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elise-jupiterstyle · 4 years ago

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this is a very cynical bomb that i’m about to drop with absolutely no context but they really did just fetishize rio to gain viewership without actually ever giving a shit about his value as a character, and i’ve gotten myself into a bit of a spiral stewing about it.

tw: my opinions again

like i didn’t want to think about my favorite show so negatively before it ended so i tried to steer clear of any posts that discussed it for the sake of my own enjoyment but after how short the finale season fell from my expectations, it’s hard not to be pissed off. because ever since they had beth shoot rio in season two i’ve been waiting for them to reconcile such a gruesome choice by developing the characters further, their relationships, their knowledge of themselves, but it just didn’t happen. beth never took accountability for the shooting, rio never took accountability for kidnapping and pressuring her, and dean never took accountability for his infidelity or faking cancer, which were the three main points of conflict that the writers should’ve focused on resolving before ever even thinking of introducing new conflicts.

i’m not saying i wanted rio to forgive beth, or that i wanted beth to forgive dean, or that i wanted any of these resolutions to happen immediately after their conflicts took place. and sure, you could say that beth’s character compartmentalizes and that beth and rio aren’t good communicators and didn’t have a strong bond of trust to begin with so it wouldn’t be in character for them to discuss what happened, but that’s where character growth is supposed to come in! you’re supposed to write characters with these flaws so that they have a better version of themselves to work towards that is slowly developed as they encounter each conflict. they’re not meant to make them into worse people until the show is entirely unbearable to watch because all of that old resentment and tension is just rotting away beneath the rug it’s been swept under.

it’s not a creative choice to have characters directly create conflict and then never address it again while they move onto the next big thing -- it’s lazy writing, and it makes it crystal clear that they were written in solely to shock the viewers and create tension between the characters, not to cultivate growth, and that is very frustrating when you have a group of characters whose inherent morality is constantly insisted upon.

what’s especially frustrating about this is that it not only means there is a lack of depth to all the characters, but there’s a lack of value to the ones that the writers did not favor. based on the season one storyline that culminated in rio shooting dean and letting beth live -- essentially getting even with her in a way that didn’t involve killing off the protagonist, even though that would’ve been the most likely course of action based on the consequences that other disposable characters suffered (i.e. eddie) -- it’s my belief that the writers didn’t expect to keep rio on the show past season one (honestly, it kind of feels like they didn’t even expect to get another season, based on how messy the storyline felt as the seasons progressed), and therefore didn’t value rio’s character the way the audience came to by season two.

when i say the writers didn’t (and honestly, i still think they don’t -- not in the same way they value the girls, dean, stan, or even fucking boomer) value him, i mean they didn’t see him as being worth the effort of giving a character arc, a background story, personal relationships, etc. they threw in marcus at the start of season two to be like “he’s a dad! that means he has depth!” and then never really touched on it again. there was like, one other scene with marcus that i can remember, and then he, too, was sidelined until they needed to humanize rio again after he got shot. all of the other kids -- the bolands, sarah, harry, and ben -- are regularly featured because they are a driving component of the women’s motivation to survive and succeed. with rio, his kid is only used to relate him back to the women, to make him seem human for a moment, but marcus’s real value as a character lies in how he makes beth feel as she grieves rio, not how he contributes to rio’s behavior, motivation, and overall character.

and yes, i know that rio is technically a side character, that the children of the protagonists are going to have more development, but if they actually wanted to add depth to rio’s character through the facet of parenthood, they would’ve shown more than one interaction with him after he spent supposed months away from him without a word. that kid would’ve been traumatized by that, and seeing rio’s reaction to his kid mourning his disappearance would’ve provided a much more real and interesting angle than them all smiling and happy, like we’ve seen in every other scene with him and marcus. it would’ve showed that the writers care about rio’s pain, about how his absence affected those he loves, but to be blunt, they don’t. they showed beth grieving him when she shot him, but we didn’t see him recovering from that traumatic event. they didn’t even care enough about him to give him fake scars, for christ’s sake.

everything that happened to rio throughout the show was either done to further the other women’s development or appease the viewers, and they made zero effort to hide that. they walked his characterization backwards so many times (him threatening beth’s family when it had been insinuated thus far that that was the only line he wouldn’t cross; him touching her and making suggestive advances on her in exchange for bail money when she was clearly uncomfortable; him returning all of her stuff and happily accepting her as his superior when there was no development in their relationship to suggest he’d forgiven her or would be receptive to her having power over him) and almost every single instance of them using him to promote the show exploited his outward appearance and the fact that so many viewers have fetishized him as this “exotic” bad boy without any regard for how minimizing and insulting that marketing tactic is.

looking through their instagram, i saw no other instance of an actor’s picture being posted next to a bunch of thirsty tweets or captioned as being “another reason to watch good girls.” it’s fetishization disguised as playful, well-intentioned endorsement, but if they were really referring to rio’s character rather than his appearance as a reason to watch the show, we wouldn’t be seeing his face on nearly every episode promo and highlight with him only occupying about five minutes of screen time every 50-minute episode.

there’s not really a neat bow-tie conclusion to this, but what i’m getting at is that the writers wanted it both ways. they wanted the viewership and fan engagement that manny’s character garnered, but they didn’t value him enough to give him the screen time and characterization that he deserved. this resulted in all of the revelations that were made about his character -- his son, rhea, his dynamic with turner, his backstory, his hobby, his grandma, nick -- feeling pretty underwhelming because they were never touched on again. they were there because they had to give us something, but they weren’t important enough to the writers to be expanded upon, to be used for personal growth or connecting with the other characters. i think that’s why it felt like such a hollow victory -- we got exactly what we wanted in theory, but there the foundation of it all was too weak for it to feel truly meaningful.

we wanted rio to be acknowledged and written as a permanent fixture on the show, but instead the rest of the characters were hell-bent on getting rid of him and his primary aspect of redemption was what he meant to beth, not what he meant to the show. even in the finale when she finally came to the realization that she won’t ever be able to give up crime, rio’s role in contributing to her self-actualization was passed over by a character who has been in seven episodes, and i think that really spoke for itself the loudest in terms of how much the writers truly valued him.

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cryinginthebackseat · 4 years ago

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you’ve got more poison than sugar - part i

AO3 part ii

Fandom: Call Of Duty

Pairing: Russell Adler x Bell

Words: 4.009

Summary: Russell Adler should have known better that it wouldn’t take an entire nation or continent to bring him to his knees.

Warnings: just swearings, sexual tension, blood, mentions of past abuse and brainwashing. adler being that manipulative asswipe like usual.

Author’s note: i don't know what i'm doing. one moment, i was watching the walkthrough of the new call of duty game, found myself curious, acutely curious by that guy with the scars and shades on- a younger, shadier (no pun intended) Robert Redford in Spy Game and oh my... fast forward to 2 weeks later, here we are.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A house somewhere on foreign soil,

Where ageless lovers call,

Is this your goal, your final needs,

Where dogs and vultures eat,

Committed still I turn to go.

I put my trust in you.

A Means To An End - Joy Division (1980)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It's mystifying how little she talks. Or when she does, it's always in fragments. Like a crossword puzzle in your local newspaper, but several letters are missing. He initially thought maybe MK-Ultra fucked her head or worse, if it hasn't worked at all, but the more he watches her, the more he realizes it's just the way she is. And it's ironic because he named her Bell. He expected her to chime like a goddamn goldfinch yet here they are.

But he won't be fazed. Russell Adler is a man who's stopped at nothing in getting what he wanted before, he sure as hell won't stop now for a close-mouthed science project.

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“We've got a job to do, Bell."

It intrigues him, every time, the way the words trigger something deep within her psyche, the way her eyes change, her body stands a little straighter, like a machine ready to function at his disposal. It reminds Adler of one of those cartoons he watched when he was a kid about wizards and magic words, except there are no musical dance numbers playing in the background or a talking cricket perching on his shoulder. This is his power over her, over the USSR, over Perseus. That monstrous filth. It really does take a beast to tame another.

Although he surmises calling Bell one would be superfluous.

She barely looks like one, but Adler knows too well than to underestimate her. Just because Bell hasn’t shown her set of claws, that doesn’t mean she’s harmless, delicate, like a miniature China Doll in his breast pocket.

Bell never offered him her reply before, but now, now, she nods, head almost bows, obedient pretty thing, and says:

“Yes, Adler.”

So it goes.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It takes West Berlin for Adler to realize she’s left-handed.

She wears her watch on her right hand, smokes with that same said hand only when she’s writing or moving her pieces for an impromptu late-night game of chess against Lazar. And she always wears her gloves all the time- leather, black, lined with silk and pretty, small buttons on the cuffs, covering those striking red nails underneath. Whether it is for the theatrics or an old habit of hers, he can't really tell.

He doesn’t know why he begins to take notice of these mundane details about Bell, but rationalizes because he’s never been in the same room with this version of her, post-brainwash Bell, for more than 10 minutes. And for all intents and purposes, there’s still a lot of question marks surrounding her character; who is she? Where did she come from? What is her connection to Perseus?

Are they in a possession of a walking, breathing bomb about to destroy them all or the West’s only salvation?

He supposes he’ll find out soon enough.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adler hears Bell from his table, typing busy on the computer- barely blinking- all soaked up in that caffeine-infused energy at 1 am. She's always like that, he learns, when it comes to working, always with that steel determination, pulling out all the stops as long as it gets the job done- that Soviet discipline at it's finest.

Reminds him a little of himself when he's young.

Adler walks up to her.

“You done for the night?” A shake of her head is her only response. He sighs. “You should go home, Bell.”

“You go. I’ll lock up behind you,” Bell replies, low and monotone; that youthful stubborn.

If she was any other person, he would probably commend her for such fierce willpower, but she is Bell, the walking conundrum, his ace in the hole. Call him paranoid, but the idea of her having the safehouse for herself does nothing but raises every alarm in his head.

“No, we’re going home,” he says instead, tone brooking no argument and she frowns at the screen, her fingers stop moving then looks up at him with those goddamn empty eyes. "Come on, it's late anyway."

She doesn't say anything. Adler wishes he could read her mind- or crack that lovely skull on the back of her head, dissect her brain, learn its secrets and answers.

Adler has his gun with him. It wouldn’t take long. A quick, true shot to the heart to keep the brain intact. He’d have Hudson contact one of his people inside BND and he'd deliver the brain himself if he has to. They could do it. He heard they’ve been studying inmates' brains for decades now, anyway.

Before he has a chance to entertain the idea further, though, Bell nods once and rises up from her seat.

Bell walks past him. Her scent, like honeysuckle on ice, hits him like an uppercut in the face. Adler inhales, as if against his will.

He thinks he could get drunk on it.

“Hop in. I’ll drive you back to the hotel,” he says once they’re outside, regretting the decision the moment the words left his lips, but he knows he can’t just leave her on her own at this late hour.

The irony isn’t lost on him, though, considering he just thought about unspooling her brain a few minutes ago.

Bell complies without a protest. Getting inside the passenger seat, wordless still, fingers toying with the radio. An angry, krautrock music comes blaring all over his car. Adler winces, but at least the riot is loud enough to muffle the one's brewing in his head.

"How's your memory these days?"

Bell shrugs. "Nihil novi sub sole." There's nothing new under the sun.

Good, he muses. The least she knows about herself the better.

Though that doesn't mean he's out of the woods yet.

"Listen, from now on, I want you to keep me informed if there's any new progress about your memory or if you've developed any new symptoms. I want to know everything." He steals a sidelong glance at her, making sure she is listening (she always does, but Adler needs an excuse)

(An excuse for what?)

"Alright, Bell?"

"Of course," replies the woman in question.

"Good." Adler shifts his attention back to the road. "Good." Taking a long drag, he considers trying to appeal to her sentimental side. It's not something you'd improvise last minute- at least not with someone you brainwashed to believe you are her mentor/confidant for the past decade, but he's itching to know where he stands with her.

"You know, I'm just tryin' to look out for you, kid."

Her lips twitch but the rest of her visage remains impassive and faraway, more like a flick knife than a woman. The correlation is uncanny.

That's when she inches closer. The space between them bridged. He freezes. Hyper-aware of just how dangerous this is, but can’t bring himself to pull back, to look the other way. Not when her hand reaches out to pluck the cigarette from his mouth, eyes still glued to his, and curls her lips around the filter. One heavy pull, and then she rolls down the window and tosses it out on the side of the road.

"Thought I'd reciprocate the sentiment."

And with that, she leans back in her seat before Adler could even process what has just transpired.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“Welcome back to the land of the living, kid,” Adler greeted her, about a month ago.

Park had insisted that he had to be there for her when she woke up (naturally, Adler had balked at the idea, but at the English woman’s fact-of-the-matter explanation, also because it had somewhat dawned on him last minute the logic behind her machinations- “both of you are supposed to have known each other for years now. If she doesn't see you by her side, she’s going to wonder why”- thus, here he was)

“How are you feeling?”

Bell blinked owlishly and stared at the older man with those bottomless, cat-like eyes that had haunted him since January.

Her gaze eventually softened as recognition flickered across her face.

“Like someone just hit me in the chest with a bulldozer,” she said hoarsely. “Where are we?”

“St. Dismas’ hospital, Pittsburgh.” Adler got up and fetched her a glass of water from the table. “Although not a bulldozer, but bullets did. That, and you hit your head really hard on your way down. Thought we’d lost you there, Bell.”

Bell drank in silence. She’s still watching him, thinking. This was the first time he realized that he couldn’t exactly read her expression and somehow that threw him off.

“What happened?” she asked, one hand mid-air, like she was deciding which to touch first, hesitating and abandoned the idea.

“You don’t remember?” She shook her head. Adler pretended to look remotely distressed about it. “The doctors warned me about this. It must have been because of the fall- heck, I could even still hear that sickening crunch from here.” He dragged his chair closer towards her bed.

“We were in Amsterdam. Remember Fohler?” she shook her head again. “Well, we’d been tracking this son of a bitch for months, but we were chasing him in Amsterdam. He was running away and climbed up some scaffolding. You were about to go up after him,” he recited the fabricated story he, Park and Hudson had crafted. “He shot you and you fell and hit your head against the pavement.”

Bell looked away first, silent. Her hand gingerly touched the back of her head and winced, albeit only slightly.

Adler was almost impressed, if not, disarmed by how calm and composed her reaction was to all of this. But then again, after having had witnessed first-hand how the woman barely flinched under any kind of interrogation technique they threw at her- a personality built for wrestling tigers- he really shouldn’t be surprised.

“Bell, what is the last thing you remember?”

Bell frowned. “Not much. I remember ‘Nam, but-”

“Vietnam? Kid, that was thirteen years ago.” Adler watched the way her throat bopped, like she was swallowing her own blood and the color drained from her face, just like the first time he’d seen her, and proceeded to drop the bomb:

“Bell, the year is 1981.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Bell dear, would you mind taking a look at this?"

Park's voice sails from across the room. She says it like it's a compound word: Bell-dear. Like the two words belong together. Bell-dear. 2 syllables, 1 word, 9 characters and that just might be the weirdest thing he hears this year and he heard many things.

"Bell dear?" Adler asks much later, his gravel-and-smoke voice reduced to a whisper, when she delivers a document to his table.

Park shrugs as if that explains everything. "What? I like her."

He's tempted to say you really can't put a term of endearment and someone you brainwashed into submission in the same sentence, but what else is new?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

They wind up in a bar. It’s called Die Stube and the place’s brimmed with artists and all sorts of leather-clad, Bowie-esque dramatic, chromatic blue eyelids young people chattering over a dirty cloud of smoke.

The two of them colonize a lone booth in the back. It’s dark and the quietest. She orders a beer and he, a scotch and they drink in silence. There are moments where her head would twist to the side, as subtle as a needle and survey the phantasmagorical scene before them, like studying something from a petri dish.

While he’s watching her.

Only to tear his gaze away to the nearest object he can find.

It lands on his watch.

"It’s almost ten. Hudson's contact should be here soon," he announces, if anything to distract himself. She nods mutely in reply, as always, and runs a finger around the rim of her glass.

"The place ain't much of your scene?"

She shrugs, like it's self-evident. "I didn't know this was a scene, though."

"Well, that’s West Berlin for you. A worry-free playground for the hedonists, hipsters and proto-electro NDW enthusiasts with drugs on tap," Adler says, sipping his drink in practiced nonchalance. "Always makes my head spin."

"I guess I remember it differently," Bell replies, tinged with something akin to begrudging.

That warrants his full attention. "What do you remember?”

Bell shrugs again and lights a cigarette instead, menthol, one of those long, skinny cigarettes they only market for women; biding her time, making him wait. She lets the smoke flares from her nostrils so her eyes are veiled.

"It’s hard to explain, but I suppose it’s grittier?” she gesticulates, searching for the right word like she’s skim reading the entire Oxford dictionary in her head. “Bizarrely, infinitely grittier and dimmer? Like being in an underground tunnel and there's not much to see."

Interesting. Maybe she’s recalling one of her ops for Perseus or her mind is confusing her with the world on the other side of the wall.

“Maybe you’re remembering one of our clandestine ops here. It was a few years after Vietnam,” Adler supplies, passing over the tale like bait.

She falls for it, hook, line and sinker.

“Ah, I guess that also explains my fluency in German.”

“I taught you that.” It’s only logical, he decides, that she learned from him. She’s supposed to be his protégé after all.

An elegant brow quirk. "You did?"

"Yeah, though you were already fluent in Latin, Russian, Vietnamese and Portuguese when we first met anyway. You have quite a natural ear, kid.”

She gives him a look. He really can’t categorize it, but it makes it a whole lot harder to fight against her stare.

“What else did you teach me?”

If they were anyone else, the lines could have a potential to entice, to seduce, that winsome, catty-eyelashes coquette, but they aren't anyone else and Bell does not voice it like that. Yet the implication behind the question stirs something in the pit of Adler’s stomach anyway, that tight knot of confusion as it is buried with something else and he finds himself, once again, uncharacteristically speechless.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

That particular question of her stays, even hours later, unbidden. Interspersed with her scent and face.

His emotions are a minefield whenever she’s near now. It evokes that newfound rush of terror within him, like walking on a tightrope or being thrown into the pit to face hundreds of hungry lions, bare hands. It makes Adler questions his every decision, and he can’t have that in his line of work.

Adler lights his sixth cigarette, contemplating everything, nothing. Anything to distract him from her. It's 4 am and he’s exhausted, but his mind won’t stop whirring. This isn’t like him at all- like he's lost somewhere in a Dali-style labyrinth that is his head and he wonders if this is a byproduct of his fear or fascination or confusion for the young woman.

He fears it is all of them.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

(They're only 10 minutes away from East Berlin when he senses it, something akin to burning on his peripheral vision, pulling him like weight.

Bell is staring at him from across the seat.

He cocks his head slightly to the side.

Adler catches the quick, telling quirk of her lips, like she's about to smile but lights a cigarette instead.)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“Did you hear that?”

Krauss has just crossed the wall and their soles are slippery from the rain. She's panting. Her breath is white like a fog. Adler muses it must be from the running, until his iris trails down to where her hand is clutching his jacket sleeve, the leather creasing like a modulation signal.

“What is it?” Adler asks, hushed. There are no Stasis here, but even one can't be too careful.

“The TV.” She’s gaping at the broken TV next to them. Adler looks at the said object, frowning, then back to her. “Y-you didn’t hear it?”

"Heard what? Bell, the thing's dead."

Bell withdraws from him. Stepping back until her back meets the walls, her eyes seeing and unseeing, like a lens finding focus in the dark, then she closes them, as if trying to regulate her breathing. Adler has never seen her scared shitless of anything before. The sight confuses as it intrigues him.

"Bell, what's going on?" Adler steps closer, but he dares not to touch her.

She shakes her head, dismissive. In just a span of seconds, Bell dons that mask she likes to wear again; deadpan and frustratingly distant. A spike of annoyance drives through him. Just when he thinks he can get through her, there she goes again, retreating behind her palisades.

"Nothing." Bell turns away abruptly and she’s walking again."Let's just go. The others are waiting for us."

He doesn't pry about whatever she heard on the TV- Adler knows better than to beat a dead horse, thank you very much- not even after they save her from Volkov's clutches, after she bashes his head against the steel door and reeks his blood all the way home, it seems superficial at the time.

Until two days later.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The day starts, as it mostly does for the team, with a briefing.

Fifteen minutes in and something like a gasp pulls his attention to her.

That’s when he notices it; her hands are shaking, coffee spilling out of the mug over her hand. A shatter follows. Her mug smashes to smithereens at her feet. She’s swaying, near collapse, like a house of cards about to fall, a hand on her nose.

Adler catches her before she tumbles to the floor.

“Bell!” His arm around her waist tightens, trying to keep her steady. Lazar rushes to their side in a flash and helps him move her to a nearby chair.

"Jesus Christ," he curses, more to himself than to her as he watches blood, a bead of angry red, trickling down her nose. "Sims, get me a washcloth from the bathroom."

He kneels before her once Sims returns with a damp cloth. Nicotine-stained gloved fingers tentatively grasp her chin, holding her still.

“Kid, you alright?” Adler asks, worry bleeds into his voice without him realizing it. He firmly presses the cloth under her nose, his other thumb touches the pulse at her throat- it's almost sickly affectionate. “Bell, talk to me."

Bell looks at him, discombobulated, like he's a figment of her imagination, then blinks. Again and again until she heaves a deep breath.

"I-" she hisses. One hand flies up to her head. "Fuck. My head.”

Adler’s eyes immediately search for Park’s. A knowing look passes over her face and he knows without saying that she's thinking the same thing, like they're attached to the same brain-wire:

MK-Ultra.

There’s a fraction of pause, then Lazar asks, "Should we give her something?”

Before Park can voice her answer, Bell beats her to it. "I already took an anticonvulsant this morning. It should have helped.”

“Wait, this has happened before?” Adler asks.

Bell looks away, a hesitating look shadowing her face. He fears the worst.

“Bell…” he tries again, a slight warning to his tone.

She sighs loudly, as if mentally preparing herself before walking into a storm.

“Yes. Two days ago."

His mind instantly refers to East Berlin, the TV. Trying to connect the dots in his head. It seems far fetched, but now he wonders if she saw something that triggers this. Although he's never read about this on other subjects before, the correlation is just impossible to ignore.

Fuck. He heaves a breath, willing himself to calm down, to think. They can't afford complications at times like these. Not when there's so much at stake right now.

Adler snaps his attention back to Bell when she tries to scramble awkwardly to her feet, swatting his hand away. The hand on her neck immediately reaches for her waist again and pushes her back down onto the chair. His grip's tight enough to leave marks on her skin, but he doesn't care.

"Bell, for fuck's sake, stay still or so help me," he says, exasperated, not letting go of her waist.

"I feel better now." Stubborn little shit.

He is tempted to scream at her face and grab both of her shoulders and shake. “The hell you’re not. Stop fighting it. You’ll only make things worse.”

Her face sours, if only for a millisecond before it morphs into guilt. “I’m sorry.”

Adler watches her for a long moment. It’s only now that he realizes that he’s still holding her waist and the cloth on her face.

He backs away from her like he’s been burnt.

“You should have told me. I thought I made it clear the other night to keep me informed regarding this,” he scolds.

“I’m sorry,” she utters again and she looks so pliable like this, a blank canvas perfumed with obedience and lethal mind. It makes him almost feel sorry for what he has in plan for her once the shit show is over.

“Look, just go back to the hotel and take a day off.” Her mouth cracks open. He raises a silencing hand. “That’s an order, Bell.” But she merely scowls, looking more like jagged ice than a person. Hudson may have just met his match, after all.

“I told you I’m fine.”

“That’s not how it looks to me.”

“It is. It’s my body and I know what I’m feeling, and I’m telling you, I. Feel. Fine.”

His jaw clenches. “Are you disobeying a direct order, agent?”

Bell doesn’t answer, but her whole face remains challenging and hard. Undeterred.

Adler holds his breath. He feels the whole room collectively does the same. It’s like staring down the barrel of a gun and there’s an awful sort of danger to be found in that.

Just when he thinks an imaginary bullet would dig itself into his skin, however, Bell utters, “Of course not.”

And so the woman resumes to her normal, docile self at a drop of a hat. Even when Park steps in and whisks her out of her seat, drives her back to her hotel with Lazar on shotgun.

It doesn’t assuage his worry, though. He’s still restless throughout the day, like a roaring ocean inside a bell jar. She’s never done this before, openly rebels against him. Now, the situation is just bad. Not casually bad or almost-got-shot bad, this is the-entire-Europe-could-turn-into-a-nuclear-wasteland bad, an-armageddon-waiting-to-happen bad.

What if this is the beginning of her old self trying to scratch her way out of the surface? Adler’s blood goes cold at the thought. He is going to have to keep a close eye on this development.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

West Berlin - 1 am, local time.

“How is she?”

“Stable. I’ve administered another dose of Propranolol before I left the hotel. She should be fit as a fiddle in the morning.”

“Tell me, what do you think happened to her?”

“My theory? Traumatic brain injury. A cumulative product of torture, trauma-based mind control and chronic stress. I've read reports about cases like these before in MI6. None of them is still alive to recount the tale, unfortunately."

Adler grips the phone.

“How long do you think we have?”

“Theoretically, 2-3 weeks tops.”

“But?”

He hears Park sighs on the other line. “But then again, none of the subjects I’ve encountered before were like her. So, I suppose it’s still a little too premature to determine at this point."

Adler kneads his temple, feeling the start of that familiar Bell-induced headache forms in his head. Can things just be fucking simple for once?

“We don’t have that much time anyway, Park. And if Hudson gets a wind of this, he’ll want her gone by morning. I can’t let that happen. Not…” he pauses. “Not when we are this close.”

"What are we going to do about her, then?"

Adler sighs.

"Raise the dosages of her drugs,” he says. “And keep an extra eye on her. I think we may be heading into uncharted waters now.”

Tagging: @mvalentine cause you said to tag you with everything i write so 👁👄👁

#russell adler #russell adler x bell #cod bell #cod #call of duty #call of duty black ops #call of duty cold war #cod cold war #alex mason #frank woods #helen park #lawrence sims #jason hudson #lazar azoulay

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caitsyoi · 4 years ago

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I made a post about the Seraphites, so now I want to make one about the WLF. This post is mostly about the WLF's home base, aka the stadium and the area immediately around it. I've included some of my favorite pictures, and my thoughts and observations about where they live and their culture.

Under the cut again to keep things nice and clean.

I gotta say, this blew my mind when I first saw this as Abby. The WLF really have their shit together. Multiple power sources, a bunch of the resources FEDRA left behind, and multiple food sources. The field has cattle, sheep, and chickens plus some farming. On the steps they have even more areas for farming. They have a way to collect water, and even people to design and string up their logo everywhere.

It makes sense, supposedly thousands of people live here (you can't see it unless except via glitch, but there is also baseball stadium immediately next to this that they might also occupy).

We only see where Abby and other soldiers (perhaps squad leaders?) live. They have a pretty cushy life, two per luxury box (the rooms NFL teams overcharge for that run along the upper level of stadiums). Mel also mentions a special area for young families, I wouldn't be surprised if these areas were further divided. Perhaps there is also housing for larger families and single people who aren't soldiers or squad leaders. I very much wonder if those who join the military get better housing than those that work as farmers (or dishwashers, teachers, laundry washers, cooks, etc.). As mentioned earlier, Abby and Manny live in a luxury box, and there are 112 of those in the stadium this is based on. That's housing for 224 people, if they all live like the people in Abby's hallway. That would mean there has to be more housing in other parts of the stadium.

This stadium was once used by FEDRA, and you can see the concrete barriers they left behind along the edge of the field. They have to have more cattle than this, to feed all the people that supposedly live under the WLF. There is farmland around the stadium (more on that later), so maybe they mostly let them graze out there, then move some in when they plan on slaughtering them soon.

I love that they have wind turbines AND solar panels. You can see the influence that the Fireflies had on Issac and the WLF, they really focus on stability and restoring what was lost (at least when it comes to comfort). So they have electricity, sustainable food sources (and multiple kinds too), and a way to collect water (you can't see it in this shot, but they use a system similar to Jackson's, just on a much wider scale).

They teach a curriculum similar to what was taught to kids before the outbreak. We only see two classrooms, but from what I can tell they try to give the gives the type of education they could have received in the old days (as best they can, at least). Both the teachers you see are pretty young, which makes me wonder who taught them.

Most of the kinds you see in class are pretty young, like less than 10. These look a little order (they are outside the stadium in the market area, which I will talk about more a little later). I wonder how long WLF children are required to attend school (I think I saw a sign for 1st through 6th grade, so at least that?). I imagine they get a basic education with some broad looks into various topics, and maybe the ones most apt for study are selected to do specialized careers like teaching or meteorology. Other children are probably pushed into farming or the military portion of the WLF. Regardless of what they study, they probably also get a heavy dose of WLF propaganda. That aligns with how gung-ho many of them are to fight.

I wonder if military service is compulsory, like everyone has has to do at least so much time and then they can do other things if they want. Or maybe they make it so you don't have to fight if you don't want to, but those that do get better perks.

Most of the WLF you see appear to be in their 20's or 30's, or at least the fighters. That would mean they have spent most (if not all) of their lives under military rule, and they would have a special allegiance to the WLF since they manage things so much better than FEDRA did. Plus, you know, all that propaganda. I imagine they are told a lot about how the WLF is restoring society and how the WLF saved them from FEDRA/Scars/infected.

Sorta related, I thought of an WLF AU. Ellie grows up in Seattle under the WLF, perhaps with Riley and Dina and the other characters from canon. So many interesting things can be done with this, but that's for another post maybe.

This is one the cafeteria's the WLF use. I believe this is one of a few, although this is the only one you see. There is also a butcher and small market for clothing and items here too. They prepare food here, but I think the majority of cooking is done in an area set up for it in the stands.

They have posted meal times for groups A-F, and separate meal times for children and the late night patrol. So maybe this is the only cafeteria? Each end is blocked off, so maybe they use some of the corridor that circles the stadium for more living quarters.

This is also community space where they can play games, chat, or read. There also seems to be a mix of soldiers and other workers eating together, as well as young families (there is at least 1 or 2 women with young babies in here).

This little detail was super cute to me, but it also tells you a lot about WLF society. Everyone has a job to do, there is a role and place for everyone to contribute.

I'll talk more about this in another post (titled "It's Silly to Call a Post-apocalyptic Group 'Fascists', but Still the WLF Is Pretty Messed Up"), but an important thing to remember about the WLF is that everything comes down to Issac. He has the final say on everything, he makes all the major decisions, he picks squad leaders, he decides who needs to be punished, he's basically the Supreme Leader. Issac has been shown to be somewhat progressive with some things (you can follow whatever religion you want or none at all in the WLF, the WLF has no problem with LGBTQ people, you can get medical waivers for military duty, they provide support for pregnant women and parents, etc.), and in other ways he is very much the opposite (he punishes anyone who disagrees with him - this could be a relatively light punishment of a crappy assignment or it could be a beating, then there's the whole attempted genocide thing). Anyway, my point is that there are good things about the WLF, but also there is a serious darkside.

Anyway, when I saw this lady and her baby I immediately thought of Dina doing this with JJ while she gardens.

I absolutely loveeeee this little detail. A mural for the fallen. This really reminds me of some stuff you could see today, just replace the wolf with an eagle and make the uniforms camo.

There are 46ish names on this wall, so I wonder if it is continuously updated or if there are multiple murals, because they definitely have lost more people than that over the years. Also, there are about 150 people at the FOB (the amount of bodies at the FOB, yes I counted) that will need to be added. Maybe the war with the Seraphites just really exploded in the last few weeks (or maybe longer) leading up to Ellie's arrival.

I love that you can pause during the ride with Abby, Mel, and Manny to look around the outside of the stadium. Immediately outside there are train tracks and what appears to be a large market running along side of it. This is on the west side of the stadium, I believe. A major highway intersection is also nearby.

The market has all sorts of goods, food, gas, clothing, cleaning products, TVs and other electronics, records, and even more. I wonder if this is some sort of intake area for any goods they bring back to the base. But who runs these little shops? From some notes you can find we know their economy runs on trade, so how does this work?

Once you get past the market area, you see a pretty vast section of farmland. I loved this shot because it also shows one of their rain water storage areas. They mark this water as to be used only for irrigation, so they must use something else for people to drink and bathe with. Or maybe they just filter some water for people to use, and the rest goes to the plants.

In the background you can see the wall and a guard tower. There is a larger wall (like much larger, I'm talking maybe 5 stories) around the QZ, and a smaller one that runs around the stadium.

This is labeled "Checkpoint #4", so I'm not sure if that means there are other gates, but this is the only one we see in game.

The wall is pretty thick, and you can see these guard towers spaced out all alongside it (much like in Jackson). Once you leave the walls you are immediately surrounded by the wasteland that is post-apocalyptic Seattle.

#The amount of detail they put into this game is insane #I can see why it took so long to make #The WLF's base is probably my second favorite place outside of Jackson #But there isn't a lot of competition #WLF thesis stuff #I have spent way too much time thinking about this game #the last of us 2 #WLF

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yunatheintrovert · 4 years ago

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just like old times pt. III | Stitch/Bell

TWs: Blood, Accidental tasting of Blood (there's context I swear), Forced Attempted Vomiting, and Minor Character Death. There's some scenes in here that may be subject to different interpretation.

“As you know, Perseus continues to be at large. However, there’s been a significant shift in his operations towards chemical warfare production in Rebirth Island. We suspect the operative behind this is Vikhor Kuzmin-”

Having been previously grounded to paperwork duty in the safehouse by Hudson, you were one among some of the few analysts to help Adler prepare the briefing. There wasn’t much point in you devoting your full attention to something you effectively helped create.

You tried to ignore the eyes that proceeded to look at you at the mention of his name. You turned your attention to the nagging irritant that had been tearing at you for the past hour.

She was a walking airborne toxic event of bright hints of green soon drowned by overpowering artificial fruity notes with orange blossoms accenting the scent. However, beneath the bombastic scent, there was something there that just tore at you.

You tilted your head to the side, trying to avoid being so subtle about sniffing. Although, the scent she left in her trail as she walked past you at the table was anything but subtle. Suddenly, Nancy whipped around on her heels, scowling at you with an offended look.

Apparently you hadn’t been so lowkey about it.

“Are...are you smelling me like a dog?” It came out as almost a defensive sneer with her lip curled in disdain.

You once again leaned your head to the side, trying to guess what that damn scent tearing at you was, “You smell -”

“Oh, screw off,” Nancy scowled down at you before storming off in those heels of hers.

She was a hotshot analyst with a stellar education from Yale, according to the briefing. More specifically, she was a new analyst brought to cover your workload. After all, you were assigned to focus on identifying and decrypting any and all weaknesses in the cryptography of the Underground Collective.

As she stormed off, she left a thick and heavy trail of that bombastic scent. Giorgio , she had called it rather proudly and imperiously.

This scent , you thought, massaging your temples with your hands. The nausea had developed into a migraine with a steady throb in your head. It was only when the pulsing slowed that you focused on the scent finally.

You hid your grimace with a hand over your mouth and nose, not wanting Adler to notice your lack of attention on his briefing. And then you recognized the scent.

Peaches.

________________________________________________________________

You sighed, passing the monitors surveillance station yet again. You had been making rounds around the safehouse with the files casually clutched in hand. Your Walkman played Pat Benatar’s “ Hit Me With Your Best Shot ”. It took your mind away from the still nagging scent of that damn Giorgio perfume accented by the smell of peaches .

You didn’t know how many times Nancy applied that cursed fragrance. She must have done it recently because you could have sworn the smell of peaches got stronger .

You shook your head to yourself. You were going to focus on work, not that godawful scent.

You proceeded to go over the files in hand. Numbers and encryptions swirled in your mind. Perseus must have assumed his crypto communications had been compromised. They reverted to a new system soon after Solovetsky. However, one couldn’t re-engineer and rebuild an entire encrypted communications system in six months.

Not without mistakes.

Even though they used one-time pad ciphers, there were always those weak links.

Mistakes.

A little slip up here and there in sloppily reusing certain one-time pads is all it took for just a little part of the communications to be compromised.

However, even as you made progress in identifying the surprisingly many mistakes of the past and present encrypted communications of the Underground Collective, your thoughts soon wandered.

After all, that sickly sweet fragrance of peaches lingered in your thoughts. You had been grounded to fieldwork upon Hudson’s insistence.

You knew the looks they gave you after that operation in the Mall at the Pines. Up until then, there weren’t any living witnesses to encounters with Stitch, however rare his appearances were until that point.

Yet he spared you.

Perhaps, he wanted to torment you under Perseus’ orders to make your death slow and painful, fitting for that of a traitor to the collective. That’s something you took cold comfort in.

At least there was a logical reason for it , you thought with the upbeat tunes of a song in your mixtape playing through the headset at your ears.

Just as you walked past the caged in areas where the sensitive cryptography machines were held, you blinked as everything suddenly went dark.

You quickly removed your headphones to your neck, pressing pause on your Walkman at your waist. You could hear the click and rumbling of the backup generator kicking on. The emergency lights suddenly flooded the safehouse with crimson lighting bathing the room you were in.

Suddenly, you heard gunshots coming from the other side of the safehouse. Close to the entrance where the surveillance monitors were , you guessed. That made sense. What little security was at the safehouse was located there. It was the most efficient way to secure the site.

As you heard the sound of gunshots come to an abrupt end and heavy footsteps rushing around, you immediately dropped to cover under the desk you found yourself standing beside. It was only a matter of time before they swept the entire safehouse, securing or eliminating any sensitive intel and remaining personnel.

You instinctively reached at your hip in a familiar motion only to silently curse when you only found your Walkman there.

After the operation at the Pines, you noticed the rather uneasy looks some of the personnel sent you. They had been filled in on the bare details of your background, omitting MK Ultra of course. All they knew was that you used to work for Perseus and that you weren’t completely stable mentally as shown by the medications you had to take.

Ultimately, that had culminated in Hudson strongly suggesting that you didn’t carry around a handgun in the safehouse. Sims managed to make a compromise between the two of you by offering for you to have access to the weapons locker anytime in the safehouse. Although, you always had to go to him for that.

And Sims was not here.

Based on the number of footsteps you heard a distance aways, you guessed the strength of the attacking force to be around 4-6 at max. Outgunned and outmanned, you thought to yourself. If you had your weapons...it’d be a different story.

But there was one thing that you had: a knife.

And most importantly...

Closets.

You pressed yourself close to the walls with your ears alert for any approaching sounds. When you heard a single pair of footsteps coming closer to your corner, you withdrew the knife from its sheath at your waist.

As soon as you saw the back of the operative, you lunged forward quietly. You pressed one hand against the mouth of the operative, muffling the yell of surprise from him, before slamming it into his jugular. His body soon sagged against you in a matter of moments.

Immediately, you let his body go down to the floor silently while you looked for any weapons on him. You grabbed the Krig 6 assault rifle from his hands and the Makarov pistol from his holster.

Knowing what Belikov taught you over a few bottles of vodka, you dragged the operative’s body over to the nearby maintenance closet. You quietly opened the doors and propped his body against the interior of the closet. Then you shut the doors.

Checking the ammo count on the Krig 6 and the Makarov, you smiled to yourself as best as you could in the present situation. It sure as hell was better than taking on the attacking force with just a knife in addition to making sure other safehouse personnel weren’t caught in the crossfire.

Speaking of the personnel, how many were left alive in the safehouse? There were at least 4 analysts not working anywhere near the entrance of the safehouse where you heard the gunshots originate from.

You knew what your priorities were.

Secure or eliminate sensitive intel and technology in addition to ensuring the safety of the analysts from the attacking force if possible.

________________________________________________________________

The radio crackled to life at your hip, sending a note of alarm through you. The noise was impossibly loud in the quiet of the corridor you were in. As you crouched behind a wall with your rifle ready for an ambush, you cautiously reached for the radio at your waist, lifting it up while dialing back on the volume.

“I know you are here, маленький предатель.” A voice nearly rumbled over the radio. You grimaced at the familiar muffled deep voice. The sickly sweetness of peaches always accompanying his presence was something you could nearly taste in your mouth.

It didn’t help that Nancy’s fucking perfume was accented by peach fragrance.

Resisting the urge to leave a few choice remarks, you reduced the volume of the radio to little more than a slight whisper into the air. You scanned the empty hallway ahead of you for any sign of movement.

All clear-

“You cannot hide, Зая ,” Stitch said, his voice carrying down the corridor. There was something about his voice almost savoring the dread it got from you. You risked leaning out once more to peer down the seemingly empty hallway. Where could he be hiding?

“I will find you.”

You further pressed yourself against the wall with your breathing coming out in halting little breaths in anticipation. You could hear footsteps from a distance coming closer and closer-

And then those heavy footsteps stopped .

“Oh, Bell.” Stitch sighed out in his thickly accented voice. You nearly swore that you could hear your very own heartbeat in that moment. There was something, daresay, intimate about the way he said your name for the first time. It was as if he savored saying those words.

“We’ve got a job to do.”

And then your vision flashed white.

How odd, you dazedly thought as you found yourself staring up at the large familiar, hooded figure. Instinctively, you reached for your Makarov at your waist and aimed it at him. Strangely, he didn’t react aside from the rather amused and muffled breath of air he let out from behind his mask.

You twitched at the scent of those damn peaches yet again. Damn it. Nancy and Stitch would make quite the pair considering how they both favored annoying the hell out of people with obnoxious scents like peaches .

“Hey, Peaches.” you said easily with your Makarov aimed at him. Yet the Perseus operative remained nonplussed.

He tilted his head to the side slightly before chuckling lowly, “Drop the gun, Bell.”

You nearly laughed with him at the ridiculous order. Yet when you tried to raise the gun higher to his head, you found yourself paralyzed with something clawing at your mind.

Don’t.

It was all too easy to let the hand aiming the Makarov fall to your side with the gun’s safety on as it dropped to the floor. Your fingers trembled with effort, trying to pick up that gun again because why why why couldn’t you raise the gun enough to shoot him-

“Isn’t it funny?” he said while amusement danced in his lone cerulean eye as he shook his head, “Adler put that crimson bunker door in your mind.” he said with a little mutter about амерѝка̄нскӣ and their foolish games.

Stitch took several sauntering steps towards you. Yet you couldn’t even bring yourself to step away with just one quick little order from him telling you to be still.

“But he forgot to throw away the fucking key.” he said, his face inches from you. You tensed at the smell of peaches growing stronger to the point where you could taste its sickeningly sweetness in your mouth. You bit your lip, instantly tasting the familiar metallic taste in your mouth.

His lone cerulean eye looked down at your lips in some kind of interest...fascination?

As the taste of peaches and blood mingled in your mouth, you felt something twitch inside of you.

You took a step back.

In that moment, you could have sworn Stitch smiled beneath his mask.

Suddenly, you lunged forward, driving your knee into his solar plexus, ballistic armor be damned. His shoulders moved, giving you just enough time to brace yourself when he slammed his fist into your abdomen. All that was on your mind was one thing:

He exploited something in you. And you needed to end this before he could do it again.

You made a desperate move for his rifle, gripping the stock as he turned it towards you. All you could hear was the crack ringing through the air.

You instinctively looked down, expecting to see a bloom of crimson on your clothing. Yet you saw nothing.

Against your better instincts, your attention was compelled to your leftside where there was...crackling of static coming from a radio. Strangely, you could hear distorted voices coming from it again and again.

That static, you winced.

You whipped around to face the current problem. Stitch tilted his head as he looked down at you, interest dancing in his eyes.

“ӱ̷̛́̋̇͛͗̃̈̈́̀̌̊̓̇̿̇̈̆̽̅̓͂̿̏͑̇̍̿͗̎̑̄͒̇̋̔͆̏̆̔͂͒̆͘̕̚͠��̨̡̢̨̧̧̨̡̛͖̘̲̬̼͉̺͇̟͍̗̟͉̪̹̬̘͚̖̞̪͔̫̳͑ͅͅͅв̴̡̨̡̨̢̨̛̙̱̩̞̙͓̣͔͈̞͇͚͔̤̞̼̯̻̭̘̩̗̻̜̗̝͓̞̠͚̗͖̹͉͖͍̮̮͉̗̤̞͈̰̳̞̤̠̦̟͙̜̤̩̮̠̤̠͚̖̪̜̱̓̾͑̄̈̅̽̓̉̃̇̔̅̋̃̓̓͋̌̉̀̃͌͑̇̚͠͝͝ͅͅл̷̢̢̢̧̨̡̧̡̨̢̡̢̡̡̡̢̨̢̛̛̛̛̛̻̲͓̤̞̟͉͕̙̙̝̳͍̝̪̤͓͕̠̤̹̺̺͔͍̯̯̹̤̜̱̺̩̯̣̯͎̺̗̰̪̘̼͈̟̯̣̜̬͓̞̠͉͔̼͔̥͉͓̦̫̼̟̜̖̬͙͇̠̠̪͍̣̱̰̦͖̹̮̠̝̪͔̬̺͓̩̜̪̼͇̞̳͙͍̝͚̰̳̥͍̯͙̼̙͚̬̭̤̺̮̝͍̯͚̜̼̰͕̜̱̟̖̠̻̹̙̭̲̺͎̮̙̹͙̳͚̹̭͍̘̯̝͖̝̼̬̜͉̟̫̮̹̳̥̝̤̹̫̖̻̗̲̣̘͉̲͉̞̘̥͔̯͔̼͙̼̣̪̰̣̼̰̼̱̼͆͐̋́̆̾̿̓̉̑͌̅̏͊̏̀̍̿̊͑̓̇͗͊͗̅̉̅́̎̂̄̎̌̏̊́̐̐̎͐̉̔̄͒̿͑̉̈́̏̂̒̈̐̔̑̄̌͊̂͐̐́́̔͊̋͑̅͗̊̂̔̃̄̓̇͗̽̔̈́̽͊͂̄͗͛̌̇̃̈́͋͋̋͋̐̆̅̎̈́̊̇́͒̑̏̈́̈́͑͛͌̎̆̓̕̕͘̕͜͜͜͝͝͝͝͠͝͝͠͠͠͝͠͠ͅͅͅͅе̷̨̢̧̨̢̡̡̧̢̧̨̡̨̧̢̧̢̧̡̡̛̛̛̛͈͍̬̝̭̻̺̬̭̞̖̠͓͉̟̻̲͓̭͈̗͈̖͙͙̱̹̜̫͈̖̟̟̪̰̗̗̻͚̹̩͇̺̞̫̥͇̮̱̤̪̩̘͕̝͙̠̥̹͓͙̼͚͔͙̫̖̜̠͕͈͔͚͎͙͇̙̥̹̥̼̲̖̟̺̗̜̭̠͈̩͈̤̳͖̬̳̜̺͈̯̣͔̮̲̻̯̹͍̞͇͎͈̦̯̘̱̩̤̟̪̘̺̘̳̜̱̮̪̬̪̭̯̳̖͍͉̗̣̣̠̥̞̯̝̝̭̰̞̠̲̞͙͙̠̹͍̮͖̪̖̗͔̬̘̮̪̱̤͉̖͔͇̞͈̭̗͖̹͕͚̩̼͙̤̗̥̭̞͔̪̙̹̥̼̜̳͙̞̤̬̖̺̩̜̤̲͉̊̇̆͋̔̑͑̄̈͊̋̔͐̾̍̔̇͗̀͗̑̽̄̔͂͐̓̎́̽̐̋͊͗̓̈́͒̄͂̈́̏̃̿͗͛͂͂͛͗͒͋͊̌̾̅̆̃͋̇̈́̆̊̾̐͋̅̾̅̄̉̋̊̉́̿̾̊̏̈́͒͛̊͂̐͆̅̈̂̑̈́̄̔̾̉͒̿͛̓̏͑͌̽̽̿̒̿̃̐̒̂́̒̑͆̅̎̆͌̌̌̓͆̈́̂̌͛͒̀̋̾̄̿̽̐̃͐̉͊̐͑̈́̑̒̓̉̊̈́͂̐̑́̆̌̃͊̓̊̀̓̇̅̓͊̈̑́̃͐͋̌͂̈́́͊̐̋̈́̏̇͂̉͌̅͛̓̃͊̋̾̒̓̃͗͗̌͗͌̂͐̈̑̍͒̔̽͆̒̎̂̌̿͗̄̓͋̈́̇̃̇̿͌̎̕͘̕̚̕̕̚̚̕̕̕̚̕͘̕̚͘̕̕̕̚̕̚̕͜͜͜͜͝͠͝͝͝͝͝͝͝͠͝͝͝͝͝͠͝͝͝͠͠͝͠͠ͅͅͅͅͅͅк̷̧̡̨̨̧̛̗̲͓̞̠͎̤̙͓̤̳̩̖̼̟͉̘̣͎̼̦̼̭̥̥̘͉͙̠̣̫̻̭͚͍̦̹̭͕̹͓͇̹͍̖͍͖̙̟͂̄͑̓̽̂͂͑̉͑̅͒͊̆̊̋̌̒̈́͌̓͊̃̄͆̃̽͂̂̓̍̊͌̒̒̒̂̕̚̕̕͘͜͝͝͠ͅͅа̶̢̡̡̨̨̤̠̖͕̗̖͚̩͈͉̟͇̥̹͚̩̰̳͔̝̗͓̭͙̪̺̰͔͚͖͎̼̩̥̖̠̼̬̩͈͙̠̞̮̻̗̜͇̫̯̠̫̙̗͚͈̭̟͎̘͍̩̗̖͕͍̮͙͓͕͈͖͙̱̳̇̅͋̒̆͊̚̕͜͜ͅт̸̧̢̡̨̡̧̨̧̢̧̡̢̢̨̧̨̨̢̡̧̧̧̛̛͎̤̝̤̯̘̰͙̳͎̣̪̹̻͙̤̦͎̬̼͎̮̬̺̼̣̟̠̖͙̠̰͙͕̭͉̖̲̜̙̫͇̜̤̥͓͎͙͈̞̱̪̙̱̺̝̰̳̰͙̩̰̳͚͎̖͍̱̰̺̟͓͇̮̰̦̞̮̼͖̺̖̘̜̘̼̱̤͎̘̳̙̩̦͍͚̤͇̭̗̜̪͕͙̦̗̪̮̤̣͈͓̺͔̩̮̞̹̬̙̪̱̝̫̮͈̫̤̫͉̘͔̤͈̻̝̙̖̺̼̩̠̗̞͕̘̭͚̦̬͓̮̲͖̺̤̝̖͇̜̱͓̭̙͉̗̬̹̞͎͎͙̱̳̦̩̭͎̩̜͔̼͕͕͕̦̜̦̮̪͔̝̩͍̥̯̜̲͍͕̹͕̲̠̫͈͕̞̖̹̭͎̰̘̮͔̞̲̳̭͓͉̗̯̩͖͈̖͚͇̭͙̫̤͓̘̖͇̤̩͈̺͇͔̙͕͈͍̂̒̊̆͐̓̒̀̀͂͂͂̄̒͋̓̍̅̈͗̀̽̑͆̉̂̀͂́̓͋͒́̍́̅̀̈́̒͑̕̚͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͜ͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅе̸̡̢̢̧̨̧̢̡̡̧̢̧̢̡̨̡̡̨̨̢̡̛̛̛̛͎̝̝̲͕͖̮̗̠͈͓̞̮͍̻̝͉̗̤̺͕̮̭͇̬̦̰̩͎̹̥̼̮̺̞͙̮̟̠̦͇͓͈̹̰͎̹̙̟̮̬͚͖̘̙̞͉̯͖̳̼̺̭͕̯͍̟̥̫̱̠͍͎̬͍͕̦͈̗̭̙̺͎͉͉͇̤̬̟̪͙̳͕͍͔͓̙̜͍̮̟̞̙̦̲͈̼̘̬͈͈̜͙̺̤̭̯̮̺͇̱͚͓̪̲̦̳̥͕̤̜̘̰̺̯̺̣͎̗̯̯͎͍͙̮̘̭͍͇̝̳͍̜͍͚͔̥̜̯̻̺͓͕̰̞̝̱͎̘͔̗̣͈͚͔̝̫͉̘̤̳̹̖̣̲̺̮̼̦͙̳̦̝̭̭͕͖̦̦̦͓͚̦̱͔͉̯̤̩̝̟̪̥̭̭̜͍̺̔͂̆̌̀͐̈́͒̌̍̉͂̾̔͆̀͒̿͋̋̆̑̌̑̊̏͌͊̄̽́͌͆͛̄͒͋͛̈́̒̓̌̇̔̇́̀̓̉̈́͗͆̈́̎̂͐̔̔͊̏̀̉͌̂̑̊̈̐̈̽̎̽̾͐͂͊̀͛̒͌̽̏̉̽̿̒̿͑̍͗̾̽͆̄̾̈́̅̄͂̽̿̀̀̈́̄̄̈́̓͒́̐́͑̐̈́̓̏̇̏̌̄̽̂͗͂̌̅̄̽̂̀̐̒̈́͋̿̃̒̔͐̾͑́͐͗̈̽̅̍̊̓͆͋̍͐̇̒̄̅̔̒͒̈͊̾̒̉̑̒̌̀̊̒͑̊̅̓̀͊͒̌̏͂̑͛͘͘͘͘̕̚͘̚̕̚̕̚̕͘̚̚̕͜͜͜͜͜͜͝͠͝͝͠͝͝͝͝͠͝͝͝͠͝͝͝͝͝ͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅл̴̡̨̡̢̡̨̧̢̧̧̡̨̧̲͓͉͍̱͕͖͕͎͉̞̘̖̼̠̭͇̳͈̭̠͎͕͈̯͍͖̘͓̗̰̩̥̯̫̗͉̘̮͔̳͔̫̪̻̣̼͉̗̳̬̯̱̹̙͍͇̬̜̥͇̬̻̗̭̼͖̤̟̺̖̪̭̗̬̟̠͚̠̲͍̟̥̖̟̥͖̼̻̞͚̖̙̲̗̩̼̣͖͈͈̭̫̺̪͇̤̳͓̠̙̠̹̖͈̰̭̖̜͈̤̙̳̲̤̗̩̤͚̮̰̰̖͇͕̝̬̘̠͎̖̻̬̟̞̺̠̥̫͎̜̠̤̘̗̝̳͉͎̩͖̹̭̱͈͇͍̤̞̮͔̲̮̪̙̫͕̖͈̜̣̜̪̜͔̮̣͔̲̪̪̤̱̰͎̣̻͈̖̜̦̣̣̪̈́̂̈͌͊̈́̎́͐̓̉͊͊͐͆̾͒̓̏͘̚̚͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͝ͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅͅь̷̡̧̨̧̢̧̨̢̧̡̨̧̨̨̡̨̧̧̛̛̛̛̛̛̘̻̲̙̦̹̯͈̯̤̫͍͈̗͔̭̙̘͉̳͙̰̖͔͔̗̤̰̭̹͚̟̟͉͙̹̬̰͉͇͔͔̯̝͓͓͚̩̘̜͕͔͈̤̘̹̣̳̫̘̝͉̖̯̪͇̹̼̗̻̮͙̠̬͍̠̮̯̘͖͕̝̭̲͉̰̻̩̤̲̺̗̘̲͚̤͎̙͇̲̠̭̦͓̦̤̥̫͖͕̤̗̹̹͕͇͇̗̳̯̠̥̱̱͔͖̗̹̠̫͕̠̗̱̤̦̙̯͙̗̰̞̮̮͔͍̭͚̖͎̪͎͈̥̙͕͍̣̤̭͈͔̼̫͍͚͈̝̇̇͆̉̇̾̑̓̃̓̆̉͋̈́̌̾̆̅͆̿̉̓̾̆̉̏̉̃̿́̍͒̓̋͑͐͒̓̌̂̀͒̈́̆̊͗̈̇͌̾͌͆͌̎̉̅̉͊͆͒͑̑͐̆͆̏̊̌̎̂̏̈́̑̅̈́̎̀͛̏͋̂̐̾̌̇̒̏́̎͗͗͂̾͌̅̅͌͘̚͘̚͘̕͘͜͜͜͜͜͜͜͠͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅͅн̶̧̡̧̡̢̧̧̧̡̢̧̨̧̧̧̨̛̛̛̬̣͇̥͓̪̖̺̥̦͚͚̼̲̬̙͈̲̰̬̬̩͇͎̪͔̤̯̼̥͔̫͚̗̩̫̗̩̭̯̯͔̝̯̹͚͖̪̼̘͍̞͇͖͓̲̺̤̞̠̮̰̩͉̟͖͈̫̦̟̘͕͚̲̟͍͉̹̳̗͈͇̱̮̜̞͎̼̥̗͚̮͇͓̮͍̞̠̻̮̳̳̣̲͔͉̥͎̮͚̥̪̮̺̫̙̭̭̞͚̱͇̝̤̥̭̺̙̯̩̦̠͔͙̘̯͖̯̗͕͇̭͈͙̫̦͆̑̅͐́̓͛͆̇͗̐̋̑̈͌̽̌̇͋̿̍̌̑͆̀͊̅̑̒̏̈͌̇̆̆̃̽͗̈̐͐́̊͂̊̉͌̑͒͌̚̚̚͘̕͘͘͘̕͘͜͜͜͜͜͜͝͠͠͝ͅͅͅͅы̷̡̧̡̨̢̧̢̢̢̡̡̢̨̛̛̛̛̛̤̘̥̦̞̳̖̲͇̮̝̰̰̣̖̹̜͔͎̱̱̠̺̼͙͖̫̳̼̺̞̻̻͉̮͔͉͙͙͔̳̰̼̲͕̭͓͍̪̬͎̙̝̤̝̜̻̩̼͖̜̝̤͈̝͔͈͚͖̘̜̭͈̦͕̬̠̖͚̳͚̙̥̲̣͚̩͈̬̯̙̘̠͎̻͎͈̜̜̣̬͎̱͔̪̙̜̯̮̐͆̿̓̓̈́̒̃̎̄͊̈́͋̏̍̈́͗̒̒͛̓̔͐́̅̈́̈͋̓̇̓͒͊̑̀̏̊̿̊͐̾͊̐̆̅̀̈͒͆̒̈̎̉̌̀̏̎͒̓͂̎̽͆̍̂͂̈́͊̓̾̏͑̇̕̕͘̚̚͜͜͜͝͝ͅͅͅͅй̸̨̢̨̨̡̛̛̛̛̛̛̠̲̟̘͚̼̬̫̬̼̮̼̮̤͈̫͙͈͉̝̬̻͈̤͙͍͍̈́̇̎͌͋̀̒̾̌̓̍̈́̒̎̓́̃̑͂̈́͑͋͛͊̎̏͗̅̆͒̍͂̈́͗̒̏̑͆̐̃̇͋͐̃̿͑̅͛̓̎͂͒̋̃́̐̾͌͑̈́̂͂̂̍̓̂̓̓̈́̎̏̊͐͌̆̑̎̂̊͌͐̋̀̊̆͆̂̓̐̔̄̐̓̂̐̿̏͒̔̂͛̄͗̑͋͂̔̔͗͐̇́̋̑͐̅̈́͗̓͒̓̍̿̈́̒̉̀͒̃͒̊̈̌̍̔̌͊̄̓́̔̅̃̏̇͆͒͆̐̉͑̐̐̑̐̉͋͐̄̾͊̽̐͋̊̂̂͛̆͆̿̑͂͗̍͊̀͗̍̒̇͂̍͛̕͘̚̚̕͘͜͠͝͠͝͠͝͝͠͝͠͠,”Stitch rumbled out, something in his voice almost excited. Before you could even react with the static crackling in your ears, you saw the blur of the butt of his gun coming at you.

And suddenly your vision went dark.

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You blinked. The crackling of static distorted your hearing as it overlapped with the words and sounds around you.

You saw Stitch walking alongside the lined up analysts with his soldiers standing behind them, their rifles aimed and ready.

“The first one to give us the microfilm will be…” Stitch trailed off, pondering over what word in English to use, “-pardoned,” he finished with a rather disappointed tone.

Any volunteers?” he asked dryly, looking over the hunched over forms of the analysts. Some trembled while others were simply frozen in place. You noticed how his attention leaned towards a particularly trembling figure.

“I know where it is,” Nancy piped up.

You blinked dazedly. It was almost like watching a drama, you laughed quietly to yourself. The twist of betrayal.

“̵̨̢̨̧̡̛̛̱̻̠̩͕͍̯̲̺͇͈̮̤͖̰̜̭̘̙̣̱̗̻̩͓̝̻̞̟̱̹̜̞̘͈̼̞̃̎̂̉͗͛̔̾̈́̃̈́̓́̿̾̽̅̔́̂̎͒̀̈̈͗̌͛̓͛̈́̕͘͝͝ͅН̸̛̰̫͖̭̼̬͈̯̲̪͇̅̂̊̈́͂̈̏̐̋̀̔̈́̐̾̌̏̄̏͆̑̂̍̐̽̍͊̍̃̎͝͝е̵̲̘͖̲͇̲̼̬̹̪̞̬̗̲̜̦̪̒͊̔̽̐̊͒̄͊̒̈́̎̌͜͝ ̸̜̩̤͚͉̠̦̇͗͛̇̋̐̈̉̾̽͒̅̆̍̂͌́̑͐͋̈̇̐̀͑̅̊̿͊̆̋͘͘͝͝п̸̢̨̡̣̤͖͉̦̟̭̤̻͕̙͉̖̮̤̩̮̭͉̮̭̺̦͈̠̲̮̙̠̻͙̙͕̣̳̣̙̪̙̬̠͒̌̊͐̃̾̅͗̋̋͒̐̒͝ͅͅͅо̶̢̢̧͍̰͔̺̝͈̤̰̥̦̭̬̠̗̖̩̯̱̖͈̳̙̗̞̗̠̻͔͉̰͔͉̠͓̼̬̝͚͍̟͌̇̈́̄̽̊̈́͂͒͒͜͠ͅз̷̢̡̡̢̡̰̯̪͎̗̭̘͍̺͚̳͓͎͍͚̥̰̬̬͔̰̰̹̞̪̰̲̺͓̗̪͖̮̮͎̞̙̪̝̙̰͎̞̪̭̠̭͎̻͑̉̓̆͌͌̊͌̔̾̅͆̽̃͌̋̏̈́̇̒̆̚͠ͅв̶̧̢̨̢̢̨̛̙̟̫̜͚̦̖̘̼͙̰̺̗̳̪̳̲̟̪̠̘̻̖͎̬̫͎͈͇̘̗͉̙̉͆͐̌̈͋̾͊͌̔͂̆̈́̎͑̐̈́͒̐̈͑̐̌̾̑͊̂͛̔̓̋̌̏̀̃̀̇͐͐̈́̾̀͘͘͘͜͝͝͠ͅо̵̡̜̞̖̱̰̙̫̝͎̰̻͈͓̓̏͑̅́̓̌̍̄̃̆̎̄͋̋͛͘͝͠л̷̡̢̡̡̧̨̡̡̖̥̮̭̺̞̪̩̤̯̰̖͉̙͉̖̘̰̝̟̗͖͉̝̞̝̤̪̭͈̮͎̻̩̙̼̏̎̀́̌̏̈̆͗̽͂̆̈́̉̿͐̒̊̀͆̾̇͐̏͊̔̕͜͝͝ͅͅя̴̡̨̨̨̢̢͇̥̳̥̱̥͎̟̤̳̣͓͈̣̬̖̯̟͎̜̤͉͔͍̭̩̱̟͉͚͍̩̰͈͈͙͔̳̝̝̞̜͓̠̟͍̮̘̤̠̑̓̿͛̃̓̿̾͛͜ͅͅй̴̢̧̛̛͇̪̬̦͓̙͚̭̭̗͙̳̩͙̬̜͈͉̘̖͔̫̳̤̭̮͔̰̠̜͈̥̭͉͚̣̥͉̼͓̳͔͕̙̲̟͖̣͖̲̺̳̝̩̬̬͍̰͍̈̄̆̓̽͑̏̆͐̏̑̊̐̂̃̅͛̽̾̋̌̐͆̓̀̃͂̓͗͂̄͘̚͜͝͝͝ͅт̸̧̧̨̡̛̦͈̮͙̹̖̦̯̯̠̜̖̰̘͙͉̞̱̔̋̋͆̾͊̒͂̓̃̊̓̿̾͑̀͗͋̋͐̍̾̍͗̅̑̀̿̽̑̈̓͂͒̿̃̔̈̇̆̈́̐̈́̃͒̚͘͘͘͜͠͠͝͝͝е̵̢̛͎͖͉͎̜̟͋̏̓͆͊̾̉̀̇͊̏̌͊̈͒͑̔̐͌̄̌̈́̊̏͑͛̈́̈́̈̄̈̎̄͐̏̄́͒̋̇̈́̏͘̕͝͝͝͝ ̵̡̧̧̨̢̩͍͚̫͍͙͈̱̭͕͓͇̱̠̯̼̳̂̑̆͐̀͊̽̒̓͊͂̾̈̽̍͒̈́̈́̊̄͆͑̾̒͗̋̉̓̋͂͌̔͛̊̅̏̈́͒̀̽̃͂̊̕͘͘͘͘̕͜͜͝͝ͅе̴͉̥̻͙͈̥̙̭̞̗̖̪̜̫͎̝̱̺̌̉̄̀̄̈́̂͋̔̇̓̾͋̇̈́̎̍͂͑̃͘̕̕͝ͅͅй̷̡̹̼͙͖̜̅͊̍͗̚ ̷̨̢̨̧̨̧̧̲̜͖̙̪̟̝̰͈͇̙͔͇̣͙̘̖̻̝̪͓̪͚̼̱͙̦̰̯̥͕̫̞̼̖̝͉̯̯̱̳͖͓̜̭̖̻͕̙͑̿̿ͅй̶̨̧̨̡̛̛̳̜̥͎̘̳͎̭͎̘̦̬͔̼̖̭͙͇͖͖̭͓͔͔͚͇̞̟̤͍̫̪̞͇̟̗͚̦͖͕̲̙̳͔̇̂͑̽̎̈̋̊̈̇̒̂̇̌̊̆̄̉̍͆͗̐̈̔̚͜͝ͅͅд̴̡̨̹̣̭̱̈̔͗̌̎̃͊͂̀͊̃̾̂̌̽͜͠͝ͅͅт̵̡̛̯̙̲̮̟̬̺̤͕̤̩̳̖̣̩̠̣͌̀͑͆͊̈̊̊͐̃̿̓͌͊̇̿̇̌̎͋̋̂̒͒͋̐͐̆̕̕͠͝͝͝и̸̢̡̢̡̨̗͎̣̦͖̭̥̯͈̠̫͙̯͖̪̝͚̥͈͕̘̫̤̻͇͙̜̘̞͎̭̲̞̱͈̙̝͖͓̠̣̺̗͔̭̖͚̹̱͓͔͛̈́̉̒͌̓̄̒́̓̈́̓̂̓͗̃̍̏̚͜͜͜ ̴̨̨̡̢̧̛̛͙̤̻͉̤͈̳̮͎͚͙̯̰͉̖̹͔̙̱̖͈͉̳̖̊̑̓̔͒̐̔̋́͆̂̓̇̉̎̽̈͆́̌̽̓͊̊̇̈́͗̎̓̚̕̕͘͘͠͠н̴̨̢̧̢̨̝̟̗̳̙̭̖͇̩͓̮͓̳̘̙̝̺͎͉̰͕̘͔̙̰̲̥̪̦̗̬̥̩̩͂̉͌̋̋͋͗̈́͜а̴̨̧̧̨̨̨̧̛̩̜̜̝̘̜̰̮͎͍̼̬̪͙̜̯̺͎̟̪͉͉̻͖̘̖͉͍͇̜͍̺̭̙͇͑͐͛͌̎͐̌̽̈́̿̎̉̍̓̈́͐̅̅̓͆͗̑͌̏͊̅͛̎̈̏̑̒͑̆͋̈́̎́̔͂̀̔͛̅̀͑͊̄͐͋̌̈́͑͘̕̕͝͝͝͝ ̸̨̧̢̨̨̡͚̯͚͕̳̣̝͈̥̭͔̮̜̗͚̠̰̣͇̞̱̦̣̫͚̞̘̘̗̠̞̤̤͍̼̮̭̮͇̘̥̜͕̔͌͆̅͆̉̀̈́̄͒́̍͊̎͆̍̈́̔͑͆̋͆̓̋͒̈̓̍̎͐͐̌́̑̈́̄͒͛͐̄̃̈́̿̏͆͛̽̕͘̕̕͝͝͝к̶̧̡̡̨̢̛̛̛̩̬̠͖͍̫̱͖̲̩̪͕̲͎̖͖͕̝͗̑͐͒͂̓̏̔͆̐̐̽̔͆̽̍̅̔̈́̊̽͒̆͌̏̈́̒̋̂̃̿͒͛̈́͒̓̃̈́̂̐̆͆̌̾̋͛͛̈͒͘͘̚͜͝͝͝͠о̸̡̡̛̩̯͇͙̜̘̠̘͓̗͚̖̖͇͇͉̠͚̣͍͇̞̯̝͎̮̦͔͎̩͓̜̘̖̼̠̳͉̣̭͉̱̘̙̠̘͉̫̫͎͉̀̎̋̄̑̅͗̇̍̏͆͊̽̂̍̎̾̊̎́̾̀̎͌͂̓̓͗̇̈́̎̀̈̇̑͠м̶̛̠͈͙̒͛̈́̒̓̍̾́̉̏̉̌̂̽̈̒̇̈́͒̓̾̇͗̑͊̂̎͆́̕̚̚͠͠п̴̨̢̢̢̨̛̛̬͕̬̣̳̖̬̫͎̬̬̘̰͖̠̠̰̟̫̹͙̺͔̘̤͙̱͈̪͍͚͍̥̙̙̩͚̱̹̯͕̻̃̂͑̅̅̐̑̈́̇̍́̔̉̋̉̍̈́͘͘͘ͅр̶̧̢̯͈̣̱͔̰͍̝̖͖͇̤̮̗̲̣̰̺̟̘͙͉͓͎̖̼͕͇̞̦̤̤̞̹̜͔͔̘̗͍̣͔͇̊̃̽͂͗͐̅̔̍̇̍̈́͒̅͊͘͜͝о̵̠̺̘̹͓̖̣̋̊̂̕͠м̴̡̨͖͕̙̝̮̩̠̻̺̣̫̲̘͎̪̝̻̼̳̼͕̖̊͐͗̉̊̽́̊̓͐̒̾̆̑͋͑͌̿̈́̂̓͛͒̓̑̇̂͊͘͘̕͜͝͝͠ͅͅи̸̡̢̧̡̢̨̡̛̭̦̺͓̞̩̪͕̠̞̗̗̯͙͚͓̦͍̖̟̗̜̤̣̝͓̪̣͔͍̰͉̙̱͖͙̩͚̲̥͔̼̤̫̪͕̣̪͍̘̰͎̪͐̄̄̄̑̂̈́̾̉̈́̒͌̿̎͋̃̇̿͑̇̈́̊̈̏́̿͌͑̀̚̚̕͜ͅс̷̨̹̹̳̣͎͎̳̦͎̥̪͕̭̞͇̜͉̟͍̣̰̻̺̪̠͈̟̞̠̮̫̬̞̬͈̰̳̱̹͙̞̖̜͍̜̲̈͗̂̇̀͜͝ͅс̴̧̨̬̜͖͔͓̹̠̩̟͈̘̟̘̳̙̙͔̻̫͎̤̲̠̫̞̳̝̻̯̮̹͌.̴̨̛͖͈͎͈͑͆̃̔̉̊͛̍̾̂͌̅̈́̌̾͗́̉͗̂͒̑̌̄͌́͒̅͋̈́̏̍̀̐̉͒͑͋̚̕͘͝͠͝”̵̛̛͓̬̲̟̋̈́̏̐̇̀̍̎̃̏̈̌̿͑̑͆͂͌͌̓̌̇̊̓̾͋̋̌̃͂͋͌̊̓̕͘̕̕̚̚͝͠͝͝

Something urged you to move , a nagging instinct clawing at the back of your mind.

And so you did.

You kicked at the legs of the Perseus operative standing guard over you, making him shout and pointing his rifle at you.

“Нет! Не убивайте е��! ” Stitch barked out.

Much to your surprise, the Perseus operative hesitated. You didn’t take a moment to indulge in that as gunfire erupted around you.

You instantly ducked behind the closest thing to you. After hearing the brief pause in gunfire, you made a mad dash to the cover of the desk. There was only one thing on your mind, more than the hostages, more than getting out of there alive.

Microfilm, you thought distantly.

You needed to prevent it from falling into their hands.

Somehow, your eyes locked onto that little container containing the microfilm filled with sensitive intel about the operations of Adler and his team. It was slick with blood and your eyes followed the trail of the blood to its originator.

Nancy.

She was shot several times in the shoulder and abdomen.

You blinked. That source of momentary cover had been her.

Н̷̧̧̡̨̧̛̲̣̳̭͇͎̻͇͙̪̰͎̟̫͖͍̭̤̜̟͈͔̠̖̪͔͙͇̱͈̹̳͉̫̖̻̖̱͓̰̞̙̫͖̿͌̄̾̂͑̆̌̐̽͗͂͒́̄͐̏̾̆́̒͋̈́̌͗͛͘͜ͅе̸̢̧̬̞͔̹̘͖͓̼̲͔̫̟͚̯̝͔̤̺̲̹̲͓̩̝͔̼̳̼̉̆̏̆̀̅̐́̈́̃̍͐̇̾̏̈́̑̽͗̆̽̄̋̑̓̃͐̽͊̒̃̾̿͆̅̄͆̿͐̇̏͗̆̕̕̚̕̚͜͠͝͠ͅ ̷̨̛̛̺̥̝̤̬͉̦͚̙͓̞̖̩͇̪̺͚̰̱̫͍̪̺̫̪͐̐̓̌̆̈̋̌̄̐̎̈́̐̎̑̑̃̈̂̓̈̃̂̉̓̉͑̈́͌̅͒̌͌̀̚͘͘͜͝͝д̶̡̢̧̧̨̨̛͈̣͈̘͕̲͉̭̠͈̫̬̺̝̟̳̺͎̣̞̰̼͎̯͕̮̤͎̪͚͖̞̤̠͚͉͓͙̼̠͔̞͕̉͗̎̂̎̎̍̒̀̈́̒̃̒͊̄̌͑̋̒͘͠͝а̶̨̨̢̡̨̨̨̛̩̜̜̠̞̝̟͖̞͚̰͖̦̖̲͕̤̘̤͙͉̭͙̠͔̗̠͉̱̯̭̺͓̣̭̜̞͕̬̮͚̩͉̹͓̄̉̈́̀̉̃͊̈́̋͒̾̓͛̌̂̏̋̈́̒͐́̾̏̿͑̓͆͐̓͆͂͌̄̚̕͘̕̚͝͠ͅͅͅй̵̡̢̡̨̡̢̨̛̩̰͚͔̪͙͈͖̝̦̥̰͉̬͙̱͈̹̼͇̩͎̙̦͔͉͓̭̰̼̰̙͕̣̙̬̮̠̯͎̳͓͔͖̯͇̱͎̭̻͌̑̎̆̄̔̎̊̾̍̅͗͛͐̂̑͂̆̔͗̌̈́̒̆̿̈̋̽̎͗̓̊͑̈́̋̊͂̌̐̾̈̚͘͘͜͠͝͝͠͠͠ͅͅт̴̛͉̲̘̳̬̘̖͙̀̍̉͛̿̃͗̈͂̓͑̈̌͋̍̅̓̏̓̂̓̽͌̓̂̐̉̉̽̂̑͑̆̊̔̈́̅͋̊͆̊͒̄̽̋͗̅̎̽̌͘̕̚͠͝͝͝е̷̧̨̧̨̘̳̝̱̰̭̘̟̝̯̘̯̤̖͓͍̦̯̝͖͎̠͓͍̳̺̘̞̖̪̓̃̋̀͐̃͒͑̾̏̊̌̕̚ͅ ̶̡̛̮̜͎̯̣͑̂͑̄͑̈̔̕͝ͅе̴̨̨̧̛̞͕̤̻͈̺̱̮̩̲͎̝̱̮̱̹̙͉͈͎͈͎̠͊̒̏͛͗̇̇̔̄̈́͊̇̒̍̓̂͒̈́̉̕͘͝͝͝м̴̛̛̦͍͙̱̹̦̼̱͍̤̺̮͈̓̿͒́̂̐̊͌̾̒̈̿̄͂̿̉͗̈̉͑̽̾͑͆̊̃̐̂͑̔̀̋̇͛͆͊͊̐̆͋̈́͗̐̚̚͜͝͠͠у̴̢̡̦̭̟̤͚̜̹̯̺̜̦̬̠̫̱̦͓̭͎̩͎̫͙̗̒̈́̓̿̓̄̊͗͛̐͛́̌̉̋̔̾̑̔̈́̓͗͂̈́̂̿̽͒̚̕̕͝͝͝͠͠͝ ̶̛̛̛̬̬͕͍̱̯͍̰̰̭̹̱̤̹̼̙̬͒̈́͛̀̾̎̃̉̍̑̉̇̅̈́̈́̓͛͒͑͊̉͛̋̆̍͗̋̅̄̽̃̈͘̕͜͝͝п̴̐̈́̈͐͑̏̓͑̔͆̐̌̐̎̽͛͐͒͂̔̈́̅̆̏̕̕��̧̢̨̧̨̢̧͇̠̯̫̺̤͇̖͚̱̫͈̺̮̹̹̦͕̤̝̣͚̹͔̞̹̣̺̤̯̹̮̜̲̟̩̟̹̪͈̤͔̳̪͙͖̝̈̏̌̈́̇͜ͅͅӧ̷̡̨̡̢̢̨̘̟̫͚͕̮̟̻̹̺̝̦̪̮̦̖͎͖̩̮̤̗͎̦̼͇̙̳̲̜̖̳̗̭͇̦̣̣̞͙̙͔̹̱͔͔̣̑͋̋̒͐̐̍̏̈́́̈́̏͌̿̔̌̂̄̔̂͊͜͜͝͝ͅͅͅп̷̧̡̜̩̘͎̼̥̤̥̩͕͙̭̠͇̙̞̲͍͍̬̅̐̊̂̐̅͂̊͂͗̐͗̊̌̂͆̉̀̀͂̌͊̋͂̎̐͛̅͗͋͂̽̍͜͜͜͜͝͝а̶̡̬̳̜̹͍͖̥̱͈̭͇̣͙̪͖͓̙̯̙͓̮͖̗͔̲͔̳̫̳͎̱̱̩̮͉͓̙̣̤͙͚̻̏͒͊̎̄͗̋̽̂̾͆̋̃͑͌̑̎̐̉̐̽͒͆̓̄̍̇̅̾̈̑̌̿̂͂̉̉̐̔̈́̉́̏̒͒́̏̈́̑̾̎͆͘̕̕͜ͅс̴̨̧̡̨̡̢̨̦͇̪͙̲̙͓̦͚͕̝̖̤̩̥͎͚̥͙̘̘͈̪͕̦̻͖̤̜̠͖̼̗̦͉̫̱̥̩̯͕̱͇̜̱̪̬̯͙̞̝͑͗͌̌͆̈́̂̈́͂̽̄̏̓̀͐̂͗͌̄̄̐͒̍̾̽̄͑͑̈́̔͘͘͜͜͜͠т̶̨̢̛̛͖̙̬͓̼̞̳͉̜͚͈̬͉̫̣̻͖͎͕̭̙̼̪̪̟̹̲̝̙͔̝̲͙̎͋̔͋̓̋̿̓͑̇̀͋͛̅̈́͊̚͝͝͝ь̴͚̈́͜ ̸̭̦̦̟̼̩̪͓̥̮͖̻͙̦̈́̃͜͜��̧͎̲̙̙̱͖͉̮͎̙̲̼в̵̧̨̨̡̨͚̤̻̯̬̞͉̗͚͇̮̺͙͔̺̘͔̭̫̗͉̺̹̮̖̙̩̣͙̈̽͗̎͊̉̔̌͋̔̂̍̕͜͝ͅͅͅͅ ̴̛̛̛̤̖͖̈̎͋̈̐̃̔͊̔̓̎́̑͐̌̊̂̓̀̀̌̎͆̈͊̎̃͌̎̒̏̏̕͘̕̚͝͝͝͝͠и̷̨̡̛̛̣̩͈̬͍͓̲͉͓̠̙̬̖͔̦̯͓̣̟̻̺̼̓͆̃̈́͑̑͋̔͋̌͋̑͆̊̂̿̋͊̔̏̃̈́̃̽̓͌̈̀̆̍̔̅͋͂̈̆̈́̔̆͐̽̈́͂͘̕͜͜͝х̴̢̡̛̠̼̲̼̗̣̲̫̗̖̰̣̩̼͓̣͚̜̜͎̮̖̟̗͉̠̝̺̞̯̪͇͓͕͎̰̘̞̜͈̝̺͎̥͎̣̬̞̤̼̥͙̲̮͕̙͋̔̽̐̍̌̆̓̈́̋̀͋͐̾͗̈́͆͘͜͜͜ ̶̨̧̢̡̡̰̟̭̪͙̻̩͎̩̦̰̼̗͚͓̗͉͎͈̮̭̠͚͙̙̬͈̳̳̬͇̘̙̖̘̖̤͉̘͈̯̹͓̬̳̹̳̍̍̄̑̋̈̓̌̄̈́̂͐͆̏̾̌͛̑̋̌̈́̎̈́̌̽̃̎̄̆̈́̏̑̑̃͒̈́̆̓͌̄̿̂̒̾́̍̃̉̏̈́̎͆̉̎̕͠͝͠͝͠ͅͅͅр̴̛̛͇́̓̄͌͆̀̏́́̈́̈̃̏͒͐̅̇̔̾͂͛̒͛̋̒̒͂͋͑̓̓̌̽̑͒̎̽͗̔̈́͒̏̚̚͘̚͘͝у̷̡̧̢̢̧̧̛̠͖̬̹̣̣̫͚̰̝̹̫͍͖̱̬̞̦͍̜̟̣̬̳̱̤̙͎̙̖̗̮̤̤͓̦͉̘̩͖̠͔̪͕̎̓̈́̒̍̔̆̍̒̿̐̅̃̈́̈̊͌̉̑̍̂̚͠͝ͅк̶̨̧̧̧̨̛̜̠̞͖̻̹͇̥͍̳̪̣̙̜̣̘͖͎̮̙̳̭̳̲̤̥̥̬̗͚̟͍̦̘̟̟͕̫̲̬̹͓̠͈̤͓̦͕̝͋̌̆̿̉̃̆͑̎̇̄͂̓̈́͒̓̂̌̓͛̂̆̓̌̋̍͊̐͆́̔̏̆̍̈̉̔̓͋̽̏͋̚͘̚͜͠͝и̶̨̡̨̨͓͍͈̝̞̤̰̳͉̜̮̰̖̝̼̜̰͈̖̯̣͔̻̪̲̟̜̹̟̥͍̭̱͔̜̘̝̱̫̭͎̪̤̖͍̠̉̏͒̐̉̉̇̑͋̓̓͛̅̕͜͜ͅͅ.̴͛͒̇̅͊͊͘��̡̢̡̛̘͉̥̜̮̜͓͎̪͍̖͉̗̯͖̞͓̰̪̺̥̫͕̩͙͚̺͉̗̜̰̺͔̬̲͖̼̣̙͉̯̞̜͇̞̣̺͇̞̇̈͌́̑̈́̃̓̊̏̇̈̂̑͌͒̈́̂̐͂̍͊̐̐̃̌̎͛̊̅̄̑̽͐̆͂̆̄̑̓̏̚̚̚͝͠ͅ

The static grew louder and louder. Distantly, you snatched up the microfilm roll and looked down at it. It left a crimson mark on your hands with the blood.

It was almost instinct , you thought numbly. The metallic taste of the microfilm’s blood-slicken surface was acrid in your mouth as was the bombastic peach fragrance aftertaste of Nancy’s Giorgio peach-accented perfume. You swallowed the microfilm container quickly and turned your attention to securing yourself next.

As you found a pistol on the floor, you hastily gripped it despite the slicken feeling to it. It was covered in blood. You immediately took the safety off and leaned slightly out from the cover of the desk to take aim at the boots walking towards you.

And then you heard it click.

It jammed.

Shit.

The static grew stronger. You winced at the intensity. Where the hell was it coming from? You sure as hell didn’t see any radios or monitors on nearby since the main power was cut by Stitch and his operatives.

Forcing the static from your mind, you nearly growled in frustration…

—And promptly threw the gun at Stitch.

You blinked in surprise at the sound of metal hitting the material of his gas mask. He even recoiled slightly in surprise before a feral look entered his eyes.

Payback was one vindictive thought that entered your mind.

Oh shit was another that soon followed.

“I will kill your comrades one by one.” Stitch warned. Although, something in his voice easily told you he wouldn’t mind that outcome, “Stop.”

You stared at him through the fuzzy distortion of your vision.

Comrades , you pondered.

They took priority over you.

You relented, going down to your knees as he wanted.

Still, you refused to look up at him but rather gaze at the analysts still lined up, ready to be shot dead from a single order by Stitch to his soldiers.

“Give it up,” he demanded, gripping your face tightly with one hand. You simply looked up at him calmly. No .

“Приведи ее сюда .” Stitch gestured over to Nancy.

You watched as his operatives hauled Nancy’s body to your feet, leaving a bloody trail in their wake. Her hazy eyes stared up fearfully at you.

Gardenias and jasmine , you noted vaguely. You hadn’t noticed that about her bombastic Giorgio scent until it had been stripped away of its grandeur right before you in the blood and gore.

“P-please,” she begged, not looking at you but up at him.

Stitch chuckled lowly. He too must have been rather amused by her attempts for mercy from him of all people.

“Look at her,” he gestured to you with the Makarov in hand.

And so those watery cerulean eyes of Nancy’s gazed at you.

“...please.” she said quietly.

You only stared at her back blankly.

She was going to give up the microfilm and anything she knew to Stitch.

With this thought in mind, you watched the muzzle of the gun press against her head before you heard the gunshot. You only blinked when you felt something wet and warm on your face.

Distracted by the sensation, you were pulled away from your thoughts when leather stroked against your cheek in an almost affectionate fashion. You felt something wet smear against your cheek as his gloved hand stroked the skin there.

“Ruthless as always,” Stitch said with a rather approving yet feral look in his eyes as you gazed up at him. He laughed a little to himself before adding, “I’m glad the CIA did not make you soft.”

You blinked. Why...why hadn’t you said anything when they were going to shoot her?

She was a traitor, the thought came to mind instantly. But you nearly winced at the thought.

So were you.

You pulled away from your thoughts suddenly when you felt a firm pressure at your lips. His gloved fingers were pressing against your lips insistently with the wet metallic-smelling substance still on them.

Stitch stared down at you with that milky eye of his blank and emotionless. It contrasted sharply with his cerulean one filled with a rather keen interest, “Open,” he demanded.

You glared up at him.

“If any of your piece of shit comrades swallowed that, I would have cut them open like pigs,” Stitch casually said resting a knife at your abdomen as if he contemplated the threat of gutting you open.

However, the pressure of the knife against your abdomen lightened as he stroked a gloved thumb over your lips. He seemed a little too preoccupied with doing that for some reason…

“But you, Зая, I will make an exception.”

You blinked once again.

Somehow, that didn’t sound like a good thing.

Suddenly, his large gloved hand moved to grasp at your jaw, pressing down on it harshly. You nearly winced at the pressure, preparing yourself for the inevitable. He was definitely going to break your jaw as expected…

You glanced quickly over to the analysts still lined up like ducks to shoot down before Stitch’s operatives. They looked at you rather nervously and with concern. You blinked at them. Sure, you were about to get your jaw broken but you were sure you’ve had worse in the past considering your scars. Besides, it was hard to top MK Ultra...

Suddenly, you felt him press down on the joint and his hands forced your mouth to open even as you desperately tried to fight it. What the hell was he doing-

You blinked. Your eyes glanced down to confirm that yes-

Stitch actually was shoving his fingers into your mouth.

You struggled to bite down but that insistent pressure at the joint of your jaw kept you from doing so. His fingers forced deeper into your mouth until they reached the back of your throat. The moment they pressed there you felt your throat convulse and your eyes watered.

However, even as your throat convulsed as you gagged on his fingers, you tried not to dry heave.

But then underneath the dull taste of his leather gloves, you tasted that familiar metallic taste.

Blood.

There had been blood on your cheek which he had stroked with a gloved hand before brushing your lips with that same one.

Suddenly, you felt saliva run down your throat alongside his fingers.

And it was at that moment you felt yourself choke.

“сдавайся уже.” he said impatiently, withdrawing his fingers at last when he noticed you just couldn’t breathe. You only glared up at him with teary eyes blurring your vision with your hand immediately rubbing tenderly at your throat as you struggled to calm both your stomach and your breathing.

You opened your mouth to say something but then you heard something...beeping in the background. You turned your head to the side, seeing that it originated from one of the large cryptography machines sent from the highest levels of the cryptography department of the CIA.

You briefly glanced at the analysts who were nodding at you.

You blinked. What were they trying to say-

Suddenly you heard a deafening bang with a ringing- not static -in your ears-

And then everything went dark.

________________________________________________________________

Author’s Note: Special thanks to @samatedeansbroccoli for beta-reading this late at night last-minute! Without their feedback, I probably wouldn't have been able to post this chapter and this chapter would have been in a worse condition.

Thanks for reading!

#stitch/bell #tw: blood #tw: violence #tw: minor character death #tw: attempted forced vomiting #Stitch x bell #vikhor stitch kuzmin #vikhor stitch kuzmin x bell #cod cold war fanfiction #cod bell #fic: just like old times

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whyqueerbaitingisbad · 5 years ago

Text

movies & shows

cracks knuckles* alright this is going to be more of a rant than an analysis because i’m basing this on both my research, but also how it felt to personally be baited by these shows. there are obviously more pieces of bad (almost every horror movie) and good ones but these are the ones i’ve watched.

please keep in mind that i am but one queer and everyone has different opinions.

Supernatural (CW) 2005

This show is 15 years old and just ended. From season 5 till 15, there has been tension between two of the lead characters. They were constantly shipped together and not only did the entire fandom know about this ship but so did almost all of Tumblr. On top of that, the actors and show runners knew about it as well. Which is why it makes it ridiculous that it was constantly pushed aside while the romantic coding kept happening, even after show runners dismissed it as being intentional. The Destiel (Dean x Cas) case has been going on for years, and as the show came to its end, many fans had hope. But N O P E. Instead, we got a love confession from Cas where Dean looked like he was near constipated and the Cas was killed and sent into a fiery place that was not hell but s u p e r h e l l.

… w hy.

Sherlock (BBC) 2010

Just like Supernatural, this show was renown on Tumblr for not only how good it was, but its hinting at a potential relationship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. But again, like Supernatural, the intentional tension between the two characters was denied by producers. This caused an uproar within the fandom, and even left some people believing that, after the last season aired, it had been a joke and the producers were hiding a “secret, unaired season” because they had felt so robbed by this show that had implied something and denied it.

The 100 (CW) 2014

We got lesbians. We got background gays. We were happy. Then, all of a sudden, one of them is killed for no reason. Did it advance the plot? No. Was she fighting and died in battle? lol no. She was doing literally nothing and got shot and died. And then the producers kept bringing her back once a season in the form of a ghost or illusion because why? Because she was a fan favourite queer character. ✨bury your gays and sparingly bring them back for profit anyone?✨

Voltron: Legendary Defender (Netflix) 2016

*deep breathe* This one is a special disaster. Not only was there romantic tension and romantically coded scenes for 7 seasons, but producers, voice actors and artists working on the show repeatedly said “don’t worry klance (Keith x Lance) shippers, you’ll be happy”

. … w h e r e??? You code one of their scenes with a sunset in the background while they talk about love and then one of them goes on a date with someone who has declined his advances for 7 seasons but now in season 8 decides to do a full 180. Not only that, but you announce at a Comic Con (a convention) that a character is gay and has a fiancé, only to kill off the fiancé and never make it explicit in the show except at the last second of the last episode where he marries a no name character.

Personally, i’d like to say a big fuck you to the show that strung me along for 2 years and never stopped saying we’d be happy to then pull the rug out from under us and call us crazy for thinking anything from the past 8 seasons was intentional.

Scooby-Doo (2002)

While not being outwardly queerbaiting, this movie’s filmmaker has just revealed some shocking news, which wasn’t at all shocking to the gays who had watched this movie over the years. In July of 2020, James Gunn, the filmmaker of Scooby-Doo, revealed in a podcast that, initially, Velma was explicitly gay in his script, but then the studio watered it down until it became nothing. This isn’t an example of baiting as much as it is changing a character’s initial design to “better fit an audience”. The worst part of all this is that with Velma’s character having been written with a l i t t l e queer subtext, people had been theorizing about if since the movie came out, but were always yelled at by the internet for “imagining something that isn’t there”. But now, even with it being said that the initial point was for her to be gay, people have no objections to still refusing to accept it. Why?? So we can’t get the subtext gays OR the confirmed gays?? Make it make sense.

Brooklyn 99 (NBC) 2013

To have the queer characters firstly introduced without mentioning their sexualities and have it brought up naturally was so goddamn nice to see, because no one does a big deal about it unless they ask for that. This show is amazing in general but the way they show their queer characters is *chefs kiss*.

She-ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) 2018

This. Show. My heart SOARS. It's just a remake of an old show so absolutely nothing was ever expected, but then it was sprinkled in and ENDED WITH A BANG. And it was so beautiful and real to see the struggle of two friends who care for each other and want to be together but have different visions of the world fall in love. And they also had characters with disabilities, a non-binary character and jUST SUCH A GOOD SHOW.

Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts (Netflix) 2020

This is a case where you go into it not expecting anything and are BLOWN AWAY by the bare minimum. And not because it’s bad!! It's mind blowing because this is the simple representation we need!! Not something over the top, but an every day relationship. It’s just two boys falling in love and going on dates and being nervous around each other, yet i was so stunned. Because it’s not shown enough. I should not be this excited over something that should be this normal. 10/10 though this show is so good for all kinds of representation.

Steven Universe (Cartoon Network) 2013

This show did so much for queer representation with its general message of loving everyone and loving who you want. Especially since it was aired on Cartoon Network, a channel for kids, it was able to help normalize something so looked down upon in some circles. It made it easy to watch for s o m e people because it's a cartoon but it's so beautiful to see these ladies so in love with each other, both platonically and romantically and we see them have a family dynamic that isn’t a “nuclear family”. Rebecca Sugar (creator) really said “lemme just break all stereotypes real quick”.

Adventure Time (Cartoon Network) 2010

It's the “knowing a fanbase shipped something so hard that the creators made it canon” for me. This relationship had been theorized by fans for years, but it had never been explicit in the show. When the finale episode came out and the two shared a kiss, it was a moment of celebration. The producer of the show said that it had not really been planned but when the episode was being made, the choice of what happened was given to one of the artists (bless your soul Hanna K. Nyströmthe). And as the show releases little bonus episodes, its latest was centered around Marceline and Bubblegum and their relationship. AND WE LOVE TO SEE OUR DOMESTIC LESBIANS BEING HAPPY AND IN LOVE.

Yuri on Ice!!! (anime) 2016

The fact that an A N I M E gave us a love story between two men is mind boggling and it makes me so happy!! Especially because it's a Japanese show and they’re very conservative about these things just makes it more emotional. The creators said they wanted to make the anime take place in a world where gay/straight isn’t a thing, it’s just love (ladies, you’re going to make me cry). So as the weekly episodes came out and fans start speculating, THEY GAVE US THE LAST FEW EPISODES FULL OF ROMANCE AND EMOTIONAL SCENES BETWEEN THE TWO AND THEN THEY GET R I N GS?!???!! You watch for the figure skating, you stay for the figure skaters that are in love.

Shadowhunters (Freeform) 2016

*insert me being frustrated that the actors are straight so we can move on from that disappointment*

This show really said “let’s name a whole episode after this couple because they deserve it”. But seriously, they gave us two characters whose entire plot does not center around their sexualities while still showing us the differences in a relationship between someone experienced and someone new at this. They were both powerful and amazing characters apart from each other, with their own story lines and goals but they loved each other so much omgs. SO MUCH.

It was so great to watch.

Love, Simon (2018)

There’s a lot of disagreement on whether this movie is good representation or not. However, we need to take into consideration that this was Hollywood’s first movie with a main character that was gay, where the story’s focus was on Simon’s love story. The biggest problem, for me at least, was that the actor playing Simon is a straight man and not queer. My problem is not with him, but the fact that there are other actors that are gay and that could have played Simon just as well. (the love interested was however played by a queer actor so ✨progress✨)

All in all, this movie does represent what a lot of queer kids have to go through: being outed at school, how they then come out, the bullying and doubt they go through.

The book is also really good.

Call Me By Your Name (2018)

This movie is so aesthetically pleasing and was able to capture the confusion and heartbreak felt by a boy who’s struggling with his own feelings towards a man. His inner conflict and joy and l o v e he feels but doesn’t know how to deal with is so well communicated through the screen and just breaks your heart because it feels so real.

But again, they could’ve gotten gay actors to play gay characters…

through having this list here, i want to show you that it’s not hard for creators to give good queer representation. the LGBTQ+ community isn’t asking for much, we just want to be well represented on screen as just a regular character, not some token queer kid there for the diversity points. having been exposed to so much queerbaiting and just not seeing any representation on screen, i always get over-excited when i see a queer character, and that’s not how it should be. it should be a normal thing, something you can find in most pieces of media, just like there’s a straight white cisgender person in everything.

and they seriously need to start casting queer actors for queer characters...

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jackdawyt · 5 years ago

Video

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Again, midnight snow, pine forest, lanterns, etc. It’s the same ambiance. When Mark Darrah showed this 2019 tease, he shared an article questioning if snow can appear on the equator, the article proved that areas that are on the equator can have snow. We can successfully say that our clowning wasn’t all for nothing! We honked and brigaded the circus of Dragon Age clowns together, and BioWare graced us with exactly 12 seconds of Dragon Age 4 in-engine shots. Which at the bear minimum is something that we feral clowns can sink our teeth into.

With that said, first and foremost, we can confirm this footage was Dragon Age related. Not only that, but it’s actually next gen work-in-progress, as John Epler confirmed.

With Dragon Age 4 being built for next gen, we can see the beauty of the Frostbite Engine’s graphical fidelity:

Lighting, ray-tracing, blooms, shadows, depth of field, upscaled texture quality, etc. The evolution of the Frostbite engine is apparent, the game looks stunning already! And there’s an overall tone of dark fantasy, the world is saturated in this gothic aesthetic, and I love it!

The midnight snow, spooky atmosphere, eroding corruption and terrifying amounts of red lyrium and fungus.

As far as initial impressions go, Dragon Age 4 looks dark, like Tevinter Nights dark! That’s something I know for a fact we all want to see, so we’re excited for that.

Let’s talk about the three shots we got, and what they tell us about the next Dragon Age game, at least what we could make out.

Location

Upon impact, this first shot reminded me of Mark Darrah’s 2019 in-game screenshot tease:

Again, midnight snow, pine forest, lanterns, etc. It’s the same ambiance.

When Mark Darrah showed this 2019 tease, he shared an article questioning if snow can appear on the equator, the article proved that areas that are on the equator can have snow.

For the uninitiated, Tevinter is in the Southern Hemisphere, whereas Ferelden and Orlais are in the Northern Hemisphere.

When Mark Darrah shared this article, it explained that his 360p tease was revealing a location that’s on the equator given the snow, we all assumed it was Tevinter, but maybe not.

Both Mark’s screenshot and this new in-game shot look like they’re in the same area. So, where could this moonlit, gloomy area be?

Well, it could be Tevinter, probably southern Tevinter closer to the equator, or it could be Northern Ferelden because we can see plenty of tidbits relating to Ferelden culture.

For instance, we can see recognisable Ferelden totems and elven urns resembling their burial rites. This at least speaks on the location’s purpose, or at least the inhabitants of the area, either present or past.

The Tree

Upon inspection, the tree seemingly has red lyrium roots sprawling from the base. While the top is leafless and devoid of life. Perhaps red lyrium from the ground has begun eroding even more life, as red lyrium carries the blight onto anything that is living. We can only expect more corrosion and corruption of natural life throughout Thedas.

Trees; in particular, have a lot of representation and meaning in Dragon Age, especially ones as wicked and old as this tree we see in the tease.

One of the biggest predictions at the moment is that this tree is a vhenadahl. A generational tree of the elven people, that means ‘home tree’, essentially it represents arlathlan and the elven people. Although there is plenty of merit and meaning behind that, I don’t think this tree is a vhenadahl.

Vhenadahl’s are generally displayed in elven alienages providing comfort to the city elves. This is certainly not that given the surrounding area. Even the burial urns prove that this tree acted as something else. But what? Perhaps it was a flourishing funeral garden, once a safe place for those to mourn, now corrupted with blight?

Mythal has also been represented as a tree because of her vallaslin. Which resembles leafless branches, and has the same depiction of that tree on Flemeth’s True Grimoire.

If we look beneath the tree, the urns with skulls are shown a lot in elvhen ruins and near elvhen artifacts. Perhaps this tree resembled something from Ancient Arlathan and could've been an old oak that became lifeless due to the blight, much of what is suspected about the death of Mythal...

There’s a codex on “The Oak” that relates to the constellation ‘Fervanis’, it’s represented by a towering tree with leafless branches that harkens back to the earliest of human tribes. They followed animistic beliefs, that nature and humans were one, and both equal. This was the main belief before the rise of the Old God’s worship and creation of the Tevinter Imperium.

However, others believe that the constellation ‘Fervanis’ is of the elven people – specifically, the depiction of Andruil herself, the goddess of the hunt. Another connection to the ancient elves...

With that, this tree could resemble many things going forward, there’s symbolism in everything when it comes to Dragon Age as far as I’m concerned. There was even a tree in The Dread Wolf Rises trailer... so both trees could share the same connotation.

As a final note on this shot, we see crow-like-bird's flutter from the tree... Jackdaw’s confirmed for Dragon Age 4? CAW! Moving on to the next shot.

Structure

The chapel (as we are calling it) and the fortress in the background are very Ferelden in design. The fortress is identical to Redcliffe Castle, whereas the chapel resembles Skyhold’s main hall to some degree.

Tevinter architecture follows more spiky, oriental designs using precious stones and metals. None of those attributes appear in these structures, they’re most certainly Ferelden.

Location

There’s a small trail of snow linking that this is a continuation of the previous shot. With the tree to the left, and the fort behind, it seems both shots share the same moon.

Speaking of the sky, we can see the healed Breach just yonder, perhaps hinting that this location is relatively close to the Frostback Mountains? Is this fortress settled in the highest points of Ferelden considering the Inquisitor sealed the Breach there?

This fortress has been ransacked, as we can see it’s flooded, falling apart and has abomination/ darkspawn flesh bags.... Perhaps the blight has spread throughout the area with the red lyrium’s growth?

Just like the tree, red lyrium has grown into this fort, perverting everything it touches. The corruption of Red lyrium is a common theme throughout this tease.

If it’s not Ferelden, then where? Estwatch is an island just off the coast of the Free Marches, located directly on the Equator. Built originally by the Imperium, it’s ‘World of Thedas’ depiction looks very close to this stronghold. However, the chances of this being Estwatch is likely uncommon, but in Dragon Age, everything is in the realm of possibility.

But who knows, it could very well be the Frostbacks? Maybe we’ll revisit Skyhold/Temple of Sacred Ashes once more to see what Pride had Wrought...

Connection

The fortress behind emits an ooze of red lyrium, is this fortress connected to the following red lyrium shot shown? Personally, we believe each of these locations are connected. And so, that’s where this red lyrium shot takes place?

As we can see this location is trickling with red lyrium and corruption, it’s chaotic to say the least. No wonder you can see the glowing from miles away.

Red Lyrium Organism

This organism (as we’re calling it) in the middle has been the talk of the entire carnival. There’s a lot to dissect given the centre part of this shot.

At first, this organism looked like a decaying, yet familiar Red Lyrium Idol. It carries the shape and figure of the idol, however bloated beyond belief. Perhaps the red lyrium from the idol has grown into a tumultuous form, spreading throughout the area and that has caused the mass spread of the blight throughout the landscape.

Or it could be a Titan vein/heart/aspect of a Titan, however, not just any Titan, a blighted Titan. And that’s why so much red lyrium has spread throughout each of the shots, as it’s grown in increasing values, corrupting everything living in the vicinity.

One must ask, what is the purpose behind all of this red lyrium? It comes down to good ol’ Chuckes of course!

As we know red lyrium weakens the Veil. Solas can use the substance to constantly weaken the Veil, until it is destroyed. This blighted Titan heart could be the beginning of this plan.

Since red lyrium is the blood of the Titans and it carries the blight, perhaps this heart is the origin of the next blight.

Perhaps if this organism isn’t a Titan heart, nor the Red Lyrium Idol, it could be a grotesque, vile monster that awaits us. Thriving on the red lyrium and mushrooms, enveloped in a cocoon... waiting for its next meal.

The area surrounding the organism has gruesome bodies and twisted figures that are reminiscent of the Fade. Yet we can see the sky and trees in the background. So, we’re clearly not in the Fade, right? Unless we’re already doomed and the waking world and the Fade are one...

The mushrooms share a resemblance with standard deep mushrooms, could red lyrium have infected them with the blight, corrupting them? Are we facing against terrifying fungi’s in the next game? Can we eat them?

Deep mushroom harvesting is usually a dangerous task because it can lead to darkspawn. Apparently almost all the deep mushrooms tend to carry the darkspawn's corruption, however are not contagious. So no, I wouldn’t suggest eating them...

The torn down fortress once more follows a (you guessed it) Ferelden structure. This entire shot reminds me of the Temple of Sacred Ashes after Corypheus destroyed the landscape during his fight.

We can see the tip of the mountains in this shot, and they look like the Frostbacks. So, it’s most likely not in Tevinter, if we compare the Ferelden and Tevinter mountains:

Fereldan’s are like the Rocky mountains:

Tevinter’s are like the San Juan mountains:

Both very distinct from each other.

This shot as a whole is rather ambiguous... it feels like something we haven’t seen before... almost alien. I feel like each scene is taking place in Fereldan, however, I’m very sceptical considering Tevinter is the main location of the game given Trespasser’s ending, Tevinter Nights and Joplin’s setting.

Honestly, I can’t wait to just explore more, this tease has given me a glimpse at what we can come to expect! Regardless, it’s been super fun to don the tinfoil on actual Dragon Age 4 related-content!

Although this tease was small, we may have something soon, depending on when soon is. According to EA/BioWare’s community manager, they said: “Soon BioWare fans, soon.” followed up with “I mean... my soon always comes with a ™. So, who really knows.”

Perhaps the next official tease will be a title reveal? That’s what I’m thinking at least. In any regard, I’ll be covering this and more recent tweets in my next news video! Let us know if we missed anything that you guys caught, and tell us your thoughts down below regarding this tiny tease and Dragon Age 4

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linkspooky · 6 years ago

Text

Icarus: The Fall of Hawks

The system also tells him to ignore people he can save if he thinks it will be more beneficial in the long run. But Ultimately, Hawks continues to put his trust in the people that are using him, because he sees no escape and no alternative.

The icarus symbolism surrounding Hawks character is already a common fandom theory, but I decided to give a comprehensive take. The closest thing I could find to an original post on this theory was: this one.

The winged hero Hawks draws many mythological allusions to the boy Icarus most famous for flying too close to the son causing his wax wings to fall apart.

Son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. But the great craftsman's genius would not suffer captivity. He made two pairs of wings by adhering feathers to a wooden frame with wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned him that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became ecstatic with the ability to fly and forgot his father's warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea.

The story is inextricably linked to Hawks’ character, foreshadowing that his two flaws, his admiration of Endeavor (the sun) and his habit of flying too fast will cause him to fall into villainry.

1. Hawks: Set Up by the Hero Commission to take the Fall

Foreshadowing occurs in a literary text when the author gives clues and hints about what is to come in the story. That in itself is pretty well known, but there’s more to it than just giving hints. It has a lot to do with the way stories are structured. Basically, stories are all composed of set up and pay off.

Foreshadowing is not just for cheeky hints or setting up which characters might die, it’s a sign that the author as a whole has the story planned out. The reason that scenes in stories get an emotional reaction out of us as readers, is because authors set up these characters as somethnig for us to get invested in, build up those emotions, and then eventually pay them off on the expectations we have built up.

Which is why when reading stories a general good strategy is analyzing What does the author want me to think? What are they trying to lead me to? Ideas are introduced, developed and get paid off more and more as the story progresses. A good story will continue building up these ideas with the intention of leading them somewhere, which makes them purposeful. This goes hand in hand with the concept of chekhov’s gun, that is every idea that the story spends time on will eventually become meaningful in some way.

'Chekhov's Gun' is a concept that describes how every element of a story should contribute to the whole. It comes from Anton Chekhov's famous book writing advice: 'If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.

To wit: The reason why all this icarus symbolism is surrounding Hawks is not just because he’s a cool flashy character that’s popular, he’s actually one of the most important characters in the story right now tied to the flaws and exploitations of the hero system that Horikoshi has been setting up since chapter one in the manga with this line. People are not born equal, that’s the hard truth I learned at age four.

Here’s a quick example of developing ideas in the story especially tied to Hawks. The first time we here Destro is when Gentle explains about him as one of the legendary villains he aspires to be like, the arc before Hawks is introduced as a character.

The next arc after the school festvial arc, Destro’s book is shown as inspiring one person the same way it did Gentle while hawks is talking with Endeavor.

After the class A vs B arc, in the My Villain Academia arc not only do we learn that Destro has a son and followers that are still alive, but at the end of the arc Hawks is shown interacting with the liberation followers. Ideas are introduced, developed to give them more depth, and most importantly they always show up linked to Hawks.

Why does Hawks always up in association with Destro? Esepcially when hawks is not a quirk supremacist like the rest of the MLA. It’s because as a character, Hawks’ deepest desire is liberation, and yet it’s also the thing that he’s furthest from. The character with wings who can freely fly in the sky, is chained down with the most responsibility.

There are two important pieces of foreshadowing in Hawks’ introduction chapter. First that he shows a dissatisfaction with the current hero system around him, and a tendency to see through others especially when they are putting on airs.

The second is this shot in particular, the spotlight in the background like a sun in the center of the sky with Hawks ascending towards it and losing feathers the same way Icarus would.

The other most important detail from this chapter is how Hawks is described. Not only did he make the top ten in his teens which makes him a young man like Icarus in the story, there’s also the oft repeated phrase with hawks - He goes too fast. Going too fast, flying too high, too quickly, these are all things that come come before Icarus’ fall. Special attention is drawn to how young he became a hero which we will get to later.

In chapter 186 there is a piece of foreshadowing used mainly as a joke, that also ties in with the idea of liberation with Hawks character mentioned earlier. This is a point taken from the meta linked at earlier, but considering what we now know about Hawks’ character that he is a kid raised by the hero system who has to kowtow to the higher ups this internal dialogue could easily resemble Hawks.

They key difference being Hawks never lets himself admit to having these feelings, or acts on them. He is much more concerned with keeping up his carefree facade.

From as far back as I can remember, I’ve lived my life as a bootlicker. It’s been suffocating.

While the scene itself is a joke, the connection to Destro’s book and the idea of liberation are both themes that connect strongly to Hawks. Another connection is a similiar scene that took place in Vigilantes which directly references Icarus in the same context, a man getting naked as a part of his quirk. Vigilantes is the canon prequel of My Hero Academia and has several plotlines important to the main story, even Aizawa’s canon backstory so this is highly relevant.

Once again this is set up as a gag but my flight is a forbidden one is an idea that could easily relate to Hawks. After all, Hawks has wings and yet cannot use them for himself, and cannot take flight on his own because he is under the thumb of the Hero Commission.

The way Hawks’ powers work is also important. He has feathers that give him wings that can fly, and yet because he is able to autonomously move his individual feathers we see him often giving up his feathers for other people and multitasking for several people at once. Quirks are often a metaphor for their users, Hawks has wings to fly, but his feathers don’t belong to him, the more he gives up for other people the more he loses his wings.

When Hawks uses all of his feathers he is unable to fly anymore and starts to fall, the same way the wax melted and the feathers flew apart the only thing Icarus could do was plummet.

Hawks feathers also become useless to his when they burn up. This, and the cover page featuring Endeavor burning his wings up not only sets up an eventual conflict with Endeavor, but one that Hawks’ quirk will most likely be weak to the flames.

The scene with Dabi. Hawks is introduced to us with the light backlighting him as he ascends towards it. Now, in the conclusion of this arc, the light in the background of the scene is where Dabi moves towards while Hawks himself covered in shadow walks away from light and descends into the dark foreground.

There are also two more joking points of foreshadowing in this chapter, both setting up an eventual confrontation with Hawks and Endeavor. The first is Endeavor noticing the suspicious timing, and the second is Endeavor threatening to roast him which he has threatened at several times already. Even if it’s a joke it’s a serious threat, Endeavor has been characterized as someone incapable of handling his emotions and lashing out in violence several times in the past.

Not only is Hawks set up to fall however, the hero commission sets him up to fall as well. A one man investigation into the League of Villains as a double agent. The hero commission outlines it for him, he will receive no back up, and nothing in return for his service. There is already a team set up by the commission to fight the league of vision, but they came to Hawks specifically for this reason. He works alone. He cannot say no to them. They knew before asking him he was already going to say yes.

It’s a situation where the Hero’s commission has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Hawks will either fall or fly completely on his own. If the villains kill him, they lose a hero but that’s it. If Hawks messes up his mission and gets caught, the commission can pretend that he really did turn traitor and abandon him. Hawks is completely expendable to them, and yet any information he can grasp is valuable. At the same time, Hawks has everything to lose and nothing to gain. Being a hero is Hawks entire life. He literally has no name outside of his hero name. As stated above he could easily be abandoned by the hero commission if the mission fails, and yet at the same time the only thing Hawks gets out of this is the idea that some people will be saved by his actions. Even though he is specifically instructed not to do anything to save people in front of him if it would jeapordize the mission.

While yes, Heroes working to save people and sacrificing themselves for the sake of others is a good thing, hawks always sacrifices himself all the time. Being a hero not only consumed his whole childhood, but also his life. This is not Hawks volunteering to do it on his own, this is him being given a mission he cannot refuse and going along with it.

The hero commission sets Hawks up to fall in their place. Hawks gives up his wings for them, and because of that he falls instead of flying.

2. Flaw: His Trust in Endeavor and the System as a Whole

Hawks is a child that was taken in by the hero commission and abused by them. Hence the reason why he was such a young rising star is because he had no childhood to speak of. The only way his family could be uplifted out of poverty was if he followed the track they provided for him. He is treated like a prodigy, but really he spent all of his time as a hero, and was given no other option but to become a hero.

Which is why Hawks admiration of Endeavor is ironic, considering that Endeavor attempted to do the same thing to his own son. Not raise his son with love and care, but rather breed him, train him since he was a child, and raise him not as his own person but as a hero to be used for his father’s ambitions. Hawks, Shouto, both of them were reduced to the powerful quirks they had and not treated as people. Which reflects the point that the Meta Liberation Army could have had if they were not quirk supremacists, that quirk society being dominated by strong, flashy quirks, and judging people by those quirks ends up limiting the path ways people can take in life.

This contradiction makes sense when you take into account Hawks’ upbringing. Hawks has a complex reaction to his abuse. He genuinely does want to save other people as he works himself to the bone doing it, and yet he’s also aware the hero system is using him. Part of Hawks resents the hero system, and yet Hawks is also a product of that system who still reflects the ideas he was raised on whether he wanted to or not.

This is why Hawks comes off as being such a two-faced person. He’s in a lot of major ways, in denial about his own place in life. He acts casual and friendly, and yet he’s more burdened and more isolated than anyone else. He deflects almost everything other people throw his way with humor, isolating himself even further. He also contradicts himself quite a lot, he calls out Endeavor onstage and then in the next scene he says he was doing that for Endeavor’s sake. Both are probably true, Hawks resents the hero system, but he also has to have the appearance of a friendly, willing to help others hero, because that’s the only way he’s survived so far. He likes to keep himself aloof and unattached to others because that is literally the only freedom he can grasp yet.

When Hawks says he never was a big fan of All Might, it’s most likely because Hawks sees himself in All Might. The idea of someone who as a hero is forced to save absolutely everyone and have the entire peace of the country resting on only their shoulders, only to be used until they break down is a nightmare to Hawks.

Not only does Hawks not want to be shouldered with the responsibility, not because he’s lazy, but because he knows how exploitative it is but he also does not see himself of ever being able to carry that much. The hero system that Hawks was raised on made him believe that a brute firepower quirk like Endeavor’s that is good for defeating villains is what will put people most at ease, not the constant saving of others, or interactions with people, or the creative use of his quirk that Hawks employed.

Not only is Hawks whole life defined by his quirk, but he is also taught that his quirk is not good enough. The only person who will put other people at ease, is a quirk like All Might’s. Only an extremely powerful quirk that’s suited best for fighting villains.

Hawks even says he does not want to take up the role of All Might, and it’s in part due to his feelings of ineriority, but also his want to escape his life and find some small freedom. Which is when Endeavor, the embodiment of the toxicity of hero society says that he hates guys like Hawks the most. Even though Hawks’ intentions here are pretty clear, instead of trying to step down and let Endeavor take the spotlight and support him from the shadows. Endeavor represents the individualism of hero society, but Hawks is trying to play support. He was raised by hero society, but also Hero Society actively condemns the kind of person that Hawks is.

Once again we see the contradictions in Hawks behavior. He is one of the most selfless heroes in the series as he continually lets himself be used, and yet Hawks pretends that he’s a coward who does not put himself on the line, or fight directly risking his own life.

It’s not just putting on an act, Hawks is also taught to believe that if he stays back adn plays support, if he does not defeat the villain head on with a violent quirk that he is weaker.

Which is why despite representing the exact kind of opposite hero that Endeavor is, he turns out to be a fan of Endeavor. This is because Endeavor is everything Hawks was taught that he was should be, but not. Endeavor fights for number one, he has a powerful quirk, he has the highest villain defeat record. All the things which Endeavor values are the things the hero system values, whereas Hawks believes he’s selfish for wanting a little personal autonomy for himself.

Endeavor is able to be strong in a way that Hawks never will be, because Hawks is not nearly as selfish as Endeavor is. Of course he does not see the victims of Endeavor’s actions quite yet, so he would mistake that for Endeavor able to make his willpower a reality in a way that Hawks cannot and gave up trying to do.

It’s not just putting on an act, Hawks is also taught to believe that if he stays back adn plays support, if he does not defeat the villain head on with a violent quirk that he is weaker.

Hawks is a victim of the hero system, and even is able to see its flaws, but due to his own taught inferiority, and how much he lets himself be used for the sake of helping others he cannot see himself as a victim or change it from the inside in any meaningful way.

Not only that but he fails to see the important flaws in someone like Endeavor, and isntead chooses to still believe that the hero system is ultimately in the right because they are on the side of saving people. Icarus is a tale of self destruction. Hawks is selfless to a self destructive extent. He keeps letting himself be used by people who see him as nothing more than an asset to them, because he believes it to be for the greater good. However, the current system always utilizes people like Hawks, vulnerable, expendable, Hawks is always the one who has to sacrifice his own personal freedom even though he has given his entire life to the system.

The system also is not as interested in saving people as it is in numbers, look how it talks about giving their all to rescue a kidnapped boy as some kind of failure of priorities. As if it was wrong to immediately try to help a child.

3. Flaw: The Man Who Flies too Fast Alone

Hawks always contradicts himself, despite the fact that he’s obviously much better as a support and rescue type hero, Hawks always fights alone. His biggest flaw is how much he always takes on himself, the fact that he flies too fast.

Hawks is aware of the fact that he is used by the system. There are several signs that Hawks is actually a manipulative person. Not in the sense that he is a bad person who tries to use others, but rather he developed the ability to manuever and manipulate other people as a way to cope and find what little freedom an security he could. His personality is a big indicator because Hawks almost never shows his true face and is almost always deflecting. He makes it hard for others to get a read on him by being such a two-faced person, which grants them less control over him and him a little bit more freedom.

At the same time Hawks is shown repeatedly to have information then others expect him to have. Endeavor gets surprised when he mentions Shoto, and the Hero’s commisison gets surprised when he is already aware of the team investigating Kurogiri and yet he never reveals his source on either occasion.

Instead once again he falls back on his common strategy of deflection to stop them from pressing on the issue. Hawks is someone who wants to rely on others more because he feels powerless on his own. Yet, at the same time Hawks has been taken advantage of so many times it’s impossible for him to trust others. Not only that, but Hawks has also been taught that he should be strong enough to do everything on his own, that is the individualism hero society promotes.

This is also how Hawks had to be in his early life. The only reason his family got money was because he was of use to the hero commission. He always had to be at the top of his class, always had to be useful, always had to finish on his own. Hawks always does things on its own because it’s a learned habit, he’s never had anybody else to rely on. Not only that but his way of living has always been unstable he might have been dropped back into poverty if he did not continually rise to meet the expectations of others.

Which is where we are presented with yet another contradiction of Hawks character, he is always working all by himself, but he only ever works for the sake of others. His only selfish desire is some time off for goodness sake. He is blessed with tremendous talent but has never been able to use it for himself, because since childhood he has been put to work for the sake of other people.

Hawks also says that he took Tokoyami on as an intern because he wanted information, which once again Hawks is constantly shown to be privvy to information he does not know and trying to collect more. This is because Hawks does not trust, because he cannot trust. He will be used by the other people around him. That is why he tries to seize as much information for himself as possible. Hawks being manipulative is just him trying to control what little he can, because if he does not do that then he ends up being the one who is controlled. The more knowledge he has, the more power he has.

People who feel helpless as a child due to circumstances entirely out of control will try to grasp for control in any way they can. That is why easygoing Hawks always does things on his own, because not having to rely on other people gives him more control. He can control himself, but not others. Easygoing Hawks is a bit of a control freak.

This scene becomes interesting if analyzed from that level. Hawks says he has no interest in training the next generation, it makes sense somebody who was raised from childhood as a hero and nothing else would probably have no interest in raising other children as heroes. His last line becomes much darker as well.

Those who can fly, should! Why keep yourself grounded?

Hawks is someone who keeps himself grounded all the time, always giving up his own freedom for others, and yet we see freedom is the thing he yearns for the most. He is intoxicated with the idea of freedom, the same way Icarus became intoxicated once he gained his wings and looked at the sun.

In his phonecall with Dabi we get a lot on Hawks’ internal monologue. First he admits to the fact that he plays happy-go-lucky idiot and lets people assume that they can use him, in order to control their perceptions of him. His way of manipulating others has always been to try to let them use him, instead of trying to make use of them because that is what Hawks has been taught. His value is that he is useful. He tries to navigate the system from the inside rather than breaking out. He keeps letting himself be used.

However, once again Hawks words to Dabi do not sound entirely like lies, or they could even be lies to himself. Being on this side of the equation helped me realize that we’d be better off without heroes and heroics. How much of that is a lie when Hawks was exploited into becoming a hero, when his deepest wish is to be allowed to be something else other than a hero for a little while?

It’s easy to see how Hawks got to the point where he seriously could consider Killing Best Jeanist. The people who are injured or taking time off are not useful to the system, they need to be sarcificed for the greater good. He was told by the same system to let people die if it would save more people in the long run, that he cannot be the hero he wants to be. That he has to dirty his own hands for the sake of everyone else. Hawks is constantly going against his own wishes to do what is right for other people.

Hawks says not to let a person’s resolve go to waste, because he believes that all of his determination, that all of his flying too fast is going to lead him somewhere. His determination is indeed a heroic quality, but it’s something that makes him keep sticking with the system rather than giving up on it. It’s something that makes him believe that he can overcome all of this on his own. However, no matter how hard Hawks works for the hero system, the only ones who have something to gain from it in the end is the hero system and not him. His hard work and determinations only guarantees he becomes more useful to them and will be used more.

In this light, Hawks’ belief that he can handle everything on his own is hubris, his determination to become such a good hero that he will get time off is a flaw. The only ersult is that Hawks is used more and more as a cog, and he grinds himself down further and further.

However, just like All Might could not save the entire country of japan all on his own shoulders forever, Hawks’ good boy act is also something that will not last him forever. The more he’s exploited the more he will break down. The ones to catch him when he falls is most likely not going to be the heroes system, because they are exploiting him and forcing him to work on his own because he is expendable that way. If he falls only he falls alone. Hopefully, when Hawks does fall, Dabi and the league will be there to catch him and sympathize with him in a way none of the heroes ever could.

#hawks icarus theory #icarus theory #mha meta #hawks icarus #hawks meta #hawks #my hero academia meta #meta

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armedinkblot · 5 years ago

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An Unnecessarily In-Depth Look into Moira O’Deorain

Under the cut is a long-winded examination into Moira and how I presume she became the cunning, sly mad scientist we know today. I wrote it out during quarantine because why not. This has been peer-reviewed and modified via an Overwatch/art Discord server. Please refer to the bottom of the post for my evidence/citations.

Let’s start with her twisted state of mind (the reason most of us love her, let’s be real). I believe Angela’s best interest in the safety of living creatures was a main contributing factor. It makes sense to me to think Angela reported her research to the higher ups out of fear of Moira "partaking in unethical procedures on living creatures", especially considering Moira’s published paper that was all on modifying genetics. Angela got painted as the good guy angel for exposing that, when Moira was only using time-tested experiments on rabbits, not like she was testing on humans. Yes, Angela was probably actually scared that Moira was being cruel and enjoying it too much (which she might have been, we don’t know) and was worried it might escalate. I don’t think Angela had any idea it would blow up that badly and ruin Moira’s entire career.

Whether or not Moira has always had a mad scientist inside of her is debatable, seeing as she presumably did graduate from a university at some point to be a renowned geneticist. Universities typically do not like or condone insane experiments and such antics, though in order to publish such a terrifying and controversial paper takes some kind of mental instability. Taking that into account, this means that either Moira is a better actor than we thought and had everyone fooled, or Angela and Overwatch just broke her completely. We won’t know unless Blizzard gives us more backstory. (Please give us some kind of lore, I am begging.)

Now, next we analyze the timeline we have (at the moment, Blizzard likes retconning). With Retribution, the comics, her release trailer shown at Blizzcon, and her origin story, I believe this paints a pretty tidy picture.

Here is my take on Moira’s descent into the manipulative witch she became.

Moira and Angela worked together somewhere, probably Overwatch based on Moira’s lab coat skin.

Moira publishes a paper about genetic and neurological reconditioning, dealing with cells. Her results are irreplicable and sketchy, damaging her reputation. Overwatch kept her working on smaller projects.

Moira either didn’t like or didn’t trust the biotech and opted for experimentation on rabbits, seen as unethical and cruel by the scientific community.

Angela reported her to the higher ups, most likely out of fear of things escalating because of her paper. Overwatch fires her.

At this last hit to her reputation, Moira’s lab is completely defunded and shut down, and she loses her right to practice science. At some point in this period, Angela stole some notes from Moira, which are found in Switzerland.

She continues to live in the abandoned lab and experiments on herself out of the public eye, causing the scarring on her right arm. This is likely due to not being able to afford new lab rabbits. Meanwhile, around this time, Blackwatch is created.

Moira joins Blackwatch as their medic without Overwatch’s high officials’ knowledge and begins testing on Gabe. Angela does not interact/interacts very little with Moira at this time that we know of.

Moira joins Talon behind the scenes, probably because of the unlimited funding and shared gray morals (sacrificing lives for humanity’s progression, for example).

Amelie is kidnapped by Talon. Part way through her neural reconditioning Overwatch saves her, though she kills Gerard and goes back. Let me point out that Moira is, as far as we know, the only geneticist capable of making such heavy modifications to someone’s DNA/body.

Gabe acts insanely out of character by killing Antonio, to which Moira appears very satisfied with a smug smirk and neat posture.

Overwatch falls apart because of it, likely part of Talon’s plan that Moira played a large part in.

Gabe joins Talon with Moira and Widowmaker, while Moira joins the higher ranking scientific officials in Oasis as Minister of Genetics.

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Now for the tidbits of information that backs up my theory and provides evidence. To start, a lot of the information I’ve gathered comes from the official Gamepedia, the Blizzcon 2017 transcript, and her page on the website. Here are the rest, including hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are in italics.

Her origin story:

She worked for Overwatch, but someone eventually "silenced" her. She states they were holding back her research due to ethics.

She leaves her lab in her lab coat, which she is seen in when Blackwatch comes to get her, meaning she’s more than likely still at the abandoned lab.

She experiments on Gabe, which the artist of the video admits he’s terrified of.

Retribution event:

Her ease with the execution, and the fact she smirks and just seems so... satisfied with his performance shows to me that she was expecting this behavior. (Just according to keikaku...)

She seems mostly unphased for the rest of the escape sequence.

Voice lines:

She and Amelie have an interaction where she asks, “How are you feeling, Lacroix?” Amelie very sharply responds, "I don’t feel. That’s the point, isn’t it?". Amelie phrasing the last part as a question proves Moira knows what happened to her, Moira being the one most likely to have done the work.

Angela and Moira’s first interaction ("Describing your work as unethical would be a kindness." "But the true question is whether or not you can deny my discoveries? no, I didn’t think so.") hints that they worked together sometime, to the point Angela knew how Moira’s experiments worked.

Moira also mocks Angela when she kills her, saying "Our guardian angel~" in a dry, sarcastic tone, hinting that Angela harmed her in the past and Moira found it satisfying to get back.

Comics:

In Legacy, Ana and Jack are seen pursuing Talon agents in Overwatch uniforms. Ana gets shot by Widowmaker, who was already converted. This means Amelie was taken while Overwatch was still together, therefore before the Venice Incident. Seeing as Moira was the one operating on Amelie based on common sense, she had been working for Talon behind Blackwatch’s back.

In Retribution, an explosion goes off that kills hundreds and severely injures Gerard. Jack seems uneasy with Gabe’s response to the incident, asking him to rethink if hunting Antonio down will help in the long run. At the end of the comic Gabe is portrayed with shadows like Reaper’s owl skull mask, hinting that Moira’s experiments had messed with his head a tad.

Other sources:

Angela and Moira both have each others' work in their labs in the Switzerland and Oasis maps, respectively, as well as confirmation from Michael Chu that they have a deep background history with each other. (See Participant #3 in this hyperlink)

Moira named her test rabbit from her origin story "Better Angela" out of spite; Angela had to have done SOMETHING to deserve that.

Moira replicated the Valkyrie suit to a degree, meaning either they worked together or Moira stole it and adapted it for her biotech needs. (Also see Participant #3 in this hyperlink.)

Angela and Moira both have sprays that clearly show they were once friends (or at least colleagues), namely the ones in front of the Overwatch logo and “Shadow” and “Light”.

Moira wears a headpiece like devil horns, most definitely to spite Angela’s halo.

I am more than happy to hear any feedback or additions to this whole thing, and if you’ve made it all the way through I appreciate it greatly. I know it’s long-winded and I could’ve made it much shorter, but I wanted to cover all the bases I could.

Thank you.

#translator's note: keikaku means plan #Moira #moira overwatch #moira o'deorain #o'deorain #Overwatch #overwatch moira #analysis #character analysis #overwatch lore #writing #moicy #moira x mercy #mercy overwatch #angela ziegler #overwatch mercy

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pcwpolwrestling · 4 years ago

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PCW’s Extreme Election Night 2020-Part Two

================================

[ON SCREEN GRAPHIC: Blue background. The top of the Capitol Building occupies the left hand side of the television screen.

Centered in the middle of the screen: “P-SPAN. THE POLITICAL CHANNEL.”]

P-SPAN Announcer (off screen): The P-SPAN Network bring you long-form public affairs programming from the nation’s capital and are a public service of…

[ON SCREEN GRAPHIC: Logos of twenty three different cable and satellite television companies replace the Capitol Building and P-SPAN graphic.]

P-SPAN Announcer (v/o): …your television provider.

[ON SCREEN GRAPHIC: Returns to the blue background with the top of the Capitol Building occupying the left hand side of the television screen with “P-SPAN. THE POLITICAL CHANNEL.” centered in the middle of the screen.]

P-SPAN Announcer (v/o): P-SPAN. The Political Channel.

===============================

Political Championship Wrestling Extreme Election Night 2020-Part Two Hack’s Rusty Nail Saloon Wauseon, Ohio Taped Tuesday November 3rd, 2020 Sunday January 3rd, 2021

PART ONE-PCW EXTREME ELECTION NIGHT 2020 -PCW Owner Dawn McGill welcomes everyone back to PCW. She then announces a ‘compromise’ with Mitch McConnell (American Patriots) and Nancy Pelosi (Progressive Alliance) and ‘Stars N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott of the American Patriots with Donald Trump in his corner will face ‘Mr. Hollywood’ Kevin Daniels from the Progressive Alliance with Joe Biden in his corner and Kevin Daniels of the American Heartland Coalition for the PCW Title. -McGill also announces that at the end of the show- she will announce who the new CEO of PCW will be: Donald Trump (American Patriots) or Joe Biden (Progressive Alliance) -MATCH #1-Kayleigh McEnaney defeats CNN’s Jake Tapper and Brian Stelter in a handicap match -MATCH #2/ARIZONA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Mark Kelly (Progressive Alliance) defeated Martha McSally (American Patriots) -Gavin Newsom (CA-Progressive Alliance) makes a case for PCW to come to California. -MATCH #3/SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Lindsey Graham (American Patriots) defeated Jaime Harrison (Progressive Alliance) -Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump interview with PCW Owner Dawn McGill for the PCW CEO position. -MATCH #4/PCW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Jill Berg Enterprises (Conservative Inc./American Patriots) defeat The Green World Order (Progressive Alliance) and The Deplorables (American Heartland Coalition) -MATCH #5/ALABAMA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Tommy Tuberville (American Patriots) vs. Doug Jones (Progressive Alliance) joined in progress. The show is stopped at that point by Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and former Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams- all from the Progressive Alliance.

Cut to a replay of the end of PCW Extreme Election Night 2020-Part One:

EPILOGUE Darkened room. Dim light.

Shadows move around.

George Moros- billionaire financier of the Progressive Alliance.

The Coke Brothers- billionaire financiers of the American Patriots.

A door opens. Then closes.

Charles Coke: Sarah.

The woman is Sarah Lenti, executive director of the Lincoln Project- a group of American Patriots and former American Patriots dedicated to preventing Donald Trump from winning a second term as PCW CEO.

Sarah Lenti: What the hell is going on! I thought you had things under control.

David Coke: Sarah, I know things haven’t exactly gone to plan-

Sarah Lenti: Not gone to plan? Dawn McGill is still in control of PCW with all her ‘PCW is for the people’ bull-*BLEEP*.

George Moros tries to reassure her.

George Moros: Look. We stopped the show for the evening. That gives us time to figure this out.

Sarah Lenti: Dawn McGill is going to hand the reins of PCW to Donald Trump for another four years!

George Moros: No she won’t. Clearly, it’s time to take this to the next level.

Moros pulls out a cell phone and hits a button.

George Moros: It’s time. Operation Dominion is in effect.

Announcers: ‘The Voice of PCW’ Johnny Suave AGE: 50 / HT: 5’ 11” WT: 195 HOME: Philadelphia, PA HAIR: Brown / STYLE: Like Ronnie Dunn / FACE: Goatee DRESS: Brown suit without tie

Colleen Crowder ‘Low Level New York Times Reporter Trying to Make a Name for Herself’ AGE: 38 / HT: 5’ 5” WT: 142 HOME: New York City, NY HAIR: Black / STYLE: Curly / FACE: Narrow face with rounded jaw, turned-up nose, faint freckles, and thin lips. Bulging blue eyes, thin eyebrows. DRESS: Black pants suit

Crowd Chant: “PCW! PCW! PCW!…”

Suave welcomes everyone back for part two of PCW’s Extreme Election Night 2020.

Colleen Crowder: “BLUE WAVE BABY!”

Johnny Suave: “Well, not quite.”

Suave introduces the Alabama Senate Medallion Match that was going to be shown via highlights on Extreme Election Night 2020 Part One.

VIDEO-Alabama Senate Medallion Match: Doug Jones (Progressive Alliance) vs. Tommy Tuberville (American Patriots) –Tuberville finishes off Jones. Cover. One – two – three!

WINNER: Tommy Tuberville (American Patriots)

Johnny Suave: “Tommy Tuberville rolls past Doug Jones and that’s another win for the American Patriots.”

Colleen Crowder: Again, we the media have not called that match so there’s no winner.

Suave notes that with the win, the American Patriots hold a two match to one advantage over the Progressive Alliance and that it all comes down to the Gary Peters-John James match later on tonight.

Crowder objects again. “It’s one to nothing Progressive Alliance as both the earlier South Carolina match and the Alabama match have NOT been called by us,” Crowder maintains.

Suave rolls his eyes and runs through the lineup for tonight’s show.

FACTION WAR GAMES HOUSE MATCH: Progressive Alliance vs. American Patriots

MICHIGAN SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Gary Peters (Progressive Alliance) vs. John James (American Patriots)

PCW WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Kathryn Randall Collins (Progressive Alliance) vs. ‘Alaskan Rogue’ Sierra Whalen (American Patriots) vs. ‘Extreme Pizza Delivery Girl’ Tessa Martin (American Heartland Coalition)

MAIN EVENT/PCW TITLE MATCH: ‘Starz N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott (American Patriots) vs. ‘Mr. Hollywood’ Kevin Daniels vs. ‘Prairie Populist’ William Daniels Bryan (American Heartland Coalition)

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For the second time at Extreme Election Night 2020, PCW Owner Dawn McGill makes her way out- this time she goes to the ring.

Dawn McGill “The 6 Foot Demolition Machine in a Short Skirt” HT: 6’ 0″ WT: 130 / HOME: Dallas, TX FIN: McGill Bomb

Colleen Crowder: “What is SHE doing out here?”

Johnny Suave: “Um. She’s the owner of PCW. She’s got news to deliver?”

Colleen Crowder: “That’s OUR job! We determine what’s newsworthy for the people.”

Johnny Suave: “And that’s why Donald Trump uses Twitter to go around people like you.”

Colleen Crowder: “HEY!”

McGill climbs in. Suave sends to the ring for remarks from the owner of PCW.

TALKING BOUT HEROES The first thing Dawn McGill does is profusely thanks everyone who came to the show tonight.

Dawn McGill: “I keep saying this but you have to understand that I truly mean this. PCW isn’t about the big shots. PCW is all about YOU – the people. We do this for you.”

She then asks if there’s any first responders on hand tonight.

A few stand up.

Dawn McGill: “Let’s show them our appreciation.”

The crowd responds in kind and gives the first responders on hand an ovation.

Dawn then asks if there’s anyone here who recovered from having COVID. Again, a few people stand up and again the crowd gives out an ovation.

Colleen Crowder: “She’s just sucking up to the rabble.”

Johnny Suave: “Or she really means what she says and doesn’t have a narrative in mind.”

Crowder’s offended but McGill continues. She next asks if there’s anyone here tonight who runs a small business to please stand up.

Several do and they are greeted with an ovation from the PCW fans.

Dawn McGill: “Okay. Finally, everyone please stand up.”

They do.

Dawn McGill: “These have been unprecedented times. Yet, you’ve persevered. You’ve kept going. You’ve weathered or continue to weather the storm. You’re here. You are all heroes. Give yourself a hand.”

They do.

Dawn McGill: Thank you so much for coming out here tonight. You get it. But they don’t get it. Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. They just don’t get it. Conservative Inc.- people if given the chance would sell our souls for the corporate dollar. They just don’t get it. So let me make this clear to everyone inside the Washington Beltway. PCW is-NOT-here-for-you.

RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Dawn McGill: PCW is not here for the American Patriots. PCW is not here for the Progressive Alliance. PCW is not here for the big money special interest groups. PCW is here for YOU…

RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Dawn McGill: …the fans. People like me and people like you who pay their bills on time – don’t spend money they don’t have – who don’t run up debt with no intention of paying the money back. You know, the stuff the people inside the Washington D.C. beltway are unwilling or completely incompetent at doing.

RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Johnny Suave: HOLY CRAP!

Colleen is momentarily startled by Suave’s outburst.

Johnny Suave: Dawn McGill just virtue signaled!

Crowder grumbled something under her breath but doesn’t actually respond- or maybe no one can’t hear her as the noise level is deafening

The video screen comes to life.

Johnny Suave: “What the hell is going on?”

The video screen zeroes in on a scuffle backstage.

Who’s Involved? Berkeley, California Professor McCarthy’s Progressive Flock -The Green World Order: GreenPete, PeaceNick, ‘Extreme Vegan’ Brock Cole Lee, Peta from PETA -The Young Jerks: Zenk Cryger, James Idahola, and Anna the foul-mouthed sidekick -Code Pink and Emily S. List -The League of Anti-Fascists: Ted and Chaz

American Heartland Coalition -Charlie Blackwell -‘PCW’s Extreme Pizza Delivery Girl’ Tessa Martin

Johnny Suave: “Professor McCarthy’s Flock are beating down Charlie Blackwell and Tessa Martin. Both are scheduled to wrestle later on in the evening!”

Colleen Crowder: “It looks like a peaceful protest to me, Johnny.”

Blackwell gets flung into the wall by GreenPete and Brock Cole Lee.

Code Pink glitter bombs Tessa – she’s blinded. Emily S. List then DDT’s her to the floor.

“Yeah. Totally peaceful,” Suave says in a tone totally dripping with sarcasm.

Dawn immediately rolls out of the ring and takes off for the back.

Johnny Suave: “While Dawn checks out the situation, let’s show some of the House War Games Match between the Progressive Alliance and the American Patriots.”

Suave explains that two years ago, the Progressive Alliance ended the American Patriots run of victories that dated back to 2010.

Colleen Crowder: Two years ago, the Progressive Alliance won a decisive victory. Tonight, our polling states they will win and win easily.

————————————————-

MATCH #6/HOUSE WAR GAMES MATCH: Progressive Alliance vs. American Patriots

American Patriots: Lauren Boebert (CO)) Burgess Owens (UT) Jim Jordan (OH) Kimberly Klacik (MD) Lee Haywood (NC)

vs.

Progressive Alliance: Adam Schiff (CA) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) Deborah K. Ross (NC) Kathy Manning (NC) Ben McAdams (UT)

————————————————-

Johnny Suave: “The time limit is twenty minutes. Whomever has the most wrestlers left at the end of twenty minutes wins the match.”

Adam Schiff and Kimberly Klacik immediately lock up in the middle of the ring to start the match.

Johnny Suave: “Maryland’s Kimberly Klacik came out with a campaign video that went viral.”

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Johnny Suave: “She’s gained a lot of attention and she’s trying to be successful in a district that overwhelming supports the Progressive Alliance. How far can she go tonight in this match?”

Schiff pushes Klacik to the corner. Side head lock by Klacik, but Schiff breaks free and hits a drop kick. Then he near decapitates Klacik with a clothesline. Schiff covers. One. Two. Three.

Kimberly Klacik (American Patriots) eliminated.

Johnny Suave: “Apparently not that long.”

Colleen Crowder: “BLUE WAVE! IT’S A BLUE WAVE!”

Jim Jordan lands a punch to Schiff’s jaw but misses a kick. Ross misses a Pelé kick. Jordan rolls her up for a two count. Jordan hits a back drop to Ross and Lee Haywood whips her to the corner. Lauren Boebert levels Ross with a stiff punch. Burgess Owens tags Ben McAdams with a right hand. McAdams counters an Owens’s suplex into a sleeper – Owens flips him forward to break the hold and goes to work with a volley of kicks. Boebert goes after Manning’s ankle.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez charges around the ring and levels Boebert. Ocasio-Cortez rolls Boebert into the ring and goes to work on her. Jamaal Bowman tags Owens with a right hand. Bowman and Owens circle each other and then lock up in the middle of the ring. Bowman locks in a standing side head lock and goes for shoulder tackle, but Owens barely budges. Bowman misses a splash in the corner. Bowman lifts Owens onto his shoulder, but Owens escapes and lands on his feet. McAdams comes in and finally takes Owens off his feet. Head butt by McAdams and he works over Owens in the corner. McAdams runs the ropes and takes down Owens with a drop kick. McAdams for the pinfall – Owens kicks out. McAdams runs the ropes again – Owens catches McAdams on the return with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Owens hooks the leg. One. Two. Three.

Ben McAdams (Progressive Alliance) eliminated.

Colleen Crowder: WHAT?

Johnny Suave: “BURGESS OWENS DEFEATS BEN McADAMS AND THE AMERICAN PATRIOTS TIE THIS MATCH UP!”

Crowder pulls herself together.

Colleen Crowder: “Still plenty of time for the Progressive Alliance to win. We’ve already projected it.”

Manning levels Haywood and heads up top. Haywood catches her and slams Manning to the mat. Cover. One. Two –

Johnny Suave: “MANNING KICKS OUT!”

Crowder almost appears relieved.

With time running short, Jim Jordan goes to work with super kicks on Adam Schiff and the two men battle back and forth. Lauren Boebert blocks a running power slam from Ocasio-Cortez and posts her in the corner. They get into a heated back and forth battle. Deborah K. Ross hits a forearm shot over the top rope on Lee Haywood. Kathy Manning follows with a kick to Haywood. Schiff throws Jordan over the top rope and then engages with Burgess Owens. Manning and Ross drag Haywood to ring center- DOUBLE DDT! Manning covers. One. Two. THREE!

Lee Haywood (American Patriots) eliminated.

Neither team could score a pinfall the rest of the match. When the bell sounds the Progressive Alliance hold a slim 4-3 advantage and pick up the win.

WINNER: Team Progressive Alliance @ 20:00

Colleen Crowder: “YES! Just like we called it!”

Johnny Suave: “For the second consecutive Extreme Election Night, the Progressive Alliance win the House War Games Match. This one was very close though.”

Crowder calls it further proof a ‘blue wave’ is taking over PCW. Suave ignores her.

BACKSTAGE PCW cameras find Charlie Blackwell and ‘PCW Extreme Pizza Delivery Girl’ Tessa Martin laid out on the floor backstage being attended to by Nurse Nellie and the PCW Clean-Up Crew. Also on hand, ‘Red Solo Cup’ Ray McAvay and the Deplorables.

No sign of Professor McCarthy’s Flock.

More worrying, no sign of PCW Owner Dawn McGill. One of the Deplorables finds a heel shoe McGill was wearing on the floor and brings it to McAvay.

McAvay asks if anyone’s seen McGill? The PCW Clean-Up Crew tell him the only people they found were Blackwell and Martin.

McAvay immediately sends the Deplorables out to look for Dawn McGill.

**********************************

MATCH #7/MICHIGAN SENATE MEDALLION MATCH:

Gary Peters (Progressive Alliance) vs. John James (American Patriots)

**********************************

Peters goes right after James. Rights to James. James pushes him down. Peters pops back up. A dropkick to James. James sends Peters out of the ring.

Johnny Suave: “That was a tough fall. Peters is a little shaken up.”

Colleen Crowder: “He’s just giving James false hope. This one’s in the bag.”

Peters back in. James hits an Enziguri and beats down Peters a bit. Hangman’s DDT. Cover. One. Two- Peters kicks out. James runs the ropes from side to side and dropkick’s Peters’s leg! Peters hobbles into a single leg takedown! Cover. One – TWO! Again Peters kicks out. James keeps the pressure on. He goes after the leg with a standing kneebar. Peters endures. James takes him down again and covers. One – Two – NO!

Johnny Suave: “Gary Peters stays alive in this match.”

Colleen Crowder: “He’s got John James right where he wants him, Johnny.”

Peters throws a haymaker and rocks James! James returns the favor and throws haymakers right back. James kicks the bad leg – Peters falls to the mat. James with a sunset flip – cover. One – TWO! Peters survives again. James stands and takes Peters’s bad leg. Spin.

Johnny Suave: “FIGURE FOUR LEG LOCK!”

James has it in tight and Peters’s is in a lot of trouble.

Johnny Suave: “THIS COULD BE IT!”

Colleen Crowder: “Nope. It’s all under control.”

James releases the hold and hooks the leg.

Colleen Crowder: “We’re projecting that Gary Peters is going to WIN this match!”

One. Two. TH-

But before James can get to three, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson run down and pull the referee out of the ring.

Johnny Suave: “HOLD IT!”

Whitmer sprays mace into the referee’s eyes. He falls to the floor and is out of commission.

James goes over to the ropes to find out what’s going on. Bad idea.

Johnny Suave: “HOLY CRAP! SHE JUST MACED JOHN JAMES!”

James stumbles back and falls over Peters. Peters immediately rolls him up.

A new referee slides into the ring.

ONETWOTHREE!

Johnny Suave: “QUICK COUNT!”

The referee calls for the bell and then takes off towards the back.

Colleen Crowder: “BLUE WAVE! BLUE WAVE!”

WINNER: Gary Peters (Progressive Alliance) @ 8:10

Suave can’t believe it.

Johnny Suave: “John James had this match won but Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson pulled the referee out of the ring. Whitmer maced the referee, then John James. Peters rolled up James to get the win.”

Crowder interrupts and informs Suave that the Progressive Alliance are now 2-0 against the American Patriots in the Senate Medallion competition. Suave no-sells Crowder and corrects her.

Johnny Suave: “With the win, it’s now tied up at two and two for the night. Mark Kelly and Gary Peters win for the Progressive Alliance. Lindsey Graham and Tommy Tuberville for the American Patriots. The Progressive Alliance won a tight House War Games Match. And now it’s down to our final two matches of the night. The PCW Women’s Title match. And the PCW Title match.”

Crowder attempts to cut in but Suave gets a message in his earpiece. It’s breaking news…

BACKSTAGE Nurse Nellie and the PCW Clean-Up Crew are back at work attending to Ray McAvay.

Johnny Suave: “Dawn McGill is missing. Charlie Blackwell and ‘PCW Extreme Pizza Delivery Girl’ Tessa Martin were attacked and can’t wrestle now in their matches. And now Ray McAvay has been taken out.”

Colleen Crowder: “The important thing Johnny is our narrative and our narrative states the Progressive Alliance are doing well tonight- the Donald Trump era of PCW is mercifully coming to an end.”

Quick cut to the American Patriots’ box.

THE AMERICAN PATRIOT BOX The Coke Brothers-Charles and David, financiers and mover and shaker of the American Patriots, and Executive Director of the Lincoln Project Sarah Lenti continue to watch the show from their suite. The Cokes glance over and meet eyes with…

Quick cut to the Progressive Alliance box.

PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE BOX …George Moros, big money spender and mover and shaker in the Progressive Alliance. There’s smiles all the way around.

Johnny Suave: “Well. The Cokes and Moros seem pleased with the turn of events here. Too pleased.”

Suave thinks something is definitely up.

A STREET CORNER IN STANSTEAD, QUEBEC Along the banks of the River Tomifobia at the street sign marking the corner of Rue Dufferin and Cordeau and with a large blue sign welcoming people to the province of Quebec in the background, stand Meghan Markle and her bonny Prince Harry.

Meghan Markle: As long as that contemptable Donald Trump is the CEO of the Political Universe, this is as close as I’m going to get to the border of the United States.

Prince Harry: Yes dear. Whatever you want, dear.

Markle is at least happy that a proper woman will hold the PCW Women’s title after tonight- Kathryn Randall Collins.

Meghan Markle: She’ll be much better than that awful Sierra Whalen.

She adds that KRC’s win will be another shot across the bow to get rid of Trump and allow her to return to Los Angeles- home of the enlightened people.

Prince Harry: If we could could just fly in for a weekend, we could get to see KRC wrestle and-

And that sends the royal into a fit.

Meghan Markle: NO. NOnononononoNO!

Markle hops up and down and screams.

Meghan Markle: I will NOT set foot in that country until that horrible man is out of power. She turns to Harry who sighs.

Prince Harry: Whatever she wants- she gets.

Cut back to the broadcast desk…

Johnny Suave: Well, I’ll give her credit for sticking to her guns and actually staying out of the country – unlike the other celebs who swore up and down they were going to leave the country and didn’t.

Colleen Crowder: It’s not fair. If Donald Trump would just go away, Meghan Markle could finally come home.

Johnny Suave: Well, there’s another reason to hope Donald Trump prevails in 2020.

Colleen Crowder: JOHNNY!

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The entrance music of Sierra Whalen comes on and the Alaskan Rogue appears.

‘Alaskan Rogue’ Sierra Whalen AGE: 29 / HT: 5’ 9” WT: 120 / HOME: Palmer, AK FIN: Eskimo Pieface

Johnny Suave: “KRC versus Sierra Whalen. It’s time for our first main event of the night. The PCW Women’s Title match.”

Whalen makes her way down towards the ring.

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KRC comes out next.

Kathryn Randall Collins “KRC” AGE: 37 / HT: 5′ 11″ WT: 145 / HOME: Ft. Myers, FL FIN: Gogoplata

Colleen Crowder: I agree wholeheartedly with Meghan Markle. If there’s any justice in this world, that little inbred redneck will not get a sniff of a chance to win the belt. Kathryn Randall Collins is a proper role model for women and we believe she will win.

The national media has also arrived at ringside: CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, Fox News, One America News, and NewsMax. Immediately, the ‘traditional’ news outlets (CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and MSNBC) object to OAN and NewsMax being at ringside and there’s a lot of back and forth chirping between the two sides.

The referee is ready to go and the match begins.

**********************************

MAIN EVENT #1/PCW WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH:

Kathryn Randall Collins (Progressive Alliance) vs. ‘Alaskan Rogue’ Sierra Whalen (American Patriots)

**********************************

Johnny Suave: “This is for the PCW Women’s title!”

KRC and Whalen eye each other as they slowly meet at the center. Lock up. Whalen looks to have gained the advantage but KRC swiftly takes an arm wringer. Whalen reverses – KRC reverses back – Whalen reverses and shoves KRC away. We start over. The crowd buzzes as again KRC and Whalen glare at each other. They circle. Lock up – Whalen takes a chop from Parker. Whalen returns the favor. KRC feints a chop and drives a thrust kick into the chest of Whalen. Whalen down – cover. One – two – Whalen shoots the shoulder up and rolls out of the ring. KRC paces back and forth impatiently.

ABC’s Martha Raddatz and Jon Karl immediately grab Whalen and throw her back into the ring.

Johnny Suave: “And there’s our impartial, independent media at work again.”

Colleen Crowder: “They’re just doing their job Johnny.”

Lock up. KRC takes control. Belly to back suplex. Collins then hits three rolling gutwrench suplexes in a row. Cover. One – two – Whalen kicks out.

Suave thinks that was a ‘fast count.’

Colleen Crowder: “That was a perfect count.”

Whalen slowly climbs back to her feet. KRC waves her towards her – Whalen swipes at KRC. KRC boots Whalen again! KRC rocks Whalen with an uppercut – another uppercut. She runs the ropes and eats a shoulder block from Whalen. Whalen covers. One…………two…….. KRC kicks out.

Johnny Suave: “Okay. That count seemed to be a little on the slow side.”

Colleen Crowder: “All these complaints about the counts. Gosh Johnny, it’s like you want Sierra Whalen to win.”

Johnny Suave: “Actually Colleen, it’s glaringly evident to everyone with the IQ of a brick that you want KRC to win.”

Crowder goes indignant but the match continues.

KRC takes Whalen to the ropes and drags her head across the ropes. She backs up and throws another haymaker. KRC runs the ropes – Whalen backdrops KRC and then follows with a snap suplex. She lays the boots to KRC and drops a leg on her thigh. Whalen’s elbow connects. KRC pushes back and staggers to get up. Whalen pushes her backward and rushes in to ram into her against the corner turnbuckle. Whalen fires off furious fists. She’s admonished by the referee for using a closed fist. KRC returns fire and Whalen backs away. She looks at the referee- the referee shakes his head.

Johnny Suave: “And that wasn’t a closed fist?”

Colleen Crowder: “Stop being so obvious. You want Whalen to win.”

Whalen launches herself forward and whips KRC into the corner. Now Whalen charges in – MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow to the ring apron – THEY PULL KRC OUT OF THE WAY! *COLLISION* Whalen slams into the corner turnbuckle and slides down to a seated position. Now MSNBC’s Brian Williams, CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Anderson Cooper blatantly choke Whalen while the referee is ‘distracted.’

Johnny Suave: “WHAT THE HELL?”

The referee finally puts a stop to the Whalen mugging. KRC back on offense. Scoop slam. Cover. One-two- Whalen kicks out. KRC lifts her up- DEATH VALLEY DRIVER TO WHALEN! Cover. One-two- Whalen just kicks out.

Johnny Suave: “This match has been turned on its ear by blatant outside interference.”

Colleen Crowder: “That’s simply not true Johnny and shame on you for spreading fake news. We are now projecting that Kathryn Randall Collins will become the new PCW Women’s Champion.”

Whalen reaches for the ropes but her hand’s about a foot and half away. She tries to inch closer. Finally, KRC whaps her in the back of the head and pulls her to the middle of the ring. Whalen tries to kick her way out. KRC sits on her back and grabs hold of her wrists. She crosses Whalen’s arms under her chin and pulls back on the arms.

Johnny Suave: Straitjacket by KRC and she is in control of this match.

Whalen fights out and tries to pull herself up – KRC collects her and drives her to the mat with a powerbomb. Whalen hits hard. KRC moves in for the kill. She hooks the leg. One–two–THREE!

Crowder nearly jumps out of her chair. She lets out a loud ‘whoop!’

WINNER AND NEW PCW WOMEN’S CHAMPION: Kathryn Randall Collins (Progressive Alliance) @ 10:04

Johnny Suave: “With an assist from the media, Kathryn Randall Collins of the Progressive Alliance has defeated the American Patriots’ Sierra Whalen and she is the new PCW Women’s Champion!”

While KRC celebrates inside the ring, OAN and NewsMax get into a heated argument with CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, and even Fox News over what just happened.

Before Crowder can get started, Suave pre-emptively sends it to a commercial break.

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stands outside his house to make his plea for Joe Biden to bring PCW to the Empire State- New York.

Bill de Blasio: “Joe. When you become the new PCW CEO tonight, please think about New York City!”

Johnny Suave: “Business leaving in droves.”

In the background, an endless parade of moving trucks pass by.

De Blasio says with all due respect to California, New York City is a big event city. He hails New York City as the place where nobody sleeps.

While the Mayor speaks, Harry and Marv of Home Alone fame remove furniture and valuables from de Blasio’s house.

Johnny Suave: “Oh. And a crime problem, too.”

Bill de Blasio: “New York City is the place to be.”

Several moving trucks honk as they drive past.

Bill de Blasio: “So come on Joe. Move PCW to the big time. Move to New York City…”

Harry and Marv remove de Blasio’s watch and steal the keys to his car.

Bill de Blasio: “…so you too can live the New York dream!”

*********************************

Suave begins the pre-match run-up to tonight’s main event by showing highlights from the Progressive Alliance convention.

(VIDEO: PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE MATCH RESULTS) Deval Patrick, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Michael Bennet, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobucher, Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg, Tulsi Gabbard, John K. Delaney, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigleg

Elimination is through being tossed over the top rope.

-Tulsi Gabbard is not allowed into the arena and prevented from participating in the match.

-Delaney and Patrick, Bennet, Steyer, and Yang go really early.

-Klobuchar and Buttgleg put up more of a fight but then they fall away.

Mike Bloomberg labored throughout the match and gets rolled up out of the blue by Elizabeth Warren. Bloomberg finishes a disappointing fourth.

Warren goes next. Sanders pins her.

Then it’s down to two- Sanders vs. Biden.

This comes down to Sanders and Biden grappling on the mat. Sanders rolls him up.

One…

Two…

South Carolina Senator Jim Clyburn, with the blessing of the Progressive Alliance establishment, runs in and rolls Biden on top of Sanders.

One…

Two…

Three! The referee calls for the bell.

WINNER: Joe Biden @ 19:50

(END VIDEO)

Johnny Suave: “That’s how Joe Biden won his math. Let’s see how Donald Trump got here as he faced off against Joe Walsh (hint: NOT the guitarist) and William Weld in the American Patriots match at their convention.”

(VIDEO: AMERICAN PATRIOTS MATCH RESULTS) CEO of the Political Universe Donald Trump (R-NY) vs. Joe Walsh (R-IL) vs. William Weld (R-MA)

The bell sounds.

Trump comes out and kicks Walsh in the balls. DDT by Trump. Cover.

Walsh is eliminated. (:12)

Then Weld rushes in. Trump drop toeholds Weld and he hits the corner turnbuckle. Cover.

One…two…THREE- Weld’s done. (:25)

WINNER: Donald Trump @ :25

(END VIDEO)

Johnny Suave: “Donald Trump took an easy victory over Joe Walsh and William Weld and now we’ve reached the moment of truth. Our ring announcer is Kimber Marshall and let’s send it to her now.”

Marshall stands in the middle of the ring.

Kimber Marshall: “Ladies and gentlemen, this match will be…”

Crowd: ONE fall!

Kimber Marshall: “And it will be for the PCW Title! Introducing first…

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Johnny Suave: “Ah. Bruce Springsteen. Another one of the many celebs who’ve promised to move out of the US if Trump wins.”

Colleen Crowder: “Don’t you bad mouth ‘The Boss.’ Springsteen speaks the truth.”

Joe Biden comes out with his wife Dr. Jill Biden (and don’t you forget the ‘Dr.’ part). Behind him is his choice for Aide de Camp Kamala Harris.

Then Marshall announces the Progressive Alliance wrestler taking part in the match.

‘Mr. Hollywood’ Kevin Daniels HT: 6′ 0″ WT: 200 / HOME: Hollywood, CA FIN: The True Hollywood Blockbuster

Daniels comes out and shakes hands with both Bidens and Kamala Harris.

Kimber Marshall: “And their opponent…”

https://youtu.be/-bzWSJG93P8

The supporters “TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!” chant merges with the melody of the Imperial March and becomes:

“TRUMP.

TRUMP.

TRUMP-TRUMP-TRUMMMMP

TRUMP-TRUMP-TRUMMMMP”

Dressed in all black complete with a flowing black cape, Donald Trump and his spokesperson Kayleigh McEnaney walk out on stage to a big ovation from the American Patriots.

Kimber Marshall: Residing in the Trump Tower in the great city of New York, New York! He promises to…

The Trump supporters shout out: “MAKE PCW GREAT AGAIN!”

Kimber Marshall: Accompanied by his Aide de Camp Mike Pence and representing the American Patriots! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE CURRENT CEO OF PCW- DONALD J. TRUMP!

Again, the Trump supporters let loose with thunderous roar that shakes the building. Trump nods and acknowledges the fans.

Johnny Suave: “Here he is. The current CEO of PCW. Donald Trump.”

Colleen Crowder: “Ugh. And he’s being led to the ring by… her.”

Johnny Suave: “You’re just saying that because Kayleigh McEnaney won’t play the ‘game’ the way you want her to play.”

McEnaney leads the way as Trump, black robe ruffling behind him as he strides, makes his way down the steps from the stage toward the ring followed by Mike Pence and Pence’s wife Karen.

Marshall then announces the American Patriots’s wrestler.

‘Starz N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott HT: 6′ 3″ WT: 250, HOME: Ottumwa, IA FIN: American Stars and Fujiawa Arm Bar

Scott walks out on stage and shakes hands with Trump, Pence, Mrs. Pence. Then the entourage heads towards the ring.

Johnny Suave: “So here we are. This is for the PCW title and then we will find out who will be the PCW CEO for the next four years.”

Colleen Crowder: “We already know the answer. It’s going to be Joe Biden.”

Biden shouts encouragement to Kevin Daniels- but he’s facing the wrong way. Harris subtly turns him around towards the ring.

Before the match starts, Suave and Crowder are joined by a special guest- the CEO of Facetwitogram Jack Buckenberg.

**********************************

MAIN EVENT #2/PCW TITLE MATCH:

‘Starz N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott w/PCW CEO Donald Trump, Aide de Camp Mike Pence (American Patriots) vs. ‘Mr. Hollywood’ Kevin Daniels w/PCW CEO candidate Joe Biden, Aide de Camp candidate Kamala Harris (Progressive Alliance)

**********************************

The bell sounds and the match begins.

Scott rushes forward. Daniels side-steps him. The two men circle. Scott aggressively comes forward. Daniels plays defense and makes him chase. Daniels connects with a spin kick that gives Scott some pause. Quick lock up – Scott takes a headlock – Daniels slips out. Scott fires off right and left hands. He follows with a standing spinebuster. Hooks the leg – one – two – Daniels kicks out and calls a ‘time-out.’ He rolls outside the ring and confers with Biden and Harris.

Johnny Suave: “Kevin Scott off to a fast start here causing Mr. Hollywood to bail out of the ring.”

Jack Buckenberg: “Actually Johnny, before you share this content, you might want to know that fact-checking sites, Snope.com, and other media sources have disputed the accuracy of it.”

Colleen Crowder: “Yeah! Kevin Daniels is probably just getting warmed up and wanted to talk strategy with Joe Biden.”

Once back in, Daniels and Scott tie up – Scott gains control. He wrenches, hammerlocks, and throws forearms into Daniels’s back. Headlock by Scott and hits the takeover. Scott tries to grind Daniels down. Daniels fights up and around but Scott wrenches the arm again. Scott takes a wristlock. Daniels throws a couple body shots. Surprise roll into a REAR NAKED CHOKE! Scott elbows out. Daniels with a drop toehold and gets the legs to hook them. One – Scott powers out. Scott goes for a rear bear hug – Daniels fights his way out with elbows. Daniels backdrops Scott to the mat. Scott up – Daniels legsweeps him back down. Cover. One – two – no. Scott powers out.

Johnny Suave: “Better from Kevin Daniels there. He seems to be coming into the match.”

Colleen Crowder: “Johnny, I don’t know what match you’ve been watching but it’s clear Daniels is totally dominating the match.”

Johnny Suave: “That’s debatable.”

Jack Buckenberg: “Actually Johnny, we’ll allow it. It’s a factual statement.”

Johnny Suave: “Of course you will.”

Scott nails Daniels with a kick to the jaw. Cover. One – two – 2.5 – Daniels just kicks out before the three count. Scott boots Daniels in the gut. Daniels drops to a knee – Scott drags him right back up. He goes to whip Daniels – Daniels reverses and knees Scott low and hard! Daniels hits the ropes and Scott ducks under. Another boot to the gut and a Sling Blade takes Daniels down. Cover. One – Two – NO! Daniels just gets the shoulder up.

Johnny Suave: “Another close pinfall for Kevin Scott. He is really doing well here tonight.”

Jack Buckenberg: “Again Johnny, before you share something like that, you should know that independent fact checkers dispute its accuracy.”

Johnny Suave: “It’s an opinion Jack that I’m entitled to based on what I’ve witnessed here during the match.”

Jack Buckenberg: “Once again, what you said is disputed by third party fact checkers.”

Johnny Suave: “*BLEEP* your third-party fact checkers.”

Daniels grows a little frustrated. He goes to the referee and starts to berate him. This allows Kamala Harris to sneak into the ring with a steel-folding chair. She raises it up – Mike Pence runs in- followed by his wife Karen (Pence never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side). Mike grabs the chair and stops Harris – the chair falls and accidently lands on Harris’s foot.

Colleen Crowder: “MIKE PENCE DID THAT ON PURPOSE!”

Johnny Suave: “Harris was going to hit ‘Starz N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott with that chair.”

Jack Buckenberg: “Er. Independent fact-checkers say that statement contains false information-“

Suave turns off Buckenberg’s microphone.

Crowder goes ballistic and demands Suave turn Buckenberg’s microphone back on.

Johnny Suave: “I guess it really does suck when you get censored, huh.”

Pence apologizes to Harris for the incident.

Harris kicks him in the groin.

Johnny Suave: “Ooooh. Apology not accepted. And Kamala Harris did that on purpose.”

Colleen Crowder: “She did not! She……….um, slipped.”

Karen Pence then tackles Harris in the ring and both women roll around on the mat.

Johnny Suave: “CAT-FIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! CAT-FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!”

Colleen Crowder: “Okay. That was totally offensive, Johnny.”

Meanwhile, Daniels runs the ropes – Scott ducks a clothesline and waits for him to come back to clock Daniels with a right hand. Scott blocks a suplex attempt using the power of gravity. Daniels walks into a body slam. Scott covers. One – two – 2.999! Daniels just gets a shoulder off the mat. Scott CLOBBERS Daniels with a right hand. Cover. One – two – THR-THE REFEREE GETS PULLED OUT OF THE RING!

Johnny Suave: “WHAT THE HELL?”

All three members of the Guild of Low Level Media People Trying to Make a Name for Themselves Colleen Crowder- New York Times, Sharon Johns- CNN, and Dan Miller- Washington Post yank the referee out of the ring.

All hell breaks loose. The media climb into the ring while another referee appears and rolls in under the ropes.

Scott’s trying to figure out what’s going on. Daniels just gets back to his feet and even he’s wondering what’s happening.

The referee calls for the bell. He goes to ring announcer Kimber Marshall and tells her what his decision is.

Marshall climbs into the ring and makes the announcement.

WINNER AND NEW PCW MEN’S CHAMPION: ‘Mr. Hollywood’ Kevin Daniels (Progressive Alliance) @ 10:48

Johnny Suave: “WHAT?”

A huge celebration erupts in the ring as Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and former Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams join Daniels, the Bidens, Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the Guild of Low Level Media People Trying to Make a Name for Themselves (Crowder-NY Times, Johns-CNN, and Miller-Washington Post).

Outside the ring and around the bar- not so much. The PCW fans are shocked. Kevin Scott is stunned at the decision. Trump is furious and tries to corral the referee but the ref is in the middle of the Progressive Alliance party going on in the ring.

Johnny Suave: “Kevin Daniels has been named the new PCW champion even though he did not pin ‘Starz N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott.”

If the PCW fans didn’t like the Daniels decision, they definitely didn’t like what happened next…

THE DECISION. TRUMP OR BIDEN? The Coke Brothers (Charles and David), George Moros, Lincoln Project Executive Director Sarah Lenti slowly make their way down to the ring.

Johnny Suave: “HOLY CRAP!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Johnny Suave: “The fans have already connected the dots on this one. Dawn McGill- missing. The DC Establishment is here.”

The Cokes, Moros, and Lenti have to duck and dodge debris.

Biden stands in front of the big group that’s gathered inside the ring for the announcement. Donald Trump stands on the outside.

The four climb into the ring. Moros has a microphone and he doesn’t waste any time.

George Moros: “Joe Biden-“

The Progressive Alliance explode with joy inside the ring.

Johnny Suave: “THAT’S IT! JOE BIDEN HAS BEEN SELECTED TO BECOME THE NEW CEO OF POLITICAL CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Biden looks towards Trump for the traditional post-match handshake- but Trump has already left ringside and headed towards the back.

Johnny Suave: “NO HANDSHAKE. TRUMP’S GOING TO THE BACK.”

Suave wraps up the show by reviewing the results.

-MATCH #1-Kayleigh McEnaney defeats CNN’s Jake Tapper and Brian Stelter in a handicap match -MATCH #2/ARIZONA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Mark Kelly (Progressive Alliance) defeated Martha McSally (American Patriots) -Gavin Newsom (CA-Progressive Alliance) makes a case for PCW to come to California. -MATCH #3/SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Lindsey Graham (American Patriots) defeated Jaime Harrison (Progressive Alliance) -Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump interview with PCW Owner Dawn McGill for the PCW CEO position. -MATCH #4/PCW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Jill Berg Enterprises (Conservative Inc./American Patriots) defeat The Green World Order (Progressive Alliance) and The Deplorables (American Heartland Coalition) -MATCH #5/ALABAMA SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Tommy Tuberville (American Patriots) defeated Doug Jones (Progressive Alliance) -MATCH #6/HOUSE WAR GAMES MATCH: Progressive Alliance vs. American Patriots -MATCH #7/MICHIGAN SENATE MEDALLION MATCH: Gary Peters (Progressive Alliance) defeated John James (American Patriots) -MAIN EVENT #1/PCW WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Kathryn Randall Collins (Progressive Alliance) defeated ‘Alaskan Rogue’ Sierra Whalen (American Patriots) -MAIN EVENT #2/PCW TITLE MATCH: ‘Mr. Hollywood’ Kevin Daniels w/PCW CEO candidate Joe Biden, Aide de Camp candidate Kamala Harris (Progressive Alliance) defeated ‘Starz N. Stripes’ Kevin Scott w/PCW CEO Donald Trump, Aide de Camp Mike Pence (American Patriots) -Joe Biden named the new CEO of PCW.

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sugarnospice · 4 years ago

Text

The semester that lasted a year..

Its final week and I feel like I’ve lived 9 different lives in the last 4 months.

This semester was unconventional to say the least and I feel like I’ve lived an entire year during it. This was my first full semester with all online classes. I tried to enroll in hybrid classes but soon after school started, the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed forcing everything to remain online for the rest semester. Of course this was not a surprise but nonetheless still disappointing. I missed the feeling of walking into a classroom on the first day and choosing my unassigned-assigned seat for the semester, usually an aisle seat within the first 3 rows. I also missed walking around my beautiful campus in between classes and catching up with people I know along the way. Most importantly I missed the atmosphere that surrounds the academic buildings and libraries during a normal semester. People hustling to get work done before the weekend hits, some girl on her 3rd espresso shot trying to finish a midterm paper, the frat boy that only came to socialize, the group that can't seem to agree on a business proposal…sigh, I never knew these would be the things I missed most.

I would say the most difficult thing this semester was getting myself to focus in my room. I have never been one to do homework in bed because my bed is for sleeping and comfort, not stress. I made my work desk to be as comfy as I could always making sure my shades were open to let natural light in. That's another thing, during a typical semester I never worried about being idle all day or not getting enough sunlight but with everything being done in my room I had to make an extra effort to keep myself in high spirits. The best thing I did for myself was create a routine. I knew each day of the week what subjects I would be working on, when I had to be at work, and when I had time to schedule a break or a workout. Soon after the semester kicked off my schedule became second nature.

Having an entirely online semester was not something I thought I would enjoy but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I did end up liking it. I got to do things on my own time and in my own environment. I have always struggled with sitting in classes and focusing on the professor and not the students around me who were shaking their legs or clicking their pens. I got to create my own school bubble and work through things the way I best knew how. I tend to need some kind of background noise when I take notes because it helps me remember content based on the song I was listening to when reviewing (sounds backwards I know, but it works for me). Finals are still winding down for me but I’m supposed to be ending my semester with a 4.0. Never have I ever gotten grades like this and I am so proud of myself for working through these past 15 weeks and staying on top of my school work.

Without even taking school into account, Fall semester 2020 has been my favorite semester of college. I started this semester out with the position of Rho Gamma for the panhellenic community here at JMU. This position entailed me being assigned 13 Potential New Members (PNM’s) who were rushing this fall. I got to work with so many other women in the Greek community here and got experience with leadership, conflict management, scheduling and networking. I was able to find 11 of my 13 girls homes and 1 even ended up in my own chapter. It was comforting to know that these girls trusted me with their opinions and they opened up to me alot during the 2 weeks we worked together.

I also moved into new housing this year and my roommates were everything and more for me. They worked hard and that motivated me to do my own work. The fact that they are all seniors and are graduating in the spring gave us all the more reason to try going out and doing things on the weekends together while we still can. Bethany is the best roommate to get my mind off of things with because she always has so much to share. I’m so excited to see how she excels at her job in the future and even more excited for her to progress in the new relationship she found recently. Sara, who is my floormate has been nothing but amazing in supporting me everytime I come home and have something I need to get out. She listened to my bad mornings after a night out and was there to give me a reality check when it was needed most. Natalie, who doubles as my roommate and big, has done so much this semester to move forward in her career and I'm inspired everyday by how hardworking and passionate she is about it. She supported me in the process of transitioning to Chapter President and was a great friend to lean on during wine nights.

Because of COVID-19, I wasn't sure how I was going to meet new people this year. My favorite thing has always been getting to know new people and figuring out how they influence my life. At the start of the semester it was difficult to do anything because we were constantly being hit with possible exposure. At one point JMU was 9th in the nation for leading cases of covid so you can imagine how scary it was at the start. Nevertheless after reflection I found that I created strong relationships with 10 new people this semester while cultivating my previous ones. My favorite friend has been my neighbor Adrian. He has been a driving force in most of the new friends I have found. I started out being very reluctant to be his friend but him being a pisces and all, I literally could not help myself. Adrian has been great at letting me break out of my shell and introducing me to new music, food, people and places and if there's one good thing 2020 has given me it was his friendship. He has introduced me to a whole world I didn't know existed at JMU. The latin community is a small one here but the culture is so strong. I finally feel like I have met people who are like me and I don't feel like I have to be more than who I am for them

This semester I was also elected Chapter President for Gamma Phi Beta at JMU. This was an intense honor and I am so excited to work along the other exec members in 2021. I often find myself lost in my feelings about being president. I have not had a leadership position this large since I was a senior in highschool and already it has shown to be a much larger role. Being in charge of 200+ girls is going to be a challenge but I thankfully have a large support system begging me, one I intend to use. While president I hope to be a role model for the younger members and leave a lasting legacy with my chapter. When I was first initiated into Gphi I knew one day this chapter would bring me to great things. The women I have been surrounded with these last 3.5 years have made me stronger, smarter and more kind. Giving back to the organization and the greek community is something I am so happy I had the opportunity to do.

To say the least, I'm excited for spring semester to begin and I'm hopeful for where it will lead me. Thank you fall 2020 for all of the laughs, the cries, the love and all of the opportunities under the sun!

Shi

#college writing

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serenlyss · 6 years ago

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Mob Psycho Fic Recs

I've been keeping track of some of my favorite finished and in-progress mp100 fics as I find them and figured I'd show them some love by linking them here! They come in no particular order or genre, just whichever I bookmarked last haha. If you"re looking for good mp100 fics be sure to check these out!

To Strike A Chord Author: Hino Rating: Teen Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: platonic ritshou, mutual trauma, post world domination arc Summary: Ritsu visits Shou, feeling uneasy about his past. But he's not the only one. My Notes: Short and sweet, it touches on Shou and Ritsu’s mutual trauma from the World Domination arc and gives insight in the Suzuki family relationship before Touichirou decided to take over the world. Also Shou plays the guitar.

Of Cold Hands Reaching Author: UncannyCookie Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: terumob (can be read as platonic), angst, ptsd, trauma recovery, hurt/comfort, dissociation, miscommunication, post-mogami arc, slow burn Summary: After six months in Mogami's mind world that weren't even real anyway, Mob returns to his old life. Everything is fine. My Notes: A really interesting take on what Mob’s mind looks like after spending six months in Mogami’s fake world. It gets pretty real when discussing Mob’s dissociation and apathy about the whole thing but gets sweet at the end and has a happy ending. It’s introspective, which I really like, but has enough lighter moments in between that it doesn’t feel heavy constantly.

Delirium Author: Janekfan Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: serirei, pneumonia, hospitalization, guilt, smoking, depression, sel-harm, panic attacks, fever, sickfic, love, kissing, caretaking, misunderstandings, mental instability, flashbacks, unconsciousness Summary: Reigen questions himself. My Notes: Reigen decides to pick up smoking again as a coping mechanism and hides it from Serizawa. It goes into Reigen’s feelings of self-loathing and depressive tendencies that the manga only really touches on. It’s dreary pretty much throughout but does have a happy ending to end on a high note!

April Fools Author: SparkyFrootloops Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: dad reigen, good parent reigen, teru is reigen’s son, hijinks & shenanigans, pranks Summary: Teruki gets to celebrate April Fools Day at his new home with Reigen. My Notes: This fic is short but so so funny and full of heart. Teru trying to prank Reigen, who he lives with in the context of the story, is hilarious and all the dialogue is just gold. I also really love Mob’s cameo in the second half. Just a solid found family comedy one-shot to lighten your mood and make you smile.

Broken, Repaired, New Author: GalacticConfectionist Rating: T Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: serirei, abuse, child abuse, domestic violence (all abuse is only implied/referenced, never shown), light angst, hurt/comfort, pining, good parent reigen, good brother reigen, original character but she’s really good Summary: “You’re a good kid” He said, ruffling his student’s hair. There’s a moment of quiet and Reigen sighs, “Mob, remember this. Guys who hit women are the biggest losers in the world.” Reigen’s sister comes to visit, shenanigans ensue. My Notes: I don’t usually go for fics with ocs in them since I don’t typically end up connecting with them but this is one of the rare exceptions! Reigen’s sister escapes her abusive husband with her daughter and goes to Reigen for help. She ends up staying with Serizawa and trying to set him up with her brother. Despite the references to abuse it’s actually a very lighthearted fic about wanting to make your friends happy and taking care of those you consider to be family. Misaki and Reigen’s sibling relationship is well-written and she has enough personality and motivation to make me invested in her situation. Just an all-around good read if you want to smile and feel happy.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! lol Author: marnies Rating: Not Rated Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: serirei, good parent reigen, good parent serizawa, sickfic, fluff, epic family moments Summary: reigen and serizawa adopt teru and shou and move in together asmr My Notes: This fic is just a good time. It’s not too far in but still has enough content to be worth a read. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but that’s the charm of it, and it comes across as humorous and lighthearted with its found family dynamics. Reigen and Serizawa are both clueless parents of their adopted sick kids and are just trying to help each other out.

The Space Between Author: sofia-estrella Rating: M (nsfw content in later chapters) Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: serirei, reigen pov, slow burn, coworkers to friends to lovers Summary: Reigen never expected Serizawa to stay. My Notes: A really nice fic about how Reigen and Serizawa’s relationship grows and evolves slowly as they spend more than a year together over the course of the narrative. Both Reigen and Serizawa are very in character and their relationship is approached with care and concern from both sides, which I think is very fitting for them! It does a good job of balancing soft character interaction with personal squabbles and drama, which makes for an interesting and entertaining read.

The Joy of Cooking (for a Family You Didn’t Know You Had) Author: pepperfield Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: good parent reigen, background serirei, found family, unintentional parenthood, cooking, meddling kids, family fluff, food as a metaphor for love, getting together, light pining, 5+1 Summary: At first, it's easy. Mob likes takoyaki. This, Reigen can remember. When Teru moves in, things get a little more complex, but it's fine. He only has to feed one kid on a regular basis; he can handle this. But before he knows it, he's memorized all of Tome's favorite restaurants and he's keeping a stash of snacks in the office just in case Shou visits. This whole "family" business has gotten out of hand. My Notes: Good old dad Reigen taking care of his five unruly children. In this fic Teru lives with Reigen and everyone else is just along for the collective ride. It’s a 5+1 fic about Reigen cooking/buying food for the kids as a way to show he cares about them. It’s really cute and shows how much Reigen cares about the esper boys and Tome after all is said and done in the manga.

On Revelations and Renovations Author: mustdang100 Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: good parent reigen, reigen adopts teru, background serirei, hurt/comfort, adoption, fluff and humor, 5+1 Summary: “I’m really sorry to bother you, but, ah, I don’t suppose that offer to stay at your place for the night was still an option?” Five times Reigen got called a 'dad,' and one time he called himself one - a vignette-style fic on how Teruki grows up and Reigen acquires a family in the days, months, and years following the World Domination arc. My Notes: Teru decides to stay with Reigen after all following the world domination arc, and then never leaves. It’s a super cute and fun fic about found family dynamics between all the main cast, but specifically Reigen and Teru. Teru and Reigen’s banter is well-written and funny, and the whole concept and execution is really charming and fun to ready.

A Real (Psychic) Conman Author: Trinz Rating: T Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: esper!reigen, empath!reigen, swearing, reigen centric Summary: An AU where Reigen actually is the 21st century's greatest psychic- or at least the second, or third, or maybe fourth- the point is that he’s an esper and his "I'm so powerful I can hide my aura" thing is... actually true. My Notes: This is one of my current favorite fics. I read it all over the course of like two days up to its current chapter and I’m in love with the author’s psychic Reigen concept. It follows the canon storyline with some divergence to account for Reigen actually having powers, and really paints him in a different light. It also has an air of mystery with its over-arching plot that, seventeen chapters in, still has only been hinted at, but the real star of the fic is the way a psychically powered Reigen interacts with Mob, Ritsu, and Dimple and the creative ways the author incorporates his powers of telepathy and empathy. Really creative and a super fun long read if you want a longer story!

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digiconjurer · 5 years ago

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Examination of Mahoutsukai Precure’s ending

(A majority of this was written close to a year ago before Star Twinkle Precure wrapped up and Digimon Adventure Kizuna came out. If you enjoyed this, maybe pledge to my patreon so I can write more articles like this)

The second-to-last episode of Mahoutsukai Precure is an oddball, unlike a lot of the other ‘endings’ for past Precure seasons. Usually, the big focus is on just beating the big bad and then goodbye. But here, goodbye is not the end. It’s just the beginning. So let’s talk about it.

The final battle of any series, whether that be a book, an anime or even a fanfic is usually meant to be the highlight of that particular work. A culmination of all the events that have occurred in the story with usually higher production value than everything that’s come between - the last hurrah for the team before they head onto the next season.

But as final fights go for Pretty Cure, Mahoutsukai can be described as … alright. In a season where the focus has been less on exciting battle scenes and more on world-building and the characters, the next couple minutes are no different. Sure, it’s refreshing to see the multiple forms of our heroines in one fight. But it doesn’t really show off all the tools that our heroines have. For example, where are most of the minor linkle stones that the show made a huge deal out of in the early half? Surely those could have come in handy here. Maybe they could’ve been used as additional attacks for giant Hana’s bracelet shooter. Just throwing it out there.

But with the dust now settled and the big bad, the time has come for both worlds to separate. But not before Riko casts just one more spell - a promise that the pair will meet again. They click their wands together and part via the forces of gravity pulling them to their respective worlds. Which is the perfect time for Mofurun to monologue about talking to Mirai. Then Riko joins in - talking about the prospect of them meeting up again, with Mirai finishing it all up by promising to meet both Ha-Chan and Riko on the sixteenth-day moon (the 16th lunar day). All while the background goes down the same street - starting with a shot from the first episode and progressing through the trio's journey. Then just Mirai running at the end.

Of course, there are a number of things to compare this ending too - a lot of yuri manga/anime endings (the ones where the main couple doesn’t get to be together/or one of the girls decides to marry to guy), Princess Kaguya, even Mahoutsukai Sally (one of the first magical girl ‘anime’ and also created by Toei Animation). Heck, a big part of previous Pretty Cure seasons endings is that our heroes need to give up their powers and fairies with the promise that maybe they would get to see each other again. Time marches onward and that doesn’t happen, our heroes growing up. Sure, Hugtto did play with the idea of said precure coming back. But then promptly deaged most of them. Because then they could use all the stock transformation sequences.

But there’s another parallel I would like to highlight here. One that probably is going to sound bizarre and out of left field. So let's talk about Digimon Adventure Tri of all series. More specifically, the relationship between two of the side characters - Daigo Nishijima and Maki Himekawa.

Part of the first group of humans to ever ‘visit’ the digital world on top of ‘saving’ it from the Dark Masters, they too were forced to give something up - their digimon partners. Unlike the chosen children/digidestined that would come after, their digimon were to become the Sovereigns - guardians of the Digital World… who get themselves captured and do jack shit in their home universe. Like seriously, by the time that the events of 02 occur, all of them are trapped away and the digital world is once more in disarray

For Daigo, that meant letting Bearmon become Azulongmon and actually be plot relevant. But Maki isn’t as lucky. On top of serving as a vessel for Homeostasis, she is forced to watch Tapirmon be turned into a beam of light in order to defeat the Dark Masters and seal them away for a couple decades. At least till the cast of Adventure comes around and solves that problem.

Much like those precures, Maki and Daigo’s ‘ending’ serves as a beginning for their story. What little is actually shown on screen.

In the years that followed, the pair finish their education, go to university, graduate and get married. We'll come back to them later, though. For now, let’s return back to Mahoutsukai Precure and see what it has in store for us.

Following a commercial break, we return to 'adult' Mirai heading out for the day. She takes a ride on the subway to a university in Tokyo for her classes. You know, normal adult stuff.

At first glance, this sequence makes it appear that Mirai has ‘given up’ on the promise to reunite with her friends and accepted that such magic could not work now. But, we are only seeing the events at the 'end' of this separation. It's quite possible that she spent a good chunk of time holding on to that belief at first, in the hope that she can reconnect with Riko and everyone else. But eventually, she accepted (partially) that it isn't time yet for them to reunite - that a time will come for both the magic and non-magic world will one day be reconnected.

After her classes, Mirai meets up with her friends to watch a soccer game that involves one of them. While late, she does get to see one of her friends score a goal and cheer him on.

After, our heroine walks home with two of her friends. One of which gets to the subject of seeing witches back in middle school. While Mirai doesn't really say anything in regards to the matter, it does spark something within our heroine's head. A reminder of days long gone.

Back at home, Mirai gets to helping her grandma make dinner. At some point, the conversation turns to talking about how Mirai still carries around Mofurun and how her grandma brought the bear to Mirai in the hospital. The conversation shifts, with Mirai thanking her grandmother for the stories she tells and telling her that’s the reason she met ‘her’.

Let’s take a second to take what she just said. Not Riko. Just ‘her’. While her memories of Riko and time as a precure are still there to an extent, huge parts of it have fallen through. Even in the face of everything laid before, she holds onto that wish - that spell she and Riko cast all those years so they could

But then Mirai’s grandmother says this:

Earnest bonds are your strength. When our feelings are connected, we can make miracles.

On paper, that sounds vaguely philosophical, but not world-changing. But in the context of our finale, it’s the message that Mirai needs in that moment.

After a quick dinner, night falls on the town. Our heroine, however, is suffering from insomnia. There’s no music playing in the background. Just silence. In a way, we’re put right into Mirai’s shoes.

Mofourun takes a tumble, forcing Mirai up. She puts her teddy bear back up, only to be greeted by a gust of wind and a view of the 16th day moon. Which layman’s speak means it's the 16th lunar day on top of it being nearly midnight. Our heroine gets excited, but tries her best to temper her expectations.

She makes a beeline for the park as things come to a head. This is to some extent, a routine that occurs once a lunar month.

What follows is Mirai walking ‘backwards’ - in a more of a metaphysical way. For most of this episode, her mind has been in the present - pushing forward into an unknown future. But here, she ‘fills in’ those on the other side of everything going on. Well, just Riko. But you get the idea. Then she finishes it off by telling the sky above that there’s so much to tell her as the music finally picks up. But it’s not the regular ost we’re treated. No, instead we get the movie insert song ‘Two Wishes’ as Mirai says she misses someone and heads off. Finding a tree of sorts, she gives it a touch. Which results in a strangely-shaped twig falling out. Picking it up, she gives it a wave and says the magical words. Nothing happens. Unsatisfied by this outcome, she drops the twig and begins to make the walk back. But as our heroine reaches the end of the path, she remembers her grandmother’s words. Which is timed for the midway point of Two Wishes so that you hear ‘I want to tell you, I love you’ Damn. You’re not being subtle here, Toei.

Mirai makes the journey down the path once more, culminating in her picking up the twig and running over to the fountain. Once there, we get another

She says the magic words in front of the fountain, asking to see ‘you’ again. So she shouts that sequence again. On her third shouting, Mirai pauses mid-sentence and get treated to a sequence of images from the first episode. The fourth is a similar story, with images from episode 3 through 5 and 9 appearing. From our perspective, it looks as if the show is recapping previous episodes. But from Mirai’s, she remembers all of this to the best of her abilities. It’s like watching something you were in, but you’re manning the camera instead of being in the shot. Or something like that.

Mirai shouts her spell twice more as tears begin to fall down. This time, we are treated to a scene from episode 22 (our main couple reuniting with Ha-chan) and a scene from episode 44 (where our trio are holding hands and cuddling together). After, she repeats the magic words and asks to be together with ‘you’. Then it’s back to her default cry as the scene of Ha-chan disappearing from earlier in the episode plays out once more. Followed by the scene of our heroine looking up at the rainbow. Back in reality though, Mirai shouts the magic spell seven more times. After the seventh uttering, she tells the ground she just wants to see ‘you’ again and finishes off with a please.

Silence comes over the area once more as our heroine’s pendant flashes and the twig becomes covered in light. Mirai says the magic words one more time, followed by ‘Riko...all of you...I want to see you again…’

With that we have silence once more as the twig reverts back to. Mirai is then caught by complete surprise, which is the perfect opportunity for a gust of wind to come out of nowhere and launch our heroine up into the sky. Just ignore the fact that she would be suffering from a possible lack of oxygen, but no matter. At the very least, the silence has finally been broken by the arrival of music.

She falls for a couple seconds, only for the train to make a sudden appearance. Then it’s back to falling. Except oh no! Mofurun is hurtling back towards the earth. Strangely, the music comes to a stop and a hand grabs hold with a solid thud. Well, something like that. Then…

You should be more careful. Mofurun is your dear friend after all, right?

A smile forms on Mirai’s face. We flip around and find ourselves staring down an adult Riko. All while ‘Sparkling Star 100 Carats of Miracles’ starts up.

Their pendants flash one more time, allowing for the pair to float out and have what’s essentially a romantic embrace - confirmation of their wish grant as we’re treated to a shot of the train’s passengers.

Back with Mirai and Riko, they do a twirl around in the air. The tears begin to fall as they continue to hug. Which is promptly interrupted by Mofurun complaining that they were smushing him. So the couple break away and let the teddy bear have some air. Following their arrival is Ha-chan. Which culminates in a twirl around with a still picture of our trio. The episode ends, but there is still much to talk about.

Let’s back up a little though - post the battle and the sequence of Mirai growing up. Outside of the voices of people talking, the music is missing for most of the episode. Taking the place of it is ambient noise - the sound of a subway, people chatting in class, etc. Stuff like that drives home the big difference between the Mirai of the pre-time skip to that of the Mirai of the post-time skip. Mirai has accepted (to an extent) that Riko is gone for now. Instead of moping about how much she misses her girlfriend and trying to continue living within the memories of those ‘good times’, Mirai chose to move on with her life and seek out new opportunities in the non-magic world. Paradoxically though, she still held onto some parts of those days long gone. Her hairstyle is more or less unchanged, with the same to be said about her choice of clothes. All the same people still hang out with her, even taking the time to cheer each other on at sporting events or just engage in small talk. Mofurun still tags along wherever Mirai goee. But now they are just a passenger in their messenger bag instead of their one and only ‘friend’ that gets treated to one-sided conversations.

Even the music heard here adds to this feeling. Two Wishes is a song about a person telling their lover all the things they love about them and how much they want to confess their true feelings to. To connect once more after such a long time after realizing far too late their feelings the first time around. While the person singing the song with Mirai is Mofurun, they are serving as a stand-in for Riko in that moment.

Sparkling*100 Carat of Miracles on the other hand, is a bit more of an enigma. Sure, it sounds like a song just announcing the various forms our two heroines can take. But within all of that, a line is repeated - ‘Future Miracle! Shine strong and bright like a diamond’. Once near the start of the song and then right near the end.

Judging by the moment it starts up, the song is more in reference to the event that had just passed - the future miracle finally happening after both parties have waited patiently for that one moment to see it occur.

And while we don’t get back to Riko until the very end of the episode, we can surmise that she went through a similar process as Mirai did. She stuck around with her friends and colleagues, trying her best to make it through life. While we're never actually told what upper education (High School and College/University) is in the Magical World, Riko was able to score a job as a teacher. All so that when the time comes, she is able to see Mirai again on top of possibly helping support her financially. Like some sort of old married couple.

Which brings us right back to Maki and Daigo. When we last left off with the pair, they had gotten married. Such bonds were sadly not meant to last, however. The marriage fell through and they got a divorce after an unknown number of years

Now in Tri proper, they’re two divorcees reluctantly working together as part of their government job. Said job involves keeping an eye on the cast of Digimon Adventure except for Kari and TK for some reason. Well, that’s Daigo’s job at least. Maki though, never really left the moment of Tapirmon’s death. A little girl trapped in the body of an adult, her only wish is to reunite with her partner and be useful in the eyes of Homeostasis. A task that she put all her eggs into one basket, pushing everyone and everything else out of her life out of her life until her goal was all that remained. But in pushing everyone out and holding onto her good memories, Maki allowed darker forces in and was swallowed up by her own misery by way of the darkness in a parallel version of the dark ocean.

Daigo didn’t get out so lucky either. Getting swallowed up with Tai (one of the main characters of Tri), the two take a tumble down a large hole. Where offscreen, Daigo manages to impale himself on… something. Or perhaps someone stabs him on the way down. We're never told what happened in that fall or how exactly Tai of all people managed to stay unscathed.

Nonetheless, our pair find themselves in a mysterious laboratory. Except it's holding the main cast of 02 and Gennai for some reason. Tai finds Daigo, who reveals that he’s been hiding things from Tai and crew on orders by way of Maki. And that Maki has ties to Yggdrasil.

Then a guy who looks kind of like Gennai appears and turns off life support for the tubes and announces that he’s going to blow up this lab. Thankfully, one of the tubes is coincidentally left empty. But there’s two people and just one tube. Meaning one of them has to stay behind.

Tai examines one of the tubes, only for Daigo to lock him in. When Tai asks why Daigo just trapped him in said tube, Daigo is all like ‘it’s the end of the line for me. I’ve fucked this all up, so remember me and let my time with you mean something.’ Then he presses a button and shoots him and the other tubes out, expiring from his injuries mere moments later as the explosion passes through the laboratory. While the exact state of his body is not shown to the viewer, it’s likely he was reduced to

As endings for characters go, this is a far cry from the happy one found in Mahoutsukai Precure - preaching on the danger of holding onto those dreams and the possible self-destruction that can result from letting that dream be the only guiding force in your life. On top of pushing the people who care about you out of your life by way of a dream that will possibly be the death of you. A perfect counterbalance to this happy end of sorts.

#Mahou Tsukai Precure #digimon adventure tri #analysis

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wbtylerbooks · 5 years ago

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Children’s Book Author Stories – Darryl Silver – Poppi the Okapi

About the Author:

Darryl Silver is a TV Producer/Writer/ Creator. Darryl is the owner of The Idea Factory (www.tiftv.com), a production company. I also own a Brand of Tequila called Calavera Tequila. www.calaveratequila.com

Creative Process:

I have always been a creative person and have had some great success in the past and still do today.

This is actually my first entrance into writing children's books and it has been an adventure to say the least.

In my early career I was blessed to have great mentors. One in particular told me, "write what you know about better than life itself." What this means is write about what you know and it will come out honest and real. I truly believe this.

When my kids were little I used to take them to the zoo almost every weekend. I did this to give my wife a break as she took care of the kids during the weekdays. It was at this time that I became fascinated by the okapi. I was actually more obsessed with the word and I created a rhyming game that my children and I used to play when we would go there. This game continues even today as they are all grown up. I always knew that this would make a great children's book and one day I just had to get it out of my head and down on paper.

About two years ago I finally decided to sit down and write it. The writing process took me about three months and I got a great response from friends, family and educators that I had shown the work too. Since I am a TV producer/writer, I am represented by an agent. It was at this time that she submitted the manuscript to several children's book publishers. We instantly got a great response. However, during the phone calls that I had with the publishers I found experience to be creatively stifling.

My book is long. It's 48 pages long, and, when publishers looked at the manuscript their notes were, "the book is too long", "the book needs to be half the length", "there are too many words on the page" and "some of the words are too big". Being someone who is in control of my creative work in my other business I did not respond very well to these notes. The nail in the coffin for me was actually when I asked them what they thought about an illustrator and they informed me that that would not be my choice – publishers would assign an illustrator to the project.

I decided that If was going to write I book I wanted it to be how I wanted it and not someone else's vision. This is not to say I did not listen to others when they gave me notes, this just means that if your creative vision is going to be decimated then what is the point in writing the book.

It was at this time but I decided that I would go at it by myself and that I would self-publish via Kickstarter.

But, first things first. I had to find an illustrator. I met with a bunch of illustrators domestically and I wasn't overwhelmed with any of their art. The one person that I did think was just okay wanted $170 a page. To spend $8,000 on art, for a first time book writer, was too big of a risk for me to take. I had had great experiences with my other businesses working with fiverr.com and thought that maybe I could find somebody somewhere else in the world who might be more reasonably priced.

I put out an audition and found about a dozen artists and sent them one page of the book and all I asked them to do was illustrate the page with their style of artwork. I was blown away by the level of quality that was sent to me and the person I finally settled upon was a woman named Mary who lived in Pakistan. I can tell you that her art was far more superior than anyone I had seen stateside. It was then that I hired her to do the artwork for the book at a fraction of the price.

The way I approached her was we started with a few pages at a time and then as we went along I would pay her for between 5 to 10 pages at a time to ensure that she would actually finish the project as sometimes people on this platform either don't finish the work or disappear. I made sure that she sent me the masters with each group of pages so that I always had all the work in my possession.

Because of my inexperience I had no idea that it would take another year-and-a-half to finish the art, but in retrospect 48 fully Illustrated pages done in a year-and-a-half isn't too bad. I was very lucky that Mary was so great because as we went along there were a lot of changes to the book not only the illustrations but with the words. It is amazing how you realize what works and what doesn't as the process moves along. Mary was amazing and even though there was a slight language barrier we got the job done.

Once the book was finished (or what I thought was finished), it was time to print a sample of the book. It was at this time that I realized that the formatting that Mary had done was completely wrong. This was not her fault nor my fault but just both of our lack of experience. It was during this time that I started speaking with printers in China. I used www.Alibaba.com and had conversations with over 20 different book printers. I settled upon a couple different printers who gave me amazing help in understanding how to format a book. They were extremely patient with me and we just kept going back and forth via Alibaba and Skype until the actual formatting was done correctly.

I'm very lucky that I have a great friend of mine and somebody has worked for me for years Andrew who knows how use Adobe in such a professional way that he was able to sit with me and we were able to go frame by frame word by word and make changes to the small artwork and formatting issues until the book was actually properly formatted. This was NOT an easy process.

I believe it's important for independent book writers and publishers to figure out the most financially responsible ways to get the job done. We are taking on all the risk to achieve our goals.

I also think it is super important for the writers to understand the process from beginning to end. Each time you hire someone to figure out something for you is one less thing that you understand in this very complex process.

A great resource that I believe every independent writer should join is https://www.ibpa-online.org/. This organization was a godsend in helping me in getting the project done and done correctly.

There are no shortcuts to learning how all this is done it is HARD work.

During this process I wasn't afraid to ask for help. I asked family. I asked friends. I went online and asked strangers for help. You would be shocked at how many people are willing to share their experience and their skills with you.

I am now at the point that I am launching the book. I chose to do it on Kickstarter because I have a great social media network due to my television background. I am relying on lots of friends and associates to help me drive sales of the book. I spent a lot of time looking at how other people were launching their books on Kickstarter and found the most successful ones. I am trying to emulate what they did. But there is no easy shortcut. I know that going forward this is going to take a lot of work and the only person who can do that work is me since I am the best advocate for my own work.

The first thing I did when the formatting was done was print one book via www.bookbaby.com. The reason I did this was that in theory you think you know how the books going to look when it's printed but only once you get a copy in your hand are you able to truly understand the nature of what you've done. I would say at this point my book is about 90% done and when it goes to the final printing we are going to be making the final changes.

I've actually partnered with a charity https://www.okapiconservation.org/ and I have found that they have been super helpful and promoting my book as well as connecting me with lots of people in the Okapi community. They have even connected me with our local zoo who are also going to help me promote the book. I even had the opportunity to meet an Okapi and many other animals in a VIP behind the scenes tour. During all these events I filmed myself to use in my social media for the launch of the book. The Okapi zookeeper even gave me a stellar book review. The more people on camera and in print who give your book a great review, the better it will be for your launch.

I have also spent a lot of time on social media pre-promoting my book. When you settle on a title it is imperative that you get all your usernames locked down for your social media. Well before you launch the book you should be promoting the book and creating a social media community that you think would be interested in the book. As of today I have not sold one book and my Instagram is over 700 people. It is crucial to create a buzz for your book well before you launch your Kickstarter pre-launch and your final launch page.

I've also been using my television contacts and there's an opportunity for my book to be featured on a children’s show this summer.

I always tell my kids if you are going to do something you should do it right.

You only have one shot to launch a book the first time and you should put all your effort energy and resources into launching that book.

I also believe that it's very important to have great focus groups. Within days of getting my first copy printed I met with teachers, friends and children of my friends to read them the book. I've had the great opportunity to read it to several kindergartens to see what reaction they had. It is never too late to figure out what you did wrong so you can change things before the final printing. I will always consider this book a work in progress and anytime I can make it better I will.

I'm cautiously optimistic for the launch of my book but you never know what's going to happen. I could sell 100 books or 100,000 books. You never know until you try.

I believe that it is important to pay it forward so if anyone reading this needs help...

Find me:

Here is the Kickstarter page for my book: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrylsilver/poppi-the-okapi

E-Mail: [email protected] Website: www.poppitheokapi.com Instagram: @poppitheokapi Twitter: @poppitheokapi Facebook: www.facebook.com/poppitheokapi

#okapiconservation #kickstarter #kickstartercampaign #booksforkids #childrensbooks #childrensbookauthor #creativeprocess #conservation #zoo #picturebook #okapi

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ty-talks-comics · 6 years ago

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Best of Marvel: Week of July 24th, 2019

Best of this Week: House of X #1 - Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles

“You have new Gods now.” - Erik Lehnsherr, 2019

The new era of X-Men is here and for all of its familiarity, it does something new and sort of unsettling with a tried and true formula. This is thanks to the beauty and scale of Larraz’s art and the far and wide nature with which Jonathan Hickman is crafting yet another saga to rival both his SHIELD and Avengers runs. If you let it, House of X will engulf you in a rich new mutant world filled with happiness and untold amounts of pride by it end, but also with a good helping of fear… as if everything is just a little bit off.

The book begins with a great wide shot of a figure staring up at what appears to be the root of or at least some important part of a tree. Two other figures, a woman with red hair and a man with glowing eyes, are birthed from two sacs under the tree and we get the familiar line, “To me, my X-Men. Presumably, this is Charles Xavier and as we progress, this idea is made clear as it seems we are doing away with the “X” identity he took up during Astonishing X-Men (2018). This also serves as some clear symbolism of a new rebirth for the X-Men.

Over the next few panels, we are shown shots of various X-Men planting flowers, plucked from the island of Krakoa, in various areas from their home in Westchester, New York to Mars, the moon and the Savage Land. The book is then framed around Magneto and two of the Stepford Cuckoos giving ambassadors from various countries a tour of the various locales that Krakoa has been placed upon as they ponder Charles’ proposed deal. This deal would allow them to make use of the flowers of Krakoa for various medicinal purposes, possibly making the world a much better place, so long as they agree to recognizing the sovereignty of the Krakoa nation state. A new Haven for Mutantkind.

Of course there have been such efforts made in the past. Genosha, the first and most prominently mentioned example, is alluded to have been the catalyst for humankind not being taken over by the mutant X gene. Mutantkind apparently would have become the dominant race on the planet Earth within ten years if not for Genosha’s destruction. Asteroid M and Utopia weren’t mentioned, but my guess is that they simply weren’t as impactful in regard to mutant kind likely because of the events of House of M (2005) dwindling their numbers to nothing. As it stands now, after the implementation of Krakoa spiking the birth rates to much higher than previously calculated, that humanity has about 20 years left.

These estimations are made by a brand new organization known as The Orchis Protocol, a network built for the purpose of monitoring evolutionary anomalies and preparing a doomsday protocol in case humanity is threatened by Homo Superior. The organization apparently consists of ex assets from practically all major organizations in the Marvel Universe from AIM, SHIELD and Hydra to even Hammer, Alpha Flight and SWORD. Some of Larraz’s best shots are in the scenes where we’re introduced to this mysterious group. They pilot a ship towards the sun and we get a good shot of the outside of a portion of their space station as they dock their ship.

Karima, an Omega Sentinel character that hasn’t been seen since sometime after Second Coming (2010) accompanies an Orchis higher up as they talk about the state of absolutely giant station so close to the sun. We get a bit of a tour before we get the best and most ominous shot of the full station. It appears to be the head of MASTER MOLD surrounded by hexagonal plates, the most terrifying shape in all of fiction. Master Mold hasn’t been really seen since about 1994, and again in 2010 because of universe jump in Second Coming. Master Mold was one of the X-Men’s most dangerous threats for it ability to produce sentinels at a rapid rate, so there’s no way that this can mean anything good.

Cutting back to New York, Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad are stealing information from the Damage Control Database. Mystique and Toad manage to get away, but Creed is captured by Invisible Woman and the rest of the Fantastic Four. Scott Summers shows up to remind them of the amnesty that’s apparently been granted to mutants, including thieves and possible killers like Sabretooth. Scott and, normally even tempered, Reed butt heads a little bit as Reed has a problem with Sabretooth getting away with his crimes and Scott acquiesces, seeing that Reed is serious. Scott does leave them with one sick burn as he tells Reed and Sue that Franklin has actual family on Krakoa when he’s ready.

What I love best about this scene is just how smug Reed is about all of this. For years, mutants have tried to stay out of the affairs of the greater Superhero world out of fear for their reputations. The shoe is on the other foot now that they have all of the leverage and the power that they so deserve. Even more awesomely, Scott’s new costume is a fantastic design combining the best of his Astonishing costume with the angular design of his Uncanny X-Men costume, minus the X mask, with blue lines instead of red.

Speaking of colors, Marte Garcia excelled in this regard. There’s so much symbolism to be gleaned from something as simple as a color change. Cyclops wore that suit in a red hue when he was a violent radical; having it recolored blue gives off the hint that he’s still a radical, but in the way that he dealt with the situation between Reed, he’s more hands off, non-violent even. Magneto normally wears red and purple when he’s angry and evil and gray during the AXIS (2015) era and that alluded to his anti-hero nature during that time. This go around he’s wearing white. He’s also peaceful, but at the same time he’s as graceful and imposing as he always has been, never betraying the idea that he is still the same man, but won’t harm anyone as long as they respect mutants. The most glaring example is the change in color from the AIM scientists where they’re wearing red instead of yellow.

In between each different scene we’re given these little interludes in the form of documents called Xavier files. These give some background on the new elements introduced in the book and the best one is the Omega Level file. There have been hundreds of mutants introduced over the years, many of which could have been considered Omega Level mutants, but thanks to Hickman’s expert writing, things have been parsed down to just fourteen. On Twitter, he stated that the X-Men lore was nothing but chaos, so he wrote a 14,000 word memo on what the new status quo would be, including limiting the use of the term “Omega Level.” This undoubtedly helps to establish something of a power structure given the high number of mutants that are known about while also acknowledging other heroes. Notably, while Forge is a master of technopathy, his level has been surpassed by humans in the past, but Magneto is the only master of Magnetism.

I want to bring things back to the tour. After it is over, several of the ambassadors agree to support Xavier. Russia’s ambassador never had intentions too, neither did one of the representatives of STRIKE as he was simply assigned to watch another ambassador. The last ambassador had a weapon hidden and Magneto immediately dismantles it and promises to each of them that things will be different. He wants them to tell their superiors that while Charles made the offer out of grace and love, it is NOT a negotiation.

Magneto takes pride in this. So much so that his assurance and steadfastness in his stance is powerful. It moved me. He tells them to be grateful for the bounty they’re receiving out of graciousness as mutants, like Thanos, are inevitable. It’s like he can actually see a future, one not shrouded in darkness for mutants and he’s smiling because he knows it’s coming.

This is one of the more interesting aspects of the book. Charles Xavier had always wanted to coexist with humanity, but after years of divisions and attacks, he seems to mostly be done with that. He’s willing to give humanity Krakoa’s flowers to make pills that will help them as long as they leave mutants alone. He’s effectively made something that will definitely topple the pharmaceutical market and he has to know that humanity would start to get very afraid. Not only that, but Krakoa has the ability to create portals that can move mutants from place to place without humans being able to track where they’re going. Of course the ambassadors are afraid of the use they could have as far as movement and positioning in case things went to war, but Magneto assures them that it is only them that wants war.

Everything seems perfect. Everything seems like it’s going to be alright, but that helmet… something about that helmet and the bodysuit reminds me of The Maker, another Jonathan Hickman creation from his turn on The Ultimates. It scares me and I needed that, I needed something to keep me hooked and the fear that everything is not as it seems is just that.

House of X hit the ground running. While it does little to acknowledge the fantastic Uncanny X-Men run from Matthew Rosenberg, that’s probably for the best. Jonathan Hickman does his best work when he has a fresh slate. He took over Avengers from Brian Michael Bendis and made an amazing story over the course of nearly four years. He reinvigorated SHIELD and the Fantastic Four with innovative stories that had nothing to do with the books prior to them. Hell, the reverberations of his runs on each of these are still being felt to this day.

Pepe Larraz was possibly the absolute best artist to capture Hickman’s vision for this project. His high angles and wide shots give credence to the size of the story. His facial expressions give into the idea that mutants have won this time, there’s hope where previously there was none. Body language surprisingly upbeat, bouncy even. There’s a lot to say about symbolism in terms of sun positioning in many scenes. The book has many showing the sun rising, symbolically showing a rise for the mutants. I see Orchis base near the sun as an allegory for Icarus flying too close to it. As the book ends with a sunset over Jerusalem, I see things as the sun setting on the time of humanity.

X-Men and their vast history is absolutely ripe for fine tuning if not complete destruction only for it to be made bigger and better in the years to come. I have no idea where this story is going and with 80,000 spin-offs incoming with a bunch of different creative teams, there will absolutely be something for everyone. In an attempt to revitalize a part of the world that used to sell like gangbusters, Jonathan Hickman is gearing up to shoot the X-Men right back up to the moon and light the world on fire behind them.

#comics #marvel #marvel comics #x men #xmen #house of x #charles xavier #magneto #erik lehnsherr #cyclops #scott summers #mutants #jonathan hickman #pepe larraz #marte gracia

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