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laurasimonsdaughter · 2 years

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What if Disney adapted Tatterhood?

Well then I would be very nervous, because I love Tatterhood. And my sister and I both agree that Disney shouldn't adapt it, but Studio Ghibli. That being said, if I put the (modern) Disney Goggles back on:

First of all, like most adaptations, the beginning with the adopted child and the beggar woman from Asbjørnsen and Moe's version will be cut, and with good reason. (It's very folkloric, but has no bearing on the plot at all.) Instead, the story will start thusly:

Once upon a time (in a place that looks inspired by Norway) there were a King and Queen who longed to have children and sought the help of a wise fairy (no, sadly she can't be a witch). She teaches them some magic and warns them that two flowers will grow, but that the queen must only eat one of them.

They (the king has to be more involved than in the fairy tale) do the magic and find the flowers. One is a beautiful rose and one is oddly bright, with strangely shaped leaves that scream 'magical'. The king picks the rose and the queen eats it, but likes it so much she wants to eat the other flower too, so the king gives it to her. Some time later the queen gives birth to twins. One is as beautiful as the rose and the other is going to give the concept artists an absolute headache.

Because Tatterhood has to look different and not-princessy, while still being Disney princess material, and they also have to avoid any racial coding at all cost (as many adaptations sadly do not). In any case, they are adorable little Disney children together and the sweet little princess - let's call her Goldenlocks - adores her strange, wild sister, who rides around on a goat (like Esmeralda's, her trusty animal sidekick) and wears a tattered hood. They grow up together in a lovely montage with a song about sisterhood.

The random witch infestation in the castle from the original will probably get changed to something a bit more coherent. Maybe a sorcerer will come to ask for Goldenlocks' hand in marriage, or a witch queen will come to demand one of the sisters marry her son. Either way, poor princess Goldenlocks ends up cursed. I don't know if they will give her the calf's head, that might look too grotesque. She'll probably turn fully into a beautiful animal, like a deer.

Tatterhood will demand her parents give her a ship, so she can cure her sister and she sets off with her twin, acting very Mulan/Merida-ish. Tatterhood sings a very catchy song while she swings in the rigging, about her need to be free and her love for her sister. She confronts and/or tricks the sorcerer/witch who cursed her sister and manages to uncurse her, but as the two girls make their escape a magic storm blows their ship off course as revenge.

They get hopelessly lost and end up in the harbour of a strange kingdom. Of course having the widowed king marry Goldenlocks and force his son to marry Tatterhood is absolutely out of the question. Instead there is kind old queen ruling the country, and she has two sons: twin princes. Princess Goldenlocks happens to see the youngest and falls head over heels in love. She's so lovesick that Tatterhood resolves to make sure they can meet.

Luckily the queen is giving a great masquerade ball to celebrate her sons coming of age. Goldenlocks and Tatterhood show up to the ball. One ridden on a beautiful horse, the other on a goat, one in a glittering gown, the other in an outfit that is meant to look strange and wild but can still look very fashionable.

Their appearance causes a lot of confusion, and everyone wants to dance with princess Goldenlocks, but she will not accept any dance unless her sister has a partner too. The youngest prince begs his brother to ask Tatterhood to dance so he can dance with Goldenlocks, he agrees, and so the two princes dance with the two princesses. And because Goldenlocks and her prince are smitten already, they dance the entire night, and the other prince is stuck with Tatterhood. There is a song for this, consisting of two duets split across the two couples, one of which are falling in love, the other are snarky and almost antagonistic.

Now this is not easy to resolve, because in the fairy tale Tatterhood makes the prince question her about why she she rides an ugly goat, wears and ugly hood and has such an ugly face, and when he does she tells him that he is wrong and she is suddenly more beautiful than her sister, more richly dressed, and astride a beautiful horse. This will not do for a Disney ending. In many adaptations it is implied that Tatterhood's sister has always seen her "true face" and that it is now revealed to the world, which is still a bit unsatisfying. And of course we cannot get rid of the beloved goat sidekick. The best ending I can think of is this:

Everyone at court is enchanted with Goldenlocks but scandalized by Tatterhood, who does not behave like a princess ought and looks so Different and Wild. They laugh that the oldest prince has to spend the entire evening with her while his younger brother gets the beautiful Goldenlocks and this makes the prince embarassed and sulky.

When his younger brother tells him he wants to marry Goldenlocks, however, he puts his own feelings aside and is genuinely happy for him. Of course Goldenlocks wants to accept, but says they must first go to meet her father and mother. The foreign queen wants to give them a crew to man their ship, but Tatterhood insists that she does not need one, since she sailed the ship all alone before. To prevent the boat setting off with just the prince and three princesses on board, the prince's twin insists he come too, since surely the sisters cannot mean to separate him from his twin brother. They indeed do not argue with that and the four of them set sail.

Now we get a beautiful sailing montage where the Goldenlocks and her prince are cutesy and in love, but the focus is on the older prince, who sees Tatterhood magically sail the entire ship on her own and whose wildness is actually wonderful and free-spirited etc, etc. Tatterhood sings a reprise of her sailing song and the prince maybe gets a few lines too, to express his slow change of heart.

(Depending on who is on the creative team, the evil sorcerer/witch might attack one last time while they are at sea. Giving Tatterhood an opportunity to go full warrior princes and team up with the princes to destroy them once and for all. At the final moment Tatterhood trusts the younger prince to save her sister while she and the older prince kill the villain, who now probably has the shape of a sea serpent.)

They arrive back at the court and the king and queen are overjoyed to see their children back again. If there ever was any preference for Goldenlocks, it is now gone, they embrace both their daughters with equal joy. They immediately give their blessing to Goldenlocks' engagement, but to everyone's surprise the other prince suddenly begs for another moment of their time, turns to Tatterhood, and asks her to marry him.

She accepts, either immediately, and they will have a double wedding to end the movie on. Or she will archly tell him that he can court her first, in which case he will accompany her to their siblings' wedding. (The prince's mother will be there too, of course.)

Either way the good fairy is present at the royal wedding that ends the movie, to give her blessing, and say something meaningful about magic and love and destiny. There will be a hint of magic around both Tatterhood and the fairy here, betraying that her power comes from fairy magic, and that she is actually the coolest fae warrior princess ever. Her goat is the only one who notices.

They all live happily ever after, the end.

#disney goggles #tatterhood #fairy tale #laura babbles

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minniethemoocherda · 2 years

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Sins of the Past: Brown Eyes

Summery: A collection of drabbles set in my modern au where the Bad Batch raise Omega after rescuing her from the abusive hands of their mother. In this chapter, Tech finds himself constantly running into the one and only Phee Genoa.

A/N: I have fallen head over heels for Tech x Phee! Tech deserves some love! And Phee is so cool! I had to write a chapter about them! I hope this fluff makes up for all the previous load of angst as for once this chapter does not contain any warnings! I hope you enjoy! And Happy Bad Batch Finale Eve everyone! I can't believe the season is almost over already! Thank you so much to everyone who's stuck around with this fic since season 1! Or if you started reading in season 2! The amount of support I have gotten from this fic has been unbelievable so again thank you! Xxxxxxxx

Tech had always been good at spotting patterns. Whether that be in art or maths or people. And recently he had begun to notice a pattern emerging in regards to one person in particular.

It all started when he and his brothers were fixing up Cid's bar. Bolo and Ketch had gotten into an argument with another couple which ended up with the two of them getting thrown across the bar into the wall. Cid had brought them in to fix the old wooden panelling.

Whilst they worked, the bar was supposed to be closed. But that didn't stop a woman with dark skin, golden coiled hair and an upturned smile from walking in. Tech was about to inform her that they were currently closed, when Cid brushed him off, saying that the woman was an old friend of hers that had recently moved back into town. Her name was Phee.

Tech hadn't given their first interaction much thought. She had hung around the bar, chatting to his brothers whilst she caught up with Cid but besides calling him Brown Eyes, they didn't talk much.

The bad batch had made a habit of going to Cid's bar for dinner on Thursdays as it was one of its quieter days so Cid gave them a personal discount if they came. Not long after their first meeting, Tech noticed that Phee had also begun to make a habit of appearing on Thursday's, to hang around with Cid and enthral Omega with tales of her exploits as a treasure hunter. At first, Tech assumed that as a close associate of Cid, Phee was also taking advantage of a personal discount.

But then she started making an appearance at their jobs sites as well. Not seemingly on Cid's behalf, just to tell more of her tales whilst they worked. Tech didn't mind her presence as she never distracted him from his work and he had to admit that he did find her stories entertaining if outlandish. At the time his new hypothesis was that she was simply making up for lost time by catching up with Cid after being away for so long.

And then she showed up outside of Omega's school.

Tech was waiting to pick up his little sister when the familiar voice called out across the playground.

"Fancy seeing you here Brown Eyes!"

He turned around and as expected, leaning against the school fence stood Phee.

"Good afternoon. I'm here to pick up Omega. What are you doing here?" He asked, as she made her way over to him.

"Well I'm here for my niece." She replied, "Ain't that a coincidence huh?"

Tech was starting to put the pieces together that their continued meetings were probably more than a coincidence.

But before he could delve deeper into that thought, the school bell rang out across the playground, shortly followed by the hordes of children.

In the past months under their care, Tech had become quite adapt at picking out the blonde head of his younger sister out of a crowd. He soon spotted Omega running across the playground towards him along with a similarly aged girl with familiar coiled hair and dark brown skin who had to be Phee's niece.

The girl leapt into Phee's open arms. Tech was impressed by the treasure hunter's strength. He knew how deceptively heavy growing children could be.

After a spin, Phee settled them back onto the ground.

"Allow me to introduce Lyana!" She said with a dramatic bow. Lyana gave a welcome wave to Tech.

"A please to meet you." Tech said.

Phee, stroked her hand over the Lyana's head. Although her eyes were on Tech, she appeared to be subconsciously detangling some of the girl's curls. Lyana was smiling at her aunts antics like she was the greatest person in the universe.

Until this moment, Tech hadn't fully realised how good Phee was with children. He knew that she was an engaging storyteller with the exploits she would tell Omega about but he hadn't noticed until now all the extra exaggerations and efforts she would put in to make the child laugh. In fact Phee was very good at a lot of things. Tech had seen her off handily complete her brothers' maths without calculator a calculator as she wondered around their building sites. And she was still the only person who gave him a challenge when playing chess at Cid's bar.

And it wasn't until this moment that he found that the rings of gold in her hair, made her eyes shine like amber.

Tech took his glasses off, to ensure that it wasn't just reflections of the glass. But if anything, the lack of glass only made them shine brighter.

He was so distracted by them, that it took him a minute to tell that Phee had continued talking.

"Now we just need to find something to do to until your Daddy is done with his meeting." Phee was saying to Lyana.

"Maybe you could watch a movie?" Omega suggested. "Tech is taking me to the cinema to see the first Pirates of the Caribbean because they're re-releasing it for its tenth anniversary and I've never seen it!"

"Then you are in for a treat!" Phee exclaimed with her usual enthusiasm. "That's my favourite film of all time!"

"Perhaps you would like to join us?"

Tech wasn't aware he had spoken until he found all three sets of eyes turned to him.

Omega was giving him the same look that his brothers often did when they were around Phee that he hadn't quite deciphered the meaning behind yet. So he turned his focus back to Phee who's ever present smile had settled into something softer.

"Oh Brown Eyes, I was starting to think you'd never ask."

#the bad batch #tbb #tech #phee #phee genoa #tbb tech #omega #tbb omega #star wars #sins of the past #lyana #tbb lyana #lyana hazard #shep hazard #techphee #tech x phee #pheetech

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fighting-and-drawing · 1 year

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Heart of the Warrior Chapter 4: Potential

Fandom: Cybird Ikemen Sengoku

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Yukimura Sanada x Male!OC

Thai sighed in defeat, getting stuck again on yet another impossible-to-understand character in one of the many manuals he was tasked to study from. In fact, the written language of the past was far different than even modern kanji that he also didn't understand.

He rubbed his brow in frustration, closing shut the book before calling it a day. He set the book aside, lying down on his futon for a nap. His body and mind were tired, his effort to bring himself up to Saizō's standards nearly killing him out of pure exhaustion. Thai's eyes lazily stared at the wooden ceiling above him as his body lay motionless. He desperately wanted a nap, his eyes slowly shutting. He lay there, motionless as he waited to be lulled off into a dreamful bliss, yet something gnawed at him in the back of his head.

He rolled over onto his side, letting out an exasperated grunt, remembering the talk he had with Yukimura. His words rang in Thai's head, Yuki's confidence in Thai almost annoying him. Thai knew the situation he was in called for rapid adjustment and adaptation, yet becoming the bodyguard of an elite samurai warrior? That was too much to ask from a back-alley Capoeirista fighter. Hell, even the Patuá that he believed would keep him from harm didn't seem to work when he fought against armed warriors on that fateful night.

Yet, it was still comforting to know that Yukimura looked out for him. Was it because Yukimura owed him a debt of gratitude? Maybe it was a thing samurai did back in the day—for saving Yukimura's life, he would be gifted a spot as one of his loyal retainers. Maybe, Sasuke had something to do with his new status.

Or, did Yukimura really see potential in him?

Yuki did, in fact, seem to strike something in Thai. He couldn't tell what, but in this turbulent series of unfortunate events, seeing Yuki's reassuring smile and hearing his confident words calmed his anxiety. Sure, there was Sasuke, but something about Yuki, for lack of a better word, charmed him. Some days, he found himself unable to even look him in the eye.

"Great," Thai muttered, his eyes slowly opening. "Now, I can't sleep....pffffft."

He looked at the Portuguese timepiece gifted to him by Lord Shingen. He knew at around this time there wasn't anyone in the training dojos. Restless, he forced himself up onto his feet before stepping out of his room and down the hallway. Quickly passing from corridor to corridor and out into the castle grounds, he quickened his pace and entered the dojo. His eyes averted their gaze from the numerous samurai and castle attendants around him. He opened the door slightly ajar, peering into it to make sure no one was inside.

Thai sighed to himself. "If I can't go to sleep, then I might as well get some work done."

Once he verified that the hall was empty, he took off his sandals and stepped inside. He took a few deep breaths, warming up his arms as he walked over to the center of the large wooden floor. He twisted his hips left-to-right and back, shaking his legs off. He let out a final deep breath, doing another look around to make sure he was alone.

Finally, he closed his eyes, opening them again as he squatted down before going into his signature ginga—the swaying, triangular dance-like footwork of Capoeira. Although he decided to do his best to hide his own fighting style from the eyes of everyone in Kasugayama, he still found the time to practice in isolation, making sure his physique and muscle memory were still maintained. Soon, Thai did his normal flow, from doing low ground movements and sweeps to fast spinning kicks, cartwheels, and floreios—fanciful, aerial acrobatics. His movement was fluid and smooth, Thai having total control of his body even with the most stressful and awkward of techniques. Meia Luas would move into aerial cartwheels, escapes going into low bridges that swept around the floor. One would look at this and assume he wasn't practicing how to fight—Thai's movements elegant and dance-like to the point of being nearly impractical—but few in Thai's own Past would dare to challenge him in this regard.

Thai spun in the air, kicking high up toward the ceiling before landing. He walked around in a small circle a few times, catching his spent breath before going back into Ginga. He would repeat this numerous times, practicing multiple movements interlocked with one another before either finding a place to stop or failing at another movement.

He knew anyone who caught him doing this would laugh and ridicule him, especially the samurai in the castle whose main occupation was to fight and kill. Even when ramping up the intensity and speed of his movements, seemingly pulling off complex techniques rapidly without fail, he was aware of his surroundings, knowing if he should stop and make a hast retreat. Finally, during a high kick, he heard the faint stepping of feet coming up to the hall, accompanied by what sounded like light banter.

Thai quickly stopped, letting in and out a few deep breaths as he turned around to face the opening dojo's doors. He cleared his throat and averted his eyes as the door opened, revealing Yukimura and a man that he hadn't met yet. Thai bowed as Yukimura noticed him in the middle of the room.

"Oh, Thai!" Yukimura called out in surprise. "I didn't know you were in here."

"I didn't know you were coming here, neither," Thai quipped as he rose his head. "I was just doing some...self-training."

"Training, huh?" the man next to Yuki said. "You must have been training hard then! You're sweating up a river."

Thai let out a hesitant chuckle, placing his hands on his hips. "Right...," Yukimura said, "Thai, this is Rokurobei Unno. He's a longtime vassal of mine visiting the castle. Rokuro, this is—"

"Thai-san, right?" Rokurobei interrupted with a light-hearted smile. "You must be the foreigner who saved my boss from that forest?"

"Yeah," Yukimura said, answering for Thai. "It's like he came out of nowhere, beating up the guys who tried to kill me, like some—"

"Anyways," Thai said, interrupting Yukimura before he said the "forbidden" word. "I was just heading out. You guys probably have a lot to catch up on—I don't want to keep y'all. Nice to meet you, sir."

"Wait!" Rokuro said, halting Thai in his tracks. "The boss here said you defeated seven samurai with nothing but 'wild kicks' and a tree branch. You must be one hell of a warrior to pull off such a feat!"

"Uh....right," Thai murmured, looking at Yukimura. "Just acted on instinct...y'know?"

Yukimura sighed. "You tell that to everyone, 'y'know' that?"

"Hey, it's the truth," Thai shrugged. "I nearly got my head lopped off doing that."

"Still," Rokuro said, "You're now training under Lord Yukimura himself! You should consider yourself lucky. That's a dream for many a young samurai. For a foreigner, such as yourself, to be held in such high regard is unheard of!"

"Would you stop?" Yukimura grunted, "Thai is a pretty capable fighter already. There's no way I would pass up someone like him just because he's a foreigner." Yukimura patted Thai on the shoulder with a heavy hand, garnering a second-long reluctant smile from Thai. "You're right," Rokuro said, rubbing his chin between his thumb and index finger. "You did mention Thai fought 'uniquely.' Isn't that right, Thai?"

Red flags shot up in Thai's mind. "....I did," Thai answered hesitantly.

"Hey, boss." Rokuro smiled at Yukimura. "If I may...I would like to see this for myself."

"Hmm..." Yukimura remarked, looking at an obviously wary Thai. "Don't ask me, Rokuro. Thai's standing right there." Yukimura shrugged.

"Huh??" Thai asked in shock. "Uh, Yuki, wait—"

"How about it, Thai-san?"Rokuro asked. "Let's have a match! Loser pays for dinner."

"Uh!" Thai grunted in shock. "I-I actually don't....have that much money....on me...."

"That's okay," Rokuro said confidently, "How 'bout this, boss? Your boy wins the match against me, and I pay for us. Lose, and you pay!"

"What?!" Yukimura blurted out, "Why me? You're fighting him!"

"Yeah, but you've been training him," Rokuro said, his tone snarky. "I wanna see if you're training him right."

"Of course, I'm training him right," Yukimura growled back, "Thai! Show him everything you got—right!"

Thai nearly jumped. "Uh....sure—yeah! I mean, of course," Thai reluctantly agreed.

Yuki produced two wooden bokken, handing one each to both Thai and Rokuro. Rokuro took off his clean kataginu coat swiftly before sheathing his bokken under his obi sash. Thai tucked his bokken under his obi, too, the two of them sitting right across from each other in seiza towards the center of the room. Yuki stayed towards the wall, leaning back on it with his arms crossed. "You better not lose to this old man, Thai!" Yukimura jeered out.

"Hey! This 'old man' still has some tricks under his sleeve," Rokuro jeered back at Yukimura. Rokuro focused his attention back on Thai. "Best two out of three?"

Thai stayed silent, nodding before taking in a few breaths. Normally, the two of them would be standing up, but it was Rokuro who decided to sit down in seiza, causing Thai to do the same. Combining it with Rokuro's prior statement, Thai already knew somewhat what Rokuro's plan was.

The samurai were expert swordsmen, and from first-hand material and the training Thai learned, he knew a samurai could never be a swordsman if he didn't learn first how to draw his sword quickly and efficiently. Rokuro was older than Yukimura, but if he was still accompanying Yukimura on the battlefield, there was no doubt in his mind that Rokuro could "kill" Thai in one swift motion. And, to make matters worse, Thai wasn't exactly the fastest in drawing out a sword, the malandro more versed in smaller blades and bolo. Thai would have to circumvent this flaw if he didn't want to be chastised by Yukimura.

Thai glared at the grinning Rokuro, the two as still as statues. Suddenly, before Thai could react, his theories were made true as Rokuro swiftly drew his bokken and nearly struck Thai in the neck. Thai flinched, nearly falling as the edge of the bokken was mere centimeters from his neck.

Hmph!"Rokuro snickered. "That's one!"

Thai grunted as Rokuro sheathed his bokken. The two sat back down, Thai now ready. Focusing instead on Rokuro's chest, he saw the slight movement in his expression right before he drew his sword again. Thai used his hand to push himself back, throwing his head back to barely escape Rokuro's bokken before he drew his own, smacking away Rokuro's returning bokken before thrusting the tip at Rokuro's chest. Rokuro grunted, being pushed back from the attack.

"Heh," Rokuro grunted. "Good one."

Rokuro invited Thai once more to sit across from him. Thai, already out of breath, hesitantly sat back down, but Rokuro shook his head with a smile.

"Not all the way back there, Thai," Rokuro said.

"I'm barely that far away from you," Thai said.

Rokuro nodded. "If you'll be accompanying Yuki everywhere, especially to meetings, you have to learn to act quickly in small spaces. Not every battle is fought in open rooms such as this."

Thai chewed his bottom lip as he scooted forward, now only a person-sitting distance away from Rokuro. Already, Rokuro readied himself, bending forward with his hand inching towards the hilt of his bokken. Thai, intimidated, knew that his earlier plan wouldn't work this close. He would have to lose this match...or, maybe, he can pull something off.

It was dishonorable (he thinks?) to draw your sword first in a duel if you weren't part of the aggressive party....but no one said anything about his foot.

Rokuro's hand darted towards his bokken as his body lunged forward. As Rokuro's hand touched the hilt of his bokken, Thai jumped up onto his feet and hand before shooting his leg out with a Negativa kick and striking the end of Rokuro's bokken's hilt. The force of the kick knocked Rokuro back, the latter letting out a bewildered "EEH!?" as Thai spun around, firing out a fast Rabo de Arraia (low spinning heel kick) that he purposefully threw over Rokuro's head just before he fell.

Rokuro landed on his back, quickly scrambling up to draw his sword, but was now face-to-face with the tip of Thai's drawn bokken.

"Huh?"Thai grunted, catching his breath. "I think you owe us dinner?"

Saizō and Sasuke watched silently from the roof of the building adjacent to the dojo Thai was in, watching the latter like a pair of gargoyles ever since he went in to do his unorthodox training routine, failing to notice an open window. Both watched with stern and focused gazes, but behind their stoic looks was intrigue and fascination....and a bit of confusion.

"If I remember correctly," Sasuke explained to a focused Saizō, "Thai's style of fighting combines elements of dance and acrobatics to surprise his opponents. I never found it to be effective, but Thai seems to pull it off exceptionally."

"Hmph," Saizō grunted, "Was that some kind of kata he was doing? No structure and little applicable techniques."

"True," Sasuke agreed. "I find it difficult to see Thai doing a handstand for ten seconds if he was in a fight, but he did take down Rokuro-san."

Saizō shook his head. "It took him until the second attempt to learn—the third to act. If they fought with real swords, Thai would be dead," he grimly said, "Although, I must admit he is clever."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow. "How so?"

"Do you remember that time when we escorted Lord Shingen and Lord Yukimura to our vassals' lands to solidify the illusions of Lord Shingen's death?" Saizō recounted, his diligent gaze still locked toward Thai and Rokuro.

"Of course," Sasuke answered.

"Rokuro did the same thing when Naoki thought to rebel against our Lord. He positioned himself as close to Naoki as possible," Saizō explained. "So, when Naoki thought to draw his sword, Rokuro's blade was already at his throat." Saizō stood up, turning around before walking towards the ladder leading to the ground on the other side of the roof, Sasuke following him. "Rokuro-san is exceptionally flawless in drawing his sword, and Thai figured it out. So, he knew not to focus on drawing his own sword, but to focus instead on Rokuro, albeit with his own....'technique.'"

Sasuke looked back towards Thai, Rokuro, and Yuki, the three of them exiting the dojo, presumably heading to a certain shop in town. "He does seem to be an observant man," Sasuke said, pushing up his glasses. "I do believe he is improving."

Saizō started heading down the ladder. "Tsk! I still don't believe he's ready, yet," Saizō grunted. "For some foreign fighter, he has a major learning curve if he wants to become shinobi."

"If I may, "Sasuke said. "We still have another few remaining vassals Lord Shingen needs to visit. Perhaps we should bring Thai to one—to expose him to a real-life situation. Sort of an 'on-the-job-training?'"

"What!? Wait...." Saizō said as his feet hit the ground. He held the ladder in silence as Sasuke swiftly made his way down. "Hm....maybe, Sasuke. However, if things turn ugly, I won't have it that an inferior bodyguard joins Lord Yukimura."

"It's a risk we have to take," Sasuke said, joining Saizō on the ground. "He's already been here for a month. Maybe it's about time we put him on the job."

"Right," Saizō sighed. "You did the same with Lord Kenshin, didn't you?"

The two watched silently from afar as Yuki, Thai, and Rokuro made their way toward the castle gates. Saizō sighed one more time, placing his hands on his hips as he closed his eyes. "...I guess I got one more fool to watch for out there," Saizō muttered to himself.

"With the exception of Naoki-san," Sasuke said. "Things seem to be going smoothly. Likely, there won't be any need for us to worry about his safety."

"True, but this long con our Lords have been setting up is becoming riskier by the day."

"Hence the need for us to finally deploy Thai-san," Sasuke interrupted. "Already he has proven capable of defending Yuki. I assure you that with adequate supervision, he will prove himself to be a capable shinobi."

#ikemen sengoku #ikesen #ikesen fanfic #ikesen yukimura #Heart of the Warrior

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findroleplay · 1 year

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hello, depths of tumblr!

i’ll just get right to it. i’m an 18+

roleplayer looking for an 18+ writing partner (with discord) for hetalia.

yes, hetalia. you heard that right. i’ve only been stuck here since 2009…

i am a literate to advanced literate writer, capable of multi-paragraph replies, and would like someone on a similar level. i LOVE to plot, world/story-building. throw anything at me, and once we get the ideas rolling i’m the type who is consistently coming up with new plot points/twists/milestones. i do my best work when my partners are equally as passionate. i’ll probably make our story an aesthetic board and sometimes i even do playlists. :3c

in the upcoming lists and verse information, i will place an asterisk on anything that i’m really craving right now, but please know i am always open to new suggestions and ideas. i’m a multi-shipper and enjoy quite a few rarepairs.

characters i write:

• s. italy (most refined)

• n. italy

• greece snnnnznzn <3

• china

• sweden

• prussia

[some] characters i’m looking for:

• against s. italy — honestly anyone. if we can come up with a good plot and figure out a way for them to have chemistry, i can worth with it. my romano muse is very adaptable.

• against n. italy — austria*, germany.

• against greece — turkey *

• against china — rome, but open to others.

• against sweden — finland

• against prussia — poland

as far as verses go, i highly prefer modern aus over canon or historical settings. i enjoy themes such as hurt, comfort, angst, conflict and resolution, character development, pining (be it mutual or initially one-sided)… the list goes on, but you get the vibe. cliche au settings i enjoy would be things such as: reincarnation, soulmates, high school, adults trying to figure shit out, cafe/coffee shop, ski resort/beach house (or any sort of vacation destination really). it may also be obvious that many of my ships are very “opposites attract,” so i also enjoy plots that lean into that, such as celebrity/fan, socialite/caterer, artist/muse, etc. please tell me the themes that you enjoy, because i’m open to so much more than this list includes.

i’m open to exploring or including some darker/more serious/controversial/complicated themes. as stated, i enjoy angst/hurt/comfort! life is messy and imperfect and so are people, so to me it makes the characters feel more human depending upon the storyline and/or situation. naturally, i don’t enjoy edgy themes for the sake of being edgy, so that’s definitely not what i’m trying to say with this tidbit! <3

triggers/limits:

firstly, i will respect any triggers or limits that you have, so please communicate those to me!

my only personal “limit” is that when it comes to those intimate 18+ scenes, i prefer we simply imply, insinuate, glaze over or dance around the act with some flowery language. i’ve written enough scandalous content to fill a library, so i’m good on that.

so yeah! i think that covers just about everything. if you find yourself interested, please just like this and i will absolutely reach out! <3

#roleplay #rp #hetalia rp

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ghostchasersmagazine · 1 year

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🍿?🧍‍♂️?

Thanks for asking! Answers under the cut for length purposes.

🍿 - favorite movie?

Honestly, I don't feel strongly enough about any particular Scooby movie to say one is my overall favorite. There were a few that did come to mind when thinking of an answer though, so consider this an unranked top 5 of sorts with me giving a brief reasoning for why I like each of them.

I feel like I should mention Reluctant Werewolf first since that's the one I've posted about most on this blog. This movie has always been a fun one conceptually to me, the idea of a bunch of monsters getting together to race themed cars, and as you all have noticed, the monster characters are my favorite part of the movie. I've always found Shaggy and Googie's relationship to be perfectly serviceable, and I'm just a Scrappy fan in general so I like the movies with him in it.

Ghoul School is in a similar vein for me, being another one I've always conceptually liked with the idea of monsters going to school and how something mundane like that gets adapted to a spooky setting. This movie gets some points over Reluctant Werewolf for me though simply due to the nostalgia factor, as this was one of my favorites as a kid. I liked the running gag (if I'm remembering it correctly) of Shaggy and Scooby still being scared of everything monster-based despite everything being so friendly, and also Scrappy was there so points there.

Cyber Chase was another I watched a lot as a kid, and is my favorite of the late 90s/early 00s movies. I just had a lot of fun watching it, maybe because it wasn't as intense as the other three films given that it didn't have the heavy shadows those films did and the monster didn't look as intimidating to me. The different settings the gang went through for each level were creative and I always like the ending level with the gang meeting a version of their past selves.

Monsters Unleashed, the second live action movie, is another big nostalgic one for me. It was one I saw in theaters as a kid and would quote afterwards, and I always enjoyed more than the first one. I liked seeing the creative ways the monsters would be adapted into live action and pointing out all the references I noticed. I also just liked the premise of the movie, with all these different monsters coming together and the gang having to stop them all.

Finally, a brief shout-out to Alien Invaders for having the only romantic plot line in a Scooby movie I genuinely cared about as a kid (and possibly even now). I dunno if the writing was just that good or if I just liked Crystal's design that much, but it stuck with me.

🧍‍♂️- favorite version of each member of the Gang and why?

For Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma, I'm just going with a general "Classic 1970s version" answer, since those are the versions I'm most familiar with and how I imagine the characters in my head. A quick honorable mention goes to the 1980s Scooby though, since him being Uncle Scooby and his relationship with Scrappy is great.

I do have slightly more in-depth thoughts about which version of Fred and Daphne are my favorite, however:

Fred - Be Cool Fred. I once read someone describe Be Cool Fred as a blend between the quirkier modern versions of Fred and the version of him from the 1970s, and I think that's a perfect description of why I like him. As someone who is a fan of his 1970s version, I think him being the serious Leader Guy of the group is an important part of his character. Be Cool adapts this to its more comedic style by making Fred a Straight Man, the serious one to the sillier nature of his friends. Of course, where the humor comes in is he's just as silly as his friend but he takes everything very seriously expects everyone else to as well. Fred's character in the show is basically that mysteries are something that require the upmost attention and focus, and yes it IS important that he dresses as a Vegas performer while solving them.

Honorable mention goes to 1970s Fred, which as I mentioned I am a fan of. I do think Be Cool Fred is more entertaining overall, but the original Fred is closer to how I personally imagine him in my head.

Daphne - 1980s Daphne. In particular I'm thinking about The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show/The New Scooby Doo Mysteries version of her since I haven't seen 13 Ghosts yet. I feel like this version is a natural evolution of her character. Like the version from the 1970s she's still a curious person who wants to help people, but now she's been able to adapt that into a full career through being a reporter. The writers were able to put her into even more of a starring role without completely changing her character.

I also like how her being a leader in this version felt like something natural for her to do instead of trying to force her into being a Hashtag Girlboss about it. She is braver than Shaggy and Scooby but more level-headed than Scrappy, so she's in a way the glue that holds the group together during mysteries. It makes sense that due to her curious nature that she would want to take charge and investigate supposedly haunted houses and if Frankenstein's Monster really exists or not. It also makes sense that she'll want to stay with the friends she's made instead of leaving them behind, insisting that Scooby and Shaggy tag along despite their cowardly natures and encouraging Scrappy to use his excitement and high-energy for proper detective work. She's a good leader both in her own personal desire to achieve her goals and how well she works with others.

Honorable mention goes to Be Cool Daphne. I found her "interest of the week" to be a very funny gag and the decision to make her a comic relief character was a bold one that managed to pay off.

#anonymous

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allthemusic · 2 months

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Week ending: 20th December

Well, I wanted an upbeat rocker, and I think I got two for the price of one! Both artists this week are known quantities, but it's good to see them still scoring some hits and adapting to a more modern sound.

Singing the Blues - Guy Mitchell (peaked at Number 1)

I already knew this song quite well before firing it up - it was a staple of family roadtrips in my childhood, and somehow its mix of chirpy whistling, strummy guitar and repetitive lyrics just wormed their way into some corner of my brain and stuck there, as a result of which I could absolutely sing you the majority of this song by heart. I think it also helps that there's a version that's been adapted as a local football song, where I grew up?

Thankfully, it's quite a good song. Its main trick is that it combines a perky, upbeat tune with some almost theatrically downbeat lyrics about how Guy's never felt more like singin' the blues. He's lost his love, and suddenly the moon and stars no longer shine / The dream is gone I thought was mine. He sings it all with a sort of camp hamminess, especially on lines about how he's gonna cry-y-y-y over you, and you can't help but suspect that Guy's enjoying wallowing in his misery, just a little bit.

It doesn't hurt that the song's got so many other elements that just scream "fun", from the relatively fast pace, to the whistling solo in the middle, to the backing singers repeating key phrases like cry over you and the way that Guy's voice periodically dips into this low-pitched, croony register that's just on the edge of being silly. It's almost tailor-made to sing along with, once you've heard it a few times.

It's also apparently well know among charts fans for having reached Number 1 not once, not twice, but three separate times, as it kept getting unseated and then coming back. One time it got unseated by a different version of Singing the Blues. Which is kind of interesting, if you're a nerd about that kind of thing.

Cindy, Oh Cindy - Eddie Fisher (5)

Is there a more 1950s rock and roll title out there? I feel like Cindy as a name is just peak 1950s, you don't get many babies called Cindy nowadays. No idea what to expect here, but I'm sold on the title.

The song itself starts promisingly, with some slowly booming bass leading into a guitar and string riff, all of which set up Eddie's introduction, where he entreats his love straight away: Cindy, oh Cindy / Cindy don't let me down / Write me a letter soon / And I'll be homeward bound.

It's effective enough, and sets the tone for the whole song, as Eddie then unfolds the story of what he's done. You see, he joined the navy to see a bit of the world, but despite travelling all over the place, he's still pining after Cindy, who he left behind. You get the sense that he maybe only realised this after leaving her behind, and it leads to some of the loveliest moments of the song, as Eddie sings about how I see her face in every wave / Her lips kiss every breeze or about At night I pace the lonely deck, caressed by memories.

It's all pretty classic 1950s fare - how many songs have we now had about lovers separated when the man goes off on some sort of military service? - but the way that Eddie's longing is projected out onto the world around him adds a sort of poetry that in turn brings a touch of class that these "I really miss my girl back home" songs don't always have. And it's the same with the orchestration of it all, which goes a step or two beyond what you'd normally see in songs like this. I mean, at one point, there's even what sounds like an oboe? Which is definitely not part of your standard pop set-up.

The song was apparently not an Eddie Fisher original, but was rather by a band called Vince Martin and the Tarriers. They, in turn, had been inspired by the Weavers and the Kingston Trio, both bands part of an ongoing American folk revival, who were performing a work song called Pay Me My Money Down, itself originally written and sung by black stevedores in the Sea Islands of Georgia. It's an influece that's kind of cool - we're not getting much folk music yet, but it's interesting to see its influence filtering through into the mainstream like this, even if it's limited in scope.

Come to think of it, it's a similar type of folk music that's inspiring people like Lonnie Donegan, but I imagine his take on Pay Me My Money Down would sound very different!

Yeah, I enjoyed both of these songs. They're fun, and are both interesting examples of artists who we were hearing back in 1952, but who've adapted and fitted their sound to work in a more 1956 context. And both attempts are very respectable, even if one's definitely my favourite.

Favourite song of the bunch: Signing the Blues

#uk charts #1956 #guy mitchell #eddie fisher

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bananaet · 2 years

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missjaystone · 4 years

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“Don’t Wake Up”

Pairing(s): Steve Rogers x Reader | Bucky Barnes x Reader Summary: Work keeps you busy. That's why as long as Steve's gentle and doesn't wake you up, he's free to do what he wants while you sleep, but what he wants is his best friend to feel what he feels. Word Count: 1,800

Trigger Warning(s): Somnophilia, NonCon/DubCon, Drugging Please DO NOT ignore trigger warnings and read at your own discretion.

Life was unpredictable, anybody who knew exactly how their life would go was either omnipotent or the most boring being alive. Early on you learned to roll with life's punches and that's how you were where you were right now. A top SHIELD agent trusted with a great deal of knowledge and an almost insane amount of clearance, working closing with the Avengers. You rose thru SHIELD's ranks fairly quickly, especially for someone of your age. You were mid-level when they unfroze Captain America. You were one of the people entrusted with the task of helping Steve warm up to this new 21st-century society, pun not intended.

Once the initial shock of being thrust into this world had worn off, you and Steve developed a comfortable and vital friendship. You two spoke multiple times a day and saw each other frequently. The two of you were together so often, people used to joke that if one of you was around, the other wasn't far behind and they usually weren't wrong. It was no secret nobody was surprised when Tony loudly made a scene when he saw you two sharing a New Year's kiss. Tony shouting "I knew they'd end up together! I fucking knew it!" to everyone on the Avengers team and a handful of SHIELD agents wasn't how you two intended on exposing your relationship, but life is unpredictable.

Things around you gradually became more complex but that wasn't a surprise, you just kept rolling with the punches. The battle of New York happened, Ultron happened, Hydra's infiltration of SHIELD happened, the team grew, the entire situation with the Sokovia Accords happened, the complexities already on your plates multiplied. Of course, you stuck with Steve thru everything, you never stopped having faith in him. There were a handful of times where you could've turned and stopped fighting but how could you abandon your Captain? You loved him. Over the years all the fights, all the curveballs, everything wore on you both and the two of you had to change with the times and adapt to your surroundings. You were both changing before each other. There were times where you didn't see each other for weeks at a time; Steve would get busy with his missions around the globe and you had a mountain of SHIELD files to deal with; drives that had to be decrypted and stored properly, reports that had to go to a dozen different people, agents to recruit and review, clips to scour with minute details.

Things got a little bumpy when Bucky came to stay at the tower; Steve trying to help his oldest friend get accustomed to everything and you helping any way you could. You couldn't bear the thought of telling Steve when you started to feel uncomfortable around the brunette. The lingering stares, the prolonged hugs, the borderline-peculiar conversations; you brushed it all off. This was a man who spent 70 years as a mind-controlled assassin, he had everything ripped from him and now he had to readjust to modern society. He had to learn how to form relationships again, he had to relearn everything so there were bound to be moments of discomfort as he navigated his way. In all of that, however, you missed the small frowns and brooding moments he had whenever you and Steve were being overly affectionate together. He'd never do anything about it though, you were Steve's. He'd had his fair share of ladies back in their time but you were Steve's girl, you made Steve happy and Bucky couldn't-wouldn't take that from him.

When your workload multiplied again, you weren't as available as you used to be and it wore on Steve a bit. He and his super-soldier stamina had gotten used to a certain level of intimacy that wasn't happening anymore. It came to a head one night when Steve was in the mood but you were too tired to even pretend. Your words were mumbled as you snuggled against your pillow but Steve heard them loud and clear "do whatever you need to get off, baby, just don't wake me up." He asked if you were sure and got a hum in response but that didn't entirely suffice. He gave your shoulders a small shake until you turned to look at him. You looked tired and were so close to kicking him out of bed "Stevie, do whatever you want just please let me sleep."

You two still had sex other times, they were more intimate and personal though. In a mildly humorous way, that seemed to boost your relationship some. You'd wake up the morning feeling surprisingly peaceful for a few minutes before your work to-do list came to mind and Steve found out he enjoyed the idea of doing something he wasn't supposed to. He'd made it into his own little game; how much could he do without waking you up?

Tonight, you had your nose buried in your computer screen and papers were strewn across the bed; you were already exhausted but you still had a number of things to finish. You were pulled out of your hype focused state when the bed dipped beside you. The blue-eyed man offered you a cup of water with a sweet smile "come on, I haven't seen you drink anything in over an hour." You thanked him with a quick peck before taking a long and much-needed drink, thanking him when you set the nearly-empty cup back down.

Time felt like it began to drag on slowly, heavy tiredness slowly enveloping you throughout the next hour. You didn't even realize you'd dozed off until Steve was gently laying you down, pulling the blankets over you. "Steve, I still have work to do," you forced yourself to mumble, everything just felt heavy. "You can't even keep your eyes open, finish it in the morning," he said softly. He hushed you when you tried to object "Captain's orders, doll." You couldn't argue with that. Literally, there wasn't an ounce of strength or a grain of energy to fuel a disagreement. You were out like a light in a manner of seconds.

The blond stayed snuggled up beside you, stroking your hair soothingly to lull you into a deep sleep. No more than ten minutes had passed before the door opened and closed without a sound. An unsure Bucky stood by the dresser with his hands in his pockets and spoke quietly "are you sure about this Steve?" He nodded "I'm positive, Buck. I wouldn't have suggested it if I wasn't sure about it. I see the way you look at her, you deserve happiness too y'know." Bucky started to question him but Steve stopped him "she'll love you as much as she does me, Buck, it'll take some time and subliminal messages but she will."

Bucky looked at your sleeping form in thought, you were a nice person; you were smart, helpful, genuine, charming, you made him feel normal. He'd never be normal but if having you made him feel that way, who was he to pass up the opportunity? He quickly shed his pajamas while Steve moved your bottoms down. They'd been planning this for what felt like ages and they knew there'd be no going back, but it gave them a chance at a future they got to actually choose.

A thick silence filled the room as Bucky moved slowly to hover above you, lining himself up at your entrance with a slightly-shaking hand. With one last confirmation look from Steve, he slowly eased himself into you. He bit his lip roughly to keep from groaning and wake you up. The crushed-up Valium in your water should've kept you from waking up at anything but he wasn't taking a chance and getting too caught up in the moment. He finally broke the silence with a mumbled groan after finally bottoming out. Bucky's eyes fell closed and he stilled to savor the feeling, almost cumming right then.

Very slowly, he started to pull his hips back before pushing back in just as slowly. He continued like this for what he thought was ages and when the only response from you was a mumble here or a moan there, he slowly picked up his pace. Steve was in heaven watching the scene unfold in front of him. There was a slight pang in his chest for betraying your trust and not only letting but encouraging his friend to use you but he had a plan, a plan he was confident in. He started off palming his throbbing erection over his sweatpants before eventually pulling them down and fisting his member. There were a few moments where both stilled in fear when you stirred before settling. Bucky finished first, his hips jerking briefly before they stilled, a satisfied groan leaving his lips as he moved some hair out of your face. Steve finished when he watched him slowly pull out and came with a muttered 'fuck'. Steve quickly grabbed a few tissues, handing some to Bucky to clean you up while he took care of himself. Once the evidence was removed, the men shared a tight hug. Bucky actually looked a little more like himself now, he looked the slightest bit happier and more at peace.

In your unconscious and drugged state, all that you really felt was a sort of tugging pressure but you couldn't open your eyes. You heard voices conversing quietly after the pressure was completely gone and you felt the bed move as somebody got up. Despite your best efforts to listen, you couldn't make out the words. It took all of your strength to open your eyes even slightly but you could've sworn you saw a brunette figure leaving the room. There was no time to process it before your eyes fell shut again and you were entirely asleep.

You still felt a bit groggy when you woke up in the morning but nothing seemed out of place. Steve was quick to appear with a couple of mugs of coffee, handing you yours before he took a seat. He planted a sweet kiss on your temple. When you didn't say anything after taking your mug, Steve looked you over "are you feeling okay, doll? Are you coming down with something?" He asked, some concern in his eyes as he placed the back of his hand to your forehead for a temperature check. You finally took his hand and kissed his palm, sending him a smile "I'm fine, baby, just a little groggy is all. Crazy dream is all." Steve smiled sweetly at you “wanna talk about it?" An image of Bucky on top of you flashed across your mind and you shook your head “I don’t even remember what it was about.” You kissed his cheek softly and smiled. After all, it was only a dream.

#Dark!Stucky #Dark!Steve Rogers #Dark!Bucky Barnes #Stucky x Reader #Steve Rogers x Reader #Bucky Barnes x Reader #Marvel Smut #Bucky Barnes Smut #Steve Rogers Smut #TW: NonCon/DubCon #TW: Somnophilia #TW: Drugging

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sineala · 3 years

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Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good.

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference.

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

#posts i actually wrote

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mha-quotes-and-such · 3 years

Note

im judging 1-a's hero costumes and want to share them with you :) just as a general base for this assume im judging everyone for not having the appropiate amount of padding on their costume

aoyama: sir, this isnt a modern fashion show this is crime fighting.

ashido: look, i know her whole schtick is like, 80s (90s??) era, but i am on my knees begging her to at least choose prints that go with each other.

tsuyu: honestly? its good. i think she should maybe add some blues and browns into it if shes going to be fighting in water so she can blend in a bit more, but its very nice already.

iida: sir, sir, why are you wearing the equivalent of a medieval suit of armor. he can run fast, yeah, but that wont do much if they can hear him coming a mile away.

uraraka: another one i really like. the color scheme is cute, you cant tell what her quirk is just by looking at it, and she has a face protector!! you go you funky little hero.

ojiro: i mean, it fits his personality? i look at his character and go ehhh. and then i see his hero costume and go ehhh. very on brand.

kaminari: the jacket is a grabby hazard. maybe he could fix the ends to the rest of his costume so they arent flapping around? other than that its good.

kirishima: look, i love him as much as the next person but god please put on a shirt. take a leaf out of mirio's book and make a suit out of your hair, that way it hardens with you and adds an extra layer of protection. also the skirt thingy is a grabby hazard.

koda: gonna be honest, i had to look it up because i could not remember what it looked like BUT when i saw it it was a little confusing? the mouth. why. he couldve put anthing else on his shirt in relation to his quirk but goes with a set of teeth. get it ig?

sato: its solid. a little boring to look it which must be a pain to market off but its reliable? i mean it compliments him well so. king.

shoji: so theres nothing really wrong with it, but i just dont like it. i mean he doesnt have much to work with to be fair and it feels a little plain. not like i could do any better though.

jiro: her costume looks like street clothes. the jacket, again, should be fixed to the rest of her costume so you cant grab it. her boots might weigh her down? idk maybe theyre made of lightweight material who knows.

sero: another one i dont necessarily have a strong opinion about. it works well with his quirk, he sticks to a few main colors, and his helmet thing looks like a tape dispenser. hes easily marketable and its efficient.

tokoyami: haha edgelord. but its useful. his cloak helps dark shadow if theres too much light and it just fits his aesthetic. another easy market (esp towards teens)

todoroki: why.

hagakure: see above, but more stressed. please, just copy mirio and make a suit out of your hair. we are all begging you.

bakugou: oh boy uh. green and orange are So Ugly together. they just dont work and the black background theyre on only accentuates this. another note: his gauntlets are too big for him to open a door. this man would never be able to do stealth missions unless he lost the gauntlets.

midoriya: i like his, honestly. he adapted it to work well with his quirks and he also reinforced the places and he needex extra support (wrists/hands). stuck to a color scheme.

mineta: i genuinely do not understand what the thing around his waist is for?? what is it. also cape: garbby hazard. id tone down the yellow a bit, just so it doesnt scream out his position because its eye catching.

yaoyorozu: you are a child. i cant believe i am reiterating this point so much but make a suit out of your hair. your hair is a surface on your body ergo, you should be able to produce your creations through it without exposing yourself.

+aizawa: i mean, it works for an underground hero. he doesnt have to worry about his appearance, just practicality. he has his goggles, his scarf. the only thing bad is the bagginess. some villain is going to grab the extra fabric and yeet him into a brick wall.

I’ll be honest. Whenever costumes are involved I always get a little scared. But you anon? You’ve managed to be OSHA and the fashion police all at once. I literally can’t add anything to this you are objectively correct

And THANK YOU for bringing up the ‘make costumes out of your hair’. Sure it might not work 100% of the time. But at LEAST Hagakure could! I would like to see it for all the ones you’ve mentioned tho, it’s incredibly practical and also way more protective for these children

#momo and Hagakure especially are unacceptable #like you’re gonna throw some ‘tHeY hAvE tO’ logic at me #and then give us Mirio???#not a quote #ask #long post

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wangxianficrecs · 4 years

Photo

Follower Recs

Stories I haven’t read yet, but clearly need to put on my ever-expanding List.

~*~

Welcome back queen [Thank you, it’s so lovely to be back!] if ur still doing follower recs I gotta recommend I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett it’s soooooooo good

[This one was actually recced to me by two different people, the other of whom said, “ Maybe I'm crying a little so I feel like a should recommend ‘I would wait for a thousand years’ by bleuett on ao3.”]... it’s def. on my List!

I would wait for a thousand years

by bleuett (T, 10k, wangxian)

Summary: During the worst of winter, a traveler comes to stay at Lan Wangji's inn. He wears a red ribbon in his hair.

“Do you see the rabbit?” Wei Ying asks and points at the moon. “That’s the moon rabbit, he helps make Chang’e more immortality elixir. He keeps Chang’e company.”

“I do not wish the rabbit for company,” Lan Wangji says tightly. “You are the one I want by my side.”

“And I’m here, Lan Zhan. If you go to the moon, I’ll follow you, I’ll always be here now.”

~*~

I just read a great fic by aisthuu "every love story is a ghost story", didn't see it in your recs so wanted to recommend it! LWJ is a guqin composer and teacher, buys a cheap guqin off eBay which ends up being attached to WWX's spirit from canon era. It's bittersweet, LWJ deals with Lan's homophobia (implicit in a Lan way) and his feelings towards the ghost. This is author's only ao3 fic and honestly I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I'm happy I did and hope you will enjoy it too! [I’ve recently read this one, and loved it!]

every love story is a ghost story

by aisthuu (M, 59k, wangxian, my bookmark)

Summary: The man is in Lan Zhan’s bed. Did they—he begins to wonder, eyes trailing to where the man’s body lies under the blanket. Had Lan Zhan—?

Then the sleep-fog clears and Lan Zhan realizes that the young man isn’t quite opaque around the edges.

“You’re a spirit.”

The spirit narrows its eyes. “I’m so much more than that.”

(Lan Zhan buys a guqin off eBay for a suspiciously low price, only to find that it’s haunted. And now there’s a ghost in his bed.)

~*~

Ok so I absolutely have to rec "see you yesterday" by glyphic. It's a wip, but it's currently at 101k so there's a whole lot there, and it's terrible and wonderful and beautiful all at once. The way the backstory of canon events is adapted to the modern-with-cultivation setting is brilliant, and then there's the amnesia, and then there's the time loop. This fic lives permanently rent-free in my brain.

see you yesterday

by glyphic (M, 101k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:

Wei Ying 21:09 hey lan zhan what’s the weirdest way youve died

Lan Zhan 21:11 Falling encyclopedias.

Wei Ying 21:12 omg no way that’s so rude turning books against you???

Lan Zhan 21:13 A betrayal I will never forget.

On Halloween night, an exiled demonic cultivator and a Lan disciple get stuck in a time-loop, find each other, and try to figure it all out.

~*~

If you are looking for recs for yourself I absolutely love (the complete!) story Just as the Snow Melts by draechali on AO3. It's a canon divergence where everyone lives, even WWX! ~ @airmidcelt

Just as the Snow Melts

by draechaeli (T, 67k, wangxian)

Summary: Like a snowy mountain top in spring the residents of the Burial Mounds trickled down the mountain and joined the flow of society.

“I went to the Burial Mounds,” Lan WangJi said.

“Ah, yeah… I’m sorry Lan Zhan,” replied Wei WuXian, “I hadn’t thought anyone would come to visit. I am still not sure how it happened; I brought A-Yuan to Yiling to play by the river and then ended up somehow teaching a bunch of children swimming and writing along with him.”

~*~

Hello! It's come to my attention that you have not as yet read Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation! Please do! It's the only thing that gave me joy during 2020 😆 like proper belly laughs and disney villain style cackling. It is a wip, and it is long but so so worth it!! The author has reworked the entire canon through these message crystals and still conveys complex characters despite the tricky format. It's just so good!! Highly highly recommend it! ❤ ~ @theladypeartree [Oh! I’ve been subscribed to this one, and know that @swaglexander-the-great is a reliable provider of Hilarity, so I’m excited for it to be finished!]

Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation

by Hades_the_Blingking (T, 49k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary: The Untamed universe is exactly the same, except everybody has magical crystals that have a suspiciously familiar messaging system. The story is pretty much the same as the show, except everyone lives!! (so minor changes).

or in which Wei WuXian tries his darndest to date Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng possibly has a aneurysm, Jin ZiXuan is still the most awkward human alive, and Xue Yang makes me write some VERY cursed things. Written in chatfic format! :3

~*~

Chomrafy on AO3 deserves love and encouragement; she’s written a body of compact, poetic, and eloquent shortfics each of which can stand alone, but that comprise an intricately cross-referential and mostly internally-consistent universe. They’re grouped as chapters in works according to theme; for example, “in cupped hands” focuses upon Jin Ling and his second-generation baggage; “Departure in Autumn” portrays the last years of WWX’s first life. Follow the tag “Chomrafy’s MDZS shortfics.” [I don’t see this tag?]

in cupped hands

by chomrafy (G, 2k, wangxian)

Summary: Of secrets, of futures, of love. A Jin Ling-centric collection of 200-word fics.

Ch.1: Jin Ling repays a debt (JL, JC, & WWX). Ch.2: Jin Ling and a ghost in the mirror. (JL & JYL) Ch.3: A matter of friends (JL & the other kids) Ch.4: In this house we don't keep dogs (JC & WWX) Ch.5: In the end, he remains silent (JL & uncles) Ch.6: A first night hunt, of sorts (JL & the other kids) Ch.7: Jin Ling, forgiving, forgetting (JL & LXC & JGY) Ch.8: Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling argue (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.9: Jin Ling and his father (JL & JC) Ch.10: Jin Ling speaks up (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.11: Jin Ling and a piece of home (JL, JC, & WWX)

Departure in Autumn

by chomrafy (not rated, 6k)

Summary: Four perspectives. A steady march to the end.

Ch.1: Because if anything happens to them, Wen Qing would never be able to heal with these hands again. Ch.2: As long as this is still home, Jiang Yanli will wait as long as she needs to. Ch.3: Five times Jiang Cheng reaches for Wei Wuxian, one time he turns away. Ch.4: Whether the road is broad or narrow, bright or dark, they would have to keep walking. Wei Wuxian digs Wen Qing's grave.

~*~

Hello, hope all is going well. I don't have an ask, by I do have a recommendation. I read this fic a while ago and found it again. I just wanted to recommend this for everyone. Let me know what you think please. Thank you. [Oh! This one’s in my To Read list, but I’d forgotten about it. Mmmm, fox!wwx and dragon!lwj.]

Ten miles of Lotus Flowers

by Yukirin_Snow

M, 274k, wangxian

Summary: He was a mischievous fox spirit, wreaking havoc where he went, about to depart on a journey that would span centuries.

He was a heavenly prince, a proud dragon destined to ascend the throne to become emperor.

Neither expected their paths to collide over the span of three lives.

~*~

I forgot if it was your blog 😥 that recommended “Bestseller” (when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21528316/chapters/51318766)

But OMG IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I LOVED IT!! And if it wasn’t your blog, I’m so sorry for how weird this sounds 😭😭😭😭 I just loved this fic so much that I have to tell it to someone 😢 [It’s on my List, but I haven’t read it yet!]

Bestseller

by pupeez4eva

M, 8k, wangxian

Summary: He had written the book to prove a point. It was never supposed to be a big thing, and he certainly never intended for everyone — Jiang Cheng, Zewu-Jun, the Juniors, literally everyone— to be reading about his sex life.

Oh God, he definitely needed to make sure Lan Zhan didn’t find out about this.

(Or, when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit).

~*~

I’d like to rec On Your Marks, Get Set, Bake! by @blackwiresgrowonherhead

It’s one of my absolute favorites and I laughed out loud so many times when reading it

on your marks, get set, bake!

by BlackWiresOnHerHead

G, 41k, wei wuxian & juniors

Summary: Jin Ling resumes thumping on the door to room 721, and the small collection of freshmen starts chanting “Senior Wei! Senior Wei! Senior Wei!” with increasing volume until finally Wei Wuxian opens the door.

“Yes?” he says with his widest, most innocent eyes.

“Senior Wei!” demands Lan Jingyi, shoving himself to the front of the group. “Why didn’t you tell us you’re a contestant on this year’s season of The Great Gusu Bake Off?!?”

Several months ago, college student Wei Wuxian secretly competed in the most popular reality show in the country. The show starts airing in the fall. The freshmen in his dorm collectively lose their minds.

~*~

If you're in the mood for v. short ridiculous fun fic, may I suggest My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio by x_los It's 2k modern cultivators AU, featuring WWX calling LWJ's sword Bitchin' [omg I’m laughing so hard] and I think it's more fun going in blind?

My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio

by x_los

T, 2k, wangxian

Summary: Lan Wangji finds he doesn't even need to call for help for Wei Wuxian to come running.

#follower rec #wangxian fic rec #I HAVEN'T READ THESE YET #wangxian #mdzs

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kaile-hultner · 3 years

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Nihilism is so easy, which is why we need to kill it

(I initially published this here a couple weeks ago.)

So last night it dawned on me that, after over two years of being relatively symptom-free, my depression snuck back up on me and has taken over. It’s still pretty mild in comparison to other times I’ve been stuck in the hole, but after 24 months (and more) of mostly being good to go, I can tell that it’s here for a hot minute again.

How do I know? Well, it might be the fact that I spent more time sleeping during my recent vacation from work than I did just about anything else, and how it’s suddenly really hard for me to stay awake during work hours. I don’t really have an appetite, and in fact nausea hits me frequently. I don’t really have any emotional reactions to things outside of tears, even when tears aren’t super appropriate to the situation (like watching someone play Outer Wilds for the first time). And I’ve been consuming a lot of apocalyptic media, to which the only response, emotional or otherwise, I can really muster is “dude same.”

For a long time I was huge into absurdist philosophy, because it felt to my depressed brain like just the right balance between straight up denying that things are bad (and thus we should fix them, or at least try to do so) and full-blown nihilism. This gives absurdism a lot of credit; mostly it’s just a loose set of spicy existentialist ideas and shit that sounds good on a sticker, like “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

In the last couple years, while outside of my depressive state, I went back to Camus’ work and found a lot of almost full-on abusive shit in it. Not toward anyone specifically, but shit like “nobody and nothing will care if you’re gone, so live out of spite of them all” rubs me the wrong way in retrospect. The philosophy Camus puts out opens the door for living in a very self-destructive fashion; that in fact the good life is living without care for yourself or anyone/anything else. The way Camus describes and derides suicide especially is grim as fuck, and certainly I would never recommend The Myth of Sisyphus to anyone currently struggling with ideation. That “perfect balance” between denial and nihilism is really not that perfect at all, and in fact skews much more heavily towards the latter.

Neon Genesis Evangelion has been a big albatross around my neck in terms of the media products I’ve consumed in my life that I believe have influenced my depression hardcore. It sits in a similar conversational space to Camus’ work, in that it confronts nihilism and at once rejects and facilitates it. A lot of folks remark that Evangelion is pretty unique – or at least uncommon – in its accurate portrayal of depression, especially for mid-90s anime properties. The thing I notice always seems to be missing in these discussions is that along with that accurate portrayal comes a spot-on – to me, at least – depiction of what depression does to resist being treated. This is a disease that uses a person’s rational faculties to suggest that nobody else could possibly understand their pain, and therefore there’s no use in getting better or moving forward. Shinji Ikari is as self-centered as Hideaki Anno is as I am when it comes to confronting the truth: there are paths out of this hole, but nobody else can take that step out but us, and part of our illness is that refusal to do just that. Depression lies, it provides a cold comfort to the sufferer, that there is no existence other than the one where we are in pain and there is no way out, so pull the blanket up over our head and go back to sleep.

Watching Evangelion for the first time corresponded with the onset of one of the worst depressive spirals I’ve ever been in, and so, much like the time I got a stomach virus at the same time that I ate Arby’s curly fries, I kind of can’t associate Evangelion with anything else. No matter what else it might signify, no matter what other meaning there is to derive from it, for me Eva is the Bad Feeling Anime™. Which is why, naturally, I had to binge all four of the Evangelion theatrical releases upon the release of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time last month.

If Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion are works produced by someone with untreated depression just fucking rawdogging existence, then the Eva movies are works produced by someone who has gone to therapy even just one fucking time. Whether that therapy is working or not is to be determined, but they have taken that step out of the hole and are able to believe that there is a possibility of living a depression-free life. The first 40 minutes or so of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 are perfect cinema to me. The world is destroyed but there is a way to bring it back. Restoration and existence is possible even when the surface of the planet might as well be the surface of the Moon. The only thing about this is, everyone has to be on board to help. Even though WILLE fired one of its special de-corefication devices into the ground to give the residents of Village 3 a chance at survival, the maintenance of this pocket ecosystem is actively their responsibility. There is no room or time for people who won’t actively contribute, won’t actively participate in making a better world from the ashes of the old.

There are a lot of essentialist claims and assumptions made by the film in this first act about how the body interacts with the social – the concept of disability itself just doesn’t seem to have made it into the ring of safety provided by Misato and the Wunder, which seems frankly wild to me, and women are almost singularly portrayed in traditionalist support roles while men are the doers and the fixers and the makers. I think it’s worth raising a skeptical eyebrow at this trad conservative “back to old ways” expression of the post-apocalypse wherever it comes up, just as it’s important to acknowledge where the movie pushes back on these themes, like when Toji (or possibly Kensuke) is telling Shinji that, despite all the hard work everyone is doing like farming and building, the village is far from self-sufficient and will likely always rely on provisions from the Wunder.

As idyllic as the setting is, it’s not the ideal. As Shinji emerges from his catatonia, Kensuke takes him around the village perimeter. It’s quiet, rural Japan as far as the eye can see, but everywhere there are contingencies; rationing means Kensuke can only catch one fish a week, all the entry points where flowing water comes into the radius of the de-corefication devices have to be checked for blockages because the water supply will run out. There is a looming possibility that the de-corefication machines could break or shut down at some point, and nobody knows what will happen when that happens. On the perimeter, lumbering, pilot-less and headless Eva units shuffle around; it is unknown whether they’re horrors endlessly biding their time or simply ghosts looking to reconnect to the ember of humanity on the other side of the wall. Survival is always an open question, and mutual aid is the expectation. Still: the apocalypse happened, and we’re still here. The question Village 3 answers is “what now?” We move on, we adapt.

Evangelion is still a work that does its level best to defy easy interpretation, but the modern version of the franchise has largely abandoned the nihilism that was at its core in the 90s version. It’s not just that Shinji no longer denies the world until the last possible second – it’s that he frequently actively reaches out and is frustrated by other people’s denials. He wants to connect, he wants to be social, but he’s also burdened with the idea that he’s only good to others if he’s useful, and he’s only useful if he pilots the Eva unit. This last movie separates him and what he is worth to others (and himself) from his agency in being an Eva pilot, finally. In doing so, he’s able to reconcile with nearly everyone in his life who he has harmed or who has hurt him, and create a world in which there is no Evangelion. While this ending is much more wishful thinking than one more grounded in the reality of the franchise – one that, say, focuses on the existence and possible flourishing of Village 3 and other settlements like it while keeping one eye on the precarious balancing act they’re all playing – it feels better than the ending of End of Eva, and even than the last two episodes of the original series.

I’m glad the nihilism in Evangelion is gone, for the most part. I’m glad that I didn’t spend roughly eight hours watching the Evamovies only to be met yet again with a message of “everything is pointless, fuck off and die.” Because I’ve been absorbing that sentiment a lot lately, from a lot of different sources, and it really just fuckin sucks to hear over and over again.

It is a truth we can’t easily ignore that the confluence of pandemic, climate change, authoritarian surge and capitalist decay has made shit miserable recently. But the spike in lamentations over the intractability of this mix of shit – the inevitability of our destruction, to put it in simpler terms – really is pissing me off. No one person is going to fix the world, that much is absolutely true, but if everyone just goes limp and decides to “123 not it” the apocalypse then everyone crying about how the world is fucked on Twitter will simply be adding to the opening bars of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

We can’t get in a mech to save the world but then, neither realistically could Shinji Ikari. What we can do looks a lot more like what’s being done in Village 3: people helping each other with limited resources wherever they can.

Last week, Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast and churned there for hours – decimating Bayou communities in Louisiana and disrupting the supply chain extensively – before powering down and moving inland. Last night the powerful remnants of that storm tore through the Northeast, causing intense flooding. Areas not typically affected by hurricanes suddenly found themselves in a similar boat – pun not intended – to folks for whom hurricanes are simply a fact of life. There’s a once-in-a-millennium drought and heatwave ripping through the West Coast and hey – who can forget back in February when Oklahoma and Texas experienced -20 degree temperatures for several days in a row? All of this against the backdrop of a deadly and terrifying pandemic and worsening political climate. It’s genuinely scary! But there are things we can do.

First, if you’re in a weather disaster-prone area, get to know your local mutual aid organizations. Some of these groups might be official non-profits; one such group in the Louisiana area, for example, is Common Ground Relief. Check their social media accounts for updates on what to do and who needs help. If you’re not sure if there’s one in your area, check out groups like Mutual Aid Disaster Relief for that same information. Even if you’re not in a place that expects to see the immediate effects of climate change, you should still consider linking up with organizing groups in your area. Tenant unions, homeless organizations, safe injection sites and needle exchanges, immigrant rights groups, environmental activist orgs, reproductive health groups – all could use some help right now, in whatever capacity you might be able to provide it.

In none of these scenarios are we going to be the heroes of the story, and we shouldn’t view this kind of work in that way. But neither should we give into the nihilistic impulse to insist upon doing nothing, insist that inaction is the best course of action, and get back under the blankets for our final sleep. Kill that impulse in your head, and fuck, if you have to, simply just fucking wish for that better world. Then get out of bed and help make it happen.

#Neon Genesis Evangelion #existentialism #philosophy #media criticism #cultural criticism #spoilers

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eirian-houpe · 2 years

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Your my ask box is open link makes people write on their own feed in the app, so I have to ask this again. Let me see if I can remember... basically I just wanted three things about Lovers Leap because I am seriously behind with reading fics, but I will want to support them.

Thanks for letting me know about the link. Hopefully I've managed to fix it.

On to your ask - and thank you for it! Seriously, thank you! It means a lot that you've taken the time to reach out with an ask.

So, three things about Lover's Leap

Number One:

The origination and inspiration for this fic came out of the AUgust challenge, where basically there was a theme for writers to tackle a fic each day in August. They were supposed to be short fics, and as anyone that knows my writing will tall you, I don't do short all that well, so after a few fics, I fell woefully behind. Rather than give up however, I decided to continue and make it a series of 31 fics. The series is loosely based around the idea behind the TV show Quantum Leap, with Scott Bakula, where he gets jumped around time into other peoples bodies to help solve issues/problems with time that they are a part of. In the Rumbelle series, Rumple has fallen foul of a Fairy Curse (Blue enchanted a cup of wine), and is randomly thrown into the minds of others, and there is usually an issue to solve or something to learn. Belle voluntarily takes on the curse to be able to help him and get them both back to the dark castle if they should get stuck. The series of fics have been outlined, and I have stories coming up that are adaptations of Shakespeare, Book AUs, historical AUs, Movie AUs, and more.

Number Two:

My favorites... it's hard to pick favorites, but, of the ones I have written so far, I think I would have to say that We Never Stopped Being Enemies, Hatter and Flash In the Pan are my top three. One is SGA, a Michael/Teyla crossover. One is connected with - you could even say a teaser for - another of my fics, Modern Wonders, which is a Once/Alice (TV 2009) crossover, and the third is a fic revolving around a musicians descent into drug use and madness because of Pan's shadow from Neverland, but also introduces another thread - a mysterious traveler - into the jumps.

Of the ones I have yet to write, I think the three that I'm most looking forward to writing are #19, which is about the Great Stink of London in 1858, #25 which is a book AU based on The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and #31, not because it's the last one, but because of the connection to one Jethro Rumple, a historical figure from North Carolina.

Number Three:

By far the most challenging part of this fic is coming up with the actual problems/issues to solve or lessons to learn. The consistent thing about the series is that the background/setting. The backgrounds and setting for the stories all came first, either obvious from the theme given in the list, or... well, in a lot of cases where i was stuck, I had help. Thank you *grin

So speaking of being stuck... There is one story in the series, for which the outline reads: What the actual fuck here? It's the story that is supposed to be "steampunk" So, if there's anyone out there who has a favorite steampunk, or something that could loosely fall under that heading and you want to send it my way, I'll see what I can do to Rumbelle it!

#Second Chance Sunday #three things thursday #asks answered #peacehopeandrats

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phoenixglacier · 3 years

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Archon Quest Chapter I: Rewritten

(Part of my Genshin Impact Headcanons (things that blatantly go against canon but I’m pretending at true) series.)

Hi guys I really hated the Liyue Archon quest, but I don’t want to because Liyue really doesn’t deserve that. So I mixed it up a little to fix the main problems I had with it.

In this post:

Ningguang is the Geo Archon and Liyue’s Archon. She is “Morax”, with “Ningguang” as her modern name. Details such as Morax being of the original Seven and writing contracts with all adepti applies to Ningguang.

Zhongli is only an adeptus, not the archon, at any point. His original and official name is “Rex Lapis”, with “Zhongli” as the name that he’s using as a mortal.

Mainly, I wanted to remove Zhongli from the position of Liyue’s Archon entirely, because I his character is much more likeable that way (to me).

I’ll be marking parts that are the same as the original version with a *.

So, here’s how I would have the storyline play out in the game with my version of the Liyue Archon quest:

Traveller goes to Liyue Harbour as instructed by Venti*. They aren’t told that there’s any time limit, Morax simply governs the people directly rather than descending once a year. However, few ever get the honour of seeing Lord Morax (Ningguang), and her decrees are mainly spread by her direct underlings and the Qixing (Keqing and others).

When Traveller arrives, they set to work asking the ordinary citizens about Lord Morax and how to meet her. The citizens tell her the same spiel* about how the Qixing control Liyue. Here, the conversation/argument between the citizens is brought up about whether the Qixing should be given any credit compared to the Adepti. They eventually direct Traveller to Yujin Terrace*, because they can pray to the Adepti there.

At Yujing Terrace, there are people milling about, but they have not gathered for a specific event. They walk around and pray and act like normal NPCs.

Traveller makes wishes at the altars as per in-game and talks to some people which gives her insight on what the Liyue people tend to wish for. As she heads to the last altar, the cutscene triggers.

In the cutscene, we see the body of the Dragon Rex Lapis fall from the sky*, but the crowd isn’t originally crowded around the body, rather they move towards the body after they see it fall.

(For this part, basically Rex Lapis is declared dead*, and I’ve chosen to introduce Ganyu here arbitrarily) Ganyu appears suddenly from the sky, attracting the camera view and the attention. She jumps towards the body, and declares that this is the Mighty Adeptus Rex Lapis, and that he has been murdered. She declares that “Lady Ningguang will not forgive the culprit.”

The millelith begin securing the area accordingly, and Paimon panics*. We could have the sneaking quest again, but alternatively we could just skip straight to the next cutscene: while Traveller tries to escape, Childe grabs their hand and tells them “Come with me.”

(Childe had been in the area of Yujing Terrace earlier, but Traveller didn’t have the chance to talk to him yet because he was near the last altar, where the cutscene would trigger when they got close.)

Once they’ve escaped, the same conversation* happens where Childe tells them he’s a Fatui, Traveller prepares to fight him, Childe convinces them that they need his help, gives them the Sigil of Permission for Jueyan Karst, etc. Childe has to convince them that they’re a suspect a little more compared to the original, and amps up the blame on the Qixing*.

Traveller’s Jueyan Karst journey is the same*. However, the dialogue is a little different: the Adepti question why Ningguang sent a mortal to deliver the message to them, then they ask why she didn’t send a message at all. They are more enraged than ever over the death of Rex Lapis, whom they consider to be a friend and ally rather than the one they owe loyalty to.

After that’s done, Traveller returns and Childe introduces them to Zhongli*. It’s similar, but Zhongli explains that he has been instructed with the honour of carrying out the funeral for Rex Lapis, and as such will get to meet Lady Ningguang. If Traveller helps him out, he’ll bring them with him to meet her. Traveller agrees*. Childe is still funding*.

While the whole shopping fiasco with Zhongli could go exactly the same*, I think it’s more fun to merge Yanfei’s quest into it. Yanfei offers her services after Zhongli has trouble obtaining specific materials, and throughout the quest they can run into similar legal/scammy/bargaining scenarios. When Yanfei parts ways with us, she admits that she’s an adeptus but points out that the city needs legal advisors like her more than they need adepti*.

(Adding Yanfei’s quest here would be great because we would be introduced to Liyue’s culture of contracts early on, helping us understand Liyue better and hitting all the significant people anyway. It would also make a nice contrast with Zhongli’s cluelessness, and show the difference between adepti who are stuck in traditional ways vs adepti who were able to adapt.)

Zhongli brings Traveller to dinner, where they’re finally personally approached by Ganyu and invited to the Jade Chamber*. Zhongli says that it seems we don’t need his help after all since we’ve gotten the invitation by ourselves, but asks us to come to the funeral later anyway. Paimon assumes we won’t see Zhongli again until the funeral.

We meet Keqing on our way to the Jade Chamber*. She doesn’t ask us not to side with the Adepti exactly, but instead scold us a little for getting the Adepti involed at all. She says that “The Adepti live so far away from Liyue Harbour that they would never have known if you hadn’t told them.” Traveller also asks her how she knows that the adepti know, since we haven’t seen them since, and Keqing responds that Ningguang must trust the Qixing with this information, since they run Liyue with her.

In the Jade Chamber: (I can’t actually remember much of the dialogue from the original version...) but it should be similar-ish. The scene would probably be extra flashy to emphasise that she’s an Archon at first, then as she insists on being casual the filtering gets casual too. Ningguang tells her how much she trusts her, some of the history of Liyue (them coming together to protect Liyue during the war), and how the Adepti are angry with her about Rex Lapis’ death. She talks about the Fatui and how they’ve been trying to get a foothold here. She notes that she admires how Mondstadt has prevented them from having a hand in their running, but having a Harbringer in their city makes it difficult to push back against them. Ningguang asks Traveller what they think about Keqing, then sighs and says that she is very capable but very young. She mentions Yanfei, and explains that she is unique because she is half-adeptus and also very young. Traveller asks whether she thinks there’s no way for the rest of the Adepti to adapt to modern Liyue, and about Rex Lapis, and Ningguang skirts around those topics.

Traveller gets the information of the second Fatui base from Ningguang’s wall*. After that, actually going to the location is probably in Part 4.

When Part 4 starts, Traveller goes to the base, raids it, and finds the Sigils of Permission*. They are then caught by Childe. In the dialogue that follows, Paimon and Traveller accuse Childe of several things, including goading him that his plan of using Zhongli didn’t work. Childe laughs and reveals what we think is his whole plan: summon an Ancient God to attack all of Liyue Harbour. He says that leaving Traveller to babysit Zhongli was just to distract them, since he knew they would meddle with him otherwise. He also says that Morax, the Qixing and the Adepti are fighting each other now, and don’t have time to do anything except argue.

Traveller fights him*. The fight is pretty much the same, with him triggering his delusion and using Foul Legacy and being introduced as Tartaglia*. After he finishes fighting Traveller in Foul Legacy, he regrets it a little and says that he got carried away, but since Traveller is on the ground (conscious but) he begins the summoning for Osial.

(All of that can still take place in the Golden House with just an extra “Follow Childe” quest or by placing the Fatui base nearby and having Traveller follow a trail to there. I did think it would be cool if the base was in the Guyun Stone Forest instead, exactly where Osial was summoned. So after the summoning, Paimon yells at Traveller to teleport a distance away)

Cutscene where Traveller meets up with Ningguang, the Qixing, and the Adepti*. Paimon expresses surprise that they’re not fighting each other, they say that they’ve put aside their argument until Osial has been stopped, so on*. The fight and strategy would be almost identical, with Ningguang creating the platform and ballistas, and Traveller fighting the Fatui with the blessings of the Adepti.

This next cutscene is crucial. Instead of one of Osial’s attacks destroying the platform, one of the Fatui’s portals opens up behind Ningguang. Childe launches out from it and takes her Gnosis out of her body the same as with Venti. Ningguang’s concentration is broken and she nearly faints, which causes the whole platform to start breaking. Then Zhongli crashes in, catching Ningguang from her fall and immediately attempting to fight Childe. Childe is confused (“Zhongli-xiansheng..?”) and shocked, but Zhongli doesn’t try reasoning with him or saying anything at all, instead trying to fight him immediately. Childe is excited to engage in the fight, while Zhongli gets hurt immediately and is confused at why he’s so weak. However, the fight doesn’t last more than a few seconds, as Childe starts to run and Ningguang (weak and collapsing) tells Zhongli that they have to focus on protecting Liyue first, and the other Adepti go “This aura... Rex Lapis?”

They drop the Jade Chamber on Osial to defeat him*. Now comes the part where they explain everything that has been going on. The Adepti and the Qixing alike demand answers, the Adepti especially expressing that Zhongli has to be Rex Lapis. Ningguang explains most of it:

Some time back, Rex Lapis came to her saying that he wants to die. He’s tired from losing all of his old friends and working endlessly. “While I understand that it is the terms of my contract to serve you and Liyue, is there any way for this contract to end?”

(Zhongli notes that his experience with Yanfei showed him that contracts are much more complicated than they used to be)

Ningguang had agreed, because she thinks that Liyue is much safer than it was when she had signed those contracts with them, and if that was what Rex Lapis wished then so be it. However, she also thought it was too big of a decision to just not make use of.

The plan was that Rex Lapis would fake a very public death. After doing so (killing his original body) the rest of him would go into a human body where he will die at whatever human lifespan he made it to. This would allow Rex Lapis to live as a mortal under the name Zhongli for what to him was a very short amount of time. But because most of him was killed, he lost almost all of his power, reducing him to really just a mortal (still really strong, just weak in comparison to how he used to be as a Dragon and an Adeptus), which he unfortunately only realised the implications of when he couldn’t protect Ningguang from Childe.

The Adepti get angry and teary at Zhongli, saying that they really thought he was dead and scolding both of them for keeping it a secret. We get a few more emotional lines.

The plan was that Rex Lapis would fake a very public death. Ningguang would use this to stir up the people and sow distrust towards the Fatui, using it to drive them out. From her reports of Zhongli, she eventually guessed that Childe was planning to attack her at some point of the funeral shenanigans, which she was prepared for and planning to make use of. In short, she was hoping to get rid of the Fatui by using Rex Lapis’ death as a cover/excuse/catalyst.

But the Osial situation was beyond her expectations, and she wasn’t prepared for that. She doesn’t explain exactly what the Gnosis is to the people present, merely saying that it is important, and Keqing quips that Ningguang looks like hell right now. This launches into the Adepti vs Qixing conversation*.

The Adepti accuse Ningguang of not trusting them and trying to cut them out in favour of these mortals. The Qixing retort that the Adepti were only useful today because they needed to fight, even arguing that Cloud Retainer’s technology could only be put to use in the form of weaponry and nothing else. Madame Ping mediates the most*. Ningguang tells the Adepti that it wasn’t that she doesn’t trust them, but that she didn’t want them to have to get involved when they had already distanced themselves and were living peaceful lives in seclusion. She takes the Qixing’s side, but tries to explain to the Adepti why. The scene ends similarly to the original*. As they leave, the Adepti tell the Qixing and other humans to call them whenever Liyue needs their help.

That’s the end of the dramatic scene. At the funeral, things go pretty much the same*. Traveller hears people talking about the Fatui being the cause of everything* (Ningguang milked the Osial situation completely*). The Fatui are also blamed for Rex Lapis’ death. If the millelith still does make a speech, it would be that Lady Ningguang is cracking down on getting the Fatui out, which is met with positive reactions. Ningguang gives a speech at the funeral which honours Rex Lapis and reminds the people to work together for a new future of Liyue, but it would be less dramatic than the original.

When we talk to Zhongli, he explains some things: When he turned human, Ningguang gave him some money and a job and asked him to practice being human because she intended to give him an allowance to live on in the future. With the limited knowledge he had from never being a human before and the intense studying from a few books on funerals, Zhongli did his best. (He’d also accidentally fallen in love with a Fatui Harbringer oops). Traveller asks him what he’ll do now since he has some years left before his human body dies and he replies that he has absolutely no idea. After some thought, he mentions “I wonder whether Childe will forgive me...”

Traveller probably talks to Ganyu instead of Ningguang for the final ending (the part where they tell them about Inazuma*).

End.

Okay um so some notes about why I made Zhongli not-the-archon:

I was really frustrated that he seemed to not care about the mess he was making in Liyue at all. By making him a normal adeptus, it’s much more acceptable for him to walk away from all his duties because the responsibility doesn’t fall solely to him. Not only is Liyue not falling apart because their main Archon is still there, but he doesn’t bear the actual main responsibility at all.

Zhongli’s cluelessness when it comes to mora doesn’t make any sense if he was supposedly managing the whole country until last year. Plus, Liyue even trades with all other countries, so it’s not like he’s never had to be worried about losing money. By making this the first time he’s really experienced human society, his unbalanced knowledge and behaviour can seem more cute than incompetant. Even his rigidness towards his contracts and the details of the funeral can be explained because he’s probably also been living in seclusion like everyone else.

In the original story, Zhongli stood by while everyone else fought Osial, even though he still had his Gnosis, even though Liyue and all his Adepti’s lives were on the line. In this version, it was possible for Zhongli to interfere in the fight while still losing, because he was already a mortal. It makes him far more compelling because he actually tried to help.

The contract with Signora. We don’t know (yet) what the terms are, so for the the contract is just very annoying. It only serves to convince me that the Gnoses can’t actually be that important. Anyway, dramatic gnosis-stealing scene is what I prefer. At least we can have sympathy for the character - I can’t admire Zhongli for whatever smart decision he made because I don’t know what it is.

Overall, if you change Zhongli to a normal Adeptus, almost all of his existing dialogue reads much better without needing any changes, because the explanation is satisfactory.

Why make Ningguang Morax, then?

Ningguang is already introduced as if she is a god. People tell folktales of her, she displays complex high-level magic that we haven’t even seen Zhongli do (that platform and ballistas), she lives in a literal floating island in the sky that she built, etc. She’s also already running Liyue and doing well at it and has a strong sense of responsibility towards it. It makes sense for her to be the Archon.

Why not Keqing? First of all, Keqing’s elemental and physical abilities aren’t portrayed as particularly special (all of this is based on story bits, not the game mechanics). While she seems capable, the game doesn’t originally give her enough buildup and credit, and she’s portrayed as younger and more stubborn. But most importantly, Keqing is the key person on the Qixing side of the argument, so she needs to remain a Qixing.

Why add Yanfei’s quest in the middle:

The Liyue Archon quest went way too fast without getting us close to Liyue itself. Zhongli’s quest is meant to get us close to them, but he only brings us to people and spouts trivia. Yanfei’s quest embodies the “Contracts” aspect of Liyue so well and it would be really useful to go through that quest before we had to fight to defend Liyue.

If you compare Liyue to Mondstadt and Inazuma, you’ll see that you automatically get close to Mondstadt because it takes a long time to level in the early days of playing. Meanwhile, Inazuma requires you to complete Yoimiya’s quest (which shows the culture of “Eternity” in Inazuma) and Ayaka’s quest (which shows the people whp want to escape the “Eternity” in Inazuma, although Yoimiya’s quest is more important). Liyue doesn’t require any quests in between at all, yet players don’t neccessarily spend time there idly, so it’s hard to get to know Liyue.

Alternatively, Yanfei’s quest could just be a required quest between the parts instead of being integrated into the main Archon Quest itself.

Thanks for reading the Geo Archon Ningguang version of the Liyue Archon Quest.

#phoenixglacier’s words #phoenixglacier writes #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact #Morax #Ningguang #Zhongli #Geo Archon Ningguang #...I think I’ll post an abridged version after this

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