#And he set up a Bomb so this world doesn't have to deal with all the stuff that his world does

[16woodsequ]

Things People Seem to Forget About Steve Rogers (aka the past is complex)

Things in the future didn't happen in a vacuum, and while Steve missed a lot of stuff while he was in the ice, he would have seen the roots of things like the Civil Rights, Women's Rights and even LGBTQ+ Rights movements in his time.

While I'm sure Steve encountered a lot of people expecting certain right-wing behaviours from him, due to his birth year and the things he missed in the ice, this doesn't mean he would act that way—even right out of the ice.

But first lets take a look at the things Steve missed and see what he did in fact know:

The atom bomb. Steve never saw the atomic fallout, but what did he see? Hydra bombs literally being flown to his home city. There is also a possibility that as a specialty team, he learned about the German Nuclear Program during the war. His unit was tied to the Strategic Science Reserve, so I wouldn't be surprised if between that, and Hydra's bomb initiatives, Steve was well aware of the potential of a bomb threat. I doubt Steve has clearance to know about the Manhattan project, and I think he would be horrified to learn about the impact of the atom bomb on Japan (especially since he essentially thwarted the same thing from happening to New York) but majorly powerful bombs would not surprise him.

• The Cold War. Steve may not have experience the Cold War, but he grew up surrounded by the outcome of the First World War after the Communist take over of Russia. The debates surrounding Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism aren't new. Steve would have grown up with them and would probably be familiar with American pro-capitalist, anti-communist rhetoric. But would he agree?

Here's some things we know about Steve: He's an artist, he grew up during the Depression which was heavily mitigated by socialist measures, he grew up poor, he grew up disabled. As an artist Steve would be well aware of the debates between the political movements, and with his background, and the success of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms, it would not surprise me if Steve leaned more towards the Socialist side of the scale.

All this to say: Steve would not be unfamiliar with the tension between Russia and the USA. Especially since even though they were allies during the war, there were already concerns that the USSR wasn't so much 'liberating' the countries they drove Germany out of, as putting them under new management.

Steve would be familiar with the tensions underlying the Cold War, and his background might lead him to have a critical view of some of the pro-Capitalist propaganda that came out during the Cold War. While I don't think Steve would approve of Russia's methods and the ultimate outcome of Communism there, I don't think he would approve of the Red Scare Witch Hunt that happened in the States either.

• Civil Rights Movement. While Steve missed the major changes that occurred during the 50s and 60s, he would not be unfamiliar with movements for equality. Steve would also not be unaware of the inequality that minorities faced in his country.

For example:

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in 1909 and is still run today. The NAACP fought and fights against discrimination and advocates for equality.

In the 30s President Roosevelt responded to "to charges that many blacks were the "last hired and first fired," [his administration] instituted changes that enabled people of all races to obtain needed job training and employment. These programs brought public works employment opportunities to African Americans, especially in the North" (Link)

"The first precedent-setting local and state level court cases to desegregate Mexican and African American schooling were decided during [the late 1930s]" (Link)

In 1941 thousands of Black Americans threatened to march on Washington for equal employments rights which pushed Roosevelt to issue an executive order that "opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin." (Link)

The Double Victory or Double V Campaign during the war was an explicit campaign to win the war against fascism in Europe and the war against racism as home.

All this to say, Steve would not be unfamiliar with many of the issues tackled during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s.

Not only that, but Steve led a multi-racial special unit during the war during a time of active army segregation. Not only does he have a Black man on his team, but also a Japanese man. This would have most definitely led to backlash from higher command as well as discrimination from other units against Jones and Morita. Steve and the entire Howling Commandos would be explicitly aware of prejudice against two of their members and likely had to fight for them many times.

• Anything space travel. It's true Steve wouldn't know anything about attempts to reach the moon. But there were still several space discoveries he could know about, especially since he and Bucky are clearly interested in scientific discoveries, considering how they went to the Stark Exbo before Bucky shipped out.

Some discoveries:

Hubble's Law: In 1929 Hubble published evidence for an ever expanding universe, and thus provided evidence of the Big Bang theory.

1930: Discovery of Pluto (makes me chuckle to think this is a relatively new discovery for Steve and he wakes up to find it is a dwarf-planet now. You think Millennials are protective of Pluto? I think Steve would be too 😆.)

1937: "the first intimation that most matter in the universe is `dark matter'"

Personally I think Steve would be absolutely amazed by the advances in space travel.

• Women's Rights. Like with Civil Rights, while Steve may have missed the large movements during the 50s and 60s, he was around for the early movements. The 60s movement is called Second Wave Feminism for a reason. This is because there was already many pushes for women equality in Steve's time.

For example:

1920: White women win the right to vote. This means Steve's mother first voted in his lifetime. I feel this alone would make Steve heavily aware of inequality faced by women. (As a side note I feel that Sarah always emphasized voting to Steve since it was such a major development in her lifetime.)

Also in the 20s the Flapper trend rose, along with hemlines. Women's skirts were shorter and they smoked and drank with men. Middle-class and working-class women also worked outside of the home. The 1920s-1930s 'modern' woman is very different from the Victorian vision of a woman in petticoats and skirts.

Early Birth Control movement: Was "initiated by a public health nurse, Margaret Sanger, just as the suffrage drive was nearing its victory. The idea of woman’s right to control her own body, and especially to control her own reproduction and sexuality, added a visionary new dimension to the ideas of women’s emancipation. This movement not only endorsed educating women about existing birth control methods. It also spread the conviction that meaningful freedom for modern women meant they must be able to decide for themselves whether they would become mothers, and when."

1936: A Supreme Court decision declassified birth control information as obscene. Legalised doctor-prescribed contraceptives.

WW2 Watershed: Women serve in the army and work factory jobs. The government establishes universal childcare while women work.

Women also wore pants and form fitting clothes to work in factories. We also see Peggy wearing pants during the last assault on Hydra. While Steve may need to get used to modern fashion, he would already be familiar with the 'morale outrage' over women's clothes in his time, and probably try to manage his surprise in private as well as possible.

• LGBTQ+ Rights. Like with the rest of the equality movements, LGBTQ+ rights movements also started before the late 1900s.

1924: "Society for Human Rights is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. The society is the first gay rights organization as well as the oldest documented in America." This organisation was broken up soon after founding due to arrests, but it published "the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom."

In the 1920s and 30s "the gay and lesbian movement started taking shape. Social analysts began rejecting prior medical definitions of "inversion" or "homosexuality" as deviant.

Communities of men and women with same-sex affiliations began to grow in urban areas. Their right to gather in public places such as bars was tenuous, and police raids and harassment were common." (Link)

WW2 Watershed: While many LGBTQ people lived in rural areas or outside 'queer neighbourhoods' the war brought people from all backgrounds together. "As with most young soldiers, many had never left their homes before, and the war provided them an opportunity to find community, camaraderie, and, in some cases, first loves. These new friendships gave gay and lesbian GIs refuge from the hostility that surrounded them and allowed for a distinct subculture to develop within the military."

They still had to hide their identities for fear of persecution and a 'blue discharge', however "Gay and lesbian veterans of World War II became some of the first to fight military discrimination and blue discharges in the years following the war."

It's unclear how much Steve would have known about the gay and lesbian rights movement. But in the comics he has a gay friend Arnie Roth, and there are many meta posts (X X X) about how Steve may have lived in a queer neighbourhood.

And, according to my history professor, gay and lesbian soldiers were often protected by their friends in the army instead of outed. This is not to downplay the discrimination and pain outed veterans faced, but there was a comaraderie and understanding that developed between soldiers that protected many gay soldiers.

• Computer and the internet. The seeds of modern computers began during World War Two. Arguably it began earlier with Ada Lovelace. While technology has changed a lot for Steve, there is a long history of it's development.

Colossus Computer: Kept secret until the 70s, it's unclear if Steve's association with the SSR, Peggy (who was a code breaker before SSR) and Howard, would have led him to know anything about the "the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer", but we see electric screens and machines being used in Captain America: The First Avenger. So he would know something of those mechanisms.

Also the first American TV was broadcasted in the 1939 World Fair, And since Steve and Bucky are already shown going to a science fair, I believe it is reasonable for Steve to know about the concept of television, though it looks much different in modern day.

• Rise of Neo-Nazis. Steve already saw the rise of fascism in his own country before the war, so while I think he would be horrified and saddened to learn of the Neo-Nazi movement, I don't think he would be surprised.

Because:

Eugenics: A large part of the Nazi campaign, this part of the movement originated and was inspired by the United States Eugenics movement. "It is important to appreciate that within the U.S. and European scientific communities these ideas were not fringe but widely held and taught in universities."

Lobotomies and institutionalisations were part of the treatments for disabled and 'weak-minded' individuals during Steve's time. With Sarah being a nurse it is likely Steve knew of these treatments and more. And as a disabled child of immigrants, I have no doubts Steve brushed up with eugenics beliefs many times.

1939: More than 20,000 people attended a Nazi rally in Madison Square while "[a]bout 100,000 anti-Nazi protesters gathered around the arena in protest".

In the comics Steve canonically has a Jewish friend, Arnie Roth. If he wasn't part of the protests against the Nazi rally, he would have heard about it and known about the rise of antisemitic sentiment in the US before the outbreak of the war.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

Steve has a history of anti-racist behaviour. While he would still have a lot to learn from the Civil Rights Movement and no doubt has unconscious biases he grew up with, he also explicitly builds a multi-racial team that would have led to clashes with systemic racism in the army. This would have inevitably led to him and the Howling Commandos taking an anti-racist stance in protection of their members.

Would Steve say the N-word? Likely not. The N-Word already held negative connotations by the 19th and early-20th century. I doubt Jones would be willing to follow a man who would knowing use the insult. 'Coloured' or 'Negro' were seen as the more acceptable terms. So Steve may use those words at first, instead of 'Black' or 'African-American'. 'Negro' is a controversial term for some Black Americans, so this would be something for him to learn, but he would not purposely by insulting or hurtful. And I believe he would adapt as quickly as possible upon learning.

Steve saw the early steps of many social movements. Given what we know about Steve—artist, disabled, immigrant, poor, raised by a single mom, gay and Jewish friend, potentially lived around queer people, worked with Peggy and smiled when she punched a sexiest, and built a multi-racial team—Steve would not only be aware of the social movements of his time, but he would be happy to learn of the developments after he went into the ice.

While it would take some time for him to learn all the changes that happened, Steve's background would led him to be pleased with the changes in society. This is the opposite of being racist, sexist, and homophobic. Some things might take some adjusting for Steve to get used to, but he is already open-minded and has a frame of reference for many of the social changes that happened.

People sometimes bring up Steve's Catholic upbringing to argue about some beliefs he might have. But while I do think this upbringing would lead to some biases, I think Steve's life experience helped counter, or helped him unlearn some of those biases, even before he hit the ice.

Also, as an Irish-Catholic, Steve would have faced some discrimination of his own. It is most certainly not on the same level as other minorities, and things were better in the 20th century. Being very clear, any discrimination Steve faced for being Irish-Catholic would not be systemic or commonplace like racism. But adding his heritage to the rest of Steve's background helps give us a better idea of why he was already open to social movements like the Civil Rights movement before the ice. And it may have made him already more understanding of LGBTQ+ people, who he may have lived around, even if he grew up being taught certain biases.

Other Things We Forget About Steve

He is quite tech-savvy. While Steve would have a lot to learn, we know he is capable. There are a lot of jokes about his technical know-how in Avengers, but I think he's actually managing very well considering it's probably only been a few weeks or months since he came out of the ice.

Examples:

Deleted scene where we see Steve using a laptop in his apartment. He presses the spacebar to pause a video, which is a keyboard shortcut. So not only can he set up a laptop to watch a video, but he already knows key shortcuts.

Deleted scene where waitress mentions 'wireless'. Steve is confused and thinks she means radio. But I think he actually knows about wi-fi at this point, but probably had never heard it referred to as 'wireless' before. By this point he knows radio is not as common, so his real confusion is why the waitress is offering him 'free radio'. If she had said free wi-fi (the more typical phrase in my opinion) I think he would have understood.

Canon scene of Steve helping Tony fix the Helicarrier engines. This is my favourite evidence because Tony asks Steve to look at the relays and Steve makes a quip that they 'seem to run on some sort of electricity' indicating he is out of his depth. But we never see Tony tell Steve what to do. Steve figures out how to fix the relays himself. Tony is busy with the debris in the rotors and the next thing we see is Steve telling Tony the relays are all good.

Steve is much better at adapting and figuring out technology than we give him credit for. This doesn't mean he won't be anxious or uncomfortable with the sheer amount of stuff he has to learn (especially if everyone keeps making jokes about it to him). But by 2014, it's clear he's already mastered all of it, which is amazing when you think about it, because that's only two years of learning.

Steve is very book smart. In the comics Steve goes to art college, implying he finished high school. Even if he did drop out of high school to work, we know Steve is very smart.

We see him unloading a whole suitcase of books in the barracks before he got the serum.

The mental math is must take to throw the shield at the right angles for it to bounce back is insane.

Steve is also known as a master tactician. So it is clear he has the brains and smarts to run his team during the war. Not only that, but he is not just Captain in name. He actually has that rank, which means he passed the Captain's exam. I also have a feeling he would have needed to pass some kind of evaluation to get the serum in the first place.

We see in Steve's 2014 apartment that his bookshelves are full of history books. Steve is a veracious reader and spends a lot of his time catching up on what he missed. Things he didn't learn or were taught differently growing up would definitely exist, but Steve is actively working to counter that.

Steve would swear. Swearing has been a constant throughout all of history. So too, the backlash against profanity. Even if Steve grew up being told not to swear he would have heard it. And, Steve became a soldier. If he didn't swear before the war, he most definitely picked up some of it then.

I think Captain America isn't supposed to swear, and I think Steve would be aware of this perception of the symbol of him. But I think when Steve is comfortable with people, he would swear. We see in Avengers he doesn't swear, but in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he does.

We joke about Steve and the "Language" line, but I think that line has something to do with Steve's history of being perceived as a symbol and as Captain America since he said it 'just slipped out'. So, while Steve may have been encouraged not to swear growing up, and expected not to swear as Captain America, I fully believe that soldier, veteran, and Irish man Steve Rogers does swear.

Wrap up

I hope you liked this deep dive into Steve's history and character.

I think it can be easy to take the past as a lump sum and view everyone in the past through one lens. We know the past was racist, sexist, and homophobic, so we view everyone from the past that way.

And while it's true things were different back then, people were most definitely fighting for change and aware of the issues. There is also a lot of nuance to the past, and a lot that can be gleaned from what we know about Steve.

It's true that Steve would have a lot to learn when it comes to terminology and specific technology, but I believe Steve's background would prepare him for a lot of the social changes that happened after he went into the ice.

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny is stuck in the DC Universe against his will. He is trying to build a Ghost Portal to try and get back home, but he needs to steal a bunch from the different High-Tech Companies in the DC Universe

So now Wayne-Tech, Lex-Corp, Palmer Industries, Star Labs, and everything else you can think of has been robbed by a Meta-Human Theif who can walk through walls, disappear, and fly

Eventually, Danny gets all the parts he needs for the Portal and starts to build it in some forest outside of Gotham.

At the same time, Constantine reports to the League that the small traces of magical green goo they found at each crime scene was Ectoplasm. Basically Death Energy in Liquid Form from a Dimension called the Infinite Realms. They figure out that all the parts put together could be used to build a Portal, and the Ectoplasm makes them suspect that he is trying to open a Portal the the Infinite Realms

Constantine says that the Ectoplasm has energy readings that suggest it is from the High King, but it is mixed in with a bunch of Human DNA. He suspects that Danny is a Thrall of Pariah Dark, created so he could open a Portal the the Infinite Realms and pave the way for his Invasion of their Dimension.

They find a way to track down the Portal, right when Danny is about to open it.

A final battle ensues as Danny desperately tries to defend his Portal, while the computer reads out the Countdown to the Portal Opening. When the timer reaches 1, Batman finds a Bomb near the Portal Opening and throws it into the tunnel, destroying the entire Portal in one go.

They all stand back, watching as Danny stops and collapses in front of the destroyed Portal. Constantine warns them to be careful, Pariah Dark is a being of pure hatred, and once they piss off his Thrall he will attack them with all his angered might. "This bloke is about to explode. Once he realizes what he's looking at, he's gonna-"

But he is cut off when they hear drops of water hiting the ground, coming from the direction of the Portal. Danny is silently crying, looking at all his hard work go to up in flames.

They are all stunned. Constantine warned them that the Thralls of Pariah Dark were incapable of any emotion other than Anger, that they were completely sadistic monsters who took pleasure in ripping Mortals apart piece by piece. But this wasn't anything like that.

This was a Child, crying on his knees while staring at his Portal he had worked so hard to build.

"Why?" He asks.

"You were going to open a Portal to the Infinite Realms. We know you are a Thrall of Pariah Dark, you would have let his army through to our dimension."

"But Pariah Dark is dead."

"If he was dead, then why did we find traces of the King's energy in your Ectoplasm?"

"I'm beat him a few months ago. I'm the new king."

"Wait, so why were you trying to open the Portal?"

"I just wanted to see my family again. It wasn't even going to be open for long, I had a bomb ready to destroy it behind me..."

The Justice League realizes they all fucked up.

[ecoamerica]

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[stevieschrodinger]

Just imagine Alpha Steve after everything that happened. Alpha Steve who was King Steve, not just because of the money and the popularity and everything else that came with it, but King Steve because he was also Alpha. How aloof he kept himself from everything, simply because he knew, deep down, that it was all empty and meaningless and what was the point of being the most popular kid in the school if literally no one actually liked him. Just wanted him because of what he was and what he had and what advantages his friendship gave.

And then, after Vecna, after everything, Steve who had a group of people who knew him. Actually knew him, and suddenly he had pack. Learned what it was to make a family, to have people he would fight and die for because he knew they would do the same. Knew the deep satisfaction of caring for the people in his pack.

Alpha Steve who checks in with everyone. Alpha Steve who has to leave his scent on everyone, every time they part. Even Argyle, despite no one being able to smell it over the weed. Steve who has to mark and protect his people, finds that it soothes his soul. Alpha Steve who always has food in the house, knows the likes and dislikes of everyone of his pups, even if he would never call them that out loud.

When Eddie finally wakes up, Wayne sheds a few quiet tears, puts his book away, gently grips at Eddie's hand and calls him a stupid, stupid, brave boy. Because Alpha Steve couldn't tell Wayne many of the details, but he told him Eddie was a hero who saved the world.

Once he's been checked over and the hustle settles down again, the doctor finally clearing out, Eddie starts to realise why he's relaxed, why he's stayed so calm through waking up.

"Smells like Steve," Eddie says, as every thing comes down and his senses slowly warm back up. There's soft blankets under his fingertips, definitely not hospital cushions stacked around his head. Under his shoulder, comfortably soft, a yellow polo, folded up neat.

"Yeah," Wayne agrees quietly, "he's here...a lot."

"What's all this?" Eddie shifts, finding another shirt and a plaid woolen throw wedged between Eddie and the bedrail.

"Steve," Wayne answers simply.

"I'm not an Omega," Eddie answers weakly, bringing the soft corner of a blanket up to his nose.

"Doesn't seem to matter to Harrington."

Eddie doesn't want to be hopeful, not about this. That way lies heartache, "he's such an Alpha, got his wires crossed. I got hurt, that's all."

Wayne hums quietly in answer, "recon' he wouldn't be scenting stuff like this for just anyone, Eds."

"Nah," Eddie laughs brokenly, "not anyone, just every Omega in Hawkins."

Wayne looks at him, gaze too knowing but full of sad understanding, "still, he's clearly very fond of you Eds," it's a nice thing to say, warms Eddie's chest. And then Wayne completely ruins it, "that boys so territorial of you, reckon' he'd piss on you if he thought he'd get away with it."

And that sets a fire in Eddie's guts. Not the pissing part, because, gross, no, but what Wayne means by it. The implication.

"Wayne," Eddie says, and that's enough, because Wayne's always been good at boundaries and he knows Eddie, probably better than Eddie knows himself.

"He'll be here in a minute, knows I've got a shift. Won't let you be alone if he can help it."

And Wayne just drops that bomb and leaves Eddie to deal with it, like it's nothing. Like it's normal that King Steve has been building a nest around Eddie while he sleeps.

Like they summoned him, there he is, sucking in a shocked breath and dropping the bag he was carrying, "Eddie," it's a soft exhalation of surprise, and then Steve is at his side, pushing Eddie's hair out of his face and shifting his blankets. Steve moves on autopilot while he talks, touches Eddie with a sureness and familiarity that Eddie knows, in his soul, means that Steve's been doing the same while he was out cold.

"I'll leave you boys too it," Wayne says on his way out of the door, and while Eddie looks over and responds with a weak wave, Steve doesn't even acknowledge the other man. Can't seem to look away from Eddie.

"I have more, uhm, stuff, if you're uncomfortable.". Steve pulls more soft things out of the duffel he's retrieved from the doorway, "and..." Two shirts also make an appearance.

"I'm not an Omega, Steve," Eddie says again, like this time he will get an explanation.

"I'm ...very aware of that, Eds."

Eds. Steve called him Eds. He has been spending time with Wayne then. Jesus, they would have talked about him, Eddie would have been the only thing they had in common at the start.

"Right, well, I'm awake, doc says I'll get better, so you don't have to..." Eddie starts to shift, weakly lifts the plaid blanket to offer it back to Steve.

Steve grips the blanket, not letting Eddie give it to him, pushing it back towards Eddie. Steve's grip is white knuckle tight on the material, "I want to. I really, really want to.". And he stares Eddie down like he's desperately trying to make him understand.

"Oh," Eddie says weakly, heart all twisted up. He doesn't know what his face is showing, can't control it in the moment, but Steve, whose scent has always been strong and appealing to Eddie's weaker Beta senses, is speaking loud and clear. "Oh," Eddie says again, like it'll help. Letting Steve tuck in blankets and and generally fuss over him some more, touches featherlight when he tidies Eddie's hair yet again.

"Is that...okay, how do you feel about...this?"

"About us?" Eddie clarifies, he has to be absolutely certain he's not misreading the intention in Steve's scent. He's not an Omega, he isn't built to pick up the nuances, he has to ask. Even if Steve's scent is kind of a battering ram of want and need and longing and fierce protectiveness.

"yeah, about there being an us," Steve looks uncertain in a way Eddie's never seen before.

If this is Eddie's chance to reassure Steve that he's on board, he's going all in, "kind of like I won a gold medal and got to play on stage with Metallica and I saved the actual wold but like...better and all at once."

"That good, huh?" Steve runs his fingers through his hair, hiding his face a moment, all bashful despite the big grin that's split his face in half, "even though I'm an Alpha and you're...people won't approve."

"Fuck people."

"I'd rather be fucking you."

Eddie face flames, he knows it does. He must have had plenty of blood transfusions because he's pretty certain all that blood is in his cheeks right now. Well, not all of it, half of it must go to his dick. As soon as the thought of Steve between his legs, making him wet and opening him up, catches up to him, Steve leans forward. There's a rumble coming from Steve's chest as he nuzzles his face in between Eddie's head and shoulder, rubbing and scenting against his neck.

He suckles, gently, at the skin there. It's enough to get Eddie humming with pleasure and the rest of the way hard. It's a good job he's swamped in so many blankets, otherwise it would be very obvious; not that it isn't, Steve can clearly smell it on him.

"Can I mark you?" Steve asks, hovering awkwardly over the edge of the bed to get to Eddie.

"I'd usually insist you take a girl to dinner first-"

"I'd feel better Eddie, please," there's no way he could resist Steve Harrington being so vulnerable and sincere.

And, Eddie figures, well, what's one more bruise?

[doobnnoob-tf2]

ummm,,, mr. mundy, do u have any hcs on how each merc would cheer themselves up after a bad day? if u have already answered an ask like this, feel free to ignore this :)

Scout: he goes and hangs out with some of the others, who he chooses is based on his subconscious needs. if he needs someone to listen to him, he goes to Heavy or Sniper. if he needs a distraction, he goes to Demoman or Pyro. if he needs guidance, he goes to Spy

Soldier: he runs drills, either by himself or with one of the others on the team. usually Scout because he's the only one who complains but still actually participates in whatever the hell he has planned. it typically involves long, quiet (Scout, quiet!) jogs around the area around whatever base they're stationed at. or if they have access to a gym, spending very long periods of time in there

Pyro: they're an escapist. they'll go to their room to do so, but most of the time that's not possible. and what results is Pyrovision, their little fantasy world where everything is sunshine and rainbows and things aren't what they seem. sometimes the imagination can get too vivid and they lose track of the reality around them. some people think that's what makes them insane, when rather it's quite possibly the thing that's keeping them from it

Demoman: he needs either a lot of noise, or absolute quiet. but either way, it involves him holing himself up in his room and making bombs or rereading the same old stories he has a thousand times before. he'll never read new books when he's upset because he feels it ruins the experience, so instead he reads one he already has positive memories and emotions attached to in order to feel those things again. though as more and more time passes working on the base, he finds himself doing this less and instead more seeking whoever looks the least busy and hanging out with them

Heavy: he'll go write letters to his family, even if they're ones he'll never send because he deems them too sad. those get stored away in a safe place until he wants to read them again, or for when he's ready to completely get rid of them. he goes in depth on how he's feeling, why, and so on. they're all very raw and from the heart and he simply doesn't want to send them and burden his family with seeing that side of him. he usually feels better just writing it all down

Engineer: he'll go to his workshop and tinker away on things. either projects he hasn't touched in a while, or he'll start a new one, or he'll play around with some of his other creations. or sometimes he'll do all three, or sometimes he'll just start several projects. the whole point for him is keeping his mind busy. though he's also not above setting up cans on a fence and shooting them for the hell of it either

Medic: much like Engineer, he buries himself in his work more than he already does. more to an unhealthy degree, but he prefers to run himself until he's simply too tired to keep being upset. and then he'll go crash and sleep for several hours. and then he just feels better. he's less likely to want to deal with his teammates during these moments, because he simply wants to be alone

Sniper: he isolates, whether he's angry or hurt or whatever. he prefers to go outside, hop in his camper, and drive to one of the many spots he's found out in the desert to go sit and be alone and think at. usually he does this late at night and lays on the top of his camper and stares up at the stars. he likes having the dark and silence all to himself where no one can interrupt

Spy: he likes to say he sneaks off and locks himself in his room and enjoys a nice wine next to his fireplace. but that's far from the truth. he instead goes to his room, cloaks, and then proceeds to spend the rest of the day invisible and simply following his teammates around to watch them go about their day. he'd say it's monitoring, but the reality is he just doesn't want to be alone but doesn't want to let anyone know he doesn't want to be alone. his usual picks are Scout or Sniper or Medic, but the others aren't free from it

the funny thing is, I feel like I've answered this one. but y'know, I just can't be fucked to scroll around and double check. so if anything contradicts the previous one I did (if I did), shhhh it's fiiiiine

[errorwarblesrr]

do you like totk or botw better?

In short: Yes, I like botw better.

Here are my reasons, though!

I know a lot of people view it as the better experience, which is completely subjective and valid if you do and like it better, but I just view botw as being better in almost every way.

I will give it to totk. The dungeons have a lot better atmosphere. The game has some extremely high highs with the build-up to the wind temple, the whole great sky island segment, and the final boss is a much better fight (though dark beast ganon has a better theme song imo).

Other than that, I prefer botw. Totk has a much grander story, but it's completely mishandled. You can argue that totk has a great story but has poor execution, and to me, execution plays a big role in what makes a story good. You can have good ideas bit it all falls apart if they aren't executed well which ends up making the story bad. It's not that totk has a good story with poor execution, it has good ideas but the bad execution leads to a poorly told story. (I hope that makes sense). Botw has less of a story and is more like a set of events. Botw has history and backstory that is told more organically. Link has amnesia so he slowly regains some of his memories of the past with some people trying to help fill him in. It feels more real...in a weird fantasy way. I guess totk is similar with how we see Zelda's memories, but not really? It's weird to explain. Everything 100 years ago is felt in present day botw while in totk most of those things don't really matter as it happened so long ago. Things only start to resurge because Zelda wanted to investigate under the castle. Totk also has twists like a story. Idk if this is making sense but that's how I feel on their stories. There was just not much botw could mess up on story wise as the way it was presented.

Gameplay wise I can not lie totk is technical marvel with the zonai tech. That's the most impressive thing about it. Tbh building contraptions isn't my thing though, it takes too long to make and experiment with a machine when I can just do whatever that machine was gonna do much faster. I see why people have a lot of fun with it though, it just isn't my thing. One thing I HATE in totk though is the amount of menuing I have to do. Elemental arrows had a serious downgrade. Yeah it's cool to fuse stuff to arrows, but not when I have to do it to ever single individual arrow and if I want to try something new I have to scroll past 50 other items in a single line. It's just tedious. If I want to use a good weapon I have to go to the menu, drop an item, and menu again to fuse it to a weapon that will still break. Item breaking is still an issue but it's more annoying and the weapons no longer look cool. Totk has some cool abilities, but idk I'd trade them all for remote bombs lmao. I hate going through caves, especially early game, and having to deal with the rock walls where they want me to fuse a rock to a stick 10 times to get through one cave. There's just a lot of little things gameplay wise that bug me. They doubled down on botws gameplay issues and added some more annoying ones. I don't even have to mention the sages abilities, that's a whole mess.

On the topic of gameplay, botw just has the better world. Idc, exploring that world for the first time is an unforgettable experience. Totks main world is too similar so the magic is gone. The sky and depths are also unimpressive and repetitive. Botw also has the benefit on how the word felt so lonely yet alive. Everything had a purpose or a story. The world has a history. And totk just doesn't have that. Outside of the upheaval, totk doesn't really build on botws world that much. I was hoping to see if they would've added new towns or see how they'd rebuild hyrule, but they really didn't do that. We only got lookout landing, which doesn't really count as a town, and a bunch of building stuff lying around which is cool I guess. Hateno has a school and Terry Town expanded a little, but with the estimate of about 5 years since botw it makes you wonder...what have these people been doing? We can theoretically build Terry Town in one day. There could be new towns.

Totk is a sequel that doesn't really acknowledge it's predecessor which is so odd. Botw stands on its own and is an overall more cohesive experience. Everything in the world feels purposefully crafted for that world while totk just slaps things on top of it with not much thought. Botw has some amazing world building while for totk it's either "the Zonai did it" or has some contradictory world building. For example, the old sages lifted up the sky islands so that Link would be protected from Ganondorf shenanigans, but then other sky islands suggest how they've been around long before Rauru since young Zonai used to train in them or something. There is also how Zelda says Link never leaves her side, but people she interacts with on an almost daily basis do not recognize him and how even treat as if he doesn't know some facts about her. So either she is overexaggerating by a lot and/or lying in her own diary or that people in hyrule have the collective memory of a rock. There's also Zelda supposedly never giving Link the champions leathers yet as a gift, but we see him wearing it in the beginning. Idk there's more contradictories, but I haven't experienced this for botw??? Totk is so disconnected and disjointed in comparison.

I'm trying to be vague but there's a lot to say, I'm sorry. I really was enjoying this game at the beginning but the more I played the more I noticed or saw things that bugged me and just kept adding up and up on each other. Botw was never like this for me. It's just more cohesive and I like that. There are so many other things I haven't brought up like the repetitive cutscenes, or missing characters/characters that SHOULD know Link but don't (namely Bolson and Hestu). But this post is long. I can't keep complaining about this game. Botw really is that one of a kind experience, and totk tries to replicate it but worse. Botw had a vine that totk lacks. You feel so alone, but you meet knew people and make friends. You build connections as you learn about the past and help those around you. There is no story, you're just a person going through the motions and exploring the vast world around you. Totk can't replace that for me. I'm the main character playing a side role in a disjointed world where not much makes sense. Everything is similar in all the wrong ways.

And most important of all, they took away Link's fun dialogue and personality now he really is bland asf and used to defend that he wasn't.

[lastweeksshirttonight]

All righty, I managed to get back home despite the hurricane, let's talk about the show.

Tl;dr - I traveled cross-country to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers. It was amazing and I am still giddy about it!! Gonna put all the details under a cut to not clog up your timeline/the tags.

(All jokes will be paraphrased/guestimated bc my adrenaline and ADHD played havoc with my memory recall, lol.)

Firstly, the Beacon Theatre is absolutely stunning. It reminds me a bit of the Theatre at Ace Hotel in LA, in that it's clearly had its old elements lovingly preserved and harkens back to an older time. It was truly a gorgeous venue.

I missed getting a pic of the other side of the stage, which had a massive sculpture of shields and spears. John made a joke about the opulence of the room not matching the entertainment for the evening, and noted that "even Coco Chanel would say to keep it to one shield". Really wish I'd thought to get a picture of it, he was not wrong.

I was extremely close to the stage - 3 rows back and dead center. I definitely had the anxious excited adrenaline jitters because of it.

I mean COME ON.

The opener was Brooks Wheelan, who I remembered from his brief stint at SNL. He talked a fair deal about that, and told a great story bit about getting fired from there and opening for John shortly after, wherein he drank an entire bottle of "HBO blood diamond whiskey" from John's dressing room and had, in Seth's later words, "a nervous breakdown". I'd heard Brooks has opened for John before and was glad I got to see him, he's a lot of fun.

He also told a joke about not wanting to learn karate because of the huge glass windows in front of every karate studio and not wanting anyone to watch him learn karate. Lots of very understanding laughter there, including from me. (Why do all these places have massive plate glass windows?!)

After Brooks was John Oliver, and y'all. Let me get this out of the way.

He is fine as hell. Look. Just LOOK. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS

I would also like to take the time to gush effusively about John's mastery of set structure. The set was, aside from the typical "before we get started, I need to let you know I'm British" pseudo-opener he's used since like 2005, entirely new material -

(As an aside... !!!!!! I KNOW!!!! A FULL FUCKING HOUR OF ENTIRELY NEW MATERIAL!! THAT I WAS NEAR THE FRONT FOR!!!! I'M SO VERKLEMPT STILL YOU HAVE NO IDEA)

- and it was just beautifully written from a structural standpoint. It was pretty much all political material all centered around history and the need to understand it for context on the world as it currently stands. There were some digressions from that point but they were seamlessly woven in. He is such a goodamn incredible stand-up comedian.

A few things he talked about in his set:

That time the US dropped nukes on itself twice (which was briefly mentioned on LWT but not in this detail and not including a reenactment of a man dropping a bomb while working on a plane and him reacting to watching it roll away).

That the current British royal line of succession exists because of a "cousin-fucker who cut someone into pieces like a Benihana chef". (John told us this is something he learned researching this bit, which caused me unending joy. I love that he's making new sets!! :D)

John delights in the misery of billionaires and wished that the rocket Jeff Bezos was on would blow up. He doesn't want him to die, though. Through this he also talked about Elon Musk and his favorite fake blue check company tweets, mainly a series made by a fake Chiquita account claiming to have overthrown Brazil, followed by Chiquita saying they hadn't actually overthrown any governments since 1954.

John got booed at a Sesame Street benefit and told a killer set of jokes about Bert judging him for it. ("The man lives with Ernie! He knows chaos!")

He claims we will all know things are okay with the US again when we are all irrationally mad at Anne Hathaway for no reason again. Told an incredible story about how he just blundered into the street in LA once, almost got hit by a car, looked up, realized it was Anne Hathaway in the car, saw her wave at him, and, despite the scenario being objectively his fault, being somehow mad at her.

Shaded Dave Chappelle in an analogy about how we are not at Civil War division times because "somehow our level of division is people debating whether Chapelle's SNL monologue was okay or not", in a way that suggested it was very much not okay. 10/10 no notes.

Okay so there was one recycled bit - him being informed the Queen wanted to give him an OBE. He added to it fantastically though, by personifying the man from the embassy as the most offensively British stereotype you could possibly imagine. He said the man sounded like "if a British person rubbed a teapot and a genie came out".

There was definitely more but I could gush forever so let's move on.

Brooks came back out to introduce Seth and forgot the name of his show, lol. For a brief moment we all contemplated what Last Week Tonight with Seth Meyers would look like. (I assume the show's Adam Driver would be Stefon.)

Anyways, here is the only good photo I took of Seth.

Seth was great as well - not as good as John, but I'm very biased in that regard. The material was also pretty diametrically opposed to John's, much more domestic comedy about his wife and kids and their idiosyncracies.

I really liked Seth's energy and approach. I don't quite know how to explain this, but he had a touch of Dennis Reynolds energy to him, a restrained manicness, that was really interesting to watch. That's not my normal association with Seth's energy, either, but it was very fun. Definitely puts some of the more deranged things from his tenure as Weekend Update host in context.

Some highlights from Seth's set:

He had an amazing brick joke about doing accents as a comedian, where he imitated a Swedish accent and talked about how everyone's Swedish accent is basically the Swedish Chef from the Muppets and how the only Swedish food anyone has nearby is the meatballs at IKEA. Funny on its own, but later in the show, Seth talked about how people assume he's fully Jewish, including people on the street. He noted that he's 25% Swedish but no one comes up to him on the street and goes -insert Swedish Chef impression-. (This straight up killed the guy sitting next to me, who ended up laughing with his head in his hands for a solid 30 seconds.)

His kids eat very healthily, so when they end up going to friends' houses and eat one Skittle, they turn into demons. Literal demons. Seth's impression of an actual demon trying to undo a double-buckled car seat was the hardest I laughed at his whole set.

Seth also had a section which he claimed would be the part where he'd tell anti-trans jokes "if he was a complete asshole". I enjoyed the trans affirmation the whole evening, ngl.

Seth's family and his wife's family have very different ways of conversing at the dinner table, which directly mirrors my and my partner's family - Seth's family (like Mr. Lee's) is big on listening to everyone and contributing to conversations only when someone else has talked; Alexi's family (like mine) is constantly screaming over each other.

After Seth's set, everyone (including Brooks) came out to do a Q&A. I could not think of a song in the moment, but realized at the hotel room an hour after that I should have made @chiijohn 's evening by asking John's opinion on Planet of the Bass. :facepalm: Sorry mate!

Still, some great questions were asked, and it was about 30 minutes of just audience interaction. I've never experienced anything like it at a stand-up gig and genuinely loved it. John, of course, told people they were free to leave before the Q&A because why would they want to stay; the man is incapable of thinking anything good about himself and much as I hate his bad self-esteem, I would have been concerned if he hadn't said something to that effect.

Brooks was asked almost immediately if he remembered the name of Seth's show, which was honestly hilarious. Brooks said "I conferred with John backstage and we're both pretty sure that it's Late Night with Seth Meyers".

Someone asked how fearful Seth and John were of their shows being cancelled after one year, and Brooks snarked that he knew that feeling. (Brooks seems to have a good sense of humour about not being a huge presence on SNL.) Seth said that he wasn't super worried but that they redid his entire set (background set, not stand-up set) because Alec Baldwin said it looked like "a sushi restaurant in Burbank". (theoniontheworstpersonyouknow.jpg) John said he was told most HBO shows don't get cancelled at one season and he said "we'll see about that".

There was definitely some extended riffing on Alec Baldwin being a piece of shit afterwards, while John giggled helplessly. I love John's giggling.

Seth and John's favorite Muppet is Cookie Monster. They talked about how interesting it is that you can have amazing chemistry with Muppets, and then meet the puppeteer and have literally nothing to talk about. Seth also talked about how low-tech Big Bird was, and how the late Carroll Spinney, when on SNL, held a script in one hand, the controls of Big Bird in the other, and a flashlight in his mouth to read the script.

Everyone is upset they didn't get to cover the indictments because of the Writer's Strike. John thought there were only 3, but I honestly don't know if one of them came down before the Writer's Strike and he was just referring to the ones since then. It's been a long few months for us all.

Brooks basically forces John and Seth to get out of their hotel rooms when touring. Otherwise, Seth said, "they both just sit there anxious". That tracks, especially for John, who literally said on Seth's podcast that he is physically incapable of relaxing.

When asked about their influences, John said (rather obviously) that he wouldn't have a career without Jon Stewart, and Brooks talked about how both Seth and John really uplifted him and cared for him after he got fired from SNL. Seth talked in a really lovely way about how Amy Poehler basically adopted him and got him out of his shell and was a real friend to him early on.

I really wish I'd written down every stand-up that the three of them recommended when prompted, because I've completely blanked on half of them. Seth said Joe Pera (who I also highly recommend); John recommended Maria Bamford (again, also highly recommend). He also said that most people in the room would have probably not heard of him but that the best in the UK was Daniel Kitson (paging @tellthemeerkatsitsfine to provide her recs bc she knows Kitson backwards and fronts). Brooks gave a shout to Kyle Kinane (who I am not as familiar with as I should be).

There was so much more, but honestly, I was just so in the moment that I feel like I remember things in waves. It was an amazing evening and I was honestly so blessed to be there at all.

I did not wait at the stage door or anything, because I am truly not that kind of person and have consistently been sure that if I ever met John, I'd barf on his shoes. I know on Instagram some people had gotten stage door photos, though, and I'm happy for them!

Thank you all for always being supportive of this dumb blog. I don't think I would have had the confidence to go on this cross-country journey without you all randomly egging me on all the time. It was one of the best nights of my life. 💖💖

[lobinilo]

What are your favourite Jonah’s projects? ☺️🎬

~ plays TikTok Sound~

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS QUESTIOOOONNN

So since May 2023 (what happened there? I have no idea 😉) I've watched everything Jonah-related I could get my hands on (except for Little Women, but I'm definetly going to watch that later this year).

My top 3 Jonah projects OTHER than The Little Mermaid (because truth be told, I think it's pretty clear how obsessed I am with that movie and it's not really a fair comparison to some of the more indepent, even low budget projects Jonah has starred in) so far:

1. World on Fire (2019 - 2023)

created by: Peter Bowker directed by: Chanya Button, Thomas Napper, Adam Smith, Andy Wilson Jonah plays: Harry Chase

Big shocker, right? Given how much I already rambled about Harry and Kasia (my traumatised parents) and how upset I was when they cancelled it. I will always mourn this show for the huge potential it had.

World on Fire is a BBC-show following different people in Britain, Poland, Germany and France (with some American viewpoints as well) as they have to endure and navigate their life through World War II. Doesnt really sound like anything we haven't seen, right? However, World on Fire is worth checking out imo, since it differs a lot from the usual Hollywood-infused war epics, because rather than focusing on the politics or the big battles, the show looks more closely at the everyday person that actually had to live through this tragedy and how they deal with what's happening. That being said, obviously this is still a show about WW II, so there definitely IS depiction of violence, murder and torture, as well as bombings, gunfire etc., so please be careful if you find any of those things triggering. I personally found some episodes quite hard to get through.

I think it's interesting that Jonah's filmography is very heavy on projects set during or related to WW II (additionally to WoF you have The Song of Names, Ashes in the Snow and ofc coming up The Tattooist of Auschwitz). Theories on why that is are welcome!

Harry Chase (brilliantly brought to life by our favourite British simp) differs quite a bit from many of Jonah's other roles in that he`s not your heroic, clean-cut good guy (like Andrius, Lucas, Mo or Prince Eric). He's insecure and a little helpless, even cowardly at times. Harry starts out as a translator, but later joins the British Army and the SOE. He fucks up repeatedly, both in his role as lieutenant, as well as in his personal life. Even though most of the time he means well, his cowardice ends up hurting a lot of people and leads him to be in the middle of a love triangle. (Though to me it's not a triangle, but rather a straight line, Team Kasia all the way.)

Harry, though deeply troubled, is a very kind and soft soul. That doesn't really pair well with the acts of war, as well as british society in the 1940s in general, which leads to conflict with other characters and their idea of who he should be. Especially when he clashes with his mother Robina (portrayed by the absolute MAGNIFICENT Lesley Manville, shes giving Emily Gilmore in the best way possible), Jonahs acting is ON POINT. His performance is so nuanced: He's angry, he's desperate, he's sad, but also condescending, sarcastic and hostile towards her. The interesting thing about Harry is the journey he takes. To watch him try to better himself by dealing with past trauma and taking responsibility for present mistakes. The real standout for his character is episode 5 of season 1 where he finally steps up and takes charge. This is also when he starts earning the respect of his sergeant Stan (Blake Harrison) for the first time - they have a real bromance, both on and off the show, I LIVE for these two.

But - just like in real life - he doesn't have this one breakthrough moment and everything is smooth sailing from there. He fluctuates, just like a real person would. He still has the tendency to run away from his problems, but I think what he's seen in the war, what happened at home and (yes, I'm making this about my ship) his love for Kasia (Zofia Wichlacz) make him realise the type of man he wants to be and he would probably try to act accordingly IF WE GOT A THIRD SEASON, BBC! 😤😡🤬

2. Old Boys (2018)

directed by: Toby MacDonald Jonah plays: Henry "Winch" Winchester

If you can only watch one Jonah movie, I beg of you MAKE IT THIS ONE!

I`ve found next to nothing about Old Boys and that seriously has to change. (watched the entire movie again, getting my non-existing gif-making skills ready, just the night before I got this ask, talk about fate)

This movie is so underrated, it doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry. Make it make sense! How is nobody watching this cutie-patootie work of art? Its adorkable in the best sense of the word, it's heartwarming, a little silly and oh! so funny!

It's losely based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, set in an all-boys british boarding school in the 1980s. Given the source material, catfishing is definetly a thing here, keep that in mind if you might find that topic difficult.

Alex Lawther's character Amberson (cliché school nerd and victim of bullying) falls in love with the new french teachers daughter Agnes (Pauline Etienne) who in turn has a crush on First-Class-Himbo Winch (portrayed by a beautiful, dimple-faced, british actor). Because Agnes is very artistic and looking for someone that matches her vibe, Amberson helps Winch to try to impress her, because Winch himself is... well... a little dim 😅.

Winch is easily my favourite Jonah character to date (yes, including Prince Eric). I have seriously considered changing my tumblr-name to themightywinch because of him. I mean... he's corteous and punctual, after all 🤣😍.

While not the main character, he's definetly the highlight of the movie. Jonah is likeable, charming, the right kind of awkward in the right moments, has fantastic comedic timing and great chemistry with Alex Lawther.

Just look at that scene alone! IT`S. SO. CUTE!!! (cute-raging over here 😡) Watching this just makes you wish Jonah would star in more comedies, because he definetly has the skills for it! This is just a feel-good movie that leaves you smiling with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart. It has easily become one of my new comfort watches. Old Boys just never fails to make me laugh and I wish it would get more attention and recognition since it definetly deserves it! (like at least write a Wikipedia article about it) Btw, I bought this on Prime for 99ct, best money I ever spend!

3. The Last Photograph (2017)

(the trailer says 2019, but the movie was originally shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2017)

directed by: Danny Huston Jonah plays: Luke Hammond

Fair warning, this movie is gut-wrenching. I don't know if this qualifies as an actual trigger-warning, but this movie deals with the loss of a child/ death of a young person, as well as the real life tragedy of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombed in 1988 so proceed with caution.

Luke Hammond (Dimples McGee) is on said flight to visit his long-distance girlfriend Kate (Stacy Martin) in New York. Kate's and Luke's first meeting is a little awkward imo, I think it's meant to be like a meet-cute, especially with the whole "Bird"-thing, it just doesn't really work for me. But the rest of their love story is very endearing, they're just two young people experiencing love for the first time. Their time together is told through seemingly random, incoherent flashbacks and memories, just giving little glimpses of what their relationship was like and it's the cutest thing. Little intimate touches, hidden smiles, shared laughter... It's shot in a way as if you're watching them through rose-colored glasses, which is probably the point.

I love the way this movie uses different lighting and colour changes to depict a difference in the time line as well as the emotional state of the characters.

We only see Luke in flashbacks (guess why) and follow his dad Tom (Danny Huston) in present day (which in this case means 2003) as he is desperately trying to retrieve the last photograph (hence the titel) he possesses of his son after his bag was stolen. To see Tom slowly losing his grip as he grows more and more desperate to find the picture is truely heartbreaking. (It's a polaroid, so there are no copies, this is truely the last memory he has of Luke. God, I'm tearing up while writing this.)

Because Luke is basically just seen through the memory of his father who obviously holds him in high regard/ romanticizes the idea of his son, he is portrayed in a solely positive light, which usually wouldn't give much dimension to his character. Yet Jonah still manages to fill this role with life and witt and charisma, making you understand why Bird fell for him. He's sweet, romantic, a little bit shy, which works really well here, has the cutest laugh and clearly cares really deeply for his father. He's definetly portrayed as the "you simply have to love him" kinda guy, which is why his absence cuts so deep.

This is also in huge parts due to Danny Huston's performance. Honestly, the sweater-scenes (or jumper, if you're british 😉) almost broke me. And don't even get me started on his letter to Kate or Kate's letter to him... ugh. It's. So. SAD.

This is obviously not for everyday watch. However, even though The Last Photograph is heartbreaking, it doesn't necessarily leave you hopeless and depressed. This movie feels like a loving tribute to an actual person and therefore has a beauty in its melancholy. Throughout Tom's journey there is hope and forgiveness towards himself. There's a beautiful symmetry to the whole thing. The ending feels almost satisfying if you can say that in this context.

I also wanna give a shoutout to This Is The Night (2021). The movie itself isn't that great, it's a little all over the place and I think they tried to do a little too much all at once. But I looo~oooved Jonah in this, Christians character arc is by far the most interesting one and I wish the script gave their character justice in the way Jonah's and Naomi's acting did. (Also this is the HOTTEST he's ever looked which is a bit ironic).

This list is probably going to be outdated soon, since he has a lot coming out in the near future (I'm especially excited for Rich Flu).

Sorry, if this is too long and rambly and if it took too long for me to answer, I got a little carried away and suddenly had a lot of gifs to make 😅.

Thank you soooo much for the ask, @measuredmotion ❤️.

[dasphinxone]

Thoughts about yandere talokan trio for shuri,riri and okoye??

Okay, I freely admit that I simp the most for Okoye x Attuma out of all three. Like, I love all three couples but Okoye x Attuma are my faves and still seem to be a rare pair. So imma talk about these two Battle Buddies the most.

Otherwise, yeah, I can see this with all three pairings. Though I prefer to be careful and not assign an Indigenous culture like the Talokanil with yandere tropes that could be seen as harmful due to falling into really poor stereotypes of Indigenous folks and so on.

I think it's more a case of when the Talokanil set their eyes on someone, it's done with passionate dedication. Especially in regard to the object of their affection having talents and characteristics they don't consider themselves to either personally possess or are a mirror to their own.

Namor is lovingly obsessed with Shuri because they have similar outlooks when it comes to dealing with the outside world. However, their methods are clearly different. Not to mention, he's dealing with a version of Shuri who is not only DEEP in her grief, she's traumatized by being Snapped out of existence and shit ton of things happening to her that are all out of her control.

Namor needs to learn to have as much empathy as she does. And he's actively working it, but only because she asks him to do it.

Namora finds Riri initially irritating as fuck. Oh, Namora absolutely respects science and researchers because let's be real, Talokan wouldn't exist without their work. I strongly believe Namor encourages his people to be multitalented. So yeah, Namora and Attuma are his best generals but they are also encouraged to pursue other interests outside of battle and master them so that they're well-rounded warriors who can also hold plenty of conversations with all people of his kingdom. Like, Attuma likes beading up his clothes to add a personal touch and interior decorating because he likes making people's homes feel welcome to them. While Namora creates the most beautiful Mayan hieroglyph art. She also loves weaving.

But Namora finds Riri irritating because she runs a mile a minute and Namora can never get in a word edgewise, which annoys her because she wants to have a real conversation with the scientist. Namora feels initially rejected because Riri never discusses anything but science with her. What she doesn't realize is that Riri is slowly starting to like her but sticks to science talk all the time because she's nervous and doesn't know how to date Namora.

Of all people, it's Attuma who explains how surface dwellers date each other. Because he's the only who's properly courting Okoye at the moment and he's an expert at taking instructions. He's highly observant of how these surface dwellers treat each other during their courting rituals. He's also not embarrassed to ask for King M'Baku's advice. Why? Because Attuma comically thought he'd need M'Baku's permission to date one of the most talented, intelligent and valuable women in the whole of the Wakanda kingdom.

This is what causes Attuma and M'Baku to become besties. And after M'Baku explains that it's up to Okoye to date Attuma of her own free will, he really does look out for her and becomes closer to Attuma to ensure the shark man treats Okoye right, no matter his previous disagreements with Okoye.

For my fave battle couple of Okoye x Attuma, Attuma fell in love with Okoye's sheer tenacity. As that woman DID NOT STOP on the bridge. Not when he knocked her down the first time. Not when he dislocated her shoulder. Not when Namora's water bomb blasted her into the river.

But he really got hot for her from the start when she caught him across the cheek with her spear. My headcanon is that Attuma will carry that scar for the rest of his life since it was at the end of a vibranium weapon and he was out of the water too long for it to heal up completely. When they get together, he really enjoys Okoye kissing and touching it. Because as far as he's concerned, she marked him as her possession and he would gladly be hers until the last star falls from the sky.

Okoye is initially confused at Attuma so openly courting her. After all, they tried to kill each other twice. But once Namora explains to her that he admires her because she nearly killed him ('cause the concept of Namora and Okoye becoming besties once the treaty between their nations is drawn up is too good to pass up), it clicks for her.

She also really enjoys that he doesn't only see her as a warrior. He thinks she's beautiful and deserves to be as hard or soft as she wishes and whenever the fuck she wants. Whatever makes her happy? He's happy. And whatever makes her unhappy? He will deal with it swiftly and without mercy. Though of course, not always with a weapon. 'Cause Attuma is a warrior poet who's got BARS when it comes to doling out insults to those who act against the love of his life.

Anyway, hope this was an interesting answer. Sorry, I be rambling!

[bokettochild]

Last one. How did you decide on these?

Legend was both easier and harder, depending on when he woke. If it was the middle of the night the teen usually launched into full panic, scanning their group for whatever injury he might have seen in his visions. The three of them all had different types of visions they’d discovered: Sky saw what was to come, in full, Legend would find himself in the body of another person and live through what was to come or what they currently were dealing with; everything from experiencing a particularly shoddy kidnapping attempt that Fable faced, to once living through getting blown up before Wild had even suggested setting bombs, and Time experienced the world through flashes, through glimpses of what was to come based on the actions of others.

Ah, this is an old one!

In LoZ cannon, there are three heroes who experience prophetic dreams of any sort: Time, Sky and Legend. Legend's are, in part, because of Fable's telepathy, but the fact remains that he still saw her in the dungeon as it was happening.

I didn't want all of them to have the same sort of prophetic dreams, especially all at the same time, because it makes for less interesting story telling if everyone is equally in the know about things, so I looked at the sort of prophetic dreams they have in canon and made up my mind using that.

Sky's dreams in SkSw reveal Demise and coming troubles to him. So, I determined that his visions are often unclear and vague, and usually focus on things that haven't happened yet and are still yet to happen. I think because his vision in SkSw is clearer than some of, say, Time's that it would make sense if he could see a more complete or complex vision.

Time's visions are more flashes and spurts. OoT shows us that he has visions, but they're not easy for him to understand on his own, or else until the thing has already come to pass. I figured it would be best to preserve this by giving him more intense feelings, images and inclinations that lead to increased worry and wariness, rather than letting him know for certain what's to happen. I displayed this a bit more in A Hero Protects His Own when Time has a very vague vision consisting of a bleeding and broken Legend and a shattered Master Sword (I called it before it ever happened in ToTK lol). He doesn't have any idea what leads to the thing so much as he just knows it. Even if he can't understand it. Additionally, Time's visions are prone to change. Unlike Sky ad Legend who just have visions of things that will happen, Time messed with time enough that his visions are more like brief flashes of the future, but from many different realities. Time's visions are triggered by specific actions or things he sees/hears/witnesses, and whatever force grants them these visions shows him the most likely thing to happen as a result of those actions. It can change and isn't set in stone, unlike the other two, but changing the course for things requires being able to identify the cause of the string of events or else directly intercede to prevent them, as I did in the fic you took this passage from (Under Pressure, Whumptober 2021).

Legend's visions were a bit tricky because I didn't want him to know everything like Sky, but I also know it would destroy him if he had vague inclinations of ill fate hanging over him at all times like Time. I chose to instead use the fact that he briefly experiences/sees/hears Zelda's imprisonment in ALttP as my basis for how his premonitions work. Legend has to experience things firsthand as they're going to happen to someone. This is partly caused because he's far more sensitive to dream magic than the others, and partially because he's something of an empath (he's noted to have a pure and caring heart a lot in the games and mangas, and shows great pain on behalf of others as well). He doesn't necessarily know what's happening or why, but he gets to see it through the eyes of the affected individual, seeing the full picture in all of it's emotion and insanity in something of a balance between Time's and Sky's visions; he gets the full brunt of emotion, but clear and full images. His visions don't usually come with a lot of time between them and what is actually going to happen however, if any time at all, and it's more that they serve as a way for him to better understand things that are currently happening than things that are going to happen.

I hope this grants you some more clarity! Thanks for choosing this passage, it's bee a it since I've thought about it!

[crithaus]

I'm cooking a fic I'll probably never write in my brain where Vex is doing alright y'know, she's got a beautiful new home, the world has been saved yet again, and her favorite people are all safe and accounted for (all but one, y'know), and Vesper is a joy to watch growing up, and then the first in a series of bombs.

She starts feeling sick and the feeling at that point is half 'do I know this? Don't I remember this?' and half 'dear god I have the plague.' so she and Percy head to Pike and after a brief commune, Pike with all the gentleness she can bring to bear tells them the great news, she's pregnant. And so is the pause. Percy is the first to get up in arms about it, and her solemn face, "what is it?"

"...you are pregnant. With twins. A boy and a girl."

And suddenly it all becomes clear. The joy of that knife and its gutwrenching twist and Vex understands the look on Pike's face because she feels it on her own, how very ironic. And he's not here to see this funny twist of fate. How ironic that she's currently creating another soul set on four legs, another heart broken in half like a sweet for them to share, another...and how ironic that time loops so perfectly again, already, with her in her own shoes and her mother's both.

And Vex and Percy sit with this news for a moment, there are tears of sorrow and tears of elation and Vex takes a second to walk through the woods and think and plan and mourn a little, and Percy let's her go with his head all full of his own twin siblings. He offered to come with her, his heart traipsing off into the Parchwoods would be better with company, but she declines and he goes back to home and Cass and Vesper to wait.

He really doesn't have to wait too long. What comes back isn't Vex though for a moment he thinks it might be, what comes back is worse. He thought the last time was bad, when he didn't recognize his own brother for a hair's breadth, when he was so very changed by his service, but this is worse. Vax, face ringed with raven's feathers and eyes black and that boney plantlike growth shielding his shoulders like epaulettes he knows Vax wouldn't ever wear, with a face more alive then it was in years, storms into his office in a flurry of shadow with a small string clenched in his fist and instead of joy and yelling and hugs, all Percy gets is a curt, "where is she?"

Which is so fun y'know, Scanlan can't cast wish anymore so your long dead brother who you weren't even supposed to see the last time is here and he can't even enjoy it because Vax isn't talking about Vesper, he could only be talking about one person, and she's been gone for almost two hours and he couldn't even have thought to raise the alarm for at least another two and what does that mean- and Vax, as is his wont, opens his fist without another word and Percy sees it, a thick, braided string of solid gold emanating light that is fading even now, and frayed at the end just a little bit.

A beat of silence, Percy stopping himself from screaming to break it, Vesper is napping after all.

"Her string has been cut." Vax says

Like that makes any sense. Like this whole situation isn't insane. "It is impossible, It's against Her doctrine, it is an affront to what She stands for," Vax continues, voice wooden but undercut with a fury that would be so familiar if what stood before Percy was his brother and not Her loyal servant, the one he himself put up to the task, "and We will not have it."

"and that's why you're here. Not because of your sister, because of the Matron-" Percy is cut off immediately by the sharpest gaze ever seen before or since, and by the briefest flash of brown eyes in all that inky tar blackness.

"I'm here because her time is many years from now, surrounded by your kids, and Keyleth, and Pike, Grog, Scanlan if he manages. I'm here because I break no deals, and this," he holds the string up, "is not supposed to happen. I am here, Percival, because she isn't, and wasn't, and there will not be a world without her in it for decades to come as long as I am there to make it so. I'm here because my sister is gone, and her string is cut, and that isn't fucking possible, and you are going to help me find her and restore this. I have no other soul to offer the Matron, and my heart has vanished somehow, so if you can manage not to kill her a fifth time I would ask your help."

And Percy is ofc overrawed and petrified and furious and he has a daughter so he can't go flying off the handle now and he has 2 actually, and a son, and most importantly of all, a wife, his future and judgement gone without a trace. Not dead, not yet, which is more baffling still, but gone.

And Vex for all her trouble was just walking around the woods when everything went dark, y'know she was stepping carefully over a thatch of tangled underbrush and suddenly the sun overhead just vanishes and that is worrying but there's this pressure in her chest that's even more worrying spreading through it and she looks down and there's an arrowhead poking out between her ribs, and gold blooming out like a flower from the wound. That's not right, is it? Gold? And not red?

And she turns and this man who would almost remind her of Pelor if he had an iota of the gentle kindness is staring at her as the world begins to grow fuzzy. "My dear, my new champion, we and I will make this rotten world new again. Take my hand, my Vex'ahlia, and we will make it right." And her head is fuzzy, but she isn't stupid. She opens her mouth to tell him to fuck the hell off and notices two things in rapid succession. The blood dribbling out of her mouth is gold, and the arrow tugs, it doesn't hurt but like the pain she should be feeling it invades her very cells like a plant taking root and this thing turns her feet and forces her forward as the fuzziness increases. She should be worried, she should scream and thrash and run, she's a mother now, and the thought of her three little babies, her daughter and her new twinnies, is enough to shake whatever the fuck this is for only a moment, to which the man looks impressed, but it isn't enough.

"you were the champion of that doddering old man, but he's locked behind the gate, and I am here, and I will burn him out of existence and take my rightful place back, and you will be more than a silly champion, my Vex'ahlia. You will be my avatar. You will be the Sun incarnate, and your children will burn the world new, and together this plane will be ours."

And as the golden ichor pours down her mouth and chest, there is a fission of warmth inside her, where her heart should be, that warms her from tip to toe. Her face contorts into a smile as the fuzziness blots her out entirely and her mind is put away somewhere small and tidy and neat and barren, and she hears her small far off answer, "of course. Together."

And it's Vax and Percy finding the cult of this elder sun god that Pelor vanquished cuz he's fucking evil and he's trying to sneak past the divine gate by using Vex as his Avatar and he wants to burn the whole world to a crisp and start over as the head god and obviously is a sworn enemy of the Raven Queen so he'll try and fuck her and Vax up too, and the tiny widdle twins would be his first new followers the second they're born so he keeps them safe, and with her fate string cut RQ can't uphold her end of the bargain so Vax is let out to play to reestablish the terms and exploits the fuck outta that there loophole, and Vex as his Avatar goes around making awesome druid-y fire magic happen, and radiant damage with a twist* too, and pure utter chaos as well obvs, the elder su god is wicked powerful and will kill any other god/cleric/holy person on sight, and Vax while on this hunt to save his sister eventually sheds that fucked up influence from Dalen's Closet and it's funny cuz now Vex is the clouded, distant one and Vax is perfectly sober and desperate to save his sister, and Percy's both saving his wife and babies and bantering like old times with his brother, and RQ possesses Vax for a bit to help fight Vexmano a mano,,

And after a long and bloody fight a la orthax, Percy eventually gets through to Vex and says something so tender and gay to get her to stop fighting them a la "Darling take the mask off," and they get the elder sun god out of her and fix everything and reunite and RQ is like well since the world keeps ending I guess you can stay here until your own natural life Vax, so Vex gets to introduce Vax to his niece and eventually his niece and nephew, and then he goes and lives with gilmore and kiki and he's so damn gay about it and everyone is happy

[twoidiotwriters1]

Daughter of Olympus (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Ara is just a clown and the whole world is her circus -Danny Words: 2,556 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter / Next Chapter Listen to: 'Someone To You' -by BANNERS

XXXVIII: They'll Get Over It, They Just Gotta Be Dramatic First

Percy tells Lily where to find her sister and she leaves right away, wanting to make sure Annabeth is out of danger. My brother eyes me carefully. "How are you feeling?"

I shrug. "I wasn't fighting..." I pout, unable to control my tears. "I can't complain."

"You have the bombs?" 

I nod, but I can't speak, so Percy hugs me. "I... I'm sorry," he says weakly. "I broke the bridge, I didn't retreat when Annabeth told me to. I thought I could—"

"You can't get hurt like before, can you? You did something to yourself."

He tells me what he and Nico did the night prior. He also tells me what a manipulative asshole Nico turned out to be. He doesn't say it like that of course, Percy's too noble, but I know what to do now.

"Go to sleep," I tell him. "You look exhausted."

"You should sleep too."

I shake my head. "Cabin Seven just lost their counselor, and Jake needs me. I gotta help, I haven't done enough."

He gives me a funny look. "You sound like Silena."

"Well, we're sisters," I notice she hasn't come to check on me and my stomach drops. "Where is she?"

Percy's quick to put my mind at ease. "Went to get Clarisse. Michael gave her the chariot, but she still refused to come..."

"I'll see that she thinks twice before pulling another stunt like this one."

He smiles. "Now you sound like Michael."

"He trained me," I state proudly.

Percy squeezes my shoulder, I feel a wave of guilt coming out of him, but something in me can't lighten his discomfort. My brother goes to sleep, but I look around for Jake Mason. I find him struggling to bandage his hand. 

"Let me," I take his injured hand and wrap it properly. "Where's Nyssa?"

"She and Connor came back ten minutes ago," he tells me, nodding a silent thank you when I finish with his hand. "Connor found a couple of walkie-talkies, you should take one."

I make sure his bandages are tight and in place, then I look up at him. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah," he shakes his head. "There were so many, Ara..."

I frown. "Listen, counselor, we're not gonna give room to those thoughts. We're a capable army, and we can handle this. Beckendorf trusted I could help, and that's what I'll do."

He glances at me, speaking quietly. "Sorry about Michael..."

I let go of his hand and take the walkie he's offering me. "I can't blame my brother for what happened, so I'll beat up Clarisse once I see her."

"Ara, cut her some slack," he sighs. "I'm trying my best but look at me... perhaps she's in over her head, too."

"A leader knows when to step in. That's all she had to do, and she failed. She should know better, considering who her father is."

Before I leave, I check if Almighty's still in my pocket, I don't know if it's the same as Riptide, I've never thrown it away to see if it comes back, and now's not the time to risk it.

"Sleep, Jake, we have to set those bombs around first thing tomorrow."

"So?" Lily crosses her arms. "What's so important that you have to tell all of us at once?"

Ara asked Lily, Jason, and Piper to meet her outside the Big House on the morning of her departure. Leo's standing next to her, fidgeting with loose screws and avoiding Lily's eyes at all cost.

"I'm not even sure I should make a big deal out of it," Ara starts. "But I guess—"

"Let's just say it," Leo urges her, he looks like he's about to pee his pants. "You're leaving in thirty minutes."

"Okay! Well, uh..." Ara locks eyes with Piper, her smile encourages her. "Leo and I are dating."

Lily's face is pale on a normal day, but right now she looks like one of Nico's ghosts. "What!"

"Congrats!" Jason says.

"I'm happy for you," Piper grins. "I mean you, Leo. I feel bad for Ara."

"What!" Lily repeats again, eyes wide. "You've known each other for like a month! Barely!"

Ara knows this is insane from her best friend's perspective. Lily can't trust as easily as Ara, even Connor, who's been her crush for the last few years, had to earn that the hard way, and he doesn't even know it. Connor thinks Lily tolerates him most of the time.

"Well, it's been a long month," Ara replies, unable to be serious. "C'mon, Lils, it's not like you didn't see it coming."

Lily replies in disbelief. "How was I supposed to know? You spent years swearing you would never date a Cabin Nine camper and I—"

Ara laughs. "Are you happy or not? I can't tell."

"She probably isn't," Leo jokes even though Ara knows he means it. "I'm the bad boy, right? You said something like that to Annabeth."

Lily blushes. "I said you're untrustworthy when it comes to following rules. You sleep at the bunker the days Ara isn't around, and you lie when she asks you things."

"What?" Ara looks at Leo frowning. "What are you lying about?"

Leo scowls at Lily. "Are you spying on me?"

"Yeah, and good thing I do!" Lily argues. "I knew Ara liked you, so I wanted to know if you were—"

"Lily, I told you not to spy on Leo!"

"But he lies!" Lily insists. "He doesn't eat and doesn't sleep, he's going to faint or drop dead and then it'll be up to you to carry on with his work and you'll stare at that picture of him in your room all day and—"

"Alright, let's take a moment!" Piper intervenes.

Ara turns to Leo. "For Gods's sake, just eat. I want to come back to a living, healthy boyfriend, not your malnourished corpse. Don't take Lily's actions as an attack, she's trying to help you."

Leo understands of course, after the talk they had last night. He mumbles and shrugs, still poutig. Ara then turns to Lily.

"Promise me you won't be harassing Leo to make sure he follows orders."

"But—"

"I know," Ara interrupts calmly. "But even Michael respected our free wills, perhaps more than anyone we ever knew. You're a lot like him, Lily, you see the potential in people. Please do that with Leo as well, and be nice. He'll need your guidance sometimes."

She looks between the two. Lily and Leo are blushing out of annoyance.

"Truce?" Ara presses.

"Not truce," Lily crosses her arms. "But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Wow, how generous," Leo scowls.

"Cool!" Ara continues. "So, uh... that's all we had to say."

Jason clears his throat, he glances at Lily with a bit of concern. "Well... we're happy for you two. You guys make sense together."

"Totally," Piper agrees. "I see it, though it's still kinda weird."

Ara is pretty sure Lily is muttering something about elves, then she sighs and shrugs. "Well, at least I get to do this." Lily pulls the walkie-talkie from her belt and presses on its button. "Connor?"

He replies almost immediately. "What's up?"

"Start plan 19."

"What's plan 19?" Leo whispers to Ara worryingly.

"I don't know," she raises a brow. "Lily—"

The girl lifts a finger asking her to wait. There is a long silence before Connor replies.

"Are you serious right now?"

Lily presses the button again. "I'd never joke about this, Stoll."

"Connor, what—" Ara tries to take the walkie but Lily is quick to pull out one of her daggers. 

"Stand back, Jackson," she warns her. "Let us do our job."

Ara is deeply confused, but then she spots Connor, his brother, Malcolm, and pretty much all of their Cabin Nine and Cabin Ten friends hurrying to meet them uphill. The Stolls are carrying towels and the evilest look in their eyes she's ever seen.

"Oh, shit," she backtracks.

"Wait," Leo grins. "Is it lake time?"

Ara looks back at Lily almost pleadingly. "Lily Saggio, I'm your best friend."

"Save it," her friend smirks. "You would show no mercy if you were in my place."

"It's the middle of winter!"

"If you get sick, you got your boyfriend to look after you."

"Yeah, no problem!" Leo says, bouncing on his spot. He waves at the small crowd. "What's up! I believe you're here for me!"

"I can't swim!" Ara exclaims.

"Are you lying to my face right now?" Lily questions, eyes bright with amusement.

Malcolm scowls when he sees who's standing next to Ara. "Aw, man, it's Leo," he groans.

"Pay up, loser," Lily extends her palm out to her brother.

"Buckle up, Birdy," Travis smirks.

Ara is not a coward, but she tries to run anyway. Naturally, she gets caught almost immediately. 

She hates the cold. Genuine hate. Even the thought of it makes her angry and now her friends are about to throw her into frozen water, and she wonders if anyone actually cares about her because this is basically like a murder attempt.

"You okay, sunshine?" Leo has a huge smile on his face. "Now's your last chance," he holds out his hand.

Leo lets Jason, Piper, and his siblings carry him like this is a game, which of course it is, but Ara is playing rough. She knows rules are rules and she's dating someone, therefore she's got to take one for the team, but the gods above know she'll complain about it up until the last second.

Ara seizes his hand. "Oh, it's too late for anything."

"Think about it this way," Jason says happily. "Leo's finally going to take a shower!"

"Hey!" He hits the back of Jason's head. "I don't smell that bad!"

Ara tries not to, but a laugh escapes her. Lily whistles, pointing at the lake. "Take them!"

"Have a nice swim, guys!" Jake Mason exclaims.

As soon as they make contact with the lake's ice-cold surface, Ara's entire body screams in agony, but Leo's hand is still firmly wrapped around hers, making sure she stays close to him. 

They resurface gasping for air, Ara shivers like crazy. "Holy f—"

"It's fine, it's fine! I'm right here," Leo squeezes her hand, pushing the hair out of her eyes so she can see. "You okay? Nothing broken?"

"N-No," she coughs out, swimming to the edge.

"The world didn't end," Leo teases her. His lips are slightly purple, but he doesn't seem to care in the slightest. "And now we get to be together in public! I love this camp..."

Ara sneezes and hurries to where her friends are. "Do me a solid, Valdez. Don't talk to me until I'm out of the water."

The Hephaestus kids hurry to pull Leo out while Ara's siblings tend to her. Lily is quick to wrap a towel around Ara and Piper approaches with a leaf blower.

"You had a plan for this, really?" Ara raises a brow, still shivering.

"I wasn't going to just throw you in a leave you wet, though I should've," Lily rolls her eyes. "I have a plan for everything, Queen B. I'm also prepared for a breakup if things go bad."

Ara laughs and shakes her head, looking at her friend with admiration. "Honestly, I should just date you instead."

Piper uses the leaf blower on Ara, and then she smiles at Lily. "I love the girls in this camp, you're all so fun to hang out with."

Leo approaches with a towel around his shoulders, mostly dry. "That was fun! I don't know why Jason complained so much about it."

"'Cause it's winter and I was wearing socks," Jason makes a face. "Who in their right mind enjoys that?"

"And yet you still threw me in," Ara points out.

"Yeah, it's fun to watch," he grins.

"Well, this was great, but my girlfriend is leaving in like, fifteen minutes, and I haven't seen the picture she keeps of me in her room," Leo wraps an arm around Ara's shoulders. "See y'all— scatter, or whatever. What's that thing you say, doll?"

"You're dismissed," Ara replies in an embarrassed tone, blushing at Leo's proximity. 

Once they're out of sight, Leo kisses her cheek and speaks in a more serious voice. "It's over! I'm having nightmares about Lily and her knives for the rest of the month."

Ara laughs. "She's harmless!"

"Yeah, right. I've heard the stories, sunshine. She is far from harmless—and you're even worse!"

"What makes you think that?"

"All the times you've tried to kill the son of Hades—"

"He had it coming," Ara rolls her eyes.

Leo raises both hands in surrender, then adopts a playful expression. "Is it true that you got a picture—?"

"Oh shut up, I know you kept the stupid hat my mom gave you," she says defensively.

"Hey, that's different! I collect hats!" He argues.

Ara stops. "You what?"

"I collect hats," Leo repeats casually. "I like them."

"Hats."

"Yeah," he smiles. "Unique hats."

Ara can't tell if he's joking, and that's enough to realize he's not. "When you got to camp you didn't have any hats with you."

"Well, I don't carry them around," he rolls his eyes, "but I had hats in my dorm, in Wilderness School. I never went back to get them, so my collection is lacking again."

She smiles a little. "No new hats since you got here?"

"I've got the hat your mom gave me, a party hat from when the drunk nymphs tried to kill us—when you first kissed me remember?—And I got a winter hat from the last time Thalia and her hunters visited camp."

Ara notices that as he lists these items, his skin glows like gold. "Leo, you should've told me, I could've given you a hat as a present for Christmas!"

"You can give me one for Valentine's Day," he winks. "But it's got to be super weird or magical, like Annabeth's cap. Got it?"

Ara pecks his lips. "I'll keep it in mind."

I point at Lily without stopping and gesture at her to follow me. "You're coming with me."

She gets up and seizes her knives. Connor tries to stop her. "Woah! Where are you going?"

I glare at him, he stops and looks at me with a bit of apprehension.

"Where is Grover?" I ask him.

"I-I don't know," he looks around. "Have you asked Percy?"

"He can't know I'm leaving," I squint. "Is that clear?"

Connor glances at Lily, she's calmly placing her knives in place, concealing them under her armor. Her eyes are red and puffy, but she's determined to join me.

"Just be careful," he says. "Lily?"

She nods without looking up at him. "Sure."

When we find Grover, I use charmspeak so he tells us how Percy got into the Underworld, and then I make him forget. We walk out of the Plaza toward Central Park, and Lily doesn't say a word until I speak.

"I'm visiting your patron."

She points to a bunch of rocks. "There's an entrance there, I can feel it."

I draw out Grover's flute, and play a lullaby he taught me years ago during our first quest. The entrance opens, and I take one step forward. 

"It was Nico's idea," I explain as we enter. "You know what that means?"

Lily sighs. "That he took an educated guess as to why we wanted to contact Achilles?"

"He guessed wrong," I scowl. "And he's gonna pay for that."

Lily frowns. "Why?"

I tell her what Percy told me, but she isn't as angry as me. "Well, it worked, right? Percy's invincible. Strong enough to destroy a bridge..."

I stop. "That was Michael's idea."

"Yeah, after Percy messed up."

"Are you blaming my brother?" I stare at her, annoyed, but she's grieving as much as I am, there's no point in arguing about it. Her mind will clear up eventually. "Look, this is exactly what we needed. Your patron wants a godsend and Nico wants to win our trust back."

"And..?"

"I have both in the palm of my hand," I reply, my gaze stuck on the dark horizon. "I'll make a deal with Hades."

Next Chapter ->

Taglist.

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[deusexlachina]

Cheeseaged Exocolonist Age 18: Use my compassion and mental health literacy to set up a coup and crush my enemies

In which we fill the hole in our friends' lives with logs and eggs, use ill-fitting clothes to convince my people to make me their queen, and thwart an alien invasion by being the world's best barista.

CW for discussion of domestic abuse.

Having done most of the work needed to get a perfect ending, you'd think year 18 would go by pretty quickly. However, I now have the power to give gifts every month instead of once per season, and with great gift power comes great gift responsibility. After all, we're nearing the end of the game. I deliver a gift to every single friendable character each month. So I will dedicate this log to my friends. The virtual ones.

Nomi is self-conscious about being an artist and asks what I want to be when I grow up. I give the same answer I have given everyone else: I want to be in charge.

I've been throwing cakes at Vace, in hopes that his terrible attitude is caused by low blood sugar. Vace sees that I've been grinding friendship with his girlfriend, and he doesn't want any grinding going on with his girlfriend. He threatens me, telling me not to make him worry about me hanging out with his girlfriend.

I reassure him there's nothing to worry about, then immediately go talk to Nem and tell her to break up with him. Telling people they are in an abusive relationships is always a hard conversation, but she's ready to have it now because I have fought valiantly by her side, heroically tried to save her brother, but mainly because I have given her dozens of eggs over the course of this run. I use my teenage drug-slinging psychotherapist skills to diagnose Vace with being a dick.

Because I have high friendship with Vace, I get him to open up about his problems, discovering that his girlfriend suddenly broke up with him. Rallying all my baristastic expertise and courage, I suggest this is because he's an abusive dickhole. Vace does not put two and two together and realize that I tanked his relationship, so we can keep befriending him in our cynical ploy to manipulate him into becoming a better person, like a blue-haired Christmas Wraith.

After these therapeutic successes, I have a therapy date with Tangent. She asks for extra-strength blep tea, which I do not give to her because that will Help Tangent. Recall that even one Helped Tangent will trip the flag for the Engineered Plague. This girl is a cup of very strong tea away from wiping out all non-terran life on the planet. I love her.

I start getting people to 100 Friendship. Marz tells me about her plan to overthrow Lum, and I promise to keep her on her toes.

I decide the best way to keep her on her toes is by running as her opposition. This requires 50 Persuasion, which I have from equipping the Emojiproji (+10 to social skills), the Brain Trainer (+15 to everything) and, in a real stab in the back, Marzipan's second-hand jacket (+20 Persuasion). This is such an audacious Ides of March that Marzipan can't help but be impressed.

It also requires you to have consistently shown opposition to the existing authority, to the tune of 70 Rebellion. This is why I have been talking back to my mom so much. Now it's time to confront her. I spend the month farming, solely because the other Geoponics jobs will all give me events that will override the event where I meet my mom. I explain to my mom that I'm not a bad kid, I was just grinding Rebellion to go for the golden ending. She finally understands and promises me her full support in overthrowing Lum.

Immediately after this, I get an event where I have to save Socks from being put down, because this event happens in Geoponics starting in year 17 and, since saving her the first time, I've put off working in Geoponics for so long that the game has gotten impatient with me.

The same month, I use my baristatherapist skills to talk down Dys from planting a bomb on our walls as part of a deal he made to become an alien and live happily ever after with his alien boyfriend Sym. This is a very strange deal that gets even stranger when you learn that he made this deal with Nocticulent, not Sym.

Having gotten my mom's approval for the first time in my eighteen years, I then move on to recruit Seeq, the administrator. They agree that Lum needs to be deposed, but, showing no solidarity with their fellow trans person, demand a bribe in the form of kudos. To make clear how utterly preposterous this is, we are living in a mostly communistic society, where kudos are the currency given by adults to children for good deeds, spendable exclusively on luxury items in the Supply Depot, which Seeq is in charge of.

Because I saved Eudicot's life, she shows up to rebuke Seeq, making them the first person in this planet's history to attempt to bribe themselves and fail. This is good because I have spent all my money on overpriced accessibility devices, spa days and plying Vace with baked goods.

I then recruit Rhett by reminding him of how Lum nearly got some of us killed in a stunt to look cool, and Instance with a persuasion check.

At the end of the year, the enemy is ominously waiting just outside our walls. We know from past lives that they're waiting for Dys to blow up the bomb, not realizing that I have turned him to good with the power of coffee and medicinal roots. For their trouble, they get Socks sicced on them.

In the final year, because of my talks with Sym, the Gardeners will negotiate peace with humanity. I like to think that has something to do with them just having suffered the most embarrassing defeat in the history of their war with humanity. And I owe it all to being a barista.

[robo-milky]

1. I have no issue in being the spokesman for this ship i swear. Also so be it, outta the way Cloche, Epel bby come here 😍

2. I thought that ask didnt send?? I completely forgot about the carved apple hc thou good thing you still saw it <3

3. Im just now noticing being tagged as a mutual?? Like i know you follow me too but the tag 😭💕

4. And lastly response to the previous ask (this has been a series of full-blown responses, back and forth amongst us)

Shinning light on Epel's character, he does indeed feel conflicted. He fears Cloche's paranoia and vulnerability after the incident is what made them to be closer. If that's the case then he hates it. Dont get me wrong now Epel's the kind who "fell first and fell harder" but he wants to be sure that his Relationship with Cloche even as friends is genuine. He wants to be sure that the closeness Cloche develops with him is not related to her incident even in the slightest. While he still sees glimpses of OG Cloche with how she responds it still makes him uneasy with how he got closer to her in a few months then he could in a year. He knows Cloche doesn't like him back. The way she looks at his vice housewarden with love in her eyes, he wishes he could be that person. (Dont be jealous of that wannabe Dora 🫶)

But he knows he'll never be. But that doesnt mean he wants to cut all ties with Cloche. She is still special to him. He can move on but he knows that wont be the case for a good while but till then he'll be there for Cloche in her time of need when rook is ojt for internships.

Now thats enough angst on my side since now i just feel bad 😭

That being said, signing off till the next responses, peace out and hugging cloche <3 (and hugs for you as well :D )

Throwing in a lighthearted meme as a cleanser <3 If you know the source, you know 😭 God… The amount of layers to get this- (Shout out to y’all following along the SY! Cloche lore)

[Response]

The true ship was Epel x justm3di0cr3 all along- I’m losing it at the irony of you being the spokesperson of ClochEpel yet also writing the downfall(?) (er… Not ClochEpel ClochEpel)

Sending hearts back at ya <3 Any mutual is a mutual ^^

Going straight for the angst path I see- Not that I’m complaining- I’m all for it!

Waiting for Cloche’ epiphany arc to come, when she finally realizes she shouldn’t have taken Epel and his feelings for granted when he’s gone for good. Before the incident, Cloche would have known about Epel’s one-sided affections for her (at some point), but she’s more confused why he would like her. With that, if Epel ever confronts SY!Cloche to set things straight or were vocal about missing the old Cloche, she’d feel upset and lost.

As the person experiencing the changes, Cloche views the new development as growth. OG!Cloche was distant, always trying to not be a burden, and now she’s opening up her heart to rely on others willingly. Cloche, herself, didin’t think the incident changed her, but was an excuse for her to act upon the fears she already had. How Cloche sees herself vs how Epel sees her, would make for an interesting conflict of misunderstandings. Since Epel wants to be there for Cloche, he probably wouldn’t voice his personal conflicts, and Cloche is too prideful to open up any more.

The few remnants of OG!Cloche that Epel can find, is mostly her uncaring, “so be it” attitude. Despite having been there for her for so long, he’s still bitter that a simple “Salut” from Rook on Magicam is enough to make her …smile. (Barely. The corners of her mouth can tilt up by 1mm, I guess.)

When SY!Cloche does feel better, she wouldn’t apologize to Epel, but more so give a word of acknowledgement. She’d drop the bomb out of nowhere, when they’re just alone, without any warnings at all. And ofc, in OG!Cloche fashion, it’d be hella dry but gets the point across. She is chewing on her pride (she cannot swallow it completely.)

“Thanks …for everything. You make this world a little more tolerable, I guess…”

FR— Epel dealing with SY!Cloche’ hot-n-cold reception is such a big improvement from OG!Cloche’ hot-n-cold.

[purplekoop]

A simple service bot hoping to keep the streets clean of dirt, debris, and hordes of bot-eating plants, Otto drives in to duty!

Otto is a humble janitorial bot, a model designed to clean human city streets, who fulfills the same role in the new world. He takes pride in keeping his city's streets clean, but has had to face more messes than just mud stains while on the job. Local organized crime doesn't take kindly to a nosy cleaner getting into their dirty deeds, but Otto has learned to take the fight back to them, using both his cleaning equipment and a simple firearm he's picked up along the way to clean up the streets in more ways than one. Despite the rough job, Otto is as amicable as a bot can be, eager to strike a conversation with whoever whenever, even if it's a goon shooting at him. However, with an even bigger mess popping up farther down in the south from his home streets, Otto is eager to take on a new line of work using his unique talents.

In terms of gameplay, Otto is a heavy-duty Utility bot, having the highest and health biggest body of any non-Tank on the roster by a decent margin. This is to fit his role as the cast's semi-tank, who excels when fighting alongside a proper tank who can maintain the frontline while he covers their blind spots. While not as bulky as a proper tank, his freeform mobility lets him pick and choose his fights more than they can, which in tandem with his defensive abilities can make him a more fearsome fighter than his merely modest damage output would suggest. He's one of the more matchup-dependent members of the cast, with some enemy abilities he's uniquely equipped to counter while other abilities can counter his own.

Otto's defining ability is his Power Vac, an arm-mounted high-power sanitation device juiced up to be able to suck in most enemy attacks! The vac heats up quickly though, to the point of being unusable after only a few seconds of constant use, requiring Otto to carefully manage its downtime. This flexible defensive ability though is crucial for denying high bursts of damage, or baiting key abilities. The vacuum stream can't absorb all attacks however, as non-projectile attacks such as melee hits or beam-like weapons will bypass it completely.

Absorbing damage with the Power Vac however has a byproduct: filling up Otto's Junk Gauge. When the gauge is full, pressing the Accessory Ability input will allow Otto to fire off a Junk Bomb, a delayed high-power explosion made of all the random dirt and scrap he absorbed to fill the gauge. This explosion is strong enough to bring most bots to the brink of death at point-blank range, but its large radius makes it a threat even if enemies manage to dodge its full power.

Otto can also swap his vacuum arm for his melee weapon, the Power Mop. This rotating electrical mop rapidly does damage to enemies on contact, but can also clean allies of most debuffs by holding the mop to them for about a second. Cleaning debuffs fills the Junk Gauge, so it's worth giving your pals a touch-up if you have the chance.

When the job gets messy though, that's where Otto busts out the heat with his Auto-Shotgun. This rapid-fire firearm simply fires a spray of bullets in a fixed alternating pattern, making it deal solid damage at close range but becoming weaker at longer ranges. The weapon has 12 ammo and reloads its whole clip at once, making it an adequately consistent weapon but not especially imposing overall. It does however make a fearsome partner to the Power Vac, as it tends to either out-damage or out-range the few weapon types that the vac can't absorb. Otto isn't an efficient assassin by any means, but with skilled play his simple shotgun can clean up nicely.

But to get the job done fast, Otto has to get to the job fast, and that's where his last key ability comes in: Street Mode. Shifting his legs into a set of wheels and tucking in his arms, Otto enters a vehicle mode that increases his basic movement speed significantly. This mode has no cooldown, but he can't fire his gun or launch a Junk Bomb while transformed. Attempting to use Power Vac while in this form will instead use Street Sweep, a niche utility option that allows Otto to clean specific grounded hazards, such as the oil slicks created by some of Martinet's alternate equipment, which will contribute to the Junk Gauge just like sucking in a projectile would. While cleaning though, Otto moves slower than his basic walking speed, and will overheat the same engine as his power vac, but at a much slower rate. The main appeal of Street Mode though is to use it to traverse the map more efficiently, getting in and out of fights faster so you can provide your team the utility you provide.

For specialized messes, Otto has a few alternate tools for the job. Starting with his alternate firearms, first is the Back-Alley Broom, a shady fully automatic weapon that fires a few pellets in rapid fire, trading out burst damage for sustained fire. On the other end is the Street Slugger, a meatier shotgun that fires heavy-duty slugs, which are single projectiles that bypass damage resistance effects.

Street Mode also has a couple modifications which vary the functionality of its extra utility. The Razor Rider trades the street sweeping fans for razor blades that rapidly damage nearby enemies, and build up the junk gauge by doing so, but heats up faster and at the cost of the basic movement being reduced. The Nitro Sweeper meanwhile gives you the option to instead use the Junk Gauge as a fuel source, giving you massive bursts of forward speed when used.

Finally, the Power Vac has several unique variations, all of which additionally change the Junk Gauge's function. First is the Lawn Guster, an inverted tool that blows projectiles away with dramatic bursts of air rather than sucking them in, filling the gauge by dealing damage with the reflected projectiles, allowing you to fire a piercing Junk Missile that does bonus damage to buildings and barricades. The sneaky Pocket Cleaner is a nuisance and a utility at the same time, capable of draining enemy ammo by aiming the vac's stream at them to fill both your own ammo and the junk gauge, which can be used to fire a Recyclo Bomb that restores a heavy chunk of health and ammo to allies in its blast. Finally is the Ultra Vac, a vacuum so formidable its very suction pulls in and damages enemies gradually, which can be overclocked with a full Junk Gauge to increase the size and power of its area of effect.

On the behind-the-scenes side of things, I knew I had to have some kind of bot with a vehicle mode mechanic just about from the start, but Otto went through a few more generic iterations before I settled on the one-two combo of a vacuum cleaner and shotgun. He was originally a much more generic tank character with a simple barrier that changed shape between modes, but he felt "too Overwatch" without much of an identity. I then realized the potential value of an off-tank style character for the Utility role rather than an outright tank, inspired by how Pyro fills that sort of niche in TF2. The key thing then was to have a more "small scale" defensive ability, and while obviously in terms of mechanics the vacuum is functionally fairly identical to D.va's Defense Matrix, the overall idea was more inspired by the Ink Vac from Splatoon 3, including the additional purpose of absorbing attacks being to charge up a powerful explosion. Some other mechanics of the Ink Vac, like its ability to absorb ink directly from players or its status as an ultimate-scale ability, were worked into the alternate variants, while the Lawn Guster is straight up just Pyro's Airblast but with a different ammo system. Eventually this became the core of the character while the vehicle gimmick was kind of left as an afterthought, so it may be something I go back to. I do like the whole street sweeping ability, even if more for flavor than function. I can't imagine there's going to be too many "grounded hazard" abilities in the game, and I don't know if having such a specific hard counter to them is necessarily an exciting interaction, but it's cute so I'm sticking to it for now. The specific nature of the vehicle mode was specifically inspired by Gamma and their super fun "running" animation in Adventure and Battle, and the idea of a character who fluidly went back and forth between shooting and rolling as mutually exclusive actions is a fun visual I've wanted to stick with for a while. If it wasn't obvious, that inspiration seeped into the final design, along with hints of Omega sneaking in too. Still not sure how exactly the transformation works, that's always a tricky thing to design for with just a first draft, but I may sketch out a basic breakdown sooner than later. The shotgun was mostly due to the lack of a basic shotgun user in the cast otherwise, but also was based on a unique gun my more firearm-inclined friend brought up in passing that's, get this: a shotgun often called "the Street Sweeper". It all clicked from there, plus informed this being a more grounded, urban sort of character. I also just like the idea of this big bot with a mundane job being one of the friendliest characters in the cast, he's just happy to be helpful and appreciates the simple things. He's very much a personality I think would be fun to see clash with some of the others.

But yeah, it's Otto at long last! The first cast of 15 is finally shown off, even if out of order. In my head he's more of a foundational member of the cast than his proper reveal timing would imply, compared to Nekross who's a much more experimental character and not as essential in terms of the overall "ecosystem" of the cast. In a version of the game with only 15 characters, Otto's getting in first.

But past those first 15, next up is a much more organic-themed character to clash with the urban Otto. Gotta get some bees to suck up somehow.

[likeabxrdinflight]

okay episode three was a huge improvement from the first two in a lot of ways. I'm gonna stop here for a bit, I think, cuz I'm not sure I want to binge all of this in one day.

so this one combines "jet" and "the mechanist" with aspects of "the waterbending scroll", but it's set in omashu, which was a great choice. the exposition problem is gone, the dialogue is much better (though aang still talks about "saving the world" a little bit too much), and the kids seem to have settled into their roles more by this point in the shooting. I think the diction might also be improving, but I also have the subtitles on now, so it's harder to tell.

omashu looks incredible. there's colorful markets, the mail system is utilized, it's big and spectacular and feels very alive. I think they combined practical sets with the CGI quite a bit because it really has a lived-in feel to it. probably the best environment they've created thus far. this gives me a lot of optimism for what they'll do with ba sing se if we get a season two.

the plot is...very different. but not bad here. they were able to make this episode flow very well by having jet show up early to help sneak the gaang into omashu. later, while aang is off with teo and sokka is helping the mechanist, katara wanders off with jet to trauma bond and struggle with waterbending. it all comes together as while the mechanist remains a traitor (we think...this is a 'to be continued' kind of episode...), jet's extremist move this time is to attempt to assassinate the mechanist in a move which would kill teo and other innocent people in the process. we see the fall out of jet's actions earlier in the episode too- he bombed a fire nation spy hut, but omashu citizens were caught in the blast.

this is such a better take on jet's extremism, because not only is he potentially harming innocent people, he's harming innocent earth kingdom civilians. there is no argument that he's taking down only enemy combatants or people complicit in the fire nation's war crimes. I suspect some jet fans aren't gonna love it, but if you're gonna have a character come across as an extremist, this is a better way to show that.

they also add a fire nation subplot here- and azula finally shows up! my girl! who colludes with zhao to try and undermine zuko. this version of azula doesn't want zuko back home, at least not yet. elizabeth yu is doing great btw, anyway who was concerned she can't be "evil" enough is...wrong. they're just wrong. she's gonna do scary just fine if they get a season two, don't worry about it.

finally they add a subplot with zuko and iroh sneaking into omashu to find aang. zuko does his impulsive zuko thing where he sets something on fire (it's the cabbages btw) and so in order to protect him, iroh takes the fall and outs himself as a firebender, leading to his capture. this is clearly going to set up the subplot from the animated show where zuko has to go and rescue him.

paul lee's iroh is so good btw, what a phenomenal casting choice. he's doing the most, honestly. the dynamic between him and zuko is perfect. I think he's a much better character than his animated counterpart as he's much more consistent. the white lotus has already been hinted at too. given how much this show is adding, I do wonder if they'll at some point give us a more detailed look at his backstory. we'll see.

I am now curious if they'll ever address his relationship with azula in later seasons but I don't expect that for now

this is obviously very, very different from the animated show, but honestly? anything they did in omashu was likely to be better. "the king of omashu" was one of the weakest episodes in the original, and the way they stitched these disparate episodes together managed to work very well. the themes of both "the mechanist" and "jet," which deal with earth kingdom citizens doing wrong things in the name of survival, freedom, and safety, played off each other nicely. these characters represent two sides of that conflict- the mechanist who is betraying his people to keep himself and his son safe vs jet who will go to any lengths to stop the fire nation, even if innocent people get hurt. and it was a solid way to use the city of omashu as a setting.

a little sad we likely won't get to see the northern air temple, and it does lose the ideas about cultural appropriation that were in the original. jet's story also takes some significant cuts, and his betrayal doesn't quite hit as hard. we also lose a lot with "the waterbending scroll"- we see katara struggling to learn the water whip, but instead of getting pissed at aang and having that whole side story with the pirates, she ends up with jet's gang.

katara is, unfortunately, still the weakest character of the main cast, but she was better here. some of that spark was there this episode, but it's just a shadow of the original. they are doing more with her trauma, however, and at the very least she's not nearly as parentified. this katara is not "motherly." so, there's that. but she's still the weak link of the main cast, I'm afraid.

azula is still my best girl though, and this azula? baby. absolute baby. I would die for her. the hair looks a little fake and I think it might be a wig but I'd still die for her. baby girl. ozai can catch these hands.

I'll have more to say on her later, I want to see the whole season before I talk too much about what they've done with her. but so far, I'm good with it.

[spiderh0rse]

stark's mind notes part 3, e11-15

e11

he'll have to deal with... Being an imposter........ (amindgus au...)

yeah the whistleblowing thing! Makes sense with how lax Black Mesa's safety is

has food RIGHT in front of him and decides to NOT eat any (crumbs on suit gloves + climbing) but is willing to drink something

aghast at the lasers but has no other options so he Does touch them

doesn't consider himself a guessing man

wastes five grenades trying to bounce grenades off a wall and into a turret

gets shot somewhere he could feel it

unsurprised but dismayed at the rescue team being dead

the fire doors are too loud for him. Worse than the one at his house

fire alarms make him want to set everything on fire

bad baseball one liner <3

very interested as to how the side effects of teleportation effect the world outside the moved matter

lands a grenade bounce!

apologizes to two scientists about how loud the alarm is

Colleague.

doesn't understand why the military is making their announcements so intimidating

Breen may not know that Stark's the one that caused some problems a while back. If he is, Stark may be in some manner of trouble

doesn't understand what he's seeing when a marine kills a scientist. Backs up.

sits down and tries to think about all that.

trips over his words a lot when witnessing that!

e12

despairing and trying to convince himself Nothing Wrong Happened

does Not want to confront the marine.

startled at the loud noise of the door

does warn the soldier that he'll shoot back if shot at

insults the Marine's corpse and keeps thinking straight. Avoiding blood on his suit because if the rest of the rescue team is more rational then blood will be highly suspect

KEEPS insulting the dead marine

he is now a scientist equipped with a submachine gun!

not too hopeful about thinking the best of the situation working

pessimism active basically

Both ears now hit with bullets!

grenade in close proximity bothering him (ears, he shakes himself off)

considers himself a domestic terrorist in the eyes of the law

now considers the military entirely incompetent

sarcastic fellow

doesn't pay any mind to the SAD order over the intercoms

trips and falls off some boxes but otherwise is fine. Inner ear issues due to the close proximity explosion?

really really wishes he had a helmet

now covered in blood surrounded by the military and unsure how he's killing them all

pretty sure he's going to die

are his ears bleeding because they've been shot, exploded, or because he keeps firing a .38 without ear protection

yeah he just gets mad when he kills people!

THE INCREDIBLES REFERENCE

doesn't want to dwell on the whole not meant to be there thing. Thinks that'll lead him to his death

reasons that if he stops applying pressure he'll die

e13

wagers he's being a little overdramatic. Maybe.

hates Freeman for putting him in this situation

the elevator is not a good place to cower when being bombed, dude

the warning klaxon is irritating to him

the warehouse is Not empty, Vincent, you're in there. Isn't that enough reason to bomb the place?

convenient car placement at a convenient time!

has read some of Shakespeare's more prolific plays

tells himself to stop berating the soldiers and start figuring out how to stay alive

doesn't believe in luck

took archery classes when he was younger, attributes his hand-eye coordination to those

insulting the soldiers for not evacuating from the bombing site

not opposed to friendly fire if it benefits him

yells about the military deciding to bomb him because they can't kill him otherwise

shonen anime moments: 1

bookin it down that fan shaft! quick and coordinated lil dude!

not happy to be back in the facility but it's better than being bombed

"my auditory senses are thoroughly pleased" at. Silence! Yippee!

considers insanity slightly better than death if only because it isn't nonexistence

counts some headcrabs as he kills them. "this has been Natural Numbers with dr vincent stark" NERD

prefers the aliens over the soldiers

compliments some headcrabs on their sneakiness

hopes he never crosses a ninja.

thinks anything is on the table except survival

having an awful time getting into a vent

thinks he's justified in killing soldiers because they're killing civilians

does not object when someone says he's part of what caused the situation

asks a scientist to establish communication with others and direct them all to Lambda to work together.

leaves a gun with a lone scientist

bitter about the military not helping with the situation

thinks the entrance to Blast Pit is ominous

e14

not expecting anything new out of Blast Pit

thinks Breen got them all into this mess indirectly, and he'll be one of the ones to get them all Out of the mess

not entertaining the locked door

thanks a zombie for doing exactly what he tells it to do (walk into his line of fire)

presses a button on a whim. Recognizes he should not be doing this

makes a bad pun and promptly says he should shoot himself in the head for it

wishes he had a gps in the HEV suit or that if it DOES that he knows how to use it

"Mr. Box"

happy thinking! Can't get worse! Amends that it absolutely can but he's trying to not think about that

wishes he'd asked for a map. Where have I heard this before...

"first aid? I'm good!" YOUR EARS ARE BOTH BLEEDING

laughs at the train controls. Thinks it's pretty fast though

wonders how the houndeyes would taste when cooked. Squid or shrimp, maybe

inertia is a bitch isn't it

confused at the Green Glow

he is in SO much pain from jumping off a vehicle moving at a decent clip

something is better than nothing or pool of radiation

he is SO angry. Nosebleed. He is the embodiment of anger. ledge slightly out of reach :(

mad at Black Mesa for not repairing its broken shit

he could do without the toxic waste. It's bad for your everything.

curious at how old this part of the building is

tries to tell himself the giant pit of radioactive goop around the rocket test lab is not real. Fails.

"until I become suicidal or something I will just stand here and do nothing" Vince buddy look 17 notes up please

e15

he has not had food in a while. Last ate a day ago. He is so hungry.

not entirely sure of the passage of time

amazed at how fast shit has gone down the drain

fully expects to die by day three of the disaster with the rate of bullshit happening

oh this is kind of cool the visuals get a bit fuzzy as he enters the irradiated area! Ive seen cameras exposed to radiation that Is what it looks like

would name a novel about the last day "Eat Shit And Die: A Detailed Account of Vincent "I'm Goddamn Dead" Stark's Life, or How To Kickstart The Apocalypse Ft. Vincent "I Just Ended The Goddamn World" Stark" mouthful.

thinks the world would be justified in hating him

claims he's done enough running to qualify for the Olympics

sir youre still close enough to get irradiated

weird noiiiiiseeeee he's unhappppppyyyyy

land whales? vent sharks? what's next, air dolphins?

now considers calling the houndeyes "hamdogs" racist

he does Not want to enter the rocket silo. If he has to go in there he'll want to curl up into a ball

he is so American

shotgun Obtained

considers death and possible followup occurrences another dimension. Or he's just making a bad joke

"welcome to earth, where manners dictate if you live!"

Vincent your metaphor here is just a little nasty

once again pretty sure he's going to die

trying to shoot the tentacles. Figures out pretty quickly he can't really hurt it like that

his options are staying put or "charging into there like a suicidal idiot"

asks the guard if he has a pack of cards on hand