#he's literally an AI that drives a space-ship. that's it. no one can see this neat physical form of his

[spotlightstudios]

Magma from last night w/ @neonsix67 !!!

I drew a bunch of my bg3 Tav, Ormand. (He's a handful. I thank Neon for letting me be a menace with this man on her team.) Some dca content (Sun, Being!Eclipse, and Fool from gitm). And then some oc stuff with N-8 (Nate) my beloved son, the computer program.)

Neon drew her pumpkin-head spooky season oc, Eyefil (beloved batdr oc♡) and Moon! Along with the lil Iris and Light's in the edges w/ commentary hehe~)

[maneaterwithtail]

It's weird because as goofy as Bravern has been, I don’t think it’s literally been powered by emotions to completely subvert the laws of physics. I fact for all of his goofiness there is usually a direct throughline to established abilities or technical cause from holograms to ai brains.

Lewis was linked to a special neural cockpit and understandably the death drives will consider anything that’s thinking and machine to be a person so if they’ve got something in order to scoop up consciousness in order to print out a new body? well I can see how he got mixed up. Especially as Cunus definitely wanted to become one with him and she had time space powers which was established and all the timetravel is mental and near or related to her. She's able to send signals before she makes them which is just part of "we have ftl"

But since when has Bravern been able to heal or operate entirely off of emotions affecting physical reality?

Usually it’s been that thing where a union of 2 people in cooperation is greater than the sum of their parts. so even though isami is a greenhorn pilot he can bring just that much more extra to when bravern is fighting

passion and form

At best it’s said that the death drives get more effective with what they’re already capable of doing if they unify with the human as opposed to just suck them dry

Being able to replace the operating system because he’s finally connected with bravern on a complete level and is willing to give himself over to the machine, even at great risk, yeah that part kind of makes sense.

he’s already used the helmet and he’s bonded with the machine for a large period of time and most of the controls for the most part have been symbolic. they’ve been interfaces so that they can connect on an emotional or psychological level. He doesn’t usually translate his actions to well something else

This is even more established with Lulu where it was her own consciousness that made her more incompatible with superbia later

But there is a distinct difference between that and getting completely new powers beyond what the machine is supposedly doing

It’s pretty much established that the printing technology comes from the death drive. while it’s a bit weird that bravern was somehow able to fit it somewhere within the ship he did do so and he has super hacking abilities

Believe it or not this was one of the few series where a talk no jutsu would have perfectly made sense. particularly as the death drives are established as having single-minded simple personalities and bravern has been established as someone who can somehow alter machines and their behavior by how he suggests things and interact with them

So for instance if Isami Uploaded himself into bravern and managed to make what was left of the machine go or tap into the network in order to print a new body or battery that be fine

Heck if at the end what happened is everybody’s feelings came together so bravern could project a psychic attack that completely involves the last being so that that way it no longer worked and the entire network self-destructed that would have worked

It works off of things that have been established and moves that he’s done already

particularly hacking the missiles, force-feeding english into suburbia, and other changes

But apparently he just gets more mass? And turns gold?

As for Smith turning out to be actually in the crystal of the body? That is a bit of a cheat but again they can obviously print highly complex things it’s just going to take a while for them to recognize organics and once they cleaned out the life that was supposed to be made from the system it probably went okay let’s do something that he does know and then printed out Smith

Alternatives are he ends up in a Lulu body or he ends up neurologically merged with esami so he can always see and feel him but he’s not actually there

Just, you know, stay within the - yess slippery broad silly made up but still extant- rules of your world and how it works

[mars-writes-1999]

Penumbra Podcast fan Theory

I have a theory about how this season is going to end and where the Junoverse is headed. None of this is certain, it’s all just theory. This isn’t about Nureyev’s debts though, I have genuinely no idea what’s going on with that boi but he worries me lots. I love him, and can’t figure him out. This is about the other class X radical. 

SPOILERS FOR JUNO STEEL AND WHAT LIES BEYOND PART 2

tl;dr  Jet saw Nureyev/Ransom fly away with the Ruby 7. The Ruby 7 sent the distress signal. The Ruby 7 is a sentient ai. The Ruby 7 is the other class X radical.

1. Jet saw Nureyev/Ransom fly away with the Ruby 7.

There was a line from Jet that stuck out to me right away in What Lies Beyond part 2. At the very beginning of his interrogation jet says "I do not think. I know. There is nothing on this ship that they want." He also later says "There is nothing on this ship that they want. That is final". I do put more stock in the first than the second quote because by the second one he is playing along with Juno's plan and intentionally being angry. I have looked through the scripts and I don't think we're ever told where Jet is being held (lmk if I'm wrong) but for my theory to work he is somewhere with a window and/or he saw things before being put in a "cell" at all.

Jet is a straightforward guy and went into that interrogation with a plan. He had time to think about what he wanted to say to Juno and what he said was "I do not think. I know." I take this to mean she really does know. He knows that Ransom, who dark matters is looking for, is not on the ship. He knows that the Ruby 7, who he believes dark matters is looking for (I'll get to this later), is not on the ship. 

While my Ruby 7 theory is a bit more of a long shot, I REALLY think Jet saw Ransom escape. He says in no uncertain terms that he KNOWS that there isn’t anything that Dark Matters is looking for. Even if we make an assumption that Jet thinks they’re only looking for one 

2. The Ruby 7 sent the distress signal

So I’ve thought this might be true since my second listen through the episode. It was a bit of a wild guess at first, but the more I think about it the more I buckle down on it. It lines up in a lot of ways where nothing else I can think of does. This whole argument does assume that Sasha and Dark Matters didn’t just fabricate the distress signal, but given her distaste for agent G (god rest her soul), I think the signal was real. 

When trying to decide who could have sent the signal we can immediately rule out literally every person in the carte blanche family. Buddy and Juno do a good job of explaining to us why each one of them couldn’t be it. 

Buddy was dying (plus we have the added bonus of her monologue and knowing what she was doing)

Juno, Vespa, and Ransom were in sight of each other and in the way of EMP waves

Rita’s comms were knocked out by the EMP waves

Jet was fixing the Ruby 7 and was right next to the EMP waves. He was also pretty busy trying to keep buddy from allowing herself to be killed

All of these things considered, we can also just assume that no one on this ship would rat them out. The only possible defection is Ransom, but despite not knowing what his motives are, I don’t think he ratted them out to Dark Matters. 

The only thing with the sentience to call out would be the Ruby (I’ll provide evidence for its sentience in a moment). I don’t know why it would reach out to Dark Matters specifically, but maybe it was just reaching out to anyone with a distress call. I don’t know how space distress calls work, but Sasha did need to specify that the call didn’t come from the Carte Blanche which means vehicles may have the power to send out a distress call. 

We know from Sasha and Juno’s conversation that the distress call was sent out 4 times in 2 hours. In the episode we see 3 major EMP blasts: The one between episodes, the one when Vespa and Ransom start arguing and Buddy can’t communicate, and the one Buddy barely avoids by getting into the safe room. It isn’t unreasonable to presume there was a 4th EMP wave that occurred after Buddy was safe and sound but before the entire team made it back safely. 4 distress signals for 4 emp waves. If the Ruby 7 is the one sending these, then this math makes sense.

In The Heart of it all Part 2 Jet says to Buddy “Even an EMP so direct couldn’t deactivate its computer mind for a moment - though it is still bitter about its engines.” This means the Ruby may have been scared about its engines dying and therefore it sent out a distress signal. 

None of this is provable at this point, but I also haven’t found any evidence to the contrary. If nothing following this is true, I still think this may be true. 

3. The Ruby 7 is a sentient AI

It is at this point that I would like to acknowledge that I am using it/its as pronouns for the Ruby 7. This is how the car has been referred to in the show up until this point and so it is how I will be referring to it from here on out. If any of this pans out and the Ruby 7 uses different pronouns or signifiers in future episodes I will refer to it differently. 

Before I give the reasons I think the Ruby 7 itself is sentient, I want to talk about why I think it’s plausible that Kevin and Sophie would take the story in this direction. The reason is pretty simple, they’ve told us they’d be willing to. Here is a clip of Kevin and Sophie in the Season 1 Q&A. 

 [audio file]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cOXj3ybVkszLdt8U8BiRrVW3Cy7O_oGl/view?usp=sharing

[google doc transcript of audio file]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16EP7CP6Wxic3q7-QhPce1dinan5A0ACNDdxZ4DfaEtA/edit?usp=sharing 

So not only does this clip make it clear that Kevin has wanted robots in some form from the start, it shows that Sophie is open to the idea. We also hear them talk about how big of a deal it would be to introduce elements like this into the story. I would consider all of this setup as treating the concept of AI with the respect and time it deserves. We also know how much Kevin loves the Ruby 7 so making the car a main character would absolutely be within the realm of possibilities. The Ruby 7 is arguably the 7th member of their crew with or without sentience. 

Now to discuss the proof of the sentience of the Ruby 7. There’s a lot of evidence for this. The car has always been sassy and had a personality, but there are several moments that point to more than this. 

In the very beginning of part 1 of Tools of Rust, we see Jet directly mull over the sentience of the Ruby 7. 

The Ruby 7’s many background calculations make it more like a horse. It can be controlled, but only insofar as it wants to be controlled. (HE SHAKES HIS HEAD AND SNORTS, DISMISSING HIMSELF) “Wants to.” This car can make you believe in ghosts, too — a spirit in the machine. But the Ruby 7, whatever the force of its calculations, cannot want and cannot think; it can only behave like it does. ~from Tools of Rust Script released to 10$ Patreon supporters

This gives some of the base backgrounds into how Jet thinks about the car he is closest to. In this episode he refers to the ruby as “a wild horse, I must break it in.” The catalyst for this episode occurs while Jet is breaking down the tractor shield generator because when driving the Ruby 7 “Manuevers have not responded as they should.” There are of course reasons for these things that are not sentience. Jet himself does not think the car is sentient at the beginning of this episode. We also know that his view of the car is changing throughout his arc of this season. In its most recent appearance, we see the Ruby at its most sentient. Two distinct moments come to mind in regards to this. 

First, in part one as they are discussing their plan after Rita deploys the Book: 

JET:  We will be on our own — even the Ruby 7 will temporarily shut down. RUBY 7: (PETTY/ANNOYED BEEPS) BUDDY: … Come again? JET: The Ruby insists that it will not shut down. It is incorrect. RUBY 7: (REALLY ANNOYED BEEPS) JET: The Ruby says that I should not tell it what it can and cannot do. VESPA: Really built some sass into that thing, huh? NUREYEV: Is it just me, or… have responses like this become more common from our mysterious vehicle? VESPA: I swear its voice changed, too. BUDDY: Then we’ll allow the car its moody teenage years, I think; after all this is over I’ll buy it an industrial supply of eyeliner and posters of sad young men. ~ From The Heart of it All part 1 script released to 10$ Patreon supporters

Here several characters are remarking upon the increasing sentience of the Ruby 7. In part 2 of this episode, we see further evidence that the crew, especially Jet, has noticed changes in the Ruby which make it seem more and more sentient. 

BUDDY: Singing and theoretical mathematics? Is there anything that car can't do? JET: Increasingly I worry that there is not. Even an EMP so direct couldn’t deactivate its computer mind for a moment — though it is still bitter about its engines. (HE ACTUALLY IS WORRIED ABOUT WHAT THE HELL THE RUBY 7 IS, BUT NOW ISN’T THE TIME FOR THAT) But in this moment I am far more worried by.... ~ From Heart of it All part 2 script for 10$ Patreon Supporters

Here it is clear that not only does Jet sound concerned about the Ruby 7, but Kevin’s direction shows that Jet is genuinely unsure of the Ruby. Not just that he doesn’t know what the Ruby 7 is doing, but that he doesn’t know what the Ruby 7 is. 

Now that I’ve shown all of the evidence I have I’m going to extrapolate some of this to draw a line from this evidence to my theory in part 1. 

Jet knows something is up with the Ruby 7. He has seen Nureyev leave the carte blanche in the Ruby 7 and therefore knows the car is not on the ship. As the delivery notes say “now isn’t the time for that”. What does Jet have while in his “cell” but time? He spends part of his imprisonment sitting and thinking about the Ruby 7. He knows that Dark Matters could have easily found the cure mother prime so he assumes there is something else they are looking for. He realizes that his car is sentient. He realizes that they are looking for 2 main things, Ransom and the Ruby 7. He saw both of these leave. He says "I do not think. I know. There is nothing on this ship that they want."

For this to work, the Ruby 7 needs to be classified as a Class X radical, this is a tall order, but I think the Ruby 7 meets the criteria. 

 4. The Ruby 7 is the other class X radical

1st of all, look at that green car? That car is SO rad. 

Jokes aside, there are 2 main criteria I’m using to determine that the Ruby 7 could be the class X radical Dark Matters is looking for. First, is it literally possible that this is what Dark Matters is looking for? Does it fit any descriptors Director Wire gives us during her interview with Juno? Second, does it fit the definition of a class X radical? 

In answer to the first question, we consider what Dark Matters is searching for. We know that they know it’s class X, but not much else. In fact, Sasha suggests that Juno may know more than her about the radical because he’s been living with it. This gives the impression that they might not really know what they’re looking for. My theory here is they know that they are looking for a sentient robot, but they don’t know it’s a car. This explains why they know what they need to about its threats but not much else. It may also explain why some of the agents were looking in drawers. If they were not looking for Nureyev (cause like Buddy said, they should know he’s not inches tall) then perhaps they were looking for a sentient robot. Unless I’m misremembering something, I think this is all we really get in terms of information on what the second radical is. Sasha doesn’t give Juno much information despite giving him everything she can about the cure mother prime.

In answer to the second question, we look toward the definition Sasha gives Juno for a radical: “any person or object with the potential to cause significant change to civilized human life as we know it”. AI with sentience fits this definition. Even if you don’t think it does, the piece from the season 1 Q&A shows that Sophie thinks it does. They talk about the care that would need to be in place in order to introduce robots, ai, or aliens. Care is needed because any one of these three things would drastically change the galaxy as they know it. 

 I don’t really have any clever way to end this other than saying all of this could be wrong. I could be completely off and there are probably other explanations for everything I’ve described, but I actually feel pretty confident on this. It started off as a random thought and the more I’ve sat on it the more evidence I’ve collected. Whether this comes to fruition or not I hope you enjoyed reading my theory! 

CC: 

@thepenumbrapodcast 

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

Pspspspspsps Gordon guy and chief? Pspspspsps

listen, listen, I have not had caffeine or even sketched out my thoughts BUT they are all individual trainwrecks. Also every characterization from @fineworkdoctorpussy is right. John 117 was a kid, kidnapped, brainwashed, and experimented on and then became a symbol and a soldier to save humanity ever couple of years. He has no life and no social skills because he’s always being put back in cryo-sleep. “Wake me when you need me” crap. His “friends“ and the main people who interact with him are Cortana, weird AI mom/friend/romance, Sgt Johnson, marine man #1, and all the regular marines who die instantly or have some kind of hero worship thing, but it’s valid because that’s the Master Chief! I have feelings about the whole tool of whoever points them in a direction/gets put in stasis/ doesn’t get to have their own say in their life/is a not seen as human

Halo 4/5 sucks but John going a bit AWOL good. how many spoilers can I avoid? He loses people close to him and doesn’t always make it in time but he saves the planet/galaxy/universe.

NO ONE TALKS ABOUT HOW AFRICA GOT GLASSED BRO, I MEAN THEY HAD TO, TO SAVE THE REST OF THE PLANET, BUT UH BYE

Anyways that’s not what you asked for!!

If Gordon uses ASL I’m sure the HUD/Cortana could translate. Gordon and Chief talking tech would be great because Master Chief is like yeah we have Slip-space drives and space travel and I’ve been across the Milky Way to punch Zombies

Gordon’s like “I also had to fight zombies, it sucks we can’t save them after the headcrab/Flood get them. Wait tell me about the physics behind slipspace and faster than light travel“ and Chief would go “I don’t know I just keep blowing them up the drives to stop enemy ships and then jumping into space“ bro what

maybe other science stuff too like the AI on the ships and hard light constructs and Alien life fucking up Earth. fun stuff Doomguy and Master Chief would bond over trying to save the actual world and trying to herd weak little normal humans to safety and feeling bad. And I know we all think Gordon would say something and the rest of his family looks at him and say that’s fucked up but John literally is made to be like a machine and since childhood has either been training, on a mission, or frozen. He’s got issues!!! They have issues!!! I want a beach episode with master chief and gordon and doomguy, no demons, no Combine, no Covenant or whatever hell halo infinite is trying to pull. They try and find things to talk about but 1 they are not conversationalists, and 2 they can bitch to each other about being these larger than life figures, 3 I want to see tiny 5′10 Gordon next to Big Gun Man 1 and 2 anyways once again I am sorry but also we need a name for this so i can tag it better

[softly-mossy]

hi i NEEDED rocky listening to sweet caroline in my life so i wrote this. it’s exactly what you think it is

[ao3 link]

Sometimes, the two of us are able to mind our own business and work independently. Of course, Rocky’s work is far more advanced and elaborate than mine, but that’s beside the point. I don’t know how he does it: when he works and really focuses on what he’s doing, he’s completely silent. No sounds other than the clinking of the tools he’s working with.

Frankly, it’d drive me insane. I don’t know if it’s just a “human” thing, but I hated the sound of silence--rather, the absence of it, I guess. It makes a person feel alone, even though I know he’s literally right there. It’s probably some deep-ingrained instinctual thing from way back when in the caveman days. It makes sense: if you can’t hear something, you don’t know where it is.

I chose to fill the silence with Hail Mary’s onboard plethora of media. When they said they included any media that may have been needed, they really meant everything. I could watch a movie as I sit here and wait for my death, if I wanted. It’d be a fitting time to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, I suppose. I decided against it. Something about watching the Discovery’s  onboard AI sabotaging it, while being in my own ship…it did nothing to soothe my nerves about my already-slim chances of survival.

I do side with HAL-9000, though.

Right now, I am sifting through the catalog of music available. Do I try to go the “smart, sophisticated” route and listen to classics? Or do I do something I’d actually enjoy, like listen to 80’s rock?

Obviously, I went with the 80’s rock.

I listen to it through the comms meant to communicate to the other astronauts and with Earth. Considering the others are…you know; and Earth is so far away that it’s pointless to try to contact anyone, I figured it’d be justified to use them for something unintended. A man’s gotta have his last comforts.

I can literally feel the endorphins release as “Sweet Caroline” starts playing. The familiarity of it almost makes me forget that I’m waiting to die in a hopeless effort. Neil Diamond knew what he was doing here, and I thank him for it immensely. I’m already drifting off into a relaxed haze, idly tapping my foot to the percussion of the song.

Apparently, it takes me a good while to realize Rocky is trying to get my attention. He’s furiously beating on the convex surface of the travel ball he resides in. Like an annoyed teenager, I remove one earbud and glare at him. “What?”

“Grace, ignorant.” He says simply and stubbornly. If he knew how (and what it meant), he probably cross his arms like a not-angry-just-disappointed parent. “What sound?”

I’m half tempted to put the earbud back in and ignore him, but first of all, that’s rude to the alien lifeform that decided to stop by and help me with my workings; second of all, I’m better than that; and third of all, Rocky would just keep annoying me until I paid attention anyways. “‘What sound’?”

���Hear, sound,” Rocky explains. “Speaking?”

He’s talking about my music. “Oh. I’m listening to music.”

“Musics?” He seems intrigued now.

“Yeah. It’s just…” I wave my hand as I fumble for words, even though he wouldn’t be able to see it, “another way of relaxing. If you listen to the right type,” I tack on quickly.

“Rocky, hear?” He doesn’t even try to be subtle about being excited to learn something new. He’s fidgeting in his little travel ball eagerly, rolling forward and back. It is basically him excitedly shifting his weight from one foot to another.

“Oh,” I say. I’ve got nothing against letting him figure out some more human culture, but I have to be careful about which songs I picked. The console wouldn’t play music aloud, so I have to fetch one of the tablets floating around to be able to have the music on speaker. I decide to stick with “Sweet Caroline,” because I think it’s a top-notch example of human talent. I set the tablet on the desk adjacent to us as the music starts.

The first few notes drift out, and I automatically start tapping my foot to the rhythm gently. I don’t even realize I’m doing it. I feel stupid sitting here and doing nothing, so I fetch another tablet to check on the Astrophage levels.

Where it began, I can’t begin to knowing.

But then I know it’s growing strong…

Was in the spring,

And spring became the summer.

Who’d have believed you’d come along?

I side eye Rocky. He’s completely still as he listens to the lyrics. I wonder if he’ll actually be able to understand most of them. There’s no real out-of-sorts or unfamiliar words in the song, so I’m guessing he could. “What d’you think of it so far?”

Rocky takes a moment to respond, clearly thinking it over. “Strange,” he finally chirps, but quickly adds, “Good strange! Enjoy!”

I can’t help but smile. Here I am, on a spaceship, billions of miles from home, and I’m sitting and listening to classic rock with a real, honest-to-God alien. I could get used to this. I bet people would give everything to have something similar.

The interlude before the chorus starts playing, the music slowly intensifying. The tapping of the cymbal on every beat is my new rhythm to tap my foot to.

Hands, touching hands…

Rocky is leaning ever closer to the tablet, as if he thinks he’ll miss something. It’s like when a cat sees a cursor on the screen, except he can’t see. He’s certainly cat-like, though.

Reaching out…

Touching me, touching you…

I watch as he holds his hands up curiously. He’s taking the lyrics literally, like directions. His little claws flex idly and he listens along, presumably making some sort of clicking sound, but I can’t hear it through the xenonite bubble.

Sweet Caroline!

First of all, it should be some sort of regulation or law that you have to bang your fists or stomp your feet or generally just beat the hell of whatever you target when “Sweet Caroline” gets to the chorus. Second of all, that law should apply everywhere in the damn universe. I don’t care if whatever is listening doesn’t have limbs to beat on something with. They can improvise.

Rocky is decidedly taken off-guard when I slap my fist on the desk in time with the bum, bum, bum of the trumpets. I don’t even think about doing it; it’s another one of those reflexes you have ingrained into your mind after your first experience--kind of like how you reflexively duck if you see something coming towards your head. Here, my brain decides, “Yup, it’s time,” and beats out the rhythm perfectly.

Rocky seems frazzled after my outburst. He’s recoiled away into the furthest corner of his ball and freezes there. His legs are splayed, askew as he tries to keep his balance after such a fright.

I realize how bad I’ve scared him and pause the music. “Rocky! I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t even think about it. It’s one of those things that just…happens, you know?”

Rocky eases back a little. “Grace, angry?”

Everything clicks. “Good grief, Rocky! You think I’d do that?” I continue on before he has a chance to answer. “It was a good thing. Excitement. When you get really into a song, you follow its rhythm. That’s what that was.” I nearly babble as I explain and try to clear things up.

“Grace, happy?” He offers when I finish.

“Yes!” I laugh. Of course this would happen. Of course this sort of thing would occur while I was involved. “You try it!”

We both listen closely as the second chorus approaches.

Good times never seemed so good!

I tap the xenonite bubble excitedly. “You ready?” Rocky titters on his feet. 

I've been inclined….

He misses the first beat, but catches the next two perfectly, clinking his claws on the xenonite bubble. I bellow out a laugh. Rocky goes frantic with the tapping on his travel ball.

To believe they never would,

But now I…

We listen to the song in its entirety. By now, Rocky’s learned to recognize the chorus and continues beating the hell out of his travel ball when prompted. I even catch him sort of ‘bobbing’ to the percussion of the song. Sightless be damned, that Eridian can dance. It literally feels euphoric to have shared something so wonderful with someone who has never even heard of the concept.

When the song nears its end and starts to fade away, Rocky leans closer to the tablet, presumably to hear it better. It soon cuts off completely, leaving him fidgeting and disappointed.

“Do you want to listen to it again?” I ask and he immediately perks right back up.

“Yes! Again again again!”

It goes on for hours. I offer to play different songs. Rocky politely says no. I put on the song again. I can hear “Sweet Caroline” playing in my head even when the song stops. My palms hurt from slapping them on the desk at Rocky’s prompting. He, however, shows no signs of stopping. His happy little bobbing-dance never ceases. I think of ways to distract him so the music could properly stop. Don’t you have things to build? Things you’re working on? You should get back to those. I’m literally begging you to.

I suppose there could be worse things that could happen. I could be actually dying rather than being forced to listen to Neil Diamond on repeat for literal hours.

[marahope-things]

I think the similarities that people are finding between Adora/Catra and Mara/Light Hope are less to do with the relationships being the same internally (as in, in terms of the dynamics between the two characters) and more to do with the fact that their stories deal with a lot of the major themes of the show, because the two pairings embody a LOT of the major themes of the show between them.

I don’t think it’s an accident or any kind of misrepresentation that the two relationships have parallels, but as someone who enjoys Mara/Light Hope A Whole Lot, while being pleased but more or less happy with how Catradora is presented in the show and not feeling a need to go beyond that, I want to unpick why, and what some of those differences are.

Partly because I think people make broad, thematic-level arguments about why a pairing is attractive to them, and for me, there are a lot of intra-relationship or interpersonal dynamic elements that have more bearing on why I like a ship. And it’s hard to frame in a positive light, but with Catradora, they already engage with some relationship dynamics that I’m a huge fan of (namely, rivalmancy, childhood-friends-to-lovers, and enemies-to-lovers).

The big similarities I see people picking up on are: The mind-control thing, and the "you deserve love too"/"you’re more than what you can give to other people" exchange.

And these are extremely valid parallels! They touch on two Extremely Core messages of the show! They’re very real! And you’re correct—those parallels do mean something about Mara and Light Hope, about their importance to the show and its message. Mara and Light Hope embody many of the show’s core themes, and I am glad people are starting to write about that!

But I find myself sometimes feeling like that’s… not quite the reason why I like the pairing. Y’know?

So, with the caveat that this is just my feelings about the pairing, and probably literally everyone who ships either Catradora or Marahope has a different opinion than me in some way or other, I want to discuss the major differences between Catradora and Mara/Light Hope as I see them.

Because we started liking these ships before we saw the themes that they’d be used to embody in the end, right?

Breaking it down

What Adora and Catra have is a rivalmancy, essentially—especially when they’re first introduced.

Even when they’re on the same side, they have a competitiveness to their dynamic, and part of what drives their split is that Catra, on some level, resents Adora for getting all of the things that she wants, but can’t have, because of (basically) Shadow Weaver—and then abandoning both it and her. It’s a rivalry between peers, fellow soldiers, and there’s a colossal amount of abandonment issues and emotional trauma involved as well. They’re also both close to the same age.

And they were raised together. They spent their formative years extremely close, and their split has a lot in common (probably intentionally) with painful adolescent splits that happen as people grow up, change, grow apart, and (sometimes) come back together. It’s quite moving!

Mara and Light Hope aren’t peers in the same sense; you get the sense that they started out more like co-workers, and their eventual split only happens because Light Hope has their mind wiped and their ability to choose taken away from them (Catra, on the other hand, makes a lot of choices that put her and Adora at odds, often intentionally). The two of them work together and depend on each other, and they become friends, and their roles are complementary. Literally neither of them could do the other’s job, and they depend on each other’s skillset and resources to stay safe and fulfill their own duties effectively.

So they meet as fully-formed (relatively) people in a professional context and become closer, rather than being together for those formative years and undergoing a separation as they change and discover they don’t fit the same way they used to.

There’s also an implication that Light Hope may have trained other She-Ras in the past. I don’t know how long Mara expected her tenure as She-Ra to be, but it seems like that could be a lifelong commitment, once she’s been chosen. If so, then that could imply that Light Hope’s "age" (though I don’t know if that’s something anyone would even keep track of for an AI, because they weren’t supposed to change and “grow” like a person) is on the scale of centuries by the time she meets Mara.

And even if you headcanon them traveling to Etheria together immediately after Light Hope was minted, they’re still not really anything like Catra and Adora in their dynamic. The development of their relationship has a lot more in common with interspecies or human-AI relationships in sci-fi—Terminator, Andromeda, and Killjoys come immediately to mind.

I’m also intentionally including platonic relationships here, like John Connor and Uncle Bob in Judgement Day, too, because this is such an established trope, and touches on some of those Core Sci-Fi Questions that exist in the genre—about the nature of life, consciousness, sentience, individuality, and choice. It’s not just in a romantic context that you see humans and AIs ruminating to each other about what beauty is, why people find flowers “pretty”, what it means to have free will, to feel emotions, or to be an individual. Hell, you can even include Data from Star Trek in that list.

But it is also something of a trope for AIs to "fall in love" or develop special bonds with humans that they work particularly closely with, or for humans to fall in love with AIs (sometimes they go more Pygmalion with the latter and cast the human as the AI’s creator).

Which brings me to the core trope being engaged in Mara and Light Hope’s relationship, one that Noelle has actually alluded to in their remarks during the "Exit Interviews" streams:

Relationship makes Light Hope more than their intended purpose.  

Memory and programming

In one of the streams, Noelle states that the writers’ room made the decision that something about Etheria "broke" the people who have tried to conquer it, and kind of made them part of itself (God this show has Star Wars all over it). He uses several examples, including Hordak.

Hordak, however you feel about him, develops a sense of individuality that makes his re-assimilation into the greater Horde impossible. Like Light Hope, he remembers things he isn’t supposed to, and on being presented with a physical reminder of Entrapta and his relationship with her, Horde Prime’s conditioning begins to break down.

Over the course of her arc, Mara comes to realize that being She-Ra means something more than her superiors have told her, and on realizing what her superiors are doing to Etheria, concludes that She-Ra, and all of Etheria, are being exploited and need to be protected from the First Ones. So, by betraying the First Ones (breaking her oath to them), Mara fulfills her role as She-Ra.

And Light Hope falls in love with Mara, something she was never supposed to be able to do. In the end, it is the memory of Mara that allows Light Hope to break through her programming long enough to allow Adora to destroy the Sword.

I know I brought up how AIs gaining sentience and self-will is a trope within sci-fi, but the best recent example that I can think of off the top of my head (and the reason I was able to articulate this at all) is actually The Good Place, with Janet.

In The Good Place, successive reboots are the in-universe mechanism that allows Janet to grow and change—but it’s her relationship with the other core characters that shapes who she becomes and what she believes. In fact, if she hadn’t been stolen and rebooted so many times in the first place, she never would have become who she did at all.

So: Like the rest of the cast, relationship makes Janet more than she was originally intended to be. Relationship makes Janet whole and fully alive. Light Hope’s story is, um, a bit more tragic, but I think the comparison works.

Catra and Adora, on the other hand, are dealing with a separate problem(/s): Catra’s pain and abandonment (and Adora’s self-abandonment) as a result of what they endured growing up, and the angst of childhood friends growing up and growing apart. It fits very squarely within the parameters of She-Ra as a kids’ TV show.

To boil it all the way down, their relationship *is* the problem. And it takes the whole show to fix it.

What’s suggested by the (sparse) textual evidence on Mara and Light Hope is that their relationship followed a more well-worn sci-fi path: By becoming friends with Mara, Light Hope learns how to be in relationship with another person, how to make her own choices, go against her programming as needed—how to have fun and appreciate beauty and being. Her falling in love with Mara is, metaphorically, her learning how to be alive in the world. Through loving Mara, she gets a glimpse of a world beyond being someone’s instrument, someone’s tool.

That’s part of what’s so heartbreaking and beautiful about them: In the midst of a situation that’s that’s built on deception, concealment, and coercion, where both of them appear to have been lied to or denied the entire truth by their superiors, where Mara, Light Hope, and the entire planet of Etheria are considered expendable by their superiors as long as they get their shiny weapon, Mara (who seems to understand that there’s more to life than duty and heroism) creates a space for Light Hope that is free from the constraints of her programming, to a degree. And as a result, Light Hope changes.

If Light Hope is a villain for her role in all of this (and this is complicated by the fact that she’s a programmatic being created for a particular purpose), then loving Mara is part of what makes her redemption possible. Her relationship with Mara makes her more than a weapon. In fact, it breaks her as a weapon.

And there’s certainly elements of that in Catra and Adora’s relationship, but it’s not the throughline that it is for Light Hope and Mara until you get to season 5—a full three quarters of the way through the show.

Love also doesn’t play as positive of a role in Catra’s redemption arc, really (where her parallels to Light Hope would be the most obvious), both because her villainy is something she explicitly chooses, and because her internal conflict and pain regarding her feelings for Adora are so much a part of her villainy. It only becomes redemptive in Adora’s struggle with the Failsafe—i.e. when we get back into the world of the First Ones, where most of the themes of "destiny" live.

So yeah. That’s the breakdown. I want to get into the individual tropes, but I’m going to have to save that for another day.

[galacticnova3]

Tell us about your other ocs (not iru 😒🙄) please

GHHGGHHGHJJHHN LOVE THIS ASK!

Ok so I’m gonna talk about Roa in that case!

She’s another Umbramaker (mirror Starcutter), but unlike Iru she isn’t terrible! She’s basically Lor’s mirror counterpart, but not technically because no soul to be reflected and stuff. Due to the nature of Umbramakers basically being bootleg Starcutters, though, Roa is actually 2000 years younger than Lor. Not that that would be super obvious based on how the two act, though; she’s a lot more serious, a bit behind the times, much less outgoing, and others would probably say she’s not as fun. The truth is she just never really figured out how to loosen up until very recently, and even then she’s more of the nerd sort than the memey type. If you get her talking about something she’s interested in, such as Another Dimension and Parallel Dimension (which are different parts of the same place), she could infodump for ages, going on tangent after tangent and yet always bringing it back to the same subject. She would probably get along well with Magolor; science nerd buddies!

In terms of her actual connection to Lor, as. I said, they aren’t true counterparts. They both had super similar life experiences, and just reacted to them differently. Instead of her mistreatment driving her to become a troublemaker like Lor, she became extremely anxious and servile, because she was constantly fearing for her life but knew if she dedicated herself entirely to Working and Being Useful she would be spared. While Lor didn’t get along with other Starcutters because they found her annoying and thought she got in the way, Roa wasn’t well liked because the other Umbramakers basically thought she was a bootlicker. She was very well liked by her pilots though, because she was So Well Behaved and Always Put Others First and Worked So Hard! Their only complaint would usually just be her lack of confidence. Of course, they never took the time to figure out why she was the way she was, though she wouldn’t have told them she knew what went on behind closed doors anyways.

As I’ve said previously, unlike Overworld Halcandra, Mirror Halcandra could afford to throw out their ships if they weren’t performing to a satisfactory level, and she was very much aware of the recycling going on. However, unlike Lor, who hacked herself her own admin rights, accepted her circumstances, and decided if her life had to suck she was going to cause problems on purpose as revenge, Roa actually started formulating a theoretical escape plan. Because she was technically a newer model than Lor, she couldn’t just hack herself and go nuts with her abilities, so she had to be careful. At least, that would have been the case, were it not for a shortage of pilots after a combination of multiple missions in Parallel Dimension going terribly wrong, and a subsequent wave of quitting until safer conditions were promised. Now, for her whole life, Roa has basically been the poster child of a perfect Umbramaker. Never did anything out of turn, stayed in the lines like a fill tool, and just in general had a long record of Not Doing Anything Unexpected. In other words, she also had a ton of trust built up with basically everyone who worked with her that wasn’t another Umbramaker.

So, they(the government) reasonably thought, with the information available to them, that maybe Roa could function on her own, without a pilot, until pilot numbers returned to how they usually were. She could still get measurements and stuff from Parallel Dimension and be in a fleet and all that, just without someone driving her. So, Roa was given admin permissions over her systems, and things went on as usual because she was too scared to do anything. Haha, yeah, no, that second part was a lie. Literally as soon as the officials left the room she took off; carefully plotted escape was out of the airlock, she could leave Right Now and was fast enough that they couldn’t catch her or stop her from warping somewhere else. She left in such a frantic hurry, though, that uh... well, I’ll just say a few people got hurt, which is pretty expected if you get hit by a giant ship taking off. She still holds that against herself; she never wanted to hurt anyone.

Unfortunately, though, in her frenzy, she forgot one key detail: other Umbramakers. Who had their pilots. Who had communications with the port. So, as she’s fleeing, but before she gets the chance to make a portal to Somewhere Else, three other Umbramakers start trailing her; one to her left, one to her right, and one just behind her. They didn’t really have a choice in what they were doing, but Roa has always assumed they wouldn’t have done anything differently if they did anyways. The one behind her shot holes in her sail, which she still has now, to drastically slow down how long charging her vortex would take were she to switch into her combat mode. The other two kept her from going to either side, closing in until she couldn’t go anywhere but forward. In the end, this leads to the main thing she has in common with Lor; she was cornered and forced to enter a cavern in the side of a volcano, and the entrance was collapsed with her inside. Unlike Lor, though, she was still awake, but didn’t have the space to warp herself out.

That’s where she spent the next 27 thousand or so years, eventually putting herself into a sort of sleep mode to retain power and not be conscious the whole time she was trapped in a pitch black cave. She’d wake up when any noticeable physical events were detected, which could potentially mean freedom, but for the most part she would only wake up because of periodic earthquakes and eruptions that didn’t help her. Until, eventually, something else wakes her up; a mirror Halcandran teen, who had been slowly excavating her in secret, having found records indicating there was an Umbramaker buried in the volcano. He was none other than Magolor’s mirror counterpart, Magoroa, who was planning to do the exact same thing as Magolor. Unlike his Overworld counterpart, though, he was not checking out a ship who had been put in the AI equivalent of a coma. He manages to get inside and vibe in Roa’s library for an hour or two, grabbing some books to translate and read during his journey for domination, before she figures out what’s going on and kicks him out. She was free, and she was not risking anything jeopardizing that, even in the form of a teenager.

She flew off without him, leaving him with just a bag of books on magic and potion brewing. After escaping Mirror Halcandra unnoticed and getting caught up on important Mirror World news, such as that whole Dark Mind situation that happened while she was away, she decided to check out Mirror Popstar because apparently Halcandra stays away from there. That’s where she gets in contact with You Know Who, so now she had him to deal with, great. She eventually visits the Overworld to see if maybe she could hide out there. Stuff happened that I haven’t written yet but plan to, she meets Lor... or rather, Lor heard reports of another Starcutter and went looking for her, found Roa, chased her until she could establish “>MA’AM I’M NOT A THREAT PLEASE I HAVEN’T TALKED TO ANOTHER SHIP IN THOUSANDS OF YEARS”, and they subsequently talk and find out they have a lot in common. Now Roa spends more time outside the Mirror World than in it, but she still stays away from basically anyone who isn’t Lor, Magolor, or a select few of the Star Allies. Meta Knight knows of her but isn’t sure what to really do or what to think. He doesn’t trust her because she has no pilot, but also she is so much more mature than Lor that he’s tempted to just leave her be.

I couldn’t think of a place to plop this in the post, but here’s what she looks like in her combat mode! I haven’t talked about it here but Starcutters and Umbramakers can have elements, kinda like the weapons in Star Allies(which is what inspired this headcanon); Lor is bluster wind element(based on her attacks, could explain what I mean in another post if you’re interested), for example. What element do you think Roa is?

Fire. She’s fire element. Doesn’t look like it, but that is 100% intentional on my part and in-universe!

Anyways, if you read this far I owe you my life and also like 10 minutes of your time back.

[p1nkwitch]

I have plenty of questions about your fanfics I don't even know when to start. Can I just name every one of them and send you star with it?

But please tell me something interesting funfact behind Heart Machinations? Also were you at some point considering bad/different ending?

i think i would never finish writing if you did send me all of them even with the star, i ramble a lot and go on tangents, but if you send them like 3 fics per day i can make it i promise.

Ok to start! Nope! This was the story where i literally envisioned the ending first and had to go backwards to write it. The ending was solid.

But for fun facts!! Oh boy.

This entire story begun with the idea of a one shot, with a slight different plot, it would have ended with Peter as an old man uploading his mind like he promised Elias in the fic and coming back as an Ai, to stay with Elias for as long as they could. I ended up switching things arounf in my head until i ended up with the image.

The thing that started this entire fic.

Peter floating in space with Elias declaring his love.

I was forced by the entire story to find ways to keep them from confessing earlier than intended. God did i regret having to put it so later, because the mental flips i needed to justify them not realizing, were driving me up to a wall.

Another thing that i was not aiming for, but ended up liking was the TimPeter, i didnt aim for it to be a plot point, i didnt even ship them, but i wrote them so well i actually hesitated. Not to the Elias romance with Peter that was a given, but i hesitated to actually make a policule out of everyone.

In the end i decided to go for my original plan, but it had been a posibility.

Most of the relationships surged as the soty progressed, because i realized if it was only them it would get boring so i started to shuffle characters and relationships and it worked far better than i intended.

Now the other interesting tidbit.

Was that originally i was intending for Elias to be the actual big bad, a la Glados in portal. Elias tricks Tim and Peter into thinking Jon went rouge and he got Leitner killed so Peter connects him, Elias pretends things are normal but sends him off to rrepair something outside, once Peter is safe he uses the gas to kill everyone who is not going to be sent to do experiments in the hidden labs.

Martin opens the door for Peter makes him help by trying Elias like the original one did to get himshut down. He realizes and hurt tries to attack him, Martin uses the portal door and Peter still tries to hold unto Elias, but they ended up slipping and going into space.

The Simon plot point was always going to be there, same as the oxygen and confession.They apologize and everything.

In fact Peter was never supposed to realize Elias was killing people until he takes over. I realized it would be impossible to keep him in the dark for so long along with the not confessing so i had to give one up for the story and i was set on my ways.

The more i developed them, the more i started to change the plot to fit better with the new narrative wanting it to be more satisfiying.

Something else that i changed in the story, was that after Leitner dies, Gertrude was supposed to come to check the station, Elias sees her and gets her killed. It did not pan out of course, because i considered it would be too out of nowhere.

When i realize the story was sort of getting shifted i went with the idea to switch the notSasha on its head. Which created lovely Pasha!! Whom i love a lot.

Another thing that i had to develop because i grew very fond of it were Missy and Titania. Particularly Missy, since Titania was a stand in for the vast in some ways. Missy was needed to provide Peter some form of love, since yes, i made the Lukas terrible people, but a child still needs some love to grow and i wanted someone to help with that since Simon couldnt. I love her a lot and honestly wish i could use her in more stories because she is a great character. I know people dont really are in it for the original characters but she is dear to me.

The honest to god most fun i had during the story was writting the chats between the characters and the moments where Elias and Peter where being horny for each other. Peter freaking out silently about the things Elias said, while Elias was being the most horny creature in the station was delightful.

My favourite parts were also writing Elias realizing that he ruined Peter, that he had caused his misery, i wish i could have gone harder on those. Because they are a great part of his motivations. He starst not caring but the more he falls in love, the more he realizes how much of a horrible person he is and how much he is hurting Peter. I love that, i put it before but i like making characters go though bad stuff to get them to the good, to get that catharsis after all the bad.

I wanted to do a bonus. Where Peter does go to Simon’s funeral and everyone has to sit there while Android Simon was just chilling giving his own eulogy.

One thing i sort of chikened out of, but left crumbs around was the plot point that ogElias and Micheal Shelley were dating. Thats why Elias had the picture and writings about him. They split due to Gertrude and Elias defending JON4H. Its why Elias could keep Helen so easily to raise her. She calls him uncle, because they had broken up and he felt he didnt deserve to take that from Micheal.

Currently they made up and since Elias was single they are patching things up, Helen was thrilled.

This is also the story where the cats appear. And im so glad for it.

Captain was an idea based on the au of another fic i love Timeline of Theseus, i just pictured Peter getting the cat and voila. (No, there is no cat in there, but it would had been so funny) They were foils, Elias has a lonely cat and Peter a beholding one. They fall in love. I like that.

Thats all i can remember now. Nikola was always also a plot point, i mean who else would make androids but the puppet herself! Since ideally i intended for Elias to get a body, it was supposed to happen.

I went off, but i really did have a lot of ideas and scrapped ones that i figured no one would see. Im happy i could just leave them out to the world!!

So yes ask away, but as you can see, i sort of go off. Thanks for asking!!!! I hope its what you wanted. Sorry if it goes all over the place.

[petekaos]

character game: King from My Engineer

hiii nonnie!! aw thank you, i was itching to talk about king!

favorite thing about them: 

the way he understands people (especially ram). he seems to know a great deal about people and especially in the way he treats ram... you can see that he pays attention to the little things. he let him speak when he wants, gives him space to breathe in, and makes sure he knows that he’s there for him. he’s just... such a chill guy who loves his plants, you know? and he loves his friends so much!

least favorite thing about them: 

hmmm, i again was talking about this to nico @transking​ but i think something king does is that he seems vulnerable, but he is not vulnerable about actual important topics and parts of himself. which leads to him immediately... shutting down and pushing people away as a defense mechanism when someone does get through to him, as evidenced in ep 13 and 14. it’s understandable... but y’know. however, i think that’s something he’s working on and will be shown in s2!

favorite line: 

i have two entire paragraphs for this one! firstly, “all plants need time to grow. it’s not easy to grow them all. but after a while, you’ll get this result, which is a beautiful flower. i don’t know what’s making you feel sad, but i am sure you’ll get past it. just like these plants, after the hardest stage, they become beautiful flowers. ai ning, people that talk so little like you, it must be hard to find someone who understands you, right?” like i remember watching this scene and i knew i loved ramking before... but this scene completely got me. the way king sneaks looks at ram and then uses something he loves--plants--to drive his point home is literally artful. the way he understands ram with just a look... god. and how he doesn’t pressure him into talking, but offers him a place to come and stay and be himself in that simultaneously means a lot to king... i don’t get how they managed to write such a wonderful slowburn pairing. that scene is on another plane. 

and then you have, of course, “because you make me feel good! that’s why it’s torturing me. do you know how hard i have to hold myself back every time i’m near you? it tortures me, you know! that’s why i want you to be far away from me! so i don’t have to feel all this pain inside!” which... i think i’ve written about this before, but the rawness and the visceral pain of those words is so so relatable as a mlm. the fact that king fell for ram and knows he fell for ram and wants to hold himself back because he wants him to be his friend and he doesn’t want to come across as predatory because ram could never want him that way... god. and how he distances himself because every time he sees ram, this ache curdles up into his stomach... just the assertation of “because you make me feel good!” ruined me. that entire confession scene knocked every other confession scene out of the park.

brotp: 

king and bohn! i wanna see more of their friendship because they seem so cute and i know king would tease bohn into infinity and that bohn would be super protective of king. also king and tee! legends only!

otp: 

ramking and nothing but ramking y’all.

notp:

i don’t think anyone ships king with anyone other than ram, i don’t even think that’s a thought that has manifested honestly. king x dogs apparently though lmaooo he’s so scared :((

random headcanon: 

nico and i talked about this as well and he is trans! he has a difficult relationship with his father, which is why he refers to him as “your husband” when talking to his mother, but he has a good relationship with his mum and sisters. they make a video compilation of his transition and they all go out for coffee whenever they can and the first time king went to the beach with them after top surgery, he cried. his eldest sister is a pastry chef and brought him sweets when he was recovering and kumfah is a decent person who dotes on him as her youngest bro :’)

unpopular opinion: 

i wrote about this at length after ep 13 but i understand his actions in ep 13 honestly. i’m not gonna elaborate on that because i have multiple times already lmaooo but basically: my theory was correct, he was scared and didn’t know how to express his feelings and thought ram didn’t reciprocate his feelings, so he decided to push him away instead. it isn’t defensible, but it is understandable.

song i associate with them: 

how to sleep by EDEN! this is something that i’ve associated with king for a bit, especially the lyric “and how do you love when you’re frightened?” pertaining to his actions in ep 12, 13, and 14. it just fits so right! nico also made a gifset with that lyric, check it out!

favorite picture of them: 

absolute flowerchild! look at how cute he is even with that wet hair :’) he’s just so enthusiastic about everything and the way his eyes lit up when he realised ram made that flower crown for him... i’m not over it. and because i cannot resist...

the way ram looks at him... no more needs to be said.

send me a character!

[kittenfemme27]

Magrunner: Dark Pulse

"That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die." 

That’s the often misquoted line written by H.P. Lovecraft and spoken by his fictional “mad poet” Abdul Ahazred in “The Call of Cthulhu”, a short story written by the very same author. It’s meant to symbolize the same thing that almost all of Lovecraft’s work was meant to symbolize: That there are things that view us the same way we’d view a simple speck of dust, or an ant. As so tiny and insignificant that we’re practically unnoticed in the eyes of this massive and overwhelming force. Lovecraft had an intense fear and at the same time an intense fascination with the idea of being insignificant, of being forgotten and unworthy, of being completely and utterly impotent in the face of power that was greater than himself. Every “Old God” that he wrote about is so far reaching above humanity and so incomprehensible that even the act of knowing of their existence was incomprehensible for the human mind, and would oft drive those with that forbidden knowledge to complete and utter insanity. This isn’t really a disputed interpretation of Lovecraft's work, it's barely an interpretation at all. It’s considered a simple set of facts of the universe that he created.

So imagine my surprise when I started playing “Magrunner: Dark Pulse”, a fairly mundane and simple futuristic sci-fi puzzle game marketed to have a “Lovecraftian Twist” and the final nine levels have good ol’ Cthulhu himself checking in on me from the skies above, literally one hundred thousand times my size, and simply observing me like I’m his personal favourite little human. As he communicates with me and makes it clear that I am in-fact, his personal favourite little human and he just can’t wait for me to ascend to his level. As far as a piece of lovecraftian work goes, this game was a doozy. But we’ll get back to that. Before we even get there, I’d first like to talk about the game itself.

Gameplay:

Magrunner is a first person physics based puzzle game featuring magnetism as its element in which you interact with the puzzles in each room. Your goal in each puzzle room is to use various platforms, blocks, and other bits of very clearly marked tech in each room that may be magnetized with either a positive polarity or a negative polarity, and combine that with the physics of the Unreal 3 engine to solve challenges and make it to the next room. To be blunt, the game is squarely a Portal rip-off from its design ideals. Your makeshift magnet glove-gun hybrid can fire 2 colors, one being a negative polarity and one being a positive. Like-colors are attracted to themselves, whereas opposite colors reflect each other. The idea of using magnets in a physics based first person puzzler isn’t an awful one, and neither is the fact it clearly wants to ape Portal’s ideas. Where it fails, unfortunately, is execution. The physics aren’t up to snuff with what you do most of the time and it leads a lot of the puzzles to be confusing or simply frustrating, as even when you know what you’re doing you still have to rely on the physics system of the engine to cooperate with you. Early on, you are tasked with getting 4 small magnetizable cubes together to form into a large one. What this actually has you end up doing is fighting with the cubes and the level as they fling themselves wildly off of each other and into unreachable parts of the level itself. The entire game functions this way and it really removes any sense of challenge or control you have over each puzzle, often feeling like you lucked your way into a solution rather than figured out the puzzle yourself in any meaningful way.

Buggy physics in the Unreal engine are not the developers fault entirely though, the game is an indie project that was kickstarted and for that alone i’m willing to give them a pass on engine problems that they likely did not have the programmers to fix. But, unfortunately, I can’t give a pass on the game failing to iteratively teach you how the mechanics work level by level. Whenever you magnetize an object, it creates a field, and you can see this field thankfully by pressing a key. Anything in that field will automatically interact with anything else that is magnetized in it. In general, these fields are wildly inconsistent in how they operate. Usually, they’re spheres centered around the magnetized object and cause objects within the sphere to either attract or repel. On occasion though you’ll find pads that create a cone of magnetism going the direction that it faces, up to what is an arbitrary height. Later on, you’re given the ability to place your own fields on any flat surface, allowing the levels to become more bare-bones as you have to create the magnetism points yourself. All of this combined means that  If you learn that something works in a previous level, there is no guarantee that it will work in the next level the exact same way. Experimentation in this game is often fraught with a frustrating sigh of not knowing if the game intended for something to work that way, or if you just broke the physics again. Don’t even get me started on the fact there are multiple combat sections inside a puzzle game, ugh.

Art & Sound:

Magrunners similarities to Portal do not end with the gameplay and design, however. Aesthetically, the first and second half of the three act game are ripped directly from Portal and Portal 2. The first half of the game features sleek interiors inside of a testing facility for yourself and other “Magrunners” where everything is cleanly lit, sparse on color and detail, as space-age and sci-fi as you could imagine. These first set of aperture inspired levels lack any sort of hard edge or detail, with every single element in the room being curved and well lit and as minimalist as possible. The second half of the game takes places in facilities “underneath” the one you were in prior and are dilapidated grey and brown ruins of previous testing facilities, complete with all the same tools and magnetizable pads and tech that you had seen previously but this time a much older and “70’s” style of sci-fi aesthetic, but covered in grime and dirt and dust from the years of abandonment and rot. I cannot understate how unsubtle this is. The first third of the game is Aperture Science bonafide and part right after is Old Aperture from Portal 2. Magrunner’s aesthetic inspirations are worn very clearly on their sleeve, and it makes the game feel very boring and bland by comparison. It’s impossible to play Magrunner: Dark Pulse and not feel as though it was simply a junior developer exclaiming: “What if Portal/Portal 2, but Magnets?!” while the rest of the developers collectively lose their minds from excitement.

The music of the game was provided, as far as i can tell by the credits, by Incomptech AKA Kevin Macleod. A musician known for releasing thousands of free songs for use in any creative project. This isn’t, by default, a bad thing. Most of the music was not things I had heard from his library before and thus I didn’t immediately twig that it was his library, but unfortunately the music selection isn’t enough. As in, there are not enough tracks to fit the game. There are 39 levels in total and each level features a music track, but often and especially in the later parts, the music tracks are entirely re-used. This is most apparent when one of the tracks is a rising piercing noise, like the type you’d hear in a horror movie right before the slasher stabs into someone, but it never ends or pays off. It just loops upon itself and becomes this droning nightmare of a track for however long the physics force you to stay in a level. I counted 6 times this happened and each time it was so loud and obnoxious and frustrating that I had to simply turn off the game audio to be able to bare the level at all. 

None of the other sound effects are worth writing home about, either, unfortunately. In something like Portal, there are pretty iconic sounds within its soundscape. The sound of the portal gun firing and portals being created, the soft and child-like speech of the turrets, the chiding and derogatory AI voice of GLaDOS, yet Dark Pulse lacks anything even half as memorable. Aside from the repetitive music, you are only given small bits of dialogue between each level and that’s really it. There’s a lot of character they could have created here, for example: When you gain the ability to create your own magnetic fields at will, the center of them is a dog-robot that your player character created in his spare time as a child. Creating one of these points could’ve been met with an adorable puppy squeak or bark, anything like that. Your character or the various ones that speak to you could’ve chimed in at any point in levels outside of the beginning or end of them, and yet they do not. It’s a big missed opportunity.

Story:

Speaking of characters, whew boy, are there a lot of them

Magrunner takes place in the distant future where a corporation that is effectively Facebook has taken over the planet by connecting every single person to its service essentially from birth and making it as essential to daily life as possible. Because of this, this corporation has become the de-facto richest company in the world. Its founder, Xander Gruckzeber, whose last name is literally an anagram of Zuckerberg, has started a contest in which 7 contestants can compete to become “Magrunners” and take a trip to outer space in a ship that is being powered on experimental magnetic based technology. The contest involves each contestant going through a series of puzzles that prove their aptitude with the magnetic tech that Xander’s company has developed. 

Your character, an orphan named Dax C. Ward, is the only one of the 7 contestants that does not have a corporate sponsor. Instead, he’s a boy genius who built his own robotic puppy at age 10 and at age 21 built his own magnetic glove that interacts with the magnetic technology and allows him to compete. Ever the underdog, you’re helped along by your adoptive uncle Gamaji who himself is a six-armed mutant and an outcast among humanity for it.

Sound a little on the nose? Like it may be lacking subtlety in any form? Yeah, the entire game is like that. From Xander’s last name anagram to the fact that your own character’s name is itself a reference to “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” which was a short horror novel written by Lovecraft, the game never really had a chance at subtlety in the first place. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but in between the re-hashed artstyle and the immediate and obvious references, and the fact that It tries to throw a very by the numbers cyber punk aesthetic ripped straight out of Blade Runner at you in an opening cutscene that it immediately abandons afterwards. It all just feels tired from the moment you hit New Game and incredibly confused about its own direction. It can’t decide if it’s a Lovecraftian setting, a Sci-fi setting, if it’s trying to say something about Facebook or if it's just going to be Portal: The Magnetic Spin-off.

As the game progresses and Act 1 ends, you find the corpse of another Magrunner being eaten by an anthropomorphic fish person. You are then told by Gamaji that he’s going to help you escape the facility, but this will require you to go through the older parts of the facility as he slowly hacks into the mainframe and tries to get you out via service elevators. Inside these older puzzle rooms are repeated writings on the wall, ravings of someone gone mad with the knowledge of the Old Ones, and giant sculptures depicting various Cthulhu-esque monsters. This would be bad and scary enough on its own, but Gamaji is quick to let you know that portals to some unknown dimension and fish monsters are being spotted in cities all over the world causing havoc and terror. 

About halfway through Act 2, Gamaji drops the bombshell on Dax that his parents didn’t actually die in a car crash like he’s told him all his life, but that they were Old God worshipping cultists and that Dax’s birth in and of itself may somehow be related to that cult and its actions. This tracks, then, because Dax continually receives strange visions in the form of uncovered memories of “The Seven” attempting some ritual to seal off some force from beyond. Act 2 ends with the revelation that Xanders assistant, Kram, is actually behind all the ritual sacrifice and is attempting to summon Cthulhu himself to our world from the Great Beyond. So far, Act 1 and 2 have been rather cliche but haven’t been anything i’d call unremarkable or strange in a Lovecraftian inspired story.

And then Act 3 happens.

Act 3 sees you flung into the far reaches of Actually Literally Space, with various bits of the test chambers around that you must use to get to portals that are marked by a cute little icon of Cthulhu himself that transport you further into space and to the next level. You can quite literally see our pale blue dot to your side if you look, including a gigantic eldritch device that seems to be either siphoning souls to it, or depositing monsters onto the planet. The fact you can breathe in space is just handwaved as “Something Kram must be doing.” and is never brought up again. What really struck me more than anything in these levels, though, is that Cthulhu himself literally appears before you every 2 minutes in each level and simply watches you while repeating “Cthulhu... Fhtagn... R'lyeh...” over and over and over. This was the moment the game honestly lost any credibility from me. Simply seeing a statue in Act 2 caused Dax to go into a screaming panic as he was able to perceive how a human may be turned into a fish person. But seeing the literal Old God himself doesn’t bother him? And why is Cthulhu so interested in you in the first place? Unfortunately, we get an answer to both of those questions and it might be the most insane thing i’ve ever seen in a piece of Lovecraft inspired media.

Dax, somehow through the work of the cult that his parents were part of, is the chosen one. Cthulhu not only cares about him and wants to see him succeed, but even helps him to literally ascend and become an Old God himself. But not, of course, before letting Dax have a heart to heart with Gamaji wherein he tells him that he has seen through Cthulhu’s eyes himself and must now ascend, as he has no other option. Because Cthulhu is a big softie on adoptive relationships, I guess. The game’s final level has you face off against Kram in a boss battle where you fling explosive cubes at each other and attempt to destroy the esoteric relay connected to Earth. During their fight, Dax taunts Kram who tells him that what he is doing is the will of his Master, Cthulhu, and Dax knowingly retorts that what Kram is doing is “Not what He wants.” As if he has a direct line into the Old Gods mind itself. 

I cannot overstate how much of an absolute failure of the mythos itself that this entire story arc is. The Lovecraft mythos was not, and never has been, made for “Chosen One” stories. If you survive an encounter in the first place, you’re often left with horrible scars that never truly leave you because Cthulhu and the Old Gods are in some ways meant to be representative of trauma and a fear of your own trauma. Making Dax suddenly an Old One and a special Chosen One is a complete and utter failure on a scale I've never, ever seen before. It’s been days and I'm honestly still reeling from the fact that was a design decision someone agreed on.

Conclusion:

Magrunner: Dark Pulse is a confusing and often frustrating game with a story that utterly fails its mythos and setting in just about every way possible. But I don’t want to pretend that I didn’t have any fun playing it. I did, and it’s not the worst game I've ever played. It’s not even so much a “so bad it’s good” game, but it’s more of an indie game that clearly tried its hardest and for that I can’t fault it. It’s developers clearly love the Cthulhu and Lovecraftian mythos and really, really, really loved the Portal series and wanted to combine those things into their own spin on it and in that respect, it’s competent enough that I could recommend it to someone who really enjoys those sort of puzzle platformer based games. But... man. That ending. Yikes. 

[spideystark-2021archive]

In January of 2000 some good friends from the scientific community rather than the normal billionaire one of Tony Stark, the Parker’s, approached him about being a donor in order for them to become parents due to some fertility issues that had been discovered in regards to Richard. Tony agreed with little convincing and in August of 2001 Peter Parker was born. Tony was made the boys godfather and when his parents died when he was about 7 months old, he took him in and legally claimed him as his own son. There was a lot of shadow and mystery to the rumors of Tony Stark having a child, no one knew who the Mother was and for years they didn’t even know his gender. As he grew his identify was kept a secret, his Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s address being used for school and occasionally staying with them when his Father was away for longer periods and a nanny was a less practical option. Legally Peter’s name has been changed to “Peter Benjamin Stark” he still goes by Parker in school.

Ned found out that Tony Stark was Peter’s dad when he was half asleep one day after a late night stopping some street thugs when he first got his powers, because in that state when Ned said how cool Tony Stark was in reference to an article he was reading Peter said “you think that but” and told him the lame Dad joke he’d said at breakfast that morning.

Peter steals his Dad’s credit card and used it to send 1 or 2 food trucks to known poor/homeless heavy areas to give out food for free. After Tony get’s back to Earth after The Snap he starts doing this in Peter’s place.

Karen was an AI created much sooner in this AU, and a watch with her programing in it was given to him when he was 9.

Peter was 5 when Pepper became Tony’s assistant and 7 when he accidently called her “Mom” for the first time, he was super embarrassed and Pepper blushed slightly but took it in stride, her and Tony using that to get Peter to do things like clean his room ect by telling him “Listen to you Mother” and it started as a joke but now he just calls her Mom in everyday conversation and it confuses new people but they don’t even bother explaining and usually it’s just accepted.

Peter was 8 when Tony was kidnapped and just has no idea what is going on, all he knew was that Miss. Potts was scared, he was pulled out of school for a few months, Happy wouldn’t leave him alone and his Uncle Rodey had told him that a couple hulking marines were going to be staying close to him until his Dad came home. All he really knew was that he hadn’t see his Dad in what seemed like forever and no one would tell him why, which was weird because Tony tended to make sure to find at least 5 minutes in a day to call him even when he was super busy.

Peter was 11 when Loki attacked the City, he’d just happened to be there visiting his Aunt May and when it happened he had run out of the house and made his way to Stark Tower, the Karen helping lead the way there despite telling him what a horrible idea it was. He barely made it there, ducking behind things and even inside of a dumpster or two. Tony see’s him right before Loki shows up and doesn’t have enough time to get mad, just enough time to force him into a safe room hidden in the wall behind where he was standing when Loki entered. Peter is smart like his Dad though, he managed to get out and sees his Dad fly through the wormhole. He nearly jumped off the edge when he saw him. Erik had been coming to check on him though after Natasha told him to, and grabbed him right before he jumped after his Father.

By 2014 Peter has been bitten and grained powers, try as he might Tony can’t stop his son from fighting bad guys when he can literally just scale headfirst down the Tower. And that’s just before he creates his web fluid and web shooters. This is part of what drives him into wanting to create Ultron. Everything goes wrong though and shit hits the fan, and when it does they can’t find Peter and Tony fears the worst. Then they get to Clints home though and there he is playing with and entertaining the younger kids and the grip of panic that had been holding him dissipated a little.

When the Avengers go to fight Ultron there is a huge argument between him and Tony, he wants to come and help. He has powers and the suit he made, he can help. In the end Tony wins and Peter stays behind at the Farm House, he spends most of the time in Teen Angst Mode and makes Laura dread her own children becoming teenagers.

In Civil War he’s ecstatic when Tony let’s him join the fight and help, though he in all honesty only does it because of the fact he knows none of the others would really hurt him. When he ends up with a black eye though he regrets it, telling him “Go or I’m calling your Mother!”

After Civil War when his Dad got on board with him being a small time neighborhood hero? Peter was very excited, and was more than happy to give both Tony and Happy updates regularly. Though he knew that Pepper wasn’t entirely happy about it? He knew that at least she was glad he was doing it with his Dad behind him rather than behind their backs.

After Peter’s screw up that ended in Tony taking the suit away and telling him he was done with crime fighting until he could grow up and think before he acted? Peter wasn’t all that surprised that Happy shut Ned down when he called him, but he hoped that his Dad would get there to help him sooner rather than later. Instead? He’d had to fight Vulture on his own, and had hidden off to the side when Happy and the other’s got there. He got the other’s attention by hitting him behind the ear with a tiny bit of web fluid and Happy expressed that he was glad Peter was okay but then shooed him off before anyone could notice him since his mask was gone.

After this happened Tony offered to Peter both officially introducing him to the world as Spiderman, and his son. He turned this down however, telling his Dad that he wanted to stay lowkey a while longer. In reality? He hadn’t exactly told his Dad everything that he went through in the battle with Vulture, and he both didn’t want to leave his friends behind as well as wanting more time to process what he’d been through. He already had a therapist he saw once a month, but now he bumped it up to twice a month and when needed weekly with no explanation to Tony.

Eventually at some point between his fight with Vulture and the space ship showing up on earth he asks Tony to come with him to one of his sessions, and finally tells him about everything that happened during that first big super hero battle of his.

When the space ship shows up on earth and Peter joins in on the fight, he nearly listens when Tony tells him to go home. But then he realizes that he didn’t know if he could handle it if his Dad died and he could have done something to stop it, and so instead? He clings onto the space ship and makes his way inside.

This drabble I wrote is 100% tied into my Peter’s story

After The Snap the world finds out who Peter is in regards to him being Tony’s son unless otherwise plotted, a memorial for him being held for him where the truth comes out about his identity like it was for many of those who disappeared. Ned had already known and MJ had her suspicions. But other than that a lot of people started treating him differently, he brushed most of them off but he was also secretly kind of glad that Flash still treated him exactly the same. Being bullied sucked and the guy was an ass, but at least he wasn’t trying to pretend he wanted to be his friend like so many people who had ignored him and/or his being bullied in the past. Because of this, its theorize by a lot of people before the end of his junior year that he is Spiderman because of the fact that Iron Man was his Father and seemed to have taken the younger hero under his wing. By the start of his Senior year the truth about who Spiderman is has been completely accepted, even if not confirmed by anyone who would know for sure.

Within a year of coming back from The Blip, Peter has changed his hero name to Iron Spider in order to honor his Father (or in the case of Tony still being alive, to signify him taking his place in the Avengers)

[teatitty]

ALRIGHT WELL AFTER FOREVER AND A DAY HERE IS THE SKILLSET POST ABOUT ONE HAL JORDAN (this bitch took forever to put together cuz of wording some stuff you’ll know what I mean when u see it)

New Earth

Aviation (more on this later)

Boxing

Equestrianism. This is literally just people who can ride and/or drive horses, teach them how to trot, jump, race and perform. This was shown in  Justice League of America 80-Page Giant Vol 2 #1

Ring Mastery. Not only has he used a GL ring but he’s also used Blue, Red, Yellow, Orange and White

Indomitable will (ofc)

Leadership. He’s lead the Lantern Corps to successful victories during war on numerous occasions, and is widely believed to be the “best GL of all time”

Pre-crisis, he was an insurance investigator in Evergreen City. His old address before getting his ring was 22 Sea View, Coast City, California

He was loosely modelled after actor Paul Newman who was the neighbour of GL artist Gil Kane. In The Incredible Hulk #426, we can see Hal in a pyschiatric hospital as a mental patient

Prime Earth

Unique Ring Connection (more on this later)

Aviation

Indomitable Will

Leadership

Advanced Hand-to-hand Combat

In this canon it was stated that his household had two religions. His father was catholic and his mother was jewish. 

He has his own ship called Darlene whose AI is very sassy and doesnt like Hal as her pilot. Given that he once flew a plane construct so fast it nearly entered the speed force ehhh i can understand it

Okay so I’ve already talked about Hal’s test-pilot skills here now apply all of that to the space-craft that he flies too and you can see why I’m of the belief that he’s a better pilot then Bruce is. Bruce can only fly the planes that are already made, whereas Hal tests them as they’re created, making sure they’re good enough to be sold on the racks. He definitely knows the inside-and-out of Bruce’s planes better then Bruce does and yall can fight me on it

As for the unique Ring Connection? This is because in Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps Rebirth #1, while his own ring was destroyed Hal used something called The Gauntlet. In his own words he describes the experience as this “I’m thought. I’m expression. I’m a construct. A being of pure, unharnessed will. (...) I just know I can’t stay this way. I feel it - how close I am to disappearing inside the emotional spectrum forever”.

And then, despite that Guardians said they were the only ones with the knowledge and skill to do so, Hal forged his own ring out of his own will, meaning he doesn’t need a battery to keep it charged anymore. Only himself. He jokes that he “cant believe it took him this long to prove them wrong. I’ve never been one to play by the rules”. He then says there’s one rule he’ll never break:

You wear the ring, you say the oath. A very cool line, yes, but also absolute proof that he’s a dork.

and here’s him forging the ring for yall

[mothermaidenclone-blog]

Ad Astra or This Movie Was the Brad Pitts

Ad Astra was the worst movie I have paid to see since 2015’s Kill Your Friends, which is my least favourite cinema experience of all time. It was a dry and dreary story about emotionally stunted white men in a bleak and boring capitalist version of space, with jarring and superfluous Christian undertones. The plot and everyone’s motives were so non-existent that Brad Pitt had to narrate the whole thing in a monotone so flat and dead I literally screamed all the way from the cinema to the bus stop when it was over, partly out of a frustration so deep it was non-verbal, but also just to finally hear some pitch variation.

*Ad Astra spoilers follow*

There technically were women in this movie. Lots of women, particularly women of colour, occupied high ranking positions and were addressed by their titles, a touch I think is important and that usually tips the scales in favour of a good review for me. We were graced with Adjutant General Vogel (LisaGay Hamilton), Captain Lu (Freda Foh Shen), Sergeant Romano (Kimmy Shields), Tanya Pincus (Natasha Lyonne) and Lorraine Deavers (Kimberly Elise), as well as several unnamed female personnel (Kayla Adams, Elisa Perry, Sasha Compère and Mallory Low). I would like to particularly highlight Natasha Lyonne’s performance as apparently she was the only actor employed to play a human being and not a replicant. She was on screen for maybe twenty seconds, as is sadly the case with most of these women, but was a glorious breath of fresh air as the only character to simultaneously emote expressively and speak with inflection and enthusiasm. The only one! In a two hour movie!

All of these women appear to be respected and capable members of various illustrious teams, but are always outnumbered by men. There are two male generals alongside Vogel and Deavers is initially outnumbered 4:1 on her space craft by men. Tragically, whenever a team is being picked off, it is always the people of colour who die first. Not only is this obviously racist, it is just a disgusting cliché that we just don’t need to see anymore in movies. Deavers dies first when Roy (Brad Pitt) forcibly invades their vehicle, followed by Franklin Yoshida (Bobby Nish), an Asian man, and Donald Stanford (Loren Dean), a white guy, is the last to go. Roy cradles him in his arms and attempts to save his life. I hope it’s not just me that sees something wrong with the order of events there.

A similar scenario takes place in the lunar chase, which absurdly seems to occur in the same crapy looking buggies as the original moon landing, a confusing visual choice considering we’ve just seen a vast and impressive modern concrete moon base. The film takes the time to introduce us to Willie Levant (Sean Blakemore), a black officer who will be escorting Ray across the moon. As soon as we see he has a photo of his wife and child taped to his tablet screen I knew he was going to die - in the year 2019 I should not be able to predict that a black character is going to die because we saw a family photo. Can we just not anymore? Again, aside from the racism, that’s just shitty writing. I like to think that as a species, if we can conceptualise something as vast and seemingly impossible as solar travel, we can also move beyond basic and derogatory cinematic tropes.

I was most excited by the appearance of Helen Lantos (Ruth Negga), a woman of colour who occupies a position of power on Mars and introduces herself assertively using her full name. Also, her whole look was excellent. However, this brief release of serotonin was very short lived as she literally walks Roy down a corridor then is immediately cut off and superseded by a white guy with a man bun. Lantos does return later, but alas, as an exposition machine to give Roy some plot news about his dad. Even as she explains that her parents were murdered by his, Lantos falls victim to the dire, emotionless monotone that I can only assume was forced on the entire cast of this film. Then, she is an actual chauffeur and drives Ray to a manhole so he can continue his dad quest. A character brimming with original potential is presented as nothing more than a device.

The final woman to mention is the first one we see, Roy’s ex-wife Eve (Liv Tyler). We see the blurry, out of focus back of her head in the background of a shot before we see her face, and this is incredibly telling, because that’s all Eve is, the simulacrum of a woman. She could be anybody - so why she is Liv Tyler defies belief, I can only assume they held her loved ones hostage - her story is untold and entirely irrelevant. Again, she is only a device, although this time not for Roy’s forward momentum, but this time seemingly to emphasise that Roy is a total sociopath with no emotions whatsoever. We don’t learn Eve’s name for another twenty minutes, and it is an hour and twenty minutes before we hear her speak. Even then, it’s not a live conversation, because god forbid this film have too many of those, but a voice recording explaining that their relationship is over. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty sure that’s what it was, but everything she said was so generic I have no memory of it whatsoever. She is presented as a ghost, a blurry image on a screen, a memory fixed in time, not a real person with agency and personality. At the end of the movie we finally see her in real time, and that is when she has made the unfathomable decision to meet Roy for coffee. Even her face in that moment gives no emotion away, perhaps because Tyler had no idea how to act this entirely nonsensical decision. To our knowledge, she would not have seen any change in Roy, only received news that he survived a dangerous space mission, which is apparently enough of a reason to get back with this emotionless egg of a man?

I almost didn’t want to devote words to them, but I think it’s important to address just how dire Roy and his dad H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) are. This is their film, they are the reason that all of these women’s stories are passed over. It is made clear over and over again that both Roy and Clifford believe they are the only people capable of completing their various missions. Roy hijacks a ship and inadvertently kills everyone on board because he thinks that it’s his destiny or whatever to get his dad back, never mind that they were all highly trained space personnel who were arguably better suited to the mission precisely because it wasn’t their dad. Clifford straight up murders his whole crew because they are too “small minded” to fly off further and further into space forever on a mission that has yet yielded absolutely no evidence of their goals. A variety of talented human beings are destroyed because of the entitlement of white men, their delusional and unshakable conviction that they are at the centre of the universe and that no one else could possibly accomplish the lofty goals that kismet apparently calls them to.

The way they speak about themselves and to each other is absolutely psychotic. Roy’s solo musings include, “The flight recorder will tell the story, but history will have to decide,” and “In the end, the son suffers the sins of the father.” Clifford imparts his son with the delightful greeting of, “There was never anything there for me, I never cared for you or your mother or your small ideas.” In addition, they both physically flinch from human contact at various points in the move. Now, I totally understand that we live in a neurodiverse world and that many people experience emotions and social interactions in any number of ways, and that is a beautiful thing that makes our world so interesting to live in. However, that these men both abjectly state that they have no empathy is presented within the context of their megalomaniacal ideals that they must accomplish their god-given quests irregardless of how many people they have to kill along the way. It is a facet of their strangely two-dimensional, arrogant and narcissistic personalities, not one part of many complex features that make a complete and relatable human being.

Roy has to literally say out loud that he is a human being at the end of the movie; “I will rely on those closest to me…I will live and love,” which makes him sound more like a learning AI trying to pass a Turing test than anything else. The music swells as Clifford throws himself towards the surface of Neptune in an orchestral deluge that is unsubtly significant in this very quiet film, as though I’m supposed to start crying and think anything other than, “well thank fuck, it’s about time this murderer dies in the cold vacuum of space, I hope Roy stays spinning and screaming here forever too.” We are supposed to feel sympathy for them as the heroes of this movie, despite the fact that they show no care for anyone else throughout the whole thing and act entirely in their own self interests.

Overall, the women in this film are given about five seconds of potential as they introduce themselves variously as decorated soldiers and otherwise capable personnel, before being shoved to the side, or murdered, for Roy. This is obviously objectionable, but is made so much worse by the fact that Roy is an emotionless, entitled, empathy-less white man who doesn’t care if other people have to die for him to get what he wants. That is what these women are being passed up in favour of. I felt like I was watching a two hour long Voight-Kampff test. Space movies like this should be about what we can achieve if we work together as a species, not about how white men will still be the kings of dreary capitalism, even on the moon. We can do better than this.

And now for some asides:

What the actual fuck was the font at the beginning? I guess a red serif all caps should have alerted me to the fact that I was about to watch a horror movie.

As a lover of space horror, I was absolutely gutted that it was a bad CG angry baboon and not a cool gross alien. Also, what was that scene? “Hmm, we need to get rid of this loser because Brad Pitt is the best at space ships and he needs to be the captain. Uhh…what about…space monkeys? Yeah! Space monkeys on a deserted Norwegian ship. That makes sense.”

Can I just have a film bout those moon pirates fighting space capitalism please? I was more invested in them that anyone else in this garbage movie.

Credit for the Bradd Pitts joke goes to the talented and lovely Ed Cheverton

[anonthenullifier]

Do you think Tommy and Billy would ever given a tour of Stark Industries? I mean their Dad did technically help run it in a previous life.

Thanks for the ask!  I don’t think this is what you were looking for, but it is the first thing that came to my mind after reading your ask. I do apologize if the characterization is off at all, I don’t usually write from either of the twin’s perspectives but it was the only way to do this story . Hope you enjoy!

“And now we move into what many consider the true heart of the tour,” a peppy smile goes with a peppy wave of her arms and the impressively uniformed pep in the tour guide’s step, “the hall of heroes.”

“Kill me now,” Tommy groans next to him, mood perpetually spiraling downward for the last hour, “please just blink me out of this reality.”

The field trip isn’t that bad. Well, it’s not great, but it could be worse, like the time they went to the wastewater plant and there was a leak. “This is the last room.” It is also, admittedly, the worst room to be in as children of Avengers. Being in a shrine devoted to worshipping your parents and family while surrounded by peers that already view you differently kind of sucks.

“We’re at Stark Industries,” Billy waits for his brother to make some sort of point, shrugging off the aggravation in his voice and inspecting the first generation uniforms of their parents. The plaque has an asterisk that leads the eye down to a note stating all uniforms on display are originals, graciously donated by the heroes except for The Vision’s (Billy frowns at the unneeded The) which is a replica due to the still unexplained power he has to shift molecules.

Tommy begrudgingly joins in staring at the uniforms, “This crap is not what we should be seeing. We’re not fucking tourists.”

“Language.”  

Dad has been trying, and failing miserably, to curb impolite language, so when he is not around, Billy takes joy in turn-coating his allegiance and policing it. “Oh bugger off, traitor.” They both laugh at the loophole they discovered early on. If dad doesn’t realize they’re cussing, then they can do it freely, until mom stares them down, anyway. “I’m serious, I want to see the top secret stuff, not,” he flings his hands out at the post-Thanos uniforms, “this.”

They’ve listened to their grandpa wax poetically about his innovations, sat dumbfounded at the technical questions from both their dad and their other science minded relatives. There is so much more than old Iron Man uniforms and the ten different shields good ole Captain America has used to protect freedom. “Mom and dad are meeting us at the end, we could just ask-“

Tommy recoils at the comment, side-eying him the same way you would a person espousing mind control through frozen corn kernels on the street corner (though that actually ended up partially correct and led to a few months without corn in the house and deep, empty looks on their parents’ faces). “You trying to steal the funkiller crown from dad?” Hands turn Billy toward a small, gray door with a white and red sign stating Authorized Personnel Only. “You know the good stuff is back there.”

“No,” even if they can easily distract the chaperones and slip away from their classmates, it’s not worth it. “In less than a day, I get to go with Teddy on a houseboat.”

Tommy’s unempathetic stare is typical when matters of his relationship come up, “And…?”

“And I’m not risking it.”

Billy moves on to the current day display (all replicas), fingers tapping through the buttons on a screen introducing him to the training rooms and the Stark tech that is changing not just the world but universes too. Unfortunately the twin devil on his shoulder follows. “We won’t get caught.”

“We get caught 91.35% of the time,” a stat so graciously computed by dad three weeks ago when Tommy ran (literally) out and got them Taco Bell for lunch and then proceeded to proudly eat his chalupa in front of the teacher monitoring the lunchroom.

A scoff signals this fight is nowhere near done, “One, even dad admits his computation is flawed,” a margin of error assumed of plus or minus five percent for instances of misconduct that went fully undetected, “and two, that means we have a ten percent shot at success.” This is said as if ten percent is equatable to seventy five.

“Or we don’t and I have a hundred percent shot at a weekend without mom and dad.”

“Traitor.” Tommy shoves him out of the way, taking over control of the interactive display. “Yo display lady.”

A pleasant, lightly accented voice streams from the luminescent screen, “How may I help you?”

“Where are these rooms?”

A three second lag exists between the question and response, “Official training rooms are located at the Avengers compound, while beta-testing and highly complex simulations are housed here at Stark industries.”

Tommy stares at him, assuming this is somehow convincing. “No.”

“How many records are held by Vision?”

More silence and then the screen displays a table of dates and times, “Vision,” no The this time, likely because it was programmed by grandpa, “has eight time trial records across the two facilities.”

Another look from his brother implies this is all they need to know. Billy shakes his head. “And Scarlet Witch?”

The screen dissolves before providing new information. “Scarlet Witch has five records for time and three for amount of damage caused.”

“Go, mom!” Tommy is always more impressed by damage than time, something Steve has issues handling in their own training with the Young Avenger Initiative. “What about as a team?”

It’s to the credit of Tony’s programming that the AI understands the request in relation to the prior two questions. “Scarlet Witch and Vision, as a team, hold ten time records and eight damage records, including a combined record on training course Twenty Three, level of difficulty Wish You Were Never Born that has gone unchallenged for over eleven years.”

“Unchallenged.”

A smarmy confidence rests in Tommy’s eyes and finally the logic of his questioning clicks.  “No way.”

Tommy glares at him before returning to the screen, “Where’s that course?”

“Course Twenty Three is located here at Stark Industries.”

There’s something infuriatingly infectious about his brother’s need to rebel as a means of satisfying his drive to surpass others. It’s so tempting to say yes, but Billy digs his heels in, refusing to go along yet again with one of Tommy’s plans that, though always fun, never have fun consequences and dammit, he wants to spend the weekend with Teddy. “Not a chance.”

Exasperation fills every inch of Tommy’s flail. They move on and the silence is nice, if not a bit unsettling. “Question.”

Billy makes sure his annoyance is firmly on display. “What?”

“Would you rather try and break their record or,” a lightning fast push spins Billy around, “watch Cody manhandle mom?” Mortification gnaws at his resolve, their classmate groping the mannequin from the brief time the Scarlet Witch wore a leotard and tights. It’s when Cody makes direct eye contact with them and starts pantomiming his intentions that Billy’s hands snap shut, blue energy tingling under his skin. “You take him down, guarantee that houseboat is gone.” An arm loops amicably around his shoulder, pivoting him towards the authorized access door. “We go see the good stuff and you have slightly better odds.” Billy is turned back to Cody, who has only grown more vigorous in his lewd gesticulating, “No houseboat,” and then back to the door as if there are only two options, “or a shit ton of fun and possibly a houseboat.”

Billy sighs and Tommy’s mouth tips into a beaming smile. “Fine.” Immediately his mind starts justifying the decision, an 8.65% chance not the worst odds in the world, plus, if they aren’t in the room when the prototype of the next-gen Iron Man happens to fall on Cody, then no one can point at him as the culprit.

Wordlessly they carry out the escape, Billy always taking on the role of distraction through subtle manipulations of perceived reality and Tommy gleefully vibrating his molecules to slip through the wall and open the door. “Let’s go.”

For some reason, he had assumed walking through the door would be like that one movie they watched, with the oompa-loompas, a door opening and a world beyond imagination appearing before them -flying suits, disappearing materials, explosions, scientists in white coats and blue gloves. Instead it’s just a hallway with beige walls and linoleum floors and doors lining the way. “So, what’s the plan?”

A thrilled, unconcerned lift of his brother’s shoulders drops their chances of success at least a percent, “Walk like we own the place and see what we find.” It’s sadly not his worst plan.

And walk they do, Tommy’s chest puffed out and arms swinging in casual authority. Technically, they sort of own some of the place, via dad’s stake in the company, so it’s not like they are being overly deceptive. Each hallway looks the same, making it difficult to track exactly where they are going, until they find another door stating Credentials Required and a face scanner affixed to the wall. Tommy doesn’t even hesitate in shimmying through the wall, so Billy follows, hands parting the space in front of him so he can walk through, closing reality behind him with some hesitation, certain there have to be cameras somewhere tracking them.

That concern is tossed aside because now they find the cinematic reveal, an open hangar in front of them with some sort of alien-esque ship on the ground and four floors of glass doored, luminescent laboratories spanning the reach of their eyes. “The good stuff.” This is far better than replica uniforms. “Let’s go find the simulation.”

“But look at this stuff!”

The self-confidence he had admired earlier also goes hand-in-hand with a tendency for fixation. “Yeah, I see it.”

Billy does his best to keep pace with his twin, who has a habit of speeding up his walk when excited while forgetting other people can’t move nearly as fast. That combined with Billy’s desire to peer into every lab space and marvel at the work, makes their trip stream by incomprehensibly. He thinks he saw a phasing suit, maybe a new particle generator, some sort of extraterrestrial looking staff, a portal to a mountain side, what he thinks might be a baby raptor, and also their grandma, who he usually loves seeing but pulled Tommy out of view before she could spot them. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?”

“Nope.”

“Fantastic.”

“Where are you going?”

The voice is instantly recognizable, one they’ve grown up hearing and it’s a little judgmental and a little bit amused. Tommy swings around and puts on the fakest innocent smile the world has ever seen. “Hey, Grandpa!”

Tony smirks, unconvinced by the tone of the greeting, but he isn’t angry, which is a good start. “How are my favorite rebels doing?”

“Great, on a field trip.” Billy is in awe of people like Tommy and Tony who can act so natural, can just ooze bravado and a sense of entitlement on a whim.

There is a nod and a contemplative droop of his goatee. “Seems you got lost.”

Tommy nods along, “Yeah, been trying to find our classmates, have you seen them?”

Now Tony chuckles, slapping his hands together, giddy at the lie but still showing no signs of annoyance or reprimand. “I have not, but I imagine they can’t phase through walls like you two can.” Billy, personally, wilts at the calling out, while Tommy shrugs again, matching Tony’s stance and attitude. “What do you two want to see?”

“What?” It comes out before Billy can catch it, surprised at the quick approval of their misdeeds.

“I asked what you wanted to see,” Tony stares at them, concerned he has somehow slipped into another language, “There has to be a reason you barged through my walls.” Learning to function in both the superhero world and just being a teenager with parents who have rules you don’t agree with, requires an ability to spot entrapment, certain phrases purposely worded as openings for waltzing right into admonishment. When neither of them take the bait, Tony acts hurt, a shake of his head and a pained, expertly acted, clutched chest. “I thought I was the cool, eccentric grandfather,” a smile threatens to wash away Billy’s anxiety as Tony continues in pantomimed betrayal. “Is it Thor? Would you tell Thor what you want? I mean, I don’t blame you, those gorgeous, puppy dog eyes are a killer.” A snigger from Tommy and all apprehension leaves the atmosphere, Tony’s toothy grin absolving all guilt of their sneaking around. “Seriously, what do you want to see? I’ve got a brand spanking new interdimensional travel lab, some Skrull-based camouflage trials, there’s a spaceship downstairs, Helen has an updated, palm-sized cradle.”

All of it, every last one is what Billy wants to see, but Tommy beats him to the request, “We want to do simulation twenty three, Wish You Were Never Born.”

Understanding dawns on Tony’s face, “Want to show the parental units up, huh?”

“Yep.” Tommy is close to vibrating through the floor.

“It’s really dangerous,” the mood darkens until Tony presents them a masterclass, uncaring shrug they’ve seen numerous times in his press conferences and Senate hearings, “but I’m not your parents and so it is my duty to aid and abet your delinquency.”

An ecstatic arm closes around Billy’s shoulder as they follow their grandpa down four different hallways and three staircases, emerging into a vast, utterly empty warehouse. “You all have suits?” Tommy whips off his sweatshirt to reveal the Stark crafted, green and white suit he always wears under his clothes, yanking his goggles from his back pocket and pulling them down over his face. Since this seems to actually be happening, Billy waves his hands, materializing his own caped suit in place of his jeans and t-shirt. “All right then, let me go upstairs real fast.”

The climb into the observation booth is agonizing under Tommy’s uncontainable excitement, his feet a blur as he warms up, running in place. “Quick disclaimer, boys,” they look up at Stark’s face through the window, “there are numerous things that can seriously maim you in this course, kind of why your parents hold the record, the whole made of vibranium slant your dad’s got going makes him uniquely qualified to handle a lot of this and your mom is terrifying as well, so together, magic.” A seed of doubt sprouts in Billy’s mind, yet it is not given time to be nurtured a, “Anyway, best of luck!” and then the room comes alive around them.

To say the difficulty level name is apt is a bit of an understatement. At any given time there are over a dozen different foes, and for each type of challenge, there are at least a dozen individuals within it. It ranges from laser guns, incendiary robots that look an awful lot like Ultron, replicas of the Black Order, phasing, flame wielding alien things, and Billy’s least favorite right now, microscopic, swarming jellyfish that blister the skin on contact. In amongst the chaos of fighting, he can hear Tommy cycle between “Shit, shit, shit,” “Oh my God!”, “What the fuck is that,” and maniacal glee. Slowly, and painfully, they take down the threats, sometimes combining forces to remove a particularly difficult foe, and sometimes splitting up to decimate the weaker challenges.  

Looming over them is a very large clock, ticking away at their time and next to it, is the record of their parents. Their own clock continues, the numbers growing more similar to the goal and Billy assesses the surroundings, only taser faced bear-like creatures and giant bouncing orbs made of some sort of sticky, burning compound left. “Tommy!” His brother skids into view, mouth in a perennial smile and lungs heaving as he waits for the next strategy. “We have ten seconds, I say we vaporize.”

What seemed impossible is proven wrong, Tommy’s lips curving even higher as he fiddles with his goggles. “You hold them steady.”

“Will do.”

It’s a technique they birthed from their mistakes, the possibilities of their powers unknown and often discovered in embarrassing and unintentional ways. Like vaporizing soccer fields during gym class. Billy winds his powers around the last group of adversaries, wincing at the weight of their resistance as he adds more and more force to his hold. While he does this, Tommy runs a large circle around the bound creatures, legs pumping faster and faster with each lap until even Billy can’t track his position. That’s when it happens, a sonic boom that spreads through the warehouse, shoving Billy to the ground, puffs of smoke making the air murky, and then there is a “Hell yeah!” and the telltale sound of the buzzer their own training uses to signal success.

Tommy collapses on the ground next to Billy, “That was amazing.” All Billy can manage is a nod, lungs and body aching. “Do you think we did it?”

“Though impressive, unfortunately you were 8.65 seconds over.” Disappointing, but not bad. Far more worrisome is the unmistakably even English accent informing them of their failure.

Billy strains to sit up, glancing over his shoulder at the deep scowls of disappointment on his parents’ faces, next to the apologetic wince of Tony. “Fuck.”

“Language, William.” Tommy snorts and is met with a jab of blue to his chest. 

Two strikes in less than three seconds and the houseboat is most definitely floating away, “Sorry, dad.”

“What are you two doing here?” This time it’s their mom, her accent thicker when she’s angry and currently it sounds like she just moved here from Sokovia.

A hand pats Billy’s arm, a reassurance that really isn’t helping. “The field trip was just so boring.” Nor is Tommy’s attempt at defending their choice providing any hope of bringing the boat back. “We just wanted to see stuff.”

The intercom clicks and they are presented with a predictably logical alternative, “You could have asked us after the field trip. You had shown interest in a more detailed tour the other night, hence the reason why your mother and I were meeting you here instead of at home.”

Billy flops his head to stare deep into his twin’s goggled eyes, “I suggested that.”

“Shut up.”

Another click and mom is back on the microphone, “We’ve been speaking with the Altman’s,” any last, clinging hope withers away, “they were really looking forward to having you with them this weekend,” the feeling is mutual, “they suggested a nice compromise.” He waits to learn what this is, worried if he asks it will harm any goodwill left. “They invited all of us along on the trip.” 

Despair is far heavier than the physical toll of the course, and isn’t helped at all by the thumbs up next to him and the out-of-breath, “Yes, I love houseboats!”

[orrtala]

Allura a.k.a. the DreamWorks Princess we all deserve

It’s a liveblog! I only finished season two, please no spoilers in the comments/reblogs!

Princess of Altea (shouldn’t she be a Queen now? Am I to expect a coranation in a future?) King Alfor’s only child, now only one of two (or three, apparently) Alteans still alive. Shiro might be a Voltron leader, but if you want to go to the boss of this whole operation you seek Allura.

When we first meet her it’s the middle of the war for her, King Alfor puts her to sleep and she wakes up in arms of some flirty alien guy with atrocious ears. She promptly kicks his butt and then she learns she was in cryopod for 10 000 years, her whole civilization is dead and all she has left is Coran, the mice, the Castle and Voltron Lions. Oh, and also the guy who took everything from her is somehow still alive. So what happens next? Allura takes five alien newcomers, assigns Lions to them and gets straight into business.

Her loss is fresh (and then kept on losing even more, thanks Voltron writers,) and sadly, didn’t really allow herself to contemplate about it. The only ‘person’ she kind of talked about it with was her father’s AI and exchanged one or two comments with Coran. That said I get that wallowing in grief wouldn’t help her cause and she decided to focus on fighting Zarkon. Which is a noble cause and she’d do that no matter what, but I also think she’ll need a shoulder to cry on at some point.

She behaves ‘like a princess’, composed and serious, refusing to show weakness to anyone. “I must portray strength, so no one can tell how concerned I am about the fate of our mission.” - Is what she said to the mice back in “Fall of the Castle of Lions.” Which doesn’t mean she can’t have fun, but she usually hid that side from Paladins. She gradually started to open up to her new family in that context, laughing with others, stopped hiding her playful side.

Allura’s comment about combat simulator implies she was training from the youngest days and it shows! She is great at fighting (…at least when it comes to melee weapons) from what we’ve seen so far (her confrontation with Haggar and her druids in “Blackout” is one of my favorite sequences in a show so far.) And let’s not forget the rather unorthodox way of teaching Altean language. While I’m not sure if these used to be normal Altean things (considering who they kept as pets it’s actually probable) or just Castle things, but we know for certain her childhood was rather unique. At least in terms of our understanding.

Being Alfor’s daughter also means high expectations. Her beloved father was a hero, a legend who apparently created Voltron himself and became one of the Paladins (either Red or Yellow, I’m still hoping for the latter, but based on Coran’s comments he might have been the former.) She does her best, fighting Galra Empire with determination. It’s also one of the main reasons why she refuses to show vulnerability to others. But, similarly to her playful side she starts trusting her new family, and I expect to see more of that in the future as well. However when dealing with an enemy/person she doesn’t trust she’ll either attack (her meeting with Zarkon in “The Black Paladin”) or remain cold, not allowing others to see her hurt.

Sadly we don’t know much about her mother except that Allura seems to remember her and has fond memories of her.

While she does want Zarkon to pay for his crimes her main drive is compassion, justice, and making sure anyone else won’t suffer how she did. And she’s ready to make sacrifice for that cause. When an opportunity presented to save Balmera she went along with it for the sake of her inhabitants, even if it meant she died. She saved Shiro, stayed behind on Galra ship and got captured. Transporting Zarkon’s ship to the different galaxy used up a lot of her energy which could result in her death - she knew it and did it anyway. In order to save Paladins and Voltron she attacked Zarkon in “Blackout” which almost resulted in her demise. Then she went to attack Haggar and her druids and- We all see the pattern here, right. “As leaders, we have to do what’s right for our people, even if it means great sacrifice” are her father’s words she lives by. And right now ‘her people’ is literally everyone in the universe.

I guess I should also mention her problem with Keith in S2 arc. And while their relationship itself is a topic for another post, let me just say this clearly: she was not racist. It was a complicated situation she didn’t know how to handle; Galra took everything from her, of course she’d have trouble and doubts believing them. Zarkon himself was one of her father’s friends and look how great it turned out. And now one of her family memebers who must have known something beforehand about this (and he did have suspicions) didn’t say anything until meeting rebels. However she is willing to work with Blade of Marmora depite that. And with Keith, well, while it wasn’t a great situation she gave him a cold shoulder (which hurt him more than she probably thought) and in the end reached out to him on her own.

Her role in a team? She’s the leader. Sure, Shiro is the Boss Paladin so to speak, but when it comes to making up decisions he turns to Allura. Even when he disagrees with her the final word belongs to her; she decided to relent and follow Ulaz to his base (despite her better judgement,) but if she did refuse to go there they just wouldn’t go there. Of course there are moments like in “Space Mall” when Coran tells her she shouldn’t go with them, but it was more of a dad thing since at the end of the day their group is more of a family than anything else.

Allura’s the person who pilots the Castle and creates the wormholes so the team could travel quickly through the galaxies. She can shapeshift, which is apparently common for Alteans. And she’s strong. Like. Really. Really strong. She’s also has space magicks, apparently very powerful (and sparkly) which is something that most probably will be expanded on in a future.

Also I expect to see her in her dress and with loose hair in S3. S2 deprived me of that and that’s a shame.

Tl;dr: Beautiful badass alien Princess who was not a part of my childhood ant that makes me sad. Headstrong and energetic she faced a terrible loss and keeps on fighting despite and because of that.

(more character analyses)

[sapiomorph]

The Spice of Life

Obiyuki Bingo, tile One; Space Opera Or my attempt at one anyway!

"And this is the last one!" Yuzuri huffed, heaving the metal crate onto the counter. "One-hundred pounds of spicy goodness. Altogether, that's three kegs of Ova Powder, eight bushels of Mako Grass, and four crates of Zilatian Spice Root. What in the wide stars do you do with it all?!"

Shirayuki smiled at the K'yaran botanist. Her fluffy ears and cat-like appearance were adorable, but her insatiable drive for success and infectious energy made Shirayuki love her all the more. They'd been fast friends for many cycles now, ever since they'd first met. Yuzuri's herb shop in the Lyrias Quadrant had the widest collection of herbs and spices compared to anywhere else Shirayuki had found, not to mention that they were in the best condition! The YuzuSuzu Herb Emporium was always a fun and safe place to come back to.

She shrugged, straightening her gloves before reaching for the crate of spice root.

"You know how the Tanbarun markets can be. They can never get enough of it!"

"Yes, that's true." Yuzuri sighed, watching the human pull the crate off the counter. The tips of her twin tails twitched.

"Do you still use an alias?"

Shirayuki paused in pulling out her wallet before giving her a sad smile. "Yes, I'm afraid so. Nothing wrong with being careful."

"But it's not fair!" Yuzuri's furry face was scrunched up in frustration, her tails lashing about. K'yaran were also similar to cats in how most of the time, they're moods and intentions showed through body language. Other K'yaran Shirayuki had met were reserved, almost gracefully emotionless, while Yuzuri was...

"You shouldn't have to hide yourself like this! It's just not right!"

"I know, but Raj is literally royalty. There's not much you can do against a spoiled Prince who can't take no for an answer." She was resigned to how her life had changed, but her friend's outrage on her behalf warmed her heart.

"I know, but--"

Shirayuki felt a tug somewhere in the literal back of her mind, and she checked her watch.

"Oh shoot, we're running behind!" She quickly placed the credits on the counter before grabbing the crate again. "I need to go. I'll call you when this shipment is done, ok?"

"Alright. Bye 'Yuki." Yuzuri replied, still a bit upset, but understanding. She waved her hand in a circular motion to wish her human friend safe travels. It was a K'yaran custom she always performed for Shirayuki, and the warmth in her heart strengthened.

As Shirayuki started to leave the shop, she heard Yuzuri suddenly shout.

"Oh, and tell me about any potential partners you meet! Specifically males!"

Shirayuki rolled her eyes as she made her way to her ship, The Scarlet Lion. It was an old traders shuttle she’d inherited from her grandparents. From the faded colors, to the outdated hull, to the stubborn whine of the hatch door that refused to be fixed, the age of the ship showed.

And she loved it with all her heart, flying through the stars with the memories of her family.

The tug came again, and she sighed, quickning her steps to place the last of the spices down in the cargo hold.

"Ryuu, you know you can just tell me to hurry, right?" She asked, entering the cockpit and sitting down in the pilot's seat.

On the shuttle's dash, a turquoise figure flickered into view, a small boy in an oversized hoodie sitting on the accelerator.

"...I didn't want to interrupt." He said quietly.

The AI named Ryuu had been terrified when Shirayuki had first found him, hiding in the coding of an ancient server she'd been struggling to hack. It had taken a long time to convince him that she wasn't an enemy, that she was trying to run from someone too. Eventually, she'd earned his trust, and he'd gingerly settled down in her implants, more skittish than a Galtese deer. It had taken a cycle or so before Ryuu got used to Shirayuki and the companionship she offered, but now he was a dear friend who monitored both the ship's health as well as her own.

"I'm sure Yuzuri would love to meet you, you know."

"Mmm..."

Getting him to open up to anyone else however...was still a work in progress.

"Alright." Shirayuki said, gently giving him a mental nudge that equated to a hug. "So, what's our schedule looking like?"

"If we hurry, we can make it to the Nebula Straightway within an hour and warp from there. And if we loosly follow speed protocols after that, we just might make it to Tanbarun before the trade routes get too cluttered."

"Roger." Shirayuki nodded, starting up the Lion and memorizing the route Ryuu laid out for her on the ship's HUD. The shuttle creaked and groaned as thrusters came to life, lifting the ship into the air and out of the port's hangar. She hummed a ditty as the Lion cleared the atmosphere, blue skies melting into inky space scattered with stars.

"Um...shall I do it now?"

Shirayuki blinked. Ryuu wasn't on the dash anymore, retreating into the ship's systems the moment they took off, but she could feel him through her implants, his worry when he tentatively asked the question.

She sighed again, running her fingers through her bright red hair. The Tanbarun System had once been her home, until Prince Raj decided that he wanted her, wanted her hair, to show off like some decoration or exotic pet. She rejected him harshly and, unfortunately, publicly, and now she hadn't returned home in...so long. All the wanted signs for her had only made things harder, had sent her scurrying off into the farthest corners of the systems, desperate for a plan.

"Yes, you might as well. Thank you Ryuu."

Shirayuki watched her reflection in the glass as the color of her hair rippled from red to a pale lavender, green eyes changing to silver, 'Shirayuki' being replaced by 'Maris'.

On the other hand, disguise programs run by an AI can work miracles, and the spice trader smiled, already eager to see her home system once more.

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

"I swear I'll never understand how Clarinese security works." 'Maris' grumbled, wearily leaning against The Scarlet Lion's hull. Four months ago, passing in and out of the Clarines system was a breeze, a simple matter of showing a (mostly) legal permit to trade, and going on your way.

Now, it had taken an extra hour and a half to even land in the market port. Security had suddenly tightened, with identity checks, extended permit examinations, and even a full ship scan to search for anything that wasn't promised to be on board. It had been a tense moment, and she thanked the stars for Ryuu's quick thinking, his intervention preventing her fake identity from falling apart.

They were late getting into the market port, but thankfully, everyone else was well. It was a usual day of business and trade, but guards patrolled the markets constantly, and whispers inbetween deals spoke of a dangerous escaped convict.

Not to mention the occasional neon wanted signs, which were everywhere. They depicted a fierce-looking humanoid with dark hair. Nanaki: Wanted Dead or Alive!

A convict is a convict Shirayuki. This is no petty thief or...or loiterer. The reward for his capture is easily three times higher than yours.

Shirayuki rubbed her forehead, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Ryuu was right, as usual, but his logic did nothing to lessen her irritation. Climbing into the Lion, she deposited most of the credits she'd earned today into a safebox, counting the growing pile of bills. There wasn't any major project she was saving up for, outside of upkeep for the Lion. But, sometimes she thought about moving to Lyrias, partnering up with Yuzuri and her friend Suzu, stopping for just a moment...

Shaking her head, she shuffled into the cockpit, the rush of the day catching up to her.

"Where do we head next again?" she asked Ryuu, the Lion falling in line with the other ships waiting to be cleared to leave Clarines. Through bleary eyes, she saw scans and lists of the Scarlet Lion's status flick across the screen as Ryuu set to work.

"Algatan. Your contact has a shipment of the Anis Sprouts you wanted, and she's given you a time limit before she offers it up for anyone el--"

Ryuu abruptly cut himself off, and the sudden silence was enough to put Shirayuki on edge. She sat up straight in her chair, tiredness forgotten and looking around in worry. Nothing in the systems looked wrong, but what was--?

"--se. So we need to hurry for that. Anis Sprouts are rare, as you know."

"What? Ryuu, what just--?"

Act natural. The scanners picked up something that shouldn't be here. Something or someone is on the ship. 

Ryuu whispered urgently into her mind. The proximity scan appeared on the HUD, and Shirayuki could now see that alongside the green triangle that represented her in the cockpit, a bright red square was pulsing in the cargo hold.

And moving closer.

"Wha--?!"

ACT. NATURAL.

The spice trader almost winced from the pressure of Ryuu's panic, and she forced herself to ignore the scan and pull up the message from her contact.

"Y-yeah. Anis is one of the, er, hardest plants to grow off-planet, so demand is pretty high..."

It's moving closer, obviously the intruder intends to come here and take over the ship. If you ambush from the other side of the door, you have a chance.

"Uh...s-so what kind of...instruments do you think they use for the Anis?" Shirayuki asked outloud, fumbling to think of some sort of code. The Lion wasn't exactly built with soundproof walls, nor was the shuttle that big. Thankfully, Ryuu easily understood the question she was trying to ask.

"There are any number of instruments or techniques anyone could use for cultivating Anis."

The battery starter. In the toolbox by the door. It should have enough power for an incapacitating shock.

"Well, thank you for that vague answer Ryuu." Shirayuki said, steadying her voice as Ryuu engaged the autopilot and she stood, quietly making her way to the door. The seconds of her trying to pull out the starter from the toolbox without making a sound were the most tense seconds of her life, even while she kept up the fake conversation with Ryuu.

"Botany isn't in my skillset. You know that."

"Yeah, but at the very least you could pretend to be interested?" Shirayuki pressed herself against the wall ajacent to the cockpit door, heart pounding in her throat as she waited.

"Very well. What instruments or techniques would you use for cultivating Anis Sprouts in foreign environments?"

"Well, soil examination is the first step, followed by weeding, and once that's done you--YAAAGH!"

The door slid open and Shirayuki whirled, the starter sparking with electricity as she turned it on and struck with all her might.

A hand stopped her attack, wrapping around her wrist in a vice-like grip, and Shirayuki stared up into a pair of piercing yellow eyes. The same eyes that had blazed above a reward for ninety-thousand credits, dead or alive.

"That was almost clever Miss, I'll give you that. But this ship is mine now, so why don't you--"

Shirayuki rushed him, using the element of surprise to push him backwards just as the hallway vents gave out a loud whine and flooded the small hallway with a thick, musty-smelling fog. The convict yelled, briefly letting go of her wrist to cover his eyes, and Shirayuki stabbed at him again with the starter.

Her aim was true, and she could feel his body jolt from the shock before a loud thump reached her ears. The smoke cleared as Ryuu vented the hallway, and Shirayuki was able to step forward and get a clear look at her dangerous stowaway.

Beneath the tight black clothing he wore, she could see lean, solid muscle spiraling down his back and over his forearms. Under the shock of dark hair, the tips of his slightly pointed ears poked into view. Shirayuki took another step forward, cautiously poking his shoulder with the tip of her shoe.

He didn't move.

The spice trader kept her distance, the battery starter still half raised as she called out to Ryuu.

"Is he dead? Ryuu, did I--?"

"Shirayuki, I'd love to tell you all of his vitals, but first we have to deal with the small issue of the Clarinese Security detail hailing us!"

"...oh no."