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cryptocism · 5 years

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ive been scrolling through ur blog for a while (cuz ur dc opinions are Top Fucking Notch) and i saw what you said abt bart in tt 03 and f:fma and while i totally agree (it killed tt 03 for me lol) im super curious abt how youd do his development if given the opportunity?

I’ve been thinking about this one like A Lot so buckle up this is long:

it would kind of depend? On whether or not he’d be in an ensemble team like Teen Titans or with his own solo series.

I understand metatextually why he became Kid Flash in TT, since they needed him to be more mature and a more recognizable character and having him upgrade costumes/codenames is a good shortcut for both. But I’ve already talked about why it didn’t sit right with me.

So, lets flip the script a little bit - the start of TT would be largely the same. Our boy Bart is on the new Titans team, and things are kind of awkward after YJ disbanded, also Max is gone and Bart’s relationship with Wally is still not doing great. Things are rough, Bart has newfound doubts to deal with, especially now that the world seems to have gotten harsher and everyone seems to have a lot less patience to deal with him. The pressure to be more mature and a recognizable character is coming from other characters now rather than an authorial need: he’s reminded to take things seriously, or that he should know better by now, that he needs to slow down and think more. So Bart decides a change is necessary, and we get the library scene. He reads all the books, he reappears as Kid Flash, saves Tim via bullet catch, disassembles a gun, takes down Slade, etc. etc. Here’s my departure from canon though: it doesn’t work.

Kid Flash is not a solution, or a magical cure for immaturity. Reading a whole library so he’s miraculously smarter and more mature and capable is, at its core, a pretty naive conclusion. And it makes sense he would think that. But it doesn’t work. He’s still impulsive, distractible, hasty. He can’t put a lid on his own sense of humor. People still think he’s annoying or lazy or careless. And he keeps trying - he knows all this stuff now, he read a whole library! - but he’s still apparently too much the same person as he's always been. And even though he’s trying very hard to live up to the Kid Flash name, it still doesn’t feel like him. Wally doesn’t like it, since Bart is literally just imitating him now, which makes things between the two even worse. And Bart keeps worrying about what’s supposed to come afterwards, since “Kid Flash” is inherently temporary, and while Impulse was only peripherally related to the flash legacy, Kid Flash comes with expectations.

Bart is trying very very hard to be ‘grown up’ and ‘mature’, but he hasn’t actually learned anything other than a bunch of facts (which are still useful, but) he’s just trying to be who everyone expects him to be.

And this is what i mean about the ensemble thing, because this arc would be in conversation with the rest of the core four, who are also trying very hard to be people they’re not, but all in different ways. Bart obviously with the codename change, but Cassie, Tim, and Kon all have similar issues, they’re all trying to imitate people.

Tim is doing his Batman jr. routine, reverting back to the persona he had at the start of YJ. He’s cagey and mysterious and does questionable things without telling anybody, because he’s de-facto leader of the team again, and he has to be better than he is. No more kid stuff, the Titans are serious, he has to treat it like a job, not like a sleepover. And this whole act is putting distance between him and his friends.

Cassie is trying her hardest to put herself in a support role. Donna’s gone and she has some big shoes to fill (she and Tim could probably bond about that if he weren’t stubbornly trying to brood at all hours of the day) and she’s doing her best to just Be Donna. Cassie and Tim would work better with their team roles swapped, and they both sort of know this - Cassie is naturally charismatic, thinks on her feet, can maintain good PR, and when she’s confident in herself is great at leading. Tim is partial to planning ahead, secrets, and keeping in the shadows, and is better at being a confidant and emotional problem solver among the team (when he allows himself to be open among friends, that is).

But they’re both trying to fit themselves into what they see as pre-ordained roles: Robin is leader, Wondergirl is a supportive mediator. But Cassie’s got a temper and little patience for people being idiots, and Tim’s not predisposed to spotlights.

Kon on the other hand has a story that’s less about who he should be and more who he shouldn’t be. The Lex Luthor dad storyline is here (minus the mind control shit, although the threat of it is still brought up) and Kon is doing his level best to do nothing that could be interpreted as something Lex might do. While everyone is doing their best to Not be their own person, Kon has no idea if he ever was his own person. He’s questioning everything he does, wondering if it’s some kind of evil gene showing through when he’s angry or petty or selfish. He’s going through lots of clone angst.

So they’re all dealing with expectations and who they are or aren’t supposed to be, trying to fit themselves into boxes that don’t suit them and then convincing themselves that this is how it ought to be. Kon ought to avoid feeling or acting in any negative light because any sign of Luthor is a sign of evil, Cassie ought to tone herself down and act like Donna, Tim ought to step up and lead the team and act like Dick, and Bart ought to listen better and be smarter and slow down and grow up and do his level best to just Be Wally.

Throughout the issues they’d all get a spotlight on their various crises, taking them through complimenting character arcs. Kon would realize through a couple close encounters and chats with ma and pa and talks with his friends and citizens of metropolis that nobody is all good or all bad. Clark can be a real asshole sometimes and Luthor’s actually done a fair bit of good (usually in his own interests, but still we’re gunning for nuance). Turns out he doesn’t have a dark side to be tempted by, he was made from 50% complex person and 50% complex person, just like everyone else. Which means he isn’t destined to be the next Superman, or Superman’s next supervillain. He’s just like, a person. With his own thoughts and feelings that have nothing to do with genetics.

Tim would wear himself out and hide it from everybody until he killed himself, but it’s only when he sees Cassie also wearing herself out too that his ‘somebody needs somebody’ instincts kick in and they’re actually able to talk about how miserable they both are. Through some trial and error they’re able to figure out a good co-leader system for leading the team, having each other’s backs along the way, which allows for them both being able to help out the other members of their team with their own shit i.e. Kon and Bart’s identity issues.

Bart is, like Cassie and Tim, wearing himself out trying to be this perfect version of Wally that never actually existed. He actually hates the recognition the new name gives him, because people have expectations for him now, ones he can never seem to live up to. He’s bad at following orders still, which makes him a pretty shit sidekick for Wally, in fact he’s just pretty shit at being a sidekick in general. But, he reasons, he’s supposed to be grown up and responsible now, and responsibility is all about doing shit you hate until you die, so he’s probably on the right track.

It’s only later, once he gets some support from his friends, who help him deal with things like Max and YJ disbanding and stuff that he’s able to actually sit down and have a heart-to-heart with Wally. Wally confesses that he understands the pressure to live up to a legacy, and how he did his best to just Be Barry when he became the flash. In fact while Bart was trying to live up to Wally and be a good sidekick, Wally was trying to live up to Barry and be a good mentor. Wally’s the one to tell him that Bart’s always done his own thing, and is at his best when he does. They both agree they suck as partners, but maybe they should’ve tried to be family first. And there’s probably a racing metaphor in there somewhere because speedsters love their racing metaphors.

ANyway Bart returns to Impulse, forging a new path, getting along better with Wally now and hanging out with him just as civilians with no pretense. He learns some valuable lessons about how maturity can’t be learned in a book, and that he’ll get it himself the more he lives and learns from experience. The Titans all get along better now that they’re all sure of their places in the group, and they can all go on just being themselves without worrying about expectations or roles to fill or whatever.

...If Bart still had his solo series instead though, id actually want it to go in a sort of different direction? The thing about living up to predecessors and trying to be some ideal version of another person works well for the Titans because they can all deal with a similar issue in different ways, but I think it would also be interesting to do the complete opposite.

Lots of shitty things happened in very quick succession in Bart’s life that he had no control over: Max’s disappearance, having to move in with Jay and Joan (who are nice, but whom he barely knows,) leaving his friends in Alabama, Young Justice breaking up… Basically, things kind of suck for Bart, and all he wants is for them to go back to the way they were. Instead of trying to be grown up or mature or whatever, Bart is resisting every single encroaching thing about coming adulthood. Because all growing up ever seems to mean is that everything changes and either you have to leave the people you love or they have to leave you.

So this series would focus mostly on that, both in his civilian life; going into high school, not knowing anybody, the few friends he does make are less interested in ‘kid stuff’ and more focused on dating and interpersonal drama, high school itself seems to be geared entirely toward the “what are you going to do with your life” question, when he visits his old friends back in manchester, they’ve all kind of grown up without him. And in hero life; everyone from Young Justice is trying to move on and not talking to each other, his father figure and mentor is gone and he's not really jiving well with the rest of the flash family, and people just seem to have less patience for Impulse now that he’s older.

Growing up is hard. It’s hard and no one understands. Especially not when you’re also a superhero and have dealt with some quality trauma like losing loved ones and feeling yourself die. So it makes sense that Bart would resist that in every way possible, do his best to pretend like everything is still how it used to be, for once in his life just trying to make everything stay put. He refuses to get rid of his old stuff, he doesn’t want to treat any villainous threats seriously, people in school keep talking about college and jobs and tuition fees and Bart wants none of that, he acts out, refuses responsibility, gets reckless under the pretense that he never used to have to be cautious.

And this is the part where I’d bring in Inertia, cause Thad was robbed and I want him to have an actual arc that doesn’t end with infant-splosion. Also he can have a good ol companion arc to Bart. Welcome to foils everybody, where two identical boys with opposing life experiences get to thematically compare and contrast with each other as they deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up.

So, I’m ignoring every appearance Thad ever made after Impulse 1995, picking up instead where his story left off where he swore vengeance on his creators and disappeared into the speed force. And he’s off to do exactly what he said; Thad Thawne II is going to kill his namesake/grandfather/creator - the president of Earthgov.

But, turns out assassinating the president of a whole fucking planet is a lot harder than he thought - Thad has planned extensively for every moment of his life, so once he starts going off script things predictably go a little off the fuckin rails. Thad fails, obviously. For one because despite how much President Thawne might deserve to die, Thad at this point hasn’t done anything worse than attempted murder, and making him a killer would put a wrench in any kind of redemption arc he could have. Also he’s acting on rage, in a highly emotional state, basically going up against the entire government. Of course he’s going to get caught by the science police and brought into custody.

Bart, meanwhile is jumping with both feet into any kind of escapism he can find, which involves various time travel shenanigans and lands him in the 30th century. He gets to reunite however briefly with his mom, but the mission he had gets derailed by the appearance of Inertia.

Every time Bart and President Thawne interact, the president always seems to make a bid to sway Bart to the Thawne side. This never works, which is part of the reason Inertia exists in the first place; a version of Bart that the president could control. When Inertia landed in the 30th century, hell bent on assassinating his creator, the President subdued him and eventually coerced him back over to the Thawne side of the family feud. No longer a rogue agent, Inertia is back to his old self, all about destroying Bart and the rest of the Allens.

They have a battle, taking place all over the 30th century city, and Bart does his best but Inertia has the entire Earthgov police force on his side, and Bart eventually gets captured. He gets taken to some kind of holding facility, meets with the President who monologues as him while Inertia stands beside him like a good lackey. Then suddenly the speed-inhibiting cuffs or whatever Inertia had put on Bart to stop his speed malfunctions, and Inertia drops the act, now Impulse and Inertia working together to take down the Earthgov people holding them there.

Turns out as soon as Inertia knew he couldn’t take out the president, what with all the military force President Thawne had on his side, he bided his time until he could. He uses Bart’s help to finally get President Thawne cornered, and the assassination plan is back on track. Except now Bart is the thing stopping him. He makes the argument about how murder bad. Heroes don’t kill, etc. Inertia insists he isn’t a hero. But Bart reminds him that that’s not how Max saw him.

Inertia hesitates just enough that President Thawne is able to get away, and now the two of them have to make an escape attempt back to the past. Bart insists on trying to take Meloni with them, and they try but ultimately fail somehow (maybe someone has to stay behind to make sure they can make the trip safely, idk. At first Thad is willing to stay behind, since there’s nothing really for him in the past. But Meloni knows that President Thawne would destroy him if he did, and she can’t let harm come to either of her sons - and she does consider Thad her son, just like Bart. She’s had far too little time with either of them, but she loves them all the same. She tells them to take care of each other, and is the first to encourage them to be like, actual brothers.)

After yet another tearful goodbye, Bart swearing he’ll find a way for them to all be together again, Bart and Thad go back. And they do end up having to lean on each other, because shit’s tough for the both of them. Thad initially wants to apologize and possibly reunite with Max and Helen, and then finds out Max is gone. And Bart has someone who understands exactly what he’s going through.

Things get a little more lighthearted from here. Bart and Thad don’t get along well at first, since they’re both going through rough times and lots of changes and their first instincts are to lash out at each other. But eventually they form a sort of camaraderie through shared grief, then shared fish-out-of-water experiences. Which evolves into shared inside jokes and video games and comic books and they become slow but steady friends.

They upgrade into brothers when Bart defends Thad against the repeated (and not entirely undeserved) suspicion he receives from the rest of the Flash family. Jay and Joan take him in, but it’s clear they don’t trust him, and neither does Wally. Bart stands up for Thad, arguing that he’s as much of a Thawne as Thad is, and treating Thad like he’s the next Cobalt Blue is just going to ensure that history never changes and stupid family feuds are forever. After this, Thad starts trusting Bart a little more, and kind of solves Bart’s problems regarding encroaching adulthood with his friendship. Neither of them really had a childhood, and Thad hasn’t experienced 21st century life at all, much less the societal expectations to grow up. So Bart gets to have fun again, and Thad won't judge any of his games or his books or his attitude or interests for being childish or lame because he’s fascinated by the experience of anything regardless of the target audience.

And from there it's a series about these two becoming brothers and growing up and the different lessons they learn and wacky characters they meet along the way. Thad ironically also puts Bart in a position where he has to take on more responsibility, since even though Thad can imitate heroic actions and is actually pretty good at it, he doesn’t understand what makes them heroic. Bart has to draw on a lot of the things Max taught him and now has to teach them to Thad.

There’s crossover comics with Superboy, where Bart laments about having to deal with grown up stuff, and Kon gives him a new perspective on the whole “being young forever” thing, since that was a reality Kon actually had to deal with and it sucked.

Through various misadventures they meet new and familiar characters to give them different perspectives on the whole passage of time thing. Villains who despise children or childish things, villains who embrace it but probably too much. People who talk about growing up as the worst time of their lives, others talking about it like it was the best. Kids and adults alike trying to force Bart and Thad to act a certain way while treating them another.

The two of them come to opposing conclusions about this; Thad wants to embrace change completely, partly because he wants to experience firsthand all that life has to offer, but also his worldview depends on believing that anyone can change, and anyone can be better, because he has to believe he can be redeemed for all the shitty stuff he did. Bart, on the other hand, knows his life isn’t perfect but thinks, based on recent events, that it’s all just going to get worse from here, and so resists change as much as possible.

Thad, in his haste to experience everything, sometimes ends up going too far, either burning both of them out, or pushing them into situations that they’re not ready for or are ill-equipped to handle. Bart, on the other hand is so resistant to change or responsibility that he stops them from doing actual necessary things like planning their futures or doing chores or making new friends. This acts as the crux for their main conflict that slowly builds throughout the series, and then in a finale to the arc, they both figure out a way to get Meloni back to the past, and to raise some stakes they have a falling out in the middle of the mission about it.

Bart accuses Thad of trying to leave him behind, or trying to be the better version of him again, and that old insecurity about Thad replacing him crops up. Thad thinks Bart just can’t handle anything outside his personal bubble and wants to force him to live in the real world. Plus he also feels kind of abandoned by Bart, who often would leave Thad to do the scary adult things on his own.

Tensions still high, there's suddenly an external threat to deal with - probably president thawne and the science police - and they attempt to continue arguing even while fighting the president. I’m making this up as I go so lets say yada yada big climactic moment it's looking like the two might fail to get Meloni back and they’re both still angry with each other and Bart just… can’t take it anymore.

He keeps losing people, and the ones he keeps he always seems to screw up with. And at the end of the day he’s just a kid who wants his mom. Is that really so much to ask? So there’s a reversal, a parallel, if you will, of the assassination attempt from the beginning of the series, this time with Bart. Or, because I don’t think many people would buy that Bart would actually ever for real kill someone, maybe he’s finally about to get his mom back, but she doesn’t want to go (since she made that deal with the president that he wouldn’t harm anyone of the Allen family so long as she stayed with him) so he’s trying to force her, risking the lives/well-being of the entire Allen bloodline across all of time.

This time it’s Thad who has to talk him down, who has to remind him about being a hero, who has to remind him that trying to go back to some magical time in the past where things were better is just going to stop him from learning and growing as a person, and that doing anything and everything possible to get there is just going to lead to Bart doing something he Actually Can’t walk back from.

Alright but here’s the thing because having Bart be forced to leave his mom again for like the billionth time is tired and overdone, and personally the whole message about heroics involving extreme and damaging amounts of sacrifice can only go so far. So here; Thad and Bart are both right.

Like on the one hand, yeah, it’s childish and selfish for Bart to want to be with his mom at the expense of literally everyone else in his family. On the other hand, the fact that they can’t be together because some asshole is upholding a stupid grudge is bad and unfair and wrong. The issue needing to be fixed is not the kid who wants his mom, it’s the jackass keeping them apart (and who also wants to kill/imprison people). So Bart convinces Thad that they have to save Meloni, and Thad convinces Bart that there has to be another way - one where they get their mom back and the Allens don’t have to be hunted.

The whole story would be leading up to the two of them coming to this conclusion; the healthy middle between the two extremes. Where they have the maturity to plan ahead and sort through their differences and figure out the best course of action with the least amount of collateral, but they don’t let go of that adolescent need for justice and fairness - that thing that makes you dig in your heels and say “no. That’s not fair, that’s not right.”

SO here’s where I’d put the title card: “Bartholomew and Thaddeus Take Down The Government”. How do they do it? No idea! I’m flyin by the seat of my pants here! Do they run for office? Do they publicize the president’s crimes in such a way he gotta go to jail? Do they somehow turn public opinion against him enough to get him out of office? idk!!! And I don’t remember enough about Earthgov’s political situation to put an accurate read on what exactly they might do to disrupt it.

Either way they don’t kill him, manage to free their mom, and they all go back to the past together. And a new arc would involve the three of them getting settled in the past; Meloni would be a main character now, and hers is a two-pronged fish out of water story where she’s trying to figure out how shit works in the past, with overtones of the struggles of being a single parent.

And... I’m not going to say any more about that because this is long enough already oof.

TL;DR I think a coming of age story would be cool for Bart, and having to deal with growing up when he never really had a childhood. Also the comic itself would be aimed at younger audiences, who can probably relate to having a Bad Time in the Teens and wacky hijinks with friends and siblings.

#soapbox #anonymous #asks

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mysterylover123 · 5 years

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My Top 10 Favorite (and Top 5 least favorite) Izuocha moments

mysterylover123

OK, to explain that title and why I didn’t have a “least favorite” for any other ship: While I have moments for other ships that I don’t like, none of those ships are canon. I have no interest in making people feel bad about shipping things. I do feel it’s ok to critique writing choices you don’t agree with in the actual show, and there are a few big Izuocha moments I don’t like, so I needed to cover them. I do like this ship, for the record - but the canon handling was odd to me, so I thought I’d do a favorite and least for this list instead of just a favorites.

#10. Battle Trial Arc Teamwork

From: Episodes 7-8

What Happens: Deku and Uraraka are teamed up to fight Iida and Bakugo. Uraraka is very reassurring to Deku about their teamwork and at the climax of the arc, they work together to defeat their opponents in awesome fashion. Uraraka also goes up to Deku post arc with concern

Why I Like It: I do like me some battle couples. I love seeing Deku talk to Uraraka about his feelings (albeit for Bakugo) and Uraraka calling them a team and working hard because Deku inspires her to try harder. Deku showcases his scheming brilliant brain here too.

#9. Voting for Deku

From; Episode 9 “Just Do your best Iida”

What Happens: The voting happens. Bakugo pitches a fit that two people voted for Deku, and Uraraka whistles while thinking “I’ll just keep my vote to myself”

Why I Like It: Uraraka voted for Deku, like Shoto did for Momo, and keeps it a secret. I’m hoping we get a similar scene to the Todomomo one where Ochako reveals this, though I’m not sure how that would play out.

#8. Someone you like

From: Season 3 Episode 15

What Happens: Uraraka, embarrassed about her classmates grilling her on her love life, floats to the ceiling - and sees Deku out the window practicing ultimate moves. She seems very smitten.

Why I Like It; This is a more pure Izuocha moment as she responds to him romantically, reaction to how cool he is and how much she admires him. I’m not wild about Mina telling Uraraka she likes Deku, but I do like he actually acting like she does.

#7. Cavalry Battle Teamup

From: The Sports Festival Arc 2.04-2.05

What Happens: Ochako teams up with Deku in the Cavalry battle, hoping to as she later puts it “rely on him to get by”. She gets jealous of how much attention he pays Mei. Deku thinks about her support of him and all she’s done for him as he fights hard to win.

Why I Like It; This is actually more of a Deku on Ochako moment, since she later complicates her own role in this with her admission about Iida. But Deku says that he wanted her for his team, and thinks how cool she is, and is inspired by her support of him to fight Todoroki. It shows how much he values her support.

#6. Joint Training Arc Teamwork

From: Chapters 209-216

What Happens: Deku and Uraraka watch each others’ backs in combat. Uraraka saves him from his powers gone mad, hugging him to calm him down. Afterwards she blushes about it, and he possibly blushes too though it’s not clear.

Why I Like It: Again, love some teamwork pairings. I wanted a little more from this arc (Uraraka talking Deku down instead of Shinso) but we still got her hugging him and blushing about it while thinking about her new “who saves the heroes” motivation. Deku is also grateful to her for saving him. Uraraka works well with him, worries about him, but now she doesn’t let it distract her.

#5. First Meeting and Rescue

From: Chapters 2-4

What Happens: Uraraka saves Deku from tripping over his feet. Deku is attracted to her; she gets trapped in the fight and Deku saves her. This gets him into UA. She also offers him her points to Present Mic.

Why I Like It; It’s such a sweet first impression. He thinks she’s cute (she finds him plain, which annoys me - someone call Deku pretty before the series if over.) He saves her, she saves him, she offers him her points, he thinks about how she helped him before and tries to go talk to her. I like how he compares it to saving Kacchan from the sludge monster too - saving Uraraka is put in the same category as saving his lifelong acquaintance, despite having just met her.

#4. Deku means you can do it

From: Episode 6 Rage you Damn Nerd

What Happens: Uraraka greets Izuku as “Deku” based on Bakugo’s name. Izuku corrects her but she suggests Deku could mean “you can do it.” Izuku immediately changes his attitude on the name. Later that ep he takes her name as his “you can do it” motto, which she finds touching.

Why I Like It; The Deku name is one of my favorite Izuocha bits. I love how she gives his nickname a new meaning and he likes it, takes it for himself, and finds strength from this support. (Of course, this is one of many moments on this list that some how also connects with Bakugo. There’s a lot of subtle parallelism between Ochako and Kacchan, probably since these three were the first three characters designed for the series).

#3. Giving her a plan

From: Season 2 Episode 8 Battle on challengers

What Happens: Deku notices how upset Uraraka is before her match and offers her a scheme to use against Bakugo. She declines and heads out to her match; post fight, he comes in to comfort her and is touched again by her support.

Why I Like It; Deku noticed she was upset! He offered to help her, wanting to support her like she’s supported him! He roots for her and admires her techniques, corrects Bakugo about her hard work, and tries to be there for her when she loses. She’s so sad about her loss, and I wish she’d cried on his shoulder instead of shutting him out - one day, she will, I hope.

#2. The real Uraraka

From; Shiketsu High Lurking 3.16

What Happens: Deku, while fighting Camieraka, recognizes that she isn’t Ochako. He runs down all of Uraraka’s features and why Camieraka can’t really be her.

Why I Like It; Deku shows here that he actually knows Uraraka pretty well, understands her, knows what she would never do and guesses that Camie was impersonating her. I like when people show they know their dates - once again, he knows her by now to the same degree that he knows his lifelong acquaintance Bakugo (in S1’s BTA he also knows Bakugo’s techniques in the same manner). I like that kind of familiariity.

Extras

Movie

Filler

#1. Deku, that has to be my codename

From: Season 2 Episode 13 Time to pick some names

What Happens: Midoriya picks Deku as his hero name, explaining that Uraraka made him see it in a different way, and smiling about it. We see Kacchan and Ochako both reacting.

Why I Like It; This simple scene is my favorite Izuocha moment, because I love how much the Deku name means to Midoriya. It’s kind of a motif among friendships in the show, this “picking your hero name” thing, and while Bakugo did come up with the name, Ochako gave it its new meaning. I like seeing them happy.

Top 5 Least Favorite

#5. Putting those feelings away

From: Provisional License Exam Arc

What Happens: Ochako decides to put her feelings for Deku away instead of acting on them in a little monologue.

Why I Didn’t Like It; While I’m glad we get to focus more on Ochako being a badass, as a shipper I found her decision frustrating. It just makes no sense that she can’t just tell Deku she likes him, date him and be happy. All that buildup doesn’t seem to be leading towards anything but delaying the inevitable. I find it really annoying when series up off the inevitable get together till the end just because it’s expected.

#4. Running away at the mall

From: Season 2 Episode 25 “Encounter”

What Happens: Ochako, left alone with Deku, runs away yelling about bug spray. He gets attacked by Tomura while she freaks out about her feelings.

Why I Didn’t Like It; Well for one, we miss a chance for them to hang out one-on-one. Two, Uraraka indirectly calls Deku a “pest”, hurting his feelings. Three, we juxtapose her feelings with Tomura nearly killing Deku. Forth, she finds the idea of liking him so scary and off-putting, and this becomes her story for the next two arcs, which I find annoying since it just repeats the same thing over and over again.

#3. Because you like him?

From: Final Exam Arc

What Happens: During their fight with 13, Uraraka is thinking “what would Deku do?” Aoyama asks Uraraka if she likes Deku. This freaks her out and nearly gets her killed.

Why I Didn’t Like it: I don’t get why Aoyama did this. Why? What was he thinking, why ask this during their test, why does this lead to Uraraka beating 13, why was this the way we made Izuocha canon? I don’t get why Uraraka’s crush on Deku has to be something other people tell her she has, can’t she just figure it out for herself? Aoyama what is your deal? I legitimately don’t get what Horikoshi was going for her.

#2. Hey jealousy

From: Various

What Happens: Uraraka freaks out when Deku gets near Mei, Melissa, and Camie, burning with Jealousy. Most recently she punched herself in the face for doing so.

Why I Didn’t Like It; I didn’t mind the first time with Mei, because it was Deku complimenting Mei, or Melissa in the film. But the other times, Deku is getting felt up and creeped out by invasive girls who scare or harm him, and Uraraka reacts by getting jealous of him, instead of trying to defend him. Try flipping their genders and see how disturbing it comes across. Like a “Nice Guy” getting mad that his crush is daring to get felt up by other men. Even if she says it makes her uncomfortable.

#1. Himiko Toga’s monologue

From: Training Camp Arc

What Happens: Toga recognizes that Uraraka likes Deku and creepily tells her that she has “her smell”, that they’re both obsessed with copying and replacing their boys. She later says “a great deal of faith is placed in you”.

Why I Didn’t Like It; Toga is Uraraka’s evil foil. If liking Deku this way is Uraraka’s flaw, that places a really negative spin on Izuocha. It makes it seem like liking Deku is only going to lead Uraraka down a wrong path and make her fall. Why? Why does her main romance have to be something that apparently scares and hurts her? It’s Deku for crying out loud! He’s a sweetheart, he likes her, they get along. This implies that Uraraka’s feelings for Deku are similar to Toga’s for Stain - she wants to kill and replace the person she admires. Also, the “trust in you” line sounds like blatant Traitor-Uraraka baiting, like that line in her bio about there being no “hidden side to her”. I love Toga, I love Ochako, I want them to be great foils, but I don’t want that to be in a way that makes Ochako’s romance look creepy.

So that’s my thoughts - read my meta for the whole story. I ship it but I want the story to start handling it differently.

#IzuOcha #my hero academia #midoriya x uraraka #ochako x izuku #midoraka #ochadeku #ships #top 10 moments

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victorianoir · 4 years

Text

The Detective and the ManFatale, Part 3

Part 3 of the ManFatale arc!! If you haven’t heard of The Detective and the Tech Guy and would like to read it from the beginning, here’s the MASTERPOST. If you’d like to read this chapter on fanfiction.net, you can do that here: TRALALA.

Have fun!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Welcome home. What's this?"

The happy look on his face as he looked up at her from the bottom of the stairs dimmed as she held up the file she'd just found, wiggling it a bit. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a flat look when he didn't say anything for a solid thirty seconds.

"Wh—Um. Where did you happen to find that?" He cleared his throat and came up a few steps, stopping with his hand on the railing then. "I'm not sure it's mine."

She made the look on her face even flatter. "Well, it sure looks like there's a lot of your handwriting in here. Alongside a really childish scribble—I can only imagine you're employing some sort of third grader to help you."

Chuck seemed to ignore that part. "But…where did you—?"

"Chuck, it was under your mattress."

He sighed, looking relieved for some reason. "God, I thought maybe I'd left it out or something, and that would've been really great spy work."

"Chuck!"

"S-Sorry. Sorry, I—" He hastened up the stairs to stand on the step a few down from where she stood on the landing. "It's my folder. My file. I did it."

"Yeah, that was never in question, bud. What in the hell is this? What are you doing?" She held it up again and he gently reached out to take it from her.

"I'm…detecting."

"No, Chuck. No, you are not detecting. Please, please tell me you aren't doing what it looks like you're doing," she pleaded with him, arms crossed at her chest.

"Well…" He winced. "Do you want me to say that, or do you want the truth?"

"Chuck!"

"Gah! Okay! I'm…I was just doing some light research, that's all. Into this guy who hired you. He's wily, okay? Extremely wily and untrustworthy and it only took me seeing him for like a few seconds for me to figure that out." A look of almost defiance came over her boyfriend's face then. "I have no regrets."

"Are you insane?" she asked, backing up so that he could join her on the landing.

"No, I was just…having your back."

"Look at this!" She grabbed the file back and opened it up, flipping through to a picture that had been taken of Cartwright from what looked like a pretty close range. She took it out and held it up for him to look at.

"I know. I took that."

"Yeah, Chuck! I kinda figured! Have you been following my client?"

He was silent for long enough that it was pretty clear confirmation.

"Oh my God," she moaned. "Chuuuck."

"Okay, yes. Yes, I followed him. But I was very careful." Something told her he really wasn't careful. He was untrained, a guy who watched a lot of movies and heard about her cases. That was it. "I was, Sarah!"

"You can't do this, Chuck! You can't follow my clients around and do your own…What is this? Did you just go around taking pictures?"

"There are his day to day activities in there, too."

She opened it again and looked at his notes. "Lox on a bagel, black coffee, flirted with the barista. Namor the Sub-Mariner? What the hell's that?"

"That's the codename Morgan and I gave Cartwright."

Sarah's eyes shut slowly and she took a calming, long breath, letting it out, breathing in again, and then she snapped the file shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Morgan? Not only were you following my client, which is dangerous in and of itself, you brought Morgan into it?"

That explained the childish scrawl alongside Chuck's neat handwriting.

"He's been a very good partner."

"HE'S A HIBACHI CHEF, CHUCK!"

Chuck winced. "A very sneaky hibachi chef, though—No, I see your point. It's a fair point."

The look she gave him apparently got her point across.

"Chuck, why did you follow my client? Why are you building a file on him? Why are you taking notes on his whereabouts, on his habits? Why are you following him and taking pictures? What prompted you to do something this stupid?"

Her boyfriend let out a sigh and scratched the back of his neck. At least he seemed somewhat contrite. "Look, he was shifty. And some of the things you were saying when you'd talk about the case, how you weren't finding anything on Jerald Brown, and how he seemed almost…I dunno, impatient, that you weren't."

A thought hit her then and she chewed on her lip a little. "Chuck, did you…do this because he's young and handsome? Was this a jealousy thing? Trying to find something on him to make me…I dunno, not want to go through with this case?"

She felt a little bad suggesting it, but she needed to know this wasn't Chuck's jealousy making him do foolish and dangerous things.

"No! Sarah, it's not that! I'm not a total idiot! I'm just…a little bit of one about certain things. This isn't jealousy. This is…This guy is shifty!"

Sarah crossed her arms again and sighed. "You met him for, like, two minutes. Tops."

"So?! I had a gut feeling! It was just some harmless following."

"In legal terms, it's stalking."

"Nobody saw us! We wore disguises!"

Sarah gaped. "Oh God. You didn't…"

"Yes! Yes, we wore disguises. He had no idea he was being followed the whole time. Your tech guy is actually a pretty good detective…" He smoldered at her.

"Chuck, you hid this file from me by putting it under your mattress. So excuse me if I don't have the utmost faith in your detective abilities."

He frowned. "It seemed like a good place."

"Chuck, I'm in your bed more nights than I'm in my own, for the most part," she half-laughed, shaking her head. "Anyway, that isn't the point. The point is that this was incredibly dangerous. Insanely dangerous. You could've been hurt or even killed, and then you dragged Morgan into it and he could've been hurt, too. This was foolish!"

"We were helping you!"

"I don't need help! Do you think I'm stupid, Chuck? Do you think I got this far with just a bunch of luck or something? I've got my own cases well in hand."

"I thought he was maybe trying to pull something over on you. Getting you to do something bad."

"You think I don't know that? I've been doing this work for years, Chuck! I worked for Pinkerton! You think I'd ever let someone get the drop on me like this? You think I trust my clients blindly?" She thrust the file into his chest. "I've got a file on Cartwright just like this at my office." He looked very regretful, sorry, and she loved him dearly, but God, he could be such an idiot sometimes. He really could be. Then she glanced at his file again. "Though yours is a lot thicker, so that's…interesting."

"Um, I'm an incredibly thorough detective." She glared. "Not a detective, fine. But…researcher?" She glared harder. "A P.I.'s boyfriend who is in big trouble?"

"Bingo," she chirped, raising her eyebrows.

"Listen, Sarah…I know you're really mad at me…"

"Yeah, well…you obviously think I'm a bad P.I., so that feels good."

"What?" The pitch of his voice got impressively high. "Sarah, that's not it at all!"

"You thought this guy was pulling the wool over my eyes, taking advantage of me. That's why you built this folder on him, isn't it? This is all work you thought I wasn't doing."

"No, you-you were focusing on investigating Brown and I thought maybe you'd prioritize that over checking out your client so I—bad phrasing, I didn't mean checking out checking out. Like, obviously he is a very good looking man. And super charming, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing."

"Yeah, well, I'm not…" A thought occurred to her then and she looked up at him with wide eyes. "That's it, isn't it? You thought he'd charmed me, that I was falling for his whole spiel and therefore trusted him blindly. That's why you decided to follow him, isn't it? That's why you put this together with Morgan!"

At least he didn't do her the disservice of trying to lie to her. Instead, he huffed and scratched his ear. "Okay, full disclosure, it felt like a lot of flirting was going on in your office when I walked in last week and it maybe…sort of…got under my skin. But it wasn't about—I mean, I know you aren't the type of person to neglect the right thing just because some blue-eyed Alain Delon lookalike is batting his eyelashes at you."

"You're damn right I'm not! Have you been here for the last year and eleven months of our relationship?"

"Yes," he said weakly.

"He could be the most charming man alive and I'd still do my job, Chuck. God!"

"I know. I knoow, I'm an idiot. I know. I was weak, though. I'm sorry." Then he shook his head. "About my reasoning. I'm sorry for the stupid reason that I started this whole thing on Cartwright. I am. I was a jealous dumbass. But I would've stopped a long time ago if I didn't find something. And I found something."

Sarah was still too caught up in how much of a fool Chuck was to realize what he'd just said. "I mean, you're the one always calling me a bad ass and the best. You really think blue eyes are going to make me trust a guy blindly? I've got you, Chuck! I'm impervious to other men's charms. I know you still have some…self-esteem stuff. Everyone does. But this is me, Bartowski. It's us. If you don't think I'm a better detective than to let some guy in fitted suits play me like a fiddle just 'cause he's attractive, then at least think our relationship is stronger than that."

"You're right. You're absolutely right. And as hard as I try, I'm still gonna keep making blunders like this. I'm not saying you're just gonna have to deal with it, but um…Please…bear with me, I guess?" He winced.

Sarah sighed and closed the distance between them, moving up onto her toes to kiss him gently, ruffling his hair. "I have no choice. I love you, you big dumb nerd. And anyway, I'm not exactly perfect. You have a lot of shit you have to deal with where I'm concerned, too. So…"

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

"I know. I know you are. But please stop doing dangerous stuff like this. Please. You have no training and no experience. I'm a professional. It's even dangerous for me, let alone a couple of guys who watch movies and think that's prepared them for the reality of investigating work. You're going to get hurt. This isn't a game."

"I know it isn't a game! That's what I'm trying to tell you!"

"But you and Morgan went running around Los Angeles following this potentially dangerous guy in wigs and fake noses…"

"No, we didn't!" He paused. "We didn't wear wigs…"

She knew him too well not to read between the lines with that one. "Oh my God, did one of you have a fake nose? Oh my God, Chuck."

"That was all Morgan! He showed up with it and it was so funny I couldn't say no." He winced.

"Oh my God." She pushed a hand through her hair. "Like I said, this isn't a game!"

"I know it isn't a game! He's a con artist!"

"Yeah! He is! And—Wait." She blinked, what he said finally settling in her brain. "What? How do you—?"

"Because." He took the file and hustled into his bedroom with her hot on his heels, and then he set it down on his bed, whipping it open and digging through the reams of papers and photographs. "Ha! Here. Okay. Feast your eyes on this shit."

He started taking pictures out, spreading them on the bed for her to look at. It was the same bearded man in different suits, sometimes in a hat and tie, sometimes not, walking through LA, sitting with different men at different tables…

"That's him."

Sarah turned to gape at Chuck. "Holy shit. That's Cartwright?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure if there is a Cartwright. Or if there is a real Cartwright, this isn't him. Beard Guy goes by Paul Lawson."

"What?" she breathed.

"He quote, represents, unquote, Cartwright."

"He's in a disguise," she murmured. "How didn't I see this? How wasn't I…looking for this? I trailed him often enough to catch him pulling this kind of creepy shit…I thought. How'd I miss it?"

"Because it's absolutely freaking bizarre, that's how. It was sheer luck I happened to see him walk out of his building where he lives. And I thought he was familiar-ish, and then I zoomed in with my camera and was like 'Holy shit, it's him!' Sheer dumb luck."

"I was watching him this whole week and I never saw this Lawson guy." She shook her head then, trying not to get bogged down by the threatening self-consciousness she was feeling. She tried not to slam herself for missing this. Chuck hadn't missed it, and now the evidence was right here in front of his face.

"Wait, he represents Cartwright? What in the hell?" She grabbed one of the photos of him sitting at an outdoor table with a shorter, older man.

"He's supposedly selling Cartwright's things for him. A boat, a yacht, a condo, a…"

"Property in Morocco," she breathed. "I know. I followed him to an office by the docks and found all of his paperwork for everything that's been getting sold. So he's putting on a disguise and…selling his own things?" She huffed and shook her head. "This isn't Cartwright."

"Do you even know if Cartwright is a real person?"

Sarah went to Chuck's laptop on his desk and opened it, typing in his password and immediately Googling the Cartwright family. "Look, the Cartwrights go back generations in South Africa, since before Apartheid, for decades upon decades. Robert is the last surviving Cartwright. It's a real family, and he's a real person. He has been running this business for almost ten years, after his parents' deaths. It's just that he's a recluse."

"But do you think he's sent this fake guy here to sell his things back in South Africa?"

"No, of course not. Why would he ever do that?"

"So, wouldn't he know if someone is stealing his things?"

"Not if he isn't alive to know about it."

"Holy shit." The blood seemed to have left Chuck's face as he slumped into his desk chair.

"I told you he was dangerous. There's a definite chance this guy stole Cartwright's identity. Who better than a recluse who's never left the African continent and doesn't let pictures of himself up online? Someone who isn't super respected in his own town, let alone in California on the other side of the world. Someone who didn't have family or any personal connections." She shut Chuck's laptop again. "Meanwhile, this guy is going out on the town, has women on his arm all the time, is making all of these business deals."

"He's not even South African, either."

Sarah frowned and crossed her arms, half sitting on his desk, facing him. "What?"

"This conman. Fake Robbie. Your ManFatale."

"My what? Excuse me?"

"Uh, nothing. But when he spoke to me, he definitely didn't have a South African accent. He was very American, so…"

"When he…spoke to you?" The meaning wasn't lost on her, and when his eyes widened with a very clear look of oops on his face, she felt anger and worry rise in her chest. "Chuck? Did you make contact with him? Besides when I was there, in my office?"

Chuck winced. He did. Oh God, he absolutely did.

"It was an accident. And he totally didn't know who I was! It was just a nonchalant, quick exchange. Almost nothing. He didn't even see my face!"

"Chuck!"

"I followed him into a shopping mall and sat out on a bench waiting for him while he bought a briefcase at Gucci." It came out in a quick stream of words that sounded like they were all connected.

"He bought a Gucci briefcase? Ugh. Gross."

"Right? He's an awful person!" She gave him a look and he cleared his throat. "Anyway, I was sitting out on that bench and since it was the closest one to the store entrance, when he came out he used the other side of my bench to take the tag off and stick his papers and stuff inside of it. He, uh, must've seen me glance to the side because he explained he had to look good for a job interview, but I didn't say anything." This was getting worse and worse. "I was disguised, too. I slicked down my hair like this." He pushed his hands over his curls so that they were pulled flat. "And I had thick glasses on, and I had a newspaper up like this, covering my face." He mimicked holding up a newspaper, slouching forward, a completely conspicuous look on his face.

"Oh my God, Chuck! He saw you!"

"Not my best detective moment. I'll admit it."

"No! Chuck, you…" She groaned. "What if he recognized you as Charles Bartowski? You were in my office! He might not know you're my boyfriend, or maybe he does, since we've had pictures of us together put in magazines and shit, which would make it even worse."

"He didn't seem like he recognized me. He didn't. If he did, he would've feigned his accent still!"

"Well, if he recognized you after the fact, maybe not! And you're talking about a guy who has potentially killed someone—we don't know if he has yet—to take their identity and live off their bank account across the world, and is successfully selling yachts and hotels… This isn't some novice, Chuck. If he recognized you, he isn't going to show it. He's going to log it away in his criminal brain, figure out why the hell you were there, in disguise, potentially following him, and he's going to take it out on me. Later. When I least expect it."

Chuck became even paler. "I put you in danger, didn't I?"

"I don't think so. I think he probably really didn't recognize you. Especially if he was in a hurry…" She put her hand in his hair and stroked it reassuringly.

"That's exactly the opposite of what I was trying to do. Why do I have to butt in all the time?"

"Because you're an idiot who loves me a whole lot." Then she gestured to the bed with a nod of her head. "And you actually did some pretty good detective work. As much as I hate that you did it, because I'd rather not lose you to some psychopath identity thief, as much as I hate that you dragged Morgan into danger with you…" He looked genuinely contrite at that. "It's good work."

A slow smile grew on his face. "Yeah?"

"Mhm. I mean, some of those pictures, you were really way too close. Which is…not smart." He winced. "But…" She pushed away from the desk and went over to look through all of their notes. It was a mess, true, and they seriously used that weird codename every single time they mentioned him, and maybe it was a little too thorough, since she really didn't need to know every time Fake Cartwright used a public restroom…but they'd gotten a lot of incriminating evidence. Combined with what she had, and the photos they'd taken of him in disguise, selling Cartwright's property to other people, she might have something she could take to the LAPD. "You two bozos collected a lot of useful things. Amidst a lot of, um, completely useless things."

Before she did anything else, she had another order of business to tend to. And she'd have to do it as soon as possible…tomorrow if she could get an appointment with him.

"Hey, there's one thing that's weird, though. And it's a big thing."

She glanced over as Chuck stood and crossed to her side. "What's that?" she asked.

"Why'd he hire you to look into Jerald Brown? What's Brown got to do with this?"

"I don't know for sure, but I'm wondering if Brown is onto him and he's figured that out, so he wants a way to discredit him, sully his reputation, his credibility."

"Ahhhh, riiiight. You find dirt on Brown, he can either use that to blackmail him, or he can be like 'You're gonna believe this guy? Look at this stuff he has in his closet!" Chuck paused. "Not literally his closet."

"Yeah, ya nerd. I got that."

"Right."

Sarah slumped onto the bed thoughtfully as Chuck sidled up next to her and stood there, like a pillar of strength, she thought. Her man who foolishly went into dangerous situations to help her with a case because he was jealous, but then staying in the hunt when he realized something was genuinely fishy. He'd gotten her quite a lead on this guy, whoever he was.

And she couldn't help being impressed, even if she was mad at him for being so rash, taking such a huge risk, and involving Morgan. Though she imagined it didn't take much work for Chuck to convince Morgan to help. A fake nose? Honestly, that guy was such a weirdo. She loved him, but he was crazy.

"What are you going to do now?" Chuck asked, breaking into her thoughts.

She peeked up at him for a split second, then rounded his hips with her arms and pulled him close, clinging to him and burying her face in his abdomen. His hand landed on her head and he stroked her hair in a way that was so reassuring she felt a sudden fire in her. Determination. Confidence.

"I'm calling Jerald Brown tomorrow to see if I can get a meeting with him."

"You don't think this con artist asshole will know you're meeting with the guy he's paying you to investigate? I mean, if he finds out, that will look bad."

"It will. If he finds out. I just have to make sure I cover my tracks. But I need to talk to Brown. I need to know what it is Not-Cartwright is going after him for. What is it he's got on him?" She sighed, snuggling her face against his cotton button-up adoringly. "Then I can go from there. Probably get the LAPD involved. I can't do that without hearing Brown's side of things."

"Not that you need my approval, since I'm only an amateur sleuth…" Sarah snorted at that and rolled her eyes, hugging him tighter. "But that's a fantastic idea."

"Thank you."

"Know what else is a fantastic idea?"

"What?"

"Letting go of me for just a few minutes while I change into my pa-yam-as, and then we can crawl into bed and you can hold onto me for as long as you want to."

She giggled and let go of him. "I concede, but with great reluctance."

He gave her a deep bow. "My Lady Bad Ass of the Shadows."

She laughed and she shamelessly watched her boyfriend undress, checking him out all the while. "The shadows?"

"You're a P.I. A detective. Slinking in the shadows like a ninja. Catching bad guys."

"Fair enough," she chuckled.

It only took a few minutes before they were wrapped up together in his bed, her arms around him, head on his chest. But then he reached over and grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand. She frowned in confusion, lifting her head to watch him as he put the phone to his ear.

She heard the ringing on the other line. It rang and rang and rang…and then she heard Morgan's jolly voice chirp about not being able to come to the phone. After the quiet beep, Chuck left his message.

"Leader Two. This is Leader One. Abort mission. We are going to abort mission. Black Canary has found the booty. I repeat, Black Canary has found the booty. Mission Codename: Wolf In Sheep's Clothing is successfully ended…"

Sarah cracked up and reached for the phone as Chuck yelped and tried to roll away from her reach.

"Black Canary is on the offense! Black Canary is attacking me! Leader Two, leave the country, change your name, shave the beard! Ahhh!"

Sarah grabbed the phone and hung up, laughing riotously as she tossed his phone back onto the nightstand and pinned him to the bed, kissing him. She wasn't exactly through being mad at him for his foolishness, for that idiotic jealousy that had made him put himself in a dangerous position. But he was here, he'd helped her case, and maybe the thoroughness of the details he'd recorded, the pictures he'd taken, were something of a turn on.

And she had no trouble convincing him.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Sarah had found his file he'd built on Cartwright a day and a half ago, and in that time, the suspense had been building. She seemed calm enough, but Chuck was struggling to sit still as he tried to write a few emails, some minor housekeeping things. He couldn't even focus on that, though, and he got up to start pacing in his office.

Adisa knocked on the door and poked his head in, eventually. "Man, what is going on in here? You're pacing so hard, I can hear it through the door."

"Oh. Shit. Sorry." He turned to face his assistant and shrugged a bit lamely. "Are you trying to focus out there? I'll sit back down."

"No, no. I could focus in the middle of an erupting volcano. I'm just checking to make sure you're okay. I mean, is there anything I might be able to help with?"

Chuck stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "Nah, you have work to do that's a lot more important."

That earned him a flat look.

"It's not even anything that has to do with the company. Really, it's fine."

Adisa shrugged and stepped further into the room, crossing his arms.

"No, really," Chuck insisted. "You don't want to hear about this case Sarah's working on—"

"What?! Yes, I do!" He shut the door quickly and crossed the room. "Lay it on me! I'm a problem solver. You know I am. I can help."

The tech CEO was starting to see things from his P.I. girlfriend's perspective suddenly. People really did have an automatic reaction to her profession like they could do as good a job as she could, or better. Not just jumping to help, but thinking they could out-investigate, break down clues…when she'd been in the actual business, a Pinkerton agent for God's sake, for years.

He felt a bit sheepish. Maybe he'd reel himself back a bit, or apologize or something. And God, she was such a patient person to deal with him, and to a lesser extent, with Morgan.

"I can't give you too many details. But I'm just a little stressed. This guy she's dealing with is dangerous and she knows he's dangerous, even knows how dangerous, I mean…what he's capable of. And she's waited a few days, sitting on the information, without acting. I think she's trying to trap him, but she doesn't always tell me her plans and it's worrying me that she's in legitimate danger." He huffed.

"She was a Pinkerton agent, Boss. She knows what she's doing. We're talking about Sarah here—our Sarah—your Sarah," Adisa corrected himself, probably misunderstanding the look Chuck sent him. Honestly, it was cute he'd just called her 'our' Sarah, as though he had a genuine affection and connection with her. It was heartwarming. "You think she'd ever handle someone who is dangerous without being at least a few steps ahead?"

The tech guy chuckled. "You make a good point, there, buddy. And it isn't like I don't think she can handle herself. She already had to grill my ass because I underestimated her wiles once. Thought she'd missed a lot of stuff about him, but she hadn't. And she's playing him like a fiddle, but what if…I don't know, what if he's more cunning and observant than she even suspects? What if he's waiting for the perfect moment to get the drop on her?"

Adisa frowned. "Is he really that awful?"

"Stealing the identity of someone we suspect is dead, whether he killed him or not, we're not sure…I think he's pretty awful."

"Holy God."

"Yes."

"That is why you are pacing so loudly."

"It is." Chuck sighed, pushing his hand through his hair. "I'm just gonna call her and see if she's okay, actually."

"Well, don't go overboard, Boss. Or she'll start to get mad. It isn't my place, I know, but sometimes I think maybe you should…er…"

"I know. I'm overprotective of my girlfriend." He gave his assistant and friend a wan smile.

"She is a private investigator. I get it." Adisa shrugged.

"But I do need to dial it back. You're right. I'll just call her and say hi, that's all." That got him a flat look again. But Chuck was already calling her, bringing the phone to his ear.

It rang…and rang…and rang…It kept ringing. And then he finally heard the clicking sound on the other end, like she was answering it, and he breathed out in relief. But then he heard a gasp, a "No!" and then a loud crashing sound…and then nothing else…a dial tone…

"Something's happened!" he snapped, shoving his phone in his pocket and grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair, putting it on.

"What?" Adisa moved out of his way as he rushed out of his office and strode past Adisa's desk.

"There was a weird sound, I heard her, and then a crash and a dial tone."

"Don't talk to me, then! GO!" his assistant barked, and Chuck didn't have time to muse over Adisa's quick one-eighty…from telling him to dial it back to yelling at him to go.

He just needed Sarah to be okay.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Sarah stared down at the file in her hand, sitting on her nonexistent assistant's desk, her legs crossed, a thoughtful look on her face. She had a secret meeting with Jerald Brown in a little over an hour and she needed to go through a lot more of the information she'd gathered over the last week before she did so.

She needed his side of the story. And when she told him over a secure line that she was a private investigator, and that it was about Robbie Cartwright, he'd gotten a tone she picked up on immediately. "Oh. Robbie," he'd said with a bitter clip. "I'm not sure I should be meeting with you, or even talking with you. I have—"

"Mr. Brown, I just want to get to the bottom of this. I need your side of the story. This man could be dangerous and he has it out for you for some reason. We need to meet. Somewhere that isn't your office or home, somewhere private and safe that he doesn't know about."

He'd finally relented.

And now she would be meeting him at his wife's personal office. He had a key, he said. And she was out of town for a week, visiting her parents in Oklahoma. Sarah slipped a few extra knives into secret places on her person just in case. And she'd be bringing her gun, too. She knew better than to trust Jerald Brown, just in case there was something extra twisted going on here and he was somehow involved.

She shifted to scoot further back on the desk to make herself more comfortable then, but her knee knocked into the file and the papers and pictures inside cascaded onto the floor. "Damn it, Walker…" she sighed, rolling her eyes as she watched it all slip and slide across the wood floors, some of the papers ending up on the other side of the room.

As she climbed off of the desk, leaning down to slowly start collecting the papers, she heard a muffled sound coming from her office. It took much too long for her to realize her phone was ringing in her purse. Chuck had played a joke on her the other night and he'd made her ringtone the theme from a movie called Body Heat or something—she'd so far managed to avoid having to watch it. But it was also a low, whining jazzy trumpet and it was harder to hear than her regular ringtone.

And now she was scrambling back into her own office to get to her phone in case it was something important.

She snagged it out of her purse, saw it was Chuck, and swiped to answer. But she swiped a little too hard and it went sailing out of her hand. "No!"

It hit the half-open drawer of her desk, then slammed into the floor at a weird angle, right on its corner. And Sarah I-Don't-Need-A-Phone-Case-Because-I'm-Not-A-Klutz Walker watched her phone crack right down the seam. "God…damn it!" she groused through her teeth, letting out a long, tired sigh, rolling her eyes, and kneeling down to pick it up.

The phone was broken. She'd be having to get a new one or hope Chuck could work some magic on this one. At least he could potentially get her data off for her, her pictures and everything.

Damn. She'd taken a cute one of Clara over the weekend and she didn't want that gone forever.

Setting the phone down on her desk, she pushed her hair out of her face and turned to stare out at the mess in the other room. At some point, she needed to pick that up.

And them she frowned a little down at the phone. Why was Chuck calling? He was supposed to be at work, still planning that huge conference of his…

Not that he didn't randomly call her during the day every so often when he needed to pull back from his work. She did the same thing from time to time. Out-flirting him over the phone for a few minutes in the middle of the day had become something of a habit, now. A habit she couldn't and didn't want to quit. Even as they approached their two year anniversary of that morning in Paris when they made their relationship official, she could still get him to stammer, the adorable dope.

It was not ten minutes later, as she plopped into her comfortable desk chair and kicked her heels off to put her feet on the desk and rest for a few minutes, that the door to her outer office burst open.

"Sarah! Oh my God! Sarah, are you here?!"

She lowered her feet with a thump and stood quickly, pushing her chair back. "Chuck, what is it?"

Just as she came around her desk, he appeared at the doorway to her private office, his hands slapping against the doorframe on either side of him. He looked incredibly frazzled, his hair a mess, the hem at the bottom of his suit jacket somehow caught up inside of the sleeve under his armpit, his eyes crazed with worry.

And then there was relief. Abject relief. "Sarah," he breathed, his eyelids fluttering.

He lunged at her then and she let him wrap her up in a tight hug. Almost a little too tight, she thought, still totally confused. But she hugged him back. "What is it?" she asked, rubbing his neck with one cool hand. "What happened?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" he rushed out, pulling back just enough to look into her eyes, cupping her jaw with one caring hand. "Are you okay?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, furrowing her brow. "I-I'm fine! What's going on?"

"I was calling you 'cause—Er, well, I was gonna say hi. And you answered after it rang for a while, but then I heard you yell and there was a crash. With-With everything going on with this case of yours, I thought—"

Oh. Oh God, poor Chuck. "Goddd, Chuck. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out, you complete sweetheart." She giggled a bit, wincing as she stepped back. Almost unconsciously, she reached out and tugged at the suit jacket, pulling it down over his torso, not that he seemed to care, and then she snagged her phone off of the desk and showed it to him. "I was trying to answer it in time and I fumbled it. It cracked on the floor. Hence the yell. And the crash. It's broken, I think."

She gave him a lame, closed-mouth smile.

"Oh." He laughed a little and shook his head. "I maybe…overreacted."

"Hey. Listen. I welcome the overreaction, considering…um…whom I'm dealing with currently."

"Really?" he asked, eyes wide. "I-I guess I thought maybe…" He delicately took the phone from her fingers and started distractedly trying to fix it for her. And somehow that made her melt a little. How unconsciously he did things to make her life easier. Without her even having to ask. "With our conversation the other night. I sort of went overboard and, um, maybe made you think that I'm underestimating your capabilities as a detective. And I thought that might extend to this, protecting yourself I mean."

"Chuck, I'm never gonna get mad at you for caring. Of course you rushed over here to check on me after that. And with the fake Cartwright thing, I don't blame you. I'd do the same thing if I tried to call you and heard you yell on the line before it went dead." She put her hands on either side of his neck and moved up onto her tiptoes to peck his lips. "I'm sorry I worried you."

"Nah, it's okay. I'm just glad you aren't in the back of some van with tinted windows or curtains right now." He shivered dramatically and then there was a small click sound between them.

Sarah looked down and saw he'd managed to get the phone open. "Uh…Baby, I wanted you to fix it not break it all the way."

He chuckled. "I mean, I can maybe get it sticking together again, but see how gnarly this bit is? It's bent up," he said, running his pointer finger along where it had made contact with the hard floor. "I don't think it's gonna be working again."

Sarah let out a dramatic whine. "Damn it. I need that."

"It's okay. That's why I opened it. The card is fine. I can just put it in a new phone for you." Then he paused. "Um, also…just a minor thing. But is there, uh, any reason why your outer office looks like the scene of a kidnapping? 'Cause that didn't help me not think something had happened to you."

"Oh God, I'm so sorry." She chuckled. "I accidentally dropped a file I was looking through right before I dropped the phone. So…today's been…a day."

"Ah. That makes sense."

"I'm sorry I scared you so badly…" she said, a bit of a pout on her face as she sidled up to him and ran her hand down his tie, wrapping it up in her fist.

"It's okay," he chuckled, shaking his head. "As long as you're okay, that's all that matters. Also, this is good. I was kind of dying at work and now I'm here instead. Maybe we can have a post-lunch coffee? Or I can buy ya a cookie from down the street at that bakery you love so much."

She moaned a little, then moved in to wrap her arms around his shoulders and hug him. Part of her wanted to just wrap her legs around his waist and cling to him like a koala or something, just let him hold her for a while. This was shaping up to be one of those days where a lot of little frustrating things happened that not just soured your mood but made everything you were trying to get done that much harder.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, chuckling and rubbing her back comfortingly, almost like he could tell she was in a mood that needed that sort of thing.

"No," she said with a put-upon sigh. She pulled back and gave him a full on pout. "I can't. As much as I wish I could. I have to go meet with Jerald Brown in a few which is especially great now that I don't have a working phone."

Chuck froze in her arms. "Wait, what?"

"I got Brown to agree to meet me today. I've gotta leave in fifteen minutes to get there on time." She glanced at her watch. At least that wasn't broken.

"Wait, wait. Hold on. Brown? Jerald Brown? You are going to meet with him? Now?"

"In fifteen minutes, yes. What?"

"Nothin'. Nothin'. No, I was just…I didn't expect that. I mean, that's—Well, it's what you needed to do, to get this guy once and for all. Where, um, where you meeting him? At his office? On a bench in a very public place? Please don't say his home."

She giggled, finding his questioning as endearing as it was frustrating. But she knew when she was in this business, a dangerous business she had to admit, she couldn't exactly get him to stop caring, and by extension, to stop worrying. This was going to be a transition. She'd have to get used to it. For most of her career, she hadn't had that element in her life. Someone who legitimately cared about whether she came back home at night after a long day of working on a case. She had it now, with Chuck Bartowski, and it was incredibly precious to her.

He was incredibly precious to her.

"Not his home, no. Nor his office. Those are all places Fake Cartwright knows about. I told him it had to be someplace few people knew about. His wife runs a small, not very well-known Etsy shop because she makes, like, knitted things I guess. And she has a little office she rents in some office building near SoHo. Off of Melrose."

"You're meeting him alone?"

"We'll both be alone."

"And without a phone?"

"Chuuuuuck," she groaned, sliding her hands up and squeezing his shoulders. "Listen, bud. I love you. And I get you're worried. But there are a few things I've got on me that aren't broken that'll be much more helpful than a mere cellphone." He tilted his head in question. "My knives and gun. And my fists."

"Oh. Wow. That's rad."

She giggled, kissing his cheek. "You mind helping me clean up the mess in the other room? And then I should probably leave to beat traffic. Don't want to be late and have him leave, thinking I've stood him up."

"Right. Sure, sure…" He moved into the other room in front of her and knelt down to start scooping up the pictures and the notes and documents. She could feel his worry from across the room, though the adorable and maybe a little overprotective man was doing a good job of holding it in instead of harping on it to her yet again.

She just hoped his worries, and her own, were unfounded.

Especially because the broken phone really did present yet another element that would make her less safe in this situation. And her track record of doing stupid things today hadn't just been limited to those two dropping incidents. There was the coffee she'd spilled when she woke up this morning, nearly missing her new shoes. And then someone had run a red light and nearly T-boned her. If she hadn't been extra cautious in going when she had the green light, she definitely would've gotten it good instead of watching a truck speed past her within inches of the front of her car, her heart in her throat.

She wasn't about to tell Chuck any of that.

Instead, fifteen minutes later, she let him walk her to her car, open the door for her so that she could swing herself down behind the wheel, and he shut it for her again.

She rolled down her window and peered up at him as she started the car. "Hey. C'mere and kiss me." He leaned down with his arms perched on the door and he kissed her with a quiet hum. "What's that look on your face, huh?" she asked.

"Just a little worried, you not having a phone for this meeting. Why don't you just take mine?" He took it out of his pocket, wrapped in a case she noticed a bit glumly.

"I don't need your phone, Chuck. What if someone for your conference calls and it's super important but you can't do anything about it because I've got your phone?"

"They'll call Adisa." He shrugged. "That's what he's there for. Which reminds me: before I give you my phone, I should let him know you're okay. I screamed at him that something had happened to you and then ran outta there. He's probably freakin' out. Woops." He typed out a quick message. "There. Now take my phone."

"No. I'm not taking your phone. I'm fine, Baby. Really. I'll go directly to your apartment after this and you can help me fix my mangled little piece of crap smart phone then. How about that?"

"Sarah."

"Chuck."

He sighed heavily and dropped his forehead onto his folded arms. She reached up to stroke his curls and then leaned in to kiss his head.

"I love you. I have to go."

"Please be careful," he said, lifting his head and leaning in to kiss her again.

"I will be. I promise."

He stepped back as they said their 'see you laters' and she stayed there for a few moments, watching him walk to his own car that was parked nearby, before she finally pulled out from where she was parked at the curb, headed towards Mrs. Brown's Etsy office. Her nerves were on edge, so she was extra paranoid about looking for cars following her, but a few minutes into the drive, when she didn't get any alarm bells over any of the cars behind her, she settled down a bit more, turned on some music, and just drove, glancing in the rearview mirror every once in a while.

If she'd fed into the paranoia a bit more, she might've noticed the taxi a few cars behind her, slowly meandering along on her same path, and the other car off to the side, keeping within three or four cars' length of hers.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Mr. Brown. Thank you for meeting me today," she said as he offered her the comfortable chair across from his inside of his wife's cozy little office.

"Please. Jerald. And you're a private investigator, are you?" He eyed her, and she found it wasn't leering or even particularly off-putting. He was merely sizing her up. "I hope you don't mind my saying this, but you weren't what I expected when you called me and said you wanted to meet."

"Hm. I get that a lot."

He chuckled and shrugged. "So what is this? Why the secrecy?"

Sarah sucked in a deep breath and let it out. She'd decided when she made the call that she was going to have to be fully honest with Jerald Brown. She needed his full story, and she needed him to know why it was so important he provided it for her.

"Mr.—Jerald," she corrected herself, and he smirked, pushing the glasses he was wearing up his nose. "Robbie Cartwright contacted me almost two weeks ago and told me he wanted me to vet you." His smirk grew on his older face and he shook his head bitterly, a bit of anger in his eyes. "You don't look very surprised."

"Well, young lady, I'm not." Then he winced. "I'm sorry. 'Young lady' sounds very patronizing. You seem around my daughter's age and I like to imagine sometimes that she isn't quite so old as she's seeming to get." He shook his head, then gestured for her to continue.

She smiled politely, then nodded. "Are you doing business with Cartwright?"

"Well, you see…I had planned to. Back when he was still living in Cape Town." Sarah sat up a bit straighter, much more interested in what this man had to say suddenly. "I'd only been corresponding with him through email. He preferred that over phone calls. He was planning on putting some money in with Gridiron Technology—that's my company—" She nodded, already having known that, amongst a lot of other things now. "But he wanted to take a vacation and clear his head first. I said that was perfectly all right. There was no rush. And I didn't bother him. But when I didn't hear for a few months, I figured he had changed his mind after his vacation. I was going to give him a call just to confirm, and he showed up here in LA suddenly. He…called me. On the phone. And I was so shocked by it that I didn't ask why. He told me he wanted to make a proposition. He'd found some information on Gridiron and thought it might be interesting to build an investment there, get his foot in the tech industry door, so to speak…"

Sarah frowned. "So he decided to accept your business arrangement after all."

"Yes. But the way he spoke to me about it, he made it seem as though we'd never discussed it before. That on top of the fact that he'd called instead of emailing, made me a bit…well…"

When he squirmed in his seat, Sarah leaned in. "Dubious?"

"Hm. Precisely. When we met face to face, he was…different from what I'd come to expect from emailing with him for a month or so." He stretched his arms out. "I was perfectly content doing business in the way he wanted to—remotely, with me in LA and Cartwright in Cape Town. Killer time difference, but emailing back and forth meant that didn't matter much."

"Jerald, did you talk to Cartwright about your misgivings?" she asked. "I-I mean, once he came here, to Los Angeles."

"Oh, no. My wife advised me not to. Instead, she said, don't alert him. Just keep talking to him about the investment in Gridiron and see what happened. But, well…I'm not the best actor. And the man I emailed with seems so…different, contrary to what I've experienced the few times I met him in person here."

"How so?"

"More outgoing. Verging on wild. There was an event we were both invited to, about three and a half weeks ago. He danced almost the entire time, drank…" He shifted forward in his seat. "Wait, you say he hired you?"

Suspicion laced his features then and she held up a hand to reassure him. "I've been vetting him instead of you for the past two weeks, sir. I'll be honest with you, I've done quite a bit of digging into your business, your personal life…"

"Comforting. What did you find?" He was almost bristling now.

"Nothing." He blinked. "The deeper I dug, the more obvious it was to me that you're on the up and up, so to speak. And every time I met with Mr. Cartwright to provide an update, I had nothing of note to give him, and he seemed…upset by that. He told me he just wanted to make sure he was going into business with someone honest. But it became more and more apparent that he wanted me to find something on you, something he could use. For what, I wasn't sure. And that's why I wanted to meet with you. I don't know why he's targeting you by hiring a P.I. to look into you. But I figured you would know. Or you might have an idea."

"I must not be a very good actor. That's the only thing I could imagine. That I'm not…enthralled with him."

"More likely, sir, it's that you aren't falling for his act." He furrowed his bushy brow and frowned. "I think he isn't Cartwright. Especially since you're saying you emailed about that business of yours before he came here, when he was still in Cape Town. And that he seemed not to know about it—or rather, not to remember—and struck up talks of investing again. That is because this guy most likely doesn't know you talked to the real Cartwright months ago."

The man was shaking in his wife's chair, and he covered his mouth with his hand. "You're saying this—this man is an imposter…?"

"Yes. Jerald, I'm almost certain the man who hired me is not Robert Cartwright."

Brown shook his head slowly, and then he swallowed loud enough for her to hear. "You know, I was afraid—I was getting suspicious, at least, that there was something fishy with him. Everyone else seemed to be falling for his charms, but that business about the emails and him suddenly showing up and being so different…" He ran his hand down his tie. "Have you contacted the authorities? Both here and in Cape Town. If he's pretending to be Cartwright here, where's the actual Cartwright? Back home in Cape Town, not knowing someone is impersonating him?"

"My fear is that he's dead." Brown went pale and sat back against his chair heavily.

"D-Did this man kill him?"

"I don't know. But Cartwright took a trip in one of his boats…and all of a sudden he was here in Los Angeles, buying a huge condo downtown, cars, other toys…running his business into the ground, and…here's the kicker, selling his own Cape Town property to unwitting buyers."

"He's selling Cartwright's property?" Brown asked, sitting forward again, anger in his eyes. "Listen, I wasn't particularly fond of Robert Cartwright. He seemed very…standoffish, hard to get along with, hard in general. And that was just in the emails we exchanged. But he did genuinely good things with his money and I was eager to work with him. To think someone could…" He murmured a swear and looked her in the eye. "What do you plan to do, Miss Walker?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Now that I've gotten more evidence from you, I'll be needing to go to the authorities. I have a contact at the LAPD. At least I'm pretty sure I know why I was hired to get dirt on you. You're dangerous to this con he's pulling. Very dangerous."

"You mean he thought you might find something incriminating that he could use to shut me up if I tried to do something about my suspicions…?"

"Exactly."

"Well, at least he hired the right person." He cleared his throat and shrugged. "Right for me, at least. And just…right in general. On the right side."

"I try to be, sir. None of this was sitting well with me. I've managed to drag it out for a while as I've picked up more information on this imposter." Fake Cartwright had been almost restless during the meeting before their last, so Sarah had made a point in the next meeting, yesterday's meeting in fact, to come in with something he might be able to use. A misdemeanor she'd drummed up out of nothing, forged papers that looked convincing enough she thought. It would buy her time if she promised to follow the lead and come back with more, which she had.

And now she could go right to Casey's doorstep, her evidence and a witness in hand, and they could take this son of a bitch down together.

"You might need to come with me to the LAPD, Mr. Brown. They'll want to question you about everything."

"Of course. You can…guarantee my safety, can't you?"

Before she could answer, there was a splintering boom behind her, and as she spun in her chair, she saw the man who'd hired her had kicked the door in and was standing there, a gun pointed at the both of them.

"No, Jerry," he murmured. "No, she can't."

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imaginethemultiversedoms · 5 years

Text

Tangled Webs (Part 1)

Fandom: The Flash

Rating: G

Summary: When Ralph confronts the youngest Team Flash member about the powers she’s been hiding since the bus event, Parker (OC) has to confess she’s been moonlighting despite the ever-present danger of Devoe.

A/N: Hey, hey! I’m back! So as I’ve been slowly catching up with Flash, I’ve noticed that all of the metas Team Flash has dealt with are adults. In the context of the fiction, I find it hard to believe that kids weren’t affected by the explosion or the Enlightenment. Plus it is a good story concept of a teenager trying to juggle high school and superheroing. So here is a small piece of that I may turn into something more (notice how that happens a lot?)

For the sake of this story, it’s not completely important how Parker ended up being on Team Flash. She just is at this point.

I’ve also fallen in love with Ralph. He has great depth of character and a great story arc. It was bound to happen.

EDIT: Yes, I did just add a “part 1″. While the story is pretty much the same, I did change the dialogue a bit at the end to keep it more in Parker’s POV. 1: it keeps a better flow and 2: I’m going to retell this in Ralph’s POV.

So yeah, Tangled Webs is turning into something more.

"Hey," Barry touched Parker’s shoulder gently, "why don't you head home? We still have a couple hours of clean up to do and you have that history test tomorrow." Parker nodded and shut her binder, shoving it in her bag. She noted it was four-thirty - about her usual patrol time. “I’ll run you home.”

"Nah, I've got band practice anyway. Jo said they would meet me at Jitters. Thanks anyway." She noted with relief the team accepted the excuse. Only Ralph looked a little suspicious, but she figured it was because she was the youngest and a non-meta.

Supposedly, at least.

Barry insisted on running her to an alley around the corner of Jitters. As soon as he left though, she breathed a sigh of relief and tugged off her bag. Ducking behind a dumpster, she pulled off her coat and stripped down to her leggings and cami top. Shivering in the late fall air, she pulled out a white and black suit, a prototype Cisco tossed for Ralph's new suit. It was still too loose in places, but it fits what she needed to do well enough. It was even warmer than the cobbled together suit she started out with a few months ago.

She put her backpack on and pulled out her phone. Metal would do nicely for this patrol. Letting the sounds of Godsmack bang in her ears, she pulled her mask down. It’d been a good day for Team Flash. Hopefully, that luck would bleed into her patrol. Afterward, maybe she could even set herself up in a construction area for some quiet reading. She smiled at the prospect. Pointing her web-slinger at the top of the building, she launched herself from the ground and started her patrol.

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

Parker sighed as her web hammock swung gently in the breeze. It had turned out to be a decent patrol. She caught a robbery in progress, webbed up the baddies, and deposited them in front of the police station. She was in even better luck that Captain Singh was the one who saw her. Joe would've probably recognized the jacket.

Then she webbed up some asshole who tried to steal a kid's bike, helped someone with directions, and walked an elderly lady across the street. That lady also ended up buying her a sandwich as thanks. Now she found herself a nice spot at the top of the new office building under construction, studying for her history exam, with a great view of the sunset.

"Gotta say, you found yourself a pretty great view, kiddo." Parker looked up from her studying, confused and alarmed. There was only one person she allowed to call her "kiddo". Not even Barry could get away with it. She looked all around but didn't spot Ralph. It wasn't until she heard him stretching on her left that she found him walking across the platform towards her. He was obviously trying not to look down. "Take it you're not afraid of heights?"

"Never," she admitted softly. "How much trouble am I in?"

"Depends." He gestured towards the web hammock and she nodded. He stretched himself slowly onto the hammock, making sure it would hold both their weights. Parker wasn't worried; her webbing was stronger than spider silk. Silk…maybe that could be her codename... "Does the team know you were even on that bus that morning?" he asked, breaking her from his thoughts. She picked at a stray thread on her jacket.

"No," she whispered. Guilt and shame filled her again at the lie she'd been telling her family for months. She knew Devoe was searching for all the bus metas and she should've told the team what really happened that day. Risking a glance at Ralph, she saw his expression said the same thing.

"What were you doing on that bus that morning?" he asked gently.

"That was the morning everyone was trying to get Barry out of the Speedforce." She glanced at Ralph, who nodded for her to continue. "I wanted to be there, but Joe made me go to school nonetheless. Said it was better if I just went to keep my mind off what was going on. But I couldn't stop thinking of being able to see Barry again, so after homeroom, I kinda..."

"Ditched?" Ralph supplied gently. Parker nodded. "And hoofed it to the nearest bus stop and tried to sneak on?"

"I forgot my money pouch at home." She caught his eye for a moment and smiled crookedly, remembering the drunk/hungover guy that paid for her fare and let her sit at the window so no creeps bothered her. "I still owe you three dollars, huh?"

"Buy me a coffee and we're even," he joked. "And the powers?"

"There was a spider crawling on your bag when you were dozing. I meant to get it off, but the bus jerked and the spider bit me just as dark matter flooded in."

"Whaaaat?" Ralph gasped. "You mean you actually got bit by a radioactive spider?" Parker giggled and nodded. "Oooh, I'm so jealous! Wait, what happened to the spider?" Parker cringed.

"Accidentally squished it." Ralph's lips curled up, disgusted for a moment. A question burned in her mind and before she could stop herself, the words slipped out. "How did you find me?"

"When Barry and Iris had me hypnotized, I remembered you a little more clearly," he explained. "At first, I thought you were being a teenager about school and quitting band, but your routine became a little too predictable" he pulled out his phone and pulled up a YouTube clip of the mystery spider meta swinging past and waving. Parker noted it was taken a couple months ago, shortly after her powers manifested. "Coupled with the routine of that mysterious spider meta swinging around, it didn’t take long to put it together." Parker handed him back his phone.

"That doesn't explain how you found me." Ralph gestured at the webbing to the building.

"You leave a trail, kiddo." She blushed and picked at her backpack again. He nudged her to get her to look up. His expression was worried, bordering on panic. "An extremely easy one too. If I could follow you halfway across Central City, what makes you think Devoe couldn't either? The man had a flying chair and is now taking over metas. It would be terrifyingly easy for him and we wouldn't know until it was too late."

Tears burned behind her eyes as she turned away to stare at the bay. She knew the risk she was taking not telling. But she wanted to help her city like her friends. Then when she realized the juggling act between school and superhero, she knew she couldn't tell them just yet. Then came the comments about the spider meta, the video clips, and the mystery behind the spider mask. The lies just continued stacking up and when the team realized Devoe was tracking the bus metas, she was in way too deep. So she kept moonlighting and swinging and ignoring the ever-creeping danger of Devoe and breaking everyone's heart.

Sniffling, she wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I'm sorry," she whispered. “Even though I knew lying about being on the bus would have disappointed everyone, I thought that if I could prove how good of a superhero I am, they wouldn't yell at me." She scrubbed at the tears that kept falling. "By the time we knew Devoe's intentions, I was in too deep. I just wanted to ignore the danger and keep doing what I was doing."

With a heavy sigh, Ralph reached up and wrapped an arm around the teen's shoulders in a hug. "I get it. I know what it's like to feel you live in someone’s shadow and want to prove yourself." He rested his chin on top of her head and sighed. "And the thing is, you have. I've seen the footage. You help people and relate to them. They love you, way more than Elongated Man." Parker looked up, surprised to hear the bitterness in his voice.

"People think you're cool too, Ralph," she insisted. "I think it's cool how you can stretch and stuff." Ralph grinned, looking both surprised and pleased at the compliment. She sighed, staring at the sunset. "They’re going to be pretty pissed, huh?"

"Oh, no doubt.” At the dejected slump of her shoulders, he hugged her again. "But I withheld crucial bus meta information too. I'll take on some of that anger for you." She looked up, surprised.

"Really?"

"Really. I can take it. Besides, we're a team now, right? I'll stand beside you." Parker grinned and hugged Ralph tightly around the middle. He laughed softly. Noting the sun was pretty much set, he pulled back. "Come on, break down this webbing and we'll pick up some Big Belly Burger to sweeten their tempers."

"Are we going to drive there?" she asked, packing up her stuff. Ralph scoffed and put his mask back on.

"When we have a faster mode of travel? There's a Big Belly on the corner of 31st and Park. Race ya there?"

She grinned wider and pulled her mask down and hood up. "Best swinger pays for dinner?" she asked, spider-crawling up the metal frame. She didn’t notice Ralph’s grimace, her mind on her growling stomach. That sandwich was a good three hours ago; a Big Belly Triple Decker with large fries sounded like heaven about now.

"Yeah, I could go with that. Ready...set..."

"Ralph?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not just my teammate. You're my big brother too." For the third time that evening, she was surprised at her own admissions. While they were genuine fears and feelings, she had a hard time expressing them and usually resorted to some sort of action rather than words. She wasn’t ready to face the emotional war of telling the team she’d been lying, much less tell Ralph how much she looked up to him. But here they were.

She stole a glance at him and was glad that her mask completely covered her face. Even behind his eye mask, he was surprised and touched at the admission. Clearing his throat, he nodded. She could see his eyes glistening a bit, but he hid it behind a playful wink. “You might soon regret giving me that title, kiddo.”

She lifted her mask enough to stick her tongue out. "You gotta catch me first. Ready...set...GO!"

#the flash imagines #ralph dibny imagine #kid!fic #oc character #i would like to see how team flash would handle a kid meta running around trying to help #ralph dibny

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shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl · 7 years

Photo

“Take my believing heart!”

Little Witch Persona AU anyone? Phantom witches?? Witch thieves???

**Please DO NOT edit, use, or repost any of these! Thank you!

—

Nine New Phantom Witches

character profiles, concepts and dialogues under the cut!

Diana Cavendish

Codename: Empress Arcana: Hierophant

Mask: Silver mask with intricate carvings reminiscent of crowns exuding a royal vibe

Outfit: Think Revolutionary Girl Utena just with a different color scheme, white and blue and gold

Persona: Celtic goddess of healing Sirona -> Roman goddess Diana (second awakening)

Skillset: Strong heal and magic spells, high magic resistance but weak to physical and status ailments

Weapons: Rapier and Desert Eagle

All-Out Attack Card: “Battle Royal” written with a castle in the background and she says, “It was hardly a challenge.”

———-

Atsuko “Akko” Kagari

Codename: Nova (short for Supernova) Arcana: Fool

Mask: Golden domino mask with star shaped holes for the eyes

Outfit: Think Shiny Chariot just more conservative and more red

Persona: Susanoo -> Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and of the universe [World arcana] (second awakening)

Skillset: Strong physical attacks and resistance but lower magical defense

Weapons: Shiny Rod (but Akko swings it like a bat) and slingshot gun

All-Out Attack Card: “A Dream Come True!” written with a colorful background and she says, “Wasn’t that so much fun!”

CHATS:

Akko: Just what kind of dish is “Cavendish” anyways? Diana: …I can hear your stomach growling. Have you eaten at all before this?

Akko: I don’t get this arcana thing. Why isn’t Chariot’s arcana Chariot? I mean it’s already in her name! Diana: Clearly you haven’t been studying. Again. If you did then you would know that that’s not how arcanas work.

Akko: Isn’t it weird calling out your own name when you summon your persona? Diana: I suppose it is but I’ve gotten used to it.

Diana: I’m still uncomfortable with the use of firearms in battle. Akko: At least you get to use an actual gun! Why the heck do I get a kid’s toy instead?

Diana: It’s amazing how there are worlds like this all because someone believes it. Akko: Chariot was right all along. A believing heart is magic. And it’s our duty to make sure that magic is used for good!

———-

Ursula Callistis

Codename(s): Chariot, Crane *NOTE for Ursula, she will have two masks: she starts out with Chariot and later on dons Crane (since the curse suppresses her powers)

Codename: Chariot Arcana: Sun

Mask: Golden masquerade mask

Outfit: Think Overwatch Mercy just more red than yellow and minus the halo

Persona: Astraea (star-maiden or starry night in Greek) [or second option Alfrodull, literally sun-chariot in Norse]

Skillset: Well balanced, master of all elements, high SP cost

Weapons: Shiny Rod which transforms into Shiny Axe for melee and then transforms into Shiny Arc for long-ranged

All-Out Attack Card: “A believing heart is magic!” written in the sky among the stars and she says, “I believe in you!”

Codename: Crane Arcana: Hanged

Mask: Red bird-shaped mask with pointed beak

Outfit: Simple white witch outfit with bird motif and red accents

Persona: Hestia, Greek goddess of the hearth, architecture, and the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state

Skillset: Strong bless skills, weak to curse skills

Weapons: Eskrima sticks and a crossbow

All-Out Attack Card: “Shoot for the stars!” written with the Fountain of Polaris in the background and she says, “I can shine at least this much!”

—–

Croix Meridies

Codename: Crow Arcana: Moon

Mask: Black bird-shaped mask with curved beak

Outfit: Same as anime but maybe edgier and more black accents

Persona: Morrigan, Irish mythology of a crow goddess –> Branwen, Welsh goddess of love, means “blessed raven.” (second awakening)

Skillset: Strong nuclear and has curse skills, weak to psychokinesis

Weapons: Gadgets linked to her smartphone and sniper rifle

All-Out Attack Card: “Sorcery Solution System” written on a smartphone interface background and she says, “Your magic is outdated.”

CHATS:

Ursula: What are the odds that our outfits are both bird-themed? This reminds me of the saying, “birds of the same feather flock together”. Croix: Except we’re both literally different species of birds.

Ursula: So your codename is Crow and your persona looks like a crow… not to mention the fact that your real name sounds like… Croix: You’re just jealous because I have a theme.

Ursula: I think Crow is a good fit for you. They’re known to be quite the smart animals that have good memory. Croix: You know what else crows are good at? Murder.

Croix: Don’t you want to find out who would win in a birdfight, a crane or a crow? Ursula: No. Let’s not find out. Ever. Can’t we just find out which bird has better manners?

Croix: If I fold you a thousand origami cranes then would you grant me a wish? Ursula: You don’t have to do that. I’ll gladly help you in achieving your wish with all my power.

———-

Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger

Codename: Steam aka the Navigator Arcana: Magician

Mask: Same goggles she wears in the anime

Outfit: Steampunk armor pls

Persona: Baduhenna, Germanic goddess associated with war

Skillset: “Wild Hunt” which is basically ship mode and the usual navigator skills, strong gun skills, offense support type

*Notes: Her persona is/can transform into a ship (like the one in the anime). Her persona also doubles as the transport vehicle of the group. She even makes “modifications” on her persona (skill exclusive to her and Croix)

Weapons: Her modified guns like in the anime; her persona also has canons

All-Out Attack Card: “Modern Magic” written on a circuitboard background and Stanbot says, “Victory!”

———-

Amanda O'Neill

Codename: Rogue or Rebel (couldn’t decide) Arcana: Chariot

Mask: White mask, maybe same as P5 Joker’s but edgier

Outfit: Think P5 Joker and her hair is groomed like in the Holy Grail episode

Persona: Eris, Greek goddess of chaos

Skillset: Strong physical, high agility, most likely to do follow-ups

Weapons: Bo staff and shoes that hurt as hell, and submachine gun

*Notes: Amanda has the only solo-rideable persona. It takes form of either a revamped broom or a hoverbike. She’s the only one who equips two melee weapons because of her acrobatic fighting style.

All-Out Attack Card: “Wrong side of the law” written with a heist background and she says, “That all you got?”

———-

Jasminka Antonenko

Codename: Mishka (Russian Bear mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games) Arcana: Strength

Mask: Polar bear mask

Outfit: Think Overwatch Mei but with a different color scheme

Persona: Maslenitsa, Slavic goddess of harvest and witchcraft

Skillset: Good at party healing and dealing brutal AOE damage but the only catch is that she doesn’t have a lot of SP so she uses a lot of items to replenish it. Most likely to give cover fire.

Weapons: Two-handed axe or hammer and bazooka

All-Out Attack Card: “Chow Down” written on a dining table filled with food as a background, and she says, “Seconds, please?”

———-

Lotte Yanson

Codename: Owl Arcana: Temperance

Mask: Great grey owl-shaped mask but the eye holes are covered with prescription glasses

Outfit: Think traditional fantasy rpg mage but with grey feathery look

Persona: Luonnotar, the Finnish “female spirit of nature”

Skillset: Strong buffs and support; her high affinity with spirits makes her handy to have when doing shadow negotiations particularly recruiting shadows

Weapons: Spear and harpoon gun

All-Out Attack Card: “Night Fall and Spirit Calls” written with spirits celebrating in the background and she says,“I lost my temper back there.”

———-

Sucy Manbavaran

Codename: Miasma Arcana: Devil

Mask: Plague doctor mask

Outfit: Dark cloak and robes, horns headband, black leather gloves

Persona: Maria Cacao or “Maria” for short, the goddess at Mt. Lantoy in Cebu, Philippines

Skillset: Strong at dealing status ailments and debuffing enemies; her intimidating aura helps in shadow negotiations particularly shaking down more money and rarer items off shadows

Weapons: Sickle and modified gas pistol

All-Out Attack Card: “Deadly Concoction” written in a cauldron with mushrooms in the background and she says, “Was that too strong for you?”

———-

CHATS:

Akko: Why would you name yourself “My asthma”? You sick or something? Lotte: It’s not “my asthma”, it’s mi- Sucy: No. Don’t tell her. This is funny.

Akko: Why am I not surprised that Sucy is just as creepy even as a Phantom Witch? Sucy: It’s called consistency- something you lack.

Akko: Thank goodness we have Lotte with us, she’s really good at talking us out of a fight! Lotte: Well we wouldn’t be fighting so much if you just tried talking first instead of running in head first.

Akko: Hey, you’re not wearing your glasses. Can you even see anything? Lotte: Oh, actually my glasses are incorporated in my mask. It’s thoughtfully convenient.

Akko: Amanda’s outfit is so cool! Not like in a Chariot way but still cool! Amanda: Thanks. It just shows how cool my rebellious spirit is. Meanwhile your outfit is… very Akko. Akko: Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!

Akko: Just how many snacks do you bring with you each time? Jasminka: Enough for everyone… and more!

Akko: How come you guys get to ride your personas? Like Amanda can ride on hers and Constanze has a huge ship! Amanda: You can’t even ride a broom, how can you ride anything else? Constanze (through Stanbot): Akko, basics!

Akko: Constanze has it easy, huh. We have to fight shadows while she just stands back and supervises. Constanze (through Stanbot): No cover fire for Akko! Akko: Eh? Ehhhhhh? No way! J-Joke! That was just a joke! I was kidding!

Sucy: Hey, can you modify my gun so that it shoots gas more accurately? Or maybe something that shoots more painfully? Constanze (through Stanbot): Possible! I’ll work on it soon! Akko: Somehow, those two teaming up makes me feel uneasy…

Lotte: You’re so strong! I don’t know anyone else who can lift such a large weapon so easily. Jasminka: Thank you. I don’t know anyone else who can talk to spirits though.

Lotte: I feel kind of silly in my outfit. I’m not used to wearing something so eye-catching. Sucy: It feels the same for me. Well the mask is more pointed but as long as it serves its function, I could care less.

Amanda: Hm? So the Luna Nova’s “princess” is a Phantom Witch too. Huh, never thought I’d see the day. Diana: I would prefer if you call me by my codename “Empress”. Lotte: Please no fights. Let’s all get along now.

Amanda: You use a rapier? You know I’m pretty badass with one too. Diana: Yes, I’m aware. I think everyone has already heard of your infamous Appleton incident.

Diana: So a diplomatic approach could work just as fine… Interesting, I wouldn’t have learned that from Akko. Lotte: Yes, well you know Akko. She has her own way of dealing with things. Sucy: It’s called brute force. Akko: Hey! I can hear you guys over here!

———-

Some personal commentary,

Initially I just wanted to make edits as the girls and professors being Akko’s confidants but when I opened photoshop, my hand slipped. Maybe I’ll try and do edits for the rest of the girls some day so here have their profiles in advance. PS I love everyone.

Anyways! As for this AU, this just came up for fun! I mean if you like it but think you have a different image for their outfits and codenames then by all means, do you! I’m just putting this self-indulgent idea out there. I believe that you can shape this into something more spectacular! Go and enjoy creating!

Feel free to edit or add to this AU. Have fun!!

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journeysintowebcomics · 7 years

Text

Worm Liveblog #45

UPDATE 45: Temporary Replacement

Last time this had turned into a momentary point of view change! That’s right, Taylor’s story has been interrupted for this long intermission in the form of an arc from the point of view of a character that has arrived to Brockton Bay to lead the Wards: it’s Weld. Apparently he’s rather popular, and I like he seems to be a rather decent guy, so let’s continue!

Aaaaaand Weld isn’t here anymore. I suppose this interlude isn’t just about him, it’s for everyone in the Wards. There’s a second newcomer, and it’s Flechette. Now that I think about it, it was mentioned in the last chapter that she’d be in the team too. Without the burden of the leadership role, she should have less of a hard time fitting with the rest of the team – when she’s not sneaking to the back of someone who works with crossbows and isn’t known for thinking twice before shooting.

“You nearly killed me!”

“It’s a tranquilizer shot, and you have the fire escape behind you.”

Yeah…no. It’s just my personal opinion, but getting shot with tranquilizer doesn’t sound fun at all. Not that…Flechette would have a reason to blame Shadow Stalker, sneaking behind someone like that was a stupid move.

At least Shadow Stalker isn’t berating her or anything like that. She seems rather courteous. It’d almost be hard to know Sophia Hess is the person behind the mask.

Flechette confirms she is just a temporary replacement, and the reason why Shadow Stalker is bothering to be civil is revealed.

“I don’t do backup, and I don’t do the team thing unless someone makes me, but I’m willing to hang with another crossbow aficionado. Is that the right word? Aficionado?”

It’s because Flechette uses a crossbow too. Okay, I…suppose that’s a reason as valid as any to accept someone’s presence. Besides, it’s not like Flechette is going to be a burden, she is a capable hero on her own right – although inexperienced, from what I remember happened during the Leviathan fight. They should be okay.

I have no idea how one’s supposed to use a grappling hook, but if it helps her keep up the pace, then great. Besides, Shadow Stalker’s patrol route isn’t complicated, Flechette will be fine as long as she goes in a straight line. I wonder what’ll happen during this chapter? I can guess there’ll be trouble, that this won’t be a calm and boring patrolling. What I don’t know yet is if trouble will be caused by a civilian or by a parahuman, maybe affiliated to one of the villain groups. The city, broken down as it is, really is the perfect place for riots and discord.

I think I had ever noticed how Shadow Stalker moved. Taylor never noted it, she never described it in her usual speeches about capes’ powers. Looks like Shadow Stalker has strength in her limbs, allowing her be propelled upwards or forwards. Maybe that cloak of hers aids her in gliding? It’s faster than what Flechette does, at least. It seems Flechette needs chains and crossbow bolts to use a grappling hook, and she relies mods on equipment than Shadow Stalker, leaving behind the bolts she uses after severing the chains that helped propel her.

Since Taylor isn’t here, the exposition duty falls on Mr. Wildbow.

Capes with the ‘breaker’ classification were generally those who had some ability to ‘break’ the natural laws of the universe as far as those laws applied to them.

Ah! That’s a good explanation! Breakers can bypass the laws of nature and all that with ease, it’s inherent to their powers. Sometimes such effect can be applied to themselves, other times to objects, and…I suppose it can never be applied to other people. Or almost never. The Manton effect would get in the way. Still, that’s quite the dangerous classification, isn’t it? When you’re fighting, you can’t rely on the laws of nature to keep you safe or help you. It’s a tad funny, though, almost all capes are Breakers in some way…but I suppose those who break the laws of nature more blatantly are the ones given this classification.

Flechette’s power gave her a low Breaker classification. Her power can give her crossbow bolts certain qualities that allow them to be more or less affected by laws like gravity, the air friction, and other similar elements. It’s not that she modifies the crossbow bolts physically, her power is nothing visible. I wonder how she trains and how she found out the extent of her power, back when she triggered? It sounds like it’d be complicated to find out. Then again, powers have a certain measure of instinct in them. Miss Militia’s awakening kind of made it clear.

She could do other things, but the primary benefit, the easiest thing to do, was making her ammunition punch through anything.

Ah, right! She was the one who managed to fire a very large bolt through Leviathan’s head, wasn’t she? Given what we know about Leviathan’s mass and tissues, that’s no mean feat. That was the perfect way to demonstrate this. Compared to that, she shooting a bolt through the corner of a rooftop is child’s play.

It was tiring, constantly running, but she didn’t want to look bad in front of Shadow Stalker. She was going to spend weeks with this team, and Shadow Stalker was the only other girl present that was close to her own age.

Oh dear. Literally everyone else in the Wards would be a better person to spend time with. Buuuut yeah, of course someone would look for a peer, and Shadow Stalker is the only option that’d fit, so beggars can’t be choosers. At least Shadow Stalker is tolerating her presence.

Running on rooftops sucks, but she reaches Shadow Stalker, who is waiting for her.

“Don’t you run out of chain?”

Flechette turned, reached over her shoulder to tap her back. “Tinker teammate back home specializes in replication and cloning. Small pack back here consumes energy from a small fusion battery to create a steady supply. I’ve also got a kit back at the base that makes me a fresh stock of bolts.”

Ah! That answer that, I admit I was wondering just how much chain she had. If it’s constantly being created and replicated, then she won’t ever run out of supply, and not many would know to attack that backpack. She’s safe.

Shadow Stalker didn’t stop for kicks and giggles, looks like this chapter’s suspense and conflict has arrived. What is it?

Shadow Stalker led Flechette to the edge of the roof. Looking down, they could see a group of men in a loose half-circle around a middle-aged woman. The woman was backing away from the men, who were gradually closing in.

Looks like these are civilians, there’s no mention of costumes and the such. Should be no problem for a pair of heroes. Flechette demands to know why Shadow Stalker hasn’t gone ahead and saved that woman, the answer is that first they must do some type of violent and clearly bad action before she intervenes – so she has an excuse to open the can of whoop ass. Okay, I don’t like that, but...yeah, that’s usually how it goes, first you do the illegal action and then you receive punishment. Sometimes it’s rather unfortunate that’s necessary.

And Shadow Stalker had neglected to inform command. Flechette reached for her ear, where an earbud was nestled in the canal. She squeezed it twice. “Console, woman under attack by twelve or so ordinaries. Shadow Stalker and Flechette stepping in.”

I’m pretty sure she, hm, “forgot” on purpose. If command doesn’t know, then it never really happened, yeah? She can use excessive force – without killing or maiming too hard because yeah, she’s still in probation, but I’m convinced she didn’t mention this so she could go and hit as hard as possible.

When Flechette gets to the fight, Shadow Stalker is already fighting and winning. The tranquilizer darts she has are for disabling the opponent, not to stop violence before it happens. Kind of a dirty tactic, when you look at it objectively, but I guess effectivity is what matters here.

Flechette does seem to still be inexperienced, she lets her guard down for a moment to make sure someone she defeated wasn’t going to drown in a puddle, giving enough time for another one of these men to take out a gun and try to shoot her. All he gets for his trouble is a crossbow bolt through the crotch of his ridiculously sagging jeans. Shadow Stalker deals with like three at the same time, they were already retreating, but she wasn’t going to let them go so easily.

Okay, despite everything bad and ugly Sophia is as a person, it can’t be denied she has some rather good fighting skills. As a fighter hero she’s competent, that definitely can’t be denied. All Flechette can do is watch her, enraptured, and I don’t blame her, that must have been quite the spectacle.

Soon all the attackers are either unconscious or trapped. Flechette made sure to restrain them with a minimum amount of harm, while Shadow Stalker, well, you can imagine she played rough.

Flechette palmed one of her throwing darts, glanced at it. She’d been with the Wards a year before she had been given the arbalest and the chain reel. Her darts had been her weapon of choice for a long time, alongside a rapier she’d eventually retired after too many fights using it had turned out badly. She hadn’t had the heart to change her codename, even if it didn’t quite apply anymore. Maybe when she graduated to the Protectorate.

It’s still kind of fitting, isn’t it? Crossbow bolts are close enough to darts, when you think about it. Maybe I’m just biased because in Spanish her codename is rather fitting, if a bit ridiculous.

Since their job is done, Shadow Stalker tosses Flechette a round device Flechette claims to not have seen since her training days. I’m not sure what it is.

“Times like this call for ’em. City wants us on patrol, not sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, waiting for the cops to cart these fuckers off,”

Ah, alright, it must be some way to keep all of them restrained, you know, leaving all these guys behind and imprisoned so the police can come at their leisure while the heroes continue patrolling. I’m not sure yet of what this device will turn into, but at least I can guess its function.

Okay, what the device does is that it traps the criminals by keeping them hanging in the air, the device attaches to a wall. She goes to get the one she had made crash against a bolt, but before she can restrain him, the woman they just helped started bludgeoning the man with a trashcan lid. Well alright! Things are still violent around here! And Shadow Stalker doesn’t make a move, intending to let the woman achieve catharsis by beating the crap out of this guy. Flechette won’t have fun partnering with Shadow Stalker, that’s for sure.

“Told you, I don’t do the backup thing,” Shadow Stalker bent over the unconscious man, turning his head to investigate his injuries. “He’ll live. Him and his buddies deserve what they got.”

“That’s not your call to make.”

“Sure it is,” Shadow Stalker retrieved another restraint device and quickly strung the man up beneath a metal frame meant for an air conditioning unit. “Times like this, we’re cop, judge, jury and if it really comes down to it, executioner. We’re the ones with the power.”

Yes to the first three, no to the last one. Executioner? I fail to see the times when that’d be part of the job. I mean, the only ones that’d need such treatment are those like Leviathan, beings so powerful and dangerous it wouldn’t be farfetched to think that’s the only solution – and it’s not something most capes do, judging by what I was told about the capes’ intentions towards Leviathan during the fight.

This is a deal breaker, as far as Flechette is concerned. She decides to ditch Shadow Stalker, and Shadow Stalker isn’t exactly begging to keep someone with her. She’s a vigilante, after all. She’s in the team because she has to be. You know, I may hate Shadow Stalker so much keeping a meter for her would lead to negative numbers in like two updates – which is why I don’t bother giving her a meter, even though her importance as a character skyrocketed when it was revealed she is Sophia Hess – but I admit I’d be interested in an interlude with her as the central character. It may be fun to read.

Since she’s unfamiliar with the territory and any capes that may appear, Flechette requests information from console. Kid Win is manning it. First action! To give information about the rogue who had the stuffed animals moving during the Leviathan fight. Good question! I’d also like to know more about her.

“Parian,” Kid Win replied. “A parian doll was a kind of doll about a hundred and fifty years ago. Though Parian’s costume is actually closer to a more classical Victorian style porcelain doll, from the same era.”

“Oh.” That was random. ��What kind of guy knew that much about dolls?

Let the guy have his interests, Flechette. Maybe he’s into toys and their history. It’s healthy to have a hobby.

Apparently Parian’s performance during the Leviathan fight was impressive enough for Flechette to want to meet Parian in person. She’s a rogue who is actually a fashion student, using her stuffed animals as her distinguishing quality. I think being a parahuman would be quite the enticing quality to have in terms of marketing, surely it’ll attract clients. Too bad the college she was attending is gone and these times aren’t good for studying of any kind.

It seems the lake downtown will be a permanent fixture of the city. Sure, there are barriers, chain link fences and fallen buildings in the center of the lake, but it’s not like the lake will be going away anytime soon. With some luck it could be incorporated to Brockton Bay. Adaptation, that’s a human trait. But for now...well, Brockton Bay isn’t adapting to anything. So much rubble, so much lack of control, it’s actually scary. Just imagining yourself passing by a place like this...it’s enough to make me feel goosebumps, honestly.

Flechette steps over one of the colorful debris lines.

She stepped over the line, and immediately felt a resistance. It took her a second to figure out what it was – a thread caught the moonlight.

There was a muffled splashing sound, and a twelve-foot tall gorilla leaped from the nearest rooftop to land directly in front of her. It swung its arms wildly in front of it, missing her, then slammed both knuckles down in the water, crushing one side of the orange striped barrier. Flechette raised her arbalest to shoot, then stopped.

Okay, it’s pretty clear this is Parian’s creation! Not many people would have access to a twelve-foot tall gorilla, parahuman or not. Seems to me like this is a sentry, watching out for any threats trying to cross the border. It’s...not the best sentry ever? Because it’s mindless and its moves missed, but yeah, there’s intimidation factor and a punch from that thing would hurt. It can work.

I was wrong, it’s more like a puppet. Parian’s costume looks like an antique doll; it does fit her codename. Although she recognizes Flechette, she isn’t going to let anyone in – partly because she can’t trust Flechette because she could be lying about who she is, and because she promised not to let anyone in, anyway.

“Doesn’t matter. I made a deal. Me, my friends and my family get a place to stay here, a fair share of the food and water. In exchange, I keep people from entering.”

It’s fair. Sorry, Flechette, but I’m on Parian’s side here. A deal is a deal, duty is duty. There’s no reason for Flechette to enter this area, anyway. If she wants to talk, she can do it from the other side of the boundary.

The frocked rogue climbed up to stand on top of the gorilla’s shoulders. She added, “I made a deal. I’m keeping to it. One hundred percent neutrality. You trespass, I fight you.”

And I’d almost definitely win, Flechette thought. You may even know that, but you’d fight me anyways.

Just with that, Parian gained my full approval. Add this character to the list of characters I hope keep appearing. I doubt she’ll appear much since she, you know, is more akin to a civilian than to a hero or a villain and therefore won’t be taking sides unless there’s big trouble, but it’d be nice to see more about her.

“Good, good,” Flechette sheathed her arbalest, hoping the rogue would feel safer. “Look, I’m here if you need anything. If people make trouble and you’re not strong enough to protect that neighborhood there, or if you need resources that you couldn’t get otherwise, like names or medical services, call me. Can I give you my card?”

Flechette is such a nice and honorable person...why do all these good heroes have to be from places far away? Brockton Bay got saddled with douchebags, how unfortunate! Haha! But yeah, Flechette is another one that seems to be quite the decent person. I doubt she’ll want to stay, though. Once her temporal stay is over, I’m pretty sure she’ll return to the team she came from, and won’t even look back.

To show she does mean to be helpful, Flechette asks if there’s anything she can get them. Fresh water, that’s what’s needed.

“Seriously, are you okay? You holding up?”

Parian turned, looked behind her, as if checking anyone was listening.

“I hate fighting. Hate confrontation. Even this, being here, having just thought I might have to fight you, fight anyone, it makes me feel edgy. My teeth are chattering and I’m not even cold.”

I feel bad for Parian; she didn’t ask for any of this. Still, despite not liking to fight, she dared to join everyone else in the fight versus Leviathan, even though she knew that could have ended in her death. Parian is rather brave. With some luck she won’t have to get into more fights, but given how desperate people are...well, I’m sure she’ll have to deal with a few fights before things get better. She has Flechette’s support, so that has to count for something.

“Deal. I’m Flechette, by the way, in case you didn’t know.”

“Oh. Um. I didn’t. My name’s Sab-” Parian stopped, made a barely audible groan.

Looks like she’s still not used to having a secret identity! No idea how she plans to use her power as a way to promote her work if she can’t give her real name – after everything that’s happening there’s a chance word about her power gets out, people could link it to her real identity – but I suppose she’ll cross that bridge later.

Flechette is truly desperate for a friendly connection of some sort, going so far as to remove her visor and show her face. But it does work! A connection is made, because faces and names are mentioned. Parian’s real name is Sabah. Sabah...that is Malaysian...maybe Turkish? She does seem to come from the Middle East.

Parian dropped her legs down to either side of the gorilla’s neck as it moved forward. To stay decent, the girl pressed her hands down on the lap of her dress, leaning forward a little. It was a little thing, that bashful modesty, but Flechette felt as much of a rush watching that as she did running across her chain/tightrope with a five-story drop below her.

...oh! Oh, my! Looks like Flechette isn’t straight as an arrow, in what concerns to her tastes. Still, this isn’t the time for ogling anyone, it’s time for patrolling and making the friendly connection she couldn’t make with Shadow Stalker. Parian may not be a member of the Wards, but she is an admirable person and I think it’ll do Flechette good to have a friend in this city. Maybe her stay in Brockton Bay won’t be so bad now.

That’s the second chapter of this interlude arc. I can’t imagine what comes next! Another change in point of view, I guess, but there are many available options. Bring it on! But, uh, next time.

Next update: in two updates

#worm #worm liveblog #liveblog #book liveblog #story liveblog

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historyman101 · 7 years

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Full Analysis of Eureka 7 Hi-Evolution Movie 1 (with Spoilers)

So I have finally returned after a long ride on the metro and sharing my thoughts on Discord. I have a lot to tell and I will be straight to the point, pulling no punches. Firstly, I will get my overall review of the film out of the way now and save the spoilers for the remainder of this post.

The film is good, but it’s not great. If I had to rate it, I would give it a 5 or 6 out of 10. The parts that are good in the film are REALLY good, and the parts that are not REALLY hold it back. If you want to just get the nostalgic rush, and remember the series when you first watched it, this film will not disappoint. Hell, I felt like a kid again while I was watching. It succeeds with nostalgia, but it only succeeds with nostalgia. With that in mind, I would not recommend paying money to watch this in a theater, as you will not get the money’s worth. Wait for the BD/DVD release, or just pass it until movie 2, which looks to be more promising.

Spoilers follow.

There was a rumor going around on Discord and in the E7 fan community at large that this movie would be a repeat of Pocket Full of Stock Footage Rainbows (PFOR), and the screening confirmed it, much to my dismay. However, that is not to say the movie did not have its good moments.

The highlights of the film are definitely the opening 30 minutes or so of the film, which showcases Adrock’s death during the First Summer of Love, the soundtrack in general, which is as amazing as you would expect it to sound, and the ending sequence, where Renton resolves to go find Eureka. In the opening sequence, we see the operation against the Scub Corals from multiple perspectives. @planetaryoratorio will be happy to know that Holland and Talho are featured in this section, along with Dewey and even the Council of the Sages. Charles and Ray take part as well, and we see the showcasing of new mechs against the Scubs, including the gold Devilfish KLFs.

This is where the movie really shines, as it feels like Eureka 7. It has everything one would expect from an entry into the franchise: surfing robots, a shitstorm of colors and rainbows, explosions, and of course, pulsing techno music. It’s the best part of the film, bar none.

However, there were warning signs of what was to come even in this best part of the film. Eureka only serves a minor role, and she is spared from becoming part of the control cluster as Adrock sacrifices himself. We see her emotional for the first time when he dies, and it just begged for more development. However, despite being Eureka 7 Hi-Evolution, Eureka only has a screentime of maybe 20 minutes altogether, and she is with Renton even less.

From this point on, the point of view shifts to Renton, who is wandering around the world and running away from his foster parents Charles and Ray. He narrates the remainder of the story, which is told through a series of flashbacks, flash forwards and jump cuts that would put Pulp Fiction to shame. I don’t mind this format of storytelling, as it can be quite effective. But the way it is handled here is so jarring and clunky that it gives the feeling of disjointedness. The film skips around so erratically that I almost became irritated, along with a few others in the audience.

Kyoda tried to explain the storytelling method by saying that this film will make more sense when viewed with the others in sequence, as part of a whole rather than a film on its own. Perhaps this is a creative difference, but honestly, I don’t buy that. Films can be part of a series and still stand on their own for their engaging plots, characters, and building on an existing work. Novel and film series can balance the plots of individual books/films while at the same time weaving a larger narrative. I learned this stuff in high school English class and middle school writing, for Christ’s sake.

To add to the frustration, the film makes copious use of onscreen captions to explain EVERY SINGLE DETAIL about the show. What location the characters are in, who the characters are, what time of day it is, the model of mechs, EVERYTHING.

In the opening battle sequence, this was used effectively, since it conveyed a sense like this was an official military operation, and the captions gave a degree of plausibility to it all. However, when used in excess, it becomes distracting and obtrusive. Show, don’t tell. Let the viewer figure out what’s going on. You don’t have to hold my hand through it all, Bones.

However, that was not the biggest offense of the film. Instead, what really disappointed me was the lack of any new animations beyond the first 30 minutes. Much of the film can essentially be summarized as the first couple episodes of the Charles and Ray arc from the TV series (episodes 22-24ish) albeit with some new dialogue and touched up quality.

Let me be clear: I don’t mind recycled animation. Hell, Disney did it in the 1960s and 1970s, and no one gives them crap for it. However, they recontextualized their frames and made it fit with the new films. Even though PFOR used stock footage, it was not as easy to spot and it was recolorized to fit with the movie’s tone. Here, the stock footage is almost entirely unaltered, and it is only touched up for more detail. The usage of recycled animation here is almost shameful, because it betrays a sense of either lazyness, lack of funds, or lack of staff. If I had to guess, the ratio of stock footage to original footage was AT LEAST 70/30, and that is being generous to the film.

I don’t care what the reason for it is: this is Eureka 7. This is an anime known for high quality animation, and when I go into a new movie, I expect to see new animations to wow me. This just felt cheap, a shallow appeal to nostalgia. I can easily watch these scenes at home on my DVDs. Why would I fork over money to watch something I can easily see at home?

In addition to the overreliance on stock footage, the film does not really expound on Renton and Eureka’s relationship at all. The most we gather is they met on the Gekko, and Eureka’s body was damaged during Acperience (episode 19), and Renton fled the Gekko shortly after, feeling guilty. There is some change of dialogue where Eureka is more cognizant of how different she is from humans, and Renton realizes it too. But beyond that, we never see much of them together. We never see much of the Gekko either, and I honestly could not tell you if Gekkostate even occupied the same role in the movie as it did in the series. It just wasn’t explained fully.

This makes the romance angle (if there is any at all) feel tacked on and cheap. There is no background to Renton and Eureka’s relationship, no growth. All we know is what Renton can tell us, and even then, it’s not much. I couldn’t help but fear that Kyoda had forgotten the main draw of the series and what made it such a touchstone for many in the community: the romance between Eureka and Renton, and indeed the different romances across the cast. It’s not an Eureka 7 movie without the love.

The teaser for the second movie shown at the end credits seemed a bit more promising, if only by comparison to what we got here. Kyoda explained how while the first film is focused solely on Renton, the second film has Anemone and Dominic in a central role. In fact the codename for the second film is Anemone 7, according to Kyoda.

The teaser was very short, perhaps only 30 seconds in length maximum, but it showed all new footage including Renton by an abandoned car, Eureka with her wings, and Anemone performing at a pop idol concert. The latter scene has a stadium sequence where teams are assembled “cosplaying” as KLFs, and….hoo boy…there is an ass-shot of Anemone just before we see her face. Say what you want about the ass-shot, but Anemone as a pop idol actually works well with her character, given how she was rather vain in the series and concerned with appearances.

Again, I would not recommend buying tickets to see this in theaters. If you have to see it, wait until it hits Blu-Ray or DVDs, or just give it a pass until Movie 2. Hey, we only have to wait until 2018.

#spoilers #eureka 7 hi-evolution #e7hievo #eureka 7 #otakon #Tomoki Kyoda #anime film #Anime Convention #bones studio #anime #e7

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thetwoguineabook · 7 years

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@sunnydisposish thank you so much for the awesome feedback and great questions- hope you don’t mind me responding in a new post.

I’m so in love with Blackbird I don’t even know where to begin: the beautiful writing, the impressive historical accuracy and evocative world-building, the poignant storyline and entirely novel yet still somehow in-character arcs for Victor and Yuuri, the thought-provoking questions about politics, ideology, identity, and personal responsibility so skillfully woven into the love story at its center, and last but not least, your merciless puncturing of the British imperialist/colonialist/racist mindset (especially appreciated by this former subject who grew up in what was then still a British colony).

Thank you! It was definitely interesting to me to explore, even at a slight remove as both POV characters were decidedly non-British, the very weird situation of British politics in the immediate post-war era. WW2 was really the last death knell for Britain as the big imperial power on the world stage, but frankly we as a country still haven’t come to terms with that (cf. half the electorate seriously believing that we won’t be questing paddle-less for where Shit Creek rises in the Mountains of Oh God Why without the rest of the EU). The Attlee government was, in my humble but correct opinion, the best and most socially revolutionary government we ever had, but at the same time as we were creating the NHS and nationalising industries, we were also desperately trying to develop nuclear weapons and pissing and moaning about whether countries we’d been stamping on for centuries were ~really ready~ to see the back of us. It was a truly absurd time period.

Another reason I love it is that it’s so rewarding to re-read, because each time through I notice more little details sprinkled throughout the text, like easter eggs waiting to be discovered. For example, in ch. 4 you slip in a casual mention of a drunken assignation Yuuri once had with some guy from Cambridge named “Guy” who professed to be a Communist, then in the very next section you have Georgi complaining to Victor about one of the agents he’s handling who goes by the name of “Hicks,” which is none other than the code name for Guy Burgess. :)

Fun fact: I have a whole document in the notes section in Scrivener entitled ‘Yuuri’s ex-boyfriends’. He was... not very nice to a lot of them, lol. Once it occurred to me that, although Burgess would have come down from Cambridge before Yuuri went to Oxford, they could still very well have met (and drunk inordinate amounts of booze together) at the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, I just couldn’t resist.

Also in ch. 4, you describe one of the musicians who had performed Shostakovich’s Symphony #7 during the Leningrad siege as “a short woman with long, pale hair and a hunger-pinched face who nevertheless stared into the camera with the piercing gaze of a soldier, a clarinet clutched in her hands like a rifle” – that has got to be an image of Yura’s mother, right?

Yes! That is none other than Yulia Plisetskaya, classical musician and denouncer of Yuri’s shitty dad. I am slightly intimidated by the prospect of writing it because the situation in Leningrad was so incredibly awful, but one of my planned side stories is about the Plisetskys and the Babichevs during the siege, and particularly about that August 1942 performance of the Shostakovich symphony and Yuri beginning to repair his incredibly fucked-up relationship with her.

Oh, and she’s a clarinettist for a reason ;)

In ch. 6, when Yuuri is told he is being reassigned to Korea, there’s a mention of the new British Consul-General to Korea, Sir Vyvyan Holt, and Yuuri’s boss reassures him that “Holt is… well he’s a lot of things, but he’s not an idiot. He’ll evacuate British diplomats if - when there’s a declaration of war.” So of course, when I googled Holt’s name, I learned that not only was he a real person, but when the Korean war broke out, Holt mistakenly thought he would be protected by his diplomatic immunity, and instead of evacuating everyone when he had the chance, he and his staff ended up being detained by the North Koreans, then forced on a death march to the far north of the peninsula where they were kept captive for several years. Oh the irony. If Yuuri had accepted the assignment, he would have suffered even more at the hands of the North Koreans once they realized he was Japanese, even without knowing he was a spy. (Shudder.)

Yeah that was some thick ladling of irony there, lol. Although perhaps Yuuri would at least have got on with Holt, since one of the ‘many things’ he was at least rumoured to be was gay. And the story of what happened to the actual MI6 officer who was undercover in Holt’s office when the war broke out is... well, interesting to say the least. I’ve got an historical notes post about it that just needs to be finished up.

You’ve thought out everything so thoroughly (down to Victor’s nom de guerre, Stefan Rittberger, and the figure skating jump known as the Rittberger loop) that I have to ask whether there’s a special meaning or symbolism behind your choice of “blackbird” as the title of the story. I mean, the first association that occurred to me, especially given your nom de plume of sixpences, was the children’s rhyme “Sing a song of sixpence / a pocketful of rye. / Four and twenty blackbirds / baked in a pie.” But some light googling turned up a plethora of meanings for “blackbird,” including: a symbol of freedom, a connotation of vigilance, shyness and insecurity, secrets and mystery, etc., any and all of which could fit. Then there are the well-known songs Bye-Bye Blackbird (which had a “cameo” in ch. 5) and the Beatles’ Blackbird (the lyrics for which also fit the story), and one of my favorite poems, the haiku-inspired “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens, which is so protean and capacious in its meanings that it could definitely fit. Finally, that redoubtable (and dubious) authority urbandictionary.com gives the following meanings (inter alia) for blackbird: 1. The act of leaving a group of people, especially a social event (i.e. business party), without saying goodbye to anyone and without anyone detecting your escape. 2. Someone who acts happy in public but is an emotional wreck in private. Someone who doesn’t advertise their depression.

Well for starters, the Stefan Rittberger alias followed the same pattern as every other original character in the fic- they are all named after figure skaters from their respective countries of origin (generally speaking with forenames and surnames from different individuals). The only exception was the Jamaican jazz band leader Nigel Harriott- the only male Jamaican figure skater whose name I could turn up was Paralympic skater Nigel Davis, so I gave him the surname of a real Jamaican jazz musician who emigrated to the UK in this period.

As for the origins of ‘Blackbird’... well, for starters, the nursery rhyme connection only occurred to me quite a way into writing the fic, haha. ‘sixpences’ originated as a reference to Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, one of my favourite novels, and as a way to reference the various notions of luck associated with the old silver sixpence coins, and also because when I picked the name six or seven years ago the Livejournal username ‘sixpence’ in the singular was already taken!

I knew from the very first vague ideas I had about the fic that this was primarily a story about Victor- his character arc, specifically getting him to the point where he would joyfully betray his country for love, was the very first thing I knew I wanted to write about, before I was even sure it was going to be an historical AU! When you get right down to it, this is a fic about that scene where Victor’s standing on the Barcelona seafront, looking out over the Mediterranean, and admiring his engagement ring- it’s a story about what Victor is not only willing, but entirely happy to do for Yuuri.

Once I knew I wanted it to be a spy story I started doing the 100% most fun spy story thing and making up everyone’s ridiculous codenames. My initial idea for Yuuri was to use something piglet-related, for obvious reasons, but that both felt a bit too mean and also not like something Minako specifically would think to call him. I wanted to give him a name that evoked the kind of figure he cuts at the start of the story- small, unassuming, lonely, but with something very deep going on beneath the surface, the same way one flighty little bird can nevertheless produce the most beautiful song. It also fitted nicely in terms of a metaphor for what he was doing in Berlin- Japan is of course ‘the land of the rising sun’, and he was ‘singing’ information to the Allies from inside their command structure.

There is a minor bird motif throughout the fic- with maybe one or two exceptions, any time a bird is mentioned in scenery description, you’ll find it’s a dark-coloured one. It wouldn’t have made the cut as an epigraph since it’s from 2005, but this from ‘Rapture’, which is one of my favourite Carol Ann Duffy poems, was very much in my mind in planning out the shape of the plot:

How does it happen that our lives can drift far from our selves, while we stay trapped in time, queueing for death? It seems nothing will shift the pattern of our days, alter the rhyme we make with loss to assonance with bliss. Then love comes, like a sudden flight of birds from earth to heaven after rain. Your kiss, recalled, unstrings, like pearls, this chain of words. Huge skies connect us, joining here to there. Desire and passion on the thinking air.

So birds recur as a symbol of independence, of thinking and acting freely even under dire and constricting circumstances, and Yuuri specifically is codenamed after a bird. It only felt natural that the story of how Victor Nikiforov, Soviet patriot and enormously valuable and accomplished spy (indeed, modelled after a man dubbed ‘the most formidable spy in history’), came to throw away his career and his country, to choose love and the freedom to live as he wanted, should share Yuuri’s name.

Sorry to be such a nerd – I’m probably overthinking all of this – and for sending you such an interminable ask (which would have overflowed the tumblr ask box 10 times over), but I would love to know the meaning behind the title.

Look, I just wrote a 100k historical spy novel about characters from a sports anime. I am the biggest nerd. And I really had a great time answering your questions, so thank you again!

#fic: blackbird

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silverbulletofthefbi · 7 years

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((More thoughts, specifically what we know of Rum and my current thoughts.))

Rum

Rum is given multiple identifiers and pieces of information, both in-universe and out.

An inconsistent description: a strong man, an elderly man, and a feminine man. These inconsistencies are something Ai notes on and, given Shuichi’s comments to his team, what with not describing Rum at all, it’s likely he’s also only heard the inconsistent descriptions as well.

Consistency with all the descriptions is that Rum is a man and that he’s missing an eye.

The consistency of the former point matches the codename rules for the Organization. Men are given hard liquor names (Gin, Vodka, whiskeys) while women are given wines (Sherry, Vermouth, Chianti). Though there is a precedent of getting a cocktail as a codename (Kir), they presumably follow the same basic rule based on the main alcohol in the cocktail.

Rum is the second in command of the Org., the right hand to the boss.

Rum is the perpetrator of Kohji and Amanda’s murders. He screwed things up for Kohji’s murder, since Kohji was able to leave a dying message that pointed to Rum.

Rum, despite the all-caps of Hidemi’s message to Shuichi leading to fan speculation, is only one person according to Aoyama.

Despite how Inspector Yamato could easily fit all three descriptions, being strong, using a crutch to move around, and long hair, Aoyama has confirmed he’s not Rum.

For now, we’re operating on incomplete information of who Rum could be, though there is currently a pool of suspects. Hopefully Rum will have appeared in a reasonable amount of time in the arc as himself, unlike Bourbon.

What I want to know

Was Rum also Asaca or not?

How the three descriptions tie together.

What caused Rum to lose an eye.

The details of Rum’s actions during the case 17 years ago/more details of the timeline of events.

Suspects and likelihood

(Note: I mean characters who are presented as suspects so far, due to their presence and Conan and Subaru’s speculation. Note that the alcohol codename rule is ignored for the time being, which would otherwise instantly eliminate Mary and Wakasa by default.)

Mary Sera- It would be a Shyamalan bad twist if she ended up being Rum. Rum is an Organization member in good standing, meaning Rum would not have been poisoned by APTX. Mary, meanwhile, has been poisoned (meaning she’s someone the Organization wanted dead). It also makes no sense for her to be worried about the Org. coming in to deal with a reminder of the Kohji case. (Were she Rum, they wouldn’t need to since she’s on-site and she wouldn’t be in any danger anyway.) They also still don’t know of the poison’s unintended effects, which they would quickly learn if Mary was Rum but somehow got poisoned anyway.

Wakasa Rumi- Unlikely. The Organization has deliberately attempted to hide and obscure anything associating Asaka and Rum. Her name is a few letters away from Kohji’s dying message. She’s also sitting back and observing Conan, which is something the Org. hasn’t quite caught on to yet. Gin’s dialogue implies the Org. is suspicious of Kogoro, but she narrowed things down rather quickly to it being Conan. She is unable to see out of her right eye. She’s also rather good at fighting, as evidenced by her encounters with multiple criminals. Wakasa also has a great detective-like thinking style, given her hints to Conan, but Vermouth considers the best investigator in the Org. is Bourbon, not Rum.

Inspector Kuroda- Possible, but I’m not so fond of the idea and think he might be a red herring at the moment. The main issues with Kuroda being Rum are due to him not at all being close to being “effeminate” and due to his looking up the case with Rum and Asaca. The question I’m left with is thus- is he anti-Org. and digging at the case himself, or is he Rum digging at loose threads? He otherwise has some pretty major flags on him, being strong and elderly, missing his right eye, waking up from a coma and looking nothing like he did in the past, and Yamato’s comments about him looking like a crime boss. (Dialogue can hide the truth, such as Subaru being the “red man” and almost nobody immediately going “oh shit, it’s Akai in disguise” because of the context.)

Iori (that creepy butler guy)- Uncertain. He strikes me as very, very strange. We do not know his strength, but his eyes the way they are could be seen as elderly and his hair is long and curly, so some could say he’s effeminate. He also has a notable trait that I’ve noted while working- serving staff and similar types are often entirely ignored by everyone else. His ability to sneak around is suspect, as is his use of the pseudonym Shinichi Wada (an early localization of Watson’s name; something only a Holmesian like Conan or Subaru would pick up), his immediate reaction to the situation of that case... All of it’s very suspicious. However, he’s also mostly tied to the Osakan plotlines, since he’s the butler of a weird stalker girl who has a thing for Heiji. The main problem, though, is that he’s 30, assuming it’s correct. He would have been 13 when Kohji and Amanda were murdered. The only way this could work would be if he were groomed from childhood like Sherry. We do not know for certain about his eyes, though some speculate he’s got a false one based on his glasses’ shine in his disguise.

Wakita- Also uncertain. Wakita is older and could easily be strong, given his design’s basis, but he’s not particularly effeminate. The whole disciple thing is also questionable, since that’s what Amuro (Bourbon) used to get close to Kogoro. Seems a bit repetitive to use the same shtick within consecutive arcs, even for Gosho. However, his dialogue after Wakasa showing up in the papers makes me think his dialogue isn’t necessarily about her. Kuroda comments about Wakasa on the same page of the manga, so it could easily be an attempt to lead us to think Wakita saw the same article by association. However, he’s talking about a person being “quick-witted,” which wouldn’t apply to the situation the article would’ve been commenting on. He says he recently got an eye injury (the same eye Mary tends to target when fighting). However, Rum’s injury is older, from when Ai was still Sherry, and Mary could not have been shrunken until after Ai’s poisoning and escape.

Like I said before, the information we have thus far is incomplete, hence my apprehension to say anything with certainty about who Rum is. However, Kuroda seems to be a red herring so far.

#ooc #rum arc #detective conan #also long

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tessatechaitea · 7 years

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The Wild Storm #1

Why are all the spaces between issues the same? Did the graphic designer not know Warren Ellis was writing this book?

Oh look! She says her name in the fifth panel on the first page. Now you know when I read a comic book, I just look at the pretty pictures until I feel like I'm forced to read the words.

Zealot works for a covert team she calls Division. Apparently she gives people fatal swirlies if they do things the Division looks down on. This time, the perp was into home-brew gene editing and contraband software. Oh! One other thing I know about Zealot is that she had red stripes on her face. Ellis begins with the blood on her face looking like the Zealot from the old Wildstorm universe. But she washes it off as if to say, "This ain't the Zealot you know, buddy-boy! This Zealot is written by Warren Ellis who already has her story planned at least two years ahead. That means her story is going to fucking mean something! Like, it'll have arcs and themes and shit! None of this half-ass flying by the seat of the pants chump monthly comic book writing bullshit that so many writers think is writing! That's just getting the work done so you can get a paycheck and call yourself a writer. But you're not really a writer, are you? If you just write whatever comes to your mind and then you have Red Hood do that without any thought to what will happen next month until the editor calls up and says, 'The artist needs some fucking pages, Scott!' Then you whip out a few pages and forget about the story until the next time the editor gets hold of you because you forgot to turn off the ringer." That's a lot to say in just a few images although it's still less than 1000 words so it was still just a summary. Meanwhile, Voodoo and what I'm guessing are her stripper friends are planning to put up some billboards in Manhattan. I know it's Voodoo because one of her friends calls her Pris and I remember thinking about Blade Runner when I first read The New 52 Voodoo comic book.

Oh, I also would have known she was Voodoo if I took the time to read the second speech bubble in the panel before turning my attention to the blog.

Voodoo might not be a stripper this time. Or a Daemonite! She might just be a rock and roll star! She's popular enough that some guys holding hands in front of a coffee shop recognize her. The scene shifts to the gay guys who go by the names Miles and Julian. They're Wildstorm characters who will remain a mystery to me until one of them says, "Call me by my codename, dum-dum!" Then the other one will be, "Oh yeah! I forgot that we work for Another Covert Ops Group!" Then I'll be caught up with these gays! I mean guys! Angela Spica happens to wander by so she can call Miles "Mr. Craven." Miles Craven sounds familiar but I still don't know who it is. But I know Angela is The Engineer! I realized that without even having to see her nipples! Angie needs more money from Miles to continue her research but he's all, "It's the weekend, dope!" And she's all, "Gah! I hate things!" Then she denies she's bleeding because she probably put some nanobots in her and she stomps away after threatening a red headed waiter named Phil. I bet he's some famous Wildstorm character too! The point of view decides Angie is more exciting than Miles and Julian so it follows her down the street. It's a good thing it does because she comes upon a guy crashing through a window on the top floor of a skyscraper. I hope it's not the Comedian! It could be the way DC is squeezing as much Watchmen juice out of that grapefruit as they can. Angie decides it's time to get her experimental nanotechnology working and be a hero. Great! I can't wait to see her nipples!

Darn it. It looks like she's going to wear clothes this time around.

Angie's clothes disappear under her nanotech but the armor isn't as form-fitting as it used to be. Also, it has little nipple covers, just in case. The man Angie saves is Jacob Marlowe. He's the head of Halo, some phone company or something. When he notices Angie is bleeding through her armor, he offers to help her. But she's all, "Nope! I signed some pretty crazy contracts with Miles Craven and you probably shouldn't even be looking at me this closely!" Then she flies off, leaving the point of view behind. Jacob realizes there's a moneymaking opportunity here so he calls his personal assistant and is all, "Wake up the CAT! Those are initials that mean Covert Action Team! Unless they mean something else. Whatever, just wake the CAT up and have it find that technology for me. And this time, Adrianna, I don't want to hear about any wild CATs! Especially if they're written by Brandon Choi!" Later, news channels all over the city report on Jacob's rescue. Two of those news channels are WGBS and the Daily Planet. That must mean the Wildstorm universe takes place on one of the unidentified Multiversity Earths, right? Now that the news interrupted the point of view, it switches over to Miles Craven interrogating a man named Michael Cray. I think his codename is Deathblow or Killsmash or Deadpounding. He was in Grifter when Liefeld and Tieri were writing it. Unless he was in Deathstork's Villains Month issue. He couldn't have been in both though because he was white in Deathstork and black in Grifter. Anyway, Deathblow was the guy who threw Jacob out of the window. He must have been sent by Miles and now Miles is going to give him that totally embarrassing speech that Lobo and Deathstork have never had to hear! It's the one where you begin, "So you fucking failed to do your job, you dumby!" Cray describes how the failure wasn't his fault. His team didn't give him all of the intel! Also an exploding bomb knocked Marlowe out of the window. He didn't do anything except not blow up. Since Cray doesn't know exactly what happened when he walked in on Marlowe, the scene shifts to Marlowe explaining what happened to him to Adrianna, his personal assistant and robot girlfriend. Maybe. During his story, Marlowe reveals that he's not quite human and he's well over one hundred years old. He also realizes Cray has some secrets worth discovering too. Finally, Miles Craven does some investigating and discovers his engineer, Angela Spica, is the superhero who saved Jacob Marlowe, the man he wants to kill. So now there's that to deal with. The Ranking! High! This is one of those comic books I'm going to have to keep notes on or else I'm going to quickly forget who is working for what organization and which organizations trust which other organizations and how many people are actually Daemonites and how does Zealot fit into the Marlowe/Craven rivalry?!

#The Wild Storm #Wildstorm #Zealot #The Engineer #Deathblow #DC Comics #Warren Ellis #Jon Davis-Hunt #Ivan Plascencia

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mysterylover123 · 5 years

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Another Top 20 Favorite BKDK Moments

mysterylover123

Yes, I actually found even more! Looking through the series for other moments just kept delivering unto me more BKDK stuff, until I finally had so many they needed another list. These are admittedly mostly smaller moments, compared to the first list, but I still though they were worth including.

My Next Top 20 Favorite bKDK MOMENTS:

#20. “Deku, that has to be my codename.”

“Time to Pick some Names” Chapter 45/2.14

What Happens: Midoriya decides to choose “Deku” as his hero name. We get Bakugo and Uraraka’s reactions to his decision, along with Bakugo vs Deku replay.

Why I Like It: Though this is also probably my favorite Izu/Ocha moment, I do like how BKG giving Deku the Hero Name fits in with some of the other LifePartner characters in the show (Erasermic and Mirio/Tamaki). It’s minor and mostly Izu/ocha, but I still wanted to include it.

#19. Waiting up for Deku

Chapter 163/Internship arc’s ending

What Happens: Bakugo (and Todoroki) both wait up for the Internship kids to return from their harrowing experience. Bakugo plays it cool, but this was the night before the remedial course, so we know he’s actually concerned.

Why I Like It: While again this one can apply to Kiribaku, Kacchako, and Tododeku as well, we shouldn’t discount BKDK either - since Bakugo did indeed wait up for Deku’s group. Also Kaminari calls him Kacchan now too :)

#18. “You’d die in the exam!”

Highlights from KiraElric’s meta (Link: https://kiraelric.tumblr.com/post/158423114578/my-best-friends-a-fucking-nerd-and-an-idiot-god)

Chapter 1/Episode 1 “Izuku Midoriya Origin”

What Happens: Deku’s desire to go to UA is revealed in front of the class. Bakugo freaks out, but unlike the rest of the students, doesn’t laugh at Deku, but instead demands to know what he can even do in the UA entrance exam.

Why I Like It: Well this is our introduction to Bakugo and he’s designed to come off as a complete ass. But the subtleties of the rivalry are present from the beginning: first, Bakugo dismisses his other classmates as extras but freezes when Deku’s name is brought up, he doesn’t laugh at him, and demands to know what the hell he can even accomplish. It comes across like Bakugo knows, subconsciously, that Deku can probably do great things, but doesn’t want to admit it (because that’s the reason, we hear it stated later on).

#17. “What about Deku?”

Highlights from above post: https://kiraelric.tumblr.com/post/158423114578/my-best-friends-a-fucking-nerd-and-an-idiot-god

Episode 5 “What I Can Do for Now”/6 “Rage you Damn Nerd”

What Happens: During the quirk apprehension test, Bakugo checks to see how Deku is doing. When Deku displays his quirk for the first time, Bakugo freaks out and demands an explanation.

Why I Like It: Bakugo is very fixated on Deku. He takes time out of his own test to see how Deku is doing in the exam, and is absolutely stupefied when Deku displays an ability - in hindsight, he seems at least a little justified in getting so mad, since Deku must have been lying to him their entire lives - he doesn’t know yet about OFA -so what other explanation is there?

#16. “That was your idea, wasn’t it?”

Chapter 37/Season 2 Episode 9 “Bakugo vs Uraraka”

What Happens: Bakugo, when fighting Uraraka, is cautious of her because he knows she’s friends with Deku. After the match, he confronts Deku about “his” scheme, and Deku corrects him, informing him it was Uraraka’s idea (though not from lack of Deku trying).

Why I Like It: While I’d like to think Bakugou is careful of Uraraka at first because she helped beat him before, he states he did it because she’s friends with Deku. It’s Deku he confronts, Deku who he thinks came up with that scheme. Deku also knows Kacchan well enough to tell that he’s not going to hold back against Uraraka, and tried to help her win against him too. He goes into his match with Todoroki soon after, and says the phrase that Bakugo repeats to him “Where are you looking” while demanding that he not hold back (same as Kacchan does).

#15. “Still should’ve broken some bones.”

From: Chapter 70/3.02 “Wild Wild Pussycats”

What Happens: Bakugo, having heard about the Shigaraki incident, mutters that Deku should have fought back against him, despite Hagakure’s protests.

Why I Like It: This scene is tiny and flashes by fast, but it does show that Bakugo, whether he’ll admit it or not, thinks highly of Deku and believes that he could’ve taken on a super villain. It also shows that he probably agrees with Deku and Todoroki about heroics, breaking rules to save others and the like - we saw Iida and Deku disagree on this, etc.

#14. You didn’t help me!”

Chapter 1/Episode 1 “Izuku Midoriya Origin”

What Happens: Bakugo, post sludge villain, is preoccupied with Deku, leaves behind his offers to be a hero and runs after him to remind him, loudly, that he didn’t save him. He slouches off like the good Tsundere he is, and Deku smiles.

Why I Like It: This moment’s visuals and dialogue are so at ends with each other. Basically on Bakugo’s side 1) he ignores all of his offers from pros to brood about Deku 2) he chases after Deku, with a very sweet delivery of his name in the sub, just to tell him that ‘he didn’t help, and 3) Deku actually looks happier after this conversation, no longer brooding and smiling. It’s the weirdest scene, because the dialogue is so angry and derivative, but the body language comes across as sweet and sincere. (Also earlier on, depending on the translation, Kacchan’s friends ask him if he wants to go check out girls, and Bakugo loudly protests against this idea, after having brooded about Deku the entire walk home. Guess he’d rather be thinking about Deku.)

#13. “Don’t compliment me!”

From: Chapter 194/Joint Training Arc

What Happens: Deku sees Bakugo’s new winter costume and starts fanboy-ing over it so much that Bakugo tells him to stop, chewing on his speech balloon.

Why I Like It: As I pointed out in an earlier post, this is another romance trope they check off (dismissing a complement). But moreover, it’s Bakugo seeing Deku watching him, asking what’s up, and Deku openly gushing about how awesome he thinks he is. Uraraka, pay more attention - Hatsume’s not the one you should be punching yourself in the face for jealousy towards. (In all seriousness, this moment is so cute. Deku’s so openly admiring)

#12. “No point if I can’t do better than Deku!”

Episode 2.12/Chapter 43 “Bakugo vs Todoroki”

What Happens: Bakugo, during his fight with Todoroki, loudly proclaims that he won’t accept a win unless he can stand up to the same thing Deku stood up to. Deku even cheers Todoroki on in a way that makes Bakugo smile, because he wants to win right. When Todoroki doesn’t give him that he flies into an unstoppable rage.

Why I Like It: Bakugo’s fixation on Midoriya just dominates this arc, even in Todobaku/Tododeku scenes like this one. Bakugo pitches a fit when his childhood friend is brought up (in a scene that can be easily parodied into “It’s not like I like that idiot baka” territory), and demands that he be given the same fight that Deku faced. He has to be as good as Deku, basically, or else he’ll be left behind and he knows it.

#11. “Because you’re amazing”

Episodes 6-7 Battle trial Arc Deku vs Kacchan

What Happens: Deku and Kacchan fight in the Battle Trial Arc. They both go all out and Bakugo freaks out about Deku holding back. Deku calls him an idiot and says he wants to beat him because he’s amazing. All Might notices his passion. Deku passes out and Bakugo’s anxiety fit starts.

Why I Like It: Never let it be said that Deku can’t “Idiot Baka” too. This is one of their darkest, most intense scenes, but woven into it is their future, more positive bond. Deku ignores teamwork with Uraraka and takes Kacchan on. Bakugo is upset that Deku wasn’t honest with him. Deku feels guilty about that. Deku tells him he’s amazing and that’s why he wants to beat him. Fighting Kacchan gives Deku the strength to go beyond.

#10. Sitting Together

Chapter 2-3, Episode 3 “Roaring Muscles”

What Happens: After a snippy exchange, Deku and Kacchan sit together at the entrance Exam. When they’re handed out their assignments, Deku notes “They’re splitting us up so we won’t work with any of our friends.”

Why I Like It: While they tsun-tsun a lot in this scene, even in Chapter/episode freaking 3 Deku and Kacchan thought of each other as friends. They say it, right there. They sit together voluntarily. They commentate on what’s going on. BK’s dialogue in the manga is less confrontational than the anime. + Bakugo and Uraraka walk in in the same pose, and Deku compares saving her to saving Bakugo. Deku gets 0 villain points, Kacchan 0 rescue points, to hit home how they’re two sides of the same coin. Chapter/episode freaking 3.

#9. “Arrogance? No…”

From: 2.02 Roaring Sports Festival

What Happens: Bakugo gives the Pledge of I will Win. Everyone thinks he’s being an ass except Deku, who thinks that he’s intentionally making things hard for himself. Kacchan bumps into Deku afterwards, with a challenging intent in his eyes.

Why I Like It: Nobody understand Bakugo quite like Deku. While he often slips up in how he handles the Lord of Explosion murder, (early on), Deku definitely gets him. (“You’re a piece of work, but I get it.”) He sees straight through his facade here and is the only person we hear giving him the benefit of the doubt. Bakugo for his part also makes sure to let Deku know that he’s still his #1 rival. (Also: Jealous Kacchan in the Locker Room when Todoroki challenges Deku. Just in case you thought him challenging Shoto wasn’t about Deku.)

#8. “Don’t lose, All Might!”

From: 3.11 “One For All”

What Happens: Watching All Might’s final fall on TV, a panicking Deku and Kacchan shout out in unison their cheer for him to do his best, not to lose. We got some sweet Horikoshi sketches in the manga when this ep aired of D&K as the heirs of AM.

Why I Like It: Deku and Kacchan disagree on a lot, but they both love/worship All Might. They’re set up as his two heirs, the heroes who will take up his legacy, and in this moment they yell out in sync, cheering him on (standing together voluntarily). It’s super emotional, but just a quick reminder in this big payoff episode that BKDK is alive and well.

#7. “What do they want with Kacchan?”

From: 3.04-3.07 Training Camp Arc

What Happens: Deku, while fighting Muscular, learns that Kacchan is in danger. As the fight goes on he goes more and more into BKG territory. This powers him up for 1 million% and throughout the rest of the arc.

Why I Like It: While this moment is mostly about Kota (the kid we specifically compared to Kacchan earlier), it’s also important how pumped up Deku is on the need to rescue Kacchan throughout this arc. Like, all he has to do is hear his name in the context of threatening and he goes bananas, more so than for anyone else. 1 million% OFA is Deku’s saving urge + Winning urge fused together.

#6. “Thanks for the idea, Kacchan!”

From: 2.03 “In their Own Quirky Ways”

What Happens: Deku, taking inspiration from Kacchan’s quirk, comes up with a plan to win the Obstacle Course race.

Why I Like It: One of my favorite Deku moments ever, where he goes bananas and wins it all. Deku’s first and biggest #1 win in the series so far, and who does he have to thank for it? The inspiration he takes from Kacchan. It even seems like he gets his second wind here once he hears Bakugo’s voice and falls, upside down in profile, towards Kacchan. We intentionally have him cute Todoroki out of the frame here, just in case you missed who he’s thinking of. And Deku wins, all because of Kacchan.

#5. “Just like Kacchan then!”

From: 1.10 “Encounter with the Unknown”

What Happens: Deku, trapped with Tsuyu and Mineta by villains, tries to think of a way out of their situation. He thinks to himself “what would Kacchan do” or “act like Kacchan”, and succeeds in beating up the villains.

Why I Like It: “What would x do” is a phrase the series likes to throw around its couples (Izu/ocha, todomomo; Iida’s is more platonic because he also lists his brother). And here’s Deku saying it about Kacchan. Finding once again the strength to win due to thinking of the symbol of Victory. It’s nice that the inspiration isn’t one-sided either, as Bakugo seems to have adopted Deku’s rescue policy later on. Love these two.

#4. The Hideout Raid

From: 3.08-3.10 ‘From Iida to Midoriya’/‘All for One’/‘Symbol of Peace”

What Happens: Deku goes against his own safety to save Kacchan from the LOV. He freaks out when AFO shows up but regains focus when he hears Kacchan’s voice. He comes up with a plan that relies on who Kacchan is as a person, and successfully saves him.

Why I Like It: Take note, Naruto, on how to properly retrieve your rival: #1. Go against the authorities’ wishes to get him back, not on their orders. #2. Consider your rival’s wishes and friends, and #3. Don’t force it. In all seriousness, my favorite part of this is Deku regaining focus when Kacchan turns up. He was panicking and experiencing death dreams, but one word out of Kacchan’s mouth and he’s back on task.

#3. “Just watch me, Deku”

From: Chapter 206-7, Joint Training Arc

What Happens: Bakugo, going into his training test, mentally asks Deku to watch him. Watch him Deku does, as he shows off his new teamwork and rescue skills and wins the day. They share some light banter afterwards.

Why I Like It: So much. Sexy Sestuna Tokage on one side, demanding attention, while BK & DK only have eyes for each other. Deku watching Kacchan. Kacchan demanding Deku watch him. Kacchan saving to win, as Deku must win to save. Their light challenging banter afterward, All Might calling Kacchan a “good friend”. (All Might stop shipping them, they’re not best friends yet!) Like if you want to see how BK benefits from Deku, outside of having someone he can cry in front of, here it is. Deku makes him a better person. And he wants Deku to see that he’s a better person now.

#2. “He lit a fire under me”

From: Joint Training Arc Chapters 208-216

What Happens: Deku gets hyped for his match because Kacchan “lit a fire under him”. He wins his fight despite his power freak out, and we get lots of worried Kacchan shots during and after the battle, just as we got Deku shots during his.

Why I Like It: The other side of the coin: Deku wants to win thanks to Bakugo. He’s ready and raring to go, smiling and optimistic. Their teams both win, all to 0, because of this (the only teams to do so). + Bakugo looking concerned for Deku when his powers go out of control like the good BF he is. I’ve talked about the big BKDK moments in this arc before, but these subtler ones are just as powerful

Extras:

-Winning the Tokyo Tower Contest

-Bakugo cheering for and smiling when Deku (and All Might) win in the movie.

-Filler Pool ep where Bakugo makes sure to remind us he’s Deku’s rival, in case we forgot.

-Omake and various incidents where Uraraka calls them “fated enemies” and roots for them to reconcile. (does she want an OT3?)

-Mothra!Deku and Godzilla!Kacchan (queen and king of horror cinema)

-A few bNHA Smash shenanigans:

Baby Kacchan’s crush on Deku

Vanilla ice cream mixup

Bishonen Bakugo being all kinds bi

Deku blowing off their OFA date

Fanboy stalker Deku

-The Couch stuff

-Pop poll 4: Holding the two halves of AM’s sword

#1. “I’m headed for the top, why should I care?”

From: 2.02 “Roaring Sports Festival”

What Happens: Deku is feeling unmotivated to do well in the Sports Fest, until he overhears Bakugo stating that he’s headed for the top and that’s all that matters. This finally gets him psyched to go and motivated.

Why I Like It: Why’s this #1? Well partly because it’s the biggest oversight from the last list, but also because it’s so subtlely important. Deku doesn’t get hyped to do well in the Sports Fest, that very definitive story arc, until he hears Bakugo’s resolution and how dedicated he is. It’s Bakugo’s words that motivate him to go forward and beyond here, just as he so often does. This is what causes hime to do well in the fest and acknowledge how important Iida and Uraraka’s motives are too, and yell at Todoroki for holding back, and in doing so change the course of so many stories. Yes, most of that is Deku’s own strengths shining - but the best kinds of relationships are the ones that make each partner better through being together than apart, aren’t they?

#my hero academia #katsudeku #bakudeku #bkdk #katsuki bakugou #izuku midoriya #bakugou x midoriya #izuku x katsuki #ships #otp #top 10 #top 10 moments #katsudeku meta #izukatsu

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Persona 5 Royal Review — This Palace’s Treasure Gleams Even Brighter

March 17, 2020 9:00 AM EST

The long-awaited Persona 5 Royal is finally upon us, with tons of new content and gameplay overhauls to create a more robust experience.

Persona 5 Royal is the upgraded version of the immensely popular JRPG that originally released in Japan back in 2016. With this definitive edition of the game comes a variety of new changes which include two new characters and Confidants, a brand new semester and Palace that culminates in two new endings, new gameplay mechanics, and reworked dungeons and boss battles.

There are also a variety of new minigames, gameplay balance fixes, expanded character scenes, and so much more. While it might still share much of the same DNA as the original Persona 5, Atlus has packed P5R full of new content that is sure to delight newcomers and veterans of the original with a far more robust experience.

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“Atlus has packed Persona 5 Royal full of new content that is sure to delight newcomers and even veterans of the original with a far more robust experience.”

Royal starts off with a bang as it brandishes two of its biggest additions in the prologue. The protagonist, codenamed Joker, ends up using his grappling hook to reach a new area of the stairwell during his chase scene. Afterward, he encounters a mysterious and masked young woman, who wields a Persona, and aids him in battle. She departs just as abruptly as she arrived — with parting words hinting at her relationship to him — and Joker continues on his way.

Following this opening, we delve into the story proper: a tale of high school students who band together with the help of a cat-like ally named Morgana to dive into the hearts of rotten adults. Known as the “Phantom Thieves,” they slowly become infamous both online and in the real world and are soon pulled into a much greater and more sinister plot.

While the main premise from the original Persona 5 remains intact, it soon becomes apparent that the story has been tangibly altered due to the added presence of the two new characters. First is the mysterious girl, Kasumi, whom we met in the opening. The second is the psychologist Maruki, brought in by Shujin Academy after the infamous events of Kamoshida occur. Both newcomers are as interesting and nuanced as the rest of the main cast and it’s clear that plenty of effort went into reworking both the general writing and the spoken dialogue to ensure that they fit in with the plot seamlessly.

Both characters even receive their own Confidants (Faith and Councillor respectively), giving the protagonist time to cozy up and learn more about their backstories and motivations. I found their Confidants to be engaging, funny, and well-written, particularly Maruki’s, as his methods of counseling mirror how real-world psychologists and psychiatrists’ sessions run. There’s even a tangible perk for ranking up their Confidants. For each level, Kasumi awards the hero with a 5 HP increase while Maruki provides him with a 5 SP increase. But even ignoring these benefits, the quality of writing alone places them as two of my favorite Confidants, only beaten out by Toranosuke Yoshida.

Just as Kasumi and Maruki are intertwined with the protagonist, they’re also deeply connected with each other. This all comes to a head during the new semester and final Palace, which spirals into an emotional reveal and conclusion that contrasts well with the beautiful aesthetics of both the dungeon itself and the true final boss designs. Without going into spoiler territory, I found the resolution between Kasumi, Maruki, and Joker to be wholly satisfying, if not somewhat predictable.

Receiving some much-needed love is the ever divisive Akechi, as his entire Confidant route has been completely overhauled. As a result, his route is slotted in at a different point in the story to go along with more screen time and importance in the bonus sections of the new endgame content. While my opinion of him is still rather lukewarm, I found myself appreciating his character more due to these improvements.

“Both newcomers are as interesting and nuanced as the rest of the main cast and it’s clear that plenty of effort went into reworking both the general writing and the spoken dialogue to ensure that they fit in with the plot seamlessly.”

The main cast also shares in the glow of additional screen time. Throughout the game, there are new holidays featuring brand new cutscenes and voiced dialogue, new conversations that lead to special team-up moves being unlocked, new portrait artwork giving each character a more dynamic range of expressions, and a third tier of Personae that are unlocked during the new semester (similar to Persona 4 Golden), among other features. Even the last party member, Haru, receives slightly better treatment, though her late introduction to the Phantom Thieves still hurts her overall development.

The infamous scene at the end of the drug trade investigation in Shinjuku has also been altered in the English version of the game. The two gay men, who in the original attempted to sexually harass and assault a teenager (AKA Ryuji), have had their dialogue changed to instead mistakenly believe that he’s into the drag scene because he’s been standing around their club and attempt to help him out. While not perfect in its execution, it’s a far more genuinely funny scene than the one in the original Persona 5 and is much less painful to watch in action. Not to mention, it’s a very natural change that fits much more nicely; if you weren’t aware of the original scene, you would be hard-pressed to notice any difference.

Gameplay gets plenty of fixing as well. Each dungeon has been reworked to incorporate the grappling hook mechanic, which at first feels limited due to its fixed uses. Players will find that the hook not only serves as a far better way for Joker to traverse through each Palace but also lets you access brand new areas where Will Seeds can be found. Each Palace contains three seeds and finding them all unlocks a special accessory that, when equipped, allows that party member to permanently access a certain useful skill.

Then there’s Showtime, the brand new super moves that are unlocked throughout the main story via conversations between two teammates. This allows for two party members, whether in the active or backup party, to team up and unleash a Showtime attack that deals massive damage to the enemy. Though incredibly fun to watch and even more useful, they’re extremely powerful and destroy the balance of each battle as they’re much stronger than All Out Attacks. Luckily, they’re optional, so you can simply ignore them when they crop up.

Boss battles have also been revamped to either provide more of a challenge or to better connect them with their respective Palace. For instance, Kamoshida’s battle now involves two new “slaves” that help him set up his special attack. Madarame’s battle features a new stage, and Kaneshiro’s fight now requires that you toss away an item to avoid his most powerful attack. While small changes, they make each boss feel more fleshed out and memorable from a gameplay perspective. Though, my one complaint is that the connection between the Palace boss and their corresponding story arc could have been stronger and made more personal, resulting in a more compelling conclusion.

The side quest dungeon, Mementos, sees its fair share of upgrades as well. The dungeon portions have been expanded and the randomized floors are often much larger in size, lending itself to more exploration. That said, why couldn’t they change the music sooner? Only the later sections of Mementos play an excellent remix of the main theme. Most of the dungeon is still filled with that unfortunate, bland track that’s stuck on an infinite repeat, which is personally disappointing to me, especially considering all the enhancements to the dungeon design itself. The brightest spot in the host of changes comes in the form of a strange young boy named Jose who appears before your party the first time they venture into Mementos. This is the same boy from the Thieves’ Den.

“While small changes, they make each boss feel more fleshed out and memorable from a gameplay perspective.”

Jose opens up a special shop that sells battle items based on the number of flowers you collect for him within the dungeon. And if you located special stickers scattered around platforms, you can use them to change gameplay properties inside Mementos which can lead to more rewards from battle, higher encounter rates, and so on. It doesn’t hurt that Jose is adorable and his shop UI is literally the most gorgeous thing you will see in the game (considering how polished the UI is in general, this is extremely high praise).

Even the Velvet Room hasn’t been spared from improvements. One of the major new features is called Challenge Battles. By speaking to the wardens, you can fight foes using your current party to aim for the highest score by dealing as much damage as possible. You’ll receive a reward from the wardens based on your score and because you won’t get a game over if you lose, it’s a fun and low-risk challenge.

Another added mechanic is the fusion alarm status, which occurs randomly after defeating enemies in a Palace. When fusing during this time, any resulting Persona will have greatly boosted stats and a chance to pass on new special skills. The downside is that fusion accidents are much more likely, which can result in wildly different and sometimes disappointing results. Despite the clear drawback, it’s a great mechanic that injects some much-needed excitement and vibrance in the otherwise monotonous grind of fusing.

Personae themselves — both with Joker and the other playable characters — have been upgraded with a brand new feature called Skill Traits. In Royal, each Persona possesses a unique trait that grants certain abilities, such as decreased SP cost for skills under a certain element or increased potency for spells that have a single target. These special traits can also be passed on just like regular skills and can also be passed on during fusion, allowing for even more customization options. Their general existence, especially skills that cut down on SP cost, are so useful during dungeon runs that I found myself wondering how I managed to traverse Palaces in vanilla P5.

It’s also worth mentioning here that another major change to Royal sees Morgana cutting back on the number of times they make Joker go to bed early, which has a tremendous effect on how quickly players can rank up their parameters. Even on days in which venturing outside isn’t possible, you can still engage in a multitude of tasks that raise your social stats. For instance, in my own playthrough, by the middle of July, three of my stats were already rank three and the other two were rank four.

More minigames make their debut in Persona 5 Royal and not only are they a welcome break from the intensity of the main story, but they also provide players with gameplay advantages.

The Thieves Den is an example of the former as it lets players use collected P Medals, the currency of this base, in order to purchase artwork for your gallery, soundtracks, and trophies depicting major story events to decorate said base with. You win P Medals either by obtaining awards or by playing the card game Tycoon with your party members. I’ve spent so much time playing Tycoon that it often feels like its own separate (albeit much smaller) game and the enthusiast voice work and expressions from the characters really immerses you in the experience of sitting back and playing a fun round of cards with your friends.

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The last minigame comes from a new district that Ryuji opens up, called Kichijoji. The area itself, bustling with tons of eateries and shops selling unique wares, is the largest explorable location in the game. It’s also home to the Darts and Billiards lounge, which features a darts game reminiscent of the one from the Yakuza series in that it utilizes the motion controls built into the DualShock 4. The darts minigame is fun, fairly easy to master, and best of all, it can be used to rank up a team member’s Baton Pass. The higher the rank, the more benefits that party members will receive whenever Baton Pass is used in a turn, which includes dealing more damage and HP/SP recovery.

Graphics have been noticeably upgraded in Persona 5 Royal as they’ve been optimized for the PS4, resulting in a crisper look to the character models and 3D environments. PS4 Pro owners haven’t been left in the dust either, as there’s a 4K setting to choose from.

There are also several new music tracks in Royal and for the most part, they’re quite enjoyable, particularly the new battle theme. That being said, I wasn’t too impressed with the true boss theme; while a great track on its own, it lacked the weighty presence and punch that a final boss theme should have.

“If you never got around to playing vanilla Persona 5, then Persona 5 Royal is now the perfect starting point.”

If you never got around to playing vanilla Persona 5, then Persona 5 Royal is now the perfect starting point. Filled with a plethora of new story and gameplay content to go along with all of the DLC from the original, this is without a doubt the definitive edition.

However, what if you did sink over 100 hours into the original? Then the question becomes, how much did you enjoy Persona 5? Because make no mistake, even with all the shiny new things included here with Royal, this is still Persona 5. That means you will absolutely be playing through the same 100 hours of the base game since no effort has been made to fix one of the most egregious issues of the original: its pacing. First time players discovering each twist and turn will most decidedly find Persona 5 Royal exciting and fresh. However, veterans may have a difficult time staying engaged the whole way through, even with all the bells and whistles.

Regardless, for an updated re-release, Persona 5 Royal is certainly worth the price of admission for newcomers. And if you enjoyed the original and are eager to jump back into the fray, then there’s certainly more than enough new content and improvements to justify a second purchase.

March 17, 2020 9:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/persona-5-royal-review-this-palaces-treasure-gleams-even-brighter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=persona-5-royal-review-this-palaces-treasure-gleams-even-brighter

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