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whatskraken · 2 years

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God of War is still my favorite contemporary video game in terms of play style and story delivery, but did anyone else feel like Ragnarok was just Fimbulwinter DLC?

The actual in-game Ragnarok was literally just an on-rails Ghost of Tsuchima chapter-ending strategic fortress siege?? I think they probably initially did this to reconcile the fact that you can’t have an apocalypse that doesn’t actually affect the entire world, but “magic and myth are bound to their homelands” denied me of feeling any sort of stakes in the war? Kratos isn’t from here, the Fall of Olympus meant nothing to the Norse cannon, so why does this insular war affect me? Why did we make such a big deal connecting all the Gods of War through Tyr if the Celts and Egyptians and Japanese versions aren’t going to council at least in an inter-dimensional cut scene.

“THE PROPHECY!” you say? Nope. Sorry. We deus-ex-machina’d that plot-driver by letting giants literally retcon anything we feel like. Maybe if the giant’s prophecy was something clever like “you THOUGHT the Norse meant this, but if you look at it from a different camera angle using our Giant Magic you’ll notice this shattering detail!” Instead we got “here’s a ‘secret’ true ending that we just totally made up in contrast to the one you thought you saw. Except for the most important one— in that case we just say the giants can’t POSSIBLY bother to add secret retcons to EVERY shrine, silly!!!”

I also feel like we got ripped off from experiencing the in-world justifications for the stuff in IRL Norse mythology I was looking forward to the storytellers clarifying. Cool we figure out how Jormangandur is “born” of Loki, but the ouroboros notion of Ragnarok isn’t ever explained. They even joke during an end-game boat ride story: “How did that big snake recognize you?! Must be time travel or something?!?!?!?” Remember that boar from last game? Remember that squirrel runic companion? We forgot we kinda wanted to flesh them out so as long as we joke about the meta it’s cool to add them back.

Odin at first is so fascinating because his clever conniving villainy is just…….systemic capitalism. THATS a smart way to address his traditional anti-hero/noble-villain status in mythology. But if I slice Elon Musk in half with a hammer, an entire realm whose singular economy is based off exploitative industrial slave labor isn’t really free from the tyranny of their own societal structure. I guess in a sense, Kratos killing Zeus/Odin and destroying the realms of gods in both Olympus/Asgard helps explain our current non-magical, non-god-driven secular reality. But that’s not the theme or goal of these games, narratively. Ragnarok always felt inevitable, but never necessary.

Odin asks so many interesting ethical questions about the meaning of godhood SEPARATE from its impact on the life of a generic mortal. His answers to moral quandaries never felt manipulative or dark-sided: in fact I think he and Kratos always gave Atreus two sides of the same advice. However it felt like every time we jumped back to Kratos & Freya insisting on Odin’s villainy, the writers never gave them enough justification to counteract his sound logic. We start to touch on the question of “what toll does Machiavellian decision-making take on the psyche of a god, and how does the psyche handle when traditional morality is off the table?” Kratos is directly allowed to do MAJOR morally dubious things through a constant lens of protagonist favor. “Open your heart to their suffering” because Kratos Is Main Character so all destruction is sacrifice worth the cost. ODIN IS BADGUY BECAUSE WE NEED TO HAVE FINAL BOSS BATTLE!!!!!

Remember in the post-game of the original how Fimbulwinter reskinned the entire hub world in response to Ragnarok approaching? Well even though we make a BIG deal about how all realms have their own unique seasonal weather affectations, the END of Ragnarok doesn’t actually cosmetically affect any of the realms in the reverse direction after the final battle. There’s nothing new or interesting to see in any realm (even though this would have been the coolest way to motivate players to go back and explore) but hey you can FOLLOW THE PATH BACKWARDS AND OPEN ONE OR TWO MORE TREASURE CHESTS! Some of that ouroboros sci-fi logic would have been perfect here: pieces of Asgard blocking major pathways from the start of the game that were actually a result of the final battle. That mirror-logic already exists in other cool ways: Memir comments on how the stories of Jotenheim say the landscape is SO BEAUTIFUL, but that “legendary beauty” is really a fungal overgrowth of decaying bodies of (literal) giants. The Mother Forge is an underwater mermaid because “the essence of a thing isn’t the same as the reality of a thing.” That’s not a logic applied to the entirety of the world-building, only when it’s convenient.

When the game breaks off to solo Atreus play, I was pumped to experience how every single character was going to get unique play style. Instead they just all end up as reskins of Original Boy. This isn’t an insane issue, but it only ever felt like I was adventuring with Brok/Sindri/Freya because we wanted to have some sidebar dialogue, not because the gameplay necessitated new skills or unique puzzles.

When I played the original, there were moments that floored me artistically and changed the way I think about video games as a medium. I know some of my lofty expectations come from comparing this dev cycle to unhealthy industry practices of others. Yes GOW Ragnarok is a really really really clean and solid experience. But if we’re complaining that to Assassins Creed and franchises that push out “unfinished product only considered a finished AAA game once 3 DLC packs are released 3 years later,” then TBH Ragnarok is admittedly pretty anemic overall in comparison. Maybe I’m the issue with the industry, but there wasn’t really enough of a significant shift in scope, gameplay, or narrative/cinematics for me to think of this installment as anything but “a continuation of existing digital assets rearranged to wrap up a masterpiece that we didn’t feel like bloating into a trilogy.”

I think we’re going to get some extra gameplay out of Atreus. I do believe this is Santa Monica’s end with Kratos: I think Sony let them put him to bed. We’ll either get a third game in the “Valhalla series” that’s focused on Loki/Tyr (and will HOPEFULLY follow up on the non-Norse Gods of War & expanded locations hinted at in the 2018 game) for a true epic reboot a la 2018, OR they’ll poop out one more existing realm’s worth of DLC and give us 5 minutes of Faye as a Kratos re-skin DLC to wrap up this cycle.

#gow ragnarok #reviews #long post

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sky-sogira · 2 years

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A person I roleplayed with on wattpad (the creator of this roleplay, sorry I can't credit it better (oh and there's a sequel I'm actively participating in)) had this amazing idea for a Sky AU, I asked them for permission to use it and they agreed to let me use it.

Basically, It has been a long time since the start of our gaming experience and Skykids have learned to use the knowledge stored in the Vault's memory lanterns to make technological advancements. One day, the Sun disappeared and Skykids must find a shard of light in each realm and bring them together to restore the Sun.

I borrowed the idea and thought, well you know what, maybe Resh decided that he wanted more magic so he tried to kidnap Megabird (lets pretend Megan is the deity of light and therefore the Sun by extention), but instead of converting the Megabird's magic to his own, he plunged the entire kingdom into darkness, and sent a shard of light into each realm.

The Shards are roughly the same size as the ones at the shard events, and they also affect their surroundings. Skykids may notice things like healing faster, brighter surroundings and more light magicks occuring near the shards. So to make finding them more of a challenge, the realms are much more bigger than what we can explore in the game.

The story I'm thinking about is set about a few centuries after the disappearance of the Sun, since Skykids don't really age normally, it takes a while for the No-More-Sun thing to be normalized. But after that, the Sun pretty much gets forgotten as we are quite adaptive creatures

Please ask me anything about this AU :> please

#also it's been like a year since I asked #kinda like reversed season of shattering #sky cotl #sky children of the light #thatskygame #naming it:#Reversed Shattering AU

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demonicintegrity · 4 years

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Okay, kinda spoilery so dont read if you havent seen season 3 yet.

I found the series finale really satisfying expect for one thing, and that's the fact that it the whole "Song finding a vaccine to stop the cure thing." Went out the window pretty fast, and that those who did get "cured" Never got their lives back. They became animals. Billions lost his brother, Cotton lost Camille. Brad is gone. Yumyan is gone. Having everything stripped away from them. And they never come back. The entire season, I kept saying "Its okay, Songs gonna find a vaccine, and can bring them back, right?!" And they just never did. And that honestly kinda shattered me. I don't know, maybe it was just cause I was really emotinally attached to those characters, and they're basically dead now.

Yea. I don’t like how the vaccine was just stopped. I wonder if it’s a pacing thing that got in the way. I wanted to see if Song could actually pull it off. But who knows, maybe post canon the vaccine is developed and just stored for safe keeping.

The vaccine only prevents it, preserving the sapience there, it cannot give it. I doubt even if she finished it, it would’ve reversed the cure Emilia made.

I do appreciate the cure not being reversible tho. The whole point of the show is to show the good despite the gritty. If the cure was reversed, it would’ve made the new peace less impactful. I never really liked the whole reversing the consequences thing, especially since some were caused by Kipo being scared to fight, and that’s okay.

Things aren’t always reversible. You can’t fix your past mistakes, nor the mistakes of others around you, but you can move forward. I think that’s the moral of the story. Mutes did terrible things to each other and humans, humans did terrible things to each other and mutes. Despite this, moving forward was the best option. It’s not a perfect happy ending. It’ll never be perfect. Life isn’t perfect like that, people fight and do things they regret and never be able to take back the pain they caused and that’s okay.

#me and my brother felt SO MUCH and I love this show #kipo s3 spoilers #Kipo spoilers #kataow #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts

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shikai-the-storyteller · 5 years

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I absolutely didn’t go back through and edit this at all and hardly any of this is verbatim but I tried to take notes on some of what Mae Catt said during her stream if anyone is interested!

EDIT: Here’s a cleaner post with most of the Q&A.

She says she doesn’t want to yuck anybody’s yums re: ships. She seems Arcee and Grimlock more as friends, but she didn’t say they can’t be in a relationship

They fell in love with Perceptor so they wanted him on the “End of the World fighting the Quintessons” team

They had to dedicate a lot of effort into Dead End b/c it takes time to send in info for modeling a character and deciding on their alt mode

She was pitching Obsidian from Beast Machines really hard. She didn’t know what his personality would be it was just a “Look how cool he is!” sort of thing

Thought it’d be fun to have someone pessimistic like Dead End be on the team

“According to us, Drift did not make it, but I fully endorse whatever you want”

“The brand team had grown up on the toys as we had grown up on the toons, so we just wanted to make the best thing imaginable.” That’s nice

Rodimus was never considered for the show “it’s been covered to death”, but they were adamant about portraying Hot Rod as someone who wanted to be a leader

Hot Rod is someone who is learning to be a leader

“Please don’t tell JRO I forgot about Whirl” re: talking about why they chose each character for the “Anti-Quintesson” team

Q: Re: Why did Drift try to kill Roddy A: They said they needed a double-agent and they needed someone who would (seemingly) kill Hot Rod

She loves that Optimus is just trying so hard to rebuild Cybertron, I just want society to start rebuilding

Q: Since you mentioned Optimus's death... he didn't seem to have a plinth in "our" Matrix realm. Does that mean the list of Primes works differently? Like are the 13 more of a dynasty, rather than all being a group together? A: They decided Optimus would be in the Alt! Universe matrix because they wanted to show he was dead. Logical backflips because he needed to be among the 13 to talk to Windblade.

She says Starscream’s death hurt her most

They didn’t want to kill people off willy-nilly for shock value

"The audience will fall in love with Slipstream so she has to die" LMAO

She almost wanted Starscream to emerge from the Judge heads untouched but she’s ultimately glad that idea got shot down

Dead End’s eyes are white

She’d love to have a MTMTE Magnus / Minimus included. She wished and prayed to have Frenzy and Rumble

They wanted Jazz to be a lady!!!!!!!

These characters are like grown ups (kinda) with their own lives that we don’t see. Lots of stuff happening between episodes

“Rumble and Frenzy are always considered in my heart, but there wasn’t enough time or space or assets to do so”

“Alt Soundwaves also had their own Laserbeaks. I wonder if the scientist would’ve taken them out. He might’ve just gotten rid of them.”

“A lot of intelligent life is inherently mechanical” explaining why so much of the life we saw in the show were robots

She would’ve liked to have the other shows show up (TFP, TFA, G1, Shattered Glass) but they don’t have those assets or budget. “This will quickly become unclear to audiences who aren’t (you people).” They couldn’t have all these references when some of their audience wouldn’t get it

“Why does anyone collect what they collect? That’s a really angry dad who’s got five children and he plays music. Gotta have that” --re: the Scientist and Soundwave

Knock Out was considered but every Transformer under the sun was discussed at some point in the Writer’s room.

Developing Sky-Byte’s character was simultaneous with Jetfire’s character, "We knew we wanted Sky-Byte to be a poet, and we wanted him and Megatron to be chummy”

From the getgo they didn’t want any humans distracting from the Transformers

Q: Is Megatron dead? A: “In discussions we wanted to kill him. Wanted to do a reverse Optimus death. However, in the final product, I kinda enjoy the ambiguity rather than the final decision. Can’t remember if we were decisive about that in the script.”

She wanted them to have IDW Tarn in there “OBVIOUSLY (the perfect decepticon) should look like this guy. A faceless mindless Decepticon that only serves Megatron”

Q: Is Dead End a good boyfriend? A: Dead End is a work in progress, but maybe Percy is patient enough to get him there

Q: Is Astrotrain a good boyfriend?” A: “No, no...he’s not a good person, really”

“When I was desperately trying to save Starscream’s life even though I brutally murdered Slipstream--” LMAO She wanted Starscream to have amnesia and she says she wanted to have a redeption arc. She wanted him to have a Windblade shard and have it be kind of like Castaway, where he only talked to it (and the shard only had 5 phrases it could say) and eventually Bee would befriend him Wanted to write Starscream as an abuse victim who expected the worse of the Autobots, but she wanted him to warm up slowly

Wanted a Starscream and Optimus episode where he’s like “you did your best and that’s what counts”

Q: Is Percy a good boyfriend A: “Absolutely--WAIT HOLD ON. He’s very blunt, he doesn’t mince words, if you can handle his bluntness then you’re good. He is what he is and you have to deal with him.”

Q: Is Soundwave a good boyfriend? A: Soundwave is not a good boyfriend. He’s a good casual romance but he’s not a good boyfriend. Soundwave would be a terrible listener. He hears a lot but he’d tune you out.

Percy did permanently take over Mac’s bar

She really wanted Obsidian and Transmutate to be in the show.

If Thunderclash was in the show he and Jetfire would HATE each other. Thunderclash would be a rival reality star (maybe) to Media Fire

Fave Episode was “I Am the AllSpark” b/c of that Megatron and Starscream dialogue Also S2 04 Soundwave and Shockwave

Transmutate would be more like the uprising version (?) but modeled more on the BeastWars version

The Starscream & Megatron beatdown was super severe and they were like “holy frick they’re really going for it” when they saw the boards for it

She likes the Windblade / Slipstream ship

Her favorite VA is Jeremy Levy, he’s a really cool guy

She thinks Starscream and Cheetor could become (not necessarily friends, but connected?) because of their connection to the All Spark

Describes Starscream as an “Awful gremlin” several times

They say Megatron didn’t actually kill Starscream, just really beat him down hard

“Don’t take things I say as the end all be all”

She doesn’t think Bee would be a Prime, Windblade and Hot Rod would be a better Prime. He wouldn’t want to be a Prime. He’s the #2 to Primes!

With unlimited budget combiners could’ve been included, but it doesn’t seem like they thought about it

Astrotrain and the Insecticons are from Megatron X’s universe

Megatron’s priorities changed when he saw his doppelganger. Realizing he was a horrible tyrant, that scared him enough to return and not kill Optimus and make peace no matter what.

She thinks Cliffjumper and Bee wouldn’t get along, solely because of the IDW2 comic stuff

Got 26 episodes for season 3 because they got the 4-part movies

Megatron cares about his troops but not in a way that we would notice that care

Wasn’t a HUGE die-hard TF fan when she got into the series but she was a bigger GI Joe fan, she reread a bunch of things and did a lot of research

Cut joke: S2 E5 Megatron and OP finds the All Spark Decepticons and Autobots popping all over the world, Soundwave pops into Brazil where there’s a music festival and he’d crash the concert and hang out. He likes EDM the most?

The Titans want to be cities. They want citizens. They want to be lived in, that brings them joy (ouch)

Q: How did the Decepticons learn to stream? A: Because they’re deceptive! He knew he should dedicate some time to winning the hearts and minds of humans. Starscreams’ funeral was not the first time they streamed Optimus would use the official media channels, not a streaming service. Megatron would try to speak more directly to the people.

From the conception, the show wasn’t going to have humans

She thought people would ship Dead End / Percy but it wasn’t until she saw art that she started shipping them

Q: Is Optimus the type of streamer who would take 10 minutes to figure out how to un-mute his microphone A: Optimus is a dad. He has no idea what’s going on re: streaming. Optimus would say embarrassing news while Bee and Hot Rod are in the middle of streaming

Doesn’t ship Bee with anyone, she sees him as a little brother

Randolph put Rack ‘n Ruin in the show.

AcidStorm is genderfluid

Cold Construction doesn’t exist in this show. Maybe there’s one jet mode all the seekers really like

We have Mae Catt to thank for Whirl

Percy didn’t transform because not a good time to turn into a microscope while you’re trying to save your planet from Quintessons

If she were a transformer she’d want to be a stealth bomber. She’s 5′3 so she says she’d probably actually be a motorcycle like Chromia

They killed Prowl because it was Shadow Striker doing the killing and he’s a self-sacrificing lieutenant.

Enjoyed writing Starscream most, Clobber and Hot Rod became a joy, S2 E4 was her first one, it was fun getting into Hot Rod’s voice. She said it was hard doing Optimus’ voice, she’d always pass it off to someone to look at it.

She loves the idea of Wild Wheel robbing Astrotrain in train-mode, totally wild west-style

One of her proudest things was turning Lugnut into a gal

They wanted to include more female characters

They love Cosmos, she has a little toy of him. R2D2 but a transformer! They loved having her in the show

Blurr really was the fastest

Maccadam looking like a buff Rung was just a strange coincidence

Q: Megop rights? A: “Oh absolutely, duh”

Says we absolutely SHOULD write fanfic. Fanfiction made her into the writer she is today, she says you should write it

There’s a lot between episodes, people living their lives and characters living on the ship that don’t pop up in the show

She wrote non-stop Matrix fanfic from 12-20 years old, she learned a lot thanks to writing fanfic

Uses “They” pronouns for Rack ‘n Ruin but they both use “he”

Sad that Skywarp didn’t get a speaking line

Re: Starscream’s redemption arc: She wanted Starscream to have amnesia if they went the “he comes out of the ruins of the judge totally fine”. “A redemption arc needs to be facilitated by a character acknowledging that what they did was wrong. He would have a laundry list of excuses for everything, even if there was all that evidence to the contrary, but needs to acknowledge that reasons don’t matter because people got hurt. Needs to intend to do better. Let them try and let them fail, they don’t need to 180, it’s hard work to be a better person.”

Shadow Striker is taller than Optimus or is his height. She loves the gender-neutral designs for a lot of characters

She’s not going to say whether Ratchet finished medical school or not Laughed at the "i don't believe that man has ever been to medical school" comment

Q: How would you feel about a female Optimus Prime? A: [GAY LAUGHTER] “So do you turn Optimus Prime into a woman, or do you take characters like Elita One and uplift her? I would want to lean more into giving Elita One more oomph, I do love how Optimus doubts himself and if he’s worthy of being a Prime.”

Says Rack ‘n Ruin are probably the Prime in that one weird universe lmao

Loves the idea that Transformers have siblings / families

She doesn’t think Cybertronians celebrate birthdays. “Why would you celebrate being alive for 4 million years that sounds like a nightmare.” She says that people would be celebrating milestones if nothing else

She’d kill to have Perceptor meet the other stunticons

She says she doesn’t post fanfic as much anymore. Sends them to Natalie as love letters (Ghost Busters fics specifically)

In a world where you had unlimited budget it’d be fun if Cybertronians were constantly shape-shifting and changing their forms, they’d like having Transformers who “grew a beard” and decided to “shave it”

Re: Ratchet and Medical school: she wants a “I choose to believe Ratchet has never been to medical school” shirt

Natalie (her GF) said hi

She doesn’t understand cycles or astrocycles, she doesn’t understand the weird Transformers time stuff. (mood)

Natalie explained how ghost traps work and it was a delight "You're basically making a pocket dimension, that's how you capture ghosts" “The Technology for a ghost trap is like magic and science”

Maecatt's bringing all her TF toys over to the camera

Q: Elita prime when? A: All the time, in my heart!

Q: Why are you so mean to Percy? A: He's so mature and pragmatic that he can take it, and is willing to take one for the team bc he understands that it's what he needs to do. Yes, he’s calmly feral.

Yes to the hurt/comfort Deadceptor fanfic joke answer

She jokingly says she's willing to buy Cyberverse fanart prints

“Arcee was fun to figure out because there’s an extra bit of pressure to develop a female character, there is extra pressure to do it well since it’s representing a different community (not that women are different species) more representation is needed. “What kind of woman can our Arcee be?”” Scared to write her poorly, but they realized she could be a fun dynamic duo with Grimlock, someone who could keep up with him, not a “girl” version of him, but someone who could stand on her own two feet

Collecting Soundwave because Soundwave is COOL. Wouldn’t you collect a single father of 5 who carries them around in his chest?

Shockwave altered his vibes to have maximum bad vibes to destroy the All Spark

Rebooting the franchise: she’d maybe do beast wars or something

Skullcruncher is a lady! She misses Mac but Percy takes good care of her

She loved Beast Wars Inferno, she loved that Inferno called Megatron a Queen. It was played as a joke because the 90s weren’t very socially conscious, but she liked that Megatron never corrected him or beat him down

She wanted to have Lightbright and Nickle in the show

"Maybe Drift is alive, maybe he's rethinking his decision and he'll come back later"

She said it's hard talking about writing a show because you're designing the experience and you have to make sometimes what sounds like cold and pragmatic decisions (eg: "we need a cold and spunky female") which sucks, but they need to balance out the show. She says she'd never do that just for the sake of doing it, but it's part of something that they do need to be aware of while working on a show “Starts from a weirdly cold pragmatic place, but we try and put truth in it”

Q: Is Skullcruncher Percy's bouncer now that he's running Maccadam's? A: Oh totally

She felt bad about the writing thing because she says "you could throw a rock in California and you'd hit a writer / director or whatever" but she says she really likes being an authority on things now, even if it’s weird

She said Drift would've been helpful in S3 for sure, maybe he'd come up with Repugnis

Q: If Tarn is the perfect Decepticon who's the perfect Autobot A: Someone with a Firetruck alt mode, Autobot insignia as a face. Nat and her talked about it a lot. She says Optimus SHOULD be a fire truck, it makes the relationship between him and Ratchet a little more fun since Ratchet is an ambulance, and Optimus has an AX. It just makes sense! She agreed that the perfect Autobot would be Thunderclash after the chat said that

“If you put the proverbial budget-gun to my head, I’d keep Unicron in planet-mode because it’s more mysterious, but I want both alt modes”

Her favorite Megatron is Beast Wars Megatron

They didn’t want to go the Unicron route because everyone goes that route

Q: What sort of documents DID Optimus work on in the archives? A: Probably historical archives and working on all the Primes. Something like the French / American revolution equivalent, which informed his speech writing for Megatron and his own ethics. (NICE)

She doesn’t like Sky Lnxy’s design, it’s creepy. “He talks in the G1 episodes and the voice makes it worse.” She can’t get over his face

“Found” the social awkwardness for Optimus. Optimus depicted as a father figure in S1 because it’s from Bee’s perspective, S2 / S3 they were able to explore more and found the limits and found it was hard to maintain that level of heroic dialogue. Optimus would feel awkward about it too. Randolph did an impression of Optimus’ speech. “He can’t not be in war-mode” :(

Q: Were Optimus and Megatron friends ever, or did they just work together on the speech stuff? A: Oh hell yes, I think [the story] is always enhanced when they’re friends and when Optimus really believes in what Megatron was working on. Optimus’ rejection of Megatron is what pushes him over the edge, his best friend rejecting him pushes him into a place where he becomes a tyrannical person.

Q: Does Maccadam know we love him? A: *puts hand over heart and looks into the distance* Yes

“Who knows where Dead End ended up” then backtracks and says “Wait that sounds flippant”

Soundwave’s favorite Earth song is Despacito

Q: What's the best selfie Arcee's ever taken A: Mae Catt loves the one with the giraffe. She likes the idea of Arcee having a bunch of human friends

Q: What do the Transformers think of the Florida Man? A: They can’t really tell the difference between humans, they don’t really get it. It just sorta looks like all the normal stuff they see on Earth (or something)

Q: Who's the Florida Man of the Transformers A: Rack ‘n Ruin or Skybyte. But he’s too nice hmmm.

Leaned into the wackiness of Wheeljack because of the VA

Q: What does Optimus do when he's not giving speeches / being a leader when they were all hanging out on the ARK? A: I think he reads, he seems like a heavy reader. It’d be cute if he read really bad Earth romance novels. He seems like a guy who needs a break from everything.

Q: Does Optimus have hobbies? A: Not to borrow from Rung, but doesn’t it seem like Optimus would make model ships? Very quiet, very focused detail-oriented hobby. Oh duh, he also plays basketball.

“I’d love to see more jets [who aren’t our usual gang] and find out all jets are kinda snobby”. Kaon and Tarn would be fun, it’d be cool to make up places.

(Someone asking if Optimus would read 50 Shades of Gray, someone else saying “They’d take it the wrong way because Transformers turn gray when they die”)

Everyone on the Autobot side are friends with each other.

Q: Does Megatron do anything for fun or is he too angry? A: I want to say he’s too angry, he has fun beating people down but I don’t think he’s had fun for a long time

Q: Were you surprised that Jake Tillman was in his 20s listening to his Optimus the first time? A: Jake Tillman was a vine-r she listened to a ton. She’d heard him when he was in his teens

MaeCatt loves that Shadow Striker saved Windblade’s body and kept her safe

Q: what was most important to you personally to put out in each episode? like humor/characterization/arcs A: Wanted to make sure she didn’t write dialogue that was condescending, wanted to be true about the character. Needs to be true to the characters (and gay)

Transformers probably don’t know what memes are. They know what they ARE, but they don’t get it. They wanted Hot Rod to be super into Earth culture (winning races and driving off before humans could realize no one was in the car), but they never had time to really get into that.

Wound up in the Cyberverse writer’s room thanks to her agents, says she was the only person who gave a crap about GI Joe stuff, the executives were so sweet and let her chat, and they said she wasn’t a good fit for the current live action project so they sent her to the animation side, they sent her to Michael Howzer and they hit it off talking about GI Joe stuff. She was a post PA, someone who helped editors finish things for TV, got a call with an offer.

#i talk #Cyberverse #Mae Catt #I'm watching Cyberverse #Transformers #Cyberverse Spoiler /#Primordial Robot hell

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marcamatic · 4 years

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Its been a while

Hey, long time no see, I’m still alive, and I’ve realized I’ve let my different social media slip a lot, which I can assure you wasn’t intentional, well . . . partially, I’ve come to a few conclusions since my last post, nearly two years ago, firstly the scope of my project Fade was impossibly big, even to get the first season done on my own would eat up years of my life, and almost no-one would see it in the end. Secondly I’d been juggling Fade, college work, other projects and personal stuff, and it all became overwhelming in the end, so I took a break, focusing only on college work. that break has now become two years, and while I still very much want to keep working on Fade, distance and hindsight are really highlighting how foolish it is hinge so much of my time and future on something so massive.

Third thing I realized is that I’m just straight up bad at collaborating and being in charge, I work to please everyone and plan for everything, and when I miss something it shatters myself esteem. Along with Fade I was working on a small project and honestly it didn’t go well. I was inspired by a classmate’s story and wanted to make something with a similar theme, my story would have actually been similar to Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers film, but I made the foolish mistake of telling them, they made the argument that they would like to see their story made without changes, and from that point on I never really felt in charge. Now let me make it clear, I don’t blame this person for sticking to their idea, it the situation was reversed, I might have said the same, but it illustrates my own inability to stand up for myself, and its something I really need to fix moving forward.

I’ve also realized I need to incubate myself and my skills, I’ve finally realized how much I don’t know, and how little I can do with just myself, I’m in a unique position with this pandemic, I’m able to work and practice solely on my craft, and in the last six months I’ve noticed a big improvement, and compared to the early Fade concepts I’m leagues above where I was, but I’m still far from going professional. As for working with other people, I’m stumped still, but I’ve had some insight: Money. A budget shifts the dynamic a huge amount, its something to offer people, and its a type of leverage, because its tangible it can be used, so it is encouraged not to waste it, but this leads to the part that is stumping me:

How do I get a budget?

Well I’m going to try be smart about it, I’m working on a much smaller project, a small, self contained story. I’m going to save up a small amount, to advertise a Kickstarter pre-campaign, this is mostly just going to directing people to a small website with a landing video and an email form, so people can sign up for updates, then once I’ve got the pre-production done, I’ll make a Kickstarter for the short, if that's successful, I’ll use that budget for hiring animators and artists, and save a little for the next ad campaign. At least, that's the theory to it. From the research I’ve done it becomes easier every time you do well, so its really just staying at the table long enough.

Lastly is a problem I’ve realized I’ve never really admitted online, I’m terrified of social media, I love looking through it, but the idea putting stuff out there and getting back what feels like blank stares kinda sucks, or worse getting back hate, I released an animatic trailer for Fade a while back, and it got a genuinely vitriolic hate comment, this guy was offended by the quality of the video. Now its clear the guy had no clue what an animatic was, and he might have been just jealous, or tolling, or just misdirecting problems in his life at the video, and I’ve been playing it off for laughs, but it stuck with me. The main reason I like making stories is to try connect with other people, not validating myself, to get an emotion that I feel and plant it into someone else, I feel that endeavor is one of the most important things in the world, and that comment kinda shows a failure to do that. That video was unrelatable, it was confusing to him, alien, and I felt like a failure because of that, it still hurts even though logically its just a bored dude on the internet, and since then I’ve gotten plenty of praise. but it still worries me that I’ll get more people like that. I’m also worried about the speed of my work, everything I do is pieces of a bigger work, so I’m reluctant to throw them online because its not the whole picture, but to build a following I need to be posting stuff regularly, and I just don’t have the mental endurance to do that daily, so I’m at a little bit of a loss on how to proceed on that front. Maybe this is a way of starting?

Ah, I didn’t mean for this to get negative, I’ll give some positive news too, I’ve finished college, and I did a final year film, well, its more of a proof of concept, but I’m proud of it: https://vimeo.com/424300549 I’d love to pitch the show to somewhere like Netflix, I have no idea where go to even apply but the solution is just more networking in the industry, I’m confident I’ll find a platform for it at some point. I’m also working on another pitch for Animation Dingle’s big pitcher event, which I’m hoping to get to this year, I don’t want to post anything about it just yet, but I will once the event is over because I’m really pleased with where its going! Other than that things are all quiet with me, if you read through all this I’m really grateful! hopefully it won’t be another two years before my next post! ~~Marc out

#update #im back #crowdfunding #animation #blog post #thoughts #ideas #cartoon pilot #cartoon #cartoon pitch #self relfection #been gone awhile #planning

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hezuart · 5 years

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I'm sorry the fandom's getting all upset over your comic. I personally liked, and honestly I want PD/RQ to come back. So just ignore the fandom~ they can make their own stuff.

Hi, thanks for the support! I really appreciate the people who feel happy or inspired with my comic. I’m here for the people who wanted more out of the movie!

It’s alright, this is the SU fandom. Legit everything I post has some sort of controversy over it. But I can understand where some people are coming from. Some people prefer Pink stays gone, some people prefer to see Pink as the true villain, and some want to blame all of Spinel’s actions on Pink. They’re all personal interpretations, just like mine. ANd I’m gonna heavily disagree with them, but i’m not gonna attack them for having their own opinions.

I think it’s okay for people to think otherwise about my comic. I made it for the people who were disappointed with the movie. As stated before, I made this comic because of the rejuvenator. As soon as that was introduced, I knew immediately it would be used to revert Steven’s gem into Pink Diamond. I was like “Omygod are they actually doing this? The “She’s Gone” statement just got reversed with the reveal of this weapon!” I was so excited.

I thought Spinel was gonna use it to revert Steven’s gem so she could confront Pink directly. Not take out her anger on her son and everyone else. If that was her true intention, her actions would have been 100% more validated and I would have sided with Spinel supporters.

But she didn’t. She used it to reset all of Steven’s friends, which lead into this amnesia arc being 60% of the movie. Which is the root of the pacing problem everyone has been irritated with. It was interesting to see all the gems relive their lives in a different light, but.... I felt like it wasted a lot of time.

Sapphire is the one to save Ruby this time. Pearl is actually serving Greg, someone she held a grudge against for so long. And We finally get to see how little Amethyst acted, plus we see original pure Spinel. But aside from Spinel, we’ve already been through all this. Do we really have to re-witness the gems go through their character development that’s been going on for years just altered and crammed into the hyped-up movie?

This plotline just felt like a filler Steven Bomb. Not movie material. The only new thing we got out of this was Steg’s fusion. (Which shouldn’t have been possible in my interpretation, because Steven is no longer fused with his gem. Pink is in control, not Pink Steven.)

The whole time Steven is upset, running around town with his friends trying to bring back their memories, Spinel is just there. She’s being annoying. The third wheel. She’s completely ignoring the problems at hand and trying to distract Steven so he won’t be sad anymore because that is her job as a gem. The worst part of this is that SHE is the cause of all these problems. And Steven has to go around fixing it by himself while she just annoys him. it’s not what friendship truly is. It’s why Pink got annoyed with her. Because she just... doesn’t know how to grow up. She doesn’t know how to change, and she doesn’t want to. Her best friend had to leave her and literally “die” / disappear for her to change.

Seeing how insensitive Spinel is to other people’s sadness, or her inability to cheer them up without completely ignoring the problem at hand is the root reason why I didn’t like her original form as a character. From the very beginning, Spinel was always selfish, which is what lead her down the path of destruction later on.

But look at who she changed into. Omygod villain Spinel? She somehow gets her hands on a massive poisonous gem drill and the most ancient deadly weapon of gem society. How, and where? Omygod. THis was amazing. She had a plan. She was gonna kill the Earth, revert Pink’s friend’s so they wouldn’t remember her anymore, maybe kill her son to make her suffer, and finally, revert her gem so she is in control and can reform, so she can witness all of it. This right here is an evil genius. I was THRIVING for this character. I wanted to see what more she could do.

She absolutely DESTROYED the crystal gems. How could she fight so well? She was running circles around them and they couldn’t keep up. I’m so desperate for SU villains because there aren’t anymore. Steven keeps befriending them and it’s pissing me off!!!! DON’T!! TAKE!! MY !! VILLAINS!! STEVEN!! Where’s that Aquamarine that didn’t fall for his speeches? Bring her back into the picture.

Like hey, I do want the characters to find happiness in the end. I love redemption arcs. But this is too predictable now. It’s getting boring. And it’s getting kinda hectic because some characters are being redeemed when they should have been shattered. (*cough* White Diamond *Cough*...)

I love villain characters because there’s so much more to them. They’re a whole new mystery to unravel, a new cause of problems for the protagonist, the plot device, the MAIN ELEMENT THAT DRIVES A STORY! Without a conflict, what even is a story anymore? It’s done. It’s ended. And there are rumors going around Steven Universe still has another season. But for me, the diamonds were really the icing on the cake.

You can’t top a towering all-powerful big-brother-surveillance gem that can literally take away your free will and control you like a puppet. You can’t top that.

So ever since hearing Change Your Mind wouldn’t be the last SU episode, I knew it was downhill from here. Unless Rebecca can surprise me somehow? Idk. I still love Steven Universe. I’m sticking around to the very end, and I respect Rebecca and her choices.

Buttttttt... I’m just sayin..... if I were in charge?

Things would be veryyyy different.

#steven universe #spinel #pink diamond #ask #msbeastlyeevee

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absolxguardian · 4 years

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In Which I Hit the Concept of Force Dyads With a Hammer Until They Work (A canon complaint fix)

Here’s my canon complaint fix-it for one part of TROS- the Force Dyads and Kylo Ren’s redemption. This is a Watsonian explanation for that part of the film that should make canon more enjoyable for people with similar tastes in stories to me. This reinterpretation is anti-Bendemption, agrees with Kreia regarding the Cosmic Force (“I hate the Force, I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance when countless lives are lost”), and features tropes I’m a fan of. It accepts every detail canon has given us and uses them as a sandbox to (in my opinion) make a better version of the story. Except for the R/ylo kiss at the end. That’s just flat out ignored, since doing so doesn’t require a massive restructuring of the film. If this isn’t the kind of thing you’d like, then keep scrolling. As for everyone else, let’s begin.

Rather than structuring this post by following the film and jumping back to explain the changes, I’ve structured it in an order that introduces concepts as they build off each other until we get to the actual fixing.. I’d also like to thank my mom for assuming that the only way Kylo Ren could be “redeemed” was through possession and therefore planting the seed of this idea.

If there’s evidence for an idea, I’ll include it. Otherwise if I plainly state a new fact, it’s just my headcanon.

I. BALANCE

I think part of the reason why actually understanding the Force is hard, resulting in both fans and authors talking themselves into circles is that there are actually multiple forms of balance regarding the Force.

1. Natural Balance

“Breathe,” [Luke] said. “Just breathe. Now reach out with your feelings. What do you see?” [....] [Rey’s] first impression was life—life all around her. She could sense herself, and the Caretakers pottering about near the huts, but there was so much more than that. She felt the presence of flowers and grasses and shrubs. Birds and insects and fish, and creatures too tiny for the eye to see. Her awareness of all of it seemed to crowd her senses, plunging her into something so deep and intense that for a moment she thought she might drown in it, only to realize that was impossible, because she was a part of that life. But there was death, too—and decay. Dead flesh and vegetable matter, sinking into soil that hid bones and dry sticks from bygone seasons of the island. She shrank from this new awareness, but sensed almost immediately that there was nothing to fear. From the death and decay sprang new life, nourished by what had come before. She could feel the warmth of the suns—not just on her face but on the rocks and the surface of the ceaseless tumble of the water. And cold, too, which surrounded the dark places where the roots of the island and the seafloor were revealed as one and the same. There was peace—mother porgs with their eggs, sheltered and safe in warm hollows—but also violence that left behind broken nests and shattered shells. And all that her senses showed her had been but a moment. That moment was but one of trillions, part of a never-ending cycle that had begun eons before she was born and would go on for eons after she was dead. And it was itself part of something vastly larger, so enormous that her mind couldn’t grasp it, an immensity even the stars were but the tiniest portion of. -The Last Jedi Novelization

Natural balance is the Living Force is ecological balance. It’s the food chain properly aligned. It’s rotation cropping. It’s the cycles of life and death that exist on a planet. The cycles, that while they may result in short term destruction, are better for all life forms in the long run. It’s the connection between all living things, and the expression of the Living Force. It is also homeostasis, the balance inside us that we need to exist. The tested machine that most bodies are.

This isn’t a balance for sapient beings. There is nothing immoral about a predator who kills its prey. It is immoral to commit murder. The only reason the Empire disrupted this balance was because of their rampant exploitation and destruction of environments such as Lothal. It is an unforgiving balance, but the basis of all life.

Dume is an expression and protector of this balance. He wanted the Empire gone because that was the only way Lothal, and many other planets, could have their Natural Balance.

2. Personal Balance

“But you’re finding the balance, without even meaning to. You’re finding the place that’s level.” On the desk was a clear glass filled halfway with milk. [Maz] picked it up and showed it to him. “Do you see where the surface lies? If I tip the glass to the left, the surface tips high to the left and low to the right. And the reverse, when I tip it the other way. But if I hold it still—even if I swish it a little first, like this!—you watch, and it’ll…settle. It soon finds its level. Its balance. You’re doing the very same thing, though I’m sure you couldn’t explain it if I tried to force you.” [...] The room went white, and then it went black, and [Karr] fluttered his eyes trying to find the balance. He pictured the glass half full of milk. He imagined it sloshing around, back and forth, light to dark and back again. He thought of the surface, level and smooth. [...] Finding a place in the middle. Finding his balance. -Force Collector

This is the balance characters mean when they talk about finding your balance. It’s emotional balance, and balance between the Force and Not The Force. It’s the puesdo-zen thing. It’s what Jedi meditate to achieve.

It’s less of a balance between things, and more like the balance on a tightrope. Or the balance that Tiffany Aching must learn in the Discworld series to cast spells. Tiffany has to be balanced in the world and let magic flow through her without controlling it, just directing it. She must be like the fulcrum of a scale.

In the case of the Force, if you lose your balance you fall into the Dark Side- something I see as More Force. But if you are careful, you can play among the edges. The equivalent of going faster on the tightrope and using the disruption of the line. To continue this metaphor, the Jedi Order we see in the Republic is the equivalent of when you are so concerned about keeping balance that you don’t move down the tightrope itself.

It’s also the balance one needs in their personal life to remain healthy. These first two types of balance are also ones that find expression in our own world. When the Jedi give good psychological advice, like accepting what can’t be changed, considered thought about the greater good, and moving on from the dead- what they’re advocating promotes Personal Balance

3. Cosmic Balance

Kreia: “I hate the Force, I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance when countless lives are lost” -Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

“Let’s say I do,” Rael answered. “Let’s say I believe that someday there’s going to be perfect balance in the Force, thanks to some kinda ‘Chosen One.’ Did you ever really think about what that would mean, Qui-Gon? It would mean the darkness would be just as strong as the light. So it doesn’t matter what we do, because in the end, hey, it’s a tie! It doesn’t matter which side we choose.” -Master and Apprentice

I’m not considering Rael as a reliable narrator, but his speech expresses a common idea a lot of fans have regarding balance in the Force, so it seemed like a good opener. While Kreia’s famous line is basically the philosophy that I’m following here.

When characters talk about “bringing balance to the Force”, they’re talking about Cosmic Balance. So how am I defining it? There are two scenarios that bring about balance- when neither a dark side or a light side organization controls the galaxy or when a dark side and a light side organization are of similar power levels. So during the prequel era? Force is unbalanced. It’s too stagnant. During the reign of the Empire? Likewise unbalanced. The number of light and dark side users may be roughly similar, but the Sith control the galactic government while hunting the Jedi. Between the OT and the ST? Actually balanced. No Force order exerts a large amount of influence on the galaxy. Something like the setting for Star Wars The Old Republic where both the Sith and Jedi have their own powerful states? Also balanced.

So why? Well I haven’t entirely decided on a reason. This definition of balance comes from the Cosmic Force, which while not evil, isn’t good either. It has some purpose beyond the understanding mortals. But that’s the cosmic dance that the galaxy keeps getting thrown into without concern for any kind of morality. It’s just it’s nature. The nature of an eldritch being. That’s the will of the Force. It seems fitting that not even me, the author, knows why that is its nature.

II. THE CHOSEN ONE PROPHECY “A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.” -An ancient Jedi prophecy (Master and Apprentice)

The Father, to Anakin: “And now you see who you truly are. Only the Chosen One could tame both of my children.” -The Clone Wars (S3E15 Overlords)

This is what we know of the Chosen One prophecy. There have been different readings of it, but I think now that we have the actual text of the prophecy and the fact that Anakin was able to control both of the Ones, it has to be him.

So how does he do so? Well during the PT there are two seperate conflicts from which balance can come from. The first is the conflict between the Ones, pure unadulterated expressions of the Force (more on that later). And then the galactic conflict, on a less reality shattering scale.

Anakin brings balance to both of those conflicts through destruction. By the end of the Mortis arc, all of the Ones are dead- with Ahsoka carrying the spirit of The Daughter. And he eventually balances the galactic conflict by creating a scenario with both a diminished Sith and Jedi order.

As part of the fact that the Cosmic Force is so far removed from us, it doesn’t care about how the galaxy is actually being ruled. If the Empire wasn’t led by dark side users, then there would still be Cosmic Balance.

Shortly after Vader yeets Palpatine, the Cosmic Force falls “asleep.” This has to happen after the party on Endor, because Force Ghosts are expressions of the Cosmic Force (that’s why you shouldn’t trust them), so it obviously isn’t a binary flicking of a switch.

That aspect of the Force—the Jedi had called it the living Force—was ceaseless and ever-renewing. But the Jedi had spoken of another aspect—the Cosmic Force. It had an awareness, and a purpose, and a will. A will that had been silent, dormant after the demise of the Sith, only to wake once again during Luke’s exile. A will that Luke finally allowed himself to acknowledge once again. -The Last Jedi Novelization

So achieving balance through destruction of the expression of both the Light and the Dark wipes the slate clean to begin again. This current story- this current cycle, is over. The Chosen One prophecy has been fulfilled, and so now the Cosmic Force must slumber until the stage is once again set.

IV. THE ONES

The Father: “You cannot imagine what it is to have such love for your children, and realize they could tear the very fabric of the universe. [...] A family in balance, the light and the dark. Day with night. Destruction replaced by creation. [...] Too much dark or light would be the undoing of life as you understand it.” -The Clone Wars (S3E15 Overlords)

But before we can move onto the last cycle, I need to expand on the Ones. The Son and The Daughter are pure expressions of the Force- all of it: Cosmic, Living, and in between. Their conflict also expresses Personal Balance on an external stage. They leave such big imprints in the Force that they can disrupt the Personal and Natural Balances of the galaxy itself, which is The Father’s worry.

They are also somehow related to time and The World Between Worlds. Since they’re part of the Cosmic Force, which is partially time neutral (From a Certain Point of View stories Master and Apprentice and Time of Death), that makes sense.

Sometimes they go dormant and exist purely in the Cosmic Force. Other times they embody themselves inside mortal beings. What we see in the Mortis arc is when they embody themselves in the physical world without a mortal shell. That is when they’re at the most powerful. When they are in equally matched conflict, Cosmic Balance is achieved.

The Father was once a Chosen One. When he was mortal, the Son and Daughter battled openly in the physical world, leaving destruction in their wake. As the Chosen One, he could control them. By fully embracing his full potential, he became a Force-God, but one whose power could wane and wouldn’t be reborn in the same way as his metaphorical children. That’s how he can say he’s dying in the Mortis arc. He exiled the three of them to Mortis, so the children could carry out their conflict separate from the galaxy and stay in balance.

He’s what Anakin could have become if he remained on Mortis instead of killing the incarnations of the Ones. Except Anakin never would have. Force prophecies are like prophecies in Greek mythology, they always come true, just rarely how you’d expect. The Cosmic Force uses visions, prophecies, and even Force Ghosts to manipulate people to fulfill their goals. People still have free will, but it’s basically impossible to outsmart a being who can already see the impact of all of its actions and plan accordingly. It only gives prophecies and visions in the precise way that will make them become self fulfilling, to carry out its unknowable goals.

Ahsoka is an embodiment of the Daughter, but that’s a divergence from the cycle. She doesn’t have a Son to compliment her. Without knowing what Ahsoka does after Rebels, I can’t write how the Cosmic Force accounts for this aberration.

Ahsoka doesn’t understand her divine importance the way The Daughter did, but even The Daughter wasn’t plugged into the Cosmic Force’s actual will. Nothing, no embodiment of the Force, ever is. Ahsoka has powers beyond her understanding and control, but she used them to influence the World Between Worlds to save her.

V. AND THUS, THE STORY

Kylo Ren sensed her before he saw her. As he flew his TIE whisper along the flat desert, she was a bright presence in his mind, practically glowing with determination and ferocity. Something odd pulled at his chest. It was the same feeling he’d had when he’d faced his father for the last time, when he’d made the decision to kill Han Solo. You had to kill the past, yes, but you had to kill the light, too, to fully claim the darkness. He finally understood. Han Solo was his past. But Rey was his light. That’s why Kylo was still in agony. That’s why he couldn’t shake the memory of his father’s hand against his cheek, of those eyes full of love and understanding. Kylo hadn’t yet destroyed his light. Maybe the Emperor was right. She needed to die. That, or he needed to kill the light in her. -The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

So now that we’ve set up all the concepts, we can get to the actual fixing of the Dyads. If you couldn’t guess from what I’ve been focusing on, being Force Dyads actually just means that Rey is the embodiment of The Daughter and Kylo Ren The embodiment of the Son. While to us, TROS is the end of the Skywalker saga, to the Cosmic Force, the previous cycle involved Anakin and went from before the PT to ROTJ. A new cycle begins for the Force at TFA.

That’s why Kylo is obsessed with Rey, either killing her (and returning the Daughter to domancy) or by turning her to the Dark Side. That is how he must express the conflict of The Ones.

The standard definition of a dyad is something made up of two parts. Not a matched pair, but a single entity. That’s what The Ones are. If one of their mortal embodiments turned the other to their side, that aspect of The Ones would have reached out and overpowered the other.

There is one line in the novelization that’s doesn’t quite work with this reading:

[Palpatine] tried to create a dyad with Anakin, as his master had tried to create one with him. The Rule of Two, a Master always in desperate search of a yet more powerful apprentice, was a pale imitation, an unworthy but necessary successor to the older, purer doctrine of the Dyad. -The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

But don’t worry! I do have an explanation! Palpatine’s just an unreliable narrator. Some previous Sith had gleaned something about the actual dyad system and interpreted incorrectly from there. He can sense that Kylo and Rey make a true Dyad together, but he has no idea what that entails.

So when did Kylo and Rey become the Son and Daughter? Well this wouldn’t be much of an anti-Bendemption reading if he was forced to the Dark Side by the Son. We know that the Force woke up when Kylo Ren fell (A will that had been silent, dormant after the demise of the Sith, only to wake once again during Luke’s exile), but that’s just the Force getting ready because now a new cycle is beginning.

Kylo and Rey become embodiments of the Ones right when TFA began. That’s how everyone is talking about some aspect of the Cosmic Force being awake then, even when it supposedly woke up six years ago.

The Force chose who would act out the roles of the Ones, fighting each other, deciding the fate of the galaxy, and one of their eventual destruction by who was in the most suitable situation at the time. Kylo and Rey both already had high levels of potential in the Force and their own destinies. They were also both in the right place to come into conflict and were aligned to the right sides. So they were chosen, for the extent of any amount of chronology you can put onto the Cosmic Force.

What happened to Ahsoka to free up the Daughter’s spirit? I don’t know. TROS already implied that she’s dead with her showing up as the one of the past Jedi, but I don’t like confronting that idea. Maybe she surrendered the spirit? Or an embodiment of the Cosmic Force took it from her? Maybe she lost it when the Force fell asleep anyway? But the fact she was likewise once an avatar of the Daughter is why Rey can hear her voice. Because she wasn’t a Jedi when she died, her rejecting the Order is pretty important to the arc. And Rey wasn’t channeling all the light side users that came before her, just Jedi. And Ahsoka because of their connection, whether or not our favorite Togruta is still alive then.

So that is how Rey and Kylo are connected, and why they each have the unwavering belief that they can turn the other. They could just kill the other, but that would be a less satisfying end to the conflict. If they, as people, could beat the other in a battle of wills and push out the other One, that’s a more satisfactory ending. Hence:

With this realization came another certainty, even more gut wrenching: [Kylo] was relieved he hadn’t killed [Rey].

-The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

Basically every kind of R/ylo-y sounding piece of narration is explained because they have a different kind of connection between each other. It’s less soulmates and more Gannandorf vs Link. Which is why it entails Kylo torturing Rey and her friends.

Speaking of her friends, Finn is even more heavily implied to be Force sensitive in the novelization than he already was. And he has this piece of narration:

No one quite understood [Finn’s] single-minded devotion to Rey, except maybe Leia. Even Rose—though she accepted it—thought it was a bit strange. But it wasn’t strange at all. Rey was Finn’s friend, yes, but she was also important. He sensed it. It was that same undeniable feeling he’d told Jannah about. If anything happened to Rey, the Resistance didn’t stand a chance.

-The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

Finn already gives me the vibe that he’d be a Jedi Consular in the old Legends system, so it fits that he can vaguely sense Rey’s importance in the Force.

Now, up until that scene in TROS, Rey and Kylo aren’t being possessed by The Ones. The only influence it is having on their thoughts is that it connects them together and causes Rey to believe that there is still hope for Kylo after his many many second chances.

When Leia sacrifices herself to distract Kylo, that’s what she’s intending to do. Leia still loves Kylo, she can’t help herself. But she isn’t the kind of person who gets consumed by personal concerns. So she plans to use her misguided love for good, to distract Kylo in the right moment so that Rey could kill him.

And Rey almost does. But she’s influenced by the spirit of the Daughter. So she heals Kylo, but that’s not all she’s doing. As she’s channeling her life energy into Kylo, she’s also channeling her will and the spirit of The Daughter. With that, Rey unknowingly possesses Kylo Ren and forces him back to the Light Side.

When Kylo has his vision of Han, that’s his brain representing this new influence on him. Rey doesn’t have direct control over Kylo. She doesn’t even have any idea that this happened, but she forces Kylo’s goals to align with hers.

[Ben] blasted them easily, one shot for every kill. Not long ago, he would have taken pleasure in this, but now he had only one consuming desire: Help Rey.

-The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

And now it is time for the Cosmic Force to lie! Basically, everything that Luke tells Rey at Ach-To is actually the Cosmic Force using his consciousness (see the post I linked earlier about how connected Force Ghosts are to the Cosmic Force). I feel like one of the Cosmic Force’s motivations has to be making sure that the only way to cheat death is through becoming a Force Ghost. This works with how George says that the only way to truly transcend the need to die is to let go and become a Force Ghost. All Must Eventually Return To It. A dark side shade like the Nightsister’s magicks or the Enchantress’ spirit in The Mighty Chewbacca in The Forest of Fear is ok. But Palpatine survived by mastering the whole “consciousness transfer into the clone” power he had in legends:

His body was dead, an empty vessel, long before it found the bottom of the shaft, and his mind jolted to new awareness in a new body—a painful one, a temporary one.

-The Rise of Skywalker Noveliation

And that’s not allowed. So the Cosmic Force wants Palpatine permanently destroyed, even if it means this cycle lasted only two years. So that’s why “Luke” says something like this:

Rey said, “I gave him some of my life. In that moment I would have given him all of it…died if I had to.” “Your compassion saved him,” said Luke.

-The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

And everything else he says in the film itself. When Rey says she would have spent all of her life energy to save Kylo, that’s just because she had an instinct to keep pushing her essence into Kylo Ren. She wasn’t aware that was because she was defeating The Son in a battle of wills.

And speaking of Force Healing, this entire extra story also fixes how Kylo Ren was able to revive Rey from being entirely dead. Because with all the stuff George said about becoming a Force ghost being the only way to transcend death, any very powerful Force User being able to bring someone else back from the dead by sacrificing their own life feels like way too low of a power requirement. There’s only been one other character resurrected in such a way, and that was Ahsoka using The Daughter’s spirit. So Rey’s subconscious reaches out and uses Kylo Ren’s life force to come back to life, and to subsume the entirety of The Ones in a Light Side aligned form.

Is that ethical? Debatable. But theme wise, this story is more in the realm of old myths where things Just Happen, directed by beings too unknowable for things like human morality.

Now other than the thing we’re all ignoring, there are two last pieces of narration from Rey in the novelization that doesn’t work with this reading, so let’s address them.

[Ben] acknowledged her, and Rey’s lips parted in surprise. It felt different now. The connection was…right. Good. Like coming home. Ben was similarly stunned, and together, they wasted a precious moment reveling in this new sharing. This is how it should have been all along. A true dyad.

-The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

The girl who had felt alone for all those years on Jakku had been part of a dyad the whole time. And just when [Rey had] discovered that precious connection, that incredible oneness, it was ripped away.

-The Rise of Skywalker Novelization

This is actually just Rey misunderstanding a different feeling- being drunk on Light Side power. We have a general understanding about what being overwhelmed by the Dark Side is like, but without exceptional means it’s impossible to have one’s Personal Balance disrupted by the Light Side. That’s falling off our metaphorical tightrope, but into the air above you.

The Light Side often feels like coming home, like warmth, like connection, and like certainty in purpose. So while someone overwhelmed by the Dark Side feels drunk on power, what I just outlined is what someone overwhelmed by the Light Side feels. Also Mind Tricks are already a Light Side power, so it makes sense the most extreme form of it leads to a Light Side high.

So Rey leaves Exegol, incredibly powerful in the Force and the Cosmic Balance once more gone. Perhaps the galaxy will receive another generation, or even more, of peace. But one day, the cycle shall begin again- as the Cosmic Force demands.

So that’s it. I hope you now feel better about the dyads and Bendemption if you previously disliked that part of TROS. AU fix-it fics aren’t really my thing, and I prefer trying to fix thing up from a Watsonian, rather than Doylist perspective. If anyone has anything from the New EU that seems to contradict what I’ve written, please let me know so I can properly address it. If you have anything to add to this idea, such as why the Cosmic Force wants these cycles, please contribute. And if someone wants to make fanworks based on this idea, I’d love that so much.

#sw #star wars #tros #the rise of skywalker #anti-reylo #my writings

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too-attached-to-fiction · 5 years

Text

Undefined

Masterlist here

Wordcount: ~2000 (slipped away from me whoops)

~~~

It had been a year since the revolution. A year since the country had dipped its toes into another civil war.

And three months since you met Connor and the other members of Jericho.

The anniversary of the sinking was coming up. You’d memorized the dates without trying to, holding onto whatever information the others gave you.

You had talent for reading people. That’s how you met Markus. He knew that you knew more than you let on.

Without a second thought, you texted Connor. He wouldn’t be busy today.

CONNOR

3:48

To: Connor

you up for an adventure?

3:50

Connor

I will be at your house in 10 minutes.

You grinned, cleaning up your mess from lunch. You rarely did that, much less at home. Still, you needed energy for today.

After shooting a text to your brother to ask to see him tonight for an early dinner, you set your phone down on the counter.

You and Connor had hung out enough to be comfortable, but awkwardness always seemed to hang in the air when you did. You weren’t sure if he was a friend or if you thought of him otherwise.

And if you did...

Boy, you were in trouble.

You grabbed your satchel, checking to make sure you had everything. Connor was anything if not punctual.

The doorbell rang out, interrupting your frenzy. You grabbed your phone and keys before answering it.

You stepped out of the door like an embarrassed teenager trying to hurry off on their date before your parents could go into protective mode. You gave Connor a smile, looking at him up and down before settling your eyes back on his face.

Today he wore jeans and a light coat, a crisp white button up untucked. You’d tried getting him away from the cyber life uniform, but to no avail. He didn’t do a terrible job, but he looked too formal for what the two of you were going to be doing today.

You locked the door quickly and lead the way to the car, an old compact that you’d had since you moved to Detroit.

“Where are we going today?” Connor asked, and you grinned back at him.

“It’s a surprise.” You winked, slipping inside the vehicle and plugging the keys into the ignition.

According to Connor, you and his partner, Hank, shared similar music tastes. He’d also clarified that you were on the softer end of the spectrum.

The two of you buckled in and you set the music to your adventure playlist. You reversed as Gwen Stefani’s voice rang out.

You loved the fall, and you loved driving down the winding roads toward home.

The half hour lasted longer than you thought, but you didn’t mind. You sang along to everything, not noticing Connor’s looks of adoration that he shot every so often.

Finally, you pulled up to the old mill. Just as you expected, there was a small crowd of people already there. Hay stacks were scattered around the uneven property, and pumpkins seemed to appear everywhere you looked.

This was a yearly tradition for you, but you’d never brought someone before. “Connor, welcome to Bloomfield Hills.” You announced with a grin, stepping out of the car. You tucked your keys into your satchel, slamming the door shut. The two of you met in front of the car and you interlaced your fingers with his as you tugged him forward.

“This is the Franklin Cider Mill.” You slowed down, turning around so you were walking backwards. “Founded in the 19th century, this place is iconic for two things: apple cider and cinnamon donuts. Best ones in the world.”

Soon enough, the two of you were standing at the counter. Oliver, an android who had been working here for the past couple of years, greeted you with a smile.

“(Y/N), your first visit is extremely late this season.” Oliver said. “What will it be?”

“Two apple ciders and two boxes of donuts please.” You ordered. As you pulled out your wallet, you realized something seemed off about Oliver. When you looked up, his LED was missing.

“Oliver, did you deviate?” You asked quietly, and he nodded. “But you stayed here.”

“I liked it here. The other androids freed me, and the owner gives me hours and pays us fairly.” Oliver smiled, placing the boxes and cups on the counter. “That’ll be $16.42.”

You handed over your card, and then spotted your business card in your wallet. Pulling it out, you handed it to him as he gave you back your credit card.

“Let me know when you’re in Detroit, I have a feeling you’ll like a couple of my friends.” You said. “Thank you, Oliver.”

You handed Connor the cups with a grin and grabbed the boxes. “Follow me.”

The two of you ended up sitting on a haystack, sipping on hot apple cider and watching families go by.

“Connor, do you think you’d want a family?” You asked curiously. As a psychologist, you’d helped the others learn about emotions, but other than that, Connor was pretty shy.

After a pause, he spoke. His words were always calculated and precise. “I think if my partner wanted children, I’d be happy to do that with them.”

You nodded, biting into a donut. “Are you able to copulate?” The question slipped off your tongue but you kept eye contact, determined to not make the conversation awkward.

“Physiologically, I believe so. However, I haven’t experienced attraction that would make me want to.” Even though his response was calm, his cheeks were tinted a light blue.

You grinned at this. “You’re adorable, you know that?”

“Are you saying I’m aesthetically pleasing to the eye?”

“No... kinda.” You laughed. “I’m saying that your personality and behavior is cute.”

You sipped your cider again before holding out a donut to him. “Here, try it.”

Hesitantly he took it, taking a bite before staring at it in awe. “This is... tasty.”

You laughed again, doubling over at his awed response. “They’re good, aren’t they?”

Your phone beeped.

4:52

From: Jack

sounds good, Maggie says you can come whenever. We were just going to order pizza. Alex is excited to see you.

You sent your brother a thumbs up and looked over at Connor, who was studying you.

“(Y/N), why did you bring me here?” It was his turn to ask questions.

You shrugged. “I wanted to spend time with you, I guess.” You said lamely, closing the donut box. “We haven’t gotten to hang out much one on one.”

He nodded.

“Is it okay if we have dinner with my brother’s family tonight?” You asked, searching his eyes as if he’d give anything away with them. He didn’t, of course.

“Will they accept me?” He replied with his own question. You smiled, interlacing your fingers with his the way you had earlier.

“My brother’s an engineer, he’d be fascinated. And Maggie will make sure he won’t say anything idiotic.” You promised.

15 minutes later, you were on Jack’s doorstep, a large jug of apple cider in Connor’s right hand. You bounced on your toes, waiting for Jack to swing open the door.

“Hey!” Jack greeted, nearly tackling you with his hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“Jack, you saw me last week.” You protested. “Must we do this every time?”

“Can’t change up the tradition after all these years.” He flashed you a grin as he pulled away.

Jack was younger than you, by two years to be exact. He was always the loud one, and you and your friends often compared him to a golden retriever. Even with a little bit of age, he was still lean and tall, with a full head of straight hair.

“Oh, Jack, this is Connor.” You introduced quickly. Connor’s LED whirred and your brother caught it, looking at the two of you.

“Nice to meet you man. So you’re (Y/N)’s friend? Boyfriend? Undefined?”

Jack switched his gaze over to you, and you could feel heat rising to your cheeks. “He’s my...he’s...” you didn’t know how to say it. Eventually you gave into Jack’s twinkling eyes the way you always did. “He’s my undefined.”

“(Y/N)!” You could hear Alex screaming as he nearly crashed into his father from behind.

“Alex!” You said, bending down to give your nephew a hug.

Alex peered up at Connor, and for a moment you lost your breath. Alex had seen androids but never this close...

Frankly, you were scared of his reaction. Scared of what he would say. But you stood your ground anyways.

“Papa, do you work with him?” Alex finally asked, and you let out the breath you had been holding in.

“No, but (Y/N) does. They change the world.” Jack explained to the six year old, crouching down and pointing at Connor.

“Like superheroes?” Alex’s eyes filled with wonder.

“Yeah.” His father rasped out. He quickly stood up again, waving you in. “Now come on, it’s freezing out.”

Maggie greeted you the minute you stepped into the kitchen, looking Connor up and down after you hugged your hellos. Jack ushered Connor off to the living room after grabbing two beers off the counter.

“He’s a looker.” Maggie mumbled. “He yours?” She looked through the doorway to the room.

“Undefined.” You’d played this game with Maggie before. She knew not to push things.

She spotted his LED. “An android.” She looked at you. “You’re kind with the deviants. He’s one of them?” You nodded slightly.

“If they’re designed to be like humans... be careful. They don’t know the capacities of their emotions. I’m sure you know that.” Maggie didn’t need to be a therapist to know these things. As a doctor, she needed to know the basics of psychology in order to help her patients.

Dinner was just as eventful, but as it got closer to eight, you knew you needed to cut it short.

“We should get going.” You gave Jack a tired smile. “I’ll be by next week for my cider and donuts.” You promised him, leading Connor out the door.

As soon as you were back on the highway, Connor turned down the music.

“What do you mean by undefined?” He asked, and you let out a sigh.

“I’m not sure what we are.”

“We are friends.” Connor said it so simply, your heart already starting to shatter as you processed his words.

After a long pause, Connor spoke again. “(Y/N), tell me about attraction.”

“Well, attraction almost always starts out physically. Animals want - no, need - mates. Humans are no different. They see something they like, they’re attracted. Their heart pumps a lot around them or their behavior changes when the one is in close proximity. Our pupils dilate when we see the person we are attracted to.” You rattled off, the speech in your head going faster than your mouth.

“(Y/N), I believe I’m feeling attraction for you.” Connor said, and you found yourself driving off onto the highway shoulder before slamming the brakes.

You looked at him with wide eyes. “Connor,” you started, “there’s no way-“

“You asked me earlier if I wanted a family, and I said I would if my partner wanted it. Seeing you with your nephew made me realize that I wanted to be a part of your life that had more than the occasional meal.” He cut you off. “I know what I want. I know that I want to wake up every morning next to you. Deviancy has helped me figure out that what I want are also missions that need to be accomplished. It has also helped me understand the futility of life, and when I first got into this car this evening, I knew that you might be taken with a single bullet. I’ve thought about this for a while, and if you agree, I’d like to be your significant other.”

His words were rushed and yet calm, slow, precise. “Will you let me be more than undefined?”

It was silent for a moment, cars silently whirring past yours.

You looked down at your lap, smoothing out your jeans as you vocalized your thoughts.

“I would like that.” You finally met his eyes. “If you were more than undefined.”

#dbh connor imagines #dbh connor #connor #my name is connor #reader insert #dbh imagines #fluff #connor is adorable #detroit become human

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leaa-drws · 6 years

Text

Numinous / Calum Hood A.U. / Ch. 1

/ Numinous ~ Describing an experience that makes you fearful yet fascinated, awed yet attracted. /

~2.8k words

“So I get into the bedroom and,” she takes a deep breathe trying to calm herself before continuing, “I already knew something was off before, and then…in our bed…he…I can’t even say his name anymore…he is such an…I don’t even know…”, the calming effect of oxygen doesn’t last and she goes back to sobbing, clutching a nearly empty beer bottle in her shaking hand.

“You don’t have to Suze, he doesn’t deserve you calling him anything but Dickhead anyway.” Jamie takes the crying mess of a beautiful young woman into her arms, slowly rubbing her back whilst somehow managing to look both terrifyingly angry and motherly concerned at the same time.

“Fucking asshole is an option as well”, I contribute, probably wearing the same expression on my face, “or Bastard, Fucktward, son of a Bitch, the list goes on.”

As Suzanne just continues crying, Jamie’s facial expression starts to lean more and more in the direction of furious.

“You want us to do something?”, she asks giving the impression of wanting to rip both of Deans balls off whilst screaming obscene things at him.

I would have laughed at the idea, since my cute, petite friend was anything but a fighting machine, but because Suze was one of the sweetest creatures on this earth and this asshole shattered her heart, I couldn’t help but wanting to do just the same.

Still having her head buried in the Jamies shoulder, Suze whispers between hiccups and sobbing sounds, “You couldn’t do anything if you tried, you’re far too small for that.”.

“Hey, not my fault both of you are such giants!” the addressed exclaims, looking at me in relieve that our best friend was back to at least murmuring insults, after the last half an hour of going back and forth between shaking from crying so hard, and trying to tell the story of her boyfriend cheating on her.

Whilst Suze slowly lifts her head, taking a sip of her beer and brushing one light pink colored strand of hair behind her pierced ear, she glances at me, then at the now empty bottle of beer in her hand.

“Well, there is something you could do…”

“Already on it. Another beer?”, I ask wiggling past our bags to leave our booth.

“Nah, done with crying, done with beer. I’m gonna get drunk. Bring the tequila.”, she whispers, her voice still shaky, but seeming motivated to forget.

“Well, when the queen speaks, who am I to object?”, I laugh, happy that we are out of the crying zone for now, since Dean doesn’t deserve even one of the tears, she shed for him.

As my two best friends start a conversation about all things shitty in life, I make my way through the packed bar to get our drinks.

I was just trying to get around a heavily making out couple without disturbing them when my eyes made contact with the ones of one of the regulars, who was standing at the bar, as always, talking to some female, as always. The flavor of the day was tall, brunette and looked more than just amazing.

I can’t stop me, I shoot her a slightly repelled look, not getting why she would be with him since she doesn’t only look gorgeous but nice as well. He smiles at something she said, but in the moment he sees my judging gaze land on his company, his eyebrows furrow and his facial expression changes to nearly, no that’s not possible, to nearly protective.

It does not fit the image I have of him in my head.

We, Jamie, Suze and I, always saw him whenever we were here and since we were always here, we saw him a lot. But not one of our trio had ever talked to him, mostly because he was only here to pick up woman like Mrs. Supermodel and seemed like a major asshole for that reason.

That didn’t change the fact that the man got good genes though. There is hot and then there is scorching, burn-the-house-down hot.

I mean I kinda get the women getting it on with him, he’s got the kind of presence, that could fill any room and that just tells you that the sex would be borderline amazing. He also seems very intense. And sometimes a little scary.

Remembering Jamies a little too loud, a little too drunk words: “He’s like that blonde, manwhore one from How I met your mother only worse, a thousand times hotter and with enough sex appeal to set a girl on fire by looking at her for just a second to long.”, I realize I always thought she was nuts. Barney Stinson was a character to laugh at and you don’t laugh at a man that radiances that kind of power and confidence. But the nickname stuck.

The tall, dark haired male directs his gaze back to the woman, again laughing at something she said, and I finally get around the couple to the bartender.

I nod to Nico, who finishes the drink of another costumer and wants to know what he could get for us.

“Are we still at the good old beer?”

“Nah, Suze wants to forget.”

“That boyfriend of hers?”

“Yeah.”

“Knew he was trouble.”

“Me too. Wished I was wrong though.”

“Couldn’t agree more. You’re gonna get your tequila in just a sec.”

Uttering a thank you, I enjoy the music playing in the bar and let my eyes wander over all the other college students that are happy to have finished exam season. We would have been celebrating as well, but sometimes life’s just a bitch. Or douchebag-boyfriends for that matter.

To my right some regular is nursing a beer when I hear a female voice whispering rather loudly and drunk how she would go and freshen up and then they’d go somewhere else because she was “horny as a squirrel”, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

I turn towards the voice, seeing the hips of the brunette I saw with “Hot Barney” swaying slightly whilst walking in the direction of the toilets.

He stands next to me at the bar now having his eyes fixed on a petite, beautiful, asian features sporting woman that just walked into the establishment laughing at something her friend said.

As soon as the friend turns away, trying to find a table in the packed room, the woman turns towards the Bar. In the moment she makes eye contact with him she starts blushing and it doesn’t exactly go away when she makes her way over and the man inquires if she was here with her boyfriend. Confused I listen to the starting conversation. What about the Supermodel?

At the intimidating man’s question the new girl giggles that she doesn’t have a boyfriend and reverses the question.

“No, am on my own tonight. Wouldn’t have any objections against keeping you company though.”, his deep voice rumbles.

I’ve seen him around lots, but I’ve only ever heard him talk once or twice. He had a kind of rough, very deep voice, sounding like pure sin.

For a moment, just listening to him, I could understand the fascination he sparks in the women he picks up. But I am not a toy and I would never let myself be treated like one again, so sorry Barney, you’re missing out.

The flirting next to me continues and as it gets obvious, that the man took interest in both women I get mad. My best friend is sitting here, bawling her eyes out because of her boyfriend cheating on her and here’s just another asshole playing with girls like they exist for that pure reason.

I turn to the coquetry laughing woman and the man that looks forbiddingly handsome and in a moment of rage and weakness, I lean over ever so slightly, just enough to catch the attention of the female and say, in a calm voice: “He’s got a wife. Plus, he’s really bad in bed. Like you’ll fall asleep when he goes down on you and only stay awake when you fuck because he is screaming for his momma so loud. I don’t even wanna know what kinda issues he’s gotta have to do that. So…being the side chick, even for one night, won’t even remotely pay off.”

The girl’s eyes went wider and wider as I continued talking and when I stopped, she looked at both me and Hot Barney with the most horrified expression.

“I am not a side chick.”, she declares, looking worried. I wouldn’t have believed the other part of my story either, the man screamed sex, but even I would have assumed that that great piece of ass was of the table if I didn’t know of his Barney-ways.

“I know girl, I know. Better make your way outta here, before the wife turns up though.” When I respond I try to lace my voice with an understanding tone.

The woman turns and leaves, head held high, mad but somehow looking ashamed by what possibly could have happened. The moment I turn to Hot Barney I know I did the right thing, but I also know that I am in trouble.

The man is standing in front of me, controlled but discontent, the heat he radiates feels scorching on my skin. Although I am slightly scared, I can’t help but getting mad at my traitorous body who is awakening under the concentrated attention of such a perfectly build, utterly masculine human being.

Slowly I swallow, not being able to do anything but averting my eyes from his chest and looking upwards into his dark eyes.

For a brief moment I realize that this is the first time, that I am able to perceive his eye colour and somehow, just for a fraction of a second, I find myself surprised at the warmth that I am sure the colour might be able to hold.

But the moment goes by and the eyes stay hard and so dark they seem black.

“I really don’t know why guys always go for the dumb ones. Like I could be a jealous ex-girlfriend for all she knows and just be talking shit.” I start rambling, trying to get the emotion that is radiating of Hot Barney to lessen and my reaction to subside.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?”, his voice was raspy and felt like a warning although he spoke perfectly calm. Calm and very slowly. Yeah. Definitely not even on the same scale of intensity as Barney Stinson.

Although my body feels like squirming under the gaze, that could be promising so many things in another situation, as other beings, I hold onto my exasperation as well as the eye contact and respond with a voice not laced but drained in angered emotions: “I could reverse the question, but it seems like the answer to that is pretty darn obvious!”

“We were just talking. How about you calm the fuck down woman?”, despite the use of swearwords, his tone didn’t change by even one octave.

Now my anger is so much stronger than whatever sexual attraction there has been, “So was I. Sometimes “just talking” just isn’t that nice, is it? And I will calm the fuck down whenever I want to, thank you very much.”

“How about you share your damn problem?”, the warning gets more and more prominent, his voice even deeper, but both volume and pace stay all the same.

“You are just an asshole, that’s my problem!”, I exclaim at the lack of better words, channeling all my rage regarding Dean and what he did to Suze towards the man that now looks slightly amused, the anger vanished in seconds.

Which to my disadvantage only makes him more attractive. And me once again angrier. Why the fuck was he laughing at me?

“So, doll, I’m an asshole, hm?”, he asked, lightly crooking one eyebrow, a slight twinkle in the now lighter, more golden brown than black seeming eyes. His lips formed a small smile when he heard my outburst. “What about you? What are you? You come over here, obviously not having a great day from the start, look disgusted at my sister and stop me when I talk to a beautiful woman, then you continue to rant, calling my choice of female stupid and me an ass, when I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Sister. The Supermodel. Fuck my life. I am such an idiot. Of course. Good looks had to run in the family.

As he sees the realisation taking place he lightly leans against the bar, propping one leather jacket clad arm on it. His hand, chunky rings on his fingers, hangs relaxed from the wooden countertop.

My eyes direct their gaze towards the floor, the discomfort probably evident on my hot feeling face. Like oh-so-often in my life I am thankful for being born without red cheeks.

“Yeah”, now my voice is small, “You know about what I said earlier, I have to apologize. It just looked different to me and I don’t know, I guess I jumped to conclusions since I see you around a lot, and well, judged based on that. I really am sorry, it’s been a hell of a day, but I know that’s no excuse. Plus, even if you were being an ass, it’s not my place to criticise.”

When I finish talking my eyes can’t help but watching his reaction.

For a moment he looks taken aback, maybe by my honesty, maybe by the image people have of him, I have of him. Quickly I push that thought aside, why would it matter to him what anyone here thought, especially what I thought?

Then he is back into character: “It’s alright, doll. Don’t ever confuse Mali Koa with the chicks I take home though. Who, to make that clear are well aware that I am here a lot, what that means and who they are to me. Might be a dick, but I am not that big of a fucking ass. You get me?”

“Yes”, I say, feeling the weird need to answer, “I get you. And it really is none of my business, once again I am very sorry. I’ll let you continue now, have a nice evening.”, I turn around, not caring about the drinks, just feeling horribly embarrassed.

“Wait.”, the deep voice pulls me back, as if it was physically keeping me, “Your girl. The one crying. S she the reason for your temper? She alright?”

“Sure, she’s gonna be fine.”, I reply, a little taken aback by the change of topic.

“Got anything to do with her man? He treated her wrong?”, at my confused face when I turn back around he smiles tightly, “See you around a lot too doll and that guy of hers, he’s no good.”

“Exguy”, I correct him, almost automatically.

“Exguy.”, the man nods, his face serious. His gaze lands on me again, “Truth, doll, she alright?”

Somehow, I feel myself unable to lie, “No, not right now. But she will be.”

“He hurt her?”

When I don’t answer directly, thinking about how the question was meant and how I got in this situation, he looks at me, his eyes stern, “Doll, it’s a yes or no question. Did he lay hand on her?”. Although his eyes are serious his tone changed, he sounded softer, like he tried to make this easier for me.

“No, he didn’t. He didn’t touch her.”, I answer, as confused by the sense of safety the unknown man gives me as by the interest he shows.

“Good. You’d tell someone if he did, right? You’d tell a friend, someone that deals with him.”

“Ok”, I can’t help but answer.

“Good,”, he repeats, “this ‘s important to me doll.”

“Why?”,

“Just don’t like women treated badly. You? From what I’ve seen whenever you’re here? Seem like a darn good woman. Your girl? Good enough for you to act that emotional? Gotta be good too.”

“She is. They both are.”

He nods again, his gaze serious. “You take care of both of them.”

“I will.”, my voice is soft now, this feels like it really is important to him and although I don’t understand why, I want to give him what he needs in that moment.

“Take care of you too. That mad because of what happened to her? Don’t care what you said to me, you feel that passionate about a friend, you let it out. ‘Respect that.”

“I will.” I repeat, my voice soft again, his praise, for some odd reason, feeling warm in my body.

“Good. I’ll see you around.”

“Ok”

“We’ll talk.”

“Ok”, I say, not wanting to move quiet yet but not knowing why either.

“Get back to your table, doll. Your friend needs you.”

“Ok”, as I take my drinks, that Nico must have set behind us sometime before, and turn around I hear his voice call me back once more.

“Name’s Calum. Not Hot Barney. Don’t even fucking like the show. Need to stop calling me that.”

“Ok” I repeat, the last thing I say before I return to our booth, hearing how the sister returns from the bathroom drunkenly and giggly asking if Calum was ready to go to find a guy for her, listening to how his deep voice counters with the plan of going home and letting her sleep it off.

Calum.

It’s a good name, I decide.

Intense.

Fitting.

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iamrheaspeaks · 6 years

Text

per·i·pe·tei·a 1

Erik x OC! (Morrigan)

Word Count: ~1.3k

Bold text: Erik

Regular text: Morrigan

Warnings: None

A/N: Here I am starting something new when I have shit to finish 🤷🏾‍♀️ The inspiration for this came from Season 1 Episode 2 of The Blacklist. The military time format I use is referred to as the Day Time Group (DTG) and the format is as follows DDHHMM(Z*)MONYY which translates into; 2 digit day, time in 24 hour format, military identifier*, 3 digit month code and year. As always lightly proofread/edited. Enjoy! 💋

*: Military identifier is basically like a generalized location marker. I’m using U, which is CA.

Part 2

per·i·pe·tei·a /ˌperəpəˈtēyə, ˌperəpəˈtīə/ noun: a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances

Erik

060900UJUN

I think that she knows. I’m not absolutely sure yet but she definitely knows something. Everything about her has been withdrawn lately. Normally our eyes meet in the mirror when I walk into the bathroom and she’s brushing her teeth. For the past couple of days she’s been doing everything in the shower. She froze when my hand grazed hers yesterday, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her retract it so quickly. We both reached for an apple out the fruit basket at the same time. Our kiss goodbye this morning was…forced and dry. She definitely knows.

Morrigan

June 6 6:30pm

I’m in my car in contemplating going home. Everything about the man I married is starting to feel more and more like either a mystery or a lie. I’ve been walking around on eggshells for days. And to think that, that stupid kiss this morning gave me away. I haven’t even begun to fully process this shit. But I know better than to tell anyone or ask for actual help. That much I do know. Who is this man that I call husband?

070900UJUN

Once it hit 22:00 and she still hadn’t made the effort to come home that was all the confirmation I needed. Since it didn’t seem like she’d be returning for the night I started to initiate my burn protocol. It wasn’t until I removed the wooden box I had hidden under the floorboard in the mudroom that I realized how bad it was. How much she knew. She probably doesn’t even realize she left it but I noticed it. I’m trained to. Blood on the box smeared right underneath the latch. She said she cut her palm slicing strawberries. The GPS tracker I had installed in her watch told me exactly where she was so there was no need to go find her. She’d have questions and when she was ready…she’d ask them. I spent the rest of the day trying to pinpoint how I missed it? When did she find it? How long has she known?

June 7 3:00pm

I was not myself at work and everyone noticed. I’m normally the one to volunteer to work the front desk because on days when it’s dead it gets the most traffic. Today I was in the common kitchen with the TV off just sitting in one of the chairs. I didn’t even realize Claire was in there until she dropped her teacup. It shattered on impact just like mine did the day I found the wooden box underneath the floorboards. The good thing about working in Human Services was how big on mental health they were. As soon as my boss noticed how withdrawn I was she let me take the rest of the day off. All the ‘people we serve’, that’s what we have to call them, were out with their families for the day so we pretty much just all sat there waiting for the phone to ring and staring at each other. I stopped by the diner before going home, I don’t really know why. The waitress kept trying to make me order my usual pancake special because I ‘looked like I could eat’. I could eat if I wasn’t wrapped in my thoughts about returning to the one place I should feel safe.

071700UJUN

I’m sitting in the living room on this damn blue couch I hate just waiting. Statement piece my ass. I cleared off the coffee table so now all that was on it is my wooden box, the lid flipped up with all its contents laid out. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breathe in as I finally picked up on the sound of her key turning in the lock. She’d been sitting in the car for 15 minutes. Nothing good was going to come out of this but this job was starting to change me. —

When Morrigan finally stepped into the house she was on high alert but tried not to show it. Morrigan knew Erik was home because his car was in the driveway and the living room light was on. Setting down her keys and work badge she stepped out of her shoes and hang her jacket on the coat hook before advancing. Heat shot through Morrigan’s body as the sound of her heart beating started to burn in her ears. Morrigan’s russet colored eyes set on the scene before her. Upon approaching the entryway that wooden box was staring back from the coffee table. Open with all its contents laid out. 7 Passports, at least 8 various forms of currency, Driver’s Licenses from every state they’ve visited in the last 2 years, 3 flash drives and a 357 Magnum with ammo. By time she finally laid eyes on Erik he was already looking at her. He was no doubt gauging Morrigan’s reaction this whole time. Waiting for a sign.

“Welcome home! How’s Tracy?”

Morrigan swallowed hard at the mention of her friend’s name. He smirked as he continued to rattle off names of people that frequented all the places she’d been recently. Growing more confused. The tone Erik spoke with was very off-putting. The universal signifier of ‘I know something you don’t know’. Hauntingly calm. Morrigan grabbed her arms; rubbing her thumbs over her shoulders as she lightly shook from the chill it gave her. He noticed it all. “Hasn’t felt like home for awhile now.”

“You wanna know what gave you away?” He questioned, leaning forward elbows rested on knees. He turned his head in her direction before cocking an eyebrow. Silently demanding a verbal response.

Fingering her plump bottom lip, “It was the kiss.” If a kiss were what you’d actually call it. Compared to how it normally was that kiss was the equivalent to the forced cheek peck a teenager gives their mom with one foot out the door. Morrigan couldn’t wait to get away from him. Just like right now.

“Good girl. What else you find?”

“Nothing, really.”

“That’s kinda funny cuz somethin’s missin’.”

“Trust? Honesty? Transparency?”

“Where’s the flash drive Morrigan?”

“They’re right there, Erik.”

Erik crashed his fists into the coffee table causing some of the items to flip about and topple to the floor. A part of him had grown fond of having Morrigan around. That was the only thing keeping Erik from going full-blown Killmonger. He bore his teeth like an animal, nostrils flaring as he asked one more time for the item in question.

“Oh! You mean this?” Morrigan questioned as she as she pulled the flash drive from inside her bra. Before tossing it over the table right into his lap sitting in the chair across from Erik and mirroring his posture. Legs spread, elbows rested on knees with head cocked to the side. While Morrigan wore a giant smile as Erik stared back with a look of confusion. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him what she was smiling about.

“So tell me, Erik. Why me?”

“The shoes. That’s the day I knew I had you. I left them at your old place while I was away. I came back for them but you’d already left for work. When I grabbed them I noticed that you had drawn a heart in the dust that settled on them.”

“The fact that you never mentioned it is how we knew I got you.”

“We?”

“Don’t worry N’Jadaka. Everyone has a weakness.” Morrigan offered as she sat back relaxing in the chair crossing her legs still wearing that smile. Finally the fun begins Morrigan thought to herself, waiting for Erik to make his move.

A/N: Questions, comments, theories, and anger welcome 😈

Tags: @savagesensitivity @cancerianprincess @another-imaginesblog @loosewindmill @bidibidibombaclaat @muse-of-mbaku @chaneajoyyy @itsangeludaku @eriknutinthispoosy @im5ftbutmythroat66 @theunsweetenedtruth @blackpinup22 @fonville-designs @wawakanda-btch @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade @nickidub718

#rheaspeaks #my writing #my words #my work #peripeteia #part 1 #why do i keep doing this #erik x black!oc #erik x morrigan #you mad about that cliff hanger #i know you are #rheaspeaks masterlist

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imaginetonyandbucky · 6 years

Text

The Passcode

Prompt by Anonymous: Okay, so I've read a lot of wonderful bodyguard AUs with these two, but it is always Bucky as the bodyguard (understandably). Anyone up for trying the reverse, Tony as Bucky's bodyguard somehow? Maybe it's an AU where Iron Man's identity isn't known, and when Bucky for some reason or another (maybe he isn't even the WS, maybe he's just suddenly famous and/or in danger) needs a bodyguard, Tony sends his own personal one - the Iron Man.

A/N: I’ve opted for a 616-kinda setting, but not really? It’s come out more like a mix of MCU and 616 and I don’t even know how that happened...but anyway ;D Secret identities are a thing and Tony (and Bucky) is a pining mess ^^ Hope you’ll enjoy it! <3 ~Lantia

“You want me to…what?” Tony stares at the Captain like he grew three extra heads.

“It would be temporary, just until we locate the HYDRA strain and deal with it,” Cap raises a placating hand and initiates the puppy dog eyes he refuses to admit he has.

Not even half a year after Bucky Barnes - the Winter Soldier joined the fold, HYDRA is already scheming to get their former assassin back. So Cap may stand here and sound all casual but Tony’s not fooled.

He’s anxious and worried and wants to wipe HYDRA off Barnes’s back as soon as possible…because God forbid they would succeed and get their slimy tentacles back on the man.

“But if Iron Man is otherwise engaged - ”

“No! I mean…I’ll have to double-check with him but I’m sure he’ll make some space in his busy schedule after I lay down the situation to him.”

It’s times like these Tony wished everybody would know he is Iron Man. Or at least the Avengers. As it is, Cap’s sweating it over here thinking Tony will refuse to let Iron Man bodyguard his bestest friend until HYDRA’s dealt with because Tony and Barnes aren’t exactly friends.

That’s where the split personality sets in. Iron Man and Bucky are friends. They hang out after missions all the time. No way Iron Man wouldn’t lend a helping hand to his metal bro and aside from Cap, Iron Man is the only one Bucky would voluntarily spend time with.

Tony is…well, he’s just the eccentric engineer that has a giant hidden crush on the former HYDRA assassin and occasionally fixes up his metal hand so Cap really has no reason to believe he’d go out of his way to help Barnes beyond that.

These secret identity shenanigans are giving him a headache.

“But if you need him - ”

“Cap! It’s fine. I’ve got no big plans ahead other than working on the new version of the armor and I don’t need Iron Man to cover my ass while doing that. In fact, I don’t want him anywhere near the lab…the guy’s a menace around tech,” he laughs, a little too high-pitched for his own liking but Capsicle pays it little attention.

“I’ll owe you one, Tony. A big one,” he smiles at him, squeezing his shoulder gently.

“Hey now, anything for friends. Besides, Iron Man is going to do all the work so take it up with him,” Tony shrugs.

“I will. Thank you, Tony.”

Another mission, another week of pretense to get ready for. Just his luck.

(read-more ahead!)

“I told Stevie I don’t need no bodyguard,” Bucky rolls his eyes, but greets him – the Iron Man – with a smile the next day on the common floor.

“He didn’t want to lock you up…which was the only other option. And it’s not like I mind. Any HYDRA that dares slither near us I’ll happily blast away to dust.”

He chuckles, flipping a gun into his thigh holster. “You and I both, man. Stark okay with this?”

Is he okay with this? Nope. He needs Bucky to stop calling him Stark. And more importantly, he needs to stop these…these…feelings. “Pffft, sure. Why wouldn’t he be?”

“Dunno. I don’t think he likes me very much.”

Is this guy for real?! Tony’s been positively giving him the bedroom eyes for months!

Behind his back. Secretly and cowardly. God dammit.

“If he didn’t like you, I wouldn’t be here,” he points at himself, the entire sentence entangling his brain with its ridiculousness. There’s only so many more times he can refer to himself in third person while pretending to not be himself before he goes certifiably insane. “Even if he didn’t like you, I doubt he would hate you enough to let HYDRA just have a go at you. The man hates HYDRA with a passion.”

Bucky hums, not looking very persuaded. “Anyway, we’ve got a hella lot of time on our hands…I’m thinkin’ we make the most of it. Any ideas?” he grins.

A wide range of variously dirty ideas, yes. “No video games. Thor is destroying enough controllers for all of us, I don’t need Tony on my back because of that too.” Not to mention Bucky is way too good at Mortal Combat.

“Movie?”

“The last time I checked, you like Star Wars. I don’t want to be seen watching that anywhere in this time, space and dimension.”

“A TV show then.”

“If you say Star Trek, I will puke all over the inside of this armor.”

“Widow recommended somethin’ new to me a while back…what was it…a Game of Dragons?”

Tony laughs, moving on to the sofa. Leave it to Widow to have some proper cinematic sense…and sense of humor. How many times do they say ‘Winter is coming’ in there again? “Game of Thrones. Sure. I’m up to re-watch that. JARVIS?”

“I shall queue up the first season for you then.”

They sit down, lifting their feet on the coffee table – since Cap is nowhere around to scold them about it – and JARVIS rolls the intro.

“Winter is coming? Seriously?” Bucky laughs at the title of the first episode, but enjoys watching the rest of it anyway.

They spend the next few days in the Tower – watching TV, sparring in the gym, having lazy conversations over ice coffee. With majority of the Avengers deployed to deal with the HYDRA problem, they’re mostly left alone.

Spiderman hangs out with them one afternoon after school – that he still stubbornly denies to still be attending, Wolverine goes for a couple rounds with Bucky in the gym and Deadpool drops on them out of nowhere after they’ve had a couple of drinks and were failing at karaoke - singing Careless whisper with them…twice.

Cap keeps them updated on the mission and by the looks of it they’re hot on HYDRA’s tail. Tony’s both relieved and…disappointed. Cap’s efficient work means there will no longer be a threat to Bucky’s wellbeing – that they know of – and so there will be no need for Iron Man’s services anymore. Which is good. Bucky safe and sound is good.

Tony will have to find another excuse to keep the man company – preferably one that doesn’t include imminent threat of kidnapping or death.

So much for him being the cocky flyboy flirting with everything that moves…when it comes to Bucky, he’s completely useless.

It’s easy to quip with him in the armor. Bucky likes Iron Man. Tony on the other hand…just the idea of striking up a friendly conversation with him as Tony is…scary. He never did good with rejection after all. And it would be the worst…to be accepted as Iron Man, rejected as Tony. As if he’s two people instead of one.

It’s all over on day six.

“We got them, Iron Man! We secured the base, got all the evidence we need and when Widow’s done with the agents, we’ll have even more.”

“That’s…great news! Well, take your time, Cap. We’ll be waiting for ya right here,” he tells him, hanging up on the call after Cap gives him an ETA of their return.

In few hours, the HYDRA scum are going to be stuffed in prison and the Avengers will return victorious. They’ll celebrate, Iron Man will make some likely excuse to why Tony wouldn’t be attending – not that he expects to be invited – and by tomorrow morning, Tony will be locking himself up in the lab for a week, moping like a lovesick teenager.

When did he get this pathetic?

Before his brain can conjure up some disturbing reply, Bucky appears in his line of sight, beer in hand. “Everythin’ alright?”

“Uh…yeah. Everything is…perfect. Cap and the team found the HYDRA base and are in the middle of raiding it as we speak,” he tries going for a happy tone, failing quite miserably. The helmet does have its uses at times like these. His face would betray way too much right now.

“Oh,” Bucky frowns, which is definitely not the reaction Tony is expecting. “I mean, yeah, that’s…good. So. How about we start the celebration of mission well done a lil’ early?”

“Sure…looks like you already started,” he points at the beer.

“Heh. Anyway…we could invite Stark up here. Did he even leave the lab for one second in these past few days? Or is he back to working himself into oblivion on some fancy new tech stuff?”

“Yep, you said it. There’s no bringing him out of the lab when he’s working on an exciting project. What do you say, JARVIS? Think Tony might be up for a party?”

Poor JARVIS had to get used to this hidden identity bullshit as well. He finds it amusing most of all. That little…

“Uhm…JARVIS?” Bucky frowns at the lack of a reply from the AI and unbeknownst to him, so does Tony.

“JARVIS! Report,” he demands but the comms remain ominously quiet.

“That ain’t good,” Bucky whips up a knife out of nowhere, grabbing onto his forearm and trying to push him out of the open.

Tony doesn’t budge. He has the perfect view of the hallway leading to the emergency stairwell exits and that’s why he sees it coming. It being three different grenades flying their way. Without JARVIS to do some quick thinking for him, he pushes Bucky as far away from the expected impact as he can, shielding him with the entirety of his body.

A flashbang goes off first, followed quickly by two explosions. What are they trying to do?! Get the Winter Soldier back in pieces?!

He stands up, repulsors at the ready while Bucky scrambles behind the sofa for cover – and the gun conveniently hidden underneath it. They shower the hallway in gun and repulsor fire, keeping the intruders at bay.

Just as Tony makes his way towards the stairwell to introduce them to Iron Man’s fists up close, a deafening explosion rings throughout the room, shattering all the windows and sending him flying against a wall.

A wave of HYDRA agents flood the room from both the stairwell and the outside – likely coming down from the roof and before Tony can get back on his feet and blast them all to hell, they’re surrounded and most – if not all – of their weapons pointed at Bucky.

Those bastards came prepared, he curses, his brain already going through possible ways out of their predicament.

“Better stand down, trash can. Or your buddy’s toast,” one of the agents steps up to him, hands in his pockets – must be the wannabe leader.

“Better toast than back with HYDRA,” Bucky spits, his gun sill pointed at the closest agent in front of him.

Tony would prefer neither option. But there’s too many of them. Even if he targets them all, chances are one of them gets a lucky shot…and that’s all it takes. He lowers the repulsors – they are not his only weapon after all and this way he might get some more time. Maybe…hopefully…

Bucky growls, definitely not approving of the gesture. “Just shoot ‘em all, Iron Man!”

“Good move,” the leader snickers, taking another step toward him. “Now…you’re going to tell me the passcode to Tony Stark’s lab.”

“What?!” Bucky blurts out, the gun flying sideways to aim at the leader.

“What?” Tony frowns, confused more than anything else.

“You think we bothered with all of this just for you?” the man glances at Bucky. “Nah…now that we’re here, we’ll be leaving with everything we can get. So,” he turns back to him. “Surely Stark’s very own bodyguard knows the code to get into the lab. Turns out just disabling the AI isn’t enough to get in there.”

Despite the situation, Tony finds himself grinning from ear to ear. “What do you want with Stark?” he asks, trying to hide his mirth.

“Oh this and that. Now, trash bucket. The code or we’re shooting this one through and through.”

He would usually point out how ridiculous that threat is – if they were to do that, he would just shoot them all and they’d get nothing. But Tony would lose…everything. So he keeps his mouth shut and instead focuses on the tiny plan already taking shape in his head.

“That’s a little greedy of you, isn’t it? Tell you what…I’ll give you the passcode,” he offers, ignoring the pair of widened eyes that pierce through him. “Take Stark, do whatever the hell you want with him…but you’ll leave Barnes here.”

“Hell no,” the former assassin growls some more, this time deep and threatening.

The leader smirks. “Done.”

“No! You can’t do that!” Bucky yells at him.

“I can and I will,” Tony shrugs, noting the sting of betrayal in Bucky’s voice. “How do I know you’ll honor your end of this bargain?”

“If we get Stark, what’s the point of having this…broken thing,” the man sneers at Bucky. “He’s obsolete. And we’re looking for a new model, if you know what I mean. Stark can provide us with that and more.”

“Fair enough.”

“What are you…you’re supposed to protect him!”

“Yeah…I’m tired of doing everything he tells me, what am I, his slave? Stark’s a jerk and a damn handful…chances are, you’re not even gonna want him once you find that out for yourself,” he tells the leader, ignoring Bucky altogether.

“You owe him…everything! He made you!”

Oh Buckaroo, you have no idea. “Exactly. And I don’t need him anymore,” he gives Bucky a look, the neutral face of the helmet betraying nothing.

The amount of hurt and disbelieve on his face is painful to see…and at the same time interesting. It would almost seem like he cares. About Tony. Which is unexpected, but plays right into his hands.

“We have a deal then, Iron Man,” the leader finally addresses him properly and they shake hands.

“The code is 12161991,” he tells him, barely containing his grin.

The leader nods at his lackeys. “You and your team stay here – just as a precaution of course. Once we have Stark, we’re out of here before the Avengers get back.”

Just as Tony predicted, most of the agents move along with the leader, which leaves only seven agents guarding them. And seven is much better than twenty. He can work with seven. They can.

Despite the raging schizophrenia he’s beginning to sport because of their hidden identities, they are good for something after all. Everybody knows Tony Stark is the genius – and Iron Man is just a guy in a can. If they knew Tony Stark is in fact inside the armor, nobody would ever be so easily fooled by him into anything, under no circumstances. This way, he is being underestimated from the get go.

Perfect.

“How could you!” the now quite furious supersoldier growls at him, the gun actually pointed at him. “I thought…I thought…,” he trails off, his steely gaze never wavering though. “If anything happens to him, I’ll never forgive you!”

Tony reels back, falling out of character for a second before JARVIS’s voice brings him back to the mission at hand.

“Emergency reboot complete, Sir. I have regained control over the armor’s systems but I’m afraid my systems in the Tower are still not fully functional.”

“Never mind that, just target these assholes and let’s get this over with, J!” he commands only for JARVIS to hear.

The targeting initiates, locking onto all but one of the agents – the one positioned behind Bucky.

Tony tries maneuvering to the side a little but the still furious assassin moves with him. Looks like he has no other choice.

“Nothing will happen to him,” he says carefully, eyeing the agents for suspicious reactions.

“Do you have any idea what they’re gonna do to him?!”

“Bucky…”

“This is HYDRA! Not some wannabe villains of the week!”

“Snowflake?”

“If they get away with h - ” he pauses, blinking at him. A small frown caresses his forehead as he stares at Tony.

“You must be a real special kinda snowflake to jam a screwdriver up your arm thinking you could fix it,” Tony says, echoing the first sentence he’s ever told the assassin.

Not Iron Man. Tony.

Bucky cocks his head to the side, eyes narrowed before they widen with realization.

“Sorry, you were probably about to shoot me. So why don’t you get down to it?” Tony adds and it only takes a second for the assassin to register the command and drop to the floor, leaving the last agent exposed to the armor’s gunfire.

It happens fast from there on. The agents have just enough time to look surprised before JARVIS deploys the shots against the locked on targets and a moment later, they are mere corpses on the ground.

“Targets neutralized,” JARVIS confirms.

“Thanks, J. You’re the best. Let me know when you’re a hundred percent back online.”

“Will do, Sir.”

Bucky gathers himself up from the floor, glancing around at the carnage before his gaze rests on Tony. Before either of them can speak up, the steady hum of the quinjet sounds from the outside and the room is suddenly full of very concerned-looking Avengers.

“Is everyone okay?!” Cap approaches them, glaring at the corpses. “We got here as fast as we could after Widow got the intel on their plan B.”

Right…back to Iron Man mode.

“Was this supposed to be it?” he waves at the dead agents. “So much for plan B, I’d say.”

“There should be more of them,” Widow warns them, still in full alert.

“Yeah, they’re in Stark’s lab,” he shrugs.

“What?!” Cap blurts out. “How did they get there?”

Tony sighs, raising his hands defensively. “Just relax, okay? They got a bit greedy and wanted Stark as well as the Winter Soldier…so I gave them the passcode to the lab that lets them in but also triggers a trap, locking them in there.”

“With Tony?!”

What’s with the supersoldiers today?! “He flew to London this morning. Some emergency SI business or something.”

Cap breathes out, nodding. “Good. Let’s go take care of the rest of them then.”

“Lead the way, Captain,” he prompts him and they all head down to the lab, subduing the now very salty wannabe leader and his minions.

For a week, Tony successfully evades the former HYDRA soldier. He even stoops as low as having JARVIS make sure the coast is clear whenever he emerges from the lab to go to the kitchen for snacks and coffee. It’s not like he wants to avoid him. But there are certain conversations he is so not ready to have, no matter how helpful they would be in the long run.

In fact, there’s not much to converse about anyway. Bucky knows.

There’s no way he doesn’t know, unless he has a brain the size of a peanut. Like Hawkeye. Nope. Bucky knows. So Tony sticks to his ninja play and spends his days sulking in the lab.

Maybe he should go on a vacation as well. If Iron Man can go on a vacation, why can’t he? He is Iron Man!

And if that isn’t the source of all his problems ever, he doesn’t know what is.

When he returns to the lab one evening with a Hulk-sized mug of coffee in hand, he almost spills it all over the workbench when he spots a certain soldier lurking in the shadows in front of him.

“The fuck - ” he places a palm over the arc reactor, the frantic beating of his heart drumming through the reactor’s calming hum. “Where did you come from?!” The lab can’t be accessed any other way than through the doors and with the correct passcode. Not unless someone dares to wiggle through the vents – now impassably rigged with tripwires and explosives, since a certain purple-clad superhero decided to use them instead of hallways.

Bucky emerges from the darkness with one of his rare huge smirks and nods at the entrance. “The door?”

“You don’t have the passcode!” he glares at him.

“I have a passcode. 12161991?”

Son of bitch. That’s…resourceful. “Why would you wanna lock yourself in here, you weirdo?”

“Because you’re here,” he shrugs, the smirk turning toothy.

“O…kay?”

“Thought it’s the perfect opportunity…with Iron Man on that vacation of his. He better send me a postcard or somethin’.”

He stares at Bucky like he’s just grown a second head, which only makes him smirk harder.

“Better be a good fucking postcard. In the meantime, I’m thinkin’ dinner. You, me, burgers…milkshakes?”

“Wh – what?!” he blurts out, shaking his head as if trying to wake up from this Twilight zone he fell into.

Bucky sighs, the smirk easing into a soft smile never before seen on his face. “You really think I jammed a screwdriver into my arm because I was trying to repair it? Who do you think I am, Hawkeye?! And what was the excuse after this one? That I tried stopping elevator doors with the arm and that’s why it looked like it’s been almost split in half with a vibranium shield? It was the shield…and it didn’t just slip from my hand either, I slammed it down real damn hard. The doombots didn’t even touch the arm the week after that, I actually stuck that bot claw into it myself and then the excuses to come down here to hang out with you got even more ridiculous.”

“You…what?!”

“I like you, you jerk,” he rolls his eyes, folding his hands over his chest, metal intertwined with flesh. “How much more obvious do I gotta get?! So when you just…ignored me, hell even flirted with everyone but me I figured there’s no chance. Guy can take a hint, you know?” he shrugs, the smile turning sad for a moment. “That said…I really can take a hint.”

Tony forces his brain to finally start working again and quickly absorbs everything the man has just said.

He knows.

And instead of interrogating him about it or demanding explanations he’s…he’s…using the newfound information to apparently continue flirting with Tony and actually asking him out. On a dinner date.

Tony. Not Iron Man.

Well, technically both, because he knows…he knows.

Tony emits a startled chuckle, lips twitching into a grin. “Uhm…I uh…guess I can be an idiot sometimes? Like, one out of a million times. Which isn’t really that often. Of course it isn’t, because I’m a genius after all. We do get to be stupid every now and then. Every ten years maybe, or twe - ”

“Tony?” Bucky interrupts his ramble, still with that stupidly perfect smile directed at him.

He could listen to the man saying his name like that all day. Or forever.

“Yeah?”

“What about that dinner?”

“Wh…dude. That rant a second ago? That was me saying hell yes I wanna go to a dinner with you…how obvious do I gotta get?!” he laughs, becoming unusually shy under the intense look Bucky’s inspecting him with.

“Hella obvious,” he winks and slips past Tony, lingering close to him on the way towards the doors, shoulders only just touching.

Metal and flesh.

“I’ll pick ye up in an hour,” Bucky looks back before JARVIS lets him out of the lab, leaving Tony absentmindedly nodding, staring at the door.

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe being just Tony beats being Iron Man. And maybe being both…and being seen as both isn’t as climactic as he thought it would be or have to be.

Because Bucky likes him – in and out of the can. And for tonight, that’s all that matters.

~Fin

#prompts #winteriron #tony x bucky #tony stark #bucky barnes #Lantia

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ventingblacklist · 7 years

Text

A Tale of Three Toms

(aka, how they butchered everything to save this guy)

(anti-tom)

Just a brief chronicling of the different versions of Tom’s story.

Season One: Who Does He Work For?

I think the original plot outline went something like this -

Red realizes something is up with this guy in Liz’s life. He gets wind of passports under false names, etc… He realizes this guy is attached to one of his enemies. But he can’t bear to just take him out because Liz is so in love with him and happy.

In their initial ideas for the pilot, they thought of scenarios where it starts with Red killing Tom, then coming in and revealing everything later, post-death. But they clearly decided that letting him live and revealing it more slowly over the course of season one was more interesting. And I think it was.

But they needed a reason then that Red wouldn’t just outright kill him, so they had the ‘well Liz loves him and Red can’t bear to hurt her’ excuse. Which I never thought was adequate, but whatever. That was their way to keep this war going through season one so there could actually be a war in season one.

So after doing as much as he can on the outside, Reddington surrenders and works to expose her fake husband and use the FBI to smoke out his employer. He doesn’t count on Liz stubbornly refusing to see what’s in front of her face. He figured they would work together on this. He fully intends to end Tom once his employer is known, and that part pretty much holds up. Once Red knows about “Berlin” he goes to put a bullet in Tom.

There was also talk of killing Tom in 1x17, but I’m not sure of the context of that. Apparently they decided to wait until the last episode.

So it started out as an excuse really to get Red back into her life. To have a show. Some enemy of his has gotten so close to her that Reddington can’t stay away any longer. She’s in peril without knowing it and he has to be there.

For Liz, it’s a story about shattering that little fake life, revealing the truth under the carpet, confronting that truth, and making choices. What do I do now that the scales have fallen from my eyes? Do I embrace destiny or run from it?

Is it all too much? Do I crumble? Or can I maintain and rise above?

Tom’s purpose is pretty fulfilled. 1x22 with his dastardly deeds reaching their crux, handing over the task force, using her to take out Reddington, then briefly apologizing (maybe there was a shred of him that came to care for her after all, oh how tragic) and then whispering a dying secret in her ear that will lend intrigue in the future, is a pretty fitting end to that whole story. Time to wrap it up and move on to other things.

Or not.

Obviously near the end of season one they’d started to rethink their plan and someone said they should save him. So. How to go about doing that?

Season Two: Twisted Love

I’m not sure that Red being the one who inserted Tom into Liz’s life was part of it at first. I don’t usually complain about that addition though (if it was an addition) because I actually love it. I think it adds so much more weight to scenes like the hand-holding scene in 1x6 when you know Red is sitting there eaten up with guilt for starting all this.

If it was original, I think it was a fairly simple thing. Red hired him to be Ezra, someone offered him way more money to double cross Red and Tom took that job and married Liz. Red finds out, and the rest is history.

But now they’re saving Tom’s little life. How to make him palatable then to the audience?

Oh, I know. He actually did love her the whole time. This whole thing was because he loved her, actually.

Did you know that if someone is in love that excuses everything bad they’ve ever done ever? Well, now you do.

They could have very easily gone with the idea that Tom fell for Liz eventually. And that once he realizes how much damage he’s done, he feels bad and works toward redemption. And maybe someday he’ll be worthy of her love again. I could have actually bought that. But nooooo. They had to pull this crap that doesn’t make sense at all and makes Red look like a total douche canoe.

It made total sense to kill Tom in 1x22, but I actually love the ‘Red hired him’ reveal, and I love Liz’s 2a arc. So, in my perfect world, Red kills Tom in 2x8.

Rather than meet him in a diner and give him money (apparently? which made exactly zero sense) it would be a twofer. Red kills Berlin, then kills Tom. The season one enemy is dead. Fitch’s death becomes the new reason Red must stay in Liz’s life.

After all, the entire reasoning behind Red not killing Tom no longer applies. Tom is out of Liz’s life. Red tells him to never come back. Well, then, kill him. I mean, the excuse the writers used is gone at that point. Letting him walk is pure desire to keep the character, nothing more. It makes no in-show sense.

So, back in my ideal scenario, Red’s guys grab him off the street and put him in the Reddington death chair. But maybe before Tom dies, he says that line, ‘you know, for what it’s worth, I never told her about us. Not one word.’ Then Red shoots him. And his cheek twitches. And now we’re all like, ‘whaaaat?’

I mean, that would have been perfect.

Anyway.

Back in the stupid canon world, suddenly Tom’s passports are government-issue and not forged and they came from Reddington. They give him The Major backstory (that part is fine). He’s a twisted f**k who can kill a man in cold blood and feel no remorse whatsoever, but it was to ‘save Liz’ so she should totally be grateful and take him back.

Oh, and he actually did marry her out of love and that whole deal, and the entire story of season one basically is just flushed down the toilet. The whole journey meant nothing. But hey, it’s fine because Tom and Liz are sleeping together. Woo hoo!

Oh, and Tom suddenly has amnesia about his and Red’s back story and he thinks Red is just using her to have an FBI task force. Which makes Tom look incredibly dumb.

Oh, and the dude who whispered that her father was alive suddenly knows jack diddly squat about Liz’s backstory and family and it will never be mentioned again.

But hey, boat sex. Woo hoo!

Season Three - Four: Little Lord Fauntleroy

So after building up a whole thing where Tom is burned with his handler and burns his passports and just wants to buy a boat and live a normal life, and he actually leaves, they have him come right back. Because why not?

I still remember my reaction to that. I was like, ‘really? right away with this guy?’ I mean, I figured he’d come back eventually. After he’d all ‘changed’ and stuff. Even considered that he and Liz might end up together at the end, but this? Why?

So Tom secures Karakurt and it’s actually kinda fun watching him go undercover, so I’m like, okay, whatever. And never thought in a million years they’d actually have him and Liz getting back together. I thought this was some unselfish thing of him realizing he’d screwed her life up bad so he wanted to help her but she wouldn’t just randomly take him back. If they were going to get back together, they’d have to earn it. Tom would have to earn it.

Or not.

Tom had to run, he couldn’t stay. But now apparently he can. He can stay for months in the same town under the same name with the same woman. A deaf, dumb and blind tracker should have been able to find him.

Oh, and he kept the ultrasound picture from season one. And he really really wants a baby. And he and Liz are a thing again. And are you kidding me with this crap?

I totally expected Tom to turn out to be shady again. I was expecting him to be on the side of whoever it was that was now after Liz. I was expecting something ten times more interesting than a microwaved love story.

Or not.

But then I hear that there’s a spin-off. Oooooh, that’s why. That’s why he’s still here. Okay.

So now Liz ‘dies’ and Tom’s story takes the forefront. His mother shows up. The seeds of the spin-off are sown. Turns out he’s not a street rat after all, he’s actually a little spy prince. Aw. yeah, that’s not unbelievable at all. (that was sarcasm, by the way)

Scottie is unlikable with the sexual harassment right off the bat, and nothing really warms me to her. Aside from her reaction to getting shot in the arm being funny.

And now suddenly Tom’s not some guy who fell in love and all that. No, suddenly his story is intricately connected to everything else. Stretching all the way back to his babyhood.

Again, not unbelievable at all. /s

Suddenly he was adopted out, not running away from foster homes (which destroyed about fifty percent of any sympathy I could have had for him). And on the spin-off he magically is the Ressler of the team with a shiny conscience.

They gave him Liz’s story. Suddenly he is the child with the super secretive crazy parents, only it’s reversed because he’s the one holding that card. Liz is…. idk, a person just happy to have Tom in her life I guess.

They build it up that Tom wants a normal life. But then they have to turn around and build it up that he wants back into the spy life. And they give him a family and a kid, but then if the spin off was successful they probably would have had to change that whole thing, so what was the point of it?

Now, since Tom was actually in love the whole time, they have to come up with some other reason Red re-entered her life. Katarina elements, whatever that means.

And it’s all a big, giant mess. (I do think those elements existed though and that Red feared Tom worked for one. Because he’s immediately asking about the fire. But that still doesn’t jive with their season two story. But whatever.)

Parting Thoughts

Anyway, the spin off fails. Now what? Do they keep trying to make this guy fit?

Thankfully, no. They give him an eight-episode send off. He can go out trying to get the truth to Liz. It’s super tragic. And they’ll use that to impact Liz and Red’s relationship again.

They never fully redeemed Tom. They put a bandaid of ‘love’ on his character. But continued writing warning after warning coming out of Red’s mouth about how Tom would do what he does. Tom won’t change. Tom is reckless and dangerous, etc… And they actually showed Tom being reckless and dangerous. So at least it kind of fits.

The writers let their love for this character taint everything else. I don’t think there’s any way to heal the damage done to Liz’s character, as I don’t think they even realize there’s damage. But at least he’s finally gone.

I’m mildly hopeful.

And look, this is me. I’m sure the vast majority of fans don’t feel this way. Don’t remember half of any of Tom’s stories. So, yeah.

#anti-tom keen #anti-keen2 #anti everything #i typed this up really quick off the top of my head #so i probably forgot stuff #impotent railings #pointless now #so just skip really

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