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dustyisforever · 1 month

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A Shadow of the Colossus Review

by DustyIsForever This is a review. It's about a video game, which is a kind of movie you watch with your hands.

In 2012, Shadow of the Colossus became the first thing I ever saved money to buy. After watching the “Nerd³ Plays” video where he calls it a “perfect game,” I began to daydream about it obsessively. I stuck the facetious label “Ye Olde Jar o Talents” on a mason jar and brought it to school so I could beg my classmates for funds. This worked, however incredulous it was, but I didn’t buy the game. I didn’t buy the game for years, and even after that I didn’t play it for at least a few months. It was like an old Russian novel to me: something that always existed in the future for which I could never consider myself prepared. And then I did play it and it was great.

You can either read it here or on a published Docs page. But be careful. It's pretty long.

This is a review of Shadow of the Colossus. It will contain spoilers. I first played the game a long time ago, but I went back to it a few times over the years. Recently I watched a close friend play it. We had some conversations about it. Soon, I’d like to see my wife play it as well. She can’t read this review yet because she is, incredibly, going to be playing totally blind. You can imagine how rare it is to play something like Shadow of the Colossus without knowing anything about it beforehand.

As I promised not long ago, I'm going to start writing essay-reviews of many games I enjoy. But first, I'd like to elaborate on my method. I have a particular framework for expressing my opinions of these games that I've developed as an alternative to a 10/10, 5/5, 40/40, 100/100, or other numerical art goodness judgment system. The aim is to provide the foolish satisfaction of a number score while cutting back on its pitfalls and biases. Number scores are unhelpful. In a 10/10 system, one finds that a 10 means that the reviewer idolizes the work, a 9, 8, or even a 7 can mean that they enjoyed it, and anything below that might mean that they disliked it, hated it, thought it was tedious, or simply misunderstood it. Opinions don’t fit neatly on a graduated, linear scale. Our value judgments are relative, as in: I liked this more than that; never absolute in the way numbers would suggest. We know this but pretend otherwise. How fun to bestow a cherished piece of art the honor of your perfect number! We're all pleased to think that our opinion is intelligent. My goal is to indulge that, but with restraint.

The first principle of my system is that I only bother rating games that I already know I love. Though there is surely as much to be learned from "bad" art as "good" art, I want to avoid negativity. Also, I find it’s easier to assign a score with restraint and thoughtfulness when a bad score isn't in consideration at all. It also means that I, as a critic, produce fewer reviews overall, which should make each review more characteristic and the overall corpus more consistent.

My second principle is that the highest number I'll use is three. Mr. Ebert was onto something when he made the alluring choice of knocking the tail off of the five-star format. It made all of his ratings look smarter. Five stars was for the common people; real intellectuals expressed their taste in the glamorous new fashion of four. Now it's my turn. I've one-upped the fallen old man, who once failed to appreciate John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). I dare to fly with merely three. And no halfsies, either. No point to it if I’m going to decide to give a game a one-and-a-half because that would be a six-point system in disguise, wouldn’t it?

My final principle is borrowed in part from Famitsu's thing where they divide scores into parts that can be treated either separately or summed. They do that with four reviewers. In my case, I cannot judge the work from the perspective of multiple people (I am only one person). Instead, I split my score into two numbers representing two priorities. That’s two numbers ranging zero to three, written X-Y. For instance, Shadow of the Colossus is a 1-2 game.

The first number, on a scale of zero to three, represents the aesthetic merits of the game. This can include everything experienced by the player. It may consider the art direction, the sound and music, and the narrative design. It also may refer to the dynamics of the design and the "choreography" of interaction, in a very formalist sense borrowed in part from Graeme Kirkpatrick's Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game. Interactive design is just as much a part of the media content of a game as the audiovisual presentation.

To be less academic—I like to summarize the first number as the question: "does it make me cry?" because it captures that it's often a sentimental thing. High-scoring games on the first number tend to be tearjerkers.

Why should Shadow of the Colossus get a one out of three in this category? Well, a one isn't really a low score in the conventional sense. My system is built to specify why a game is great. A zero would mean "this game is great, but it has nothing to do with the aesthetics." I consider Shadow of the Colossus to be aesthetically great, just not as aesthetically great as a few other games.

I like to call the other score “does it blow my mind?” to highlight that it pertains to games that impress me. Expect more elaboration when I get to the second half of the review.

When I first made up this system years ago, I tried to list a bunch of old favorites as examples. At that time, I stamped a 2-1 on Shadow of the Colossus. Mark the difference! It means that now I appreciate its technical achievement more but have tempered my feelings about its content. This change of opinion came to me when I recently watched a close friend play through the game for the first time, hanging out over her shoulder. The banter we shared dampened the emotion of the experience—for example, she already knew Agro was going to fall off a cliff sooner or later and by the time she did, it affected her more like the punchline to a drawn-out joke. I was a little offended. Her more detached play experience exposed some of the game’s weaknesses to me.

My original rating of two reflected the beautiful score and the sublime desolation of the game, which inhabited me then as it does now. When I take a walk in the woods, I am visited once more by the mystery of “To the Ancient Land.” It’s a good season in my life to return to the game. I’m in a forest often.

But unrelated to my time in forests, I’ve spent the last year thinking a lot about fantasy. I fell out with it some years ago and only recently began rehabilitating my affection for it. Shadow of the Colossus belongs to that estranged clade of fantasy, the fairy tale, which has become my favorite.

Fairy tales are mysterious but well-patterned, made from a pool of common morphologies, which folklorist Vladimir Propp called “functions” with perhaps excessive precision. A glancing comparison will hopefully show how much like a fairy tale Shadow of the Colossus really is. Propp’s functions came originally from his syntax of Russian folk stories. Shadow of the Colossus is neither Russian nor folk, through it deploys several such functions in an identifiable and properly consecutive fashion:

Absentation, interdiction, and violation all before the prologue is over

Trickery as Dormin tells Wander what must be done to revive Mono

Departure, as Wander begins the quest to slay the colossi, and various functions of the Donor, who is also Dormin

Quite a bit of struggle and branding as Wander does his colossus-slaying and dishevels himself gradually with dark magic

Pursuit (by Lord Emon)

And then the punishment and reward are cleverly reversed, because of course in this special video game that people who don’t call all video games art sometimes deign to call art, Wander was in error all along.

I think that to leave the analysis at that would be a failure to appreciate the particular flavor of this story. There are many video game stories where the player character ends up ethically compromised for some narrative effect, but the aesthetic appeal of Shadow of the Colossus is grossly different from, say, Spec Ops: the Line. Wander is more like Hamlet; he retains his hero-ness the whole way through, yet still the fate of his quest is doomed by circumstance.

What he must do is awful and painful to him, but he’s stuck on this path. The closing of the door to the bridge out of the Forbidden Lands is a literalization of this. The inciting events of his journey—the superstitious sacrifice of an innocent girl—make his goals noble from the start, and because he does not have the information to understand the cost of his deeds until it is too late, we cannot say that he is ever malicious. The player is clued in that something is wrong through visual suggestions that Wander does not necessarily see or understand, including the doves and ominous shadow-people which gather at the Shrine of Worship. These devices are not employed in any way that comments specifically on the medium of video games; nothing about them is procedural. They are very conventional vectors of good old-fashioned dramatic irony.

Furthermore, we don’t textually know at all that Dormin is evil. The antagonist Lord Emon who opposes Dormin and Wander is possibly responsible for Mono’s death. He reminds us, if we have played ICO, of the people who unjustly imprison that game’s hero on account of his “cursed” horns. Once we abandon the idea that the Lord Emon narrator/antagonist character is a trustworthy authority, we lose the only voice telling us that Dormin is dangerous. And at the end of the tale Dormin, surprisingly, keeps all of his promises to Wander: Mono is revived and Wander’s body is returned to him. He even gets his horsey back! Very sweet. And the final scenes, which play out leisurely beside the scrolling credits column, show a bright and sun-dappled garden. Mono, robed in her white gown, comforts baby Wander while surrounded by wildlife and green trees. A fawn appears. The imagery is positively lousy with symbols of innocence and spring.

And, if we’re going to permit ourselves to get biblical, isn’t it a little like a reverse Genesis? Wander follows the instructions of a higher power despite a warning from Lord Emon, who has special knowledge. As a result, a woman is saved from her “cursed fate” and the only way out is permanently closed, trapping the woman and the revived hero in the garden of paradise.

Shadow of the Colossus tells a tragic and subversive story, but it does it entirely within the syntax of its folktalesy story genre. It doesn’t have the flavor of subversiveness which comments on other works or the conventions of its own medium. To understand Undertale’s project, you need to be familiar with other JRPGs. Shadow of the Colossus would preserve its message in any medium.

This point isn’t really doing anything to bump my score up or down, but it’s a line of thinking I’ve revisited many times while writing about this game. I think that what really took Shadow of the Colossus from a two down to a one was the inconsistency between encounter designs.

My friend caught on quickly to the first several colossi, even prevailing where I remember having stumbled (my younger self was completely stymied by the sixth, called “Barba” by fans). But as the latter half of the game wore on, she spent more and more time running in circles. Numbers nine, eleven, and twelve all exasperated her. Each of them involves a special trick that must be discovered before they can be made vulnerable. Colossus number eleven, for example, is covered in armor that can only be broken by using a torch to chase it off of a cliff. But no other encounter shows you that there’s anything you can hold in your hands besides the sword and bow you start with. To even get the torch, you need to stand on a plinth holding up a brazier such that the colossus charges at you and knocks the torch loose. But my friend did not even realize that the plinths were climbable; they can only be grabbed from the sides, which is difficult to see and execute when you’re constantly charged at by an enemy that stuns you on the ground for a few whole seconds whenever it hits you. The tedium was too much, and the game lost its magic and atmosphere. The battle against the last colossus was pretty disheartening. No sense of an emotional climax came through. Instead, as I watched my friend fall over and over from its hands and shoulders and whatnot with all the tenacity of a lint-covered novelty sticky hand, I could only hope desperately that she wouldn’t put the game down right then and there.

In some moments, it’s plain to see that Shadow of the Colossus is testing the player’s patience with purpose and meaning. Each encounter culminates with Wander clutching to fur, often on the head of the colossus, holding on just long enough to get a good stab. The colossi shake and Wander dangles on, unable to get a steady hit. It’s frustrating to have to wait for a tiny window of opportunity to land a blow, but this is clearly by design. If the fight could be ended as soon as the player got into stabbing position, the anticipation would resolve too quickly. Giving the player sweaty palms, making them really clench the trigger button, serves to procedurally convey the ordeal Wander faces on-screen. You hold on (to the controller) to hold on (for dear life) in a very successful bit of hand-to-screen parallelism.

But at other times, the game slips away into pointless futility. In many fights, the trick that makes the colossus vulnerable is only effective for a short time, so the player must hurry to seize the opportunity. Often, the time window just isn’t long enough, and the player is compelled to retry, but the novelty of discovering the trick has already disappeared. The ninth colossus’s arena is huge, and when you knock it onto its side, you have to maneuver over to the far side of its body every time. It’s fiddly and protracted, and it’s a case where the game inadequately reacts to the player executing on what should feel like the turning point of the battle. It took my friend about four tries to ascend this colossus successfully. And it’s a turtle, so it isn’t even that tall. Really lame.

My own remembered experience, rooted in some British guy’s twelve-year-old YouTube video, is very different from the one shared with that friend of mine. I saw a game denuded of its majesty by our ongoing joke that Agro would be the final boss; a joke between pals on the proverbial gamer couch. A couch that, if it were not replaced in our case by the deep phenomenological chasm of several US states of distance and a Discord RTC, would be evocative of the one shared by Misters Cheadle and Sandler in the film Reign Over Me.

It’s a largely forgotten film, but consensus says it’s surprisingly well-regarded: Metacritic awards it an impressive 8.5 user score, which it labels “universal acclaim.” Adam Sandler plays a traumatized man who, after losing his family in 9/11, quits his dental career and whittles his days scootering around, playing the drums, and remodeling his kitchen over and over. Don Cheadle is his former college roommate, a successful dentist with a family, who runs into him late one night. The two rekindle their friendship and are both healed for it. This involves a lot of Shadow of the Colossus.

When Don Cheadle first sees Sandler, he can’t get him to stop and talk. Their second encounter happens when Cheadle drops off his daughter at a friend’s house. He intends to go back home to his wife to spend quality time solving a puzzle with her. Suddenly, Sandler flies by on his scooter. So instead, Cheadle gets him to stop and talk. He asks if Sandler is “practicing,” by which he means “practicing dentistry.”

“I’m practicing all the time, up in the valley. Took down twelve of the colossus so far” “The valley? What is that, is that a medical complex or something?” “It’s more… like another dimension. You take a journey, you discover yourself.” (Reign Over Me, 13:50)

He gets Sandler to sit down for Starbucks, where Sandler violates assorted social norms as per a 2007 movie’s notion of a traumatized person. Sandler acts as if he doesn’t remember Cheadle but they make conversation regardless and before you know it, Cheadle is at this guy’s apartment.

Cheadle needs to use the bathroom. Sad music begins to play. Cheadle briefly glimpses a room with furniture covered in sheets—evidence that this man once had a family. Then there’s a mournful-looking shot where the camera stares straight down Sandler’s darkened hall and distantly we see his TV. He’s climbing the first Colossus. That’s a funny thing to do if you’ve finished three quarters of the game. I guess he has more than one save file. So that he can practice more, of course.

As the movie goes on, the two intertwine into each other’s life in a conventionally dramatic way. Sandler is a broken man who throws tantrums and lacks responsibility and ropes Cheadle into a Mel Brooks marathon showing on the night Cheadle’s father dies, and in turn, Cheadle suffers various embarrassments to his career and family because he has compassion for his friend. And sometimes we get to see more Shadow of the Colossus, which Sandler often calls “Shadows” of the Colossus.

In its second appearance, Sandler is fighting the fifth Colossus—my favorite—and Cheadle takes the controller. We get a montage. He can’t put it down. Sandler teases Cheadle, he says he’s addicted (to Shadow of the Colossus). Cheadle jumps to his feet, paces around the couch in frustration: he demands one more try. He refuses Sandler’s suggestion to stop and “let it soak in,” he’s determined to get it this time. Number fifteen falls and Cheadle pumps his fist, shouting “co-lo-ssussss!” in a funny voice. The montage ends, and with it goes our brief window into an otherworld where playing Shadow of the Colossus actually looks like that.

Or, hey, that’s not so fair. Maybe, for Mr. Adam Sandler, playing Shadow of the Colossus is about practicing each fight over and over and pumping your fist triumphantly when you finally win. Maybe he got a New Game Plus save file when he picked it up on eBay that let him fight the colossi out of order. For his character—who, as I’ve neglected to mention, is named Charlie Fineman—the game is supposed to be a metaphor for 9/11, of course.

Back in ‘07, Kotaku managed to get in touch with Jeremy Roush, who worked as an editor for Reign Over Me. Apparently, the role of Shadow of the Colossus in the film was inspired by Roush’s father.

The Vietnam War left his father 100 percent mentally disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder... Unable to work, he spent the days and evenings watching sci-fi thriller Aliens over and over again until he actually had to buy a new VHS tape. "Aliens is a thinly veiled kind of Vietnam veteran kind of story," Roush explains, "and watching it is a way of thinking about it without telling yourself you are thinking about it." The movie was visceral therapy for his father… Refusing to accept the death of loved ones. Seeking out an escape from that truth. Giants falling in slow motion. "You could see where someone who was dealing with 9/11 would be engrossed by a giant that keeps collapsing over and over again," he says. Charlie's therapy was Shadow of the Colossus. (Ashcraft p.2)

Roush, who was responsible for the idea to include the game in the movie, had thought seriously about the thematics. In Reign Over Me, Charlie Fineman’s fixation on Shadow of the Colossus is a deliberate symbol of his grief, boxed into a safe and distant replica of tragedy which he can watch himself overcome again and again on the plasma TV.

Later on in the film, Cheadle manages to drag Sandler to weekly therapist sessions, but they go nowhere. Sandler refuses to speak about his family and leaves each session after just a few minutes. But he does say “I like to play Colossus!” (Reign, 1:13:29). In this movie’s understanding of mentally ill people, or at least in Roush’s, PTSD sufferers seek out proxy-triggers to act out the procedure of grieving with none of the pain. I think that I preferred the movie before I learned this. It just doesn’t make as much sense to say that the colossi are all supposed to be, like, the twin towers. Isn’t that bizarre? I mean, I had just assumed that the game was more broadly supposed to be a parallel to the ordeal of overcoming grief, and that the colossi were the grief. Grief is like a colossus, or like colossi, because it can feel so much bigger than the griever, so invincible and enduring. That’s why it was so strange to me that he never makes it further through the game over the course of the movie. In the very last scene, when he’s in his new and well-lit apartment, do you know what he’s doing? He’s playing it again, but he’s back to number thirteen. I really expected him to finish the game by the end, which would parallelize his grief struggle with a struggle to take down the colossi. It would represent something. However, the truth is that the colossus encounters are supposed to be 9/11, and he’s mentally recreating a facsimile of 9/11 every time he plays the game. Infinite, furry World Trade Centers getting stabbed by Adam Sandler over and over.

Sorry, that might have been a digression in poor taste. You didn’t expect to read a review of Reign Over Me within this review of Shadow of the Colossus and it was a little deceptive of me to jam it in there. But I thought about it so much, you have to understand! It’s fascinating to me how I could arrive at such a different interpretation of the movie than was apparently intended. The same difference goes for the game itself: Mr. Roush definitely got the gist of Shadow of the Colossus, but he applied the game to the movie in such a different way than I would have.

Let’s talk about the technical side of things instead for a short while. A nice palate-cleanser. It might seem unbalanced to devote one half of the score system to technology that is seldom appreciated by the audience—this score is more than that. Perhaps you were left confused when I didn’t explain it in much detail earlier, back when I was still laying out the way the system works. The slogan “does it blow my mind?” suggests that this category seeks to appreciate the craft of game development. A good example of something non-technological that “blows my mind” would be the dialogue system in Hades; the incredible effort of writing such a massive script and then organizing it so cleverly certainly does blow my mind, speaking as a game developer and a very slow writer.

Shadow of the Colossus is an exceptionally technically impressive game that deserves more than the 1 I assigned it on the spot so long ago. Through optimization, fakery, and creativity, it packs in the most sophisticated graphics the PlayStation 2 can handle, including HDR lighting, self-shading, long-distance level-of-detail mesh transitions, real-time fur rendering, volumetric particles, and anisotropic light scattering. Most of these practices were considered next-gen at the time of the game’s release. Some of them still feel shiny and new in 2024.

Team ICO accomplished this through ingenuity and strict scoping. Out of any of my sources, I learned the most about it here. Of particular interest to me is the usage of procedural animation and inverse kinematics, of which I’m a big fan. If you are one of the few beautiful souls in this loving universe who have read my blog(s) before, you know that I’ve been working on and off for a long time on a project that relies heavily on inverse kinematics called Flower Pot. The inexpensive algorithm I use in my own work, called FABRIK, was not published until 2011. Furthermore, Shadow of the Colossus has very complex character models and needs to clearly telegraph the movements of the player character and the colossi. For this reason it also dynamically combines animation data keyframed by an animator with the movements computed by the inverse kinematics algorithms. They did this on a CPU that clocked at about 294 megahertz (see Diefendorff).

I won’t reproduce diagrams here because they’re already available in the translated article on Léna Piquet’s website, which I linked above and which may also be found in my sources. To be honest, there is less for me to write in this section of the review because there is not much new to say. The achievements and process of Team ICO have been extensively documented and explained, much more than almost any other game. What is especially unique about Shadow of the Colossus is that much of this dissection and documentation has been done by outsiders: fans who never had access to the team or their materials.

Of particular note is Nomad Colossus. I found a Fandom wiki article about this guy. It says, “Nomad Colossus is a well-known figure in The Shadow of The Colossus community. He's most well-known for his insane dedication to the game and downright jaw-dropping data-mining” (Team Ico Wiki). Passionate! But the article has no comments. Yet on the other hand, a skim of the community message log page shows that at least a dozen users have worked on this wiki within the last several months. A tantalizing window into a community, or one of a million lost corners of the internet? I cannot rightfully say.

Nomad Colossus uploaded their first Shadow of the Colossus-related YouTube video in April of 2010, four and a half years post-release. It’s been much longer than that since Breath of the Wild came out and I’m still surprised whenever I see someone running it in an emulator. The video is titled “Shadow of the Colossus - Through the entrance,” and it shows Wander on horseback in an area normally inaccessible except in cutscenes: the north bridge into the central shrine. He rides Agro through the narrow gate passage on the other end of the bridge. The path continues into a void for a long ways, but the horse stops as if running into a wall.

Since then, Nomad Colossus has published 346 videos (if I’m counting correctly) pertaining to Shadow of the Colossus, prying at it with camera hacks, model viewers, and data manipulation. He reveals mountains and plains and islands and ruins all inaccessible in normal play. Their work, comprising so many short, uncommentated videos, can be engaged with as a companion book to the game; Nomad gradually turns the elusive horizons of the Forbidden Lands back into data, into geometry stored in a file system. Numbers on computers permit no mysteries. A number is autological; before being applied to another end it represents only itself. A number is atomic, it has no secret compartments. Through the efforts of explorers like Nomad Colossus and their emulators, no pit has been left unaccounted for on the DVD-ROM. Nomad renders Shadow of the Colossus into a wholly unmysterious object. This is not a criticism of their work.

At the same time, the game continues to support an incredible abundance of perceived mystery. After all, this was why Nomad Colossus’s work began. The so-called Secret Seekers and their famous thread on the PSN forums were dedicated to unearthing what they imagined to be the mother-of-all easter eggs. They began with intense clue-hunting and then moved on to the less speculative arts of boundary breaking and data mining, albeit after dozens of pages of effusive discussion. The intentions behind the game’s design were a favorite topic. Their style of discourse was dense with wild, associative connections; the possibility of subtextual hints by means of biblical allusion was on the table before even the end of the first post (Quest for the Last Big Secret). “Fumito Ueda is infamous for his attention to the most minute, intricate detail,” this post says. But to say he is infamous for this—does that not suggest the consensus of many people? I suspect that the Ueda these individuals imagined was not an accurate model of the real one. There was no secret last colossus, after all.

These are only a few of many voices on the internet professing all kinds of opinions about the game, its content, its intentions and meanings and forms. A quick survey will show substantial diversity of interpretation: I found a passionate review on the “patientgamers” subreddit decrying Shadow of the Colossus as “one of the worst games I’ve ever played” for its “non-existent story” and “Genuinely awful clunky movement and controls” (AstraFuckingGooGoo). In “Shadow of the Colossus: a Retrospective View,” NoobFeed user BrunoBRS calls the game “a love story, of what limits can a man go for his loved one, but it is, most importantly, the tale of David and Goliath” in a passage of lavish praise for “what he truly believes is the greatest game of all time” (BrunoBRS). The similarly-titled “Shadow of the Colossus: A Retrospective,” an article on The Boss Key, calls it “a game all about and only about killing the boss monsters as a means to an end” (Koop). “Shadow of the Colossus Retrospective– A Tragically Beautiful Love Story,” brought to us by Taylor Lyles on DualShockers, says it’s “so much more than just a boss rush game; it is the story of a boy who cared so much for someone he loved that unleashed all sorts of hellish things to save her” (Lyles). Shadow of the Colossus retrospectives are, as they say, like assholes: everybody has one. I am included. Shades of consensus and contradiction are to be found in abundance in each discussion of the game.

And what of my own opinions? They depend on a perceived counter-opinion in many ways. My revised scoring suggests how I remember my past self. In my discussion of the aesthetic content of the game, I call for a new perspective that de-emphasizes the notion that Shadow of the Colossus deliberately works to subvert a convention of the medium of video games. But couldn’t I be accused of failing to establish that this notion existed in the first place? Let me provide an example of that notion, at least. Here’s another retrospective. It has the word “retrospective” in its title. It’s called “START/SELECT: Consuming Loneliness: A ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ Retrospective,” and it was written by Mac Riga for the Georgetown University student newspaper. Here’s Riga’s take:

Team Ico sought to make a game that laid bare the contradiction of video games. It held up this beautiful medium, the pinnacle of self-isolation and escapism yet one that fosters empathy and self-reflection more than any other, and begged the player to wrestle with that irony — to come to their own conclusions about what it means to be alone, what it means to consume video games and what it means to do both simultaneously. (Riga)

This is surprising. Riga isn’t talking about the moral irony of monster-slaying in video games, which is more or less the topic of the counter-opinion I imagined myself to be opposing. But he is saying that Shadow of the Colossus is trying to engage in conversation with a convention of the medium of games, and to me that was the important part. For Riga, it’s a game about “self-isolation” and “empathy.”

Maybe it would be helpful to check what Fumito Ueda has to say. Even if you’re the type to faithfully invoke The Death of the Author, you might still agree, I hope, that discovering the designer’s intent will provide a reference against which to compare other views.

“I’ve never thought that “cruelty” is something forbidden in video games. Video games seem to require cruelty as a means of expression, and that being the case, I wanted to try and present my own take on cruelty. That was really the seed idea of Shadow of the Colossus.” (Ueda)

Here in a 2005 interview with CONTINUE magazine, Ueda casts Shadow of the Colossus as a game about cruelty inspired by the cruelty he sees as required in games. My analysis is thrown into doubt even further! It was intended as a deconstruction all along. But wait—Fumito Ueda from 2019 might be here to save me.

Was the overall aim of SOTC to question why it is that most games are about killing and how we have grown so comfortable doing so in a virtual existence? Fumito Ueda: I play games where violence is a factor myself, so I do not dismiss such games. However, through the production of Shadow of the Colossus, I started having doubts about simply “feeling good by beating monsters” and “getting a sense of accomplishment”. I tried thinking if there were any other choices for different kinds of expression, then ended up with such settings and rules as a result. Rather than try to deliberately create some sort of antithesis, I focused more on the consistency of the design as a product and differentiation (from other products). (Taylor)

Apologies for another long block quote; I really think the context is worth leaving in here because it helps to illustrate that, while Ueda is not exactly contradicting himself, different circumstances have prompted two answers with very different implications. The interviewer in the latter source seems to be aligned with the popular view that the game narrative is chiefly an exploration of morality. Which I do not disagree with, either: I should reiterate that my disagreement is with the view that the game narrative is specifically an exploration of morality in the medium of video games. The interviewer suggests that by saying that “most games are about killing.” Ueda seems to dismiss the idea by going on to say that the game was not crafted as “some sort of antithesis,” but that those themes emerged simply by trying to make a unique story. But in the former interview, Ueda asserts that he was “inspired” by the prevalence of “cruelty” in games. We are deprived of an authorial view where we might find stability; such a thing would have protected us, maybe, from the wild menagerie of contrasting views we face instead.

And could it be possible, if you would excuse the sudden break, that Reign Over Me (2007) starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle might not have always been actively trying to frame Shadow of the Colossus as a pseudo-Freudian stand-in for 9/11? More importantly, do we have any meaningful way to be sure? No, I think it’s more likely that suggestive forces have moved in with us permanently and that their furniture is too numerous and heavy for us to kick them out. It is impossible to speak on the aesthetics of a work, especially one so widely critiqued as Shadow of the Colossus, without necessarily speaking on what was spoken before. It is impossible to even play the game without encountering these extratextual conversations.

When I watched my friend play Shadow of the Colossus for the first time, I must have already been faintly aware of this phenomenon. The process of finding an appropriate emulator and an appropriate ROM led her through websites already saturated with extratextual content that suggested certain ideas of the game content. She had heard me speak of the game before. She had already listened to much of its music, accompanied on YouTube by comments. Being someone interested in games herself, she had certainly already encountered discussions of the game content like this one. She knew damn well that Agro would fall off that bridge. From all of this it is clear to me that the “extratext” was always inescapable. If she were to encounter the game truly without prior knowledge it would still not have “saved” her because she would just discover the extratext afterwards.

And what of my wife? My poor sweet wife? Just as no dry beach is spared from the tide, she too will be inundated by extratext that will indelibly shape how she receives and interprets the game content. She will not be a source of a “pure” opinion, but only another source of interpretation. She will never play Shadow of the Colossus as it was when it came out in 2005.

The space in consideration is a “consensus blob.” It has no hard boundaries, but it has gradients. Within the blob there are many shades of interpretation, but few overt contradictions except when comparing extremes. The blob is uncentered because there is no single “correct” or most stable interpretation. Areas of the blob give the appearance of a “consensus,” a shared notion or common interpretation, but really the gradient is everywhere and always-changing, like an amoeba. Even the creator of the art object can sway from point to point in the blob, forgetting wherever it was they started. The consensus is heraclitean. The extratext is absolutely inseparable from the text.

Really, we shouldn’t be miffed about it. Shadow of the Colossus can be about a lot of things, it’s not like we need a single definitive analysis. It will be a joy to watch my wife play, and I will be delighted to see what she thinks. I’m sure it will be new and exciting.

Overall, I give Reign Over Me a strong 6/10.

Sources

AstraFuckingGooGoo. “Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)- one of the worst games I’ve ever played.” r/patientgamers. https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/ujnx5q/shadow_of_the_colossus_ps4_one_of_the_worst_games/. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.

Binder, Mike, dir. 2007. Reign over Me. Screenplay by Mike Binder. Columbia Pictures.

BrunoBRS. “Shadow of the Colossus: a Retrospective View”. Noobfeed. 27 Sep. 2011. https://www.noobfeed.com/features/160/shadow-of-the-colossus-a-retrospective-view

Diefendorff, Keith. “Sony’s Emotionally Charged Chip.” Microprocessor Report, vol. 13, no. 5.

Koop, Brandon. “Shadow of the Colossus: A Retrospective.” The Boss Key, 10 Apr. 2014, https://bradenkoop.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/shadow-of-the-colossus-a-retrospective/.

Lyles, Taylor. “Shadow of the Colossus Retrospective -- A Tragically Beautiful Love Story.” DualShockers, 26 Jan. 2018, https://www.dualshockers.com/shadow-of-the-colossus-retrospective/.

Metacritic. Reign over Me. https://www.metacritic.com/movie/reign-over-me/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.

“Nomad Colossus.” Team Ico Wiki, https://teamico.fandom.com/wiki/Nomad_Colossus. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.

Peeren, Esther. “Compelling Memory: 9/11 and the Work of Mourning in Mike Binder’s Reign Over Me.” Cultural Critique, vol. 92, no. 1, Dec. 2016, pp. 57–83. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2016.a617380.

Piquet, Léna, translator. “The Making of ‘Shadow of the Colossus.’” Froyok, Dec. 2007, https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2772150/175939_PUBLISHED_Peeren_617380.pdf.

Quest for the Last Big Secret / Mysteries of SotC. PlayStation Community Forums, archived May 2013. http://web.archive.org/web/20130505104658/http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Shadow-of-the-Colossus-PS2/Quest-for-the-Last-Big-Secret-Mysteries-of-SotC/td-p/20178777

Riga, Mac. “START/SELECT: Consuming Loneliness: A ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ Retrospective.” The Hoya, https://thehoya.com/guide/start-select-consuming-loneliness-a-shadow-of-the-colossus-retrospective/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

Taylor, Jay. “Interview Extra: Fumito Ueda (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian).” Cane and Rinse, 27 Aug. 2019, https://caneandrinse.com/fumito-ueda-interview/.

Ueda, Fumito. Interview for CONTINUE Magazine, vol. 25., 2005. Translated by shmuplations, https://shmuplations.com/ueda/. Accessed 13 Aug. 2024.

#essay #game criticism #game critique #game review #video games #gaming #shadow of the colossus #team ico #review #dustyisforever review

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elstreem · 1 year

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Camelot Movies appreciation post~

Warning: very, very long because I have no idea how to condense my thoughts. Also very rambly. I would include more screenshots but I don't really have much, but I do have a few for the 2nd movie!

So when I first watched these film adaptations I was pretty harsh on them and with the first film specifically, I was left wanting for more because of how much it cut out. While it's a shame that they had to, given the constraints of film (one hour and 30 minutes for each film, for an adaptation of a chapter with I dunno, 200k or more words?) I remember feeling disappointed with what it didn't do (no Arash Airlines, no goofy Bedivere moments, and booting out Hundred Faces).

But being the simp I am rewatching the movies some more, I did realize it what was trying to do with its more limited time, and it did a good job showcasing just how horrifying the conditions of the Sixth Singularity was for the people living in it...and something that only recently came to my notice, something that the films did a great job at building up slowly and subtly, was Bedivere slowly opening up to Fujimaru and Mash. And Bedivere finding out, he was not alone.

So with that in mind, I don't mind the first film as much as I did before, because now I notice how Bedivere went from being distinctly cold and unfriendly (pushing away Salia when she asked him for help, and refusing Arash's offer of food and immediately leaving after the conversation ends) to putting his trust in Fujimaru and Mash, and it just warms my heart. Because, really, he was on his last chance to fix his mistake, and he knew he was going to die once he finished his journey, no ifs, ands or buts about it. He had no reason to reach out to others, so really, it makes all sense he was in this quiet despair at the start of the movie.

But then, as in the game, he saw Fujimaru and Mash trying to protect the refugees during the Holy Selection, so he stepped in to save them. A little while later, he also witnesses da Vinci apparently sacrificing herself for their sake, but in spite of that Fujimaru didn't give up. And that's when Bedivere first takes an active interest in someone else outside of his mission, curious of who Fujimaru is as a person.

So when Fujimaru asks for his help - he actually touches his hand, in contrast to what happened earlier in the movie. He physically reached out to Fujimaru and began to trust him, too.

It keeps building up from that point of contact, with Bedivere actually apologizing to Arash for hiding his identity, and accepting offers of food here and there. Another small interaction I missed seeing the significance of was when Fujimaru remarked to Bedivere that the Lion King was a horrible person - but rather than getting angry, or defensive, Bedivere simply reminisced on who she used to be. It's easy to gloss over, but keeping in mind that Artoria is someone Bedivere looked up to, it would have been easy to get offended by Fujimaru's remark, but Bedivere wasn't, and instead, he shared his own memories of her. my heart

And so, even in the darkest part of the movie, with the village under attack and Tristan himself facing Bedivere in battle - it just means a lot more, the scene when Mash steps in to block Tristan's attack, and Fujimaru actually goes into the battle, helps Bedivere stand up, and continued to carry him while walking towards Tristan to deliver a decisive strike.

Actually, these movies overall helped me appreciate Fujimaru more as a character, he's so sweet and caring.

Now, the second film is a better experience with all the flashy battles and more action scenes, but I also loved its quiet talking scenes. I can gush on and on about the scene where Bedivere and Fujimaru are taking a morning walk, especially.

But even at the beginning of the movie, when Fujimaru and Mash go on to check on Bedivere, was very sweet, the both of them so concerned and there is this ease in the way they interact that's so nice to see.

Another easy to miss moment is when the party reunites with da Vinci at Lancelot's camp and they begin discussing and theorizing why the Lion King is the way she is - when Bedivere tenses up, Fujimaru was the only who noticed and glanced over.

It ties later on with what he tells Mash, that he suspects Bedivere wasn't telling them the whole truth, but despite that, he trusted Bedivere would be with them.

My favorite scene out of the movies, of course, was the morning after, with Bedivere opening up to Fujimaru about his fear of a meaningless ending. Everything about this scene - the way Bedivere sounds and looks so fragile, standing on this rocky mountain slope in the cold morning light, and he fact that even Fujimaru was at a loss what to say at first - it breaks my heart.

But then, Mash tells them that Rushd found his determination to keep on living as a way of honoring Salia (oh, and it's sweet that when Rushd kneels down to cry at a distance, Mash goes after him to comfort him!) And Fujimaru tells Bedivere it's the same case for him, that there was always meaning in what he did because he was doing it for someone else, and then the sun rises and bathes everything in a warm glow as Bedivere cries from relief -

It's. Just. So good.

Oh, and another thing I noticed after rewatching the movie an unhealthy amount of times? During that scene, Fujimaru gives Bedivere Arash's dagger. Later on, that same dagger was the weapon Bedivere used to deal the finishing blow to Gawain, and it just - the whole resolution to Bedivere and Gawain's personal conflict -

Bedivere never left Artoria during her life, and was present even at her death, while Gawain always regretted that he was not there for her at Camlann, and he wanted to make up for it by standing by Artoria's side in the Sixth Singularity, even when she was in the wrong. Both Mordred and Gawain actually resented Bedivere for this, and I think a part of Gawain even blamed Bedivere for not saving Artoria.

But during their battle in the film (which is an amazing, if brutal fight) Bedivere won over Gawain using Arash's dagger, proving that his mission to restore Artoria to her true self was the right way. His loyalty won over Gawain's empty vision of standing by her side, and true enough, Gawain wasn't actually standing by Artoria because he chose to battle with Bedivere.

Oh, and another very, very fast moment I never noticed during my first few times watching this - when Bedivere, Fujimaru and Mash are heading for the castle and they run into Tristan, Tristan's attack was actually aiming for Fujimaru's head. And if you slow down the scene enough, it's actually Bedivere who pushes Fujimaru back to protect him - you can tell because his metal arm was actually in the frame for a few seconds, pushing back Fujimaru.

Bedivere, probably, "I just met this guy but I will protect him with my life so I have nothing more to say to you Tristan -"

And Fujimaru definitely trusts Bedivere back, because when they got separated during the vs. Gawain fight, Fujimaru tells Mash they should keep going, believing Bedivere will come back for them.

I am mostly gushing about Bedivere here, here's some love for the other characters:

Nitocris and Ozymandias's final scene together was also pretty sweet. It's a bit harder to grasp their relationship in the film since they have shorter scenes and less dialogue, but when Ozymandias gently touches Nitocris's shoulder and tells her she's done enough, and she regretfully says she hasn't - but the visuals indicate, that Ozymandias actually took her with him to the Egyptian afterlife just before the pyramid crumbled.

Sanzang giving peace to Mordred in their last moments was also very heartwarming. Also, Mordred saying in that battle that they didn't mind dying there and then because they hoped that in the world the Lion King was about to make, there were going to be no fools like them? Poor Mordred needs a hug and therapy. This isn't the post to go into how Mordred has such a depth of character in that they also despaired at putting an end to Artoria, so all I'll say is, I'm glad they got a great dad in Kairi in Apocrypha to make up for all the awfulness they felt with Artoria.

Serenity fighting with all she had against Tristan despite knowing their plan failed was both very sad but definitely an awesome moment. And the fact that she did what was a seemingly useless desperation attack to hold Tristan's attention while Cursed Arm was releasing Shaytan (all the while Tristan was slashing her limbs by the way) - she did good. I'm not much for fight choreographies, but I think the 2nd movie had especially great ones!

So the final conflict, and here's another detail I love about this movie - it's pretty consistent with how each fight wears Bedivere down a bit more, and by the time he makes it to the Lion King, the fight with Gawain had already made him throw his cape as a distraction, gashed his armor, burned away the ends of his skirt (I'm not sure what the correct term is for that part of the outfit), and even his ribbon is gone. At first I thought that Bedivere's hair got loose after being hit by Rhongomyiad, but now, its actually when he activates Airgetlam, you can see the metal tube thingies he's wearing burst apart.

Okay, but that was one indestructible hairstyle though, lasting for 1500+ years and even after fights with fellow Round Table knights, and it was only when Bedivere looses Airgetlam at the end that his hair gets out.

Anyway, silly commentary aside, the music track for the final fight "I am Bedivere" makes me so emotional :'>

Also, the fact that Fujimaru and Mash tear up when they realize the horrible truth that Bedivere was disintegrating before them...but they fight alongside him anyway, honoring the end of his journey. And when Bedivere is so, so spent, and he asks for the last Command Spell? And Fujimaru gives it with no hesitation?

Here, when he was at his end, Bedivere knew again, he wasn't going to die alone...and he had friends with him. Just, the way he smiled...it speaks of so much gratitude.

And he even bids Mash to take care of Fujimaru, before he makes his final charge.

Thank you movies for hurting me in the best way possible.

Oh, and one last rewatch realization? Bedivere actually died onscreen, they just didn't indicate it because it was mostly just showing his and Artoria's silhouettes. But I was rewatching it and then realized, "Wait, he's not moving or speaking anymore..."

He was crumbing away even as he presented the sword, and in the time it took for Artoria to remember who she was...when she finally recalled her last memories of seeing Bedivere's face, I believe sometime during that - Bedivere died. He didn't react to her final words to him, or her touching his face - and shortly after that, his body finally disintegrated, so I think, before that, his soul finally hit his limits.

Brb just sobbing.

So are the Camelot movies perfect? Not by a long shot from an objective point of view. But do I still love them? Hell yeah. I think they are something that can be appreciated with more rewatching, and it makes me sad that most discussions I see about the film are that the animation sequences look different depending on the scene? Which I don't really mind, I think each scene looked fantastic.

One last little addition I noticed recently: the battle damage Bedivere received (the fight against Gawain burned off the chest ribbon and cape he wears, and singes his skirt)...it resembles the state of his First Ascension art, since he also lacks the cape, chest ribbon, and his skirt is shorter there. Not sure if it's just a coincidence, or a proper nod to the in-game art. Either way, it's really neat detail.

#fgo camelot #fgo #bedivere #i feel like i'm going to explode if I don't put all my thoughts in one post #so here they are #did some edits!

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eternally--mortal · 1 year

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One of my many time travel headcanons slots into the irondad—spiderson corner of the Marvel fanverse. I love Spider-Man and his stories, but I also suffer from visceral second-hand embarrassment and second-hand pain of seeing someone neglected or abandoned or alone, so most of my voluntary interactions with the Spider-Man/Marvel fan sphere come from the warm and fuzzy and emotionally rewarding sections with Tony and Peter becoming family. I know there are some arguments about how realistic that may or may not be to the movies, but I don’t really care. I love that those fan fictions and fan arts exist and I embrace them because they’re my favorite way of intaking that particular corner of media. So if you’re on that same page with me, enjoy my little private time travel headcanon:

In a Universe where Tony survives, Beck would have to curb his plans. They wouldn’t have formed the same way. For one thing, the drones and the glasses wouldn’t have been accessible through Peter / Tony’s will. For another, Peter would have been immediately more obviously tied to Tony, because Tony wouldn’t want to let him out of his sight after saving the world for Peter. In this version Tony and Pepper essentially adopt Peter and share informal joint custody with May. Peter gets to be Morgan’s older brother and he eventually sees Tony as his dad. They take their time to adjust: Peter has time to settle after the snap and find a new equilibrium, and the group of them develops a normal family routine. There’s definitely an optional version of this where Harley’s there as well because I have a soft spot for that, but this is mostly about Peter and Morgan (sorry Harley. You’re awesome, I just didn’t imagine you in the bulk of this story).

Beck’s team takes longer to get their shit together—partially as a plot device to allow Peter to adjust enough to call Tony “dad” and partially because Tony isn’t dead in this version, so their plans have to be different.

When the public figures out that Tony has a ‘son’—one that’s just as smart as he is—Beck and his crew decide not to go directly after the drones. They go for the kids instead. They figure ‘hey, if the rumors are true and the brat is just as smart as Tony, he can build whatever we want him to. If not, we can use the kids as leverage to get what we want.’ They go after Peter and Morgan and steal some of Tony’s super-secret-recently-invented time travel technology and hop around the space time continuum for a little bit. They don’t realize that Peter is Spider-Man because they’re convinced he’s Tony’s son and have fixated on that rather than on the fact that Peter might be a superhero (since Tony so obviously considers him a son they didn’t do as much digging into ‘why on earth would Tony Stark take interest in this random kid?’). But Peter doesn’t know whether he should play his hand as Spider-Man. They keep him separated from Morgan most of the time and he has to keep her safe because they’re threatening him with her. Peter doesn’t want to take the risk that he’ll escape and they’ll portal away with Morgan somewhere/when where he can’t find them.

Beck and his crew haven’t tried to reach out to Tony yet. They’re pretty confident that they can use Morgan to get whatever they want out of Peter instead. And besides that, Beck really just wants to make Tony suffer, so he figures taking his kids somewhere unreachable is the best way to do that. But he also wants to be able to watch Some version of Tony, just to remind himself of whom he’s torturing. So after hop-skip-jumping their way through the time stream, Beck takes them back in time to just after the Avengers saved the world from Loki—or some other convenient time within the span of movies. There’s some flexibility there. (The watches work for all of these trips. It’s possible that Peter and Tony revisited the tech to eliminate Pym Particles as an energy source. Maybe Beck’s team of engineers found another power source. Or maybe they just have a huge stash of particles. I don’t know. I didn’t really think about that part of the story. This is really mostly just background.)

Peter wants to lessen the risk of being more permanently separated from Morgan, he wants to make it easier for Tony to find them, AND he likes that they’re in a time period where he can reach some version of the Avengers. So he sneaks out while they’re trying to make him build something and he sabotages all of the time bracelets so they can’t be used again.

The real meat of the story comes with the back-in-time Avengers. Tony gets an odd transmission that he can’t open (because Peter sent it to JARVIS in the hopes that His version of Tony would find it and see it in the future and would know when and how to come back and get them). Then the Avengers run into the future version of Tony who shows up in the past. Younger Tony gets super suspicious, and he and the other Avengers assume that this is some super villain using a copy of the Ironman suit.

Beck’s crew may also have done something to get them on Team Cap’s radar, and Cap may be investigating some of their movements as potential remnants of Hydra or something else equally suspicious. Especially since Beck’s crew may have been too bold entering into this part of the timeline when they assumed they’d have access to an escape (before Peter broke the bracelets).

Finally the Avengers have a run-in where they see Tony’s face. Maybe they even catch him and drag him back to Avengers Tower (which of course he would know how to control / escape). He won’t tell them what’s going on because he takes one look at his younger self and sees a traumatized man with narcissistic tendencies who is Not ready to be a father. So he just tells them that Beck “stole something from me” and to “not get involved.” He plays up some of his familiar bravado and ego so they won’t dig too far into what exactly Beck might have stolen.

Meanwhile Beck is getting fed up with Peter, for obvious reasons. They’re trying to get him to fix the bracelets on Top of everything else they wanted him to do, but he keeps stalling for time. Beck keeps almost catching him recording covert videos, and before Peter has the chance to upload and send any more of them, the crew packs up and ditches the base where they were originally holding the kids. Peter and Morgan are now stuck in the past together, but Peter’s finding fewer and fewer opportunities to escape with her without revealing himself, and now that they’re in the past he’s afraid that Beck might discover his identity and go after Peter’s younger self as well before he even has the spider bite. Besides that, none of Beck’s team realizes how much food Peter needs to eat to stay functional. And when he’s difficult they do things like withhold food (which is a problem for his metabolism), withhold heat (when he can’t thermoregulate, so it’s basically like drugging him because it makes his body think it has to hibernate), actually drug him, etc. He’s hedging between causing problems to make life difficult for Beck, playing at good behavior in order to get more time with Morgan, actually practicing semi-good behavior to buy some time for Tony to come get them, and trying to formulate a better escape plan. And when Beck relocates them to an old Hydra base, Peter decides not to take any risks about showing off his spider powers.

The Avengers team breaks into Beck’s old base after the relocation. Cap is convinced that Tony made some stupid world-ending tech that’s going to get them all killed and that That is what Beck stole. That, or it’s just the time travel tech. To be fair, Tony is also pretty convinced that it’s some sort of tech, and he’s fairly invested in finding out what future-y stuff his older self is being so cagey about. They find evidence of a lab with mechanical parts (tools and pieces that they gave Peter to try and get him to build things, etc.). But Nat comes across a room with a blanket in the corner and a couple crayon drawings and does the whole “Guys, maybe we’re on the wrong trail here” bit about how maybe they don’t really know what’s been stollen. Tony gets what he can out of the computer and takes it back to the tower to decode.

A week later he’s de-encrypted the files enough to access some of the videos that Peter made and saved behind some walls of coding.

There are little snippets that show Peter stalling for time, ones that show some of the repercussions of his sabotaging the watches, etc. There are videos that show how much Beck’s team is treating him as a stupid normal kid and trying to manipulate him in a variety of ways—sometimes with Morgan, sometimes with violence or bribery.

A video where Peter wonders if he should be building something to appease them because they’re not feeding him and he needs to see Morgan, and how he wants to hold out, but Dad he’s not sure he’s going to be able to if it means Morgan might get hurt. How he promises to take care of her.

There are videos of Peter being a little shit and pulling tricks behind Beck’s back to mess with the tech.

A video of Peter looking a little better and Morgan sitting there assisting him and handing him the right tools before he can finish asking for them. They sing a little Italian at each other (in this version May taught Peter some Italian and Tony taught Morgan and Peter some as well). Morgan tells Peter “that’s not the way Daddy builds it.” And Peter has to tell her that they don’t have dad’s stuff at their disposal. (They’re sneakily building an E.M.P. instead of whatever Beck wants. That’s why Peter had to stash the thumb drive so it wasn’t hooked up to the computer system. Unfortunately Beck gets wind of it and figures out what they’re doing before they can use it. He’s noticed the Avengers sniffing around which is why they ditch their original base.) There’s definitely a moment in a video somewhere where they’re talking about Pepper (calling her ‘mom’) and how she would be able to stop Beck maybe even more easily than Tony—Peter says it as a Half-joke to make Morgan feel hopeful—and Peter says “can you do your mom impression?” And Morgan’s face transforms into this little deadpan look and she goes “No, Tony.” And they both laugh and joke about how Pepper would just tell Beck “No” and take them home. And then we see Beck storm in and discover the E.M.P. and throw it into the corner where it smashes (which is how the Avengers find it when they investigate), and we watch Morgan get dragged off screaming and Peter screaming back for her and trying to talk down Beck while Beck is pulling the whole ‘I thought letting you work with your sister would make you behave, but obviously I can’t trust the two of you together’ bit. He says shit like ‘you’re a worse brat than your dad’ and insults their whole family and says some nasty things about Tony and then about Peter and Morgan all while he’s ordering his people to shut the place down and clear out. Beck figures out that Peter’s been recording all of this after his team drags the kids out and he leaves a nasty message for Tony about how he’s going to pay, blah blah blah, how he’s never going to get his kids back. Something dramatic.

Obviously there’s some backlash in the team to Tony finding out that he’s a dad or that he’s going to be. They try to do some calculating to figure out when he’s going to have Peter (since they assume he’s a bio kid), but some of that is messed up by the fact that they don’t know about the snap or the five years that Peter lost. It’s generally chaos. They’re also a little more rushed to figure this out now that they know that there are kids involved. (They also don’t realize that Peter has powers, but it shouldn’t really matter because he’s a kid anyway.)

(At some point there would also be a conversation later when they meet up with Older Tony where someone suggests that Younger Tony just deal with Beck in the present time to avoid all of this so that Older Tony can explain how time travel doesn’t work like that and that This future version of Beck is already set the way he is, likely on a deviant path from their own Beck.)

Beck super mad that the time watches are broken and that the Avengers are on their tail. He rigs up the Hydra base and uses some of his hologram tech to manipulate the kids into thinking they’re being rescued when they’re not (either just to be an asshole or to try and get Peter to fix the watches through manipulation), or to show Peter a hologram of Morgan when she’s not in the room and vice versa to mess with them. At one point he possibly makes Peter think he’s shooting Morgan or something as a form of punishment for Peter not cooperating. There’s a large variety of evil that Beck is frankly willing to dip into to psychologically mess with these kids (and Tony by extension).

Older Tony and the Avengers end up working together to go save Peter and Morgan, which could honestly go a variety of ways. But I like the idea that Peter and Morgan are integral to the escape somehow, by building something or by Morgan remembering something important or by Peter using his smarts or his powers just a little. Younger-Tony gets handed Morgan (by another hero, against his will) at one point while Older Tony is in another room on the other side of the base trying to negotiate with Beck who’s threatening to kill Peter (something like that), and Morgan calls him Mr. Stark or Tony instead of Dad or Daddy because “You’re not my Dad yet” and makes a comment about how there isn’t enough gray in his hair. And he’s not really sure how to respond to her so they’re kind of strangers to each other.

Morgan possibly mentions something about ‘why didn’t you bring Uncle Bucky?’ and Steve just about has a heart attack, and Peter has to defuse it like ‘I don’t think they know about Uncle Bucky yet.’

Beck and his crew are taken into custody. Peter and Morgan get some time in the med bay for recovery. We get to see them interact with JARVIS (which is a little odd because they usually just have FRIDAY). The Avengers get to see Tony being a dad—even if he’s a little cagey about it around the super hero team. There are allusions to him being married to Pepper (without them directly saying it). Peter and Tony fix the time watches (without letting JARVIS see the schematics, because we can’t have an earth-conquering robot knowing how to traverse space-time), and they go home. (Either that or we involve Harley, who’s possibly been home with Pepper this whole time and did not get kidnapped because having all three kids would have driven Beck over the edge. And Harley took care of the technology from his end and ended up altering the tech to open a doorway instead of just using the watches. Not canon compliant, but I don’t know that I mind it as an option. Because, again, The Feels are more important to me for this particular story.) There’s definitely a little moment somewhere in their stay at the tower in the past with the Avengers where Peter wants to drink coffee or something and Tony tells him ‘thanks, no, I’ll take that’ and then asks Morgan to do a Mom (Pepper) impression, so Morgan turns to Peter and goes “No,” and Peter responds with “traitor” or something. I don’t know I think it would be cute.

And then there’s just the aftermath. Peter has Aunt May and MJ and Ned waiting for him when he gets back home. There’s family time with Pepper (and maybe Harley???). All those good vibes. Back in time there’s an acknowledgement of the fact that Tony is a whole-ass person who will grow and develop. Cap wants to go look for Bucky. And the seed has been planted that something is going to go wrong with JARVIS. Tony wonders if Peter’s out there somewhere and was possibly a child of one of his one night stands. Things like that.

#tony stark #peter parker #irondad #spiderson #marvel Spider-Man #mcu spiderman headcanon #mcu headcanon #marvel headcanon #marvel fanfiction #Tom holland’s Spider-Man #I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while because then No Way Home came out #and I was depressed all over again and reminded that the way I like to view Peter’s story is not how it’s portrayed in film #and how it’s also super tragic in the comic books and in ever iteration of his story #that doesn’t mean I don’t like the films #but I’m really glad that the fandom has this corner to it #it’s been a valuable fan experience for me and has been personally healing in a lot of ways #it’s rewarding to see Tony as a parent for Peter #I’ve had this one in my head for a while #I’m sure there are scenes I’ve thought of that I’m forgetting now #or that I’ve smushed together or altered #and I know I had some alternate storyline scenes and moments when I was first considering it #I just don’t remember them now #stories I don’t have the energy to write but that live rent free in my head #let Peter and Morgan be siblings #Let Tony be Peter’s dad #I love them #they’re a lil family #time travel au #I have too many of these I know #it’s my trope weakness

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lampmanliveblogs · 11 months

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Happy Halloween! I hope you’ve had a spectacularly spooky time! Me? Oh, you better believe I had the most frightening of days! I went to work. I know, I was terrified the entire time.

Nah, but Halloween has never been anything I really celebrate. The closest I got this year was watching that Soul Eater AMV and listening to some ”spooky” music on my way home from work today. If I feel like it, I might watch the Nelly Rapp movie. I’ve got it on DVD, but I’ve yet to watch it. And what better time to watch a movie about everyone’s favorite Monsteragent than on Halloween?

I’ve had a rough couple of days, I won’t lie. I wasn’t kidding when I said work was scary, cause bloody hell’s bells, it’s been A LOT to deal with. I work in this really big department store, an absolute unit of a store, a real superstore. And school’s out for the autumn holidays AND people got their pays recently. You can imagine the chaos, we had checkout lines going on for several meters.

This is all to say that I’ve been super tired and in a bad mood the last few days, so I haven’t had the energy to do much of anything. I did manage to do a rewrite of the story I posted a few days ago and it’ll be below the cut. I feel it’s fitting since it’s Halloween and it takes place on Halloween.

I don’t think I’m gonna publish it officially yet, I might want to take another look at it first… and I’ve given some thought to a potential second and even third chapter. We’ll see.

I still haven’t settled on a title yet.

Comparing this version with the first draft, you’ll notice that this one has been expanded a bit. I don’t often remove things between the first draft and the rewrite, I usually expand on stuff, which is what I did here. I’ll leave a few more notes at the end.

Enjoy!

Lamp Entertainment presents…

[Title]

Vee watched Luz and Camila disappear into the light of the portal. Off to save the Demon Realm from the evils Belos was bound to unleash with his return. The portal closed mere seconds after they crossed the threshold.

Vee could still feel the scent of the spent magic lingering in the air. It was potent and powerful, but not unpleasantly so. The Titan’s own magic, such a primal, primordial force of nature that Vee doubted she could feed on it if she tried. It’d be a bit like a human trying to eat grass, if grass could also spontaneously explode. A bad idea.

She turned around to begin her walk back to civilization. A small smile played on her lips. Despite the difficulties they were bound to face in that realm, a realm Vee herself was not ready to return back to, she couldn’t help but feel optimistic. If any two people could handle Belos and The Collector, it’d be Luz and Camila, two of the coolest people Vee knew.

Well… they were at the very least in the top three of the list Vee kept of cool people she knew (admittedly, a pretty short one). One person in particular was very high up on that list. They were a stranger that Vee knew very well, a clueless fortune teller. Pretty as a picture, dancing the night away.

Vee felt her cheeks heat up, and she quickly shook her head to try and clear it. She could think about those feelings some other time. Maybe when Luz got back she could give her some advice. For now, she had to focus on getting mom’s car back ho-

Her eyes widened and she shoved her hands into her pocket. She had her phone and… that was it.

”Sho-ot!” she yelled at the sky. The moon looked down on her, it’s cold light coloring every shadow blue. ”Camila still has the car keys!”

Well. That was her good mood ruined. Vee grumbled curses under her breath the entire way back to the town square. The festivities had died down by now, only a few organizers left trying to clean up the worst mess before giving up and going home. She threw the car a dirty look, as if it was its fault that Camila had brought her car keys with her like some kind of responsible adult. Now she’d have to walk all the way home, get the spare, walk back here, and then finally drive the car home.

She stifled a yawn. Maybe she could wait until tomorrow?

Whatever. She had a lot of time to think about what she’d do next.

She walked along the streets of Gravesfield. By now, most trick-or-treaters had trick-or-retreated back home with their bounty. A few jack-o’-lanterns still spread some light onto the streets, alongside the streetlamps and other decorations. The buzz of the last few organizers cleaning up after the festivities at the town square disappeared fast behind buildings as Vee navigated around them.

Her nose was a lot sharper than her ears though and if she took a few deep breaths she could still make out some faint scents in the air. Pumpkin and spice, candy and exhaust fumes from the Haunted Hayride tractor.

In a somewhat ironic twist, because she was so focused on trying to discern those quickly fading smells, she missed the one in front of her. Once she did notice it, she stopped dead in her tracks.

”It’s you!” A voice that was unfortunately familiar to her called out in the night. It was Jacob Hopkins, the man from the Gravesfield Historical Society, standing there, right in front of her.

Vee froze in place. Of course. Of course she had been too optimistic in thinking she wouldn’t have to deal with that man again. When she burst through the doors at the GHS and realized he was gone, she had felt so relieved. Like he couldn’t hurt her anymore. It was foolish, because he was still around. Did she really think he’d move towns because he got kicked out of the history club?

Before she had time to run, Jacob marched up to her.

”It really is you!” he said again. ”I’d recognize those evil eyes anywhere! You’re my demon!” He grabbed her wrist.

”I-I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said and struggled to free her hand. She saw his eyes go wide and realized her mistake. ”Let go of me!” she said, this time imitating Willow’s voice, but it was too late.

”Don’t even bother trying to distort you voice, demon!” Jacob spat. ”I see right through your tricks! Where is the poor woman you had enchanted as your thrall? Did you eat her, you vile creature!?”

”No!” Vee cried. Hot tears threatened to flood her eyes, but behind that lied something else deep within her.

All her life she had been a prisoner, fettered, locked up and sealed away. Then she escaped and was on the run, always running. When she came to the Human Realm she was hiding, always terrified of slipping up and exposing herself. She was always ready, should the day come, to run again. Run, flee, hide, survive.

Not anymore. She has a great life here with a family and friends! Not just surviving, she’s living for something now! Who is Jacob to think he could take that from her? Did he really think he had just cornered the only wild animal that wouldn’t bite?

”Let go of me!” Vee repeated, this time with a hiss as she bore her teeth. Her teeth, which now looked less like the relatively dull incisors and vestigial canines of a human, and more like sharp fangs. The skin on her hands and wrists began to change too, hardening into tough scales while her fingernails turned into claws.

Jacob did look a bit worried when he spotted the teeth. But, be it because of bravery or stupidity (though Vee knew what she’d bet on), he didn’t relent. He held steadfast her wrist, intent on not letting his prize catch escape again.

”As if!” he said, while trying to make himself look bigger than he was. ”I’ll never let you go, monster!”

”Hey!” A third voice joined the growing chaos. Both human and demon turned their heads towards the voice, a voice that was familiar to them both, though more so to Vee. Despite the situation she found herself in, the basilisk felt a wave of relief wash over her. Suddenly, she knew things were going to be okay. Because who would come to her rescue other than Reality Check Camps very own Cabin 7?

Marco, dressed as a Frankensteiner, with his distinctive bangs covering his eyes. It was a wonder he saw anything at all, especially on this dim evening.

Samuel, dressed as a werwolf, albeit a werwolf with glasses. Apparently even lycanthropes are subject to bad eyesight.

And finally Masha, dressed as a witch. They were the spearhead of the trio, just as they were at summer camp. Always the first one to get them into trouble, only occasionally the one to get them out of it. This time, they arrived to help Vee out of trouble. It seemed that even though they were now strangers, Cabin 7 still had her back.

”What’s going on here?” Masha shouted, making Jacob flinch. ”Let go of her, you pervert!”

”Wha-no!” Jacob explained. He might’ve been some flavor of crazy, but even Jacob realized how bad things must look from an outsider’s perspective. And even he realized the consequences of that was not something he wanted to deal with. ”Y-you’ve got it around your back foot! This is not what it looks like!”

”Really? How about we call the police and ask them what they think it looks like!?” Masha yelled back. Marco and Sam stood by their sides, ready to back them up if things got ugly… well, uglier.

”I-it’s not like that at all!” Jacob said quickly, very keen on not getting the police involved. He looked around, as if the fuzz were hiding behind the corners, ready to jump him. ”Listen, uh… Sasha? No, no, was it… Vasha…? W-whatever, it doesn’t matter.” He yanked on Vee’s wrist, making her stumble forward.

”This is no mere girl!” he exclaimed. ”This is a demon! She has come from another world and has been living among us humans for months! And now her allies, the witches have come too! I’ve seen them perform their wicked magics! They’re not here right now, they must’ve gone back to their own world, but who knows when they’ll be back? You must help me contain this creature so we can warn the president! We’ll share the fame and fortune! I’ll even let you collab with me on Mewtube once my account gets restored!”

He smiled manically.

”If you don’t believe me, just look at her teeth! Look at her claws!” He held up Vee’s hand in the light of a streetlamp for the three teens to see.

It was a completely normal human hand with the soft nails so typical of humans. Vee smiled nervously, showing off a set of very normal human teeth.

At some point during his little monologue, Vee had realized that the best way out of this situation was to just let Jacob keep talking, so she had retracted her claws and dulled her teeth.

Masha, Samuel, and Marco shared a few glances with each other. Vee knew them well enough to follow along.

”This guy’s a loon,” Marco’s gaze said.

”I know you said he was a nutcase, but I didn’t realize it was this bad,” Samuel’s look said.

”Yeah, even I didn’t think it was this bad,” Masha said with one stare.

Samuel stepped forward.

”You’re crazy,” he said simply. Then he punched Jacob in the stomach.

Jacob made a funny sound as all the air was forcibly evicted from his lungs. He fell to the ground, holding his tummy, letting go of Vee in the process.

”Come on, let’s get away from this creep,” Masha said, taking Vee’s hand. They gently coaxed her into following then, not that Vee needed much convincing. They led her away from the gasping and writhing Jacob while Marco and Samuel stayed behind to make sure he did’t try to follow.

”Hey, I don’t think I got your name before?” Masha asked in what was an obvious attempt to distract Vee from what had just happened. ” We met at the GHS yesterday, remember? I’m Masha. I offered you a tour of the town.”

”Y-yeah, I remember,” Vee said. In the moment, she hadn’t realized just how fast and hard her heart was beating, or how ragged her breath had become. She took a few deep breaths to try and calm down, force her body to stop shaking. The danger was gone, no need for flight or fight right now. ”I’m Vee,” she said, finally remembering that she had to reintroduce herself to the friend that didn’t know her. ”And, uh… as much as I would like that tour, I think I just wanna go home at the moment,” she said in a feeble attempt at levity.

A small smile flashed on Masha’s lips.

”I saw your friends at the Haunted Hayride,” they said. ”I didn’t see you though. Too scary for ya?”

”I was staying home with mom,” Vee said, so focused on trying to stay calm that she let her mouth go on autopilot. It took her a moment to realize the slip-up and try backpedalling. ”Or, uh, I mean… aw, geez, I misspoke, I didn’t mean to say-”

”Hey, hey, calm down, it’s fine,” Masahs interrupted the panicking basilisk. They had reached a car parked in front of some small store. They opened the door to the passenger seat and made Vee sit down. ”Just take it easy. That creep didn’t hit you, did he?”

Vee shook her head and massaged her wrist. She could feel where he had squeezed her, though that wasn’t too bad. She had spent the better part of her first decade and half alive in chains, a little pain in her hands was no biggie. No, the thing that bothered her was that she could feel the smell of him on her. It was like a brand. She couldn’t wait to get home and wash it off her.

”I’m fine,” she said after a while.

”Are you sure?” Masha asked, sounding a bit skeptical. Not unwarranted, most normal people would probably be a bit more shaken than Vee was appearing. They probably thought she was in shock.

”Yeah, I’m sure, I promise.” Vee gave Masha reassuring smile, but not too reassuring. ”He didn’t even grab me that hard. I was just a bit shocked. I mean, this was a lot, even for him.”

”Mmmm…” Masha hummed, their thoughts trailing off. ”I knew the guy was unbalanced, but not that he was this unhinged… what was he even talking about, demons and witches?”

”Haha, yeah, I know.” Vee’s laugh was stilted. ”What a nutcase.”

Marco and Samuel came walking back to the car.

”What a wimp,” Marco said. ”After you left he started crying. I think he’s stilly lying there on the ground.”

”Serves him right!” Samuel spat. ”He should be lucky to get off so lightly.”

”I tied his shoestrings together and threw his wallet up on the closest roof,” Marco added. The two boys hopped into the backseat of the car while Masha made it over to the driver’s seat. ”So he’ll have fun with that for a while.”

Vee couldn’t help but smile, the mental image of Jacob trying to scale a wall and falling down too funny not to laugh at.

”Should we call the police?” Samuel asked.

”N-no,” Vee said quickly. While the police might be interested in finding out that a man tried to abduct a girl, they would also be interested in finding out that said girl seemingly did not exist. ”I don’t think its necessary.”

Vee didn’t know it at the time, but she ended up being right. While trying to get his wallet back, Jacob woke and nearly scared the life out of the poor people living in the house. He ended up getting arrested for trespassing. It remains to be seen if he learned his lesson from that.

”Alright, if you’re absolute sure,” Masha said. ”Let me drive you home at least. Or do you have a ride?”

”I’d appreciate it,” Vee said. ”I, ah… missed my ride home.”

The ride back to the Noceda residence was spent mostly in silence, broken by Vee giving Masha directions when needed. Marco and Samuel also formally introduced themselves, unaware that Vee already knew them very well.

Vee had some time to think during the car ride. When Luz returned from the Demon Realm and reclaimed her life, Vee had stopped hanging out with her old cabin mates. With all the new friends in the house, she hadn’t really had the time to stop and think about how much she missed them. But, now they were together again, yet still separated by this new face and voice… it hit her, all at once. How much she missed them and how much she wanted to spend time with them. But she couldn’t, or… maybe…

”There you go, back home, safe and sound,” Masha said as she pulled up the driveway.

”Wait…” Marco said slowly, scratching his head. ”Isn’t this where Luz lives?”

”Yeah, I live here too,” Vee replied. ”I’m uh… well, you see… it’s complicated, but, ah.. Camila lets me live here.”

Out of the corner of her eye she could spot Masha looking at her. They were clearly remembering the comment Vee made before about her mom. They didn’t say anything.

Vee took a deep breath, gathering up all the courage she had. ”Grow a spine,” was the human saying. Vee was a snake, she had plenty of spine.

”Why don’t you guys come inside?” she said quickly, not giving herself enough time to chicken out. She was going to commit to this now. ”I’d like to give you all a proper ’thank you’ for helping me out.”

There was some hesitation.

”It is getting pretty late and we were supposed to sleep at my parent’s house,” Masha said. ”But I’m sure they’d let us sleep at Mrs. Noceda’s house, right?”

”It should be fine, Samuel said, grabbing his phone to send his parents a text.

Marco shrugged and said ”I don’t care.”

”Sounds like it’s decided!” Ve said, a little too chipper and eager to get them inside. ”Come along!”

She lead them inside the mostly dark house and gestured for them to sit down on the sofa.

”Sit down, sit down, I’ll get snacks,” she said and hurried off to the kitchen. Her friends were left in the dust, looking around the messy living room. It looked like a whirlwind had swept through the house, with boxes of costumes strewn about.

In the kitchen, Vee was washing her hands while trying to work up the courage to go through with this crazy idea.

”Come on, you can do this,” she said while washing the stench of Jacob off her hands. She dried her hands off before gathering the snacks she had promised. This was going to take a while, she might as well give her guests something to chew on while she told them… what she was going to tell them. ”You escaped the emperor’s dungeons and evaded his scouts. You helped fight him tonights for Titan’s sake! You can tell your best friends a secret. It’s not hard. They won’t hate you… yeah! Us weirdos stick together, that’s the Cabin 7 way!”

”Hey, Vee?” Masha interrupted the disguised demon’s personal pep talk and nearly made her shed her skin at record speeds.

”Yes!” Vee almost yelled and spun around. ”Wh-what’s on your heart?”

”Is Luz home?” Masha asked. ”Cause we haven’t talked to her in ages…”

Masha’s usually confident eyes flickered down for a few seconds. It hurt Vee to see them without that characteristic confidence that she admired so much. They must be thinking that their friend Luz had abandoned them, left them for some new, cooler friends.

That sealed it in Vee’s mind. She was going to do this. She might come to regret this immediately afterwards, her friends might hate her, she might have to run and hide again… but she was going to do it. She couldn’t stand lying to them anymore, to cause them any amount of suffering. Not after all the kindness they had done to her.

”Yes… or, no,” Vee said, having taken just a little too long to answer. She grabbed the snacks and lead Masha out the kitchen. ”No, Luz is not home right now. She and Camila are away, it… it was a very sudden thing. Kind of an emergency.”

”…okay?” Masha replied, confusion on their face. They shared another few looks with Marco and Samuel. Vee realized that all things considered, she was acting very suspicious. It was Halloween after all. Someone acting this odd on an evening like this… watching horror films the night before, debating witches and folklore… it’s only natural that the unknown would trouble on a human’s mind.

”I’ll explain, I swear,” Vee assured them, not that it did a whole lot to ease their worried minds. If anything, it just made them more confused as to what was going on. ”But it’s a long story, so you might wanna sit down,” Vee continued and gestured to the sofa. The Cabin 7 Crew collectively hesitated before finally sitting down. Vee dumped the snacks on the coffee table and grabbed a chair for herself.

She felt around in her second stomach. She had absorbed a fair bit of magic from Belos during the fight. Amity and Willow had left plenty of abomination slime and enchanted plants behind. So she had a lot of leftover magic to scarf down on if need be. She could afford to show off a little.

”Have you guys noticed something… off with Luz lately?” she asked. ”In the last two months or so… almost like she became a different person overnight?”

Of course they had noticed, and Vee could tell based on their expressions when she asked that question. She also suspected that they had talked about it with each other. Not only had Luz more or less ghosted them and started hanging out with a bunch of strangers that no one knew, her personality had completely shifted. The Luz they knew from camp was gone… almost as if she had become a different person overnight.

”What I’m about to say next might sound insane, but I can guarantee you it’s the truth,” Vee said. ”All I’m asking is that you listen to me… and maybe don’t be too angry with me… okay?”

More glances were exchanged, glances of confusion and worry.

”Vee… what’s going on?” Samuel was the first one to speak up. ”Is… something wrong with Luz? What happened to her?”

Vee took a few quick, sharp breaths. She was about to go against every instinct in her basilisk brain, instincts ingrained into her very core by countless generations before her. Here goes nothing.

”Luz did become a different person overnight.” Vee was having to force herself not to speak too fast. She enunciated every word, trying to make sure there was no room for misinterpretation. ”Or rather, she became herself. You see, the Luz you met at summer camp wasn’t the real one. It was me. I was disguised as her and took her place. It was an accident, I didn’t mean to, but… well, I think is worked out for the better for both of us.”

Silence. The three Cabin 7 members sat opposed to her stared at her. Confused, bewildered, positively befuddled. Indeed, was this not an incredibly odd thing to be said by someone who wasn’t insane?

”I… don’t get it.” Marco was the first one to speak. ”What do you mean you ’took Luz’ place?’”

”I know it’s probably a bit hard to believe, I mean, me and Luz don’t exactly look or sound alike,” Vee said, a small smile on her lips. ”But what about now?” she said, speaking with the voice of Luz.

The Cabin 7 Crew sat still as rocks while their brains tried to process what was going on.

Vee giggled.

”S-sorry, but you guys look so funny,” she said, sounding exactly like Luz from camp. She stood up from her chair and spun around in place, transforming into a spitting image of Luz. No, not a splitting image, the original image. Because that was Luz from camp. ”How about now? Do you believe me now?”

Masha gripped the armrest of the sofa so hard their nails threatened to rip the fabric.

”Explain,” they demanded. ”Right now.”

”Sure thing, though it’s a long story, which is why I brought snacks,” Vee said, shifting back to her regular human form, but with a slight adjustment to make her ears more obvious. She decided against reverting back to her true basilisk form just yet. It was probably for the better if she eased her friends into it.

She cleared her throat.

”What Jacob said before was true. Well, kinda…’even a broken clock is right twice a day,’ I think the saying goes. There is a world beyond this one. A world of magic, and witches, and demons. Demons like me. I’m a basilisk.”

Masha raised their hand.

”No, you won’t die if you look at my true form,” Vee said.

Masha lowered their hand.

”That was a rumor started by witches because… well, you see, we basilisks eat magic, that’s how I can transform.” Vee paused to think for a second. Her captivated audience waited with bated breaths. ”You know what, this probably isn’t the best order to take things. Let’s start with Luz, on that fateful day while she was waiting for the bus to take her the horrible summer camp. As she stood waiting, she spotted a strange owl which she followed into an abandoned house in the woods…”

The End… or is it?

xxXXxx

Author’s Notes

…even more of them

The Lampman tries not to worldbuild in one of his fanfics challenge. Level: impossible.

Probably my favorite line in this was ”Did he really think he had just cornered the only wild animal that wouldn’t bite?” though the ”trick-or-retreated” line is a close second, I thought I was really clever there.

You might’ve noticed I changed ”Marco” and ”Samuel’s” costumes around. I have a reason for this, but I won’t explain it. You might wonder about the term ”Frankensteiner.” It’s from the books about Nelly Rapp by Martin Widmark (illustrations by Christina Alvner). Nelly Rapp is a monster agent, a person who deals with monsters and other supernatural beings. Her first mission has her take on the cold-hearted debt collector Robert Steen, a Frankensteiner.

A Frankensteiner is basically a Frankenstein’s monster, a human made up from separate parts (it’s a kids book, so they never explain exactly where the separate parts come from). They are often kept isolated from humanity and thus don’t develop a connection between their hearts and minds.

After spying on Robert, Nelly finds out that he has two left feet, and that he must be in constant pain from walking. So she manages to trick him into getting a foot massage. With his pain alleviated, he becomes a better person, even getting engaged with the masseuse.

In the next book, Nelly (with some help from her loyal dog London) cures two werewolves from their lycanthropy with vegetarian sausage, the power of laughter, and a strong lamp.

ANYWAY, one of the things I was very conscious about with this story was trying to make sure every member of the Cabin 7 Crew got to do something. It’d be very easy to have Masha be the only one doing stuff since, you know… they’re the only one with a name. Or personality. Also a ship, and fanfic writers love their ships almost as much as they love putting A Guy in a Situation (did i use this meme right?).

I sometimes steal take inspiration from song lyrics while writing. Usually, this is because I happen to be listening to that song while writing. Living in America by The Sounds doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but it was on while I was editing, so Masha gets to be ”pretty as a picture, dancing the night away.”

A more obvious example is a few lines I stole borrowed from Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden. ”Watching horror films the night before, debating witches and folklore, the unknown troubles on your mind.” Great song for driving home from work on a dark autumn evening.

So yeah, I would say this story shaped up pretty well. Let me know what you guys think. until next time, take care of the planet Earth, and remember that anything can happen in space!

#fanfic #fanfiction

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rainbowchaox · 2 years

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Monster of the week ranchers au part 3: Episode Concepts

Some of these ideas came from @hybbat and I conversations about this au. So some of these ideas come from our convro

1. Homecoming Gone Wrong: This is one of the ideas that hybbat helped create. Pretty much this episode involves Jimmy and Tango going to homecoming. This episode is at the stage of their relationship where both have massive crushes on each other but also very close friends. That gray area of platonic and romantic. Anyways Tango loans a suit from scam artist immortal heavily in decades ages worth of debt High vampire scott. Mainly because their whole romance story is Jimmy trying to flirt monster and Tango trying to flirt human. Anyways once they have a romantic slow dance and about to confess their feeling because Grian is still early development and having petty emotions about Jimmy being the chosen one and because he was honestly running for his life brings the monster to the dance causing people to run off. Tango monsters out and beats up the monster and runs off into the woods with a ripped af suit on him. Jimmy follows and they dance after a emotional heart to heart. They dance in a clearing in the woods full of native wild flowers and fireflies. Whatever next episode is has scott trying to get his money back from tango because of the ruined suit. He is a very in debt and poor vampire.

2. Love Smells Sweet: Pretty much a creepy transfer student that is secretly literally a queen bee monster kinda brainwashes the whole school that isn’t supernatural to love her. This includes our protagonist Jimmy until Tango puts his hands on his cheeks and wakes him up from the queen bee thrall. Tango spends most of the episode jealous at first but that quickly becomes concern because the girl was directing the whole student body like servants. Eventually Jimmy and Tango beat up the queen bee. Tango calls Jimmy honey as part of his puns. Also called her a literal honey trap. Tango is on his pun game this episode.

3. Pet Cemetery? More Like Friend Cemetery: This is the episode that we are actually introduced to Shelby as a actual character instead of someone we tend to see in the background of episodes. Pretty much we are shown that recently she found out she is a witch of a hella strong witch bloodline but literally no one trained her. Her grandma passed away and gave her the family spell book. Anyways her pet dog dies and so she attempts to do necromancy. But spoiler the place she buried her dog was also a unmarked grave of a woman aka Cleo. So now she has a zombie on her hands. Eventually they become besties by the end of the episode but that’s the conflict.

4. Men In Black is Overrated: Jimmy and co go to the movies to watch one about aliens and secret government orgs that deal with them. Cue them making fun of said men in black trope. It was all fun and games until doppelgängers decided that clone themselves into men in blacks. Doppelgängers in a form will act like that form so now a squad of doppelgängers men in black is trying to catch Tango to dissect him. This is the episode where Jimmy saves Tango. But yes this is the episode where Tango goes through the ringer.

5. Witchcraft for the idiot lesbian: The second episode that involves Shelby. This is afterwards we see clues she is crushing on Kathrine. Pretty much whenever she tries to flirt with Kathrine or what not. Her gay panic is so strong she made her school go into a hell like dimension because she embrassed herself in front of her crush. Eventually she gets her big girl pants on and teams up with her crush to kill the monsters that appeared in the hell dimension the school fell into. Cue Kathrine after they return back to reality kisses her on the cheek and Shelby literally is so happy she floats. She literally has to be dragged back to the ground by Cleo before the episode ends.

6. The Red Stalker of the Woods: The Episode that introduces our feral good boy Tango! It’s very early season so Jimmy is still very much fighting tooth and nail against his destiny. It’s starts out with Fwhip waking up in his posh cabin seeing a monster ripping off his fridge door and taking all the food inside. Fwhip runs out like a dumbass in a rain storm getting chased by said monster before fainting. In actuality Fwhip was getting hunted by something else and the monster was your bear like cryptid that will steal all your food was trying to save his dumb ass. Plot continues and people start talking about “The Red Stalker” and how he’s so dangerous despite the fact no human actually got hurt. Eventually Jimmy has to get involved but Jimmy sorta knows that whatever the red stalker that’s in front of him (When he sees Tango he is full monster) is like not harmless but doesn’t want to hurt him so he tackles hugs Tango causing him to change into his main form which is mostly human. And that’s when Tango falls in love. Jimmy probs gives him chips or whatever food he had on him. Jimmy goes home and then wakes up to butfuck in the morning to see that Tango followed him home and Tango just sorta stays at Jimmy house since then. He lives in the attic. Tango wants to protect the human his dumbass fell in love with at first tackle hug.

7. Nature isn’t nice: Pretty much scar rich posh family that likes to delve into the forbidden magics. Summons a nature spirit in order to like steroid the crops of the town. But because it’s scar family who does forbidden magics they corrupted the poor spirit so now it’s thirsts for BLOOD. Imagine Jimmy and co like a ghost buster with a weed wacker and pesticide. Eventually they break in and unsummons the poor thing.

8. Scooby Doo! But add MURDER: Martyn the son of the mayor invites all of the school to his house to have a costume party during Halloween season. But a real monster actually snuck into the party. Cue a intense game of mafia with actual stakes. Jimmy was just happy to be invited to a party for once but now he has to play detective.

9. Demonic Possession! Just Add Water: Fwhip like he is prone to do decides to do Quija while he was plastered causing him to get possessed by a demon. Causing Jimmy and Sausage mainly to make the most shittiest excorism to get it out of him. Note to Jimmy: Red Crayon is good in exorcisms.

10. Haunting? Nah my place just has a CO2 Leak: One of the few episodes that Follow Skizzleman instead of him being a background character that acts as sorta a gag character. His house is definitely haunted and he has the main characters over for movie night and despite the blood on the walls and the wailing ghost he refuses to believe his place is haunted. Nah it’s just a old house. Nah the pipes are shitty. Nah probs the CO2 poisoning, causing Jimmy and co to act like a therapist to the poltergeist because no matter what he does it does not scare Skizzleman at all.

11. Monster hunting for Teen Girls: The episode that follows the day to day life of Kathrine. I sorta imagined it being like diary vibes. Like glitter pen subtitles on screen. And it just shows her being at school and being a monster hunter and depending on where in the show this is at she could be having a milkshake date with Shelby as well.

12. The Public Library that wasn’t there yesterday: The Mayor cuts cost so much that they almost shut down the public library. But spooky one day there’s a new library. But the thing is any book you decide to get effects your daily life. This obviously caused loads of chaos. Eventually it’s turned out that the librarian got into a pact with a eldritch god to make sure the kids have a library in their lives. Because of budget cuts. Which Jimmy was just like fair

13. Women of Shadow Lake: This is the episode where Joel managed to find a eldritch tome and summon the Women of Shadow Lake aka Lizzie aka a eldritch lake being. And he falls in love causing him to try to protect her from Jimmy. Jimmy leaves him alone.

14. The Strange Mr Pix: A episode that follows Jimmy and his classmates trying to figure out what the fuck is their history teacher aka Mr Pix. His mom van is full of magical artifacts. He appears randomly. Tango even comments on that he is more of a cryptid then himself a actual cryptid. Anyways Pix may or may not be involved with the town secret society, a cult, part of the goverment, or immortal. It’s up to viewer to theorize.

15. The Sentient Arcade: Arcade that gains sentience because of supernatural bs that traps gamers into the game. Jimmy did not have a good time. He now refuses to go to the arcade because of this event.

16. Beasts and Best-friends: BigB sees that his best friend is acting werid. Turns out he’s a werewolf and BigB gets accidentally turned. So now they are beasts and bffs. Jimmy really needs to sleep and stop getting involved into supernaturals relationships.

17. Theatre is Dying: Joey gets the role of Captain Hook in the school play of Peter Pan and then gets harassed by the ghost of Oli. This is the episode where the dark secrets of the town start to unravel.

18. Finals and Freaks: Ok so a group of students at Jimmy school in order to cheat at their finals start to abuse a legit magical 8 ball. The magical 8 ball has major side effects. Each time it’s used the user gets more monstrous. So Jimmy has to somehow do his math final in the same room with like 4 monsters out for his blood.

19. Stairs in the woods: just my favorite urban legend. People start going missing and Jimmy has to investigate. And Jimmy gets trapped in a alternate world for a bit.

20. Lights in the water: The swimming pool of the school suddenly has lights in the water. Spoiler- a giant angler fish that can be invisible in water is living in it. One of the monsters that Jimmy legit has nightmares of.

#team rancher #rancher duo #au #solidaritek #double life jimmy #double life tango #Monster of the week rancher au

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sanctum-stinker · 2 years

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How about MCU wongstrange? What was your first impression of them? Any headcanons?

I want to to know more, of what you see. Because for me personally, I think I ship them after mom. And I wonder if I missed more than two moments or scenes that flew over me

Hello Hi!

You came to the right place. Because I jumped on the WongStrange Bandwagon before No Way Home I’ve had plenty of time to analyse past content and also pick out bits from recent films which I thought were fruity!

I’ve just compiled the images in my camera roll because I can’t be bothered screenshotting and looking up all the scenes, I hope that’ll suffice!

Doctor Strange 2016

If I’m being completely honest, Mordo and Stephen have a better dynamic in this movie, but Wong still has his moments! Obviously the iconic Beyoncé scene, the weirdly tense library interactions, Stephen reviving Wong and Wong trusting him without hesitation etc etc.

This deleted scene as well. Rolling on the floor crying. This also sort of confirms they’re living together in the sanctum now, so that’s also a thing.

Multiverse of Madness 2022 This movie was kinda shit, but we got some pretty decent bits all things aside. Their overall banter and dynamics are fantastic at times, and whoever made their outfit colors so fucking complimentary deserves a wet sloppy kiss.

Why are there so many shots of them looking at each other.

Honestly I can’t even describe this one. Why is he looking at him like that.

Christine tells him to face his fears so he immediately opens up a little to Wong and trusts him. Okay. Cool. Okay.

And of course the bow scene. Peak symbolism regarding his respect towards Wong and his growth as a man. His eyes remain fixed on Wong when he does this and I think they were insane for this. I fucking love this scene.

Infinity War

Not much content in this because Wong peaces out like two seconds into appearing, but we get some good shit in that time.

Matching battle stances are so romantic, boys.

That’s the only stuff I’ve got, but honorable mentions is that this further confirms Wong and Stephen now live together in the sanctum. The money and tuna melt banter at the start, Wong saying that the Hulk Ice cream is ‘our favorite’ implying ice cream nights and a conversation where they have confirmed to each other that that flavor is their favorites. Marvel I just want to talk, please, I just want to talk about Sanctum Sanctorum ice cream night please.

Endgame

I also don’t have any images for Endgame, but the fact that Wong likely organised the majority of the portal scene makes me yell. Due to Stephen reappearing on Titan (as seen in his entrance scene) it implies that he had to have had communications with Wong previous to dusting. Because of his lack of presence he wouldn’t have been able to have actually put anything into action, thus Wong has to be responsible for the most iconic scene in the MCU!!!

The fact that they’re such a power duo offscreen and unknowingly carry the whole battle is insane to me and no one talks about it.

No Way Home

Banger film. Great WongStrange moments.

Marvel tell us what happened at the full moon party IMPOSSIBLE edition.

Stephen using puppy eyes to fucking win Wong over to let him use a dangerous reality warping spell. You know, just a casual Tuesday. AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH.

Also introduces Sorcerer Supreme Wong which I shat my pants about. I adore that they let him be Sorcerer supreme but dearly wish they took him more seriously. But we’re not here to talk about that. Onto the next.

What If…? Doctor Strange lost his heart and not his hands.

God I remember the soul shattering experience this was when it came out. The WongStrange content was surprisingly nourishing though.

‘We’ve’ been through weirder.

Stephen putting aside his crippling heartache for Christine just to save Wong? Like not even considering the actual rest of the world that’s fading outside? Okay. Cool. Cool. Okay.

Wong also is the one to comfort Stephen about Christine and is a part of the pinnacle point in time determining wether Stephen uses the timestone and turns into Strange Supreme or not.

Now the second two aren’t technically a part of the MCU, but they are related to it. I don’t know where they’re to be put in the MCU category but they exist so I’ll consider them canon.

This book is just silly and goofy. No comments just read it for yourself.

Infinity War Prelude 2

This comic is so overlooked, and I don’t know why. The Doctor Strange Prelude is as well. They kinda do Wong dirty with the art, but the content is pretty cool. Also gives us an insight into Ragnorok and just how the sorcerers operate.

Wong casually recounting Stephen’s whole journey for no reason.

I just like them in this panel tbh. Stephen is kinda scrumpled.

Stephen pulling a John Watson with the “stop being mysterious” thing. Implying Wong has been cryptic and mysterious enough for Stephen to recognize this as a character attribute.

That’s all I have, honestly I’m too tired to come up with a capping off statement, but I hope this pile of various moments is enough! The MCU is yet to really explore their dynamic, and let alone Wong as a character, so I’m excited (and a bit afraid after MoM) to see where it goes!

#WongStrange #Bird insanity

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lovecanbesostrange · 1 year

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Movie Asks! 7, 9 or 14?

7.Two films - from very different genres at best - you'd want to mash-up in an unholy experiment.

Okay, hear me out. We take all of these nice teen coming of age John Hughes movies like Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Breakfast Club etc, but in the middle of it all the kids have to bunker down at home. Because it's The Purge. Imagine we have this film with an obvious bully type of person and all the kids decide to get revenge now (sssshhhh, I realize I just reinvented The Final, too late now, I'm typing) In the middle of it all there is still some romance happening, also trying to steal the perfect prom dress from that one well guarded boutique in town. The music is all 80s bops and one of the kids is related to a politician involved for commentary. (I know, I'm just throwing characters from A into setting B, not even mashing-up in true fashion. I need to think more about the concept.)

9. A scene that made you pause a movie and why. (Too scary, too non-sensical, second-hand embarrassment, crying, laughing...)

It happened only like a week ago or so, this is why I remember. But I watched Orphan: First Kill finally. It was on my list, but not in this must-see kinda way, so I never read up on anything about it. And then in comes this mother character and I'm like "huh, looks familiar" and then suddenly it hit me so hard, that I had to pause and absolutely scream into my pillow. It's Julia Stiles. And not recognizing her made me feel so old all of a sudden. You say that name and I think about 10 Things and such (I completely forgot I saw her in Hustlers). I often have this "oooohhhh, that's where I know them from" moment with actors I can't immediately place, but that felt like a total punch to the face for some reason.

Also, I absolutely remember watching Ju-On for the very first time. Alone. At night. In a very quiet house. That moment with the ghost appearing under the covers? Yep. PAUSE BUTTON! LIGHTS ON! Let me take a quick breath here. That freaked me out. And I stayed awake after watching the whole thing (I had to finish or it would have been worse) and posted on a forum. That film was tense, but especially NOT BEING SAVE UNDER THE BLANKET!! COME ON!!!!!!!

14. An action sequence you deeply enjoy.

I have recently watched the film The Princess again. So let me talk about that whoooooooole thing. Because sadly it's not well known and I'm afraid it will be lost overall, only pirated copies circulating, because streamers delete content and pretend it never existed.

youtube

I was in the exact mood of "I wanna watch something action-y" and there is so much to choose from to scratch that itch, but I wanted some hand-to-hand combat, not car chases and mindless fun - so this is the perfect fit.

The story is so simple and almost irrelevant (in a good way). Princess should get married, she said no, dude got angry and tries to take over the kingdom by force then. But ohohohoho, the Princess has been training since she was a little girl with her super cool personal female warrior bff (no homo) and she takes matters into her own hands. Which means battling her way all the way through the tower she is kept in and save her family.

Look, the first dude she kills within the first five minutes dies by hairpin through the eye. Anything in reach will be used as a weapon. It's fight after fight. Kicks, punches, swords, down the staircase, fun in a kitchen. I would have killed to have this film as a kid.

#konako #in the memetime #I'm sorry I didn't mention werewolves in here or MEW - I hope you can forgive me #I'm sure somebody in John Hughes' Purge film is a blood covered lesbian :3

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measuringbliss · 1 year

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Spider-Man Read-Through 024: Shang...ri-La (GSSM 2, ASM 138-140)

MASTERPOST

Today's post features Fu-Manchu, a bromance, purple, a bear (<3) and psychic powers, woohoo!

In our first issue, Spider-Man faces (and then fights with) Shang-Chi, who you may now know from the MCU. Back when I was a kid, I heard of him through Giant-Size Spider-Man #2.

The story begins with Spidey interrupting thievery by men who soon die unexpectedly, just as they start telling our hero about their master (Shang-Chi... or is he?). I feel like that idea of criminals dying as soon as they're about to tell all secrets has already been used recently on the comics but I'm too lazy to look that up. Shang-Chi's the son of Fu Manchu, the actual baddie and a cliché of the West's vision of Asia.

[Sorry, I used Ctrl Z again on Tumblr and it removed like half my text ugh]

The issue's nice, it's an obvious imitation of typical kung-fu movies and it works much better than other SM 100% fighting issues.

Now, onto the main plot...

Here's how ASM 138 opens:

I'm putting those panels for two reasons:

to show Peter is still a handsome motherfucker (affectionate)

to appreciate the continuity! Last ish, Harry did blow up their condo, and there's consequences for that! It's great to see.

Peter calls each one of his acquaintances, but none can house him (not surprising considering how much of an ass he was after Gwen's death), except one... as Peter's last call is for his old frenemy Flash.

AND THUS BEGINS THE FLASH/PETER SHIP'S GOLDEN HOUR. Look at Peter in the third panel, acting like a school girl who just asked her crush out. You go, Pete! Go get him!

Gerry Conway and Ross Andru seemed quite attached to realism. Why not! I do appreciate the purple.

There's an ugly villain with mystical powers just waiting to feed on Peter's aura, but we've got more pressing matters, such as:

Boyfriends!!!

"Slugging", huh...

I'm probably putting too much panels, but this issue is plain gorgeous.

The villain's story is absolutely horrifying, just like the premise of his powers.

I'm sorry, I don't have many observation to give, it's just an interesting issue to me and visually quite gorgeous (purple pants!!!).

Charles S. LeCates thinks that the Jackal is actually Richard, the Kingpin's son. He's apparently the only one who had that thought! That's not a bad theory... but it's incorrect. Oh well! Other theories are: the Jackal isn't a costume and the Jackal is the thief who murdered Uncle Ben. Hmm! Still wrong.

In the opening pages of #139, Peter says it's been "a few months" since Gwen died and "three weeks" since he became Flash's roommate. His life has been pretty hectic!

Unfortunately for me, he's already found a new appartment thanks to Liz when I was fully ready to see some Peter/Flash shenanigans. They were too gay to be featured as roommates for more than a single issue!

The Grizzly suddenly attacks the Daily Bugle, but Jameson's not interested.

(He's still attacked anyway.)

Jameson is saved by Spidey, who ends up following the Grizzly as Peter...

Can I just say how much I love this ending? It's a great moment. A bit silly on Peter's part, but very gloomy. Frightening, actually. My child self was scared of the Jackal's hand jumpscare hahaha. It's very effective! The penultimate page is actually quite liminal.

This is also the end I was left with for at least a decade.

...Well, not exactly. See, I also read those little jewels:

The first one compiles issues 144-151, that is to say, most of our next batch (the OG Clone Saga), so I haven't read issues 140-143, but I still know what happens after that.

The second one, while I'm at it, covers issues 30-35 of ASM Vol. 2 (2001) and thus ends just after Peter reveals his secret identity to a certain somebody... and I still don't know how they react!!!!! Can't wait to get there in, like, ten years.

So we have a final issue in this batch, one that I've never read. What are we waiting for?

You know me, I'm always here to see Peter get manhandled.

Gorgeous gorgeous GORGEOUS colors. Ned's wearing a pink jacket! I love it. I love it so much. Hell yeah!

You can't see it, but I'm slurping deliciously because between the arm & hand p0rn, the whump, and the colors, I really love those panels.

Later, Flash helps Peter move in.

I think I remember her so I'm pretty sure she features in later issues. Hmm, a model... Is Marvel trying to introduce a rival to MJ?

Flash is very interested in her, but she's obviously much more into Peter.

So here's some more arms and colors, because we all deserve it.

Hoping the Jackal was bluffing, Peter tries removing his bracelet... and succeeds with the power of blue flames! I wish he hadn't been able to discard it so quickly, especially considering the Jackal should know Peter's quite smart...

...and also a joker.

Jameson isn't so bad himself. He ruined the Grizzly's wrestling career!

Following those revelations and a few gags, Spidey tracks down the Grizzly and proceeds to strip him.

With the Grizzly neutralized, Spidey assures him that someday, he'll get the Jackal.

OH MY GOD??????? I'M SO HYPED! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!

Okay, before I close this post, please remember this panel for the next batch:

The Jackal sure looks agile... Who could it be?

#peter parker #flash thompson #amazing spider-man #spider-man #comics #comic books #peter/flash #whump #peter parker thirst #the grizzly #the jackal

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victorluvsalice · 2 years

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We have reached the second Building Interlude this week -- and this time, it’s actually relevant to what’s been happening in the main Chill Valicer save, as it’s a small makeover of the Valicer farmhouse! A makeover that was inspired by the following things:

1. My desire to clean out the household inventory so I didn’t have to go scrolling through all their various holiday decorations and whatnot whenever I wanted them to recycle a trash pile

2. My desire to also clean out their PERSONAL inventories -- particularly Victor’s, as he’s always carrying around loads of fruit and flowers and whatnot from the greenhouse to have on-hand for juicing and whatnot

3. “My Sims have over $100K in the bank? Time to jazz the place up a little!”

So yes, with all that in mind, I went ahead and, well, jazzed the place up a little. XD Here’s a list of all the most major changes:

Kitchen: I decided it was a little too brown in there and changed out the counters to ones with at least slightly more colorful tops (the Realm of Magic counters, if I recall correctly!), darkening up the wood-tones of the cabinets to match. I also replaced the fridge and the stove with Schmapple-brand ones to match their coffee maker and microwave (like I said, they have money now!), recoloring them all to the red swatch as I liked that best. After that, I got a longer side table to store both the VIP bucket and the picnic basket --

And then moved the entire dining table in slightly, because ta-da, we have an archway into the kitchen now! Yeah, I took another look at that wall and realized that the door kind of looked weird next to the arches into the front foyer and the study, so I put another archway to match. Now the downstairs feels more cohesive!

Study: Just one quick change in here -- I changed the wallpaper color to the blue with green trim swatch, as I decided I wanted a little more color in the room. I think it looks nice, and fits well with the rugs!

Front Foyer: A little rearranging FINALLY allowed me to put the coat-and-hat pegs that I had on a side wall beside the door, where they could actually be SEEN. Naturally, the shoe rack went underneath them, and the umbrella stand got moved to the far corner. Looks good! (I -- am reasonably certain the clock was there before, as part of an earlier upgrade, but if not, look, colorful clock.)

Living Room: As you can see, I went heavy on the Movie Hangout Stuff furniture in here -- replacing the downstairs couch with this nice wooden seat that has a nice colorful cushion AND matches the bookcases, and the side tables with these brightly painted variations. :) The coffee table also got a more colorful upgrade (pretty sure that’s the Paranormal Stuff one) -- but, of course, the biggest upgrade was to the TV, with me selling off the old Fallout 4 CC one to get a proper big screen for them to enjoy, along with a cute yellow trunk TV table for it to sit on. They may not watch TV often, but they might as well enjoy a proper-sized screen. The bizarre idol Smiler got recently watches over it all in her own little house shelf above said TV. :)

Crafting/Party Barn: The whole thing is ever so slightly bigger now, and that is to accommodate something new in Smiler’s party space -- namely, I have traded out the bubble blower (which none of Smiler’s guests seemed to like the one time I had them give it a spin) for their ping-pong table! Technically it fit in the smaller version of the barn, but I felt like it blocked the radio a bit too much, so I expanded things out to keep the “dance floor.” I also took the opportunity to rearrange the downstairs a bit -- adding some extra columns to “support” the party level, then moving the more technical crafting stuff (Smiler’s robotics bench and the Fabricator) to the front while the more low-tech crafty stuff (the woodworking bench and the candle maker) went in the back, with Victor’s alchemy cauldron in the middle. :) I even got to put the cool magical stone circle in there -- sized down slightly, of course. :p

(Oh, and outside, you may notice that the chicken coop pen is now flush with the corner of the barn, and that I’ve gotten rid of the large livestock barn. The gang seems to have enough to do with just remembering to take care of the chickens -- I don’t think they’re gonna get a cow or llama anytime soon!)

Greenhouse: Victor’s greenhouse actually got moved back slightly on the lot -- a somewhat fiddly process that involved enlarging the roof before adjusting the walls so that the plants stayed under cover the whole time. I also added a new shelf from Cottage Living beside the door to go with his other tools, and put his selfie with his first oversized pumpkin on it. :) The biggest change, though, was to the crafting side of the greenhouse -- namely, there’s now STORAGE! The flower-arranging bench can already have flowers stored in it, so that wasn’t a big deal, but now there is an Eco Lifestyle cardboard storage box next to the cauldron grill for Victor’s herbalism plants, and a Discover University mini-fridge so he can store and access his fruits and veggies for juicing next to the juice fizzer! Which makes life so much easier -- his inventory isn’t PERFECT yet, but it’s looking a hell of a lot better, let me tell you!

#sims 4 #the lazy save #builds #yeah Victor Alice and Smiler have got The Dosh #to be fair Alice has a very well-paying job #has published a few good books #and regularly sells excellent and masterpiece-quality paintings #while Smiler makes decent cash at their part-time job #and has started making more serious dough from their SimsTube videos #Victor is the only one in the family who isn't an active money maker #and even he can get a good payout from his greenhouse when he wants #so yeah funding some house upgrades #big focus on adding even more color to the house here #Smiler loves color and I think it's rubbed off on me #it really does make the house nicer when everything is cheery and bright :)#and I think Victor and Alice feel the same way :)#queued

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gertrudepetronella-blog · 2 years

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Meet the author I guess?

Thanks to @severusobserver for tagging me, I'm not going to continue the thread, because frankly these things confuse me and I usually forget what everyone has said, but it was cool to see some stuff you're into, so here's a window into my brain too:

Three ships:

Severella/ Crowprince

This is Severus x my oc Petronella Blishwick. Of course it has to be my top one, because I love her. I generally don't like other people's snapexocs and often find the ofc's to be a bit... lame (sorry no hate just my personal taste). Petra is a self proclaimed weirdo, a bit grumpy like Snape himself, loves her punk and metal music, has elemental powers that sometimes get out of hand, and is neurodivergent. Their relationship is so full of trust and understanding of each other's quirks. It's the relationship I wish I could have irl basically. Head over to @princeandcrow for more.

Snupin/ Wolfprince

I love love love this ship. If it weren't for the above they would be my otp. I have three (I think) published fics for my boys now, with a couple more I'm working on. It's enemies to lovers, it's unrequited pining, it's angst and fear of rejection, it's opposites attract finding they actually have a lot in common, and so much more. And I cannot deny that the smut is 🥵😈💀🖤

Snack/ Starprince

I have not fully got into this yet, partly because I just don't have space if that makes sense? I feel like it's a more extreme version of Snupin in a way. The angst is heightened, the enemies to lovers, hate sex, potential for hurt etc. But in so many ways Severus and Sirius are like a mirror or two sides of the same coin. They were both abused, they both take their issues out on others, they even have similar looks (sometimes in fanart it's guessing game of is this snape or sirius?!) I have read a few fics which I loved and have two of my own in the works, but I don't know when they'll come to fruition.

First Ship:

Severitus. Not technically a ship I guess, but I'm following your lead with the platonic ships. This was what got me into fanfics. I don't know if it was what the author intended, but I think Snape and Harry have such father/son vibes in canon. Snape's like a very traditional strict parent in a lot of ways (not saying it's good or healthy but?). I like reading angsty Severitus where Snape is very prickly, but when it comes to writing I always end up making him kinda soft.

Last song:

Lost Myself by Longpigs, because I used it in the fic I just published! It also resonates with me a lot and my feelings towards relationships. But generally at the moment it's Slipknot and Tool on repeat. Particularly Disasterpieces which literally saved my mental health from a difficult situation recently.

Last Movie:

Suicide Squad with my daughter. She simps over the Joker, but hates Snape. Idk 🤷🏻‍♀️. I love Harley Quinn and Katana though. Can't remember the last film I watched for myself, but I got 5 Centimetres Per Second for my bday, so hopefully watch that soon.

Currently Reading:

Working my way through the back catalogue of snupin on Ao3. Part way through a history book about the lost library of Matthias Corvinus (still). Top of my pile to read next is Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami.

Currently Watching:

About half way through Midnight Mass and loving it big time. Only problem is I'm usually so tired at the end of the evening, or if not trying to write, and I need to be awake and focused because it's so good. Totally simping on the Sheriff.

Currently Drinking:

Just finished my morning coffee. Lots of herbal tea because it is very cold. Opened a bottle of Voignier last night which is 😋

Currently Craving:

Time alone. If I could just pause the rest of the world for a few weeks/months and spend all day every day writing, that'd be grand. Oh, did you mean food? I love food but as I pretty much always have to cook for myself it gets tiring and is such a chore. Maybe a meal out. Without any other people. But also actual sex with a real life person. Too much information? 😅

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doorbloggr · 2 years

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The Rising of the Shield Hero

Media Recommendations #40

Thursday 10/11/22

So hey 40 Media Recommendations? That's a pretty big number, and it only took me most of a year and a half on what was originally a weekly project.

I have nothing too special in mind for Entry Number 40, it's just another week, another couple things I waste my spare time on. Maybe if I reach 50 I'll do something more interesting?

Anyway ignore the slight passive aggressive fight I'm having with myself. This week I'm recommending one of fave recent anime series.

The Rising of the Shield Hero

Aneko Yusagi/ Kinema Citrus DR Movie

The Pitch

Naofumi was a college age nerd living in regular Japan when one day he happened upon a seemingly random half finished book in a local library. Next thing he knows, he's been summoned to the fantasy, slightly videogamey land of Melromarc. He and four other strangers have been summoned to act as heroes in the fight against demonic waves of monsters threatening the kingdom.

Each of the four Cardinal Heroes are mastery of one main type of medieval equipment. Sword, Spear, Bow, and... Shield. Due to ancient superstitions and the meddling of a local religion, it soon becomes clear to Naofumi that the Shield Hero is not smiled upon. Each hero may only weild their designated weapon, so all Naofumi can do is protect himself and those in his party.

A scandal is fabricated and any support from the throne is dissolved. Naofumi the Shield Hero is left the fend for himself in this cruel world. He recruits the help of a slave "demi-human" (part animal people with lesser rights) named Raphtalia, who becomes his sword. Together they grow to make themselves stronger, both physically and within. They are also joined by a magical bird girl named Filo, who fights with Raphtalia for Naofumi's affection.

Despite the reputation that is thrust upon the Shield Hero, Naofumi is a man of the people. He fights for the little guy, travelling across the land saving towns from famine, defeating evils, and righting wrongs. And although he tries to act tough, treating it as a business that he gets paid for, the Shield Hero, Raphtalia, and Filo become known throughout the land for their kindness and heroism.

My Thoughts

Many Isekai stories welcome the protagonist as a portent of good fortune, or introduce an unlikely hero who quickly gains favour with a key figure to grow into a light for the realm, but Rise of the Shield Hero is an interesting story of a protagonist that is quickly demonised, and shunned by society at large. And unlike some other quirky takes on the genre (e.g. Kono Suba), Shield Hero doesn't show a quick turn around for redemption.

Naofumi abandons the royal family, and only shows kindness to those he knows can't help themselves. The way he treats heroism as a business, with an expectation of payment everytime, is a stance I haven't seen a lot in fantasy anime. But the subtle way he is lenient with how he is payed and how much, shows that he still has the humanity that makes him the Hero of the Shield.

At the time of writing, there are two seasons, and in my opinion, the first season is waaay stronger. Without spoiling, the first season is about Naofumi and Raphtalia growing as heroes, and about them and the other Cardinal Heroes coming together as a force for the greater good. The second season, although presented as a tale of equally grand scale, feels almost like a side story spinning off from the main plot (for most of it at least). Since Naofumi has done most of his growing, it is less of an interesting journey, in my opinion at least. They do put more focus on characters around Naofumi growing, and although it is engaging, it's not as compelling.

That growth is also something I want to commend the series on. Although sometimes it can come across as edgy, Naofumi's hatred and rage at his treatment is fuel for his character. He doesn't just smile and shake hands once he proves himself worthy of the title of Hero. He holds onto the grudge, and this anger becomes a source of power in itself. And I mean a literal power that he can use to defeat monsters. But it damages his soul, and the journey he takes to leave that rage behind takes most of the series to resolve, and goes well into season 2. And it makes sense. It's hard to forgive being wronged, it's easy to hold onto anger. But it's not good for you.

The best lessons we can take away from Rise of the Shield Hero are about being your best self. Don't allow yourself to be pushed around, make your own destiny. And it's OK to be angry when you're wronged. But don't let that anger consume you. You have to let it go to become a better person.

Thanks for Reading

Read more recommendations in my Pinned Post.

#blog #blogpost #media recommendations #anime recommendations #the rising of the shield hero #shield hero #naofumi iwatani #raphtalia

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ellelune · 1 year

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Hi i'm still alive

Hi. It's been...more than 5 years since I abandoned this blog. I just randomly searched up my old blog here one day and I was filled with nostalgia...the happy-sad kind. This was my Pinterest (I'm old now okay). This is where is used to express my creativity, not that I draw or make art but like...i feel so myself when I was here? Obviously this site has went through shit, I feel like every millennial did, and no I'm not talking about the pandemic, but idk, I kinda wanna feel the old me through here. One thing this place helped me with is that I used to write letters to my future self, it's a little something that I do to push myself to live. unfortunately, I haven't been doing that for a long long long time. The last time i was here, it was a den for R-18 blogs and they're popping out everywhere and it felt like a virus. It's scary. I'm a wholesome blog. I was also too busy with school so i just focused on studying. hm, How have i been? Maybe i should write it here so the future me can read and reminisce. I'm currently working as a Physician at a nearby clinic, i also applied for a research position at my Alma Mater, I'm waiting for their call back but it looks positive, i want to believe so. I am not where i wanted to be, that's the truth, but also...i don't even know what i wanted to be. I am currently on Therapy, i have been, for 1 year now, and it's been a great help, along with my medications and shit. I have insurance now, i have some savings, i can buy some stuff that i like. I'm still with my boyfriend, we're on our 9th year now. We're pretty much family to each other at this point but he went and pursued residency, so he should finish that first before he start settling down. My cat, yes, he's still alive. He's 9 years old too! He's fatter than ever. We have a new dog, btw. His name is 'Kiro'. He's a domestic breed, he's less than a year old and he's soooo energetic i can't keep up with him. Whatelse? I am much happier than before. The ellelune here back in 2015 was so gloomy [ turns out she was badly depressed]. I still love the vibe these creepy ethereal photographs give off, i still love art, but recently i have been into baking, or maybe cooking in general. I learned a lot of dishes in a matter of months. I haven't been watching movies lately, i don't think there are anything that interests me anymore and i don't wanna watch for the sake of watching. BUT! I know there are films in my old hard drive that might get me going. I haven't even seen Openheimmer yet. Netflix is just there for my parents. I'm more into anime lately, manga and webtoons. I play a handful of games too, like back in 2019, i was obsessed with Genshin Impact that i burst out my wallet for it. I still love genshin but i don't play it as much as before [ also my PC gave out]. Music...still the same taste, maybe a lot wider since i got into J/K-indie. I still enjoy singing. Dancing? not so much as before, but i did danced again, for a while. There are so many things that changed and so many things that i'm happy it did change. One thing i would like to say is, i am living my second life now, i will expand on that soon because i don't want to sound gloomy and sad here. but, yeah, i will explain that soon, because it needs to be in here. In 2021, i survived, from myself. That's probably all i will say now. anyway, i will go explore this site again and see if i can rack my rusty brains into managing my account to be active again. I don't know what kind of Ellelune i would love to have, but i'm sure it's gonna be full of things that i love. and oh, btw, i got a niece :) She's a 10 month old baby and guess what her name is ? ' Elle '

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clean-bands-dirty-stories · 4 years

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Limp Noodle ~ S.H.

A/n: I have never once been good at making choices so I’ll be doing both OOF! This request is dirt old but whatever. I’m actually writing requests now look at me go!

Request: “...prompt 20 or 21 Steve Harrington x clumsy male reader” by anon

#20 (here): “I can’t do this without you”

#21: “Guess who broke their nose! Me. It’s me. I broke my nose.”

Word Count: 2000+

MASTERLIST

“Are you SURE that this is a good idea?” The words came from Y/n as Steve parked the car, waving through the windshield window at Jonatan, Nancy, Robin and a new friend, Bianca. They’d all decided on a triple date and like idiots they’d let Steve, Bianca, and Nancy decide so they were now all headed on a hike. Robin was the least athletic of all of them and hated exercise of any kind. Jonathan was the one in the group who hated being outside in the sun and much preferred being inside cuddled on the could other swaddled in bed. Y/n... well Y/n was the single most clumsy person you’ve ever met.

Now, take whatever image that popped in your head when I said that and then make it ten times worse. Then take THAT mental image and multiply by it by ten AGAIN. Y/n was worse. He was absolutely sure he was going to thrip and fall over the side of some steep hill and fully die. He would be lucky to make it out of this trip without a stick going through his eye. Y/n and the outdoors didn’t mix. They never had. He could barely walk, let alone when it was uphill and outside and humid and hard to breathe and everyone was so beautiful and distracting.

Steve didn’t agree with that analysis.

“This is a great idea actually,” Steve decided with complete confidence. “Don’t worry about it okay? You’ll be fine.”

“Incorrect,” Y/n Aries immediately. “We started dating because I tripped seven times and you caught me every single one. I tripped seven times in three days Steve - and that was just the, what, one hour a day you’re with me? In THREE HOURS I TRIPPED SEVEN TIMES!” He was whisper yelling, getting rather heated. “I’m going to knock my head into a tree and bleed out.”

Steve laughed. He reached over, taking his boyfriend’s hands. “Do you trust me?”

Y/n’s shoulders sagged. “That is a cheap trick, Harrington.”

In response Steve only raised his eyebrows. When Y/n refused to answer, Steve sighed. “Y/n. Do you trust me?”

Closing his eyes a second, Y/n held in a sigh. When he opened them again, he managed a small smile. “Yeah. I trust you.” Steve went to get out of the car and Y/n caught his wrist. “Just promise you’re going to stay with me okay? I can’t do this without you. I’m serious.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Come on Drama King.” They both got out and made their way over to the other four.

“Hey guys!” Nancy greeted warmly. She had calmed a lot since Y/n had first met her. Darkened. But she was still pleasant enough, and Y/n tolerated her for Steve. He didn’t know why they were all friends after Nancy’s brutal ripping up Steve’s heart but... he expected it was that trauma bonding things that Steve and Robin refused to ever talk about with Y/n in the room.

“Hey bestie.” Robin winked at Y/n and he felt himself relax. Around her he always felt more comfortable. She got him on a much deeper level than Steve did. She had actually been the one to set them up after failure after failure of Steve’s attempts on girls who came to the ice cream shop they met at originally. It had gone up in flames recently, but they’d snagged a job at a movie store so they still worked together. Y/n was pretty sure neither of them would have it any other way, even if they sometimes pretended to hate each other.

“Hey loser,” Y/n joked back. Robin shoved him and he laughed, accidentally ramming into Jonathan as his feet almost came out underneath him. “Sorry,” Y/n mumbled.

Robin scoffed in amusement. “I always forget you have two backward feet.” This was something she said often, in reference to the popular statement of ‘two left feet’. One day Robin had proclaimed that Y/n was something worse than two left feet, and then being backward had kicked off as an inside joke.

“I’d you have that problem standing still, how do you think you’re going to do on a hike?” It seemed Bianca was trying to get in on the joking, but it hit a hard cord with Y/n.

He wasn’t in the mood to joke. “What can I say? Great day to die.” He put on the fakest smile ever. “Come on everyone!” Then he began to surge ahead, onto the trail, and the others scrambled to catch up.

It didn’t tale long for Nancy and Bianca to hit the head of the trail. Steve dutifully stayed by Y/n, but he watched the girls head with a sort of forlorness. Because Y/n was so slow and Jonathan and Robin lagged even behind him, the two girls in front were racing up and down the steep sides of the path they were on, jumping over logs and hopping up on stumps to make the path harder. They were laughing hard and having a great time. Y/n knew that Steve desperately wanted to join them.

What kind of a boyfriend would Y/n be to stop him? “Go on,” Y/n sighed, nudging Steve forward encouragingly.

Steve looked at Y/n with an expression that tried far too hard at innocence to succeed. It was so obvious he was full of crap that Y/n was rolling his eyes before the brunette even spoke. “What? What do you mean? I’m having a great time with my boyfriend which was the point of this whole thing. Have I bored you already?”

“No, but I’ve bored you. Go and do parkour with the bad ass chicks up there. Go on.” Steve hesitated, but when Y/n shot him a look, he finally did speed ahead to catch up and join in the unnecessary shenanigans that gave Y/n extreme anxiety just imagining himself doing. He sighed watching Nancy and Steve. He knew that things were WAY over between them, but Y/n found a little jealousy in the way they worked together so fluidly. They were perfect for each other - even as friends. She just kept up with him and challenged him in a way that Y/n never could, and Steve thrived.

Slowing down in his moment of annoyance, Robin and Jonathan caught up to him. “Welcome to the world of those who have to sit back and wonder why they’re not still dating,” Jonathan sighed. His voice was as laced with bitterness as Y/n’s thoughts were.

“They’re so complimentary,” Y/n complained.

“You could argue that you guys are the same,” Robin pointed out. “You both hate doing anything outside or away from home. You both love reading and photography. I mean Y/n’s incredible view of the world allows him to be a great writer, but it also connects you two. Writing and photography aren’t far from each other and you prod that every day. Nancy can’t slow down enough to appreciate things like Jonathan does, and we all know Steve is no reader.” She chuckled. “And we’ll never know how awkward and snappy got buff and pretty.”

Jonathan and Y/n smiled at that. “Imagine another world where Nancy and Steve stayed together. Then maybe you and me would have-“ suddenly he lost his words as he tripped, and Jonathan reached out to catch him. The two boys busted up laughing. “That’s the second I have to say both sorry and thank you for your reflexes Mr. Byers.”

“Ah anytime. That’s what friends do. Share interests and talk about alternative world where they’re dating and catch each other when they almost die.”

That made Y/n laugh harder.

Suddenly there was a very unpleasant thump and a scream. The three in the back snapped their attention to the three ahead and saw Nancy and Bianca freeze and look back at Steve, who had landed on the ground. His hands had risen to cover his face, and he slowly turned on his side, curling in on himself. It seemed like he’d misstepped at some point and tripped and fallen.

Perhaps Y/n shouldn’t have been the one they worried about on this trip...

When they finally got Steve to the hospital, it was a mess. There had been blood everywhere, and Y/n’s weirdly good driving had saved the day in a pinch once again. They’d gotten there quickly and in one piece without getting pulled over.

Only an hour later they were given news. Steve came out with the skin around his nose already bruised and puffy. “Guess Who broke their nose,” he mocked in a song songey voice.

“Me?” Y/n joked.

“Me!” Steve agreed, pointing at himself. “It’s me. I broke my nose.” He slung an arm over Y/n’s shoulders and the other four covered their mouths to hide laughs. People wouldn’t be forgiving in public if it got out that the two men were dating, so they were trying to be lowkey.

The Doctor came over behind Steve. “He’ll be fine. I’ve given him direction son how to ice it and even given him some pain killers to help with the next few hours. But it is just a broken nose, so nothing too severe.”

“Thanks,” Y/n told the Doctor. They left then, everyone heading home. Y/n designated himself in charge of caring for Steve, and called his parents to let them know that Steve ‘got tired’ after the hike and totally knocked out. They didn’t mind, liking that Steve was actually spending time with other kids again, so it went without too much problem.

As Y/n was tucking Steve into bed, Steve caught his hand to still him. “I love you.”

Y/n’s eyes widened. They hadn’t said that yet but... well, if hypotheticals with Jonathan had taught anything today, it was that Y/n was glad he was in this version of things, even if it was a little more complicated this way. So he meant it when he replied, “I love you too Stevie.”

Steve glared. “Not Jonathan?”

“Jon-“ Y/n’s deep confusion cleared as he realized what had been happening right when Steve had tripped. Jonathan and Y/n had been close. Laughing. Talking. Touching. “Oh my god Harrington did you break your nose because you were being a jealous idiot?”

“Maybe,” Steve grumbled, looking away.

Y/n laughed, gently tugging on his chin so their eyes met again. “Please sweetheart, you can’t get rid of me that easily. Me and my two backward feet are going to plague you for the rest of our lives.”

Steve’s eyes got very soft. “Do you really mean that?”

Getting sincere, Y/n leaned down and kissed Steve’s forehead. “Stephen Harrington, I’ve never meant anything more. I know we can’t get married or anything, or even date publicly, but... I don’t care. And maybe that’s some really forward thinking and we haven’t been dating that long, but I fell... a LOT of times in my life. It only made sense that the first time someone ever caught me, it was you. And it made me realize that I was gifted with my two backward feet so that one day I’d fall for you.”

Steve groaned. “That was painfully cheesy.”

“Okay, okay,” Y/n dismissed, rolling his eyes. The sweet moment was completely ruined.

“No seriously I would break my nose again before hearing that-“

Y/n reached over, turning the light off before climbing into bed with Steve. “Shut up Harrington, or I WILL break your nose again.”

Steve laughed before pulling Y/n close so they could fall asleep curled up with each other. “My cheesy, dumb, clumsy boy,” Steve mused quietly.

That made Y/n scoff. “If either of ya is the dumb in this relationship it’s YOU, Harrington.”

“Shut up,” Steve whispered. It was quiet a while before he finally followed up with, “I’d like that future with you too.”

To hide his smile, Y/n mumbled, “Good night Stevie.”

After a second, Steve replied, “Good night, Y/n.” And for now, that was the end of it.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x male reader #stranger things #stranger things imagine #stranger things x reader #stranger things x male reader #joe keery #joe keery x reader #joe keery imagine #bisexual steve harrington #bi steve harrington

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