#side effects of being dead and then resurrected

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

After Jason’s resurrection he finds that his body works… wrong somehow.

Some days he forgets to breathe until he wants to say something and finds there’s no air in lungs. Other days his body goes eerily cold until someone points out that his lips are blue and he needs to warm up.

And some days his heart stops beating in his sleeps.

It’s fine, really. It always starts again eventually a short while after he wakes up. And yeah, of course it was a bit scary the first couple times it happened but it’s not like his resurrection and Pit-dip came with an instruction manual, so this is probably pretty normal stuff, all things considered. He is kind of the definition of “undead”.

The real trouble starts when he forgets to mention those little details to the Batfamily when he stays over for the night.

[orcusnoir]

I think the Chain needs to be more...idk "weird". So here's some ideas on what I mean. Not all of them are are in depth as I would like sadly.

Time: Clocks stop working right around him. Either they stop all together or they start skipping seconds at random intervals, sometimes the clocks will start going backwards.

Yet no matter how messed up the clock gets, by the time Time leaves the area the clock is telling time normally again.

If Time's shadow splits it will always appear as if a silhouette of a child is to his right and a faint emaciated figure is to his left. His own shadow tells the tale of his terrible fate.

Speaking of shadows.

Twilight: His shadow, no matter what, is always darker than normal. Noticeably darker.

Predators out in the wild, such as wolves, lions, and what not, are either afraid of the Rancher and flee, or just watch him from a safe distance. As long as Twi is with the group, they don't have to worry about any random animal attack.

Four: As the wielder of the Four Sword, Four's shadow is always split in four ways. Since the Smithy helped the Minish, he will randomly find extra Rupees in his pockets and bag with no memory of how he got them.

Wind: The sailor knows exactly where he's going when out at sea. Even without a map. He just knows. The air around him carries an extremely faint scent of saltwater.

Legend: The Vet's enchantments are alien to his own Hyrule. They didn't come from Lorule either.

Strangely, Sky seems to recognize the magic that envelops the Vet's gear.

Hyrule: The treads on the Traveler's boots seem to change to whatever he needs them to be, never wearing down. His own steps are either loud enough to draw attention to him or so quiet to the point of his steps being silent, but the way he walks doesn't change. It just happens.

If the group encounters a fairy, it will always approach Hyrule first before swirling around Time.

Wild: Stal monsters will always go after Wild first. Sensing the fact that he should be dead, and feeling a sort of jealousy at his resurrection.

Non-Guardian/Zonai automatons have an extremely hard time locking onto the Champion. Their IFF (Identify Friend Foe) system constantly misidentifies him as an ally. Possible side ability of the Slate, but it's happened before without it on his person.

Warriors: The Captain knows. He knows things that no one expects him to know. He can tell when people hide secrets from him, and can tell when people have secrets to hide. Even if he's never met the person.

Sky: Due to being the first (technically second) Link, he is always identified as Link in any Hyrule they visit. This effect can even trip up other Zelda's.

The Goddess statues seem to glow with a faint golden hue whenever Sky is nearby.

(Here's even more Chain "weirdness")

https://www.tumblr.com/orcusnoir/728982134864461824/more-chain-weirdness-because-honestly-these?source=share

[partly-functioning-liver]

A very funny side effect of superhero comics having such a long history and being the work of so many different people is that your fave has 100% done something that should have gotten them locked up in an insane asylum.

The best example of this is Jason Todd, who, the very first chance he gets after being resurrected from the dead: breaks into a high-security facility dressed in a Party City version of his old superhero outfit to beat the child who replaced him as Robin half to death (Jason was quite literally dead at the time) for the crime of replacing him, while IGNORING THE FACT THAT HE HIMSELF PREVIOUSLY REPLACED DICK GRAYSON AS ROBIN

(Dick was not dead at the time) (the level of cognitive dissonance required for this would put Two Face to shame) (please search up Jason Todd Robin costume and imagine a six foot tall man wearing that and trying to be intimidating)

[1001aus]

When Jason was dead he became a citizen of Pandora's lair, the Acropolis. It's not totally unusual for new ghosts to nest their lairs inside those of more powerful spirits for protection and comfort especially when those more powerful spirits already share their lairs. He never met Pandora personally, but she was aware of his presence.

Then Jason's body reanimates and is eventually picked up by Talia. By the time she throws him in a lazarus pit as a last resort Jason has been a ghost for a couple years when he is unceremoniously yoinked back into a living body.

He isn't a halfa nor is this a possession, Jason really is fully alive. But even a small amount of time as a ghost would change a person and it's been a couple years. This is actually what pit madness is: the aftereffects of taking a being defined by obsession and shoving them back in a body that works in a fundamentally different way.

The lazarus pit also leaves people slightly liminal with increasing effects over repeated exposure. Jason gets all the standard side effects of liminality: a distinct ectosignature which attracts spirits, a tendency toward obsession (made stronger in Jason's case by the fact that he was a ghost), and a slight increase in strength and endurance that happens mostly when not actively paying attention (ex. Jason can take more damage (or rather take less damage from hits) while in the middle of a fight because he thinks he should be able to. Usually he attributes this to having good armor.) But because Jason was actually a ghost and not just dead for a few minutes he also behaves more like a ghost, in particular getting agitated when his obsession or haunt are threatened.

Jason's obsession as a ghost was protection. He needed to be protecting something or someone and that made him fit in well at the Acropolis. For the most part that carried over when he was resurrected, but he didn't have anything to latch onto until Talia pushed him in the direction of revenge while he was already struggling.

His re-entry into Gotham goes more or less as usual with blood and beheadings and one thing out of place: Jason has a patch on one shoulder of his jacket that the bats can't find any information on.

It's marks him as a vassal of Pandora.

(Meanwhile in the Infinite Realms Pandora has contacted Phantom for help. One of her citizens has been taken by force to the living world and she can't make the time to find him herself.)

[liesmyth]

did john decide which of his friends would be the necromancer and which would be the cavs when he brought them back from the dead, or was that random?

I wish we knew for sure! John's friends ending up 50/50 adepts vs. non-necromancers is obviously one of TM's premises and was done for doylistic reasons first and foremost, but I don't think we have enough elements to conclusively interpret it as intentional in-universe.

Putting aside any kind of authorial intentions, this is what we know:

» The rate of necromancers as part of the population hovers around 30%. John's core group being 50% adepts is way off from that, and could point to manipulation, but also we're working with a very small sample size. Think about how it's very possible to get head five times in a row when flipping coins; probabilities are much less accurate on a smaller scale. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibilities that a group of 10 people had exactly 5 necromancers in it.

» Harrow's birth. The Reverend Parents made sure she would be a necromancer by manipulating the embryo with thanergy. It's clearly not a known practice among the Houses at large, and John calls it "a sort of Resurrection" — implying that he could be able to do the same with thalergy. However, this doesn't confirm that he actually DID.

In the same conversation, John says, "This was all different before we discovered the scientific principles," which I think is also worth noting. The fact that he understands NOW how you could get an embryo to grow into a necromancer doesn't mean that he had that knowledge at the time of the Resurrection. It also doesn't mean that the same identical process would apply to making formerly-dead-people into necromancers as they got brought back to life.

It could very well be that necromancy was a generalised side-effect of the Resurrection that affected some people more than others; or it could be that John DID do something different when bringing back some people that conferred them necromantic aptitude. Even if it's the latter, I don't think we can take for granted that 1) it was intentional and 2) he fully knew what the side effects would be.

» Ulysses and Titania. Counterpoint! It's also worth noting that John's "test cases" turned out to be one (1) adept and one (1) non-adept. Like I said above, this could still be a random bi-product of the Resurrection... but given Ulysses and Titania's whole everything, their dichotomy reeks of control group. They are a big point in favour of the "John did it on purpose" column.

Still: I still don't think we can tell for sure that John knew from the moment of Resurrection that he was giving some people death powers, and how that'd turn out in the long run. Like I said above, he could have done something different when resurrecting Ulysses vs. Titania, but it doesn't mean that he knew what would happen.

(Obviously, this argument only makes sense if we assume that Ulysses and Titania were among the very first batch of resurrected. I personally think they were, but obviously it's not confirmed)

» The inner circle. From NtN

I could only trust the inner circle. My scientists, my engineer, my detective, my lawyer, my artist, my nun, my hedge fund manager. My diehards. The ones keeping the lights on.

Putting aside the fact that Lyctors exist the way they are because Tamsyn needed them to exist, and looking at the Canaan House necro/cav pairings from John's point of view: why not give ALL his friends magical powers? That's something I struggle to wrap my head around, for about half a dozen different reasons.

Mind, I don't think John picking and choosing who gets to be a necromancer is that far-fetched, but from a #character point I find it less likely than the alternative (he didn't do it on purpose but turned it to his own advantage). IF it turns out to be canon, I'd be really curious about what the watsonian reasoning for it, beyond "this needed to happen."

Most meta posts I've seen that take for granted John picked and chose his future necromancers ascribe him a level of foresight, knowledge, and long-term planning that I simply don't think he'd have had at the time (not to mention the mental lucidity). To quote HtN John again, "[he] had never been God" before. I truly think he was winging it at least 60% of the time.

[kalak]

Au where luke has a weird ancient force superpower. He literally can come back from the dead. He can resurrect, just like that- the more gruesome the death is, the longer it takes for him to come back, but other than that there's no side effect whatsoever.

This contributes to luke being even more reckless than in canon (obiwan having an aneurysm in the background); he gets killed by slavers, Tusken raiders, a random mugger, a malfunctioning vaporater, being out in the desert for too long, getting lost in the desert... etc etc. But he comes back! Every time! So Owen, Beru, and Ben are like oh no. This power is the worst thing this boy could have but also it apparently is the only thing keeping him alive so. You win some you lose some I guess (Owen still grounds luke every time he comes back from the dead though)

Now in the rebellion, luke kinda.. doesn't tell anyone about this power bc 1. He got drilled into his head to keep it secret as he was growing up becausr he'll definitely get experimented on (obiwan led many of the cover ups) 2. He got self conscious about it. Other people were so praising of his 'selflessness' and 'sacrificial nature' but he thinks he's like That because he can shrug off death. How can you tell people that when they're all like woah you're awesome!!!

But! That doesn't mean luke doesn't utilize his power. Whenever an imp catches him he's like fuckin kill me you wuss. You coward. And then he gets up after they shoot him and leave his dead body. He has a tracking device on him in case he gets stranded in space after his ship gets blown up. Han & Leia were horrified at first but by the fifteenth time they're like *resigned sigh* *pulls out a mop*. Luke calls it just having a little nap :]

Now for the fun part: Vader has no idea about any of this. So when he reads the spy intel, the impression he gets is that Luke is reckless to the point of being suicidal, and that. He might be fatalistic and actually craving death at every moment.

This gets worse when Luke jumps off in cloud city - (he actually just dies here falling but he's ok again :)) after that, with a mental connection between the two established, vader's like ??!?@?@?? because luke's force presence keeps blinking out.. Like he's dying?? But that can't be it...? And he just keeps flashbacking to padme's death and hyperventilating about it but it's actually just luke blastering himself bc he woke up at the wrong side of the bed.

And then Vader finally captures luke. Luke is like oh no fuck you fuck you fuck you and he tries to jump out of the airlock - (vader catches him at the nick of time) steals vader's saber - (vader thinks that he's gonna attack but nope, luke tries to skewer himself) and vader's like oh no. Oh no I need to protect him from himself.

Then there's a hostage situation - tarkin's gripping luke, blaster to head, threatening Vader. Vader is backing off for once in his life, fearful... he's ready to accept any deal, almost agrees - but Luke's like no. Vader might be an arse but he's been nicer than tarkin and amicable, I'm not letting him lose to tarkin of all people. Also this would be a nice fuck you to both of them.

So he goads tarkin, telling him that he's a wuss and that tarkin thinks the tarkin doctrine only works because tarkin himself is a coward dictated by fear, who ironically hasn't known true fear - fear for someone rather than himself - his way will never work because a seven year old has more backbone than him- And that's when the blaster goes off, tarkin's temper getting the best of him.

Vader rushes to Luke's side, but it's too late and Luke's dead. Vader's like *flashbacks to padme* *flashbacks to shmi* and he's apologizing to Luke's body, telling him that he's Luke's father,

That's when luke comes back being all like yeah I needed that that's much nicer and vader's like. ??what in the palpatine's saggy nutsack and Luke's like what the fuck do you mean you're my father-

[zahri-melitor]

Some more coherent thoughts about Gotham War, now it's settled on me.

(Spoilers below cut, for length and as it's still only Wednesday)

It's not a huge surprise, but Selina's whole 'train henches to steal from the rich non-violently!' ended up being a complete side issue that only existed to get the plot moving. Nobody's conception of this plot, in two years time, will really include this detail, despite the thousands of words spent arguing how ridiculous it was.

Yes it remains a poorly thought out plan on Selina's part (she's never heard of earning money legally) but the narrative also frames it as long term ineffective from the very first issue and knocks it down on multiple occasions.

DC editorial definitely tried to dress this up as a full family event, but realistically it was a Bruce, Selina and Jason event, written by their three current writers, with solid bit parts played by Tim and Dick.

Vandal Savage remains ridiculous and ready to sacrifice anyone and I appreciate that about him. As a villain he was just the right level of stakes for this event.

I enjoyed getting to see Scandal, even if her fans would say she got done dirty here. Scandal usually has enough sense not to believe anything Vandal says, and I admit I was somewhat waiting for some level of twist here as to why Scandal was all for immortality at this point in time, but it never came.

I still agree it felt a lot like three separate plotlines intersecting, but I think they managed to land the event successfully (while leaving some nice loose threads). I actually appreciate they didn't overreach in their goals.

It still finished out with two separate plotlines: Bruce and Selina and Jason; and Dick and Tim and the rest of the family. Structurally this again reminded me as much of Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul as Batman #138 did; the main plot and then the far more interesting Dick & Tim sideplot which is what I go back to reread. (Chip Zdarsky is clearly also a fan)

Also promisingly for an event yes, it did actually shake up the status quo and push the participants off in new directions.

So Bruce is now doing the Loner Batman thing (in that he's locked out of the fam computers/comm lines), Selina is officially 'dead' (what is with all these fake dead people with titles, Penguin is too right now), and Jason has what's effectively permanent fear toxin response to stressful situations. Also, apparently, we are getting Dick and Barbara back 'running' the Batfam while Bruce is on the outs.

As far as Bruce goes, what has been really notable in this event is how much Chip Zdarsky loves early 2000s Bat comics and their dynamics, and particularly Joker's Last Laugh. There's a lot of structural things about how this event was shaped, what specific characters did, and emotional beats that feel very JLL as someone who's read it at least half a dozen times. It's not the only influence, but it's a pretty prominent one.

Bruce ending the event in a position where he's effectively not working with most of the other Bats actually tracks reasonably well over to Batman & Robin, to my surprise. It makes sense that it's just Bruce and Damian and they're focusing on homelife and domestic relationship details between the two. It gives Bruce an excuse for why he's closely focused on Damian there.

I will admit I have not been reading Catwoman, but from the event it seems they're spinning her off to keep moving her back into a more antihero position. Tini Howard clearly has a direction she wants to take Selina.

I actually think this has pretty interesting storytelling potential for Jason. It means that he has to stay calm, or has to overcome his own fear to achieve things. It gives him a goal? Matthew Rosenberg clearly seems interested in using it for his Jason storytelling and he's got Jason right now, so...

I'm personally delighted by how much Tim Zdarsky wrote into this storyline. He used the space more to show off Dick and Tim's brotherhood and what Tim is good at, rather than push the Tim side of the Zur story we're all expecting to occur (there's that waiting Zur-Robin costume). Means he's planning it for Batman as a title itself rather than getting it tangled up here.

"It was the only way to become the second-best Robin". Yes, this is Tim getting to show off his core competencies - he probably is the only Bat other than Bruce who would have extensively studied all the trophies. Dick would remember a lot of them simply because a lot of the trophies are from old adventures, but pretty much all the others are not particularly retrospective, respect the past sort of members of the group, while Tim has always been surrounded by the shadows of the past. I loved this note.

I haven't talked about Babs yet! She's in green, in glasses, sitting down at her computers with a novelty mug, directing everyone, answering to Oracle. That's her! That's my Oracle!

I do think Bruce expecting Dick to take over running the Batfam right now is a big ask, given he's also running the Titans as the main superhero team on the planet and handling Bludhaven, but Tom Taylor's writing both those books so I don't expect to see the stress catching up with Dick there. Benefits of writer choice right now, I guess. Also personally 'Babs and Dick organise everyone while Bruce has a breakdown elsewhere' is one of my favourite Batfam dynamics so you know, I'm pretty excited if we actually get to see this play out.

New Lazarus Pit in Gotham! This won't be a problem at all.

[luna-rainbow]

that ask/meta about Bucky and sleeping broke my heart. I always feel sad when seeing that scene of them manhandling Bucky out of the vault and so but to know they manhandled him while he was basically dead is just sad as hell. he deserved better than a bunch of criminals doing that to him. 😔

while writing this a question came to my mind: what do you think are all the things attached to his body in that opening scene of civil war? I always thought the mask was oxygen but if he was basically dead then he didn't need oxygen, right? plus he's not wearing a mask in other times when we saw him being put under cryo, so what was that for? and the things around his chest??

Thanks for the ask! Cryo is not at all within the realm of my knowledge because there’s complicated physics involved 😂 And to be fair, I think this is classic movie science where the creators themselves have done very little research into how cryo is achieved.

This article provides a good run-down of the theory behind cryopreservation, but it’s from 2008 and technology and our understanding of cell metabolism is likely different now.

To summarise:

The subject needs to be cooled to -120C to be held in cryostasis. At these temperatures, chemical reactions are so slow that the cells can stay stable for centuries.

Blood is removed before the subject has been cooled below 0C and vitrification mixtures are injected into the subject to prevent ice crystal formation. This mixture is toxic, so has to be tightly controlled for the temperature it is given.

Another factor to control for is reperfusion injury upon warming and re-infusing the subject with blood.

Other interesting facts noted in that article is that humans have been cooled to 16-24C with cardiac arrest of more than an hour, then reawakened without neurological damage, which is impressive given brain damage is said to occur within minutes of cardiac arrest at normal body temperature.

Importantly though, the article doesn’t seem to mention any cases where an entire mammal has been successfully resurrected from cryo, much less multiple rounds of freeze-thaw cycles that Bucky had to go through. A lot of what it discusses in theory is on the basis of maximising the preservation of brain tissue, while sacrificing other organs to potential damage (I think the article said something along the lines of “in the future stem cell technology would take care of all those damaged organs!” which…isn’t going to help poor Buck out)

What I can’t find with my (very limited) reading is how the blood is stored after it is replaced. Presumably it is also cryopreserved separately? Because transfusing someone else’s blood into the subject’s body will cause huge issues. The other major difference between current data and Bucky’s situation is that current cryo methods are for the preservation of recently deceased bodies, while Bucky is still alive when he is placed into cryo.

So uh, assuming Bucky’s cryo is anything based in current real world science, he’s likely to have attachments for: heart monitoring and defibrillation, airway support and oxygen supply, large bore intravenous lines for rapid blood removal and replacement which would also help control the cooling/warming, some sort of real time monitoring of acid-base and electrolyte and oxygenation levels and replacement, and maybe some sort of EEG to monitor brainwaves. The blue glowing buttons are kiiiinda in the right place for heart monitor if we’re assuming a 3-lead system and the other one is hidden on his right side.

Keep in mind, this is not taking into account any magic effect the serum might have, ie maybe cryosuspension and revitalisation is only possible because of the serum, and maybe crystallisation isn’t an issue because of the serum.

And this is going to be TMI but I wonder what the effect of intestinal contents would be on cryo. Limiting his intestinal contents is partly the reason why I feel like Bucky likely didn’t have a lot of chance to eat real food, and likely got most of his nutrition as some sort of prescribed nutrition mix that would give him the energy hit he needs for the mission. Assuming that his gut will go into hibernation mode with cryo and probably won’t digest properly at least for a few days (much longer if he were a normal human), I suspect they’ll go for IV nutrition if they need him functional quickly. (* This won’t be one of his lines during cryo obviously cos he won’t need the support)

So yeah, all those fics about Bucky exploring oral textures and tastes of foods as a part of his recovery has a special place in my heart.

[lazydoodlesandfanfic]

Turning Into Jason (Bruce Wayne X Daughter!Reader) *PARENTAL

Characters: Bruce Wayne X Daughter!Reader, Jason Todd X Sister!Reader

Universe: DC, Batman

Warnings: Murder, attempted murder (both off screen) blood and violence, swearing

Request: Bruce's daughter killing someone in cold blood on a mission out of anger (they disserved it tbh) and bruce having to talk her out of becoming like jason. (She doesn't listen tho.)

Bruce had long learned about the complexity of having multiple children, and their relationships with each other; Dick seemed to get along with everyone for the most part, though he got along best with Tim and Duke, Tim, Duke and Cass got along quite well, as well as with Damian in a strange way, Damian mostly hid any actual preference or feelings behind a cold exterior, but as referenced earlier, he got along strangely with Tim, and he also had a rather healthy relationship with Cass. However, there were two odd ones in that group: You and Jason. Jason, being the second oldest, was always standoff-ish, had a temper and had never really gotten close to anyone in the family, always keeping a wall between himself and others, even more so after his resurrection. You were quite similar, though several years younger. By the time you joined the family, Jason had died, been resurrected, and was on speaking terms with the family again, and when he came to see his new sibling, you two immediately connected very similarly to the way that the others had connected with each other. At the time, this had actually made Bruce happy- a sort of reassurance that you had someone, and so did Jason. Someone you actually related to to help each other in rough patches.

Well, now that wasn’t the case. Honestly, Bruce blamed himself for not thinking about the fact that Jason- his wild child and the one who actively doesn’t listen to him and goes out of his way to kill criminals, was so close to his little sister, an impressionable teen who looked up to him and saw herself in him in so many ways. He should have talked to you- or Jason, about keeping you away from that side of Jason’s work, or maybe not have involved you in the vigilante lifestyle at all. Because you’d done it. You’d crossed the line. You killed someone. 

Bruce wasn’t sure what to do, in all honesty. You had been out on Patrol unsupervised, and it was a busy night so it took a moment for anyone to realised you hadn’t checked in for a while, and then they couldn’t get ahold of you, leading to your father going to search for you, leaving strict instructions to hold off on telling Jason, knowing he’d kick off and go full guns blazing, and he was glad they’d listened. He was able to trace your steps, and soon found you heaving for breath, sat against a wall in an alley, covered in blood with a distant look in your eye. Bruce immediately presumed you were hurt, in shock and struggling to process anything. Then he saw the body further down the dark and damp snicket, not moving in any way. He went over to the man, confirming he was dead- with a cut to the throat of all things, the weapon- a batarang- nearby. Bruce picked up the weapon, turned back to you, walked over, grabbed your arm and heaving you up, and pulled you home, where you were now. 

You were still in your vigilante attire, though the mask was off, and you hadn’t moved from the chair that your father had sat you down in. He didn’t know what to say and where to start. He wanted to yell at you till his voice was hoarse, asking, begging, demanding that you give him answers to what happened and what led you to that point, but then he remembered how he did that to Jason, and how it only widened the gap between him and his second eldest, contributing to the domino effect that led to his death. He’d grown from that, at least he hoped he had, and he tried to prove that by waiting to gather himself in some way, promising that he was going to do this right this time, but he didn’t know what the right action was yet. He didn’t want to give you in, and your actions since he had found you had made him believe something happened that you hadn’t told him yet. He needed to talk to you. Alone. No Jason, no Alfred, no one else. He pulled a seat up, sitting down and facing you, arms resting on his knees. You were sitting back in your seat, arms flopped in your lap, head low, an almost dead look behind your eyes, not really looking at anything. “Y/N?” He called your name, and almost immediately your eyes looked up at him, meeting his own. “I don’t think you need me to say that I’m not happy about this. At all. You know we have a no kill rule, and for good reason, so you better have a pretty good reason.”

You didn’t answer him immediately. Instead, your eyes wandered down to your hands, still covered in the man’s blood, though no longer wet, and now soaking moisture out of your skin. You lightly picked and pulled pieces away from your skin. “You know those murders happening?” 

“You need to be more specific.” Bruce hated that he had to say that, but it was true. Murder was daily occurence in this city, no matter how hard he tried. 

“There’s been a series of murders on young women in that specific area. I always like to note down every case across the city just in case I notice a pattern and a link and… I found one. All the victims have similar appearances, similar age, and were killed in similar fashion. All were different from the usual attacks, and I realised it might be a serial killer…”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and be completely wrong and cause panic. I actually hoped I was wrong and none of these cases were linked, but… I decided to gather more evidence first before showing it to you. I went to investigate the location of where one of the women was found and… he showed up while I was there. I was looking for anything the police missed or left behind, and he came up behind me and-” 

“What the fuck happened?” 

The voice interrupted your explanation, and both yourself and Bruce became tense, knowing who that voice belonged to. Jason. He came rushing out of the elevator from upstairs, practically shoving Bruce to the side to look at you, ripping off his helmet so you could see him properly as he examined your hands, and then the blood on the rest of the clothes. “It was an accident. He was gonna kill me. I didn’t know what else to do.” You started to crumble so easily now that he was there, and Bruce watched as you let yourself immediately break down, becoming vulnerable and showing all your weakness in the presence of your big brother, who immediately made you feel safe with a soothing shush and pulling you into his arms as you started to sob. He got his answer. He now knew what happened. He of course still wasn’t happy it happened, but… He understood. 

“You did the right thing. You shouldn’t feel bad for defending yourself, you hear me?” Jason assured you. You nodded, sniffing as you pulled away, but still leant forward to be close to Jason, who still remained knelt down in front of you. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.” 

“She went off by herself to investigate a possible serial killer.” 

“Oh? You got a serial killer? That’s great! Do you have any idea how many people you’ve probably saved? Think about it. That’s pretty special.” Jason responded to Bruce’s little comment, being complimentary and keeping his voice low, calm and kind when talking to you still, though there was a dog whistle of a threat in there that Bruce heard loud and clear, backed up when Jason looked over his shoulder to glare freezing, deadly daggers at him, telling to shut up. “But you’ll still feel bad for taking someone’s life. That’s normal, it’s expected, and it’ll be hard to deal with, but I’ll help you, okay?” Jason promised, looking back at you. “Want me to stay over for a few days? Help with any nightmares?”

“Yes please.” You answered quietly. Jason nodded, standing up in front of you. 

“Go take a bath, I’ll be up in a bit to set up a bed on your floor, if you need me, holler.” Jason told you, and you quietly and quickly walked to the elevator, head still low, still picking at your hands. The second the door shut, Jason turned to Bruce, and pointed to him. “Don’t you fucking dare blame her for what happened.” 

“Jason-”

“You heard her! She was attacked by a killer. He was gonna kill her, and she had no choice but to fight back with whatever she had available. It was him or her, be glad your daughter’s alive. Imagine if you found her dead, not him. Could you live with yourself if you lost another one of your children to a murderer?” Jason questioned, not caring if his voice echoed through the cave, disrupting the bats ahead, because he knew Bruce needed to hear it. 

“...I’m afraid she’s turning into you.” 

“Oh don’t you dare.” Jason growled, sort of pacing in an infrequent manner without pattern around the man, who remained perfectly still, not moving except his eyes who followed his second oldest. “Don’t you dare compare her to me. She is so much better than me. I know I’m a cold hearted son of a bitch, but her? She gives a fuck about Gotham, she wants to do what’s right still, and believe it or not, she wants to do you proud, she still has hope. This… accident will change her. It might break her. I don’t know to what extent, but what she needs is her family backing her up, being there for her, not demonising her and having her compared to the black sheep of the family, essentially threatening to disown her for not dying for your pathetic cause!” He snapped. The words made Bruce flinch slightly, though he hid it by looking down and making it seem like a long blink. Deep down, no matter how much it hurt, he knew Jason was right. He still didn’t know how to handle situations like these. He didn’t understand Jason, and he didn’t understand you. But Jason did. And so, with great reluctance, Bruce spoke up. 

“You know her best. What should I do? To help her?” He asked quietly, just above a whisper. This seemed to be the right answer, snuffing out Jason’s fuse, at least for a moment. 

“When everyone gets back, you explain to them what happened. Carefully. You tell them how Y/N was attacked by a serial killer, and in self defense, killed him. You tell them how she’s clearly shook up by the event, because she is. You make sure they don’t see her as another criminal, because if she feels like the people who are supposed to have her back are turning on her for this… then she will turn into me, and trust me, no one wants that. Especially me.”

Hope you like it! If you have any questions, please send them in! 

*Not my gif

TAGS:  @freyathehuntress  @courtneychicken​  @graysonmalfoy​ @bellero​ @originalpottervengerlock​ @supernatural-pan​ @esoltis280​ @lady-of-lies​ @lenaswritingandstuff @macbetheliza @mandywholock1980​ @cdwmtjb8​ @caswinchester2000​ @determinedpines​ @huntheimpossible

[leonawriter]

If you think about it, the Yaldabaoth Deal Ending of the base game is basically Akira’s version of Maruki’s reality.

No one has to worry about anything, because god [Akira] solves all of their problems for them. While Maruki adjusts reality through cognition, Joker, under the name of the Phantom Thieves (regardless of whether the others are still around or if they’re still locked up in the Velvet Prison), continues to change hearts.

But while it’s the ultimate end of Akira’s saviour complex, playing into the darker side of his wanting to save and reform the world practically single-handedly, and how he can summon what’s basically a demon, it also goes against his principles as someone who’s been going through the Fool’s Journey, growing and learning past himself.

If this had been anything like the previous two entries, this would have been the turning point where the Fool Arcana undergoes some sort of transformation, and after this point reuniting with the Phantom Thieves would unlock Judgement, but Judgement was already taken up by Sae for the sake of framing the story up until the end of November.

So, effectively, it’s out of character (sorry to those who like it!) for the True Ending, just as the Accomplice route in P4G is OOC for Yu’s true ending.

I use those terms because some thoughts came to mind on seeing it referred to as the ending where he “saves all his friends but two, Akechi and Mona” and then talking about how it affects Morgana, as the incarnation of humanity’s hope (Morgana isn’t seen in that ending at all).

The way it relates to Morgana is - to me - simple and straightforward, because in a reality where everyone is relying on a higher power, and they’ve all given up free will and the ability to choose for themselves, the idea of “hope” (which Morgana embodies) is no longer needed. He... likely disappears the same way the Thieves do before Yaldabaoth’s deal is offered.

Akechi, though, is more down to interpretation, but I think it’s like this-

Akechi’s entire purpose in the plot up until this point has been to be the antithesis of what the Phantom Thieves represent. He goes on TV and says to the world “The Phantom Thieves are wrong for forcing someone’s mind into a shape they prefer, and effectively brainwashing them.” 

During the events of the game, many of targets - not all but many - are beyond the reach of the law, and there’s literally no other way for the victims to gain justice other than through “sacrilegious acts” for the sake of their own justice. And yeah, I’m implying Akira has at least some understanding that Changes of Heart aren’t things good, decent people do. But just as Arsène says, he’s willing to get his hands dirty.

Left unchecked, the Phantom Thieves can let things go to their heads, as we see prior to the Okumura arc, and it’s only by having someone who stands against them, that they’re balanced out, and that we can reach January. We SEE how Akechi fights against Maruki, and everything he stands for. 

So with that in mind, where IS Akechi in the Deal ending?

In my eyes, either he’s dead (possible, especially if you didn’t max his confidant in time, or if you go with “he was resurrected with the power of gay when reality got fixed in February”), or... he’s left in disgust, because Akira has become the very thing that Akechi hates the most. Someone who brainwashes people, who forces others’ hearts into a shape he prefers, and who takes away their control and free will.

It’s easy to imagine that the Yaldabaoth deal where, in spite of Akechi being the god of control’s original choice, and is the one where Akira works with Yaldabaoth, is actually one of two ways you can effectively reverse Akechi’s Confidant. One would be by taking Maruki’s deal (he even says “the deal’s off” when he leaves) and another would be here, because what is “confidant” other than “one you can trust in confidence,” and how can you call a person that if you can’t trust them anymore?

[thaliajoy-blog]

I've been thinking about Blue Eye Samurai, Mizu...and the Phoenix Crest of the Bride & the Ronin story.

Cause the first thing I associate with phoenixes is resurrection (though I'm not sure the actual japanese phoenix works like that - but it's an American production after all). Like in the Tale, the Bride comes back after being killed by the Ronin (with the phoenix at her side). And in Blue Eye Samurai, many time does Mizu almost meet death. She's injured, she's stabbed, and she makes it out alive. But in relation to the story of how the Bride died & became and Onryō...it looks like maybe Mizu has symbolically died several times, and come back several times and each time has an effect on her.

The first time she's stabbed, the result is rather positive. She's thrown off the "demon path" of hatred, finds her mother back, rediscovers her identity as a woman, and falls in love. Like the Ronin, hatred has weakened her, and love has given her her strength back. But that first stab is followed by another metaphorical stab ; Mikio/her mother's betrayal (both are probably blended as she suspects them both & loses them both). And also if you want to go that far it happens right after she first has sex with someone, that she's "penetrated" (which would explain her distant & disdainful relation to it later). And that one reverses everything. She's an Onryō again. All she'd claimed back she abandons. She only takes a weapon improvement with her, something to be more efficient to kill (the naginata). She's changed for the worse, like in the story.

Since her next stabbing when she's against the thousand claws army parallels that sad story, it also makes her "come back" even worse. She refuses to be considered a samurai or to keep a code of ethics. She hurts both Ringo & Akemi, betraying their trust in her.

The next time she's almost dead is after raising Fowler's castle & failing to kill him - she gets badly hurt on the way up and then receives a bullet that wounds her and breaks her own sword - but she manages to save Taigen. She's a bit better this time, and it coincides with love/friendship again - that she feels for Ringo, and kinda for Taigen (also romantic undertones there). But Swordfarther still identifies her as lost - the storm in her "rages beyond control". She's still too deep in the demon's path. She has come back still eager to draw blood.

So, he advises her to light a fire. Mizu generally goes to water, and is directly associated, but there she steps out of her element (though it reminds me of the "an ember can light the way" bit in the beginning - she's far from disconnected from that element). And she goes to the element associated to the fiery phoenix. She completes the melting of her sword, she completes a cycle of healing/rebirth. She even symbolically deals with her broken relation to sex, as she uses a technique Madame Kaji showed her in her brothel & her scene is paralleled with Akemi having fullfilling sex with her husband.

She is then truly reborn, and even if she doesn't stray from the demon's path, & the fire grows, leading to the burning of Edo.

And also the aspect of the "revelation of a particular bloodline" given that Mizu's parentage is under suspicion and we might expect an exceptionally noble origin to warrant all this effort (and money) put into killing her and thus making sure her existence isn't known.

[mystic-shadows42]

I’m not sure if you accept requests or not at the moment, but i’d like to request Superman/Clark Kent with a Nanno!Reader. To summarize what Nanno is, she’s an immortal being, and the bringer of karma (good and bad). — So basically, the reader was killed, and Clark saw the reader die and was upset, holding her dead body, and crying. But, he (surprisingly) didn’t know that the reader was standing behind him, until she spoke something (can be his name, or something else.. idk lolz) Have a good day/night! :)

Request: Immortality

A/N: Not sure if I'll do this writing justice or not but I gave it a good try. 

Clark dropped down to his knees and held your body into his arms cradling your head. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't able to save you."

You could feel the subtle touch of Clark’s hand brush over your hair. Your body was stiff and cold but your mind was very much alive. The resurrection process was taking effect. You heard Clark mourn over you and it was heartfelt that he missed you so much.

Clark had an energy about him that reflected in his personality. He was good. He cared about everyone, whether good or bad and wanted to help wherever he could.

He did after all just witness you die in front of his very eyes but the fact he took the time to lay you down in a more peaceful area which you can only assume was near the ocean with the sound of the waves in the background was endearing.

It showed that he cared. That he didn’t think of you as any other person who simply died and was forgotten. 

There was only a handful of people in your life that firstly, never truly understood or felt comfortable with your deemed ‘gift’ but Clark paid no mind. He knew the troubles of being the outsider with abilities and trying to shy away from the world but being thrust into it regardless.

The feeling in your hands came back and you could feel him lightly squeeze your hand. Slowly the feel of his hand over yours stopped letting you know that he had let go and was about to depart.

While Clark was overwhelmed by the emotions hitting him full force he didn't notice that you stood behind him. You squinted your eyes in Clark’s direction trying to adjust to the light. In your vision, you could see Clark’s shoulders slunk and not broad as he usually had them.

"Kal-El, I'm right here." Clark’s body went rigid but he didn’t turn around right away. It was almost as if he himself couldn’t believe that he actually heard your voice. “It’s really me.”

This time when he heard your voice he turned. His cape fluttered in the wind making him appear to be the powerful presence that everyone talked about whenever he was around. You felt comforted and protected.

His lips parted and his brows narrowed slightly in confusion.

“I saw you die,” he whispered in disbelief.

You raised your hands slightly at your sides. “Perks of being immortal. Dying not being the fun part but coming back to make amends for those who can’t.”

Clark walked closer until he stood just in front of you. He then raised his hand and rested it on your cheek. The contact felt familiar and welcoming. You could see the gleam in his teary-like eyes. Before you could utter a word to comfort him, he had brought his arms over you in a tight embrace.

Caught off-guard but not one to break it up so soon, you brought your arms over him as best as you could and rested your head against his shoulder.

“I never want to witness your death ever again. I can’t bear the thought of losing you forever wondering if you’ll ever come back.”

You gripped onto his suit in reassurance. “I promise you’ll never lose me.”

You could feel the tension of relief drop away from his body at your promise. It was a sort of consolation that Clark needed. He needed to hear that you were safe and here with him. There was peace in him at last.

[punsandposes]

"Static Recall"

1.2k, Jason Todd x reader, incomplete

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Chapters: 1, ongoing

Summary: "Jason Todd wasn't meant to be resurrected. He'd come back wrong, his magic shifted, and his soul damaged.

You're the first to attend the Academy in your family, a mage with a water affinity, and keep bumping shoulders with a fellow student whose magic isn't familiar.

Or, you could guess, there's something not quite right with that Todd boy."

Tags: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Body Horror, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Magic-Users, Resurrected Jason Todd, Resurrection, Mental Health Issues, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Eldritch, Blood and Gore, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Dark Fantasy, Multiple Crossovers, POV Alternating, Necromancy, Hallucinations, No use of y/n, Hurt/Comfort, Tentacles, Mind Manipulation, Dungeon, Lazarus Pit Madness (DCU), Lazarus Pit Side Effects (DCU), Post-Lazarus Pit Jason Todd, Elemental Magic, Horror Elements, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

Personal Notes: I'm so excited to write this because I'm finally going to write the eldritch madness I've been itching to write for years with a magic system. Also, if you've read any of the Scholomance series, it greatly influenced this.

[autumnbrambleagain]

like wow I can't believe they let Lana Wachowski make the matrix 4

the first 30 minutes of the movie is literally just her standing in front of a blank screen saying "Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you." for like 30 solid minutes

just looking at every redpillcel chud proudboy who appropriated her metaphors and going "fuck you" looking at everyone who took away nothing but bullet time going "fuck you" looking at the world for getting so fucking bad and going "fuck you" talking directly to warner bros and saying "fuck you" for making her make a new one, i can't list everything because my woman went on for 30 solid minutes and did not even repeat a single fuck you it was 30 minutes of solid fuck yous

and then the rest of the movie is a matrix movie in the barest fucking sense at all it is medieval allegory level of a matrix movie okay i'm talking we got characters named Do-Goode and Righte-Living and they're on a quest to find the fabled city Submission-To-My-Lord-In-Adversity medieval allegory level of a movie ok

every FUCKING line every character says is on 3 levels of medieval allegory level no one has a throwaway line that isn't metareferential to the movie itself, the act of watching and judging the movie, the effects the movie had on society vs the effects they had hoped it would have,

characters appearing just to talk to the wachowskis and keanu and the original staff literally saying shit like "i grew up on stories about you, neo, even if you think you didn't change the world how you wanted, it still meant something to us, look at the life we built because of what you made"

like there's literally a new city where machines and humans live together and neo's like "i wanted to end the war entirely :c" and the characters are like "yes, but look at what our side has become at least c: " and like the metalayer is so fucking paper thin this isn't a movie about "what happens 60 years after the last matrix movie" this is "what happens 20 years after we released the last matrix movie in real life no for real"

the villain is LITERALLY and METAFICTIONALLY using neo and trinity to his own perverted ends twisting what their story was meant to be about and forcing them to be together even when they were supposed to be dead and the sequel is them going "well if you're forcing our story to not be over we're going to rebel and make it about what we want it to be about"

the movie literally ends with lana wachowski walking onto screen and dragging david zaslav out of his chair in the WB headquarters and going "hey fuck you for making me make a new matrix movie, fuck you, but thanks for giving me a chance to try to make another big impact again, but still fuck you"

i don't think i've seen a single criticism of the movie that the movie didn't already predict and have an answer for in the movie itself

like there are people who are like "eehh but where was the humanity it was so meta" it's like my dude this is Piers Fucking Ploughman, you aren't watching this to see the continuing adventures of the story, we are well past where the story ended and now we're in full blown allegory town and if the first 30 minutes didn't prepare you for that then honestly buddy you need to go back to 9th grade english

"oooh but neo just uses force push every fight scene" yes it's making fun of you for wanting to be distracted by 20 minute long fight scenes and having neo be so fed up with this shit he just turns on wallhacks and cheats his way through every combat encounter

"uuooo it was so boring" my dude you walked into Synechode, New York and expected a popcorn thriller fuck you

"it felt very unnecessary" i'm sorry did you miss the central thesis of the movie which was "this is unnecessary, why are we being forced to make this, fuck you" ??

look at this revieww

"The Matrix Resurrections" carries on as if it has something important to impart to folks looking to see cats in mirrors and bullets in slow-motion. There is action, but it seems remarkably old-fashioned.

i went to the car wash, and it was just a bunch of nozzles spraying water on my car, what the fuck?

The film also stuffs itself with footage from the earlier films just to remind us – because the public is stupid, right? – that this is the same series but only serving to remind us that this is just the same old, same old but nothing like as good.

imagine going into a movie and missing the point of something so perfectly, it's like

honestly, i don't have a metaphor for how completely fucking DIRELY this idiot missed the entire point of the movie this is incredible, media literacy is fucking dead my dudes, which is also something the matrix 4 spends like 10 minutes of lana wachowski standing on screen on a white background just making eye contact with you going "fuck you. fuck you."

The plot is absurd and largely impenetrable, the visuals just a rehash of a visual style we’ve seen before and any superficial pleasure we might get from seeing Reeves as Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss return as Trinity (and a slightly larger-than-life turn from Neil Patrick Harris as The Analyst, creator of the new iteration of the Matrix) are quickly snuffed out as the film smothers us in a tidal wave of its own smug self-satisfaction and the mistaken belief that we’ll welcome this stuff back into our lives like some long-lost old friend. The Matrix Resurrections doesn’t even try to be metaphysical or pseudo-intellectual, it’s just content to regurgitate a concept quite happily and adequately explored 22 years ago but with absolutely nothing new to offer either narratively or visually. Frustrating, futile, and foolish, The Matrix Resurrections is largely utter guff.

imagine walking into a movie called "I am going to insult you if you fuck this up" and fucking it up and the movie spending 2 and a half hours going "Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you." and going "yeah i dunno it didn't feel very welcoming or friendly for some reason, i don't know if it had anything to say"

the movie literally has executives bring neo and trinity back from the dead and they spend the entire movie justifying their reunion because they weren't supposed to survive or be together again and people out here really be like "but you just gave us neo and trinity again, why did you think it would just work like that?" and meanwhile they're hallucinating because all that's on the screen is keanu and carrie-anne going "fuck you. fuck you. fuck you."

The rehashed story is convoluted, existing under the guise that if you can't follow along, it's because you aren't smart enough to understand.

so you weren't smart enough to follow along, huh? that's okay, art movies aren't for everyone. let's see the rest of your review let's see,

Some of the scenes (and even lines of dialogue) are almost identical to the movie’s predecessors. It’s the same movie with slight changes, much like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” or “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” and it relies too much on nostalgia and the goodwill of sci-fi fans.

yeah buddy it's maybe not that the movie is too convoluted, it's that maybe you have 0 media literacy and you shouldn't be a film critic. holy fuck is this all it takes to be a film critic? you don't have to be media literate at all?

you guys walked into an art movie that was just keanu reeves, carrie-anne moss, and lana wachowksi standing on a blank screen saying "Fuck you" for two and a half hours, and you half-hallucinated an action movie and somehow came away disatissfied the action movie you were hallucinating wasn't as cool and hip as you had hoped it would be

fuck you

matrix 4 unironically one of my favorite movies absolute fucking masterclass of 300 cuil metalayer infiniteoroborous commentary 1000 years artistic triumph

[melmedardasworld]

It is interesting that modern Bennetts are presented as being so dedicated to keeping the balance of Nature, yet every time, they do something insane that shapes the entire supernatural world and disrupts everything.

They are out here messing with the rules of life and death and space and dimensions and worlds with those dimensions.

Emily designed the "Gilbert" rings as tools for resurrection. Another witch turned humans into supernatural beings by making them Hunters and also designed the daggers to put down an Original. Bonnie summoned her ancestors from the Peace realm (no one ever did that) through her psychic abilities. She could also interact in the realm of Limbo. Then we have the prison worlds that need Bennett blood.

Qetsiyah with the other side and immortality spell. She disrupted the original path for supernatural beings after death by creating an alternative Purgatory. Which, in turn, also opened the doors for the Schism between the travelers and the witches as we know them to happen. That inadvertently led to the surge of different types of magic branches to be explored by the witches coming after Qetsiyah. Cause the way the show introduced it, only pure magic was used. With the other side, we got spirit magic.

If the writers had the balls to expand on Qetsiyah and give her the whole Markos/Travellers curse storyline to her family unit, then tied it wit her descendants aka the Bennetts, I’d be so down for that. We could have gotten the Bennett lore of how things came to be with magic, the rules of nature and more.

Because the show keeps harping on this whole concept around “keeping balance of Nature”, and it’s just (often biased) dead witches regulating how a living witch should use their magic and even punish them if they don’t follow their rules. It's an interesting concept to show how flawed it actually was coming from the witches’s perspective, because ya’ll didn’t have to do all that.

Because there is also the enigma Nature that existed since the beginning of time and where magic comes from. It is this unbiased and unconscious entity keeping things in check and operating smoothly in a way. It course corrects even with all the vampires, werewolves, immortals, etc. in the mix that were created by these same witches. I honestly think that given time, these creatures and existences would just be seen as ‘normal’ to nature and part of the whole supernatural cycle. I mean, look at the Immortals. The only side effect Nature had was the birth of the doppelgangers popping up to balance immortals ‘dying’ in a sense, and it was done an over with.

Also, with this plot it could have been a perfect chance to showcase the infighting that still happened between witches or even the Bennetts and introduce more distant family members for Bonnie who did or didn’t follow the rules. It was already established that Bonnie’s family comes from the Travellers so why introduce the Parkers / Markos for that? Heck, they could’ve even made Markos Qetsiyah’s brother… since they had plans to introduce her family unit, but didn’t and we got another cycle of Stelena and the love triangle.

At this point, does Bonnie’s line serve nature, or have they conquered it in such a way with their feats that it bends to their whims?

[docholligay]

Overwatch currently has a theme event with an alternate universe where Talon and Overwatch characters have swapped (There's even a voice line where Widow hisses at Tracer that one of the newer heroes (Ramattra) to Talon in the game 'only wanted peace' clearly swapping their cinematic roles). Obviously they're just doing it 'for fun' with no convincing narrative reason for doing so (maybe they've said something to this effect but I haven't caught it and don't care; it wouldn't be convincing coming from them).

This is all to say, if you were asked to write out how the characters you play with ended up on the other side, how would you go about it? (I'm curious about either/or the entire side changing swaps or just personal character profiles on how they individually might have ended up on the other side.)

Your versions of these characters are so much more interesting, so I just had to bring this idea to you and see what content I could squeeze out =P

Oh wow, what a terrible idea! But so fun, let's do this.

Fareeha I don't think would be so hard to do this to, IF you got to her before she had decided that Overwatch was the correct course of action. Fareeha is rigid, and inflexible, and if you convinced her that the only way to bring order to the world, to make the world fall into place in a way that made sense, was to join Talon, i think she would do it. But I think you would have to get her young.

I would love to believe she's spiteful enough to join Talon because her mother blocked her from joining Overwatch, but I don't actually think that's true, i think Fareeha is much too principled for that shit. So maybe I actually do think it's harder, I just think that IF she decided this, it would be damn near impossible to deradicalize her. Once she believes a thing, she believes it to the bone.

Lena. If I were going to turn Lena, I would not have Winston be the one to find her, take care of her, and watch over her when she got ripped out of time. he can find her, even, but if they hadn't had the chance to bond, if she'd woken up and she's disabled now, and her father is dead, and they deliberately hid the truth about what happened to her, and she's being kept from everything she loves, and she feels ALONE...I can see her taking any bargain from Talon, and being so furious with Overwatch that she is going to burn the whole thing to the ground.

I do think that, unlike Fareeha, she would come around back later and think "Hm. Might've put me foot in it, there." But the line for me is very clear with her because unlike Fareeha, I can seeing her putting immense weight into her personal anger and hurt.

Winston is the easiest. Wherever Lena goes, he will follow, after they connect and bond. He'll think it's stupid, he'll think they're actively doing the wrong thing, but if Lena goes, he won't know how to oppose her (I do not think this is a good trait of his)

Angela, she might be the hardest. Given what Talon is, and given what I think about her personal moral code and background, I'm having a lot of trouble carrying her over. I have her turn on Overwatch, and think it maybe shouldn't be resurrected, but for Angela, the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. That's not how she works fundamentally as a person. She can have a big ol hating Overwatch party, and hate Talon on top of it. Angela Ziegler has two hands.

So i don't know, for her.

Hana, well she spends so much of her life sort of out of Talon's reach that it would be difficult for them to find her enough to make it happen. I mean, maybe she's fucking pissed about magic only being real in japan, apparently, or something like that, but by and large I don't think we've seen a lot of Talon's presence in east asia.

If I set that aside, I can see them appealing to her at JUST the right moment, when she's tired of being "D.va! Product!" and wants to really have a command of her own life and not be Korea's top PR character. This is something I think is fun to have her struggling with anyway, and when i get back to writing more I intend to delve into it. So tempting her with the idea of being Hana Song, of never having to blow bubblegum and pose like she's a naive 14 year old ever again, of being a true force to be reckoned with and allowed to be just that? I could see her taking the brass ring.

Remind me some other time and i'll try to do the other way round!