I don't give the company their own exclusive category (because its content will be separated in two). In this game, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and also Yoshi will join forces with their four... Rabbids dopplegangers, to journey four different worlds, in the hope of restoring order to The Mushroom Kingdom. I'm personally NOT a fan of the Rabbids, but even this crossover game looked FUN. And beyond that, according to IGN it has a deep strategic battle system too. But more importantly, this game also proved that Nintendo is becoming more open to allow other developers to use their properties. A fact that inspires great potentials and possibilities in the future. You can watch the official announcement trailer on Youtube, as well as a Development Diary for the game. Gematsu also had 21 minutes of gameplay from the E3 floor, so go ahead and visit the site. "Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle" will be released for Nintendo Switch on August 29th, 2017.

More Mario? Yes... more Mario! Announced during Nintendo's E3 2017 Treehouse live stream, "Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions" is a renewed classic that will arrive on October 6th, 2017 exclusively for Nintendo 3DS. In this game, rather than trying to battle Bowser, the Mario Bros are teaming up WITH Bowser to restore Princess Peach's voice. Visit Youtube for the official trailer, and also Gematsu for 25 minutes of gameplay videos. Wow, Mario is killing it, huh? Nope, not just him, his green dinosaur friend Yoshi is also getting his own Switch game! Conveniently titled as "Yoshi", the 2D side-scrolling adventure will see Yoshi exploring a world of miniature diorama filled with flip-ping surprises. Go ahead and watch the trailer and have your mind... flipped. LOL. "Yoshi" will be released in 2018.

What about other franchises, you wonder? Well, ask and you shall receive! In list form... LOL - The honestly weird-looking "Arms", is getting rave reviews. It's ridiculous fun, even with its lack in the story department as well as... logic. It might look simple, but it has a startling amount of depth that will wow anyone. Many are saying that this will be a hit for families entertainment, and the game is already hitting the market with a DLC already announced. - Fans of the "Metroid" series will also get their share of excitement. "Metroid Prime 4" has been announced for Switch. There's no release date for now, but I'm sure information about that will come in the near future. The same can't be said about "Metroid: Samus Returns" though. A 3D polygon remake of Game Boy classic "Metroid II: The Return of Samus", the title will be officially released for 3DS on September 15th, 2017. - The pink ball Kirby also gets Switch-ed, in the equally conveniently named "Kirby". Kirby will be adventuring in a party of four, which means up to 4 players can play this game together. Don't forget to check out its Hollywood style trailer! "Kirby" doesn't have a release date yet, but is set to be released in 2018. - And "Skyrim" fans? You got it! Complete with amiibo support and Legend of Zelda skins...

As you can see, the library of Switch is expanding like crazy, and it's an exciting turn around especially compared to what happened to Wii U. Those who have purchased this hybrid console since day one, no longer has to worry about not having a game to play. And for those who haven't had a chance to do so... well, the more the reason to get a Nintendo Switch, right? *grins*

Pocket Monsters

Are you among those who are waiting for a core Pokemon title on Switch? And you were disappointed when "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon" was announced for 3DS instead of the rumored "Pokemon Stars"? Well, turns out you only need to wait... a little bit longer. The Pokemon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara officially announced that Game Freak has begun developing a core RPG title for Nintendo Switch! So it is indeed happening, folks! He added though, that the title "may not release for more than a year, but we hope you will look forward to it all the same", hence why I told you to wait. Then again, more than a year from now can also mean... it MIGHT arrive on November 2018, right? Wow, I'm getting excited for no reason... LOL.

In a way, this announcement has also partially confirmed that the Switch is indeed the officiall replacement of 3DS. Moreso, and this is just a wild guess, but likely the rumor about "Pokemon Stars" was actually referring to this particular development, instead of the recently announced extension of "Pokemon Sun & Moon". Either way, this is a great news, because we're finally getting what many Pokemon fans have been dreaming: a chance to play a Pokemon RPG on the TV screen! How is that possible, you dare ask? DUH, Switch is a hybrid console that enables that! Of course, this also works wonder to Switch itself, because quoting my own words from last week: "The hybrid console is definitely in need of a fan favorite franchise like Pokemon to attract more players". Yes, the E3 announcement for those Mario titles and many others have shut down the public concern of 'Switch is lacking of exclusive game titles'. But having a Pokemon RPG on Switch, will undeniably attract Pokemon fans who are still on the fence to purchase the console and help boost its sales. Want prove? That's easy, because mark my word, I'm TOTALLY getting a Switch (sooner or later) just for this! *geeks out*

By the way, technically speaking, this section should've been part of the Nintendo category. But since it has already established its own category (in various form of medias) for such a long time, I've decided to put it separately.

Assassin's Creed

At long last, Ubisoft officially unveiled "Assassin's Creed: Origins" during Microsoft's E3 2017 stage. It was certainly not a surprise announcement, considering the title was already leaked since May. More than that, a Game Informer coverage was already leaked ahead of E3, officially spilling the beans in a non-official manner. Ouch! Someone at Game Informer is going to get fired...

Confirming the rumor, the new game will take place in Egypt, and as the title suggest, will be telling about the founding of the Assassin's Brotherhood. The main character (but not the only playable one) will be Bayek, a protector of the land whose story will be root of the Creed. Since the game takes place in the ancient Egypt during Cleopatra's reign, we can expect to see Great Pyramids, mythologies, pharaohs, and many other awesome bits from the country's history. Eventhough this game has been in production before the infamous "Assassin's Creed Unity", it will have a new free-form combat system with new A.I., revamped narrative experience and freedom to choose quests, an entire country to full explore, while still retaining and improving the series existing signatures like puzzles, Eagle Vision (through an Eagle named the Senu this time), stealth, that annoying climbing, Naval adventures, and many others. You can check out the official reveal trailer on Youtube, a Gameplay Demo, coverage by Game Informer, as well as a "Mysteries of Ancient Egypt" that gave additional details about the game.

There are several version of the game that fans can purchase. First is the "Deluxe Edition" that contains the game, printed version of the hand-drawn world map, soundtrack, and Digital Deluxe Pack. Second is the "Gold Edition", that adds a Season Pass for upcoming expansions and equipments. There are also the "Collector's Edition", "Dawn of the Creed Collector's Edition", and the special "Dawn of the Creed Legendary Collector's Edition". That last one will add a highly detailed resin statue of Bayek and Senu, The Collector's Certificate of Authenticity, replica of Bayek's eagle skull amulet, two Steelbooks, and four large lithographs signed by the studio artists. This limited edition (only 999 units for worldwide sale) is already available for pre-order exclusively on Ubisoft store for $799,9. As the pricing suggest, this is totally for that devoted fan with plenty of money to spare! *sigh*. Visit Gematsu for further details of these items. "Assassin's Creed: Origins" will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 27th, 2017.

Square Enix

The company brought their top franchise to the convention this year. Several new iterations of "Final Fantasy XV" were announced during the event, while new development on the highly anticipated "Kingdom Hearts III" was also revealed elsewhere.

Second DLC episode for "Final Fantasy XV", one that will focus on Prompto Argentum's solo adventure will be launched on June 27th, 2017, alongside the "Regalia Type-D" update (brings greater freedom to drive Regalia off-road). Just like the first that featured Gladioulus as the central character (released back in March), "Episode Prompto" will likely take place in between the infamous Chapter 13 of the main game as well. If Gladioulus was a hack and slash action genre, then apparently Prompto will take on a first-person shooter experience. Makes sense, really, considering his signature weapon of choice. You can check out a six minutes gameplay video of this DLC on Youtube.

Expanding the "FF XV Universe", two more extension games have been announced. The first one was "Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV", that will be available for PlayStation VR. It's a... fishing game, that let players explore oceans, lakes, ponds, and rivers alongside Noctis and his friends. Clearly based on one of the main game's mini-mission, the game will be launched in September. For now, you can view the official trailer to know that I'm not at all kidding. The second was "King's Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon", which apparently is an action RPG. This one's an App game, and will be released on iOS and Android later this year. I can't see the relation of this title with the main game, but I'm sure Final Fantasy fans will dig it like crazy anyway, right? Last but not least, the main game will soon have a major update to support Microsoft's new console. One which I will talk about at the end of this post. "Final Fantasy XV" is available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

As for "Kingdom Hearts III", Square Enix debuted a new trailer during the "Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour". Compared to the "Final Fantasy" one, I personally liked this one better. But while the game looked great, the story seemed to have gotten... even more confusing by and by. Apparently, Hades, Maleficent, and Pete are looking for a Black Box or something, while lead character Sora alongside buddies Donald Duck and Goofy want to bring Roxas to reality, with a certain 'dire cost'. I recall only getting to the second game, thus never experienced the Nintendo DS ones to even have a clue of what's going on. Still, the charm of this series is the various Disney/Squaresoft worlds, and at the end of this trailer, Square Enix officially announced that new information will be delivered at the Disney D23 Expo 2017 on July 15th, 2017. That means there will be new worlds to explore, and I bet it will involve recent released titles like "Frozen", "Moana", and/or "Big Hero 6". "Kingdom Hearts III" is still under development, and hasn't gotten a release date, but is likely to arrive in 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Taiko no Tatsujin

The latest iteration of the "Taiko Drum Master" series, the "Taiko no Tatsujin: Session de Dodon ga Don!" has been announced on Famitsu Magazine. The game will have a special jam session against other player's musical performance data, that can even be achieved when they are not actually available online. This game will include over 70 songs that cover from famous Japanese classic anime songs, classic orchestral musics, recent tunes from the J-Pop circle, up to modern hypes like the "Pen-Pineapple Apple-Pen". A teaser website has been opened by Bandai Namco, that revealed a special feature to play the game alongside popular characters from Japanese shows. Development has reached 80% and the game is set to be released for PlayStation 4 later this year.

Spider-Man

As proven by their smartphones games like "Future Fight" and "Contest of Champions", or the collaboration with CAPCOM that I've talked about above, Marvel is ramping up on their video game divison. And the one I'm going to talk about here, is their collaboration with Insomniac Games, in form of the non-nonsense titled "Marvel's Spider-Man". It is best known as "Spider-Man PS4" though, because as the nickname suggests, it will be exclusively released on PlayStation 4. And well, since SONY is the copyright owner of the Spider-Man franchise, it's not really much of a surprise huh?

A special 9 minutes gameplay video has been released to give players a sense of what to expect from this game. My reaction? If you're eager to see how Spider-Man gets trapped in a Rocksteady's Arkham game, then this is easily your answer. The whole stalking, cinematic quick-time sequences, as well as exciting one-vs-many combat totally reminded me of those Rocksteady titles. But instead of Batman and his vast array of gadgets, we have Spider-Man and his iconic humor, jokes, acrobatic movesets, and... gadgets in his place. Creative director Bryan Intihar also described the footage in details, through PS4's official blog. It seems Spidey will 'cooperate' with Wilson Fisk, to deal with the Inner Demons gang, who works under Martin Li or Mr. Negative. He will be exploring an open-world of New York to deal with super villains as well as personal matters.

Honestly, I'm not too keen on the human character design, as well as the first suit that has too much white. But this certainly caught my attention. Heck, I think every Marvel fans would be amazed by this. In fact, this game has been confirmed to include additional Spidey suits, as well as multiple Spider-Man characters, meaning there's more to it than what we've seen so far. With strong emphasis on story, it's not a joke that IGN has awarded it as "Best PS4 Game" as well as "Best Action Game" of E3 2017. Here's hoping the actual game will be as good as, if not better than this achievement suggested. "Spider-Man" will be released in 2018.

LEGO Games

New characters have been announced for "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2"! Giant teleportation mutt Lockjaw, and Inhumans Queen Medusa have officially entered the game alongside Agent Venom. As to be expected, the whole roster of Guardians of the Galaxy have also been confirmed to be playable in this second game, because the story will pick up directly where the previous title left off. Not to mention tying in to this year's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" movie. There weren't many details offered for this game, because likely TT Games and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment is saving more reveals to be delivered on Disney D23. For now, you can watch various gameplays through the official LEGO presentation stream on Youtube. "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2" will launch for all consoles on November 14th, 2017.

Professor Layton

Following last month's reveal of the first episode of "Layton's Mistery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires' Conspiracy", LEVEL-5 celebrated E3 2017 with with details for the second one. Episode 02, entitled "Song of a Certain Love: Riverside Festival" will focus on the town's tradition of confessing love from opposite sides of River Thames. One that is called "Riverside Confession Show". The legend told that the couple who engaged in that would die unnatural death. But this time, contrary to the annual festive that usually went victim-less, two young people actually get killed! An event that shakes the town, for better or worse. I found the premise of this episode to be exciting, because it means Katrielle isn't just a run-of-the-mill detective in this game. She's going to be investigating deaths, and possible murders!

Another two of the "Seven Millionaires of London" have also been revealed. Joining Ridley Fremens and Clerk Gospec are Andrea Quinto and Zach Lyell. Quinto is a young multi-millionaire who inherited a vast sum of money following the death of her parents. While Lyell is a sharp business who is extensively expanding businesses. He's the president of a group enterprise that owns Long Roller Bank. Up to this point, it's still unclear how or in what capacity these Millionaires are involved in the game. Are they part of a secret organization, that is somehow responsible for Professor Layton's disappearance? Or is there other mystery behind that? And how will they affect Katrielle's life?

Several new features have also been announced. Katrielle will be able to change clothes in the game, and they are specially designed by famous stylist Shouhei Kashima. New outfits can be obtained by using "Special Coins" in the 3DS version, or actual money in the smartphones version. Those who purchase the 3DS download version in Japan will receive a Flora Reinhold-style outfit. Player can also decorate the interior of Katrielle's "Layton Detective Agency" through the new "Room Coordinate" feature. New furnitures might be obtained by trading "Interior Tickets". As for the puzzles, this game is said to have the highest number of them, of all Layton titles. Lastly, the game's theme song "Girls" is sung by Kana Nishino, and will be officially released on July 26. "Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires' Conspiracy" will be released worldwide on July 20th, 2017.

Atari

No, you're NOT reading it wrong. Atari, the classic 90s gaming console that even I have never even seen in real life, is getting back into the hardware business. Apparently, CEO Fred Chesnais had publicly stated this news on the E3 2017 floor. He didn't really go into specifics about this, aside from saying that it is based on PC technology. But could he be talking about that "Ataribox" that has been teased on Youtube? The video DOES call it 'a brand new Atari product'. It even has its own website. The current speculation on the internet, that Atari is attempting to replicate Nintendo's accomplishment with their NES Classic. You know, the one that only saw limited release and has been discontinued? Especially because the video hinted at the "Atari 2600" which was the first console ever released by the company. I guess we'll just have to wait for more information about this. But be honest, would you purchase a NES Classic-esque console just to play classic and likely long-forgotten Atari games? Personally, I'm NOT too sure...

Microsoft

Speaking of console... Okay, let's end this R-N-D with a topic that many are calling to be... the 'MOST POWERFUL' reveal of the Expo. Microsoft has officially unveiled the name of its high-tech console Project Scorpio, and it officially goes by name "Xbox One X". That's... so many Xs, huh? LOL. By 'most powerful', I'm obviously talking about the console's technical specifications of course. And not about that over-confident official tagline that's being boasted throughout the event on T-Shirts, as well as flaunted pretty much everywhere. Hold on... HUH?

Really, its technical specs is certainly no joke. True 4K resolution with 12GB GDDR5 graphic memory, that enable games to run smoothly in 8 million plus pixels resolution (that's the highest possible, for current technology at least); 8-core Custom AMD CPU with 6 Teraflops GPU and 326GB/s Memory Bandwidth, for realistic and smoother animations; liquid cooling and supercharger-style centrifugal fan, to ensure it stays cool with less noise, a system that, according to Xbox Software Engineering Kareem Choudhry, is usually implemented for servers; 8GB flash and 1TB internal HDD storage, with faster hard drive speed; 4K UltraHD Bluray Disc Drive; DTS and DOLBY TrueHD Atmos sounds; various connectivities via wires and wireless; and not to mention being the smallest consoler the company has ever released. To be honest, eventhough I might have an IT background, I have NEVER been into hardware. Thus all these gibberish tech-talks almost put me down to sleep. But I don't think it takes a genius to easily tell that this thing is massive. Undeniably a 'First Class' product that offers immersive gaming experience. According to IGN, the CPU is 30% faster than the current Xbox One, with a GPU that's 4.6 times higher. To ensure backward compatibility with it, all of its accessories and games will work on this Xbox One X, and existing games (like "Dragon Ball FighterZ", "Final Fantasy XV", and "Assassin's Creed: Origins" that I've mentioned above) will soon receive major updates to ensure faster loading time, even for a player who isn't utilizing a 4K TV.

Said technical specification is certainly an eye-popping fact. This is basically a super high-end PC set, in form of a standalone console. Unfortunately, that comparison also immediately raised several glaring questions among the public, particularly game enthusiasts. One that ranged from the most simple, like "Who is this intended for?" to the most philosophical like "Why even bother choose this over PC?". Indeed, which gamer market is Microsoft really trying to aim with this product? Because obviously, to make full use of the UltraHD 4K resolution, a gamer needs to eventually own and plug it into a 4K TV as well. Which is... STILL a really pricey technology that NOT everyone can afford. The fact that the console itself will arrive at an equally 'premium price', feels like a hard wake-up slap to every average guy's face.

Will this win over those gamers who have abandoned home consoles and have since moved on towards PC? In an interview with Gamespot, a developer (who's working on exclusive Xbox title... a random FYI to see the bigger picture) sang praises for Xbox One X by calling it as the most developer-friendly due to its super over-powered hardware. He said, "it's like a high-end PC crammed into this tiny little box". Of course, the logic that follows is, why not just... use a PC instead? A PC World writer has even made a possible comparison to the budget necessary to build one with similar specs. With its own valid pros and cons. The point is, PC gamers will likely opt to spend less money to upgrade their existing PC sets. So is this meant for Xbox fanatics who are looking to upgrade from a very recent Xbox One then? Or VR enthusiasts, eventhough it might be a veeeery niche market? Why not go with the cheaper Xbox One S instead? Hmmm...

Sure, technically speaking, Microsoft has created a console that's... uncomparable, and has no competitor in terms of power and performance (that's the words of Head of Xbox Phil Spencer himself). Will that guarantee a win in the console competition? Remember, the hip and popular neighbour PlayStation 4 (and its 4K extension PS4 Pro) proudly carries the advantages of having far richer library of titles and DLC exclusives, one that only continues to add as we speak. While the sweet and seemingly innocent new kid-on-the-block Nintendo Switch, is offering the ease of mobility, family-friendliness, and multiplayer experience both offline and online. Both are already promising long hours of entertainment with a relative 'family-budget' that seems more inline with the current economical climate throughout the world. So can Microsoft really be certain that their luxury product will appeal a much bigger mass than those? Particularly when sales for the current Xbox One isn't even doing... good? Learning from past experience, the answer to that is rather... skeptical.

No offense to the company, but somehow the term 'most powerful' itself feels... exaggerating much? I mean, A for effort, but it's nothing but a temporary bubble with a very limited lifetime. We are talking about technology here, a means that is ever-changing and ever-evolving. This month, perhaps Xbox One X is indeed the strongest there is, but another console will surely swoop in with better specs and surpassed it. Perhaps next year, if not sooner or later. Trust me, this is coming from a proud Xbox360 owner, who still has the fully operational console and plays its numerous game titles every now and then, and who has consciously skipped out Xbox One due to the lack of interesting titles (aside from monetary situation LOL). What I'm trying to say is, I don't really see the point of moving on towards Xbox One X, at least in the near future. Which is ironic, because what seems to be winning over many gamers' heart, was none other than Xbox One's backward compatibilites. Yes, the exact thing that SONY has been failing to deliver for years, has become the big positive difference that Microsoft is generously offering. Said function will not be available until later this year, but it will support up to classic/original Xbox games! That's an era of 15 years ago, so we're talking about valid nostalgia boost here.

In the end, the common sense is the Xbox One X is NOT for everyone. But it's still all up to you to decide whether you want, NEED, or even afford to have one decorating your already-possibly-expensive home. Lest we forget, freedom of choice, is everyone's basic human rights, regardless of their financial ability *sigh*. This 'most powerful console' is set to be released on November 7th, 2017 at the mindblowing price of $499. I guess that's when its accessibility strength to the general public can truly be tested. So as always, we'll see...

[pfsolitude]

The man whose wife is his arm, the Sorcerer Supreme and more join the fight for humanity in the latest Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite trailer.

The most infamous rivalry between video game and comic book icons returns this Fall with Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite. The fourth installment of Capcom’s legendary cross-over fighting game saga returns the series back to the original 2-on-2 format, last seen in Tatsunoku VS Capcom exclusively for the Wii. The Gem system from Capcom’s early Marvel fighting game Marvel Super Heroes returns, with the eponymous Infinity Stones granting each fighter new abilities once equipped.

Sony unveiled the latest trailer for Infinite during their E3 2017 presentation, showcasing more of the story mode and chaos inflicted by fused antagonist “Ultron Sigma”. Ten new characters are shown throughout the trailer, including Spencer, Gamora, Black Panther and Zero.

The full roster of confirmed characters as of E3 2017 is as follows:

Marvel:

Black Panther (DLC)

Captain America

Captain Marvel

Doctor Strange

Gamora

Hawkeye

Hulk

Iron Man

Nova

Rocket Raccoon

Thanos

Thor

Ultron

Capcom:

Arthur

Chris Redfield

Chun-Li

Dante

[Mega Man] X

Ryu

Morrigan

Sigma (DLC)

Spencer

Strider Hiryu

Zero

Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite will release for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on 9/19. A free Story Mode demo is currently available to download via PSN.

Source: Capcom Images courtesy of Capcom, Marvel

E3 2017: ‘Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite’ Trailer Reveals Ten More Characters The man whose wife is his arm, the Sorcerer Supreme and more join the fight for humanity in the latest…