#specifically the scene where they heard the news of earth ships coming and did that little handshake they somehow conjured or

[ruporas]

cheers to the future of humanity (and the future of us)

[ID: Digital illustration in color of Vash and Wolfwood from Trigun. The illustration takes place during the ship/home arc, specifically chapter 21. At the center, Vash is grabbing Wolfwood by the collar and pulls him into a kiss in the middle of a celebration. The pair is colored in vibrant warm hues while their surroundings are colored in cooler colors like green and teals. Luida, Brad, Meryl, and Milly are shown amongst the crowd, occupied in the celebrations as Vash and Wolfwood share a moment by themselves at the center. END ID]

[avengerscompound]

Moving On - Chapter 18

Moving On: A Falcon & Captain Marvel Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Sam Wilson x F!Reader, Carol Danvers x F! Reader

Word Count:  1941

Rating:  E

Warnings:  slight angst

Synopsis:  You thought Sam Wilson was the love of your life.  You had planned to do it all with him - marriage, kids, see the world.  Even when you’re life gets turned upside down, and you both end up international fugitives, he’s there by your side.

Then Thanos comes.

When Sam is one of the many turned to dust, leaving you alone and pregnant, you don’t think you’ll ever stop grieving.  Yet, everyone tells you that Sam would want you to move on and live your life - that he’d want you to be happy. Gradually you open your heart up to another.  Carol Danvers has lost people too.  First her daughter, then her wife.  As the two of you lean on each other, feelings grow and you move on together.

So what happens when Sam is returned to you?

Chapter 18: Carol

Life on the Alpha Flight Space Station was good.  It had taken a few months to adapt, but once you did, you couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.  There was so much you loved about it.  Even if you had just gotten the chance to be in space you could say it was worth it.  The experience of moving through the galaxy and seeing stars and planets most humans couldn’t even see from Earth was unbelievable.  Every day you were greeted with some new and awe-inspiring thing.  There was nothing mundane here.  It was all an experience.

The space station itself was so far ahead of the technology on Earth it was baffling.  There were pods for all the inhabitants to get their dose of light based on their specific species’ needs.  For you and Kit it was UVB.  You’d take her to the pod and turn on a beach scene and the two of you would play in the fake sun building holographic sandcastles.  There were fully immersive game pods and you could video call Earth no matter where in the galaxy you were.

Along with that, it was equipped to keep its people happy and entertained.  There was daycare and schools. Bars and Nightclubs.  Playgrounds and cinemas.  Pools and Gyms.  There was never a lack of things to do nor people to do it with.

You loved the people.  You’d built yourself a new friend group from the alien life that inhabited the space station.  You had other parents that you had the equivalent of coffee with while your kids played.  You had people who would babysit while you and Carol and a group of friends went to karaoke.  You had a book club and people you had drinks with when Carol was on a mission.  You had friends again who didn’t look at you and see Sam’s widow.  They just saw you.

There was work too.  You had a purpose that wasn’t just being a mom and a girlfriend.  You were taught to pilot a ship and you’d go on missions, and you were put in charge of collating data collected by others when they were on missions - figuring out what priority things took and who needed to see what.  You felt useful and like you were part of things again.

And then there was Carol.

You were in love and you stopped thinking of her as your girlfriend but as your wife.  As the years passed and Kit learned to speak in full sentencing and she stopped being a toddler and became a little girl, she started calling Carol ‘mama’.  You were a family and while there was still grief for Sam, and you made sure you told Kit about him every day, you were happy and felt like part of a family again.

For almost three years you had been living in space.  You still went home to see Sarah and her boys, Nat, Steve, Tony, and Bruce, but this was your home.

You were in the kitchen preparing something for dinner when you heard the woosh of the door and Kit’s excited, “Mama!”

It had taken a little while to get the hang of cooking with alien ingredients but Sorren had given you a few lessons and some recipes and while there had been some real disasters, you’d gotten the hang of it.

“Hey, Kitten,” Carol said, scooping Kit up into her arms.  “Did you have fun at preschool?”

“Ralas pretended to be me during lunch and we pretended I could run really fast,” Kit said excitedly.

Carol laughed.  “What a good prank.  I bet your teacher was so surprised.”

“She was!”  Kit said, bouncing up and down in Carol’s arms.

Carol carried her into the kitchen and moved up close beside you, kissing you on the cheek.  “Smells good in here,” she said.  “Sorry that the cooking fell to you again.”

You shrugged.  “You can’t help being the boss.”

“Still,” she said.  “I’ll organize someone to babysit Kit and I’ll take you out on a proper date in a couple of days.  How does that sound?”

You hummed and nosed at her cheek.  “That sounds wonderful.”

She captured your lips and Kit tried to wiggle away from you both.  “Yuck,” she grumbled, making Carol pull back with a laugh.

“How about we go make the table for mommy?” she said, putting Kit down.

“Okay!” Kit agreed, going to the drawer and pulling out the silverware.

Carol patted your ass as she pulled away.  “I have something I need to talk to you about later.”

You turned to her and raised your eyebrows.  “What is it?”

“Later,” she said.  “It’s probably nothing, but … later.”

The looming ‘talk’ made you anxious through dinner, and family time, and the time you spent getting Kit into bed.   By the time the two of you were alone, you felt like a tightly wound spring.

“So what is it?” you asked as soon as the door to Kit’s bedroom was closed.

“I got a call from Nat,” Carol said, gesturing for you to come and sit beside her.  “Well, two actually.  The usual weekly check-in by the Avengers, and then a bit later.”  She paused and let out a breath.  “I’m sorry this is probably going to come across garbled because I don’t know who they were talking about or what they actually think they can do.”

“What they can do about what?” you pressed, coming to take a seat.

“So a guy showed up.  Ant-man?” Carol said.

“Scott?  Scott was one of the ones that turned to dust,” you said.  “Does that mean…”

“Honey,” Carol said, taking your hands and stroking her thumbs over the back of them.  “Let me finish.”

“Sorry,” you said sheepishly.

“So apparently he wasn’t one of the ones lost.  When it happened he was collecting something from what Nat said he called the quantum realm.  According to this guy, he was down there five hours but when he came out five years had passed.  He thinks that they can use that to time travel.”

“What?” you asked, completetely struck dumb by the idea.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Carol said.  “So… obviously they want to undo what Thanos did.”

“But won’t that mean we won’t have ever met?” you asked.

“I don’t think it will work like that,” Carol said.  “We already lived that life.  It happened.  I’m here with you and we have a nice life and a beautiful daughter.  If that doesn’t happen then there will be no reason for anyone to create time travel to stop an event that doesn’t occur.”

“That made my brain hurt,” you complained.

“You get what I’m saying though right?” you said.

“Yeah.  Can’t change something that already happened,” you said.  “So what do they think they’re going to do?”

Carol huffed and shrugged.  “I don’t know exactly.  Something about getting the infinity stones and just bringing everyone back now.”

You didn’t know what to say.  It sounded crazy.  From the process to the idea that suddenly the galaxy would double its population.  You worried about the safety of it.  You doubted whether it was possible.  But one thing that sat right at the front of your mind was Sam.

“Honey,” Carol said gently, caressing the backs of your hands.  “You know what that could mean though.”

“Sam…” you whispered.

“Yeah,” Carol confirmed.

It felt like the walls were getting smaller and the air was being sucked from the room.  Five years ago all you ever wanted was for Sam to come back.  You had loved him so much that losing him had felt like you had lost part of yourself.  Things had changed since then.  You had - at the encouragement of his friends and family - moved on.  You had now been with Carol for longer than the time you had been with Sam.  While you weren’t married, you considered her your wife.  You loved her fiercely.  You loved your life with her.

The thing was, you still loved Sam.  You still missed him every day.  You would look at Kit and see him in her and long for him.  You wore the ring he gave you on a chain around your neck.  There were framed photos of him around the apartment.  Of course, you wanted him back but what would having him back even mean?

Five years had passed for you.  You weren’t the same person as you had been back then.  You’d been robbed of the chance of aging with him.  If he came back now would he have experienced the lost time too? Would he have moved on from you?  Or would it be like the snap of a finger for him and he’d expect you to be here exactly as you were?  How badly would it hurt him to see you with someone else?  How badly would it hurt him to see Kit and for him to know he missed all those years?  How would Kit react to meeting her dad?

You started to hyperventilate and Carol dropped to her knees in front of you and cradled your cheeks.  “Breathe, honey.  You’re still here with me.”

“What… what… if he comes back…?” you babbled.

“It hasn’t happened yet,” Carol said.  “And it’s not bad.  Honey, you’d get to have Sam back.  I know you’re thinking all the worst things right now.  How he might not accept that you’re with me and all the other worst-case scenarios.  But this is the man you love.  The man you were going to marry.  He’s Kit’s father.  Kit gets to have her dad who you tell her about every day.  This is good.”

“I love him, Carol,” you said, still breathing heavily.”

“I know, sweetheart,” she assured you.  “I know you do.”

“I love you too,” you said.

“I know that too,” Carol said.  “Breathe with me.  Deep breaths.”

You followed along, breathing in and out slowly.

“Nothing has happened yet,” Carol said.  “Nothing.  It just might happen.  I don’t even know if they have an actual idea of how to do this.  It’s just hope right now.  But … I wanted to tell you this now in case it does.  Because; what you’re feeling, it’s going to be so much worse for him.  So you need to be ready for how he takes it.  He might just be relieved to have you back.  But chances are he’ll be devastated he missed so much of Kit’s life.  That’s how I felt about Monica when I got my memory back.  So you have to think about what you want.  Do you want to go back to him?”

“Carol…” you sobbed.

“Hey, hey,” she soothed.  “I don’t expect you to be able to answer that yet.  It’s just a thing for you to think about.  If you do, what does that mean?  Or maybe you don’t.  But honey, I’m here for you.  Whatever happens.  I love you so much.  And I need you to know I’ve got your back.  And remember when you met me I was with someone else.  I can share.  So if that’s what you want, I’ll share.”

You started crying properly.  You didn’t quite know why you were so emotional about this.  He wasn’t back yet, and maybe that was part of the problem.  There were so many potentials here and the biggest one was that you were getting your hopes up and in the end, it would feel like you lost him again.

Carol pulled you into her arms, picking you up off the ground and carrying you to your bedroom.  She held you as you cried yourself to sleep in her arms.

// NEXT

[greyias]

Time to go Full Gravedrog

Hey guys. You know what we haven’t done in a while? That’s right! Put on our tinfoil hats, get tangled up in an entire spool of red string, and do a ridiculous deep dive on lore and make up wild insane theories about the upcoming story drop!

That’s right we’ve got some--

First up. If you haven’t watched it already, here’s the trailer for the 6.2 story drop, specifically for the storyline we’ll be doing our deep dive on, Echoes of Oblivion.

Are you pumped? I’M PUMPED. Let’s do this!

Okay, so there’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m going to state outright, that the chances of this being on the money like Gravedrog is... well. I’ve got no lottery numbers for you this time around. I can’t believe no one took me up on that offer.  There’s always the possibility the storyline has absolutely nothing to do with any previously established lore, and they create something wholly new. And hey, if that’s the case, this is just free fanfic fodder for the masses.

But Charles did mention, I believe on the forums(?), that he’s seen one person guess what’s going on. The real question is... WHO GUESSED IT. HMM.

So I’ve been wanting to actually do a post on this a while, at least since Arcann’s voice actor accidentally made the slip up about Thexan being in this story drop. A large part of this theory/discovery goes to the lovely @confettininjabean​​, who found this piece of lore when we were getting tangled up in red string back in the Gravedrog days, pre-Nathema Conspiracy. Let’s just say, there was a... certain interaction on Twitter that had us thinking this had something to do with NC, and when it didn’t pan out we were like “Oh, weird, guess that wasn’t on the right track” and forgot about it.

Well, sort of. Because we were like, “that really seemed significant considering”, but hey, sometimes you hit upon a Gravedrog, sometimes you think Indo Zal is an evil mastermind playing 4D chess. In other words, when it comes to red string theories, you win some. You lose some.

Anyway. I forget why, but I went perusing on Wookieepedia a few months ago, looking back up this sort of obscure piece of lore for some reason. And something about it was.... FAMILIAR.

The article in question: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Thought_bomb

May I direct your attention, to this part:

Hey. Where have I heard that before?

Aw. Aw shit. Well I mean, that can’t be right though, right? Because it’s Satele and a bunch of Jedi/like-minded Force users that are being possessed right? And besides this is an an ancient Sith ritual thought to be created by... 

Oh.

Oh wait.

But that’s a plague right? Not the same thing as a thought bomb. I mean it’s not like anyone in SWTOR has dealt with a Force plague--

Oh. huh. But you might say, “But Grey, that plague was invented by Terrak Morrhage, not Vitiate.” And you would be right! What I can’t seem to find confirmation of, thus far, is exactly when Terrak Morrhage lived, but by me and Jayde’s current reckoning, it seems like he may have been around possibly during the Great Hyperspace War, the end of which Vitiate used in his mad grab for immortality and power, manipulating what was probably a majority of the remaining Sith Lords into his brand spanking new ritual that he just needed a little help with.

Okay, and this is where we leave lore land, and enter into speculation land. I, um, just got sidetracked on Jedipedia (I’ll get to that), trying to find a codex entry regarding Vitiate I know I’ve read but I lost at some point. So, we’re going off memory here, but I’m fairly certain it’s stated in canon somewhere that prior to his ascension, Vitiate was obsessed with Sith alchemy and ancient Sith rituals. So if Morrhage pre-dated him, or was a peer, it’s possible Vitiate was able to learn about his plague, and adapt it to some of his other experiments.

Okay, back to the thought bomb for a moment. Full disclosure, I haven’t read the Darth Bane novels, so I’m going off of Wookiepeedia here instead of the source material (which is always a dicey affair), it says Bane adapted the thought bomb from notes on the ritual Vitiate performed. So, it’s possible the thought bomb is not a 100% Vitiate original, just a bastardization of it. But it’s interesting that the ritual itself gathers up and shreds the Force essence/soul of everyone in its path. Well, I mean, horrifying. But in this theory’s perspective, interesting in that when Vitiate used Zildrog as part of his ritual--where did all of the Force go exactly?

Because as you wander around Nathema, you hear the tortured whispers of every soul obliterated during that ritual.

This is talked about a little in the Revan novel, and it’s been a few years since I read it so I’m kind of going off memory again, but he basically created a void in the Force there. And remember... in the KOTET chapter we went to Nathema, he was actually visibly afraid a few times. Hmm... now why would that be? Was it Vaylin he was afraid of? Was it something else?

If memory serves, there wasn’t an actual explosion like as described with the thought bomb--because he wasn’t using the ritual as a weapon. He was using it to gather power, to shuffle off this mortal coil and live eternal as an annoying spirit who you just can’t quite squash out no matter how many mind mazes you build to keep him locked up. So, and again, this is speculation land, but all of that swirling Force and dead energy had to go somewhere right? I mean, Zildrog had his snack and went omnomnom, but where did the Force power go? And why was there a Void that constantly pulled at him and sapped away his power on Nathema?

Is it because the Force didn’t explode? Is it because he bound it up in his old disgusting decaying old man flesh? And the only reason he was alive because he basically made himself a little flesh horcrux that was destroyed at the exact moment we sent him off to the Void that he feared so much?

Hmm. Interesting.

Wait. Wait a second... I think there was something else he mentioned. Now, what was it?

You know, I had always assumed he was talking about Gravedrog being unleashed, since the whole reason he went to Zakuul was likely to find the Gravestone so he could pair it with Zildrog back on Nathema, and enact his galaxy-wide extinction event.

And maybe he was.

Or was he talking about his failsafe.

The one he knew would happen if someone destroyed his old, withered, icky body?

So... if the ritual/plague is some take on the thought bomb, and it infects any Force user like some prescient, who could have realized this is what 2020 held in store for us pandemic that spread rapidly and consumed everyone who touched it, until it made manifest what was once just thought...

Is the whole entire point of this to bring Valky back from the dead? Or is it just his last revenge? And what on earth would that last revenge be? Well... and just hear me out. Say there was this guy. Kind of an asshole. And he had this whole schtick about killing every single living thing in the galaxy and liked to consume whole planets in a single gulp just for funsies. Wouldn’t it be so funny if he, say, in the unlikely event he possessed some Outlander who happened to go “get out and get a job loser!” and booted him off to the beyond, and at the same time his old indentured servant and that chick he once possessed found his horcrux and destroyed that, wouldn’t it be a kick if that somehow kicked off a plague that consumed every single Force user in the entire galaxy until it had enough power and then exploded and completely wiped out all life in the galaxy, so that if the asshole who’s name totally isn’t Valkorion couldn’t live forever then neither could any. single. thing. in. the. galaxy.

I mean, that or it’s just a ploy to get him into one final boss fight.

But i dunno... I kind of just found the entire cast list of who’s in the Echoes of Oblivion storyline (warning, major spoilers and datamining on that link, and yes, that’s what distracted me on Jedipedia) and I’m kind of thinking. Having to keep the entire galaxy from being consumed by a sociopath’s final revenge kind of sounds like a pretty epic finale, don’t you?

And hey, if not. Free fanfic idea for anyone who wants it.

Oh yeah, also predicting the following:

We’re going on another mindscape adventure like in KOTET Chapter 9, but it’s Satele’s mind we’re in

It’s not actually Valkorion/Vitiate/Tenebrae, but a remnant/essence of him that’s made manifest by the ritual. Also he needs a combo nickname because I’m tired of having to pick one of three names. I shall call you Valkiatebrae. It’s a beautiful name. I know he’ll love it.

Vaylin and Thexan who we see in the trailer are probably also manifestations conjured by the quasi- Valkiatebrae

We’re going to Ossus? Or Ossus in Satele’s mind?

The Knight and crew missed a few of the death cult back in the storyline, and that’s who was either watching Tenebrae’s body, or who hijacked Satele’s ship OR they have some part in the ritual (perhaps the part to physically manifest  Valkiatebrae). We see them in the trailer above.

Regardless if any single one of these predictions is right I’m going to die of feels

Because I think Satele and Theron may have a scene together????? OMG

I’m screaming again

I’ll stop now

I’m sorry Charles I hope I didn’t do it to you again I couldn’t help myself, but hey at least I kept it in this long

EDITED TO ADD: Okay guys, I’ve been looking more at Jedipedia. I think I can safely hazard a guess that a LOT of fans of different characters are going to be super happy with this update. Just saying.

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Werewolf Thomas x Merman Sammy.

This might end up taking multiple chapters, in addition to me digging in too deep, this ship in general just gives off a petty enemies, to reluctant allies due to supernatural circumstances, to ‘hey you’re not as bad as I thought.’, to friends, to lovers vibe.

Occam's razor indicates that the simplest explanation to a scenario is also the most likely scenario to be the true one.

For example: when an animation studio suddenly closes down and gets condemned, people who are on the outside looking in are much more likely to blame the studio's poor money management than go look for some extraordinary truth. That, paired with the workers of the said studio also coming out to site the terrible conditions of the place as an added cause for the studio's demise. When people have to work long hours with little pay to show for it in a dingy, gloomy, constantly-falling-apart studio that clearly wasn't going anywhere except six feet under or lower, they aren't exactly motivated to work hard or happy.

The Hunger was intense, growing beyond mere gnawing and was now consuming the cursed mechanic. The first change he felt was his teeth, the Curse deciding it was easier to make them all fall out at once so his new ones would grow in. He cut up his own tongue on the newly-made fangs. Call it an act of mercy or an act of mockery, but the tongue followed the teeth's example, falling out altogether so that the tongue of a wolf could grow in.

No one batted an eye when a majority of the studio's former workers left with some of them being untraceable, the lucky ones moved on to greener and happier pastures, others simply got a change in scenery, and sadly, accidents happen all the time in such an unsafe studio, people got severely injured in there all the time, so it was gut-wrenching for many, but not a shock to discover that it was common for unlucky people to lose their lives in the Dancing Demon's domain.

His entire body burned on the inside and outside, taking off his clothes did nothing for him as his new, thick coat grew in, a coat that was the same pitch black as his hair, at least, most of it was. The change did not hurt as much as he thought it would. As painful as it sounded when his bones became a crackling choir that reminded him of fireworks, it was not pure agony, he was sore, afraid, and so, very, very, hungry, but he was physically fine.

No one suspected anything like somebody intentionally sabotaging the many pipes that pumped ink through the entire building, that would just be silly! It was more than obvious that the pipes got the same treatment as the rotting wooden walls: they were ignored until it was too late. With all the wood, paper, flammable ink, candles, no windows, and avid smokers in that place, it was only a matter of time before that place went up in flames.

Colors began to dim and fade out leaving him with vision that could only see black, white, and the several shades of gray inbetween them. The trade off with his senses made itself clear as his sense of smell and hearing both grew stronger, he could barely think as the smells and sounds his human self had been blind to came to him at full force, overwhelming the mechanic. He held back the urge to scream and call for help, he knew none would come, unless it was the dogcatcher at this point. However he would not hold back the urge to whine, whimper and cry, as pathetic as he looked and sounded, he would at least give himself that mercy, even if he didn't deserve it.

No one thought the ink machine was anything more but an expensive and stupid project that definitely sped up the studio's already fast decline, but only with it's mere presence. Honestly, a machine that made models out of ink, wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to make a statue of your beloved mascots out of plastic or something like that?

Thomas yelped in surprise when the tail grew in, it felt like somebody gave his spine a good sharp yank. He was furious, scared, even remorseful as he knew he was responsible for this happening to himself and possibly others knowing Mr. Drew, and by god, did he want to sink his teeth into something.

No one except for crazy cross-clutching worrywarts who want to spoil every one else's fun and or conspiracy theorists would assume that the Little devil darling who graced the comics and silver screens for at least a decade would have literal satanic magic going on behind the scenes, no matter how screwy the man in charge seemed.

He was starving all day ever since the ritual, but now that the changes were over, he felt hungrier than ever before, like his stomach was a black hole that would make him consume everything in his path.

No one would ever seriously suggest that magic was real and led to being the studio's final nail in the coffin instead of becoming its savior like it's founder had wanted it to.

In the moment, Thomas Conner believed that Occam's razor was bullshit.

The mechanic knew what he'd seen, he knew to an extent what he took part in, he saw what happened to some of the unluckier members of the "Missing" studio workers, and most importantly of all, he experienced what he just went through. There was no 'simple' or 'normal' explanation for it; the ritual failed and as a result, he and a handful of other people had gotten cursed.

Here the new wolf was, squeezing his now much larger body underneath his bed to do nothing but cower like a frighted animal while trying to convince himself not to panic or to eat his pet snake. Keeping his human mind at the moment was both a blessing and a cur- -some extra salt to rub into his fresh wounds.

On one hand, the fact he was still smart enough to know better than to jump out the window and follow his nose for food like his instincts were telling him to was a lifesaver that kept him safe from animal control. On the other hand; if he was a beast in mind, he would at least be doing something more productive than sulking in his apartment thinking about anything else other than how badly he got fucked over, how his life was in shatters and how he had nobody but himself to blame for it (Well, aside from Joey, but that wasn't the point).

While far from ideal, his current plan was to remain under that bed, try his best to go to sleep, and occasionally chew its legs to stop himself from going on a rampage. He might not be the most supernaturally informed person, but he had seen enough werewolf horror flicks to know that nothing good would come if he gave into his hunger or if he tried to leave. Best case scenario; he'd become as sick as a dog after eating something he found in the garbage. Worst case scenario; Somebody decides that he'd make a great living room rug and BANG!

And then, his ears perked up as he heard the song.

It was a simple, repetitive tune, made with a music box maybe? It was the first time he heard it yet it felt familiar to him. The song itself was muffled, used a lot of ambiance in its melody, and if he strained his ears enough, he could almost pick up the sound of a voice singing along with it, but it was far too faint for him to tell who or what was singing, let alone what the lyrics to the song were. It sounded nice in spite of it's strangeness, but it gave him goosebumps. He knew it wasn't playing from the radio, he only kept it on when he was fixing something at home.

The curious wolf struggled to push a window open with his snout to figure out where it was coming from. He was making progress, the song did sound slightly less muffled now that he was poking his head out the window. Was it just him, or did the tune become faster? And it was also louder and more frantic, and he swore that the constantly repeating motif sounded like something he knew. The mechanic never considered himself to be a man with a keen ear for music, but he knew he heard it before.

Three short notes, three slightly longer notes, three more short notes, again and again and again repeating endlessly...---...Wait a minute. Thomas didn't recognize that pattern from a song, he recognized that that was a call for help!

"Don't do it..." He grumbled to himself as he put his paws up on the windowsill. "You don't know what'll happen, or if you'll even get there in time. Just go back inside and you'll figure out what to do with yourself in the morning."

The song, almost as if it was aware he was trying to ignore it like he was ignoring his hunger, grew louder and faster.

"Don't give in..." The wolf turned back. "You can't help anyone like this anyway, you'll only end up hurting yourself."

It... started to die down, back to its regular, chilling melody and grew even softer. Flickering away like a candlelight in the cold.

"Don't..." The wolf let out a very tired sigh as he looked out the window. "Oh fuck me."

Thomas leapt out the window and sped towards the source of the song, not caring who or what saw him in the city that never sleeps, he bolted directly into the forest. He tried to block out the new sounds of various creatures he couldn't hear before as well as the new smells of the earth underneath his paws and the plants all around him.

Strange marks were on the ground, they looked like someone dragging themselves through the dirt and the marks themselves smelled vaguely of fish and ink.

The song, while faint was very close, he was hot on the mysterious caller's trail! In fact, the wolf's new sense of smell started to become useful as he picked up some familiar scents in the woods; the smell of ink, smoke from a fire, and the smell of cologne- Wait, he recognized that specific cologne, it was that fancy European brand that the "missing" hot-headed music director used to keep himself from smelling like cigar smoke, vomit, and despair.

And the voice of the singer in the distress call 'song' did sound like him now that he was close enough to hear it. He felt a pit of dread in his stomach that almost made him forget his hunger. He knew that the musician was far too prideful to call for help for anyone unless this was his very last option and his will to live made the difficult task of overpowering his ego.

Squelch.

Almost confirming his fears and adding a new one that he was too late, the mechanic made the mistake of looking down and saw that he stepped on a severed leg. A black, tar-like substance that smelled like ink and rotten meat was squeezed out of the part of the thigh that should've been attached to a person.

"...Mr. Lawrence?" He hesitantly called out, thankfully getting him an exhausted groan in response. "Lawrence, where are you?"

"Here." A hoarse yet relieved sounding voice answered. "Look down."

The wolf looked down into a shallow pool to see what had become of the musician. If he was being honest with himself, he wouldn't deny that the music director was always easy on the eyes, and while the curse effected him drastically, that fact about him didn't change.

The water was clear enough to show off the musician's jet black, fish-like tail which glistened in the moonlight, the still human half of his body went through some changes as well; his hands were webbed and clawed, unlikely to properly hold any instrument, let alone use it, his torso, arms, and neck had patches of black scales scattered about haphazardly like splashes of paint on a canvas. Aside from the siren's new set of teeth (which looked like they could haunt anyone's nightmares), waist-long hair when it was previously shoulder length hair, and glassier eyes, the man's head seemed relatively unchanged.

"Could you stop gawking!?" Sammy re-positioned himself to keep his tail out of sight, or at least he tried to, the damn thing was two thirds of his body and he didn't exactly have something to cover himself up with. "I'm not exactly 'thrilled’ about this... Change, for lack of a better term."

"That's one way to put it." The mechanic almost let out a sympathetic chuckle. "I’d never thought I’d be saying this, but it’s great to see you haven’t died yet.”

“Why thank you.” The merman sarcastically responded. “That’s exactly why I went through all the trouble of literally singing my fucking lungs out!” He exclaimed while gesturing to a pair of charcoal-black things that the wolf previously thought were rocks. “To hear you tell me that ‘it’s great I haven’t died yet’.”

The wolf rolled his eyes.

“So why did you go through all the trouble for summoning me here then? Aside from the whole ...fish thing, you seem perfectly fine.”

���It... wasn't intentional.” The fish-man begrudgingly admitted, his voice sounded bitter, but his eyes shone with fear. “I wasn’t thinking about who or what would hear me or come at the moment. My body was falling apart before my eyes and all that was on my mind during it was; ‘Oh god, I’m going to die here, aren’t I?! And if not, my life will be ruined beyond repair!’. And when I sang out as a panicked response, you became the first to show up. Nothing more, nothing less.”

The siren swam to the other side of his aquatic prison and sighed resignedly.

Tom’s ears folded back in guilt, It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the musician was cursed by the failed ritual HE played a giant part in. As strongly as he disliked the musician, it didn’t feel right to leave him like this; alone, scared, and immobile in a place that could even spell out his death if he was unlucky enough.

He walked over to the other side of the pool and laid down beside the edge of it.

“Hey, you don’t need water to breathe, right?”

The siren looked confused.

“I’ve been breathing air just fine, in fact, I think one of the few advantages to this new body is that it replaced my old lungs with healthier ones. Why are you asking?”

“Climb on my back and I’ll take you out of here, granted, I don’t know where we’re gonna go, but where ever it is, it’ll be better than sitting around waiting for your pool to dry up.”

The merman, while hesitant, did climb up on the wolf man’s back, wrapping his arms around his neck to keep him from falling off, the wolf stood up and ran deeper into the woods.

[barnesbabee]

Tonight You Belong To Me || K.H

Summary: Don’t fuck around where you shouldn’t be.

Pairing: Kim Hongjoong x Reader

Words: A fair share

Genre: Smut, Angst, Fluff

⚠ cheating, violence, spanking, choking, over stimulating ⚠

A/N: Quick note! I know ‘Con Te Partiró’ is a song from the late 1900 and the Titanic happened in the early 1900, but I went on a cruise and every time the cruise docked that song played so I thought it was fitting. Enojy 💖

ᴄʀ: ʙᴀʀɴᴇꜱʙᴀʙᴇᴇ

ꜱᴏɴɢ

It was the classical love story dispised by the socially imposed rules: two teenagers living in a hierarchy that obliged them to never date outside of their social circle. 

Hongjoong saw you the second you stepped in the docks. He watched you from the hatch of the bedroom he was staying in, all contorted and hunched over so he could take a better look at you. He could only dream from afar, however… He knew by way you were dressed in your tight, white, knee-length, button-up jacket and matching cartwheel hat that you would never settle for him, Hell, you would never even look at a lowlife like him… But he prayed that maybe you or your family would request a song, or maybe you’d want a special melody composed for you, and that’s where he’d come in. 

   When you stepped inside the ship and fell out of his line of vision his shoulders slumped and he sighed. The ship was enormous, odds are he wouldn’t be able to find you…

   Nevertheless, Hongjoong picked up his suit jacket and put it on for the departure ceremony. He played all of the concerts, it was tiring but once the owner of the ship had found a stupid kid that loved music and was in need of money he just extorted him as much as possible. Hongjoong didn’t mind, though… He got free food, a rent-free place and he played music as a job. His life would be perfect if it weren’t for the rich, snobby, stuck-up people who constantly looked down on him.

   He sighed and dusted off his old coat. It was the only one that he owned, but at least it was semi-fancy… It was good enough to decrease the nasty looks he was given at least.

    Whenever he left his room he never bothered to bother lock it, because what would anybody steal? A pen? 

   Hongjoong walked down the carpeted halls as he made his way to the main area of the cruise ship. It was a big dining hall, decorated in gold and red, with very dim lighting to set the mood. He looked around and inspected the people as he paced towards the shiny black piano that sat on the stage. He had always thought it was unfair that this room on a ship was more luxurious than any place he had ever owned…

  His fingers grazed along the black and white keyboard for a second, thinking of what to play. Hongjoong had never learned to read music sheets, he started playing songs by ear since he couldn’t afford to pay for a music teacher, and it was wonderful to see how he closed his eyes, found the desired keys, and played them beautifully solely by experience.

    ‘Con Té Partiro’ was a favorite of his to play as the ship departed. He felt like it was a fitting song for the occasion, even though most people didn’t know it. 

   The three hours of the ceremony passed by in the blink of an eye, and the fact that Hongjoong’s fingers were burning and his back was aching was unimportant, he always left the stage wishing he could play more.

   Hongjoong stood up and bowed to the crowd. Even though he was always ignored and never received any appreciation because everyone was too focused on their own affairs (or because they thought he was undeserving of their attention), he still made sure to bow, as a sign of thankfulness and respect every time. 

   This time around, however, he heard a faint clapping sound as he inclined his head. 

   He shot his body up immediately and followed the sound. He locked eyes with your glee-filled ones as you clapped your hands together. 

   The immediately smiled, filled with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. He felt like the luckiest man on earth, to have his talent recognized by such a beautiful woman... His face fell when a man grabbed your hands, to stop you from congratulating Hongjoong for the wonderful performance, and gave you a warning look. You just nodded along and lowered your head when the male told you to stop being extravagant.

    Hongjoong wished he could do something about the situation, he wished he could go up to you and thank you specifically for your attention, but he had to hurry out of the room so he could be ready in time for the next performance. His schedule was always packed, and he never seemed to mind. 

     That was, until music started sharing a place with you in his heart.

  There you were… Beautiful as ever, wearing a green Edwardian dress with lace appliques, twirling and swirling in all of your glory to the bassists’ songs. He should’ve gone up to the stage to prepare his piano, but he couldn’t, he had to hear your voice, he wanted to hear what you sounded like, and once he did, oh was he charmed. You were like a muse, enticing him with every word of yours. 

   He walked past every couple and every child aboard to get to you. Hongjoong very hesitantly reached out his hand to tap your shoulder. You turned around and immediately met his face. The two of you were lost in each other’s eyes for a long second, sharing a silent, intense moment. You knew who he was, you had just seen his performance after all, and you had to admit that he was strikingly beautiful. You couldn’t put your finger on it, maybe it was the hint of pureness and innocence his face had, or maybe it was the way he so naturally attracted you with his music, but you were certain of something: you were very much drawn to him.

    Hongjoong held his hand for you to take.

   “Could I interest you in a song?” 

   You took his hand and smiled, with a faint blush rising on your cheeks.

   You opened your mouth to reply but your hand was quickly snatched away, and you were pulled behind a tall figure.

    “You could interest my wife in leaving.”

    Hongjoong was visibly taken aback by the male, and by the new, saddening information.

 Any man would be discouraged by the fact, but not Hongjoong. Call him stupid or romantic, but he wasn’t willing to give you up (even though you weren’t even his) just because you were married.

  You looked up at him and mouthed a small ‘sorry’, and you were shocked to find him… smirking. Was this amusing to the stranger?

    Hongjoong nodded at the crude man and said nothing else, before heading to the stage. You watched him, confusedly.The bassists eyed him furiously, as they were supposed to have finished their act long ago, but Hongjoong didn’t care. He waited for them to clear the scene so he could sit on his piano. He’d usually have a routine all planned out, and that night was no different, except the idea for a last-second addition popped up in his head, and he just went with it.

   His fingers skimmed the keyboard for the second time that day, and he started playing the tune of ‘Tonight You Belong With Me’. He was hoping you recognized the tune, after all, he couldn’t steal a glance at you, afraid that he’d get knocked by your significant other.

    Never in a million years would he have had the courage to do such a thing, but after he realized that he had caught your attention, that the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen knew of his existence, he felt unstoppable.

Hongjoong was leaning on the handrail, looking at the waves crashing against the boat as he waited for his turn to join the stage. It was calm and silent until a voice echoed in the bow of the ship. Hongjoong closed his eyes, appreciating the familiar tune, thinking that it was the performer's voice singing from the salon. The beautiful voice got closer, however, and so he opened his eyes and looked around to find the owner.

"I know, that you belong to someone new, but tonight..."

His eyes landed on you, walking towards him slowly, in a seducing way, as if the whole world was yours. He smiled and kept listening and watching as you stepped closer and closer.

"... you belong to me."

You two were a mere centimeters apart, almost able to feel each other's breath.

"I see my song choice was of your liking." Hongjoong told you.

You chuckled at him and smiled.

"Very much so. You were very lucky my husband knew no such song, or else he'd have you dangling off the ship. I don't think he'd appreciate another man playing a love song for me on out honeymoon." You said to him, breaking out a smile.

"I'm glad he didn't recognize it then. Congratulations on your wedding Miss." Hongjoong congratulated, his voice's tone dropping a little.

You hummed.

"Arranged marriage. I love him as much as you do."

Your eyes traveled down to his lips, loving their beautiful shape and natural, vibrant colour. He noticed the fact and smirked. Hongjoong realized that it was either now or never. This encounter, the information you had just given him... It was no coincidence. The male placed a hand on your hip and lightly brought you closer.

"Certainly you won't mind me doing this then."

He placed his lips on top of yours, softly and quickly. It was enough for you to know that you wanted to repeat it. When you two pulled away, very slowly, eyes still glued on each other's lips, a faint blush spread on your cheeks, as well as on his.

"You surely are shameless..." You commented, in a shy whisper.

"Well, is my shamelessness of your liking?"

There was a couple seconds of silence, as you thought of how inappropriate your behaviour was, but you didn't care. You had done so much for others, it was now your turn.

"Very much so."

----------------

You giggled as Hongjoong pushed you against the wall of the small closet filled with the performers’ clothes. He pampered your face and neck with sloppy kisses.

   “Hongjoong!” You squealed when he bit down on your skin.

   The man placed a soft kiss on your lips and gripped your hips a little tighter.

    “We’re gonna get caught Y/N!” He whispered and giggled at your cute little squeal.

    The stage was rowdy and the show playing just on the outside of that door, covering any noise. 

    “I don’t care.” You told him.

    You grabbed his face and brought him closer to you, pressing your lips to his in a long kiss. Hongjoong smiled into the kiss before deepening it by inserting his tongue in your mouth, fighting with yours in a playful way.

   That night you wore a particularly tight dress, that had less layers than all your previous ones, and as a consequence, when you moved against his body, you felt his hard-on press against your hip.

   You squeezed your thighs closer together, as a new feeling of excitement spread through your body.

    Your little escapades had never gone past kissing, and some shy touching, but the ever growing tension between the two of you was ought to snap at some point.

    One of your hands hesitantly left his nape and travelled down his body, feeling the way his stomach tensed at your movements. Your fingers found their way onto Hongjoong's hard cock, trailing its curve softly.

   He pulled away from the kiss and looked at you.

   "Y/N, are you sure you want to do this?..." He asked quietly.

    You looked up at him, with big doe eyes, and nodded while biting your lip.

   The male mumbled a soft 'fuck' under his breath.

    He placed a kiss under your ear, then one to your cheek.

    Hongjoong looked around for a second, until his eyes landed on a dark cloak. He ripped the piece of clothing from its hanger and swung it over your shoulder and covered your head with the hood. The male grabbed your hand and walked out of the small room, hoping they wouldn't be seen, and took you to the place where he slept in.

     It wasn't much. It was barely anything really... But you didn't care. The moment you stepped in the room, you looked Hongjoong in the eye and started undoing the buttons of your dress.

    He watched you curiously, with a dirty yet loving smile on his face.

    The dress fell from your shoulders and pooled around your feet, leaving you only in your white corset and matching stockings.

    Hongjoong hummed and approached you slowly, placing btoh his hands on your waist and bringing you closer.

     "You're so fucking beautiful..."

     Hongjoong locked his lips with yours, as he focused on getting the troublesome corset away from your body.

    When he finally ripped all pieces of clothing obstructing his view from your body, he hurriedly removed his own. Hongjoong couldn't handle not having his hands on you.

    He couldn't get enough of you, he became high whenever you were with him.

    Once you were both down to skin only, he pushed you down onto his bed, and immediately attacked your chest.

    His husky, dominant voice brought a new wave of arousal upon you.

    Your fingers gripped onto his hair tighter and tighter when his lips met one of your nipples and sucked on it harshly. As his mouth focused on your breasts, his fingers parted your folds and played with you pussy. You tried to be quiet, as to not get Hongjoong in trouble, but you couldn't. He worked on your body as if he was an expert, and the little moans and whimpers were hard to contain.

    One of your hands found its way to his leaking length. Your finger swiped across his slit, and Hongjoong moaned against your skin.

    "Hongjoong, please..."

    Upon hearing your moany little beg, Hongjoong's personality shifted. He gripped your jaw and leveled his face with yours.

    "Tell me what you want baby girl."

    You sucked in a breath and bucked your hips against his finger. Hongjoong spanked your pussy as a way of punishment for being too eager.

    "Use your words doll, I want to hear you beg for my cock."

     "I need you to fuck me Hongjoong, please!"

     Hongjoong spread your legs for him and settled between them. He placed his tip at your entrance and pushed in, slowly, giving you time to adjust.

     Once he saw you were comfortable, he pulled out of you, and jerked his hips back into your body.

      Hongjoong ripped his hand away from your waist and wrapped it around your neck, giving it an experimental squeeze. Seeing the way your eyes rolled into the back of your head, Hongjoong squeezed your neck harder.

     "F-fuck Joong you f-feel so good!" You moaned.

    Your reaction was an incentive for him to slam harder into you.

    His filthy words nearly brought you to your edge.

     All you could hear was the filthy sounds of his seat body slapping against yours and his heavy breathing.

     "C-can your husband fuck you l-like this? Hm? Can he make you scream like this?"

    "Shit, no! You're so much better Hongjoong!"

    His hips thrust faster into you, and the speed he was fucking into you brought you to your climax. You arched your back and curled your feet as you called for his name, but Hongjoong didn't stop.

   You were squirming under him and your eyes were shut tightly.

   He grabbed your hips to keep you steady and kept on thrusting into you.

   "T-too much... Can't take it Joong..."

   "You can babygirl, cum for me again."

    Your writhing and moaning, your precious innocent stance was Hongjoong's kryptonite, and seeing you like that caused him to bury his cock deep in you. When you felt his cum hit your tight walls, a second orgasm hit you, and your legs started shaking as you cried his name.

   Hongjoong kissed your cheeks lightly as you both regained your breaths. He slowly pulled out of you and fell on the bed beside your body.

    "I'm sorry if it was too much..."

     You smiled and cuddled against his chest.

    "I loved it."

     Hongjoong smiled back, sleepily, and both of your eyelids felt heavy. Your breathings matched when you started to fall asleep, and Hongjoong drifted off wishing that he'd wake up beside you.

     But he never quite did wake up.

    Because the word got around, because your husband wasn’t stupid, because Hongjoong never bothers to lock his door.

[mousehole5000]

tgcf chapters 107 - 120 this is one where i give some Opinions. i do overall like hualian a lot but i have some quibbles

wait why am i still taking screenshots? i can copy/paste again afskldfjasad

It really was hard to tell whether people would feel happy after watching such performances. However, in truth, slaughter and the sight of blood did create excitement in people. Whether or not there was fear, after the initial shock was over, a rush of adrenaline would be produced in the heart- me watching horror movies

“Shi Qingxuan said. “Then, Your Highness, Crimson Rain Sought Flower! I order you to—to immediately strip each other’s clothing!” - djslkadjlsd WHY DID HE SPECIFICALLY SAY THEY HAD TO STRIP EACH OTHER THISALSKDJ is this a normal thing is it a wingman attempt what is happening

“I’ll tell you what it is,” he said softly. “To watch with your own eyes your beloved be trampled and ridiculed, yet be unable to do anything. That’s the worst suffering in the world.” ... “Ming Yi asked, “What’s the biggest regret of your life?”- when truth or dare gets a bit too real

On the side, Hua Cheng was still only observing, and was already bored to the point where he’d changed back into his red robes. Then he changed to black robes again. Then to white robes. Almost every time Xie Lian looked back, he would be donning a different appearance, and with every new look there were different hairstyles, and different accessories, and different boots, and so on; sometimes playful, sometimes elegant, sometimes deadly, sometimes glamourous. Xie Lian was growing dizzy from all the colours and kept looking back, unable to look away. - THIS ISNT THE TIME HUA CHENG. YOURE PRIMPING. THE WINDMASTER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED AND YOURE PRIMPING

obsessed with xie lian not being able to figure out to use the windmaster’s fan and just. using it to SMACK

also windmaster??? whats going on??? :( i know some things from spoilers like who is not to be trusted but i really have no clue whats happening rn

anyways back to puqi shrine lets check on those kids also can we PLEASE get some funds for this restoration smh. hua cheng and xie lian doing mundane hard labor together to fulfill prayers.... :pleading:

jailbreak in the heavens 2: dig a tunnel

Sure enough, the moment Ming Yi put pressure on his shovel, a hole opened up before them. With the shovel raised, he burrowed crazily ahead while Shi Qingxuan, in the middle, cheered him on crazily. As the only non-crazy person, Xie Lian brought up the rear. That treasured shovel of the Earth Master was indeed magical, and with only a few strokes, a new tunnel of over ten meters was dug. - anybody remember mulch diggums from the artemis fowl series? this is much more dignified than that but i think this is only the second time ive read a character just starting digging a tunnel as a plot point

okay so much is going on i wish i hadnt spoiled who certain characters actually are for myself but i have no one to blame but me for a) not blacklisting spoilers at all and b) just having a little freefall through the tags. oh well. anyway heavenly college admissions scandal except way worse. the corruption extends to the heavens and the windmaster is having a very bad day

i guess we’re having a high seas adventure now?

im gonna keep it real im getting tired of how often we get told how handsome hua cheng is. i know its all xie lian’s pov and while im not terribly familiar with it i know what genre we’re working with and im assuming thats pretty typical. its something i dont much care for in general and idk maybe it sounds better in the original but ngl its starting to make me roll my eyes. love you goth king but god okay we get it.

i guess what i will say about hualian so far is that overall i like them and i like how they interact in general they have a lot of nice moments and they just genuinely seem to like each other which is really nice to see EXCEPT for when it actually comes to things that could be romantic or sexual which is a shame bc i dont think it has to be like this. again disclaimer that im only reading a translation and dont know everything might not have all the knowledge necessary to accurately criticize etc etc and im assuming a lot of this is expected from the genre (disclaimer to this disclaimer that i cant say that for sure its just based on things ive picked up about the bl genre over the years) but idk like xie lian was so distressed after their underwater kiss scene. it was kind of uncomfortable to read and maybe im being unfair i know his cultivation is based around abstinence or whatever but idk i dont care for it. and that scene alone doesnt have to be a bad thing like idk i guess its his first kiss ever (?) and it would make sense if he feels weird about it but i just have my doubts thats going to be addressed or resolved in a satisfying way. also im like. dude everyone is like centuries old. xie lian’s been on earth for 800 years. has he really never met or heard of a gay person during all this time? maybe he hasnt idk what he got up to yet maybe that’s actually a thing. also same thing with the reactions from the immortals to xie lian in a dress and characters like the windmaster like again you’re all centuries old and its not uncommon to be able to just completely change gender presentation. why are you all weird about a man wearing a woman’s dress? i just feel like that shouldnt be a big deal to these characters idk

also again not going to lie part of this that im not really a big fan of reading romance in general. yes i am reading this book. yes i do read and write a lot of fanfic that includes or centers romance. im multifaceted. but really what im talking about is the like physical side of it and descriptions im extremely picky about it. ill give an example. early on in the torture pit (or whatever it was called i cant remember lol) when xie lian kind of accidentally felt up hua cheng in the dark when he was being carried. i dont think thats a bad thing to have happen between the two romantic leads i think thats fine and good to include that early but i just did not enjoy reading it when it happened idk maybe it was the wording and i do think that moments like these work better in a visual medium. ive definitely read het romance that reads like this and i wasnt a fan of that either lol same with fanfic i get tired when writers go on and on about how hot one characters finds another character. this isnt a huge criticism of it like i said im picky but again like with the way that hua cheng is described it just makes me roll my eyes sorry kings

okay back to the reading. this whole saving the fishermen thing feels like a big set up for something narrative-wise. hua cheng specifically insisted on coming and i know one of the characters involved ends up dying im wondering if thats now it would be a good time tbh if things get just a bit too unfortunate during this heavenly calamity... and the brothers are notably not having a harmonious time... also tho it feels very likely we’ll just have another Hualian Moment (tm)

In such a situation, Pei Ming still acted the same. In the evening, when they rescued a few fishermen girls, so scared their eyes were blurry from tears, he held them in his embrace and soothed them with a gentle voice; a true show of honeyed romance, affectionate and charming. - pei ming please get pickled again.

also its funny that hua cheng is just kinda hanging out and everyone else just has to deal with it

Looking down from above, the entire area was painted in a terrifying black. It was easy to see the collision between the two different-coloured currents. Their fierce battle was what formed this enormous whirlpool. As the eye swallowed the ship whole, the two currents of water separated. However, the battle was far from over. Like two venomous vipers, they continued to snap at each other. Each collision was followed by a mountain of angry waves. - this pretty dope ngl. also love our wind and earth masters just chilling on a shovel i dig it. hehe

Yet, other than discovering Hua Cheng had a fine body, there were no other finds. Xie Lian was at his wit’s end and started to worry. - okay see this one’s funny im just also irritated bc im like WE KNOW!!! WE GET IT HE’S HOT AND XIE LIAN THINKS HE’S HOT OKAY GOT IT

okay kiss #2 again its not the kisses themselves its xie lian’s reaction it just bothers me idk im not saying i need him to be super into it and completely unconflicted about it rn but he’s just so freaked out about it and idk i just dont really like it just feels weird i dont care for that aspect of it. also dude hua cheng is a ghost and he did this exact same thing for you before just chill. i wish instead of xie lian literally running away while screaming that hes sorry he was just like “oh haha youre fine thats cool im gonna go look around the woods i dont feel weird about this at all haha” like idk its kind of funny but when its literally our two romantic leads i just feel like its confusing like it kind of makes me feel like they shouldnt be together if one of them freaks out this much again considering the fact that they are both CENTURIES old. i know i know xie lian is an 800 year old virgin but. he hasn’t been like this about anything else so yeah idk like it still could have been awkward and funny i just dont think it needed to be so :/ that being said it was funny that xie lian was then internally like “oh i did it wrong? perhaps i should ask him for more.. instructions....” if that actually happens i might like it bc it would complete this little watery theme

Before he finished, he immediately remembered. Coffin wood. There were trees here everywhere; and a deceased? There was one right before his eyes. Sure enough, Hua Cheng smiled. “Won’t it be fine once I lie inside? - love that hua cheng just sat on the fact that he can turn anything into a coffin. that would have been really useful information earlier but no he just waited until everyone but xie lian was gone afjaklsdjf

also i do think that oblivious xie lian thinking “wow whoever it is that hua cheng fancies is an idiot for not liking him back theyre totally taking him for granted :/” is kind of funny and sweet. actually the whole conversation they have at the campfire is good and im bookmarking it to think about later

“...You on top and me on the bottom,” Xie Lian replied. “Isn’t top and bottom the same?” Hua Cheng asked. - okay im sorry but. mood whenever theres discourse about top/bottom dynamics for a ship im just like jesus christ i dont care. tbh i rarely read fanfiction if its just sexual and ngl if i see a fic specifically tag characters as top or bottom i wont read it lmfao. especially when people have really strong opinions about this stuff when theres nothing canonical to back it up like headcanon all you want but whenever i see people argue about it im just like no offense but go work out your own sexual issues and dynamics instead of arguing with strangers on the internet about who’s a top and who’s a bottom. sorry to be mean but just thats how i feel lol

this was mostly a ramble with a few excerpts but im getting sleepy im going to TRY to take a break from this for like a day but we’ll see how that goes i do very much want to know what happens. anyway if you read this whole thing hiiiiii sorry for subjecting you to my opinions on top/bottom discourse

[semi-imaginary-place]

rewatching decadence

ep1: so... indoctrinating kids that they life their life in service to an upper class. also like, the way deca dence takes care of giant gadoll is to punch it like no giant sword or laser canon or anything just the power of a giant mountain sized fist. this show actually has some good foreshadowing from seeing Natsume from the perspective of Kaburagi’s hud, to Natsume’s dad (Muno) finding the Solid Quake logo at the beginning of the episode and the logo again being shown in the last shot at the announcement signs off with have a profitable day which is a weird public safety announcement but makes sense as a company slogan. I’m still not sure what the “TIME 1:00  POINT SE,07,G” means. I didn’t write it down last time because I was unsure of myself, but my first thought when the cyborgs showed up was VR chatroom for the upper class.

ep2: yeahs that’s totally an advertisement that plays right after natsume realizes the human costs of war as the tankers pay respects to the fallen. I realized what it was with the cartoony designs, the bright colors and patterns, the funky shapes of all the structures aboard the space ship, it looks like a tv show for toddlers. inoffensive and deliberately cheerful to distract from the horrors of a corporation owning your person. the eng subtitles are confusing here it should be “real death(simulation) awaits” in that the company is advertising being able to experience death but not have any of its permanent consequences as a feature of the game. The cyborgs are corporate wage slaves being compensated for their labor in company credits and the only other things we seen them do outside of work is play the company’s mmo, or recreational drugs. “I should be proud of my function and to be scrapped” as property of the company. aaaa that’s terrible. aaa. what are cyborg cores??? and why are they valuable. Solid Quake has no control over the core, only the cyborg’s housing. Is it that they cannot produce more? Considering the others on the team got executed for sentenced to an eternal forced labor camp with appalling conditions, Minato really did pull some strings for Kaburagi. ooh so “time until scrapping” and “operational limit near are two different warnings. the first is a general reminder of lifespan and the second is because oxyone levels are low. now its “TIME 20:00  POINT SE,05,I”. all those new gadoll events probably wreck havoc on the tanker economy. its 400c now and i think it was 500 for 2 earlier. First time through I wasn’t paying attention and totally thought kaburagi was an assassin, but no he’s just clean up crew. ahh yes, come spend you wages at the company run stores. micro transactions... wait so where were people getting the number 13 from?

ep3: ah yes Solid Quake charges to use the media center, truly a micro transaction hell. Natsume’s character arc is about whether to push herself or not. Here Fei acts as part of a continuing dialectic saying that Tankers have no place outside of Deca-Dence, that sooner of later Natsume will die from it, and once again highlighting Natsume’s right arm. In the other level of this though, tankers shouldn’t go outside because that’s not their role in the solid quake mmo, and those who would disrupt the mmo are killed. I like how you can see Kaburagi switch from videogame logic (oh she’s low level so let’s just stick her in the tutorial zone) to real life (what skills and experiences would help in fighting). So several corporations took advantage of desperate people to sell them a service that would augment them with mechanical parts. I get that pipe in a little outfit is funny, but does no one really realize its a gadoll, i meant natsume recognizes it instantly. like the scene where Natsume talks about her right arm, the anime does a good job of showing how her feeling about it are complicated. She’s lived with that arm for years, but it also hinders her sometimes, and people will comment about it. there’s this specific type of humor that pops up in this show and given how its the same joke, my guess is that its the same person behind it. The “joke” being that Natsume is put in a position that references sexual assault. The first is with fennel where she makes up an excuse of having to go see kaburagi to get away from him. And then there’s this episode. There’s also a few stray lines here and there that alarm me in that they imply Natsume has dealt with the threat of assault before. Since they didn’t do anything meaningful with this, I’d rather it just not be there. Minato is in on the secret of Pipe’s existence and by the way the two talk, they’ve called each other before in the last 7 years. Its good to know that Kaburagi wasn’t JUST brooding for 7 years and that the two of them stayed in contact.

ep4: Natsume after having gained confidence in herself takes down several gadoll and earns her place in The Power. Its a fulfilling payoff after seeing her train for several episodes. Natsume is where she always wanted to be, fighting gadoll in the Power. gahh It really is a patch release trailer. Ohh so I assumed that the other structures on the cartoon earth were other corporations, but in this episode we see one of them (the white and red striped cone thing opposite the deca-dence dome) and the cyborgs there are talking about the game (MMO LARPing lol), so either Solid Quake owns multiple of those structures, or these cyborgs are customers not owned by Solid Quake and playing of their own volition. that would makes the cone cyborgs where solid quake is deriving its profit from since its not like it pays its workers. reading comments online, a lot of people missed that because a ranker was found to be cheating (mikey), the rankings were abolished. In the present time, gears/players are not ranked. Ah so Kaburagi was transferred to the maintenance department from the warrior department. Wow reassignment is so much better than the poop jail. I remember it being said, armor repair, doctor, and weapon shop could be employee(cyborg) run so I wonder if the medics and that one armor shop guy are tankers or not. So this anime already snuck in a sex joke with the when the poop gang swapped kaburagi’s avatar with a sex toy, so i wonder if the safetyprivatemode was made so that the mods wouldn’t have to listen to robot sex. I really wish this show could have had 24 episodes. The trend for the past 20 years has been shorter and shorter shows so I know it would have been likely impossible to get the clearance and funding for 24 eps but oooh in som alternate universe maybe... i brought up fleshing out minor characters and character relationships before but there also stuff like Natsume’s right hand almost clamping on ... Mindy? Which usually would be a narrative flag but is completely dropped because of the episode limit. And the confidence Natsume gained last episode come to work against Kaburagi trying to keep her from the suicide mission. Its only from this point on that Kaburagi starts to really change, as of this point he is still a loyal cog to a machine that does not care about him. Kaburagi and Natsume in the 2nd half of the episode continue the same dialectic that runs through the whole of the show, about giving up and learning to try again, about pushing your limit, about why someone bothers trying. On the collectivist versus individualist spectrum, Deca-Dence is on the individualist side with assertions of the importance for deciding for yourself what you will do with your life. Its an interesting counterpoint to The Twilight Mirage (Friends at the Table) which I am currently listening to in that The Twilight Mirage is a western production and strongly collectivist with one of the antagonist being sort of kind of an embodiment of independence/individualism while japanese works as a whole tend to be more about the whole over the individual than western ones. Kurenai talking about why she fights is very good and very important for 2 reasons, first it help flesh out not only her but offer a very needed other opinion on what its like to live as a Tanker, second it segues nicely into Natsume’s memories of her dad telling her about the outside world and him being the only one to believe she can do it (fight in The Power) as contrasted with flashbacks of all the other characters telling her she can’t. This culminates in Natsume gathering her resolve to fight not because of something grand like changing the world or the fate of humanity, but something very personal scale: changing herself and proving to herself that she can do it. The is also the climax of her character arc, the point of no return.

ep5: If last episode was natsume’s point of no return, then either this episode or episode 7 is Kaburagi’s. Rationally speaking, the optimal scenario would have been for Kaburagi to stall long enough for the Tankers to escape before pulling back himself, but emotionally and narratively, there’s no way he couldn’t. After all the build up of deciding for yourself how to live and pushing your limits. Its appropriate that here in defense of the girl that inspired him to live and choose for himself rather than just continue existing in the default of what Solid Quake demands of him, that Kaburagi chooses to release his operational limiter (literally pushing him limit) and derail the company’s plans. How did no one realize purple dude was breaking imprisonment to play on a hacked avatar. Like he’s still as purple and bloodthirsty as ever. He acts and speaks the same. Someone would have totally seen him and gone “eyyyyy [i forgot this guy’s name] is back” and talked to people about it and someone should have heard. So I remember reading comments from various idiots who were mad because they mistakenly thought the anime took place in a virtual space and that Natsume was made of lines of code. And first off even if that was true there’s a difference between objective reality and the lived experiences of a person and what’s to say her experiences and emotions would be any less real than yours. And second, did everyone forget The Hunger Games? Like its just another game that plays with real lives and doesn’t care who gets killed. Solid Quake is just using humans as a stage prop. Man this episode is jam packed. Its like getting punched in the face 4 times. The pacing of the last 4 minutes was really good. The quiet scene as dawn breaks acts in direct contrast to the high energy of the Stargate takedown that preceded it. After time and against not listening to him, Minato still calls Kabu to check in with him. There’s also his certainly that it was Kaburagi that saved the Deca-Dence mech (i need to be clearer when I’m talking about the physical fortress city mech, the mmorpg game, or the deca-dence system itself). And then when the world state gets reset is just so good because it make it clear that the gadoll were never the true enemy. The tankers could kill as many gadoll as they want and nothing would change. Kaburagi’s at an interesting point here, in that he’s no longer in a state of having given up like he was in episode 1 just waiting to die and following along with Solid Quake’s orders, as of this episode he has deliberately gone against the company’s rules, and yet he’s still believes that nothing will actually change. He’s broken a rule and resigned himself to punishment instead of say for example getting rid of the punishment all together. He’s still a good little employee that hasn’t rebelled against the system. And then the “Take care of Pipe” and Natsume turns around and he’s already gone, is sooo good. The final shot too of his avatar face down in the snow! The “This world needs bugs” is in direct contrast to Hugin/Fugin(?) repeating that this world must be rid of bugs, and the same phrase Kaburagi repeated 7 years ago when he was transferred to the Maintenance Department instead of being killed. I wonder how much the cyborgs feel in their original bodies  vs. how much they feel in their Gear avatars. Kaburagi doesn’t seem to care about food and no food stalls were shown in the Gear area so maybe they doesn’t have much sense of taste? The avatars also have a lessened sense of pain. And then the limit release sequence shows connections increasing between the two bodies so does it make the cyborgs more attuned with the avatar’s senses?

ep6: eh so this is another example of what I mean when I say some of the humor in this show is in bad taste. They probably put the oxyone port where the ass would be just to make this joke. But this is better then doing to it Natsume. The animators even had a gleam censor for the over where the capsule was inserted as if it wasn’t obvious enough what it was suppose to look like. Spurned on by the the promise that one day if they work hard and behave (”rehabilitated”), the cyborgs will get let out when in actuality its a forced labor camp so that Solid Quake can squeeze just a little more labor our of the cyborgs for even less compensation. The cartoony style here helps offset just how horrific there working conditions are. And Kaburagi still the good little employee (iiko) tries his hardest to play by the rules and win. Except in this game, there is no “win’ written into the rules. So finally he is forced to move outside of the system Solid Quake has made. I still can’t believe they let Donatello keep the gun... Maybe cyborg cores are brains. In 5.5 Kaburagi’s core is in the top half of his metal case, and Donatello’s is also in his head. I’m still not sure what that sequence where Kaburagi takes the head fin and an image of a cyborg core is overlayed, means.

[professorspork]

i know I always say this, but, last night REALLY WAS the BUSIEST OF DAYS in the Reaper War

before I get into yesterday’s gameplay, I realized I forgot to react to the fact that Jacob got Brynn pregnant, which -- again, I suppose that wraps up everything about his backstory in a nice little bow, lad of the bad dad gets to be good dad, but like... it still gives like they gave his character incredibly short shrift. so. humbug to that.

but I have bigger fish to fry (ha ha, literally, see what I did there?) because ALL OF THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE, AND ALL OF THIS WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. I rescued Ann Bryson, and learned that -- shocker -- she had a bad relationship with her dad. I uh may have condoned her getting a bit of a nasty nose bleed in order to track the Leviathan to Despoina, where as ever I got to read a bunch of people’s weirdly specific sad diaries. my jump into the depths was very cool and scary (does no one get the bends in the future???) and I enjoyed my The First-style body swapping conversation with the Leviathan in which I tried to prove I’m ~special and this time is ~different. on the one hand, I don’t know why I expected the origin of the Reapers to be anything other than yet another story of AI gone wrong, but this whole cinematic parallels thing is starting to edge out of “everything matches up and is of a piece” territory and into the murkier waters of “we kind of only had one idea, actually.” to reveal that the Reapers’ plan is just stray AI code to ‘preserve life’ is at once very chilling and a bit of a let down; when I think back to when I talked to Sovereign for the first time and I had my initial “GOD IS A MACHINE THAT WANTS TO KILL US” freak out, I was in fact very on board for an evil plan too broad and complex for a human mind to fathom. for it to be this feels kind of predictable and pedestrian.

that said, watching the Leviathan take down a huge-ass Reaper capital ship with its pulse signal was very satisfying.

oh no this is going to get very long, now that you’ve had this fun teaser i’m gonna put the rest under a cut

then we kicked it on over to Thessia and I highkey traumatized my girlfriend. I feel like I should have seen the reveal that the asari were more advanced because they were hoarding prothean tech coming, but I didn’t. hearing and seeing all the asari commandos helping me get wiped out was a real gut punch, but didn’t hold a candle to my frustration at the confrontation with Kai Leng. I’m not mad that the game wouldn’t let me beat him, per se (though I still think it’s ridiculous that I’ve taken down a Reaper by myself and I’m supposed to be afraid of a dude with a knife), but I am pissed that it all happened with combat cut scene magic. this game has given me difficult combat before! if, in fighting Kai Leng, I’d genuinely felt outmatched, I think I would have tolerated it better -- or if the combat had been me fighting the Harvesters and then Kai Leng sneaked around me because that’s what he does, he sneaks. but to have such a relatively easy combat sequence with him that felt very much like winning just to have it snatched away from me... maddening. WHY CAN’T I BEAT THIS ONE GUY AND HIS KNIFE? I don’t want to be all “Kai Leng is a Mary Sue” but like... he got to murder Thane and then beat me in overtime, and his entire vibe is I exist to sell action figures even though that’s not, as far as I know, any part of Mass Effect’s profit model. so it’s just frustrating. and for them to then rub salt in the wound and have him EMAIL ME to be like “lol snowflake r u triggered” was just. MY PATIENCE IS THIN, ME3. DON’T PUSH ME.

seeing Shepard have to admit to failure was a gutting scene, though, and a necessary one. and watching Liara fight with Javik was highkey satisfying, too. 

so anyway, because i was BIG MAD at Cerberus I tracked them first to that one N7 communications mission-- 

(Sample dialogue: Helen: Why aren’t you using cover? You’re going to die! Use cover! Me, jumping out of cover and rushing Cerberus goons trying to melee them to death: BECAUSE I’M MAD)

-- and then to Sanctuary, and HOO BOY WAS THAT A LOT OR WHAT. from the second I heard Oriana’s voice I had a pretty good idea of what was going on here, but seeing in in practice was still creepy af. and like. i’m just gonna go out on a limb and say INDOCTRINATION BAD. I AM NOT A FAN. shout out to that one capitalist volus on the Citadel who was like “lol sanctuary is a scam don’t waste your money” i guess

additionally, last night was significant because I picked not one but TWO ENTIRE renegade convince options, because I saw no reason to be nice to terrorist daddy the illusive man or actual terrorist daddy Mr. Lawson. after I got through all that, Helen explained to me how difficult it apparently is to keep Miranda alive by the end of that confrontation, so I got to do some WHAT LIKE IT’S HARD? preening at how Nice Sheps Finish First sometimes. 

but as usual, the real highlight is getting to know my crew better and talking with them. I finally got some prime flirting in with Liara during Leviathan. it was VERY cute when she was like “man what’s with you rescuing damsels from dig sites? if you end up teaming up with her to save the world and bring down the shadow broker i’ll be very jealous. ... and concerned” and WEIRDLY CUTER when she was like “hey the only tentacled alien who gets to mess with your brain is ME” because Liara is like 115 by now considering how slowly i’m getting through these missions and she still does not know what romance is. 

[no but seriously, Liara does not know what romance is. half the time I’m still going WE’RE STILL DATING, RIGHT? every time she refuses to talk to me. and even after Thessia, when everyone was like “go talk to Liara, she needs you” and even JAVIK of all people was like “you’re dating Liara, right? it’s so obvious” our interactions did not feel particularly... romantic? it’s a tricky needle to thread, obviously, I’m not looking for sloppy makeouts right after millions of her people died, but it still reads as very odd to me. anyway.]

Javik’s story about how he once had a ship like the Normandy and a crew of friends like mine and they all ended up indoctrinated and he had to personally slit their throats went way harder than I ever expected it to. even just the IDEA of having to do that as my Shep upsets me. i’m legit enjoying getting to know Javik, even though i’m still GuessWhoJustGotYelledAt.jpg every time I leave his room. I HAD ENOUGH OF THAT FROM KREIA, JAVIK, YOU’LL NEVER PUSH ME AWAY.

I was surprised by how hard Tali took Miranda’s successful challenge of Mr. Lawson, though in hindsight it makes sense -- with the geth war still happening on top of everything else, I don’t think Tali ever did get the chance to process her anger at her dad being a war criminal and all. and her whole “emergency induction port” bit about the straw was cute as hell tbh. her friendship with Garrus over the comms continues to give me life. 

(in other quarian news, I AM SAD ABOUT KAL’REEGER.)

and jeff. JEFF. after Thessia i literally ran to the bridge and said aloud “Jeff, make me feel better” as I clicked interact with him, and then he made that dig about asari dancers, and i was like NO NOT LIKE THAT. (I mean, what Shep literally said was “now’s not the time for jokes” which is ironic considering she, unlike me, still calls him JOKER) but then he was all DAD ANDERSON SAID I’M SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH, I’M SORRY, I’M DOING MY BEST and like. what a fucked up little family we are. he feels guilty that I died saving him, still! apparently he asks EDI about my stress levels and they are BAD and he feels BAD! im crey. OH AND ALSO THE FACT THAT PTSD ASARI LAURA BAILEY WAS TALKING ABOUT HIS FAMILY ON TIPTREE AND I CAN NEVER TELL HIM BECAUSE THE GAME DOESN’T LET ME DO THAT???? V UPSETTING.

and then of course EDI had to TRIPLE DOWN on all these feelings i was already having by telling me about human resistance and selflessness on Earth and how she wants to turn off her self-preservation code because she’s not about that. I’M SUCH A TOASTER FUCKER HALP.

Garrus being all “well sometimes your best friend gives you a pep talk” speech was cute as hell, and I was strangely charmed when Kaidan was like YOU CAN TELL I’M EXTRA MAD BECAUSE MY VOICE HAS GOTTEN SO DEEP grumbling.

next up: shore leave, and then going after Cerberus will trigger act 3! i may one day finish mass effect after all!

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space..... Pets?

I am really sorry guys. This was a new idea and style that turned out to be kind of complicated, so it will be longer than usual. As someone who typically writes novels, this short story stuff is really demanding since it requires you to be entertaining and concise without description which is my favorite. So, Hope you like it. 

“Tell us your oddest story, Captain.”

“Weirdest story, huh?” Captain Vir sets his glass down on the bar and tilts his head back thinking as he stares at the ceiling, “Well, you know what, since it’s been declassified, I suppose I can go ahead and tell you.” He picks up his drink again and takes a draw.

“Have you ever heard of Heaven’s Gate Nebula?”…”Of course you have. Well, so it’s this really weird cluster of stars just off Andromeda, not technically part of the galaxy but sort of orbiting it. Now you Know Nebulas are actually star nurseries, so generally stars within nebula tend to be really young….. the problem here is that emissions form Heaven’s Gate indicated 100-200 main sequence stars. I know, not a whole lot for a cluster. The GA had tried to investigate before, but with no real luck, they thought maybe a human crew would have more luck. And as a newly promoted captain with a newly christened ship, I was ready for any job they wanted to throw at me. So, with my new crew, and my new ship, I headed in, this was all before I met Sunny and Krill, and before I lost my eye.”

He finishes the glass and wipes his mouth on his sleeve, “We took it into the dust cloud, and I had to take manual control of the ship. I was nervous, I fly jets, and jets are relatively small, but I had to remember that I was about a thousand feet wider than I am used to. We were navigating mostly by short range radar, so I would only have a few seconds to make it through. Luckily there was no real debris in our way, and when we broke out of the cloud a few hours later, we enter this ….. Open area about solar system wide. Scans showed it had one main sequence star and four planets with a collective 12 moons. There was one planet in the goldilocks zone, so we took her in. I ordered our navigations expert to plot a landing course onto the planet for a shuttle, and then I went down and got together a team of Marines to take our first look. Ok, maybe I was being an idiot, I’m the captain, leading search parties isn’t exactly my job, but I would be damned if I was going to miss exploring an entirely undiscovered planet.”

***

“Alright, Jar Heads, suit up, we’re approaching the LZ.” Behind him the sound of helmets clipping into place over suits was comforting. Captain Vir pulled on his own helmet quickly locking it into pace with one hand as he maneuvered the shuttle towards the planet’s surface. It was green, Like Earth, very green though it wasn’t really due to trees. The ground itself was covered with a very thin layer of moss…. Or so it appeared. The foliage itself was rather sparse, with an odd assortment of trees, and some sort of ferns.

He chose an area next to one of these little clusters, lading their craft with a soft whirr of air. He cut the engines and grabbed his weapon.

The marines were waiting for him ready for exit weapons at the ready, “Alright, Chairfroce, your orders?” The sergeant asked with a good natured nod.

“I defer to you, jarhead. This is simple recon, stay quiet, and keep low. If you see anything, do not engage, we aren’t here to start trouble.” The men nodded, at the front one held up a hand counting down from five before pressing the button to drop the ramp, and in a coordinated unit, the group rushed from the craft and into a wide circle around the ship leaving the copilot to watch over the ship. Captain Vir stopped behind the point man lowering his weapon and checking the readings from his suit. He had been trained to determine the safety of a particular atmosphere. It was a chill 22 degrees F but the oxygen level was 14.8% oxygen content which would equal out to feel like a relatively high altitude. The rest was nitrogen like you would expect on Earth. With one hand, he slapped the point man on the shoulder who, in turn, gave a hand signal to the rest of the group. One of their designated men reached up, and pressed the release sequence on his helmet. It dropped into his hand with a hiss and he took a deep breath. The group watched as he took a few more deep breaths monitoring his blood oxygen content from the monitor on his suit before giving a nod to the captain, who gave another signal. The rest of the group removed their helmets, though a few kept face masks close at hand, not comfortable completely with the low oxygen content. Helmets were strapped to their waists.

Captain Vir ordered them into a loose arrowhead formation at a good 20 feet apart. He fell in at the very far left of the formation towards the thickest area of foliage weapon pressed into his shoulder lowered into a ready position as they began moving slowly through the foliage. He the advanced eye piece over his left eye to keep track of the crew as their red dots moved through the foliage. He couldn’t always see the next man over and up, but he could see the dots.

He was coming up on a very thickly wooded area now, and cut into the trees doing his best to keep up with the marines who moved low and fast through the trees. They were near silent, and he did his best to emulate them as he did so. Yeah, he was trained in combat, but the last war he was in took place strictly on stone, moss and ash, branches hadn’t really been a problem.

He took another step forward into the foliage trying to find a grounded place to put his foot… but then…. There was nothing there. He had one moment of horrible realization before his stomach dropped out from underneath him, and he went plunging downwards.

He hit the rock with a hard crack maybe five feet below, and then bounced over to go tumbling like a pinball down the hill. He might have heard the cry of one of the marines over the com before it was dashed to pieces against a rock. In an attempt to keep his head covered, he turtled into the collar of the space suit, allowing it to take most of the impact as he rolled into another rock and was sent flying down a mossy incline. His weapon was ripped from his hands, and the sling snapped catching him on the cheek as it went.

Now loosed from its grip, his arms flailed and clawed at the ground as he fell. Body crying out in anguish against the pain of his fall. The end of the hill came, and he was pitched over another, small, five foot drop. Landing flat on his back… The pain was incredible, not as bad as losing his leg, but still. He looked down through his bleary vision…. Shit…. His leg, the entire F***ing thing was gone…..

A shadow passed over him from above, and in groggy delirium he looked up squinting against the silhouette, massive, hairy, and reaching out towards him.

He blacked out.

***

He woke up to the chatter of unknown creatures, lying on his back on a bed of soft moss staring up at a leafy ceiling above. Squinting past his own delirium and the bright light in his face he tried to make sense of the scene forcing himself to sit up past the pain in his body and the weight of his suit. The striations in the leafy ceiling resolved themselves as he stared on….. realizing in horror that he was looking at bars. He pushed himself upwards the rest of the way limping/hopping over to the bars where he stopped staring out at the world around him. Stacks and stacks of cages, full of strange alien creatures with fur and feathers, and spines chattering and gambling about their cages hissing and yapping at each other.

He rushed around the cage tugging at the bars, trying to find a locking mechanism, but seeing nothing. He tried to force himself through the bars cursing when his chest was too wide to make it through, even sideways. He tugged even harder and came down hard to the ground without the support of his prosthetic. Missing a leg, there was only so much he could do. The boot of his suit and half of the lower leg had been ripped off leaving him with a useless and dangling bit of fabric. He cursed the stupid thing silently. His REAL leg wouldn’t have just fallen off like that. Sure his remaining leg hurt like a bitch, but at least it was still working.

Piece of garbage.

He glanced around a little more taking a deep breath. First thing was first, he had to find out where he was. He didn’t get much time to figure this out before the air itself was rocked and shattered by an immense vibration. It was a sound like someone had turned the base all the way up on their car speakers. The bars of his cage rattled, his insides rattled, his teeth rattled. Whatever made that sound had to be f***ing massive.

And that’s when the absolutely immense creatures stepped into the room. It was at least 40 feet tall and looked like a cross between Sasquatch, a bear, and King Kong. With a gasp he scrambled back in his cage, as two of the other creatures stepped into the room with it. One of them was about as tall if not taller, and the other was maybe 30 feet tall give or take. As their mouths open, the entire room rumbled with the deep base of their voices. He fell to one knee hands to his chest as if he was trying to hold in his bones.

He couldn’t have known that the creatures were quite sentient naming themselves the Magnites of the Magnapedibus, and they were here for one very specific reason. The taller, and older of the two guests browed their way around the room glancing in cages and speaking to each other in their impossibly deep voices. A couple of times, they opened one of the cages and took out one of the other creatures. Vir watched from the confines of his cell with a sense of growing horror.

This could not be happening, and to make it all worse, his coms were down, and those things were getting closer to him their feet thudding like thunderclaps on the floor below. Quickly, he burrowed himself under a layer of the moss staring out form a minute hole at the scene unfolding before them. He could see that the cages lifted from the top, but there was no way he was going to manage to make it out if that was the case: no way in hell he was going to be able to lift that thing.

The creatures had moved onto the cage right next to his looking over a creature that had some odd recumbence to a giant rat. The smaller creature didn’t seem particularly interested in it. Little did the captain know was that the creature had daned the rat to be not cute enough for its taste. They were arguing among themselves about what the third creature was looking for. What could possibly pique interest when they had gone over the entire place, and yet there was nothing to be seen?

The shop owner gave them one last option, something strange he had picked up out in the woods today, but something he didn’t think was likely to survive. It would require special care, and he had yet to look it over for injury. They moved over to the next cage, just to find nothing visible in site. The larger creature gave a look of confusion to the owner who waved him off. The creature was scared, probably hiding. He threw open the cage lid and reached in prodding around in the moss.

Captain Vir lay as still as he possibly could feeling the ground rumble beneath him eyes closed teeth gritted. And then a massive weight pressed down on his back.  Like someone was standing on him, making it hard to breathe. The weight lifted off him and light poured into his little hiding spot. The ground trembled with another mass vibrating noise

Shit! He rolled to the side just as a massive hand came down towards him. He barely escaped crawling up to one knee and scuttling to the side as the hand came after him again. A line of expletives ran through his head as he rolled dodged ad ducked out of the way hindered by his missing leg forced to scramble on three limbs as he tried to get away.

He wasn’t fast enough, the cage wasn’t big enough, and he was caught around the waist by a massive hand. He gasped for air, as the hand grew tight around his middle against his struggling and squirming. He panted pressing his hands against the clenched fist trying to pull himself out, but it was no use.

The massive creatures looked down at him with surprise and confusion. What was this thing? The owner wasn’t totally sure, but he had found it lying injured in the forest. He thought it was supposed to have four limbs, and if that was the case than it was missing one of them. The smaller creature thought that it was horribly sad…. The creature in itself looked terrified squirming and wriggling as it was, and with only one leg it must have been in immense pain. It had very large eyes, a brilliant green color and a small tuft of hair atop its head, kind of adorable, otherwise it was furless…. It must have been very cold. It held out its hands begging to hold the creature, and finally they gave in.

Vir was transferred from one hand to the other, a grip that was lighter this time, the smaller creature. He tried to squirm away again, but then became very aware of the twenty to twenty five foot drop….. he didn’t think he was likely to make that unscathed. Another massive hand was lifted up, and he cringed away as a single huge finger rubbed against the back of his head and down his upper back. Damn, it was like being stroked by a ten pound dumbbell….. it was rubbery and the palm was cracked like the pad of a dog’s foot.

The creature thought it was very cute, whatever it was, and it didn’t seem too dangerous, just an adorable, crippled little creature.

He swore that if they did that again he was going to have to beat someone’s ass, he didn’t care how tall they were…. That was just as soon as he figured out how to get away from this nonsense. That didn’t seem likely to happen as the large creature took him back, and began looking him over pinching his limbs between its massive fingers flipping him into his back like you would to examine a lab rat. He kicked out with his remaining foot as the creature tried to get a good look at his severed leg. He’d be damned if he was going to ACTUALLY get probed by aliens. At least the last ones had asked nicely.

There was more roaring, more rumbling as they tried to figure out what exactly the thing was, despite missing a limb, it didn’t appear to be in pain, but it was a feisty little creature. If they were to sell it, it would need special care, somewhere warm, a special diet, but perhaps it would make a good pet.

***

Vir was about 0% pleased with the outcome of this. His first mission and things had already gone to hell in a handbasket, or in this case what felt like a massive ass paper bag. He had been dumped into one with a handful of the strange moss, and breathing holes poked in the side. Outside he could hear more grumbling and could feel the ground underneath thudding with the footsteps of the giant creatures. He couldn’t stand with only one leg, and lay in the bottom, face pressed against the moss as they moved in short starts and stops. Eventually the rumbling died off a bit, and the movement continued bouncing him up and down inside the bag which swung back and forth.

***

Is this what it was like to be a hamster? Whatever it was like he was done.  The creature had barely let him go since it had brought him back to its den. It let him go in its lap, and he’d try to scramble away only to be pulled back. If he was let down on the floor, he would have tried to run, but he was missing something kind of important. There were tons of these things being invited over to hold, pet stoke, and play with him, and he hated every moment of it. He tried to bite at least once, but that turned out to b not worth it at all, the things tasted like ass, and their skin was too thick to bite through. And then it insisted on wrapping him up in randomly soft items like it thought he was cold, like he wasn’t wearing a thermal conserving space suit. This was just a load of bullshit.

Giving some time alone, he was sure he could construct a decent pair of crutches, but that wasn’t going to happen if the creature kept insisting on holding him.

He had one other option…. He could play dead, at this current moment, which seemed to be his best option, so the moment that someone stopped paying attention, he fell limp eyes half closed just willing them to fall for it. When they came back, he watched their shadows moving around, could hear the thrumming and thudding of their voices. They picked him up, and he let his body flop to the side, he did his best to breathe as little as possible, hoping they wouldn’t notice when he did. The roaring grew more urgent, he was moved around constantly laid down prodded, poked, and he refused to move, did his best to keep still as they picked him up. There were many of the creatures there now speaking rapidly, one of them sounded very upset.

He just had to stay still.

And that’s when he heard the roar of the shuttle. The creatures apparently did too, and he watched as the ship roared in through an opening over the heads of the creatures before circling down. The creatures made some more roaring sounds. He could hear voices as the carrier landed. Wind whipped at his clothes, there was more roaring.

“CAPTAIN!”

He opened his eyes just in time, as one of the marines grabbed him by the arm and hoisted him over his shoulders racing back towards the carrier as the others covered him from behind. He was thrown to the deck inside the carrier as the ship lurched form the ground and roared forward.

The roaring grew louder, the ship tilted and swung. The marines held on for dear life as one had him pinned to the ground keeping him still as the ship rocked and rolled.

And then they shot forward and the roaring died away. Captain Vir let his head rest back on the floor breathing heavily.

“Are you alright, Captain?” The marine asked looking him over for injuries.

“Relieved to see you Marine….. relieved to see you.”

[dogcopter]

Rose Ghost Theory (Comprehensive)

This is the wrapped up version of various Rose theories. You don't have to believe me. Just getting it all out there before Future ends next month. We'll see what happens. I think it's gonna be an awesome plot twist if this is all true. 

TL;DR Rose gave up her physical form, but her soul has been astral projecting and watching over Steven, primarily in the body of Lion and others along the way. This is also why he sees visions of her memories.** There may be more to this than I've identified, but this part is nearly certain. Show gets exponentially more emotional upon rewatch when you see her everywhere.

Meta It all comes back to Rose. This is going to be the last, most recent worst decision that when he learns the truth will send him over the edge of his crisis of avoiding his feelings about her. (And send the fandom over the edge too, lol.) Because her absence shaped his whole life and she was there all along and could have been there. He will be rightfully angry, but I also think she will be able to help him, and like with all of her bad choices maybe he will understand why she did so even if he doesn't forgive her. It will also be her character development opportunity, to finally change.

Whose body will Rose Quartz inhabit

She is most of the magical NPCs that aid Steven in his journey. She is Lion, the Tiny Floating Whale and realistic Rose in Rose's Room, Dream Dogcopter, Baby Melon and the melon dogs, the source of Steven's Pink Diamond visions, Pink Steven, "Shy Rose" and probably Cactus Steven too.

Abilities in use

All these powers are established by Steven, Rose is using them as well.

Steven has gone into dreams like Kiki's, where he changed the dream imagery. In Steven's Dream, after Steven wants to learn more about Pink Diamond, he sees her fallen palanquin in his dream and is crying. This was Rose communicating to him.

He spoke to Lapis while she was fused. In Jungle Moon, Stevonnie has a Pink Diamond memory dream that shows them the passcode to Yellow's moon base so they can call Lars. Rose again.

He took over the bodies of Lars and Watermelon Steven. Rose uses Lion's body and the melons with the same ability. Note: Lion himself is just a normal lion who Rose revived, his backstory remains intact. But most of the time when we see him around Steven it's Rose in disguise using his body.

Steven astral projecting in Reunited Steven enters an astral projection dimension where the others can't see him. They can hear him if he touches them. Rose may be present at times when not pictured.

Appearances

Rose's Room The Tiny Floating Whale has Rose's voice actor. Steven has never heard his mother's voice. He hears it later in the VHS tape but not at this time.

Storm in the Room In that scene when a more realistic Rose speaks to Steven, she refuses to listen to what he says unlike the room and reassures him instead. This is Rose stepping in to change the vision because Steven is spiraling.

Dream Dogcopter In Lion 3: Straight to Video, Dogcopter tells Steven to hold his breath before Steven wakes up in Lion's mane. In Chille Tid, Dogcopter shows Steven where to go while dreaming to find the real Lapis (inside of Malachite) after he exhausts himself looking for Malachite and has a nightmare about her.

Watermelons

Baby Melon winks at Steven and runs back after being stolen by Onion. When the melons fight each other, Baby Melon hits Steven and sacrifices himself. The other melons are enraged at that action. The melons don't tolerate a threat to Steven, so why would an ordinary one hit him even in this situation?

Melon Dog 1 brings Steven to offer himself (the watermelon he's possessing. F) as a sacrifice to show him where Malachite is during the arc where the Gems are looking for Malachite, much like Dogcopter led Steven to mindscape Lapis. She also knows what the Cluster is.

Melon Dog 2 tries to distract Steven from getting off the island when he's trapped in Pink Diamond's cell on Homeworld and astral projecting home for help. She tries to entertain him with escapism.

Lion I have a whole tag for this and analysis of all of Lion’s appearances if you need more info on this. Condensed version: Lion shows Steven the mane when he wants to know more about his mom, and shows him the landfill when he wants to know more about the truth of why he was born. He knows an unusual number of secrets for the pet of Rose Quartz, a notoriously secretive and impulsive gem who left Greg and the Gems without instruction or any plan to raise Steven and kept secrets even from Pearl, who knew her secret identity. He appears to know more about Pearl and the Diamonds than he should. He ditches Spinel at the Sadie Killer concert after glaring at her all day.

Can't Go Back When Steven and Lion go to the moon to find Lapis, Lapis and Steven talk about her feelings of watching everyone from afar and being lonely. She's afraid to return

Steven: So why didn't you just come back? Lapis: I want to. But I just can't. Not after the way I left. What would Peridot say? What if the Diamonds show up? What if something bad happens? Steven: Well, what if something good happens?

but Steven reassures her it could work out.

Lapis: Maybe I'm tired of running away. Maybe I'd rather be with everyone and be in danger than be safe and alone. Steven: They'd be glad to have you back. Lapis: I don't know. If I went back now, there's no way things could go back to how they were. Steven: Yeah, but that's alright. Things would just be different.

Steven then has a dream explaining how Pink Diamond tried to convince the other Diamonds to leave Earth alone and was refused. He also sees Pearl with her sword, prompting him to talk to Pearl. This finally reveals Rose's secret of being Pink Diamond to him. (Lion brought him to Pink Diamond's ship when he showed Steven the landfill and Nora VHS a full season earlier.)

Diamond Days & Change Your Mind

Steven has stress dreams about Pink Diamond's memories. I think in this case it's possible Rose is with him "in spirit" and being home is triggering flashbacks. When Steven goes back to her bedroom he dreams about playing with Volleyball before Pink hurt her or lost her. When in the cell she used to be trapped in, Steven wakes up in a memory of being punished there. In the case of other visions I think they were typically intentional from her, given the plot relevance, but these might be unintentional nightmares. Unfortunately, Steven is stuck with them too.

She's Gone

(People tend to hate this idea and refuse to entertain it, but I believe) Pink Steven was also Rose. When his gem was removed she reformed in it, choosing Steven's appearance because the gem belongs to him now. She was focused on getting the gem back to Steven to save him and had rage at White. Her protecting Steven despite seemingly afraid of White and telling White Diamond directly that Pink Diamond is GONE is major character development for her. Steven is not two independent bodies if split up, he is himself, a human boy who has a gem.

Shy Rose Finally, the Rose who looks just like Rose Quartz in Rose Buds. She's actually Rose. She acts like Lion and she picks up on Steven's distress more than any other character has so far - it's because she knows him best and has seen/heard the most build up of things affecting his mental health in Future.

People hate this idea too. Idk what to say. It's true. If I'm right then Rose Quartz blatantly came back in episode 4 wearing her own face and we as the audience collectively missed it. If I’m wrong I have a fanfiction AU idea to tell you about next month.

Cactus Steven - in this case I also like Cactus Steven as his own cactus, bc the mirror metaphor works so well, but given all the other examples I have my suspicions about him. If she *is* the cactus too then: Cactus Steven is happy to be an ear for Steven to listen to, but concerned for him when he's upset. Cactus Steven tries to talk to him and tries to get him to talk to the gems.

TL;DR long text picture of Rose Quartz character arc speculation below. You can skip this theory wise as it's just guessing at the story.

One possible version of this story: During the war on Earth, Rose had already planned to give up her physical form. She somehow specifically designed the Rose Quartz gem that she now inhabits to have similar features to the fantasy Rose that Pearl originally created. (For one thing none of the other RQs shown have curly hair) With Pearl's help, she faked Pink Diamond's shattering and assumed her new identity with a permanent reformation.

After things died down without Pink Diamond and the Diamonds left Earth alone, she would switch to the new gemstone and live as a Rose Quartz with Pearl, giving up her power forever and leaving behind her abusive family to become a new person. As we all know, things went very differently.

Eventually (her origins with Garnet and Pearl as shown) Rose meets Amethyst, an unusually “blank slate” gem who learns and grows who’s also similar to herself in many ways. Then, Greg Universe, who *wants* to know the real her behind the persona, and who also tells her that being in love is torture. (Pearl is in love with her.) She becomes fascinated with humans, especially the way they change and grow, and decides to have a child. The events of SU occur. Rose doesn't tell Steven she's here because she thinks everyone's better off without her and she only makes things worse, and the evidence of things getting better and her bad choices and mistakes being revealed seems to support that. When he tries to get Lion to play the role Steven wants, she refuses, because that's what went wrong last time. Just like she stopped raging after hurting Volleyball.

Now that Steven's actions have led to peace among Gems and the other Rose Quartzes were unbubbled, Rose had the opportunity to finally take her own physical form. Having given up her physical form in the meantime and needed a new one, she will now have her own body to return to. Now she knows how badly Steven is messed up about her, kind of like the Gems coming to terms with how he's grown up in Snow Day. Now that she's hurt Steven she's going to change her behavior again, like after hurting Volleyball, and after hurting Pearl, and finally just tell the truth at the end of Steven Universe Future.

This resolves the question of Steven's Rose stuff entirely. Steven isn't Rose, he's himself. He's not receiving her memories from some weird magic repressed gem data, it was because she was using astral projection powers both intentionally and unintentionally. His gem doesn't have its own consciousness that splits in two, he's both human and gem.

The big twist is that they *can* both exist, and *anyone* can change, including god damn motherfucking Rose Quartz. Like everyone else in the show, after seeing her through everyone else's eyes, in the end she's just a person - a flawed, weird individual who has made mistakes and hurt others. Steven doesn't have to forgive her or even like her, but they can finally know each other as themselves, the core theme of the show. It's a hopeful ending to a hopeful show that ties off both character arcs. Thanks for reading, love you, can't wait to see the finale.

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL recaps [8/13]

Today’s recap: Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express, or Yaiba having a Very Bad Very Not Good Time.

[tw: a lot of mental illness, suicide, implied csa mention]

--

SIXTEEN

05 Oct 1996 — 11 Oct 1996

TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY

--

[First person narration from Yaiba, here presented in lazy third person.]

It’s the fifth night since Yaiba has left Japan. He stares into the frosty Russian night while the Trans-Siberian Express has a brief stop in Vladivostok. Over nine thousand kilometers more until Moscow.

He walks back inside the train, on the way greeting the two female conductors of his car (Masha and Faina). In his four-person couchette with two bunk beds he rejoins a fellow passenger called Natalia, who’s getting ready to sleep. The boy Yaiba’s travelling with has already fallen asleep on the top bed.

It’s surprisingly easy to move between countries using the new IDID card, probably because everyone is so shaken by the Crime Olympics that any seemingly busy detective wouldn’t be held up at the border longer than necessary. They will make it, he just needs to continue to pretend Amano is his son and make sure to buy only necessary items.

Sitting in the dark compartment, looking at the moving scenery outside, Yaiba has a feeling that no matter what they do, whether they’re sleeping or awake, moving or not, the ever-changing world mercilessly carries them into the future. He can’t sleep, ends up just lying motionlessly in his blue polka dot pajamas and staring into the darkness. After a while he decides to make his favorite hot cocoa and read instead.

He’s reminded of that time three years ago when Hikimiya, a detective novel fan, borrowed him an anthology that had a Russian-themed story in it. Around that time Yaiba was busy with a case surrounding murders in the north of Russia, so it seemed oddly fitting. Things have changed so much since that time. JDC blew up, Ajiro went missing, Suzukaze Unomaru sunk with a ship… everyone kept dying. It just seemed so random that Yaiba was still alive. This terrifying randomness of fate he couldn’t deal with.

Before Yaiba fled hospital, he’d gotten a call from Hyouma, who announced that he was quitting JDC and wanted to start a new life wandering around America. Hard to blame him; JDC without Ajiro, without Juku around, and with Dokuson in charge didn’t feel like JDC at all.

As if that wasn’t enough change for the worse, everyone around Yaiba read Cosmic and Joker. Everyone learned about what he would rather keep secret about his childhood. Everyone asked questions. He told them that the books were fictional and nobody should worry about the literary version of the events too much, but they didn’t seem to believe him. Yaiba could feel the door to madness opening within him.

Everyone now knew about what that woman had done to him. About how their child was declared to be a serial killer—when Yaiba first heard about that event a few years ago, he couldn’t help but think that the hereditary psychiatric problems that plagued his family had reared its head once more.

But even Cosmic and Joker didn’t know the truth that only Yaiba knew—the truth about his younger brother Amato’s suicide many years ago.

The truth being that Yaiba was the one to kill him.

Amano looks a lot like Amato did at that time. Yaiba doesn’t regret kidnapping him. They are so similar. In a way, Amano is that already non-existing person. What is Yaiba going to do now? Kill Amano—Amato, kill him again to escape his curse? Perhaps. After all, he has already broken down inside

--

[There’s a switch to second person, still from Yaiba, and again I’m just writing in third.]

When he wakes up in the morning, Natalia has already gone off somewhere. The white-haired boy on the bed above his own, Amato, is busy with his gameboy. Walking down the train aisle Yaiba hears a few Russians mention the killer Amur Tiger, but judging from the laughter they’re just making a joke. The two conductors are chatting in their room. Yaiba feels like everyone is observing him suspiciously. He gets tea and goes back to their compartment to give it to Amato, who as a recently hospitalized child can’t really handle a lot of solid food. Amato has four months to live, maybe less. Yaiba wonders if it’s possible to show him the northern lights before his death.

On the next stop they stand aside as the electric train engine is switched out for a diesel, which Amato compares to Galaxy Express 999, the flying space train. Yaiba realizes they are being observed from afar by another passenger, who after being spotted quickly boards the train again.

Later Yaiba meets a few travel mates from the neighboring compartment: a young couple of Pyotr and Shaina, and a strong guy with sideburns called Ivan. Yaiba thinks they’re looking at Amato’s white hair strangely, so he quickly explains that “his son” is ill. While everyone is having a nice conversation, a few cans get loose from the couple’s baggage, which they regard with laughter as their “super secret stuff”. It’s clearly a joke, considering the cans seem to have plain corned beef inside.

--

When Yaiba is sitting in the dining car later, that passenger who seemed to be observing them earlier introduces comes up and introduces himself as Drexel Uryakov. Uryakov turns out to be a fellow A-rank detective, who knows very well who Yaiba is and what he’s doing here, but has more pressing matters to attend to—namely the cases of the Amur Tiger and Pogrom. He asks Yaiba for help with the investigation.

The Amur Tiger is a serial killer whose hundreds of victims all had their heads cut off, and who is most infamous for disguising a bunch of corpses as mannequins in Moscow’s GUM. Pogrom similarly likes to decapitate his victims, but specifically targets the detectives of DOLL’s Russian branch and steals their IDID cards from the scene. (Uryakov makes an interesting comment on how these nicknames alone shape people’s understanding: an Amur Tiger brings to mind a mindless animal, while Pogrom has Connotations and implies a much scarier enemy that is a cruel human—or perhaps, an unfeeling beast wearing the mask of a human.)

Uryakov thinks these two cases are connected. He managed to get a hold of secret KGB files which show the Amur Tiger murders go back to at least the times of Ivan the Terrible, but the public never learned about it before now. All of Pogrom’s victims were detectives who tried to shed more light on the Amur Tiger. Uryakov himself is also pursuing the Amur Tiger, and revealed a few case details to his twin brother Aleksandr, a private detective. Aleksandr attempted to stealthily investigate on his own and was murdered for his curiosity. But before his death, he managed to tell what he had discovered to Drexel...

--

In the afternoon, the train has to temporarily stop in Khabarovsk because of something unprecised happening to the west. Pyotr claims he heard that the overhead line supports had been knocked over in places too strategic to be a random event, and on a stretch of over three thousand kilometers of tracks to boot. It can’t be the Billion Killer, they still have two days until Saturday.

Yaiba uses the break to call Hikimiya and ask him to confirm Uryakov’s story by checking his entry in DOLL’s database. There is indeed a Drexel Uryakov registered, and he did have a private detective brother who died in the Amur Tiger case two weeks ago. Drexel hasn’t been in contact with the Russian DOLL branch at all in those two weeks, but he does work alone a lot, so it’s expected (kinda like Hyouma wanders off a lot).

After confirming that, Hikimiya asks what on earth Yaiba is even thinking, grabbing a child and running away. Yaiba isn’t really pursued by the police, who think this is JDC’s own problem to fix (and there’s no definite proof it was him who kidnapped the boy), but it’s just a matter of time until he gets caught during a search. Hikimiya asks him to please give himself up before that so he doesn’t get into even more trouble.

Nemu has already boarded the Trans-Siberian Express going the other direction, so that she will be able to catch him halfway. Maybe that power outage that bought Yaiba some time was a godsend after all. Nemu may be kind, but she always gets spirited when facing criminals, so Yaiba would hate to meet her when being one. Then again, he prefers that to meeting someone like Jounosuke. He can deal with Nemu’s harshness, but wouldn’t be able to keep a hold of himself if Jounosuke looked at him with that compassionate smile and kindness.

Yaiba knew all along that any escape would be impossible in the long term—but perhaps it was this awareness of entrapment that paradoxically made him want to run.

--

Since the train won’t move until morning, Yaiba is invited to hit the town with Pyotr and the rest. Uryakov warns him that it might not be the best idea—what if Pyotr is Pogrom?—but it’s not like anyone else here knows that Yaiba is a detective, he’s not pursuing the Amur Tiger, and besides, Pyotr is only as suspicious as Uryakov himself.

Yaiba asks if Uryakov’s brother also had a mark on his cheek. Uryakov jokes about it (“what, are you implying we switched?”) then shares his own surprising suspicion: he thinks Yaiba is actually being manipulated by the boy he’s with. He questions Yaiba’s motive for the kidnapping—did he want a kid this badly or what?—but the answer “he’s my dead brother” is enough to end the conversation.

Yaiba takes Amato to the nearest town with the others. They ask him where he’s travelling, so he says that he and Amato are going to Murmansk to see the northern lights, but since it’s too early in the year for that, they’re going to go see Moscow first. Pyotr jokes that Yaiba’s tone makes it sound like a suicide trip. Amato gets a little pale.

When they get back to their empty compartment, Amato asks if he’s going to be killed under the northern lights in Murmansk. Yaiba replies that they probably won’t make it to Murmansk, as his coworkers are too smart to just let him go.

“Then you could kill them too,” Amato says. “Just like you killed me. It’s fine if everyone else dies.”

“You will never let me go, will you? I was young, didn’t know anything…”

“You can’t change the past. No one can change it, even if they may forget about it. Don’t deny my existence.”

“Please forgive me, I’m just so tired…”

“Then die and come here already. The world of the dead is nice. If you kill yourself, I’ll forgive you.”

“Amato, please, stop talking.”

“You will never escape from me.”

Darkness envelops him.

--

[Narration swaps to third person.]

That same evening, Yaiba and the others drink vodka in the neighboring compartment. The Russians tend to forget his first name and call him Somanovich instead of Somahito. After a few drinks Yaiba admits that he’s quite weak-headed nowadays, but he spent his teenage years drinking a lot as a means of distracting himself after his brother’s suicide. He was the one to discover the body.

His brother used to say that they were inescapably fated to commit suicide. He repeated it no matter how many times Yaiba scolded him for saying things like that, no matter how much he argued that it’s perfectly possible to avoid the curse of one’s bloodline. Yaiba loved him, but he too had a point of snapping and one day yelled, “If you want to die so much, then go ahead and die! Do as you wish. But I would never do a stupid thing like that.” Later that day he found Amato dead in the bathroom. To Yaiba, it was clear who caused this death, and guilt drove him to drink. He would probably end up the same way as his brother. On the other hand, the events made him feel drawn to study the darkness in people’s hearts, and that caused him to become a detective, which gave his life new meaning… but that's all in the past now.

--

Yaiba wakes up with a hangover in his own compartment. Someone’s knocking at the door and Amato is asking him from the upper bed to open it already. Yaiba complies and unlocks the door, briefly wondering why the floor has a dark stain on it. The one knocking is completely pale Pyotr, who informs him that the two conductors have been murdered—while the bodies are nowhere to be found, their room is covered in blood, and the red stains lead to Yaiba’s compartment door. Yaiba notices that Natalia is not with them, but Pyotr informs him that she just switched compartments last night, since she didn’t like being unable to lock the door for the sake of her companions.

They call over Uryakov from another car to help with investigation. There’s a lot of blood in the compartment and on the train aisle floor, but the outside of the compartment door is clean, so Uryakov believes the victims were attacked inside. However, Yaiba was in no shape to attack anyone, and the only other person inside was a child. When Yaiba woke up, the door had been locked from the inside, so nobody could budge them unless they had the master key belonging to the conductors. It’s possible that obtaining that key was the motive for murder. It’s also very possible that the murderer actually wanted to kill Yaiba, but the conductors walked in during the act and had to be taken care of. Uryakov suspects Pyotr, but Yaiba thinks he’s innocent.

Natalia shows up and claims that Yaiba is the murderer. Earlier she heard the conductors arguing with someone, then a sound like something fell over and was being dragged towards the conductor room. When she worked up the courage to check that room, she saw two headless bodies and sprinted back to her compartment, afraid of coming out until now.

Uryakov listens to her testimony and has her return to her room. He doesn’t believe Yaiba did it, but they only have an hour left to solve the case before they arrive at the next station and will potentially be in big trouble.

They investigate. The conductor room toilet is unusually unlocked. One of the empty compartments is locked, but Uryakov doesn’t think the bodies are in there (probably were thrown out the train window instead). In a baggage storage under Yaiba’s bed they find a bloodied axe.

Yaiba remembers what Uryakov told him about the Amur Tiger. The motive for the murders is obtaining human heads, retrieving brain tissue and selling it as a delicacy on the black market, camouflaged as ordinary canned food. Considering the scope of the entire scheme, it has to be the work of an organization that Pogrom must be related to as well. The vital clue that Aleksandr Uryakov told his brother before death was that Pogrom was likely Pyotr, and so Drexel decided to tail the man.

Yaiba thinks it’s strange. If Pyotr was Pogrom, why would he try to kill Yaiba instead of the more immediate threat that was Uryakov, and why would he fail? If those corned beef cans contained human brain tissue, why would Pyotr want to murder someone right there in their train car, considering the police would probably look through the passengers’ belongings? And why was the door closed?

They make a rough timeline of events.

00:00 — Natalia asks to switch compartments. The conductors help her move baggage.

00:30 — Pyotr and Amato drag passed out Yaiba to his compartment, meeting both conductors on the way. One of the conductors returns to their room. Natalia explains the switch to Amato. The boy locks the door to Yaiba’s compartment from the inside and goes to sleep. Pyotr goes back to his own bed.

04:25 — The train gets moving again and leaves Khabarovsk.

05:00 — Natalia hears the suspicious noises. Around ten minutes later she discovers the two bodies and hides in her compartment.

05:30 — Pyotr sees the bloody scene (but no bodies) and knocks on Yaiba’s door.

Uryakov thinks that the murderer waited until one conductor was using the bathroom, killed the other one, snatched the master key, attempted to kill Yaiba, but was discovered by the other conductor and had to kill her too. Yaiba points out that it would be weird to not just kill both women first to be safe. Maybe the suspect they’re searching for is in fact one of the conductors? But then who killed her in turn?

Yaiba theorizes that maybe the murderer wasn’t targeting him at all, but the two women—after all, the Amur Tiger just wants some random heads. He attacked them in their room, got the master key, and then arranged things to look like they were killed in Yaiba’s compartment to pin the guilt on him. This could mean that the murderer was traveling in the same car… or just wanted them to think that way. It could even be someone from outside—it would be impossible not to get one’s clothes stained with this much blood flying around, yet none of the passengers they talked to seemed to have changed their clothing since yesterday. The fact that the murder occured after the train resumed movement also seems quite suspicious, almost as if done intentionally to make them think the culprit was still on the train.

Uryakov adds that the murderer has to be someone who knew that Yaiba wouldn’t wake up anytime soon and that Natalia had moved to another compartment. Aside from Amato and Natalia herself, this only leaves Pyotr as the suspect.

Yaiba notices that Uryakov really wants to pin the guilt on Pyotr, but he thinks he has already found another solution. The real murderer was someone from outside who cooperated with Natalia to create an alibi for himself. First the real murderer killed the conductors at night and left the train, then in the morning Natalia pushed the bodies outside.

They approach the next station quickly, so Uryakov promises to take care of the rest.

--

Natalia admits her guilt and reveals that Pyotr, Shaina and Ivan were all in on it. Ivan told Natalia he was with the Amur Tiger group and threatened her into compliance. Then he left the train at night in Khabarovsk, bought an axe, checked in a local hotel, then claiming he forgot something returned to the train, killed both conductors and took their heads with him. Natalia took care of the bodies later.

Thankfully the police seems satisfied with this and the train continues on its way. Yaiba evaded being searched, but he doesn’t have a lot of time before his and Nemu’s trains stop at the same station. He’s not sure what to do now, so he passes the time talking with Uryakov.

Yaiba notices that despite the case being over, something still doesn’t fit into his reasoning. If Ivan really was the murderer, why would he buy a murder weapon in a store, considering how easy it would be to track it back to him? Revealing himself as part of the Amur Tiger to another person and trying to put the blame on an A-detective seemed too risky. Yaiba thinks it’s more probable that the real murderer actually forced Natalia to accuse Ivan.

And when you take all the circumstances into account, the only person who can be the murderer—who traveled outside their car, and who knew that Yaiba would be drinking—is actually Uryakov.

Uryakov asks why Yaiba covered for him in front of the police. Yaiba answers that he’s not in a position to be getting himself involved into cases, and besides, it’s only a matter of time until the truth is discovered. Uryakov can’t escape anymore.

The deciding evidence was Amato’s testimony. The boy actually told Yaiba that he had been only pretending to be asleep at night, so he saw Uryakov entering their compartment and killing a conductor who walked in on him. The intended target really was Yaiba. The motive is easy to guess: Uryakov himself is Pogrom. He was the one to kill his own brother.

Uryakov admits to everything, but adds that no matter how good of a detective Yaiba is, he has one weakness: he cannot put his thinking to reason out his own problems. And because Uryakov knows that they’re both going to die on this train anyway, he may as well tell him the truth about the boy he’s traveling with.

“That boy over there is Amano, not Amato. Wake up, Somanovich—no, Yaiba Somahito! That ‘Amato’ only exists within you!”

Yaiba slowly stands up and looks at the boy on the top bed. An unfamiliar face looks back at him. It’s not his brother Amato at all.

Yaiba runs out of the compartment and realizes that the train seems to be climbing a steep hill that shouldn’t be there, and that the hour is almost 1 PM on a Saturday—and then the train shots out of the broken tracks and starts falling straight towards Lake Baikal.

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[mistress-alexandria]

Alex and Aviva Reunion

Alex: The sky was just beginning to lighten in the east when her ship reached port in the southern area of Barley. Alexandria made quick work of disembarking, bringing Henry along with her as she saddled up and began the ride north to where Aviva and Seth’s cottage was located. Even in the dim light, she hurried the horses as much as safely possible, wanting to get there as quickly as possible. -d-

Aviva: Aviva lay there, half-smiling as she heard the hollering and hooting.  Her siblings were celebrating the fact that she had woken up, Alden with Arendt spreading the word, Alynne with Abeile possibly being scolded for being the girl she was. Sighing softly, and with a shrunken belly full of bone brother, she glanced at her newborn son in her arms, amused by his fair hair, while both herself and Seth had dark hair. "You little light of my heart are going to raise questions." []d[]

Alex: Dawn had already broken by the time Alex and Henry finally came into sight of the cottage and those gathered. Heart and stomach clenched at the scene around the cottage as they quickly drew near. What had occurred? What was all the racket about? Was Aviva still among the living? Heels spurred her mount into a fast trot, dirty blonde hair flying out behind her as she hurried forward. -d-

Aviva: She could hear the crowds moving, she had asked her mother Helena specifically to keep them from her home, and she had managed to maneuver them away and carry on their celebration further away from the home Seth and Aviva shared. Heavily pregnant, Helena waddled, slowly back over towards the Orphanage Aviva normally maintained herself, and thought of her other children all causing a commotion in Barley, and shook her head with a little laugh. Aviva shifted slightly, eyes cast towards the open window, relishing the cool air. []d[]

Alex: Several minutes later had them arriving at the quieted cottage, the sudden silence making her nervous as she dismounted and quickly moved towards the door. Thankfully she still had enough respect to knock, quietly even, upon the door and await Seth or another person of the family to come and answer the door. Meanwhile, she stood there, shifting from one foot to another while her hands fidgeted together. She wanted to check on her patient....her friend. Like, now. -d-

Aviva: Eyes opened when she heard the sound of a knock and eventually the silent movements of her husband Seth move towards the door.  She couldn't hear words shared, and was left wondering who had even thought to knock.  Her siblings simply entered, though her mother was a bit more polite, though she wouldn't have knocked and wondered who else had come about. Whispered words from Seth, she tried to sit up quietly, but found herself a bit too weak to move and waited to find someone she had not expected. Lips parting as she offered a small smile and nod of her head. []d[]

Alex: Seth was lucky to reach his wife and give her notice before Alex barged I’m like the room was her ward and she owned it. “I am very glad you are awake, so you can see me glaring at you for not listening to me. And to know that I very much want to throttle you and your husband both, but will do my best to make you healthy before I do so. I make no promises about Seth; however, even if he thought to write and warn me of what happened.” Tirade finished, she took a breath and did a visual scan of her friend. “How are you feeling? What hurts? Details, from one of you, please. Now.” -d-

Aviva: She rather appreciated the scolding , and smiled sheepishly at her. "it is good to see you, princess." and watched her step in further.  Looking to her son, she held him up a bit. "I suppose it could not be helped.  Lucien." she offered and closed her eyes a moment, "My mother is here, she sent her ally to help, I labored for close to 2 days." and shook her head, unable to remember much more about her labor. Seth would have reluctantly shared what had happened, for he had spared her the details.  Yet, he shared that while her labor had lagged on, moved into new positions to give the babe a chance to come into the world, eventually she had begun to spasm, knocking her into a deep sleep once the babe had come. Aviva was still unaware of how many days had gone by, but she had begun to suspect it had been some time, if Alexandria was here, now. "I...my milk came when i was...asleep, and Alynne has been nursing him, but I want to bring him to my breast, but I am producing so little." Seth filled in she had barely begun to eat. []d[]

Alex: “You need to eat to be able to produce more milk, and your body needs to be strong. You have no strength, energy, or nutrients so therefore your body has none to give away.” Hands came to rest on her hips as she regarded the child a moment before taking him to do a quick health inspection. Golden/green light flared briefly even as she continued to speak. “Well, he is not wanting for much thanks to your sister.” Babe was handed off to Seth while she gave them both the worst look. “No. More. Children. Ever. At all. Adopt or nothing. Do you both understand me? The next time this happens I guarantee you will not wake up. Do I need to take a blade somewhere to remove the necessary parts to ensure there isn’t an oops?” Oh Alex looked dead serious as she stared between the two of them. “I am not a cruel person and you both know this, but I swear to you that if I do not have your word and honor in this than I will not help beyond verbal advice. I will not fix you up only to have you die, Aviva. You are like my sister, and I will not see all these kids without their mother. Do you understand me?” Okay, maybe not done with the Tirade. Or even close to done. -d-

Aviva: She tried to laugh, lightly, but nodded, "Yes, I know...no more babies." and leaned back on the headboard. "I am glad you are here...." and when Alexandria took on the newborn, she grinned. "Apparently he has quite the lungs, I have yet to hear it myself." and rested her hands on her lap and nodded at the mention that she needed to keep eating right for her milk to come with more frequency. She loved Alex as a sister more for the harsh scolding and nodded again, "No blade needed." and listened on as she reached a hand out for her. "You are my sister...and my vagabond of a husband knew well enough to call for you.  He wanted you here, and I am more than happy to know he did." Breathing out gently, she cocked her head to her, "I may have been asleep for a moment or two, but I hear you are not traveling alone." and raised her brows in question. []d[]

Alex: The look that came in her face plainly told Aviva to not even go down that line of questioning. “Your husband talks to much, and put your eyebrows back where they belong. Your thoughts are far enough off to be in space.” Leave it to Aviva to think would those things at a time like this! Hand waved as she turned away briefly to grab a chair so she could settle herself beside Aviva in preparation for what she planned to come soon enough. “I am glad he wrote to me as well. Had I learned of your condition after the fact I would have several faces to put my fist in.” All three gathered in that room near just what level of angry she would be at if that had happened. “Now, do you want me to replenish some of your energy so that you can eat? As well as provide you wish a check up to ensure there are no unseen issues?” Her magic and energy was what had kept Aviva alive before, and now hopefully it would help her begin the road to a full recovery. -d-

Aviva: "He does talk a lot, why do you think I found myself pregnant?" and tried to laugh, while those shadows around her eyes faded, for the moment.  Breathing out she shrugged, "I can not help but think someone to focus your energy on is a positive, more than the smells they exert." and waggled her brow once at her, before she settled back again. "I spared him the truth really...he did not know how hard it had become during the last moons.  I wanted to keep up, but I know, I know I should not have." and sighed gently, "My body was giving out, but as we both know...our bodies protect the baby first." When asked if she could provide assistance, he nodded slowly. "Is your magic finite princess?  I would never want to take from you like that...." but she thought first of Lucien, "I want to be able to nurse my child." she explained. []d[]

Alex: “The energy within my own body is finite, yes, but I also pull from the Earth when my magic is used.” She offered a quick smile. “For me, it is nothing a little rest can not replenish. How do you think I managed to keep you alive with your little magic user?” Her own brow lifted as she settled back in her chair. “He’s a trainee and a charge I have been given. We’re friends and nothing more. His attentions are else where.” Best to put that to bed before Aviva tried to arrange things from her sick bed. “After my broken engagement I am really not all that interested in getting my heart broken again. 4 times is enough for any one person, I think.” A sidelong glance was offered towards Seth and the new babe. “Not everyone can be lucky enough like you and your family have been with men...and women alike.” And she quickly decided to change the subject. “Lay back and close your eyes and hand over a hand so we can get you on the mend.” -d-

Aviva: "Veda..." she mentioned and glanced at her hands. "Alexandria...she is who guided me back.  her song really." she admitted, and found herself smirking when Alex shared about her traveling companion. "Ah...so you are the teacher, befitting of you." and despite words that were used to usurp her intentions, it would remain an idea, not yet extinguished.  "That simply proves that someone was not worthy of you, but as always take your time.  I know you know." and grimaced learning this was the 4th broken engagement, "These men simply can not handle you..." she mused aloud and laughed lightly, "I must tell you, we are all proving quite fertile.  Alynne has three daughters, brought her latest daughter, still under a winter old.  Alden had five..." and shook her head, "a set of triplets and twins.  I do not know how they do it.  Arendt is still a young buck, and Abelie, well...I hope you see her while you are here." and smiled again, "And my mother is waddling about, round with child, yet again." and grinned and finally nodded her head.  "I shall princess." and slowly slipped back onto her back instead and closed her eyes. "Your time will come...I know it." she proclaimed, unable to help herself.[]d[]

Alex: “Add not talking to the list of things I need you to do.” A gentle glare was offered as she leaned forward to take her dear friends hand. “Along with plotting. No plotting.” Because they both knew what Aviva was thinking at the moment. “I look forward to catching up with the rest of your family and seeing the little ones now that they are grown. Especially my god daughter.” One of them any ways. “Yes, I know. No one can handle me or keep up with me. I scare all the men off because I’m strong, independent, and know what I want.” Recited as if she had heard those words more than once. Maybe four times? Giving her hand a squeeze, Alex allowed her own eyes to close as she fell into a light trance. The first step was to check Aviva for any internal injuries or complications from the birth what might need to be mended or brought to light. If there was nothing of concern, then she moved into sharing her energy. Aviva would feel the sudden boost of strength and life flow into her like a gentle breeze, as all the while that golden/green light flared around their joined hands. -d-

Aviva: Aviva lay there, lips pursed for she still wanted to speak, she wanted to remind the Princess that it was good that she knew what she wanted, that it made her stronger, and a better person, but she listened to Alex and stayed silent. She could have almost gone to sleep with how serene she felt as that light energy coursed through her body, seeking out the tears she had suffered bringing this tiny child into this world, the adept stitching she had endured as well.  The blocked milk ducts which had continued to cause her pain, while both Juliette (Helena's ally) and her mother consulted on how best to strengthen her and to keep her healthy enough to nurse her own child. The energy surged through her, where in return she let out a content sigh, where one eye peeked open, watching her a moment. []d[]

Alex: “Close that eye before I smack you.” Without a twitch to show how she knew, those words poured from Alex’s lips as her healing Earth magic worked to mend the strained muscles and ligaments, the tissues that took a beating. The stitches would find themselves being worked out of flesh as the wound was mended with a tickle of flesh repairing itself till only a scar was left. Ducts and lymph nodes were cleansed and cleared, and then the body strengthened. By the time that the light finally faded, Aviva felt like a normal mother should after just giving birth...exhausted and spent, but with enough strength to do what needed done. And she would find her appetite returned ten fold. Like a pregnant woman with triplets. Releasing Aviva’s hand, Alex sat back with a soft sigh. “You’ll need a few more of those to get back to full strength, but I think in a few days you’ll be up and about like you should be. Just tell your husband to do the majority of the work for a time and you focus on eating and feeding the little one.” Least if he was kept busy he would keep his hands...and other things to himself. “And then I can kick both of you in your arses for this terrible scare.” -d-

Aviva: She could not help but laugh lightly as she chastised her, and eventually closed her eyes again and settled back into that zen as that green energy coursed through her.  She felt small changes, the little notes of repair, the stitching falling away, her body releasing their hold on the toxins that still lingered, keeping her weak and tired, and let out another content sigh when she released her hold on her hand. Slowly, she peeked one eye open and then the other as she slowly tested her strength as she pushed herself back up into a sitting position, leaning against the headboard again. "Then I need to have a place for you figured out.  My mother is minding the Orphanage and hospital, she has taken over the responsibilities...even as round with child as she is." and smirked.  There would be little question as to where she learned to push and persevere.  "She will love seeing you and your boy toy.  I am sure you both will feel right at home."  And laughed at her own antics. "Is he younger than you? Is he appealing to you?" she teased, but soon relented when they spoke of Seth. "Yes yes...he minds the children, has responsibilities here in Barley that at times keep him away for the majority of the day.  I think he participates also on some sort of council here." And shifted slightly in her bed, keeping the blankets up to her waist, "I knew...yet could not stop that had already started." []d[]

Alex: “Do better at stopping before getting to that point again.” She managed to choke out amidst clearing her throat and turning slightly red at all the words coming out of Aviva’s mouth. “Firstly he is not my boy toy. Secondly I have no idea and thirdly I’m not answering that because it doesn’t matter because as I said his attention is focused solely on someone else.” Standing up from the chair she paced away to the window and back again. “You’re insufferable, Aviva! So hush before he happens to wander in and hear all this! I did not hire you as my matchmaker that I can remember. I think Tisha had that job before you came along and even her antics failed.” One of the four heartbreaks mentioned came from her attempts. “Focus on your health and babe and less on my love life. I promise it is beyond any help. And the Light help me if your mother gets wind of all this because I feel she would help!” Did she mention she needed a drink now? Cause she did. “I can sleep in a tent in the woods if need be. Wouldn’t be the first and won’t be the last.” -d-

Aviva: "If you feel more comfortable in a tent..." but she continued to smirk, loving the rise she was getting out of her and shrugged. "You did not...yet I still refuse to relent." but did not go on, "Stay in the Orphanage (& Hospital), my mother would love to be spending that time with you, pushing on like she does all of us." and laughed lightly at the way Alex attempted to phrase life between a husband and a wife and cocked her head. "Per your instruction, I shall." As Alexandria shared about the stranger with her, she nodded again, "I learn more every moment you are here.  He is welcomed in the Orphanage as well, adjoining rooms." she teased and then held her hands up, 'promising' to let up. "Lucien, getting better, and returning to my duties here, yes...I remember." she added softly. []d[]

Alex: Another glare was offered her way. “As long as I can have alcohol in my room. If I have to spend time getting teased during your healing sessions than I want to be able to drink.” Aviva was poking the bear incessantly, but instead of biting this one grumbled. “I am sure you will meet him yourself soon enough. He will be learning how I use my magic to heal and restore and may give his own a try.” For he had magic too as she left Aviva to read between the lines with that one. “Now, if you are done poking at me for the day, I will instruct your husband to make you a healthy and filling dinner and be on my way to track down the rest of our lot who are probably having a drink or two already without me. Or do you have to get one more jab in before I go?” Brow lifted as once more her hands came to rest on her hips. “And before you say a word remember who is in charge of your care for the rest of the week.” -d-

Aviva: "My care? you mean my mother? Juliette? oh, you?" and wrinkled her nose playfully at her, "Go, enjoy Barley, you do not want to be stuck with a drag like I." and waved her off, "I know I have not said it yet Princess, but I am more than elated you are here.  I have not seen you since Veda, it will be good to have your kind of energy about." and laughed softly at the mention of alcohol.  "I am sure we can provide something." and blinked at the idea that her companion would be making an effort in her healing as well. "Well, so that means I get to meet him, how wonderful indeed." she added. []d[]

Alex: “On second thought maybe I should think of the many reasons why he can’t help....” She trailed off with a meaningful look at Aviva before she began to chuckle. “I am going, but only so I can down a couple drinks and maybe some sleep.” She had not truly rested since hearing of Aviva’s state, even throughout the journey here with Henry. “And don’t you worry, in a week you will be up walking about giving me the grand tour. That way I can keep you away from Henry and your plotting.” Another very pointed look offered. “But it is good to see you two. My sister by heart though honestly with the way we act your mother might as well be mine. A terrible thought, that, as I would have way too many siblings to train to not try to match me with anything male that can walk. I’ve already trained my cousins and my Snow siblings know better.” Well, the sisters hated her and Caspian couldn’t get his own crap together...so yeah. -d-

@thedawnbeauty

@tishcantavillesblog

[arcticwaters]

so now that it’s been over a month and i’ve seen frozen 2 three times, i thought i’d finally give my thoughts on it. i’ll format it like i did for endgame, with a “good, meh, bad, what i’d change/etc” bullet list. this might be a little incoherent because i have a hard time expressing with words what i love about this franchise so much but i’ll try.

tldr: i love elsa with my soul entire, i’m happy that anna wasn’t sidelined, but kristoff, while funny, could’ve been better

what i liked

EVERYTHING about elsa. i love that elsa takes a little more center stage in this one; not because i dislike anna but i just love elsa. legit, each time her parts in some things never change comes up, i start to tear up because she’s just so beautiful, her animation in that little part is so fucking bright and glowing and good.

also all of her outfits are so amazing, but especially that main traveling one. her holiday one is still my favorite but this one is like just touching that slightly more ““”masculine””” side that my butch ass could wear it and probably still feel ok. (also all the details on everyone’s clothing is fucknig stunning, i see new things every watch.)

it’s probably unnecessary to even praise the animation because duh of course it’s good, literally every animated movie i saw this year was beautiful but guys it’s stunning. i really gotta give it to that one scene of elsa where she’s trying to get a word in against anna and kristoff and she just flies seamlessly between so many different emotions and expressions.

there are parts about into the unknown that i don’t like (some of the verse lines are very “talk-y” like she’s just speaking to music, and in general i don’t like songs where the chorus is just the title repeated) but oh man when it gets to “everyone i’ve ever loved” and idina starts to show her range that’s when it really gets fist pumping and i LOVE the horns that come in near the end. there are parts could rival let it go, but not quite.

i’m really glad i didn’t listen to the soundtrack before seeing this because show yourself is an experience. (i also didn’t watch any cast interviews, so i didn’t know that there would be “two let it go’s.”) every time i’m just blown away to tears because of the sheer power of this scene; and not just it’s message. the vocals, the animation. how happy my girl looks. i just love her so much.

speaking of anna earlier, during the months going into this movie i was worried that anna wouldn’t have much to do; that focus would be on elsa too much. and while there’s never “too much” elsa for me, anna is still an important part of this franchise; frozen 1 is her movie. and i’m very happy that not only was she still very relevant, but she got the whole climax. i love that she is also the bridge, and as much the fifth spirit as elsa. i have mixed feelings on her being queen that i’ll get into, but don’t have anything against the idea of it, and i think she’ll be ok.

i have,,,,, issues with kristoff’s song, and his role in general, but the song itself is like a legitimately good song and it’s so goddamn extra that i laugh my ass each time. i never realized how damn pleasant his voice is.

also i still hella bro-ship him and elsa; adorable in-laws. i wish there was more of them, but i love that they genuinely seem to love each other and he hugs her !!!

also it’s so funny that elsa has no problem with this weirdly smart reindeer just, in her castle.

mattias !!! i was so nervous about him, sure that disney would make him the secret villain (i did not want them to fuck up this franchise’s first main black character, considering its biggest criticism is how damn white it is, something i do agree with.) but no he’s amazing. he’s hilarious and sweet and charming and fatherly. i fucking adored him. i really hope if there’s a third one he has a bigger role. he’s their grandpa now.

bruni is definitely very adorable and i love that elsa’s got her own pascal, but like pascal, i wish he looked more like a gecko? both of them have that super chibi, super “child’s toy” look to them, and it’s not that they look bad (tho i’m not fond of pascal’s series look) i just think i’d like them both more if they just looked like how real lizards did. the other animals in these movies look fine, why not the reptiles? also the nokk is cool and terrifying.

honeymaren and ryder!! wow what good gays??? and siblings too, thank god!! i totally thought they’d done a last minute hook up, but no.

i loved that they were dunking on hans so much. elsa and anna said “fuck you” to redeeming entitled white men who try to take advantage of and kill women.

i personally don’t count the “twist” with their grandfather as a true “secret villain twist” because he’s been dead for 34 years. it almost is, but to me it’s more of a reveal, the answer to a question set up at the beginning, a follow through to the idea of “normal” people fearing magic. and between this and WiR2, i kind of like this new trend of villain-less disney movies. like sure, villains are fine and i really did wish this movie would be the one to bring back those old classic hammy 90′s villains. but they’re trying something different, and after eight years of twist “gotcha!” villains, that’s not a bad thing.

the “pretty okay”

so i liked the spirits just fine; quite a lot actually, elemental spirits calling to elsa is a cool idea, as is her, and later anna, calming them. but i do kind of wish they’d been a little more... i dunno, consistent? like why was one of them a tiny blue lizard, another one is a horse but made of water, another is just the wind, and the last are a group? none of these are bad ideas on their own (i especially like that bruni and nokk are based on real world mythology.) but i wish they had either all been the same or all completely different. what if along with a fire lizard and water horse, there was a wind bird and a earth turtle, like a torterra? maybe the bird is made of wind like the nokk, and the turtle has eyes like bruni. or what if they could all shape shift and didn’t have one specific form? or you could follow the earth giants and have there be more than one spirit of the other three; more than one lizard/reptile, more wind, more nokks. (i like the animal ideas myself.)

i don’t love olaf, but i don’t hate him either. he has his moments - it’s actually kind of astounding that i find him as funny as i do - but i could still do without his songs, and wish his design was better. “samatha?” is a great joke tho.

i don’t really know how to feel about the “water has memory” thing but they are at least consistent with it and trying new lore for the world. it’s no weirder than tangled’s “sunlight dripped from the sun and made a flower” i guess.

i’ll get to it later, but this movie handled “shaking up the status quo by separating the main relationship” so much better than httd3.

what i’m not fond of

the pacing of this movie is pretty off. i’ve heard it was supposed to be longer, and you can feel it. elsa suddenly hearing the voice when we’re just barely out of the prologue. the journey to the forest itself being a montage. i honestly thought that would be a bigger part of the plot, and was looking forward to it. there’s actually kind of a part of me that wishes this movie was about the trip and the magical stuff is encountered through the journey, and the forest is ahtohallan or something, i dunno.

when elsa says she woke up the spirits, it’s treated as if it’s something she did with intent, and that is not at all the impression i got from into the unknown. (i suppose you could argue that her “are you out there, can you feel me?” lines are trying to show that she is waking them up on purpose.) maybe this is a result of things getting cut and hobbled together.

i like the idea of elsa and anna being part northuldran but ya’ll...... they white as fuck. if they wanted to make that more believable, they should’ve had more white looking northuldrans, but most of them aren’t, so it’s just like “where the hell did idunna come from??”

so kristoff. like i said, his song is hilarious and a jam; but it also grinds the movie to a dead halt. and i appreciate that it’s theme is talking about how you feel, but how he’s feeling is that he and anna are “drifting apart” all because of a few awkward conversations?? (you’re on a quest, my dude !!!! there are spirits and her sister is hearing a voice, of course she has other things to worry about.) then he disappears out of the movie.

plus i really don’t like that his entire arc is him trying to propose. for one thing, all of his attempts are just frustrating to watch, because they turn anna into an idiot. like i get that he’s nervous, but you’re telling me after three years, anna would misunderstand him that badly?? that him stumbling over his words would imply he wants to break up? (which thank god they didn't go anywhere with that.) i get that anna has her own issues with abandonment, but that just wasn’t funny or fun to watch. and literally all of kristoff’s problems in this movie happened because he felt the need to propose as soon as he possibly could. their kingdom was in danger, and they were going on a journey to find angry spirits, an enchanted forest, and a mysterious voice that only the person with magic could hear. he couldn’t have waited until they got home? nothing was stopping him from waiting until they were home safely and he had her full attention. my guy, just because your pet reindeer brother gave you an encouraging nod doesn’t mean you have to propose while your gf is thinking about her kingdom being flooded.

also anna hearing “oh he went off with that ryder guy” and taking it really hard?? for all she knew, he was hiding from the giants. they couldn’t have gone to find him?? they were in a trapped forest, and the northuldran people were right there to help them look. this conflict was extremely forced and only happened because they needed to get anna in that cave alone.

but what i really didn’t like about the proposal plot was that they did it at all. frozen 1 ends right when they begin dating; they weren’t even in love yet. kristoff, and thus their romance, doesn’t have much a presence in the shorts. and then, suddenly, he wants to propose in this? we missed three whole years of courtship. look, i don’t consider myself a “kristanna” shipper. like, it just is what it is, your standard canon disney ship. but i actually was interested in seeing what a romance between them was like considering we’ve seen nothing of it so far. why should i care about the start of their marriage when i barely have an idea of what they’re like as a couple? because what we see of their relationship in this movie was very.... basic.

tho it is funny how similar his role in this is to your classic female love interest.

so like i said, i love show yourself. i’m not mad at the fact that what elsa finds is basically her own self realization. but i wanted there to be something there. it’s not even clear what exactly it is. i, personally, don’t think the voice was actually her mother. i don’t think her mom’s spirit was calling to her, and i think that moment of them singing together was just Musical Magic™. that was just elsa revisiting the memory of her mom telling her the story. i think this was ahtohallan, magic itself, calling to her and using the familiar voice of her northuldran mother. but this is also not clear, and i would like it to be clear.

also i know the answer is “because none of this existed when frozen 1 was written” but i still have to wonder why the voice was calling elsa now.

also also, it’s weird that ahtohallan would punish elsa for trying to get the information to fix everything. i get the “you’ll be drowned” thing, but what if elsa hadn’t been able to send anna a message? what if they’d both been there? how could it have gotten fixed if she was dead? i think there should have been more of an established “if you want to know the truth/do the next right thing, you have to pay a price” or something, i don’t know.

i’m not upset at elsa and anna’s separation. (i would prefer it didn’t happen, but i’m not mad about it.) i know some people are, but they’re clearly still in contact, elsa still visits, they’re like a day and a half away from each other. they’ve got the nokk who got to arendelle from  ahtohallan at the speed of a flood. i also don’t think this happened because elsa didn’t want to be queen; she spends this whole movie taking into consideration the needs of arendelle. i can believe that anna would make a good queen. what i’m not fond of is how this just like, happens. maybe this was cut, but this movie really needed an extra scene of the two of them talking and planting the idea that this is something anna would be ok with. that elsa is feeling like she doesn’t really belong in arendelle anymore (that also isn’t as well established as it could’ve been. but i guess this is the same woman who legit tried to live in an isolated castle so.) that’s a really really huge step, a huge change of the formula. you need a little more than just “oh i know what we should do.”

this isn’t something “bad” but i am kind of confused: is ahtohallan in the forest?? cause if it’s not, then how did elsa get out????

i don’t know how to feel about

arendelle’s fate. i’m not upset about it, because it wasn’t that arendelle had to fall, just the dam. this is a disney movie, and the people didn’t deserve to have their home destroyed because of the sins of one man. i’m confused at how elsa got there so fast, but i mean, i can believe that the literal spirit of water can just run that fucking fast. (i also think it was helping her make that ice wall.) but it would actually have been such an interesting move?? like what a direction for a disney movie to go, the pretty disney princess kingdom is destroyed.

i thought we were gonna see the people of arendelle and northuldra coming together to rebuild a new arendelle. and maybe arendelle citizens in northuldra, just like in the beginning, enjoying the magic and the spirits. that would’ve been pretty cool.

i don’t really understand why the fifth spirit is ice? like again i know it’s because this movie didn’t exist when F1 was written, but what does ice have to do with.... anything??? she can also kind of control water in this movie too, so?? my guess is it’s because ice is kind of a mix of all four? it’s a form of water, it can be in the air, it’s solid like earth/can be in the earth, and is the opposite of fire and can curb it. i dunno, that’s all i can think of for that.

also was elsa being the fifth spirit supposed to be a twist for us or for the characters? because it was really freaking obvious, but if it was only for the characters’ sake, then i’m fine with it. (maybe it was for the kids who were old enough to understand “oh there’s another spirit who could it be?” but young enough to not put together context clues. which is totally fine.)

what i would change

make elsa gay, for one. and this would’ve been so easy. the beginning has her in some kind of... meet up or something. have some male suitors there and she’s totally not interested, but oh, there’s a woman across the room and now she looks so much more comfortable. and then when she’s with honeymaren, now she’s looking all flustered and there’s a lot of meaningful looks. (fuck, have her out right say “i’m not interested in men” this is goddamn frozen.) you don’t have to give her a girlfriend - i’m super against this idea that lgb representation only counts if the character actually ends up with boyfriend/girlfriend - but you can still set it up and make her gay. (but by frozen 3, yeah, they’re totally dating.)

i would take out kristoff’s proposal and make his plot about something else. like the northuldran people are supposed to be sami, right? and isn’t kristoff sami? maybe he’s from there too! maybe his family was locked out of the forest or something, i dunno. he was also raised by magical trolls, so maybe he’s not from northuldra, but he feels a connection; because magic.

but if you must have him trying to propose, don’t make him bumbling through awkward attempts. make it so elsa’s helping him. (this also gives them more of a relationship to build on.) they’re the ones awake during the journey, and he asks her permission. then by the dam she’s like “so what’s you’re plan how’re you gonna do it show me.” have some fun with that instead of “you think i’m crazzzzzy?” (also imagine elsa and kristoff having a song together that’d be pretty sweet.)

with ahtohallan, i would just make it so the call was from the fifth spirit, which is just “magic” and we see it in the form of the colored lights that we see throughout show yourself (like a living aurora borealis, which we do actually see during all is found.) then it just passes the torch to elsa. that’s really all i needed.

so overall i did really like this movie a lot, but it’s not perfect by any means. i still don’t know if i like it more than the first or not; i wanna say, no, i like the first one more, but it’s really hard to say because they’re such different movies. but i’m mostly happy with what we got and i still wanna see it as many times as i can while in theaters.

[dahniwitchoflight]

Candy 18-21

oh, oh no

I’ve heard things about Jane x Gamzee

now I get to experience them, oh boy...

Gamzee gets, strangely serious about stuff for once, huh, who would have thunk it

yeah, It’s clear Jane’s political stuff seem to stem from some kind of fear that one day humanity won’t exist on Earth C for whatever reason

that over time, the population of trolls versus humans will eventually skew so much that there won’t be any adam and eve left to match up with each other

in her mind she really doesn’t hate trolls, cuz its not really about the trolls, not at all, but obviously her actions are equivalent to someone who does hate them and she just doesn’t get that

and like, yeah if you just left them to their own devices, maybe that would happen, but then (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) Gamzee has an extremely good point that they already did that when they plopped all the ectokids down and called it a day for a 1000 years, like, they managed to figure it out on their own just fine

and also

ectobiology will literally never stop being a thing so like, as long as some of the god kids stick around, eventually you can just make more humans it’s no big deal to restart the human gene pool since it will be identical to the first time they started it

there’s no reason to make sure this system runs smoothly the “natural way” it won’t, this situation is unnatural for both species

Jane’s just gotta realize that if she wants humans to keep sticking around, she just has to keep supporting the human population, that’s it, whatever trolls do or don’t do doesn’t matter for that goal

course it doesn’t help to compare trolls to animals when talking about their breeding rate and how it naturally evolved over time unlike the apparently non animal humans Janey

Also Alternian society is def not how troll society naturally is but like how could she know that? And how could any troll near her really explain that? 

aaaand I got so up in taking this seriously I forget who was talking

Jane’s into troll blackrom though that’s interesting and unexpected 

oh wow, Jake was there the whole time

Did they really name Jake and Jane’s baby Tavros??? oh jeesus

Yeah Kinda figured the Jane x Jake thing wasn’t gonna actually be happy

I’m really surprised Jane’s version of happiness apparently involves boinking a weird funny man I mean, she canonically likes clowns and jokes, so at the same time I’m not surprised, I mean, she WAS raised by the condesce, it’s just weird how that influence comes out in her sometimes versus how it doesn’t come out in her

literal Jake nightmare scenario though I think lol

really hammering home how the passions of youth don’t really translate well to happy adult relationships

Oh, so there’s the part where Jade reveals she has Bec biology, considering the fandom reaction you’d think we were gonna get some kind of gross M rated sex scene where she pegs Karkat or something

but all she does is talk about how she’d love a normal family and home life and lament that her circumstances ended up not really allowing that and giving enough hints that we can figure out why that would be

it’s not handled grossly at all, even if the subject matter is odd and it doesn’t come off as some sort of character sabotage

this whole time what we’ve known all Jade was that she was lonely and just wanted a family, not that hard to figure out why, girl’s got the same complex as Joey Claire about her family situation, but she’s more reserved about her feelings since she didn’t get to have a comparison of role models like Joey did with her babysitter and also Jade’s food and shelter needs were somewhat taken care by a planet guardian so the affect was somewhat lessened on the outside, she just didnt get the same chances as Joey to be able to articulate her emotional turmoil about it

aww Jade’s not happy either, well, that’s how it goes when you make relationship decisions based on flimsy passions that are more about fulfilling the needs of the self than about actually wanting good things for a partner

More like Jade’s sort of realized that Karkat and Dave don’t have a genuine romantic interest in her and she’s the only one keeping this ship afloat

oh shit, a dead younger jade, oh damn wait she’s the one from Meat that was trapped in the house juju and then immediately died from space razors

Yeah’s she’s a bloody symbol of meat that’s for sure, theyre making that pretty clear

“Her eyes go wide and she feels the breath go out of her for a moment. She looks directly upward. Where did this body come from?”

Again, if we take that symbolism circle of Breath = Sugar = Drugged up High =  Breath

This little dash of meat falling into wonderland would break the breathy haze for a bit wouldn’t it?

So if this kind of thing can happen to others besides John, there’s hope yet for something of value to come from Candy

“ There’s a peaked skylight at the top of the foyer that splits the morning sun like a prism, spilling multicolored dots across every surface below. Amongst those dots are drips of teen-Jade’s blood. It’s so dark on the spotless tile that it looks nearly black. “

I wish I could draw things, I’d love to draw this exact scene here, it’s pretty and morbid

Yeah, the relationship theme of Candy seems to be that everyone’s jumping into Kismesis plus Matesprite threesomes, that seem to be neither of what anyone actually wants in totality

There’s some realization that their Candy filled atmosphere is actually more a drug or a poison, teen jade can’t be revived, and it’s not because of what happened to her, but more because of the environment she is in now

Ah Roxy, ever the social chameleon people pleaser, not working this time though

Jade’s is easily explained already as she has the social graces of an elephant

It is kinda sad tho to see most of the human characters actually aren’t that good at being cool about troll stuff

“CALLIOPE: pUrple roses traditionally represent love at first sight, however these roses are actUally red roses that we prepared Using a blUe dye.CALLIOPE: the blUe rose is the most elUsive and mysterioUs of all flowers.CALLIOPE: the combination of red and blUe in this context is meant to evoke the dUal natUre of death, in that there is nothing more mysterioUs and impossible to comprehend than the vast void of the afterlife, bUt also there is nothing that makes Us appreciate the life and and love that we already have than the mystery of death.CALLIOPE: while death is terrifying, there is always joy to be foUnd among the sorrow. each time we witness death, we fall in love with the important people in oUr lives all over again.“

Why do I get the feeling Calliope is talking about actual rose here somehow?

Is it because she started off with “here’s the symbolism of Purple Roses”?

a Red Rose dyed Blue

Now if Cascade taught us anything Blue and Red certainly represent a mutual destruction of opposites coming together to create a third new thing in the blaze of the aftermath, but that thing was a Green Sun, not something purple, so why bring Rose into mind for all of this?

We have been seeing the effects of what happens when people in candyland awaken from their drug haze with a smattering of blood, but in that case why not make the symbolism more clear by saying a Blue Candied Rose dyed Red as if with Bloodied Meat?

is it more to mean that the correct path lies NOT in Candy being dyed Red, but in Meat being dyed Raspberry Blue?

I Mean, Candy!Rose certainly seems shaken here, having gotten jolted out of her drugged haze at some point, but unable to See, and she’s actually starting to be concerned about that and Meat!Rose is kind of out of commission at this point, So I guess to get things back on track, Candy!Rose would have to go back to the Meat somehow, or might be the influence needed to snap Meat Rose out of her daze

Though I don’t like how this is taking place in the context of a funeral, specifically bringing to mind how Dirk did the same thing using the vessel of Death, I hope Candy Rose doesn’t try to just, off herself

with Dirk taking control of Rose’s ultimate self in Meat, Candy!Rose might be the only true Rose left to take heroic action

Aww, Callie is still head over heels for Roxy, I’m really surprised with this theme of threesomes that nothing ever came of a John x Roxy x Callie, but then again all the threesomes so far have been painted Black and Red, and unless John or Roxy was to form a Kismesis with Callie, I don’t see it happening at all

OH SHIT SPEAKING OF RED AND BLUE

Damn, Sollux and Aradia are here

“KARKAT: MAYBE FUCKING NEPETA IS ABOUT TO POUNCE FROM BEHIND THAT GROTESQUE STATUE OF THE HUMAN SUFFERER T-POSING OVER THERE.”

Karkat don’t tease me about Nepeta but also again WHY is actual Jesus here.

Is Roxy a christian in this timeline? Was she legit just praying to actual Human Jesus? That’s so, weird, especially for Roxy to do, what the fuck in Roxy’s upbringing on an apocalypse earth would make her want to worship Jesus?

Oh wait, that’s obviously what she thinks that every other human sincerely does, since she only had human media to go off of, and like, technically no human has ever said they DONT worship christian gods to her.

“GAMZEE: wHeN tHe DoOr Of ThAt FrIdGe pOpPeD oPeN iT wAs LikE i Be AlL sEeIn ThE lIgHt AnD sHiT.

SOLLUX: well yeah

SOLLUX: that’s what happens when s0me0ne 0pens a d00r t0 a t0tally dark encl0sure.“

Gamzee has had a weirdly meta understanding of what’s going on so far, for some reason, I can’t fathom what could be the Lighty influence that he’s gotten

unless...

Dirk really IS starting to subsume Ultimate Rose, and that’s bleeding over to every Ultimate self connected to Dirk

the more Gamzee knows meta shit and says oddly correct things, the more we know Dirk is “winning” over Rose

Oh, that’s why Gamzee is really here isn’t he? I mean, storywise? He’s a Dirk thermometer/gauge/thing, he’s our way of measuring how far Dirk’s influences are going in Meat

“ARADIA: its so nice that you believe all that gamzee

ARADIA: i think i can honestly say

ARADIA: im reasonably happy for you?“

lol

“blue smoke”

You don’t really tend to describe Smoke as being Blue right? At least, I don’t think that’s usual

But if we’re straight up associating Candy with Blue  to complement Meat with Red now, it’s just making the whole Sugar = Breath thing that much stronger

*EDIT* DUH OF COURSE OF CANDY’S COLOR IS BLUE

BLUE GUSHERS. OBVIOUSLY. *end edit*

and I mean, what is Breath but a weird bluey smoke?

Roxy just wants to be happy with all her friends, that’s all

It is a good shake at trying to explain the nature of infinite possibility, that in reality, there isn’t really more weight put into one possibility over others, that’s how it works in real life anyway

unfortunately a storyline of canon is going to favor some version of events over others, and people make choices because they have preferences for that choice over other choices, something that seems kind of lost on Candy!Roxy who seems to just be okay with going along with anything because everything has an equal chance for having happytimes in this place

Roxy may be starting to lose her sense of self as well, and with her knowledge on things and how’s she’s been described as immutable so far, I wouldn’t be surprised at her having easily and subtly slipped into Ultimate Self hood herself and just being really okay with the idea that there is no one true Roxy, that she is just one piece of many, and not like, needing to delve into that further, not needing to connect with all her alternate selves, happy just being singular but at the same time completely malleable

Oh! Baby time.

Oh fuck, Al!Calliope in Jade time.

Why is Callie so afraid of Alt!Callie? That didn’t come across in their meetings in Homestuck as much, so why is that different here?

Is it because of Jade’s earlier comment of “there can only be one instance of a person here” and Callie doesn’t think she can win against Alltie?

Also, all these instances of Alltie appearing in Jade’s body is making me worried Alltie is doing something to both of their Ultimate Selves, like she’s subsuming Jade somehow like Dirk is subsuming Rose

I mean, they are fighting one another, so if Dirk’s doing something she has to keep pace right? In her mind, it’s probably totally justified

this is getting long enough for this post though, off we go again but I’m still reading

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Broly -- Second Coming

The tenth DBZ movie premiered on March 12, 1994 at the Toei Anime Fair, after the airdate of Episode 220, and before 221.   So presumably there was some kid in Japan who watched Dabura turn Piccolo and Krillin into stone, and then this movie, and then the episode where the Saiyans enter Babidi’s spaceship.  

The original title was “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Rivals” or “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Duo!   Super Warriors Never Rest.”   When Funimation dubbed it in 2005, they simply named it “Broly -- Second Coming”, emphasizing that this is a direct sequel to Movie 8.

For my part, I didn’t wait for 2005 to see this movie.   Cartoon Network had finished airing DBZ way back in 2003, and I was getting sick of waiting for Funimation to release the last few movies.    I think Movie 8 and Movie 9 were released a year apart, to give you an idea.    So I downloaded the fansubs of Movies 10-13 and watched those.   I didn’t watch them in order, though, because 12 and 13 were of greater interest to me, and I was curious about 11 because I knew nothing about it.    Turns out Movie 11 was the third part of the Broly trilogy, so I kind of goofed on that, but we’ll get into that later.   If anyone from Funi! is reading this, rest assured that I legally purchased all four movies once they became available.   As a matter of fact, I bought them again on Blu-Ray around 2009, and again in 2019 because your shithead streaming service doesn’t have them, and I can’t take screencaps from the Blu-Ray editions.   So I think we’re more than square.   Support the official release, kids!

So let’s cut to the chase.   This movie is about Broly coming back to get revenge, kind of like how Movie 6 was about Cooler coming back after losing in Movie 5.    The difference is that Movie 6 at least tried to explain how Cooler survived certain death in the previous film.    Movie 10... doesn’t do this.    At all.    When we last saw Broly, Goku punched a big hole in his abdomen, and I’m pretty sure he exploded (!!) and then the planet they were fighting on got hit by a comet.   Movie 10 just stone cold doesn’t care about any of that.    It opens with a Saiyan spacepod drunkenly heading for Earth, and then it crashes on a mountain.

And here’s Broly, still glowing green and muttering about Kakarot.   He’s badly hurt, but he looks a whole lot better than he did at the end of Movie 8.    So I guess he just didn’t explode after all?    How did he heal his wounds?    Dd he heal himself, like Cell?    Where did he get the pod?    We only saw three spaceships on Planet New Vegeta in Movie 8.    Paragus had a pod, as well as a larger ship, and Broly destroyed them both.    Then there was the Capsule Corp. ship Piccolo used to join the battle, and all the good guys rode home on that.  

To be fair, it would make sense for Paragus to have had a few extra spaceships handy, except the whole point of his scheme was to keep Vegeta (the prince) on New Vegeta (the planet) long enough for the comet to hit it and kill him.    This is reflected in Paragus’ final scene in that movie, where he tries to make a run for it and leave Broly to die, and Broly catches him in the act.    Paragus claims that he wanted them to leave together, but Broly knows that there isn’t enough room for them both in the pod, so Paragus’ betrayal is clear.      The tragedy of the movie is that Broly kills Paragus, who he had once saved, and then he dies in the same trap that Paragus had intended for their enemies.   

Only Broly didn’t die, because he’s here in Movie 10.    There was a spare pod on the planet, and Broly somehow crawled into it and escaped before the comet hit.   Then he rode it all the way to Earth, and somehow survived the trip.    To be sure the only part of this that really adds up for me is that Broly wound up on Earth.  Paragus planned to conquer it after killing Goku and Vegeta, so it makes sense that the coordinates would already be laid in.   And Broly would want to go there, because he wants revenge on Goku.

But then the crater around the pod gets filled with water and freezes.   How did Broly not drown?    How did he not freeze to death?

I mean, I get that they were going for this Captain America thing, except they show the crater filling with water, and then they cut to Broly gasping for breath as the water freezes around him.   

And here’s the title screen.    Okay “A Pair in Peril” makes a lot more sense than “Dangerous Duo”.    I never understood who the duo was supposed to be.    Goten and Trunks?    They’re hardly dangerous at all in this movie.    But they are in danger, so maybe this is a big translation mixup.

The story picks up seven years later, with Goten, Trunks, and Videl gathering the Dragon Balls.   Continuity-wise, I assume this movie was intended to be set after the Babidi crisis wrapped up.     It couldn’t be set before the 25th Budokai, because Videl and Trunks hadn’t met yet, and they’re awfully chummy here.    We never find out how Videl learned about the Dragon Balls.    For that matter, how did Trunks and Goten know about them?    I think Toei just assumed that they would find out about them eventually, which is fair. 

The big thing that disqualifies this movie from canon (other than being a sequel to Movie 8, which also wasn’t canon) is that Videl doesn’t know very much about DBZ stuff yet.   She can fly, and she know about ki, but she still doesn’t know about Super Saiyans, etc.   But she gets a crash course in all of that over the next fifty episodes of DBZ, and by the time it’s all over this movie just wouldn’t make sense.   The post-Buu Videl has seen Gohan and the others transform, she’s been on a Dragon Ball hunt and seen Shenron, and she’s died and come back to life.   But no one knew all that would happen when Movie 10 was written, so they made due with what they had.  

As far as wishes go, Videl just wants to see Shenron, while Trunks plans to wish for his own amusement park so he won’t have to wait in line for the rides.   Goten wants to wish for infinite chocolate, and he hasn’t seen that gif on Tumblr yet.

One sidebar on their quest are these naturally forming crystals that Videl finds in the area near the final Dragon Ball.   Trunks and Goten don’t care, and I’m not really sure why it’s supposed to matter.    Videl remarks that the people who live in this place could make money off of the things, but their village looks very poor, so something doesn’t add up.   And there is something afoot in the village but the crystals never seem to have anything to do with it.  

The trio enters the village to check it out and maybe get some food, but they find a ritual human sacrifice taking place instead.   This is sort of the same deal as Oolong’s first appearance waaayyyyy back in the Pilaf Saga, where the townsfolk would hand over a bride to Oolong to save their community.    Only here, the monster is supposed to eat the girl instead of marrying her.  

The sacrifices are organized by this dude, who never gets a name in the story.    The subtitles call him “Prayergiver-sama”, and I think the dub called him a “Shaman”.   The Dragon Ball wiki identifies him as Maloja, but I have no idea where that name came from.   I’ll run with it, though, since I need to call him something.   

Basically, the deal here is that things were pretty cool in this village until about seven years ago (hmm...) and then the climate became harsher, which apparently caused the emergence of some monster from the mountains.    When the local wildlife became depleted, the beast started attacking the villagers, and Maloja convinced them that the only hope for their survival was to appease “the mountain god” with these human sacrifices. 

Videl dismisses the whole thing as superstitious nonsense, which is kind of rich coming from a girl who used ki energy to fly to this place so she could summon a magic dragon.    I mean, she’s right, but for all she knows Maloja’s plan is perfectly sound. 

The kids offer to defeat the best and save the village from having to do any more child sacrifices.   Specifically, Trunks demands Maloja’s ceremonial necklace as payment, which seems kind of random to me.    There’s a big orange sphere on the front, so when I first saw this I assumed it was the Dragon Ball they were looking for, but that shows up later.   Maybe it was originally intended to be a Dragon Ball in one of the early drafts and they ended up changing it but keeping Maloja’s design.    But now you have Trunks asking for the thing for no apparent reason.    Does he really like it, or is he just looking to humiliate Maloja by taking his stuff?

So their big plan is to hide in the buffet the villagers left for the beast, and then whenever it shows up to eat, they’ll jump out and kick its ass.   Videl seemed to think she could handle this alone, but Goten and Trunks wanted to be there to see her get eaten, or so they say.   

But the boys are hungry, and there’s food sitting right outside of this pot they’re in, so Trunks reaches out and swipes an apple.    When Goten tries to do the same thing, Videl smacks him in the face, and then he starts throwing a tantrum.

Eventually, Videl gives up and hands Goten a roll or something to shut him up, because she’s worried that Goten’s cries will give away her trap.     Trunks tells her that Goten was only pretending to be upset, and she fell for it.    I don’t want to give the wrong impression here.   I’m not big on this movie, but Goten and Trunks are pretty awesome.    I love these little shits.  

But Goten’s wailing has unintended consequences.    Somehow Broly heard him from all the way up in the mountain.    Even though he was unconscious.    And submerged in a frozen lake.   Sigh...

Of course, as we all remember from Movie 8, Broly was traumatized as a baby when he heard Baby Goku crying back on Planet Vegeta, and just being near Goku as an adult was enough to drive him into a murderous rampage.    So it does kind of make sense for Goten’s crying to be the one thing that disturbs his hibernation.

Moreover, Goten’s cries also remind Broly of when Goku wrecked his shit in Movie 8, so if anything, Broly’s original trauma was compounded by the events of that movie.  

So Broly busts out and goes on another rampage, right?     Wrong, first we gotta wrap up this “beast” subplot.    Turns out it was just a dinosaur the whole time, and Goten and Trunks kick its ass. 

Then they... eat it?   Savage.   I thought Trunks was only trying to punish the dinosaur and scare it away, but unless the villagers had some other dinosaur already curing in their smokehouse, they must have killed it and brought it back here for the victory feast.   

Ok, this place is called Natade Village.   Good to know.  

And Trunks has Maloja’s necklace.  See, I’m pretty sure this guy didn’t have a name in Movie 10 or 11, because Trunks refers to him by the chant he was doing during the sacrificial ritual.

But by the next morning, Maloja’s at it again, begging for the mountain god’s favor, because there’s some other disturbance in the village, and when Videl goes to check it out, she runs into Broly.   

And they just star throwing down.    Okay, so here’s where the movie really starts to get stupid.    I like both of these characters, but it makes zero sense to have them fight like this.    Broly spends much of this movie in Super Saiyan 1, as opposed to his jacked up “Legendary” mode.    But that’s still strong enough to kill Frieza with one blow.    Videl just learned what ki was a month ago, so how on Earth is she able to survive a hit from Broly?

To be fair, Mr. Satan took a hit from Perfect Cell and survived, but I think it was clear that Cell had no interest in killing him, probably because he wanted to terrorize him later.  But Broly’s a deranged lunatic.    He never showed mercy before, and he’s even more unhinged now.   Even if he wanted to spare Videl here, I don’t know if he’d have the self-control to hold back.   

Then Goten and Trunks show up, and Broly immediately goes after them, because he notices Goten’s resemblance to Goku.  

So you might be wondering, where the hell is Gohan during all of this?   Well, the movie doesn’t know either.   We just cut to him in some far-off location, and he senses Broly’s ki and heads off to investigate.    Did he just not want to join Videl on this Dragon Ball hunt?   That seems a bit weird.   

As for Goten and Trunks, they seem to do okay on their own, at least starting out.   Their attacks have no effect on Broly, but they’re agile enough to stay one step ahead of them, at least while they’re in their Super Saiyan form.  

But then Broly starts using stronger attacks, and the boys quickly find themselves outclassed.   They land in this abandoned mine, which I guess was for those same crystals Videl found earlier?  This is never explained.    Did the villagers operate this?

The thing is, Broly clearly has these boys dead to rights, but he never bothers to finish them off.    This is the same problem I had with him fighting Videl.    If Goten and Trunks are in base form, Broly should be way out of their league while he’s in SSJ1.    And yet he keeps tossing them around like ragdolls, and they never die and he never bothers to try harder.   Is he just screwing around?  

So then he just starts walking menacingly towards them, and the boys notice the seventh Dragon Ball lying nearby, so they devise a hasty plan.   Trunks moons Broly to distract him, while Goten grabs the Dragon Balls and wishes for Shenron to defeat Broly for them.  

So there’s a few problems with that plan, but besides all of that, Goten loses the ball in a pile of spherical crystals in the mine, so it takes him a while to find it again.   During his search, he stops to take a whiz.  

Meanwhile, Trunks does surprisingly okay fighting Broly alone.    I guess the conceit here is that Goten and Trunks can hold their own against SSJ1 Broly, but they lack the stamina to maintain the form the way Broly does.

Eventually he has to take cover in a cavern behind a waterfall, and I guess Broly can’t sense ki or he would have found him a lot more easily than this.   While he waits for Broly to leave, Trunks considers how his father would react to him hiding like this.    So where is Vegeta during all of this, anyway?   I used to think this movie might have been set after his death against Buu, but that hasn’t even come close to happening yet in the anime, and I’m fairly sure the manga hadn’t gotten there either.   Are we supposed to believe that Vegeta just doesn’t know this is going on?    He sensed Trunks was in danger in Movie 9, and he showed up in Movies 6 and 7 without an invitation.

Look, if they just didn’t want Vegeta to be in the movie, that’s fine, but they should have at least explained why he isn’t here.    It doesn’t make any sense for him to sit this one out, and I have a hard time believing he would have no idea that Broly’s running amok on Earth.   

Anyway, Goten finally tries to make the wish, but nothing happens.   I don’t know if he just isn’t summoning Shenron correctly or what.    Goten decides that he needs to move the balls out of the cave so that Shenron will have more room to manifest, and I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

So that leaves Trunks in the same bind he was in before.   Broly starts doing... whatever this is supposed to be.    Seriously, was this the most lethal manuever he could come up with?   Even if he’s trying to hurt Trunks before killing him, there’s got to be better ways to go about it.   Besides, why did he let Goten leave a minute ago?  He’s the one Broly really hates right now.

Also, this screencap gives us a good look at the scar tissue on Broly’s chest.    This is maybe the silliest thing in the movie.   I remember in the Budokai 3 game, there’s a mode with a Red Ribbon Army theme, and Commander Red is there to introduce it, and he has a little bandage on his forehead, covering up the spot where Staff Officer Black shot him.  That was a cute little joke, but this is supposed to be somewhat serious.    Goku ripped Broly open in Movie 8.   The scar tissue runs all the way up to his clavicles for crying out loud, and we’re supposed to believe that it just healed over like a hangnail?

Anyway, Trunks breaks the hold by peeing on Broly, and no, that’s still not as dumb as Broly growing back half of his chest.   

Broly finally gets fed up with the boys and tries to finish them off, and then Gohan finally arrives to save them.    Gohan’s surprised to see they lasted so long against an enemy as terrible as Broly.    No, it’s not that amazing, Gohan, this movie just really sucks.   

He tries to fight Broly... in his base form.     Why?   Why would that be a good idea?    Then Videl shows up and kicks Broly in the head.    Okay, so here’s why this movie is stupid.  

To me, the whole point of bringing Broly back was to show how he’d fare against Gohan as a Super Saiyan 2.    Movie 8 couldn’t deliver on this idea because it was made before SSJ2 was introduced.   Then Gohan dominated Cell as a Super Saiyan 2, and he did the same thing to Bojack in Movie 9.   Broly only lost in Movie 8 because the Z-Fighters donated their power to Goku, which made him strong enough to turn the tide.   

But in this movie, it’s seven years later, and Goku’s dead and Future Trunks is gone, so it’s basically up to Gohan, with a lot less backup.    But that’s okay, because he’s a lot stronger than he was in Movie 8.   Sure, he’s slacked off on his training, but he still knows how to turn into a Super Saiyan 2, so maybe that’s all he needs.   And Broly’s been out of action for a while too, so maybe the playing field is more even than it looks.  Of course, Gohan would have to win against Broly, or the movie couldn’t have a happy ending, but most of the battle would be this suspenseful thing.    Both Broly and Gohan have forms that surpass Vanilla Super Saiyan, but which one is superior?    That’s what this movie should have been about.   

But instead, Toei tried to do the battle from Movie 8 all over again, only it doesn’t work because most of the guys who were in that fight aren’t here for this movie.   Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, and Piccolo have been swapped out for Goten, Trunks, and Videl, and they can’t look credible against a monster villain like Broly.   That’s why they spend most of the fight doing comedy spots with him, and that’s why Gohan has to skip the first leg of the battle, so that he can rescue them here.  In Movie 8, that was Piccolo’s job, but Gohan has to do double-duty because there is no Piccolo this time around.  

The whole fight strains Broly’s credibility.   He has to be at Super Saiyan 1 most of the time just to keep it from looking too ridiculous, and even that’s pushing it too far.   If Videl can kick this guy in the face, why was he ever a problem in the last movie?    You had four Super Saiyans fighting him at the same time and they couldn’t do anything to him.    This movie has Videl survive his attacks and Trunks peeing on him.    What was the point of bringing Broly back if they were just going to make him look like a joke?

So then, finally Gohan turns Super Saiyan 2, prompting Broly to whip out his Legendary form.   I’m pretty sure Toei recyled the animation from Movie 8, since Broly’s clothes aren’t tattered like they are through the rest of this movie.    But whatever, we’ve finally gotten to the part that I wanted to see.

And Gohan still can’t win.   I wouldn’t have a problem with Broly being stronger, but Gohan can’t even get in some decent offense, which is all I wanted out of this stupid movie.   If I wanted to see Broly clobber Gohan, I could have just watched Movie 8 again.   I realize that this is kind of Broly’s deal, but thewhole point of doing a sequel set seven years later is to change things up.  

Is Gohan using Super Saiyan 1 or 2 in this movie?  You never see the lightning arc around him, which is kind of the tell or SSJ2, but the movies seem pretty inconsistent about this.    Personally, I think this looks like SSJ2, but it’s open to interpretation, to say the least.    My thing is, why would Gohan not use his strongest form in this fight?  He knows how dangerous Broly is, and it’s not like he can’t use SSJ2, so why wouldn’t he?   And this should have been clarified in the movie.    This is where another character should have said “He’s gone beyond the Super Saiyan, just like he did against Cell!”   Or if he’s not using that form, then someone should have made that observation instead.  

Likewise, no one knows if Broly is stronger or weaker in this movie than he was in Movie 8.    If he can dominate a Super Saiyan 2 like this, then maybe he’s gotten stronger.    His power was out of control seven years ago, so maybe now that he’s finally recuperated from his injuries, his ki is increasing again like before.    Or maybe he just got a zenkai boost from Goku nearly killing him.   

On the other hand, he might be weaker.    Look how lethargic he was against Goten, Trunks, and Videl.    Movie 8 Broly would have slaughtered them without a thought.   Maybe Movie 10 Broly is still suffering from the beating he took, and that’s why it took so long for him to ramp up to his Legendary form.    And while he is dominating Gohan, it’s still a one-on-one battle.   Broly never had this much trouble against a single opponent before.   

I’ve lurked on message boards where fans tried to argue both sides of this, and I used to have opinions on the matter, but now I realize that it doesn’t matter.    We shouldn’t have to ask these kinds of questions, because it’s the movie’s job to communicate that information.   Nobody had to ask how strong Broly was in Movie 8 because they showed us.   Here, it’s ambiguous, because no one bothered to go into detail.  

I mean, this shouldn’t be so complicated.    Each movie villain is supposed to be stronger than the last, mainly because the heroes get stronger as the story progresses.    Logically, Broly ought to be stronger in Movie 10 than he was in Movie 8, and the selling point should be that Gohan is stronger too, but will it be enough?   And then it is enough, because that’s what the fans want to see.   

The closest we approach to this is when Gohan escapes a hold by kicking Broly in the face.   I think this is one of the few times Broly actually experiences pain from an attack.    From here, Gohan realizes that he can beat Broly by luring him into a river of molten lava, which was brought to the surface by one of Broly’s prior attacks.

So it seems to work, but then Gohan passes out on a patch of land right as it’s about to get swallowed up by lava...

And then Piccolo shows up to rescue him.    Well it’s about time.

Only it’s not Piccolo, it’s Krillin disguised as Piccolo.   Okay, that’s cute and all, but why isn’t the real Piccolo here?    This stupid movie would have me believe that Krillin was sitting at home, sensed Broly’s ki, went upstairs to get out his custom-tailored Piccolo costume, put it on, and flew out here, but Piccolo and Vegeta have no idea what’s going on?       This is bullshit.  

I don’t want to give the wrong impression here.    I’m pleased with Krillin’s cameo here, but it just raises more questions than answers.   Broly’s kind of a big deal, and this movie seems to revel in the notion that less than half the cast would notice if he showed up on Earth.   Where’s Tien?    Yeah, he probably wouldn’t be able to help much, but he’d be one more guy for Broly to knock around.   It’d make more sense than having him fight Videl.

Anyway, Broly survived, because he has the same force field he used to survive Planet Vegeta’s destruction as a baby.    For that matter, Gohan used a similar force field earlier, so maybe this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to him.

So then Broly catches Gohan in a bearhug.    Why are there restholds in a cartoon?   Seriously, it’s like Broly suffered a career threatening neck injury after Movie 8, and he had to tone down his style so as not to aggravate it.   Only that’s dumb because he’s an anime character who doesn’t exist.     Just punch the kid already.

Then Videl wanders over and tries to help by throwing a crystal shard at Broly.   Well, I can’t fault Videl for being all heart, but that’s not enough to save this turkey.

Broly swats it away, which gives Gohan an opening to escape.   But why?    Wouldn’t Broly just let the thing hit him?   It’s not like it could hurt him anyway.    This guy took a Kamehameha to the face.   

So Gohan decides to end this now with a Kamehameha, and Broly decides to do the same with his.... Gigantic Meteor?    Omega Blazer?   Gleaming Sagitarius?  The video games had all sorts of stupid names for Broly’s moves, even though they all look the same.   This one is, “Toss some more green shit at things.”

So then we get to a halfway decent part of the movie.  Goten runs over to help Gohan, and they do a beam struggle with Broly.    Cool.

But it doesn’t look good, and in desperation, Goten prays to Shenron for help.   

Then Goku shows up.   Is this because Shenron heard Goten’s wish?  That’s the general idea here, but the movie refuses to say for certain.    What I do know is that Shenron never actually manifests to grant wishes.    The Dragon Balls just glow, and then this happens.  

Also, Goku doesn’t have his halo, so I have no idea what this means.  

Meanwhile, Trunks gets up from wherever he’s been laying, and he fires one last ki blast at Broly, for spite’s sake.    This turns out to intercept one of Broly’s attacks, which seems to give the Son family an opening.  It’s basically like how Vegeta attacked Cell right before Gohan finished him.

Actually, now that I write all that out, this all seems pretty derivative.   We saw a Father-Son Kamehameha in the Cell Games, and a lot of this “Goku returns to help” stuff was covered in Movie 9.   Even so, I dig this version a little better, because Goten is here.   I still would have preferred it if Gohan had just beaten Broly on his own, without all this overbooked nonsense.  

So the triple-Kamehhameha manages to break through Broly’s bullshit armor and it sends him flying into the sun, just like how Cooler lost in Movie 5, only all this green crap spews out of Broly as he dies.

Then he explodes, and the blast comes out of the other side of the sun, so maybe that’s enough to finish him this time?  

Then the sun turns green for a second, like it has to burn off the last vestiges of Broly’s Gary Stu ki. 

After the fight, there’s no sign of Goku, although the Dragon Balls have scattered, indicating that a wish was granted.   Then Videl starts questioning how Gohan beat Broly, and she chases after him, demanding a full explanation.  

As the movie closes, the narrator asks how Goku appeared during the battle, but claims that no one can ever know for sure.    That’s horseshit, frankly.    We know how the Dragon Balls work, and we know they couldn’t bring Goku back to life, so none of what happened makes any sense.   Goten didn’t even say the wish out loud.   He just thought it and Shenron heard that?     It’s dumb.   You had the whole movie to explain these things, and you blew it on piss gags.

Oh, and Krillin’s still embedded in the rock where Broly hit him.   

So yeah, this movie isn’t very good.    Team Four Star ranked it near the bottom of the list of movies and specials, and they often talk about how everyone says Movie 11 is the worst, but they actually dislike this one more because it’s more boring.    Personally, I think 11 is worse than 10, but I’d hate to live on the difference.  

I’m pretty sure Movie 10 is the main reason people dislike Broly.   That’s not to say that Movie 8 would be universally loved if Movie 10 weren’t around.     But I think Movie 10 cemented a lot of the worst aspects of Broly’s character.   He comes back, surviving what should be certain death, then he survives several other predicaments, and he just says “Kakarot” over and over again for the entire movie.    The only other line he speaks is when Gohan gets ready to Kamehameha him, and he’s about to fire back.    Otherwise it’s all grunts and “Kakarot!”    

In Movie 8, the guy at least had a personality, even if it was twisted and cruel.   In this movie, it’s like they were trying to imply that he suffered some sort of brain damage.    It’s just so dull watching him fight.   He moves like he’s in slow motion sometimes, and he never seems interested in actually defeating his enemies. 

And this is a complete inversion of how they brought back Cooler in Movie 6.    Remember Cooler?    He came back as a cyborg with unlimited spare bodies, just so he’d be strong enough to cope with fighting Goku and Vegeta at the same time.    Movie 6 is far from perfect, but at least it understood the need to raise the stakes.   Movie 10 brought back Broly and took a bold step backwards.

But at least Broly was actually in this movie, and I think that at least puts it ahead of Movie 11.    I’m not sure that should be the only criteria for rating Broly movies, but I think it should be a major one.   

[kcwcommentary]

VLD7x09 – “Know Your Enemy”

7x09 – “Know Your Enemy”

I’m just going to get right to it.

The episode starts with a shot of Neptune. With all the not-a-planet planets this show’s animation has produced, it’s really cool to see not just a planet-looking planet, but an actual existing planet. Voltron, with its kind of comically large wings are blasting toward Earth, and Pidge is trying to get in contact with her father. Given that we’ve been shown Keith able to image a Galra ship on the surface of Earth from millions of light-years outside the Milky Way, Voltron could be gathering a lot of information about the current status of Earth with visual scans. None are shown being made. Instead, Hunk wonders if they’re too late.

Sam replies to Pidge and tells them to stop coming to Earth. This is totally contradictory to the previous episodes. I’m actually laughing right now. At the beginning of 7x07 “The Last Stand Part 1,” Voltron received Sam’s recorded message: “To any beings who receive this message, Planet Earth has been overrun by the Galra. Most of the citizens have been captured. Those of us remaining are making our last stand. If you get this message, please get word to Voltron. We need help.” Then at the end of 7x08 “The Last Stand Part 2,” we see how that message was sent, with “micro transmitters, millions of them” and Sam’s message from the beginning of Part 1 is repeated at the end of Part 2. This show is giving me narrative whiplash. This message of request for help from Voltron has been included in the past episodes repeatedly, getting the message transmitted at the end of last episode was a big plot development, and now that the message from Sam asking Voltron to come help has been received by Voltron, he’s now telling Voltron to not come. This is the kind of writing inconsistencies that happen when a writing team is not working well together.

Also, Sam’s big speech at the end of the last episode, part of the message quoted above, and both previous episodes’ titles, were about a “last stand.” Sam’s big speech at the end of last episode was about boosting morale heading into a titular “last stand” battle. But as we see in this episode, Sam and those he gave that speech to have not fought some “last stand” battle. They’ve just been holding on, hoping something will change, hoping maybe Voltron would come. It makes Sam’s episode-ending speech last episode meaningless. That speech is out of place and unresolved. It’s like the writers wanted a big rallying speech scene, but wrote the scene totally separate from any of the plot of these episodes.

Sam now says that Sendak has taken over the planet (aside from it being specifically Sendak, Team Voltron already know that the Galra have “overrun” Earth). Prior to this episode, the Galra on Earth was why Earth needed Voltron, yet now with this episode the Galra being on Earth is why Voltron shouldn’t come to Earth? I’ve only just started this episode, and I already feel exhausted by it. Sam says that Sendak “will threaten the people of Earth in exchange for the Lions.” Did Sam not think of this when he sent his message asking Voltron for help?

Voltron slows down only to nearly run into several Galra ships. Sam commands Curtis to “pick up those Galra ships’ locations.” If the Garrison on Earth doesn’t already know the location of these specific Galra ships, then how can they know they need to scan for them? There’s definitely something missing in the writing. Sam has Curtis do something that causes interference so that the Galra ships where Voltron is cannot get a signal through to the Galra at Earth. Sam reports the successful communication blockage to Voltron, who only then start attacking the sentry-piloted Galra fighters. Why was Voltron waiting to attack? It’s just three small fighters. Voltron has taken out more Galra ships with one attack than this before.

Voltron’s attack is new. Normally, Voltron’s blasters are beam weapons, but now out of nowhere Voltron is using some kind of tumbling clumps of energy. I don’t understand the design decision making for this show that thinks it’s okay to have something like this that’s never been depicted before and here comes out of nowhere. Two of three Galra fighters are destroyed, and Pidge says to not destroy the third because she’s “got an idea.” Pidge has Team Voltron land the Lions on a Saturnian moon. Only then do we find out that one of the Lions caught the third Galra fighter like a dog catching a ball. All of Team Voltron loads up in the fighter, piloted by Keith. There is a weird inclusion of a shot of the mice and Kaltenecker with an Allura voiceover about hoping they’ll be okay left behind on the Lions. Was anyone in the audience watching this show worried about the mice and Kaltenecker not being in the Galra fighter with everyone else? It’s such a weird inclusion.

Team Voltron makes their way to Earth and flies right through a fleet of Galra cruisers, never being hailed by any of the Galra. Even with if the Galra think that this is just a Galra fighter, it’s not flying where it’s supposed to, so why wouldn’t anyone in the Galra fleet contact them to ask them where they’re headed?

Also, I guess the show forgot that the Green Lion can turn invisible. It’s like the show is preacting on situations that haven’t happened yet. The writer knows that the episode is going to move toward a conflict over Sendak wanting the Lions versus threatening Earth to get them. It feels forced that Voltron would leave all of the Lions at Saturn rather than come in with a cloaked Green Lion. The Paladins have successfully infiltrated Galra-controlled locations before using the Green Lion.

This episode so far has not given me any understanding of these characters’ thought process. What are they going to Earth for? What are they going to do there without the Lions? What is their plan? I don’t think they have one, they just want to get to Earth. This is just more of writing characters on this show to not behave realistically.

The Galra fighter is literally descending through Earth’s atmosphere because they’re trying to make it to make it to the surface, Keith even announces that they’re doing so, and then he says, “I’m losing altitude” like it’s a surprise. Yes, one would lose altitude when one enters a planet’s atmosphere with the intention of landing. Keith says, “Brace for impact.” It’s such fake drama. Apparently, they all collectively weighed too much for the fighter to be able to stay in flight, and Keith crashed. Honestly, their collective body weight is not that much. If an elevator can handle their weight, an advanced fighter craft should be able to too. Team Voltron walks up the hill from where they crashed, and in cresting the top of the hill, see the destruction of a city. Hunk recognizes this city, which he says is a half-hour from the Garrison.

As Team Voltron makes their way through the destroyed city, they come under attack by floating Galra balls. I guess these are supposed to be updated versions of the pyramid shaped drones the Galra had earlier in the show? Keith tells Lance he’s going to distract the drones so Lance can shoot them. Keith says, “Don’t miss.” I guess this is supposed to be playful banter? Lance takes out the drones, but then the team comes under fire from rifle-wielding sentries. The MFA pilots – because the Garrison apparently has no ground troops and has to use elite fighter pilots instead – drive in and start taking out the sentries. Rizavi and James are obnoxious to the Paladins. Given how this show’s production seemed to switch to liking their new characters more than the show’s main characters, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the MFE pilots would be written to be condescending to the main characters. James says that their weapons “neutralize [drones’] signals. It’s almost as if Team Voltron should have tried to get some information before they came to Earth, that they should have communicated with Sam and formed a plan. It’s in-story unrealistic, but this moment fits the meta-drama of the show’s poorly thought out production.

They ride to the Garrison, still behind its dome forcefield. The Pidge family reunion should feel emotional, but because of how obnoxiously this show has written Pidge, Sam, and Colleen, I really don’t care. Lance sees his family, and they all hug. Hunk watches Lance wistfully and thinks about when he left his family to study at the Garrison, though he looks older in this flashback than he did in the flashback in 7x01 “A Little Adventure.” Iverson says he’s glad to see Shiro again and apologizes for his having restrained him in 1x01 “The New Alliance.” I kind of love that Coran seems defensive of Shiro, saying, “Ah, so you’re the one who strapped Shiro to a table. I heard about that.”

Shiro responds, “You were just following orders, as any good soldier would.” Oh, the unintended irony of Shiro saying this while Sam and Iverson last episode repetitiously engaged in insubordination. Guess that makes Sam and Iverson not good soldiers then.

Shiro introduces Allura, Romelle, and Coran to Iverson. Iverson fakes being obnoxiously angry at Keith, and Keith actually demonstrates a lot of respect and salutes Iverson, only for Iverson to apologize to Keith. This moment is more tonal whiplash. Why did this show think writing fakeout tonality like this was a good thing? Keith apologizes to Iverson. Honestly, this show hasn’t shown anything about Keith back then that I think Keith needs to apologize for really. But whatever. Cosmo likes Iverson.

Keith sees James, James glares at him and walks away.

Then we get the short little few seconds the show has Shiro mourn Adam, seeing his name and picture on the memorial. The show can give the MFE pilots all last names but couldn’t give Adam one. His listing on the memorial only has his last initial, W. That’s really not how war memorials that list the names of the dead do it, they include last names. Was it really so hard for the people making this show to give characters last names?

Shiro says, “Adam, I’m sorry.” 16 seconds. That’s all the time this show gives for Shiro to mourn, for the resolution of Shiro’s and Adam’s relationship.

On to a staff meeting. Veronica reports that the Galra have been able to wipe out the resistance movement, which is interesting that it’s so quickly thrown away with a short line of dialog here since last episode ended with Veronica returning while proclaiming the excellence of the resistance. This is more narrative whiplash.

Hunk wants to know why this Garrison base isn’t bringing in more people to protect. Sam says it’s too risky. Hunk gets upset.

And then the show writes James to return to being an absolute terrible person. He yells at Hunk, “Do Paladins not understand the chain of command?” This is the ass that just last episode told Veronica that he didn’t need a “handler.” I am so sick of this show’s inconsistent writing. James yells, “Your CO said it’s too dangerous!” That CO has proven he doesn’t care about the chain of command since he and Iverson last episode repeatedly violated the chain of command. I really hate James.

Sam calls James down. Sam then says, “Believe me, I understand what you’re going through Hunk. We all have family out there.” Well, aside from Matt elsewhere in the universe, all of Sam’s family is right here safe. His saying this sounds thoroughly condescending. “We can’t lose ten people to save twelve.” Why is Sam now so cautious when he spent the last two episodes clashing with Sanda because she wanted to be cautious and Sam didn’t? More inconsistent writing.

Allura tries to be diplomatic and move the meeting along. Sam takes them to the hangar to show them the four second-generation MFE ships. Sanda just stands silently behind everyone in the elevator. I was thinking maybe Sanda was elsewhere and that’s why she hadn’t yet shown up in this episode. Coran says he might be able to help with the issues the Garrison has had in keeping the fighters powered.

And then we’re shown the Atlas for the first time, and the tone of its reveal is nothing compared to what I would expect given how much the previous two episodes kept setting it up. The reveal just sort of happens. Sam says it can house the Lions and “an entire command unit.” I actually really like the design of the Atlas as a ship (less so as a mecha).

Sanda finally speaks, “It’s built but it can’t fly.” She then says, “Everyone, there’s a subject we can’t avoid any longer. Sendak attacked Earth because he wanted the Lions, and now they’re here. It seems that we need to at least discuss our options.” Why did the episode’s writer think that this transition from here’s-the-Atlas to suddenly we-should-consider-giving-Sendak-the-Lions actually worked? The transition doesn’t work at all. It’s jarring. Why would Sanda pick right now to bring this up? I can kind of understand why Sanda would think giving Sendak what he wants should be considered, but having her be like this just feels forced. The writing just does not feel realistic to have her think that the Galra would just go away if given the Lions.

Sam yells, “The universe needs the Lions.” Except for of course right now since they were left at Saturn and the Paladins don’t have any means to get back to them. Again, what was the plan? Why in the world would the Paladins leave the Lions behind without a means to get back to them? Some miscellaneous guy speaks, agreeing with Sanda.

I do like that Allura speaks up and says, “I’ll settle this right now, we’re not giving up the Lions under any circumstances.” They do kind of belong to her, after all. Sanda yells back, “Maybe you should leave the matters of Earth to the people who live here.” Allura totally could have countered with something like, okay, fine, I won’t use my warships to help you. Shiro tries to explain how they have enough experience fighting the Galra to know that offering Sendak what he demands won’t work. Sanda says, “We barely know what we’re up against. We need intelligence.” So, did the files Sam brought with him not include information about the Galra? The Garrison can pinpoint three fighters millions of miles from Earth to be able to block their communication, but they have no means to gain intelligence of what’s going on on Earth? Instead of having the Paladins come to Earth and leave the Lions behind, they could have had at least the Green Lion use its cloak to scan around Earth and get intelligence. If Voltron could image a Galra ship on Earth from billions of light-years away, then it could totally be used for intelligence gathering. But the show wrote the Paladins to leave the Lions behind and travel to Earth without any plan whatsoever. I don’t know why I keep expecting this show to have characters behave realistically.

Turns out, Sam’s files from the Castle of Lions does have information, the Garrison apparently just hasn’t bothered to go through it. Allura points out that those files would still have Sendak’s memories taken from him way back in 1x11 “Crystal Venom.” (I miss the show being as well written as it was back during “Crystal Venom.”) Pidge agrees with Allura that the memories could “give us some insight into Sendak’s plan.” I mean, those memories wouldn’t contain anything that has happened to Sendak since the first season of the show, but okay, sure.

Miscellaneous Garrison guy takes Allura, Pidge, and Colleen to the room-filled computer network that they’ve had to use to process the Altean data files. Why is Colleen with them? “Sifting through that much information is like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” the guy says. Tangent: I’m not a fan of that idiom – like trying to find a needle in a haystack – because it implies something that is near impossible to do. The thing is, finding a needle in a bunch of hay wouldn’t be all that difficult, just use a good, strong magnet.

Sam shows Shiro and Coran the inside of the Atlas. Coran says that a ship like the Atlas might need “two or three battleship-class Balmeran crystals” to be able to be properly powered. Shiro kind of jokes, “I don’t suppose there are any Balmera nearby.” Coran then laughs rejectingly, “In this young galaxy?” This is more of this show not doing any research. The estimated age of the Milky Way is over 13-billion years old. There was a study released in 2018 of a star in the Milky Way that’s not quite 2000 light-years from Earth; that star is approximate 13.5-billion years old. Even without the increased precision of determining this star’s age, age estimates for some globular clusters in the Milky Way have been dated to over 12-billion years old, and those globular cluster studies were published in like 2003. Current best estimates for the age of the universe is 13.8-billion years old. The Milky Way, despite how Coran was written to act here, is not young.

Allura comes across some prosthetic arms and legs hanging on a wall. The miscellaneous Garrison guy says that they’re designs Sam has made for injured soldiers. “Like everything else, we don’t have an adequate power source to make them viable,” he says. Of course, this is foreshadowing Shiro’s upcoming new arm. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t like his new arm, and I’ll have a lot to say about it soon. Pidge has found Sendak’s memories.

There’s a sudden, jarring transition to a flashback of Hunk working on a car’s motor with his father. And as sudden as we transitioned into the flashback, we transition out of it to Hunk in the Garrison. Keith stops to talk to Hunk, “I’m not really good at talking with people. I don’t expect you to open up to me, but if there’s ever anything on your mind—” I can’t really say that I’ve liked much in this episode, but I really like Keith in this moment. This is the kind of reflection and building of relationships that the show desperately needed more of. Hunk doesn’t wait for Keith to finish before launching into an understandable rant about Earth being occupied by Galra. Hunk says, “I know it’s stupid, but I used to daydream about coming home to a peaceful Earth.” This continues to be a really good character moment, the kind that this series has seemed to have actively avoided having for a long time. Hunk feels bad that he doesn’t know if his family is okay, he feels a bit envious that Pidge and Lance have theirs right now and he doesn’t.

Then Keith says, “Look, Hunk, I never told you this, but of all the Paladins you’re the one I’m most impressed by.” It does feel really weird that Keith says this about Hunk and not about Shiro. But then, I guess if the show has Keith referencing “of all the Paladins” and Keith isn’t thinking of Shiro as a Paladin, then it’s technically not Keith ignoring how important Shiro has been to him in the past, I guess. Keith continues on to support Hunk emotionally, and Hunk then grabs Keith and hugs him. The emotion of the scene is really nice, even if it feels slightly off re: Keith’s relationship with Shiro being ignored. Hunk then says he’s going to get his family and Keith says he’s going with him.

They sneak to get one of the Garrison’s vehicles. Absolutely unrealistically, James and Veronica have been standing in the dark by one of the vehicles, like they were waiting to catch Keith and Hunk. James says, “My problem is that I don’t want to see our only hope for saving Earth get hurt.” The writing then does yet another switch-flip in the tonality of character behavior. Now, suddenly, James is all helpful and says he and Veronica are coming with Hunk and Keith. I am tired of this show’s whiplash. I can tell that the writers throughout this series think these whiplash moments are good writing, but they’re just not.

Sam joins Pidge, Allura, and Colleen. I still don’t understand what Colleen is doing here. If the show had established her to be skilled with computers or something, I’d get it. If they had her say something about just wanting to be around Pidge, I’d get it. They get the memory files working by creating a system similar to how the Castle worked with Alfor’s memories. Pidge has Sam test it by asking the memories questions, the hologram of Sendak answers. Sam asks the hologram to “explain to me your methods for conquering planets.” The hologram says there are many ways to do it, conquering primitive people is easiest. Allura asks about more advanced civilizations, and the hologram says, “There are always those willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. That’s why it is best to find something they value more than themselves and make that the target.” This is nicely consistent with how Sendak thought back in 1x05 “Return of the Gladiator” when he decided to attack the Paladins through attacking the Arusians. Pidge and Sam ask a few more questions, and then Allura asks, “What if a planet refuses to give up, no matter the cost?” and the hologram answers, “If a planet refuses to give up, then we annihilate it, but only one planet has ever refused: Altea.” Allura cuts the hologram off. She’s clearly emotionally bothered by it.

In some ruined city, Hunk, Keith, James, and Veronica are doing something unexplained in the standard way the writers think having characters do miscellaneous stuff without explanation is interesting. Veronica, apart from the rest of the group, attaches a triangle to a doorway, and James says she’s successfully sent a signal and now they just have to wait. Hunk has another really short flashback of cooking with his mother.

Hunk, Keith, James, and Veronica are waiting in a sewer until some old dude shows up and tells them to come with him. They go to some location where there are a few maps and stuff on tables and walls. He says, “Amazing, the rumors are true! Word of the Paladins’ return has inspired the resistance.” This completely contradicts what Veronica said at the beginning of this episode that the resistance had been wiped out. And since she was the one who contacted this guy in this scene, it would seem she knew the resistance wasn’t wiped out, so why did she earlier say it was?

They look out of a window down to some Galra facility. Veronica says, “Is this where they’ve taken all the prisoners?” Considering the size of the population of Earth, it would be impossible for “all the prisoners” to be in any one location. The resistance guy says that it’s a workcamp Sendak is using to mine for materials he’s using to build something. Veronica says that if the labor-force has been moved inside the Galra camp, then they can’t get to Hunk’s parents. So, is this supposed to be the city near the Garrison base, or is it a different city? Is Hunk originally from super close to this main Garrison base? How else would they assume that Hunk’s parents are here instead of elsewhere? This story does not feel like it has the actual planetary scope that it should have.

Shiro goes to talk to Allura. She says, “Sendak’s memories were hard to hear, but it did remind me of something my father once said. He told me that there were those with the power to destroy and those with the power to create.” She reveals Shiro’s new arm to him. She must be really good at manufacturing to have built this in such little time.

Hunk is looking through some binoculars down at the Galra camp. He sees his parents and vows to get them out.

This episode has a couple of truly nice moments, but a lot of it still bothers me. I don’t like all the tonal whiplash. I don’t like that the Paladins came to Earth with absolutely no plan whatsoever. I don’t like the way this show continues to write Sanda. I hate James. And I hate that the 16 seconds in this episode is all we get of the resolution of Adam for Shiro.