#the main reason i stick to purely fantasy so i can make up literally everything | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lochnessies · 4 years ago

Text

ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad).

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but.

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace.

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route.

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system.

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society.

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious.

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic.

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place.

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

#i finished this at 1am so sorry if i’m incoherent #mine

70 notes · View notes

2shayll · 4 years ago

Text

When I first read shadow and bone by Leigh Bardugo, I was a young teen enthralled by the world that the author painted for me. I loved the magic system and the world that was built up in my mind full of everything I loved in fantasy. Of course what all girls just get so starry eyed about is the romance and it was no different for me. I mooned over Mal, seeing how he was a good love interest for Alina from the start. But later as I looked at reviews on goodreads I saw that many people did not agree. They liked the darkling instead, the villain in the story as Alina’s love interest which as a young girl perplexed me and still continues to.

As an adult reading the books for a second time, I tried to see what everyone saw in Mal and the darkling. I noticed one change in my own perspective. As a young girl I saw things as black and white, not trying to see things from other perspectives and not thinking about the situation critically. The second time around, reading the books, I was able to do so but I still see Mal as the pivotal love interest and not the darkling.

For people who say that the darkling is the ideal love interest for Alina, I have to disagree. Though that is not to say he isn’t a great character on his own. The multifaceted villain is seen in him with his charismatic and dark charm that he uses to manipulate people to his advantage. However, at the same time, he shows some care for his people.

Being a love interest for Alina though is not what I had in mind, he exemplifies the villain who tries to break the heroine/hero. Someone that I would not want as a book boyfriend or even a real one.

I know that everyone has the argument that it is not real and it’s fiction therefore it doesn’t matter. As a writer it does matter even to me, someone who loves to write stories that make sense. To me, if the darkling ends up with Alina, it doesn’t. It is clear to me that Leigh Bardugo meant for the darkling to be the villain. He abuses Alina for her power, tries to kill her friends, kills thousands of people, and physically hurts her. I would not want that for Alina as the main character. Even she doesn’t want that, saying in the books how he uses her for her power, literally saying how he uses her like a slave. So if you’re into that fine, but that’s not something I would want even for Alina a fictional character.

As for Mal, he is the love interest I loved from the start but as an adult I can see where he does have his faults. I understood why people didn’t like him but what people don’t see is the lifetime of protectiveness that he has for Alina, one that is understandable. It is understandable in the way he looks out for her and what he does. Although at one point in the book he does kiss another girl, people who read YA must know that it is pretty typical for a character to have confusing feelings especially if there is a love triangle. It is typical for teens to have some confusion, angst and an exploration of their sense of self as all these emotions try to sort themselves out.

It is the second book where we see more of Mal and some of the rising tension between him and Alina. I admit that he does have a bit of an asshole side to him we see but he is the epitome of the voice of reason and normalcy that tries to protect Alina. It especially shows where he comes from when he sees Alina’s power and how it changes her, making her into someone he doesn’t recognize. In my review for the book, I talked about how the cliche quote “with great power comes great responsibility” comes to mind and is applicable to the situation with Alina. As with her even her pure heart in the beginning was taken over by her hunger for power and Mal didn’t want to stand by and watch her become engrossed in it all. She became the larger than life sun summoner out of his reach. If I saw a a loved one going through the same thing, I would want to help them through it and not become distanced from them.

Going through comments in the debate between Mal and the darkling, I see many people point out that Mal is toxic. But again what people call “toxic” behaviour is his way of trying to cope. He watches as Alina is sucked into the prestige and political machinations while he feels helpless, watching her get further and further away from him. That is why he is the way he is which I find is justified. Sure, he acts like a jerk in some instances but that’s because he thinks that Alina is distancing herself from him and he from her. He doesn’t think he knows her anymore and doesn’t know if he fits in her life. If you imagine yourself in that situation, you may find that you would feel the same way. It is Mal’s loss of his sense of purpose and his feelings of inadequacy that bring out his behaviour. That is not to say what he does is perfectly fine, but imagine yourself losing your own sense of purpose. Losing your sense of what you’re meant to do. Watching as your loved one in a position of power becomes more and more immersed into their own job that you start to feel left on the sidelines. That person becomes out of your reach, too caught up in their own work to acknowledge your own needs and wants. That is what Mal is feeling.

So he is Alina’s touchstone of normalcy. As well as the friend who sees Alina as just her , knows her inside and out and is her loyal friend/lover who sticks by her side despite the distance that comes between them in the second book. He is the crucial character and is more than just the love interest. He is more than the love interest.

#malina #shadow and bone #mal protection squad

7 notes · View notes

tfw-no-tennis · 5 years ago

Text

hxh RESUME

back at it again w/the hxh, heres my recap of the last few eps

ok so i totally forgot to recap that one ep at the end of the hunter exam arc lets see what i remember from like 3 wks ago lollll

i thiiiiink i left off in the middle of ep 21 lol. i really dont remember much tbh so im gonna skim the ep to refresh

exposition time! its so wild that if you lose ur hunter card That It like u cant get another or retake the exam hgabjdfuhasjf Ls

also the fact that you can sell it is rlly interesting

leorio & kurapika backing up gon as he confronts illumi again :’) good lil family

illumi u fool. gon is a shounen protag. he can do anything he sets his mind to

the fact that gon thanks illumi for telling him where killua is....hes literally THAT polite like...what a perfect boy

hisoka just fuckgin stepping out of the shadows....ok bitch

the fact that gon fucked up illumis arm that bad with one hand....boi is STRONK

AUGH AUGH AUGHHHH HISOKA IS SO CREEPY AUGHHH I HATE THIS BIIIITCH

ok but like is illumi implying that hisoka is a fr p*do bc uhhhhh thats so nasty oh lord. pls stay away from gon, and killua, and like everyone as a matter of fact

EWWWWWWWWWW I HATE HISOKA HES SO NASTY. PLS STOP MAKING P*RNO FACES IN RELATION TO 12 YR OLD BOYS.

no but rlly what IS hisoka gonna do now. im assuming he’ll show up p soon (tho probs not in the zoldyc arc like i thought bc its shorter than i thought)

ok the fact that they have the internet is hilariously wild to me for some reason....it just seems like this would be one of those fantasy shounen worlds with very little tech (a la one piece) but lol nope we can just google shit hvbhjdhjdfks

gon: it was fun when you beat me up for 3 hours and broke my arm! seeya dude!

i love gon he is so chill and doesnt seem to hold grudges except when it really matters (like hisoka and illumi)

hanzo has.....ninja business cards....thats amazing hvbhsdjkujfnd

dont worry pokkle, leorio was basically carried thru the hunter exam by various people and also won by default. he still deserves his license tho

an exotic game hunter sounds pretty cool! i wonder if we’ll see pokkle again. kinda doubt it? that sounds pretty firmly non-combat based, and therefore probably pretty far from any plot lol

so gons dad is a bigshot huh.....whatever hed be a bigger deal if he didnt abandon his son tbh

gon swinging his feet on the bench....sooo cute

so ging could restore a bunch of ruins but he couldnt raise his son...ok

im just gonna be bitter at this guy for abandoning the most perfect boy vhbhjfbsjhdhbfsk sorry dude but being a good hunter doesnt make up for being a shit father

gon is so precious ;_;

WHAT WAS SATOTZ GONNA SAY TO GON???

why does it look like theyre googling things on MS paint

ah yes, padokea, on the continent of Africa But Sideways

idk if i talked abt it before but the world map is WILD lmao i love how its all the continents/landmasses scrambled around.....im super curious abt that weird island in the top center of the map, thats the only thing that immediately sticks out as not having a real life equivalent

the music in this show is so charming :’) i love the main theme sm

gon is sooo precious i literally cant get over it. and his hurry to rescue killua is so sweet....and i love how naturally charming/charismatic gon is....pretty much everyone he meets likes him, especially leorio and kurapika, who basically adopted him after knowing him for like a day, and continue to be completely taken by him

ok wtf is satotz & co talking abt......do they know something abt ging that they arent allowed to tell gon???? shouldnt gon have access to the same info now that hes a hunter? i need ANSWERS

i bet this whole thing abt the hunter exam not rlly being over is a metaphor abt the hunter exam NEVER truly ending bc youre always being tested, or st

ok the ED continues to be So Much like especially the last shot where the 4 main characters look like theyre posing for a JC Penny catalog while the singer goes FULL metal-screamo

ok ruth and i just rewatched the next two eps woohoo

i love that there are tourist busses that take people to the front gates so they can like pose for pics and stuff vhbhjafdsfkj and its like ‘ah yes here are where the local assassins live!’ thats so funny yet it makes so much sense

i love that leorio passed tf out during the bus ride. big big mood

gon is so cute...hes like ok yes i understand that we’re not supposed to go in but i think they can make an exception for me bc im very polite.

those 2 dudes r so ugly and so dead god bless

that bigass buster sword....sir please

ruth and i rlly thot that the old guard guy was gonna turn out to be grandpa zoldyk or st lol

the fact that the dog managed to eat All their flesh but left some clothes....skill

also the dog is named mike but it sounds like the guy is calling him miku hvbjdfssk

this cant be the first time some morons have been killed here likeeee

i cant believe nobody has visited the zoldyk estate in 20 years damn they all rlly b havin no friends. depressing

the whole gates thing is wild. also that part where gon gets the math wrong on the weight.....BIG mood kiddo

ok the part where gons on the phone w/the butler is soooo good oh man. i love how gon just calmly dials the phone again after hes hung up on the first time and then YELLS....and leorio and kurapikas faces r so good

also the butler guy unfortunately has a point, it isnt foolproof that gon is here Legit....but he IS let him see his tiny bf :(

as ruth pointed out, the butler guy is reminiscent of kuro from one piece. same vibes

maybe if leorio was jacked like he is in the manga/1999 anime he couldve opened the gate that first time around....Ls

god i love this shows approach to Everything so far,....as ruth put it, half the time its like ‘oh wow they should do [x]/i wish theyd do [x] but ofc they wont cause its a shounen’ but then they DO do [x] and its like damn thats dope

anyways i love how gon is increasingly approaching situations with his Plucky Shounen Protag Attitude in full swing, and he pretty much gets shot down every time. BUT his general determination to see killua bc killuas his FRIEND and hes gonna RESCUE HIM is still a good and pure motivating force

like here, when hes climbing over the wall and hes like whatever i dont wanna have to deal w/being tested thats bullshit, i wanna see killua, my intentions are pure, im gonna try my luck with the dog....i was like ok yeah he’ll get over and like tame or defeat the dog and the guard will be suitably impressed bc nobodys ever done That before, and then gon will continue on to get killua

but NOPE instead the guard calls him down and explains that gon Will Die if he tries that, and then the guard will die too for letting that happen. and gon is like oh shit my actions have consequences for people other than me, wow.

and THEN the guard takes them in to meet the dog. and hot DAMN that is a scary creature. not even really a dog tbh. they did an excellent job making the dog Legit Scary and not just like, big and flashy looking....those eyes are so soulless, and the proportions are freaky

and the guard says exactly what i was thinking - that gon would use his Country Boy Woodland Creature Skills to workaround the dog....but then the subversion - this creature is NOTHING like the woodland critters gon is probably used to dealing with. theres no way gon stood a chance here. the guard just saved him from a really unfortunate death

i love all the Super Heavy Stuff in the servant house that seems so inconvenient vbhjdkfasjfld. also forgot to mention earlier but the guard guy being Absolutely Ripped was wild and kinda funny

training montage! gon continues to be so cute. and i love so much how leorio and kurapika are like no, you rest, we’ll take care of this. good parents!!!!

and then!!!! they sync up and use the power of gay love to almost open the gate. but then gon uses the power of Improbable Shounen Protag Healing Speed to toss that arm sling off and help out

i feel like leorio was side-eyeing gon like w8 a sec u broke that arm like a few days ago that aint right.....

oh man i almost forgot abt that scene with the zoldyks torturing killua :( :( this poor kid he doesnt deserve that

also mom zoldyck seems truly awful but i must say her aesthetic does fuck. the victorian-lookin outfit paired with the futuristic cyclops visor thing....excellent. also im betting this face bandages are from killua cutting her face

this family is so fucked up hvbsjdhjfbakdfn

killua telling his mom that gon is definitely gonna make it there :’) hes got such unshakable faith in his bf thats so good.....

back w/the gang, and immediately they run into more trouble in the form of the young girl butler, whose name i dont know, but i love her....her design is SO good oh man. a non-caricature black person? who also isnt sexualized? in MY anime??????

i love how gons approach to conflict is currently ‘let more powerful person beat me up for hours straight in hopes that they get tired or something idk bro’ like....i love him lol, is it in an effort to show how determined he is? he doesnt even try to dodge her blows or get around her....id be tryin to hop that fence lol

oh shit the tiny zoldyk kid from earlier is spying on them....she was w/the mom so im sure thats not good

when he punches the rock part and it breaks....strong boiiii

oh man that little flashback from when killua first came back and told her that he made a friend ;_; bruh

i love butler girl :( she wants to let gon but knows it isnt allowed....and as soon as she starts to waver BAM here comes mom zoldyck JFC that was so sudden and jarring....im assuming butler girl isnt dead cause that would be lame and anticlimactic

also IS THAT NEN??? NEN>>>??? NEN??? HM? NEN?????????

im so annoying abt nen i need to make one of those ‘is this a pigeon?’ memes w/’is this nen?’ bc thats me anytime anything remotely weird happens lmao

i do think its rlly nen this time tho

anyways shit is wild, cant wait to meet the full zoldyck family

PREDICTION CORNER:

as i said above i doubt hisoka will show up now bc this arc is a lot shorter than i anticipated. also im doubting that illumis even gonna show up honestly

i think we’re gonna have this OP for a while, as the part just at the end shows gon and hisoka fighting in what looks to be an arena, and ik the next arc is the heavens arena arc, which im assuming is the tournament arc....

also i have no idea what that weird building in the OP is but my guess is that its the building w/the heavens arena in it bc its tall and,,,,heaven

i predict there wont be much fighting in this little arc bc how tf else is it so short. at this point i rlly think gon is just gonna grab killua and go lmao. im super curious abt how thats gonna go down, considering that killua is currently strung up just bc he wont apologize...so i cant imagine his family would just let him leave w/gon. i wonder if killua will fight them, or if gons determination will impress them and then theyll let killua go (doubt it)

thats basically it....we’ll see abt the next few eps holla

#lj watches hxh #hxh #woohoo continuation

2 notes · View notes

wellhalesbells · 7 years ago

Note

I see you reblogging some comic stuff an I was wondering if you have a favorite comic or favorite character or ship?

this ask is from so long ago but [DEEP BREATH IN] i’m finally going to answer it, nonny. finally. i kept wanting to read a little bit farther in my comics stack because.... maybe i’ll like that and will regret not having recced it, i just hafta--get--to it, see? and, honestly, i’m still there BUT, come on, i’ll never be caught up because that would mean comics would just have to stop coming out and i would be sad forever if that happened, SO

i’m not even going to pretend like i can narrow this down to one comic. (one ship? sure, that’s spideypool. one character? sure, that’s the merc with a mouth, the regenerating degenerate, wade motherfucking wilson. but one comic?!) there is just straight-up too much out there to make a definitive ‘yes, this is it, this is THE ONE ™ ’ statement. instead, uh, let’s break this shit down, yeah? (super special secret bonus round, will note all lgbt+ rep and standalone comics.) in no particular order, here the frig it goes!

HORROR

infidel, by pornsak pichetshote and aaron campbell. in case you haven’t seen this on every 2018 best list ever, here it is. and, yeah, it was good. a muslim-american main character living in a haunted apartment building where the entities feed off the xenophobia of its occupants. if that’s not a fucking modern horror story i don’t know what is.

spread, by justin jordan and kyle strahm. THIS IS ONE OF MY NEW AND ALREADY ALL-TIME FAVORITES. what an awesomely weird and epic story. the spread is an uncontrollable, unstoppable monster-making force that humanity accidentally unleashed by digging too deep. it infects everything it touches and basically all of humanity is running from quarantine to quarantine just hoping for the best. and speaking of hope.... she’s a baby, rescued by no, and the only thing that’s ever been able to stop the spread. also, no’s gay? and i just DID NOT see that coming. it seems like it’s going to be such a formulaic, bro-y story about the action hero who kisses the face off his girl (her name’s molly and she’s batshit insane and amazing) and instead, nope, it is not that at all. lgbt+ main characters.

the black monday murders, by jonathan hickman and tomm coker. hate capitalism? think all the rich and powerful are evil, soul-sucking monsters? [obnoxious, low-budget commercial sound effects] MAN, HAVE I GOT THE SERIES FOR YOU.

the beauty, by jeremy haun and jason a. hurley. i just started this recently but so far, oh my good golly gosh, i looove it. a sexually transmitted disease that makes you conventionally gorgeous.... at least before it explodies you. [wide, creepy smile] the art is gorgeous, the characters are aces and i am very, very pleased so far. lgbt+ minor characters.

the great divide, by ben fisher and adam markiewicz. this? was a COOL idea. the execution stumbled a bit but, gosh, was it neat. it’s post-apocalyptic where touching another person will literally kill.... one of you. the survivor then absorbs the memories of the person who dies, taking on a ‘rider.’ some people collect them, some people go mad, some form a bond, all have the side effect of dyslexia. like i said, neat as all get out. lgbt+ minor-ish/main-ish character. standalone.

revival, by tim seely and mike norton. a rural town in wisconsin experiences ‘miracle day,’ where the dead rise again.... except, they were kinda already mourned and buried and this is really just fucking up the status quo.

the woods, by james tynion iv and michael dialynas. a high school gets picked up and plopped down in an entirely new, and wickedly hostile universe. it’s all survival and alliances and seeing what you’re really made of when it comes down to it. lgbt+ main characters.

clean room, by gail simone and jon davis-hunt. a cult, a journalist and a clean room walk into a bar...

anya’s ghost, by vera brosgol. you think it’ll be a cute story of a girl and her ghost. HA HA THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS AT ALL, OKAY.

FANTASY

rumble, by john arcudi and james harren. SCARECROW WARRIOR GOD, SCARECROW WARRIOR GOD, SCARECROW WARRIOR GOD!!! okay, first off, the art in this? pushes every friggin’ button i’ve got, and many i did not know i had. second, this book is so fucking fun. it’s mythology that’s balls to the wall ridiculous, funny, and features a main character whose life motto is basically: ‘do i have to?’ infinitely relatable and then some.

heathen, by natasha alterici and rachel deering. UGH, ONE OF MY FAVORITES. the art is just horribly, horrendously gorgeous and it’s LESBIAN VIKING MYTHOLOGY, OKAY. OKAYYYY??? lgbt+ main characters.

the wicked + the divine, by kieron gillen and jamie mckelvie. one of my favorite ever series right here. it’s a hella cool concept (gods reincarnating as humans every twelve years, and burning up their hosts in two), whip-smart and if you’ve ever met a human being who likes a pun more than kieron gillen i defy you to produce them. lgbt+ main and minor characters.

batgirl, by gail simone and adrian sayaf and vicente cifuentes. you know how people rave about gail simone? there’s a reason people rave about gail simone. honestly, i’ve never had much interest in babs. i don’t tend to go for superheroes who don’t kill and i have even less interest in ‘the killing joke’ story line and i am convinced only gail simone could’ve done the recovery on that and she did a GLORIOUS job of it.

red hood and the outlaws, by scott lobdell and dexter soy. (ignoring recent - and annoying - developments), this is my favorite of all the rebirths dc did. scott lobdell is the only writer to have gotten the idea down of: okay, we’re starting over, i assume you don’t know anything but i also assume there are a bajillion people reading who know everything, and hit the perfect medium between those two things. so if you want to start a jason todd run, you legitimately can here, and get all the found family, badassery, batman-teasing enjoyment there is to be had.

iceman, by sina grace and robert gill (covers by kevin wada). classic super-heroing here and bobby’s first solo title. he’s figuring out coming out while fighting (and flirting) with baddies. sina really gets his humor and how truly wonder-awful it is! lgbt+ main character.

spider-man/deadpool, by joe kelly and ed mcguinness. watch those names there, those are your guys right there, period. they looked at the void of a spider-man/deadpool series and filled it with absolutely everything you could possibly want for the pair (sans a hardcore make-out sesh, though they did get a few variant covers with some puckered up lips in there!)

limbo, by dan watters and caspar wijngaard. a fusion of 80s aesthetics, voodoo elements and a noir tone. just some remarkably cool shit in this. the ending, for me, left something to be desired but it was more than worth it to see worship via mixtapes. standalone.

hawkeye: kate bishop, by kelly thompson and leonardo romero. kate bishop is, apparently???, a super impossible character for a lot of writers. kelly thompson is not one of them. kelly thompson is my favorite kate bishop writer, actually, and the fact that she is ever not writing her is a gd travesty.

the unbeatable squirrel girl, by ryan north and erica henderson. honestly, i’m so tempted to just stick this under ‘contemporary,’ because it really does just feel very... normal. doreen’s navigating college, new friendships, and y’know... the squirrely-ness. this had every opportunity to suck and instead it’s funny as heck, never takes itself too seriously, and is just pure good-hearted entertainment through and through.

wolf, by ales kot and matt taylor. a paranormal detective and the-possible-antichrist go on a road trip. people hated this comic and i don’t know how you can hate a comic that has a character called freddy chtonic who has tentacles for a mouth???

ms. marvel, by g. willow wilson and adrian alphona. hi, you read ms. marvel because the world is a garbage fire and people are terrible and your cynicism is at an all time high and then kamala khan waltzes in and reminds you people generally want to help each other and the world improves when we work together and that thing optimists feel? you’ll feel that for as long as you’ve got the pages open and that’s a magical thing. lgbt+ minor character.

monstress, by marjorie m. liu and sana takeda. psychic links with monsters, matriarchal societies, magic and witchery, half-human/half-animal (and other ratios) characters, all through a steampunk lens. what’s not to like about that??

inhuman, by charles soule. i love this series, i love the idea of being a total average joe/joanne, getting smacked in the face by a cloud of mist and suddenly having to figure out how to live basically a whole new life. also, if you don’t fall madly in love with dante pertuz, i don’t even know what to tell you, my dude.

heart in a box, by kelly thompson and meredith mcclaren. break-ups suck, but only because of that whole pesky broken heart thing, right? so emma gives hers away. problem solved, no? standalone.

i kill giants, by joe kelly and j.m. ken niimura. i didn’t cry my eyes out or anything. did not. standalone.

sex criminals, by matt fraction and chip zdarsky. having sex = stopping time, which leads suzie and jon to the only logical conclusion: let’s rob some banks!

hawkeye, by matt fraction and david aja. honestly there are a lot of other artist combos in this run but the only ones that are worthwhile are the ones that have fraction and aja’s names on them - sorry not sorry.

SCIENCE FICTION

black bolt, by saladin ahmed and christian ward. saladin revived this character one hundred million percent. there is absolutely a reason this was parading around all over ‘best’ lists when it was released. it really, really did the damn thing.

saga, by brian k. vaughan and fiona staples. this is the comic you recommend to people who don’t even like comics because it is that good. like, my dad - who hadn’t read a comic since he was a pre-teen, eagerly awaits each new trade. the world-building, the characters, the care put into every single solitary bit of all the things? unparalleled. lgbt+ minor characters.

frostbite, by joshua williamson and jason shawn alexander. a post-apocalyptic story that has humanity dying from a plague that literally freezes you from the inside out. very neat, very cold, very readable. standalone.

descender, by jeff lemire and dustin nguyen. this had a rough start, for me, with the main character of the first trade being tim-21, an android who is literally incapable of having the depth to be a lead BUT that does not last through to the next trade, thank god. lots of space and found family and world-building in this to be had! but you know how people rave about jeff lemire? there’s a reason people rave about jeff lemire.

paper girls, by brian k. vaughan and cliff chiang. the 80s and time travel and lifelong friendships. it’s brian k. vaughan, you know it’s good, okay? why do i even have to sell you here, man? lgbt+ main characters.

injection, by warren ellis and declan shalvey. this is another one on my list that started out a little rough but really appealed to me later on. there was just a lot to absorb in that first trade but, once you’ve got it, the ride gets way, way smoother. lgbt+ main and minor characters.

black science, by rick remender and matteo scalera. this was a rocky start, because the main character is such an asshole but in a way where he can’t see he’s an asshole, he’s just a tortured genius who’s superior to all of you, don’t you know? but i am so glad i persevered because if that’s the set up? the rest of the series is knocking him back down. super scientist grant mckay finds a way to access the eververse, every possible reality the universe has on offer, and that’s really what causes every single problem that follows. hard to cause the apocalypse and be an arrogant prick, ya know?

CONTEMPORARY

giant days, by john allison and lissa treiman. this series is so funny and smart and warm. these girls are so kind to each other and relatable and failing at adulting regularly and often and i love reading about them. lgbt+ main character.

lumberjanes, by noelle stevenson and grace ellis and brooke a. allen. this is funny and ridiculous and kind and cool and all other awesome adjectives and you should read it, fact. lgbt+ main characters.

my brother’s husband, by gengoroh tagame and anne ishii (translator). this is such a sweet story about acceptance and family tbh. lgbt+ main character.

fence, by c. s. pacat and johanna the mad. i mean... i need to see nicholas and seiji hook-up, i need that, stat. stat means now! lgbt+ main characters.

WEB/INDEPENDENT COMICS

long exposure, by kam heyward. so mitch and jonas are my absolute faves and i love them to death and the author is so kind in that they actually put this up in print on indyplanet so i can read it the way i, personally, love to read comics (and - bonus! - support them with the monies). lgbt+ main characters.

modern dread, by pat shand and ryan fassett (editors). i’ve been trying to find more better horror comics lately so i’ve been kind of half-heartedly stumbling through kickstarter on the hunt and this was SUCH a great find. it’s an anthology but more cleverly done than any other kickstarter anthology i’ve read, with a main story line that seamlessly strings together the would-be-disjointed ones. this was really thoughtfully put together and really well done! standalone.

heartstopper, by alice oseman. a very sweet story about two high school-aged boys becoming fast friends, playing rugby and falling in love. the two characters are mentioned as an aside in the author’s book, solitaire, and she became so invested in them that she wrote their backstory as a free webcomic. lgbt+ main characters.

the pale, by jay fabares. JUST started this (like, just a day or so ago) but i’m enjoying it so far!

hotblood!, by toril orlesky. i mean... is it a webcomic about a centaur falling in love with his boss? it just might be. did i get a bound edition through a kickstarter campaign? maybe. maybe i did that. who’s to say? lgbt+ main characters.

the bay, by bbz. life on mars through the lens of three young professionals who form an odd but lasting friendship. lgbt+ main characters.

hard drive, by artroan. is it a nsfw comic about a dude and a robot? .... it might be a nsfw comic about a dude and a robot. [coughs] lgbt+ main characters.

seen nothing yet, by tess stone. a nsfw comic about two amateur ghost hunters. can’t imagine why i might be interested in that [coughs] lgbt+ main characters.

captain imani and the cosmic chase, by lin darrow and alex assan. i mean did i want a starship captain who can’t help but lust after the smuggler he’s chasing. i mean, maybe i did. maybe. lgbt+ main characters.

taproot, by keezy young. ghost falls in love with boy, boy falls in love with ghost, AND THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. lgbt+ main characters.

always raining here, by bell and hazel. just two boys falling in lurve. lgbt+ main characters.

109 notes · View notes

shirokaneki · 6 years ago

Text

364 Days of Winter (Hatori x Shigure Comission)

I am currently doing writing comissions at £10 for 1k, £20 for 2k, £60 for 8k. Yes, I will do NSFW, come message me for details and examples of that and I’ll discuss pricing. I will also write about your OC’s, main fandoms i can do are fruits basket, tokyo ghoul, fate series, evangelion, madoka, pokemon, but whatever it is come discusss with me. Reblogs appreciated!

A figure stood alone in a world devoid of colour, consumed both inside and out by an empty void of white.

Wind howled like a lone wolf. Ice belted from a blank sky, punching holes into his chest like showers of bullets.

This wretched snowstorm had lasted for days. And there was no spring in sight. Nor even any water after the ice. The state of his feelings were unchanging; stuck away in limbo, smothered – as they had been for years. His love was unrequited, and gradually the feeling gnawed away at him, just like the world gradually drowning in a frenzy of ice.

Even lighting a single flame was a struggle. Cigarette in mouth, lighter in hand, he made a futile attempt at kindling something warm. A wisp of heat ignited the bluish night, however, the ruthless wind brutally blew it away, cold assaulting his shivering body like the sunken fangs of a wild beast. The flame was blown away by the hollow gust of wind.

It felt as though he could summon no emotion within him without wretched ice demolishing him somehow.

He’d never needed a cigarette so much in his life. On this particular New Year’s Eve it looked like they might get snowed in overnight – his worst nightmare, really. Part of him hoped he wouldn’t turn up, say the snow was so bothersome and stay at home. Yet, part of him was almost excited that he would. It was such a stupid, childish feeling that he loathed. It seemed so futile, all of it – his unrequited love, his need for a cigarette, yet, he had no choice but to continue attempting trying to spark a flame– such a cold existence needed to smoke. He needed the warmth to suck the life out of to keep his heart from completely freezing over.

His love for Shigure was like his addition to cigarettes: a cancerous, one way burn that was killing him slowly. Yet, he needed it to survive. Hope that he’d somehow get his fix kept him battling the storm. Snow swirled and blasted, wind wailing as it reared for another assault on him. It hit him like the voracity of a quickly broken heart, painting the world in a growing limbo of nothingness, just like the ice gradually freezing his heart.

His heart seemed to be freezing over at such a rate that he depended on the cancer-sticks like an injection of heat into the insides. It was an effort, for sure, but somehow he managed to light a tiny flame. Literally as well as figuratively; using his burning hands as a shield, and turning his back on the snowstorm, a meagre flame flickered weakly inside his hands, spreading a weak, yet pleasant heat like the withering hope inside him that anything good could ever come of this emotion. Even if by some slim chance it worked out – which it wouldn’t – Akito would be furious. These daydreams were purely that, – just fantasy.

Everyone knew how it had went when he’d incurred Akito’s wrath before.

His body shuddered at the thought. Cigarettes seemed to be the only thought keeping him going through the night. If any of the zodiac couldn’t make it to the banquet, Akito would be furious. Thinking about it, he drew on the cigarette like his life depended on it. As he blew out the smoke it weaved and spiraled into a shape somewhat similar to a dragon before withering away to the clutches of ice.

What a fun night it’s going to be, he thought bitterly.

“Haa-san!” came a faraway voice, filled with such vigour and perk that his heart soared before plummeting back down with his usual pessimistic dread.

“Shi… shigure?” Hatori replied abruptly, realising he’d shown way too much emotion in that instant. He really hadn’t expected him to be here, especially running towards him at full blast over ice. He didn’t like people seeing his emotions – especially when they were filled with a gross, girlish crush unbefitting a grown man, so he cleared his throat, replying in a lower, deadpan voice. He let his sleek black hair fall across his expression so it was hidden once more. “Good to see you. I didn’t think you’d be making it tonight.”

Shigure stood before him and beamed. “Looks like there is going to be quite a few of our zodiac missing tonight. Many are snowed in. It’s going to be an interesting night, so I made sure to bring lots of alcohol!”

“Shigure,” Hatori muttered slowly. The wind made his hair wisp, revealing that scarred eye which he quickly hid with a down-turned head. ”You live out with the Sohma land, the farthest away of us all, yet you’re the one still here. You did something, didn’t you?” His hand clenched as a fist by his side. “Did something happen between you and Akito?”

“Oh, Hatori.” Shigure stepped into the shelter of the Japanese style roof, shadow passing over his features. Hatori just knew there was malicious intent from a certain darkness in his gaze, but what he could not tell. “You know I’ll do anything to break the curse and draw distance between the zodiac and their God.” He smirked.” I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Hatori felt like one of the only people who knew of Shigure’s true nature. It was selfish. He’d use anyone to get what he wanted. Yet, somehow, he still loved him despite this, and for that, he had no reason why. It was hard for him to make new relationships, so perhaps instead the heart was clinging to the nostalgia of an old one, remembering all the joyous moments him, Ayame and Shigure shared. The heart wanted what the heart wanted, he supposed, even if there was no fathomable reason why.

“Oh, Haa-san, by the way,” Shigure retaliated in a sing song voice. A complete flip in two sides of the same coin – as was usual for Shigure. “Your partner for the traditional dance this year has dropped out. I figured you wouldn’t want to do it yourself, so I’m offering myself up instead. Since we haven’t rehearsed anything traditional together, I figured we should do some sort of easy ballroom dance you see in hollywood movies instead. Look!” He rummaged the bag in his hand and unfurled a long, pink ballroom dress. “I even had this dress made especially for you!”

Hatori walked away and slammed the door in his face. There was a click of a key being locked.

“It was a joke, a joke Haa-san, this is one of Ayame’s dresses!” Shigure whined, pounding on the door, “please don’t leave me out here to freeze!”

***

Eventually, someone took pity on Shigure and let him in. But it was just as cold on the inside as it was out. The atmosphere hung over them with a heavy sense of dread. There was a banquet: bright, colourful and overfilled with food. Yet there was hardly anyone to eat it. There was just Hatori, Shigure and a falsely bright Ayame trying to lighten the mood.

Akito could hardly be considered to be considered a presence. They just sat in the corner, silent, crossed armed, hair fallen over their face, poisoning radiating from them that tainted the air. Shigure was cheerful – too cheerful; this definitly had something to do with him.

They began drinking hard. That much was needed.

Something battered at the house. A gust of wind howled ominously loud like an impending storm, and everything went black.

All the light was gone once again.

“Looks like the power has gone out. Do we have any candles?” Ayame said lightly, attempting to brighten the mood, but there was a definite sense of unease in his voice.

Akito didn’t answer. They remained silent, brewing like the storm outside.

“We have them. I’ll get them from the kitchen,” Shigure replied.

They sat in both silence and darkness, awkwardly waiting for Shigure to return.

Fwoosh.

Upon his return, there was light again. Shigure lit candles in the room one by one. Sparking light was beyond an easy task for him – much unlike how it was with Hatori outside.

“Hatori.” Akito’s voice was like a light airy breeze, soft, yet hollow sounding, despite the clear malice bitten back within. Hellish flames danced on their skin. They had been plotting, scheming something to cause a scene, and it looked like now it was finally time. “Do your traditional dance.”

Hatori hung his head. “However, my partner…”

“Partner?” Akito looked head on at them for the first time that night, those empty gray eyes bulging with malice. “Don’t make me laugh, Hatori. You will dance the dance alone – like you always are. It should be natrual for you, right?”

Akito’s words were like an icicle straight through his chest. Not that there was any trace of it on his face; his expression was still, stoic, not even a flinch of surprise as his heart was pierced. As an older man, he thought it was place never to cry, never to show anything beyond the professional business man charade he put on.

He didn’t blame Ayame and Shigure not for standing up for him. Even after all these years, living their lives as best friends there was an unspoken rule – never must the zodiac challenge the word of their God.

However…

“Come now,” said Shigure in a low voice. “It would be far too embarrassing for Haa-san.”

Hatori looked up quickly, the candlelight casting a warm sparkle in those cold, grey eyes. Promptly he looked away, hiding an eye behind his hair. The atmosphere suddenly became volcanic; Akito’s teeth snarled with an oncoming eruption of rage. Their eyes bulged with the wrath of a vengeful God but Hatori stood up quickly, sedating the oncoming eruption that had been building all night. A fearful shudder passed though him – he knew of God’s wrath all too well.

“I will do the dance,” he said in a quiet voice.

Akito bit their lip. The rigid, dangerous stance of their body loosened somewhat. They smirked.

If I have to be the crux to prevent my friends from being hurt, so be it, Hatori thought to himself.

He made his way to stand in front of everyone with awkward, ungainly steps – unbefitting of a man with such a cool, powerful aura. He retreated into himself, fingers curling to fists, lip being bitten. Normally, the traditional new year’s clothes were a bright, extravagant affair, exploding with colour and detail. However, Hatori’s were a plain black, long and sweeping the floor, – as per Akito’s request. They were long, dark, and devoid of colour – just like the hollow emptiness of his heart.

He kept his gaze firmly on the floor, hair streaming over his face. Akito laughed.

But something happened as he looked up. He caught Shigure’s eyes, looking striking with the hot light dancing within them. His hand rested on his palm with a small smile of encouragement on his face, unbearably handsome looking and, well…

The flickering flames casting Hatori’s body with incandescent hues of oranges melted the crutches of ice gripping his heart. It was such a minor thing to speak like that to Akito, but it was something he wasn’t sure any other of the zodiac could do. Maybe not even he, for he still lived in fear after that day he was blinded by Akito. That was day the world had lost its colour, and ice began to solidify his heart.

But at that precise moment, he felt a great amount of love for Shigure. The feeling melted the ice within him, igniting his bloodstream with the warm, static tingles of butterflies. His frozen heart was temporarily thawed, and it blossomed like the first flourishes of cherry blossoms from Winter into Spring.

Perhaps this was the alcohol taking, but he decided to call upon it. To channel those smothered, pent up feelings through the medium of dance. It was his only hope of relief. The only way he could express his love in a way that didn’t leave a path of destruction – never could it be voiced aloud.

He tore his eyes away from Shigure, closing them, and started out small. His knees bent, body hunched up and curled with his arms clutching at his shoulders as if fighting away the cold. He thought about Kana. How the incident had snatched the ability to freely love without the vices of fear and left him cold. Then, he thought of Shigure. The thought brought such an expression of pain on his face. Never would his feelings be returned, but, as the candles painted an aura of warmth over his usually pale skin, steadily, he began to grow. Love ignited him. It gave him the warmth he needed to keep going and let him feel things again, no matter how painful they were.

The love was agony. As was told by the slow, tepid movements he made. This wasn’t anything remotely close to what he’d rehearsed but that dance couldn’t be done alone anyway. Akito wanted to humiliate him. And so he would humiliate himself, expressing that gross, disgusting love that made him feel as though he’d implode if he locked it away any further.

Steadily, he began to grow from his hunched position. Slowly. Cautiously. Quivering in a way that he could not tell was cold or fear. But he thought of that heat on his skin, the newly grown flame warming his insides, and drew upon it like a phoenix rising from the ashes of an old love into the blaze of a new one. Brow furrowed in pain, steadily, his limbs began to unfurl like fiery wings in the candlelight. His body grew in a slow, steady manner, like the trees that signalled spring, and his fingers unfurled gracefully like flourishing cherry blossoms. He opened his eyes. Amour painted them, their usual colour warmed by the feeling of love, and, helplessly, he found himself gazing at Shigure. Shigure’s eyes were wide, bedazzled looking, lips parted in awe. Quickly Hatori looked away, turning his back on him.

He panted and retreated back into himself. His heart rioted in panic. Had Shigure sensed something? Could he tell he loved him just from that single look? No. There was no way. He beat himself up internal for succumbing to such a vile feeling; gentlemen didn’t go around expressing love in girlish dance.

Still. All eyes were upon him. He could feel their burn – even Akito was suspiciously silent. He had to continue. He had to humiliate himself further, otherwise there would be hell to pay from their God.

Slowly he turned his head. The long black fringe of his hair obscured his face. It flashed like a halo as he turned to face his audience face on – it had to be a quick movement, otherwise he may have never been able to face them again. He couldn’t look Shigure in the eye. So instead, he reached to the candle sitting on the shelf behind him above his head. The light, the warmth he craved, was out of reach. As he stood, sucking all the light into him with the vanta black of his robe, only a faint outline of gold glowing behind him, his arm slowly outreached. It shook ever so slightly at the thought of what would happen if he ever caught the light. But he’d never know. Streams of gold slipped through the cracks of his fingers.

“That’s enough, Haa-san,” said a voice in a low, gentle lilt.

Hatori flinched, fear of what Akito might do overriding the blossoms of static coursing from his fingers, but he couldn’t pull away.

The light may have escaped his grasp. However, much to his shock – and horror – the real thing was in his fingers. Shigure’s fingers had closed over his own, sending waves of heat and static blossoming over his fingers.

“You needn’t dance alone.”

Such dread caused him to plummet back to the real world that he almost wretched as Akito stood to their feet.

#hatori sohma #fruits basket #shigure sohma #hatori x shigure #ayame sohma #writing comissions #apologeis if read more isn't working so ill tag #long post #i did add one but idk if you can see it

7 notes · View notes

davidmann95 · 6 years ago

Text

The Kingdom Hearts III Reaction

First thing’s first: yes, I got the responses to my initial reaction letting me know I could use L2 to cycle through triangle commands, and oh my god that made things so much more manageable, so thank you.

Gameplay wise, I said what I had to say right off the bat earlier: lot of fun, best version of the traditional playstyle. Gorgeous except for when it’s the most gorgeous. Way more game than I could handle on the margins, but it felt like fun available options I could choose whether to pursue or not rather than overwhelming.

Under the cut I’m gonna talk some broad structural stuff; I’ll avoid anything overtly spoilery, but it would certainly be understandable if you’d rather stay away. Under another bolded sign though I’m going to get into MAXIMUM spoiler territory, so those who just want my basic impressions but would prefer to hold off on more than that until they have their own go at it can know where to get off.

So this game does like 90% of everything I ever wanted it to do, plus so much MORE than I ever would have expected, resulting in a finale even more grand and resonant and satisfying than I might have imagined after nearly 13 years of waiting. The problem is that all that stuff is in the last 8 hours, and it is very, very clear that’s the part of the game Nomura and company actually cared about. This wasn’t interested in being Kingdom Hearts III, it wanted to be Kingdom Hearts III Part 3/3: The Finale after Dream Drop Distance and A Fragmentary Passage covered the other biggies, to the point of as mentioned before critically compromising the beginning of the game. It reached the point where Dream Drop Distance went from just baaaaarely pulling ahead of 358/2 Days to dead damn last in my ranking of these, because it not only set the tone for what went wrong here - even if this succeeded in the end in a way that couldn’t - but sponged off vital reveals and the conclusion to Riku’s character arc, both of which 1,000,000% needed to be in here so this could be a complete sequel rather than in an intermediary story where they were weakened by context.

Long story short, Nomura and Square are going to have to think very, very hard about what kind of a role the Disney worlds are going to play in these going forward, because the enthusiasm for them on the part of the writers is visibly dead. Not across the board, passion clearly went into the likes of the Toy Story and Big Hero 6 worlds, but it could not have been plainer that Monsters Inc. and Frozen were checkmarks being crossed off, perfunctory in a way I genuinely don’t feel the Disney worlds were in the past (though that may be in large part because this time around Sora is literally just there for level grinding, rather than an immediate search for friends, stripping away the central underlying emotional urgency of I and II). It would’ve been alright if there had been a major act break of the sort II had to provide a sense of forward momentum, but as is it really is just marking time while characters other than Sora drive the plot in the background, mostly in the form of catching up with what the audience already knows. They’ll always be a part of the franchise, and obviously the iconic Disney figures in Mickey and the rest will always be central, but unless the powers that be find a fresh new angle I think it’s getting to be time to scale the movie settings back in favor of the main story and original worlds, if not to the extent the Final Fantasy elements have received.

So I spent most of the game disappointed, figuring it would pull it all together for the finale and more than satisfy me, but not enough to retroactively redeem the game as a whole. And then it retroactively went and redeemed the game, because when I say it kicks off in the last 8 hours I don’t mean that that’s where things start getting parsed out in time for the finale. I mean it’s 8 solid hours of climax, physical and plot and character, the most intense and overwhelming of the franchise, answers to real-life-decade spanning mysteries and character resolutions and endgame-scale setpieces and catharsis being delivered just one after the other after the other. It’s the entire emotional underpinning of the game in a single titanic endrun, in an experience and at a pitch I’ve never seen before. Even the parts that should have been set up earlier in the game still have the entire rest of the series and years of anticipation leading into them, and while it’s a shame it had to bank on that advantage, it worked, because when I look back on the game in years to come it’s going to be this that I’ll remember, and when I someday a long time from now play through the franchise as a whole, I’ll go through the parts that previously irritated me with a smile on my face because it’ll just be a charming interlude rather than a dead stop. I can’t put this over II’s more well-rounded experience because of those structural issues, but while 0.2 is maybe the purest expression of intent thus far in the series, its brevity, and the fact that as good as it gets its best isn’t as good as this gets, puts III neck-and-neck with it as the franchise runner-up for me.

Okay, BIGGEST SPOILERS IN THE FUCKING WORLD UNDER THE IMAGE

So being a person who exists online in the 21st century, I had some key images of the ending spoiled for me well in advance, which sucked but was also maybe a blessing in disguise, because if I hadn’t been braced when those last three seconds came...that would have been rough. It was startlingly rough as is, which is odd because as much as I’ve always liked Sora as a character and appreciated the odd way his nature as a Disney hero in a Final Fantasy dark epic makes him a perfect lead and counterpoint, I never realized the depths of emotional investment I’d attached to his specific fate until the rug got pulled out. It would be as blatant a “but there’s no body!” moment as any there’s ever been even without the secret ending and the confirmation on Nomura’s part that Sora will remain the main character, it’s an emotional blow and a setback and a mystery for the others to solve rather than a full tragic ending (and one would have to imagine the characters themselves would believe that and will act accordingly given this entire story was itself about bringing back a bunch of Very Definitely Dead Folks), but it’s harsh as hell even if it’s very clearly the next step in a Master Plan rather than purely blueballing players for the cruel joy of it. Still, even if it’s reminiscent of stuff we’ve seen before, a melancholy-at-best ending is fully within the franchise wheelhouse; if I’m right and there’s one full trilogy of main games remaining in the series (I’m guessing without many if any spinoffs, Nomura’s bosses are definitely going to have his nose to the grindstone to get through the remainder of this thing on a sane timescale so as not to have another...well, this), maybe it’ll fully establish a sad-odd-numbered-ending, happy-even-numbered ending pattern, with IV having a gleeful reunion, V ending with all seeming lost, and the grand finale letting the heroes have their happily ever after.*

Before getting into the gushing praise for the rest of it, the reason this is at 90% of everything I wanted rather than complete: Kairi is bizarrely shortchanged here compared to every other central character, especially given her relationship with Sora is the foundation of the very end and she’s the logical main protagonist for IV. Even her ‘death’ isn’t my issue so much - by the end of the game Sora has rescued literally every other main character from beyond the veil of the afterlife or a living hell in fairly rapid succession, she’s just the last and biggest deal to him personally - as that even a few more scenes with her would have shored up so much. Not that her material isn’t good when she is there, I absolutely do think it was, and the emotional buildup from the series up to this point was more than enough in my opinion to carry her stuff through, but it’s the equivalent of, say, Lois Lane appearing out of nowhere at the end of a Justice League story to provide the impetus for Superman: obviously this works and makes sense because we know how much they mean to one another, but in the context of this as a lone narrative it’s a little out of nowhere. Riku gets it pretty bad too, if not as much so, but he has the ‘excuse’ of having his character arc resolved in Dream Drop Distance. Still though, it means the central trio is scarcely a thing in here the way it was in the past, though it looks like the next game is going to be entirely about getting them back together and hopefully they’ll stay as a complete unit from there on out.

Also prior to gushing praise: if Dream Drop Distance hadn’t happened, it would be so easy to restructure this in a way that would make the whole thing satisfying instead of just a perfect chunk of it. Open the game with Sora and Riku going into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua, have Sora succeed but in the process of THAT lose his powers (making it a noble sacrifice on his part foreshadowing the end rather than a non-fuckup that the player pays for); Aqua has to recuperate, preferably with Kairi and Lea so they can get more screentime, Sora’s off regaining his powers and tracking down clues to the location of Castle Oblivion since it was under Organization control and therefore hidden, and Riku’s off with Mickey having his DDD arc. Stick the reveal of the real Organization XIII midgame, and keep the finale almost exactly as is. That way, plot and character’s doled out throughout, character screentime is rebalanced, and everything that worked stays working and comes to the exact same conclusion.

Gushing praise time: holy fuckin’ cow, this hit me in ways I did not see coming. The reunion of the other two trios was something I looked forward to well enough but not anything I fully expected to outright bowl me over, but by god they pushed those buttons as hard as they could and made them everything anyone could need them to be. But that was expected, to one extent or another; what I don’t think anyone could have seen coming was, in the final gasp of this saga of hilariously, broadly Arch villains, every single one of them turning out to be a real goddamn human being with understandable emotions and motivations and implied history and arcs. Monsters see the light (with the contextually hilarious exception of the one character fandom MOST wanted to see get a face turn with Vanitas, and even he finds understanding and peace) after a whole series of believing there’s one in the darkness when only one or two major characters had made a turnaround, and it doesn’t just make this game richer, it retroactively improves the entire series thematically and emotionally, as well as setting the stage for more of that approach based on what we know of what’s to come. And action-wise, it really does go for trying to beat II’s last Xemnas fight, and while I don’t know that it manages it in sheer cool thanks to that final laser blocking/dual wielding finale, it I think really does come out on top in the fights leading up to it and the spectacle and the emotional power and the beautiful interface screw (after the shit with the tornado earlier!), nevermind the absolute end where Our Nerd Dad Luke Skywalker** shows up to give his blessing to the franchise and usher out the story as it was.

As for the pair of post-credits scenes: in each instance I had something spoiled for me, but also in each instance not the BIG thing. I knew Xigbar would live and summon the Foretellers, which honestly is not that shocking for me. That he IS one of them, that he’s been putting on an act (one clearly in the shape of his teacher) and been a bigger villain than Xehanort THE ENTIRE TIME? I believe that got a literal gasp out of me, and THAT’S before it turned out that after bullheadedly clinging to the idea that she’s still a main villain for all these years, Maleficent might actually end up a main villain again. And the secret movie? I had the title spoiled - and god what a perfect twist, the most gleefully apeshit moment in the game and already probable best moment in gaming of the year coming back around in a completely serious way to define the future of the franchise - but assumed wrongly that it meant Sora would be in some way ‘reincarnated’ amnesiac as Yozora and needing to be returned to himself. But nope, Sora’s for real out there alive as himself in...something like the real world? Or The World Ends With You, which I understand is at least a lot closer? And Riku’s gonna wind up stuck out there too? And because Yozora’s there it means they’re in some kind of fuckin’ Flash of Two Worlds! situation?! Or if it’s in the same physical realm (which I have to doubt or Sora would rush home as soon as he got a ship) it’s the equivalent of that dope two-part Terra Obscura arc in Tom Strong?! Sora and Riku, trapped in a world where Kingdom Hearts is a Dark, Realistic Modern Urban Fantasy (which, if Sora got here by dying, does...does that mean Gritty Realworld! AU Kingdom Hearts fanfic is that universe’s version of hell? Because that would be beautiful) (did “This is a fantasy based on reality” end up carried over as the logline to Final Fantasy XV from Versus XIII? Because if not, absolutely use it here to keep that gag going) and having to fight their way back to their world and friends, hopefully with Kairi going on her own playable adventure on the other end of the cosmos to find them since there’s no way she wouldn’t be leading the search? And with the Master of Masters waiting in the wings, the perfect villain in general because if Sora is the MOST Disney character in this universe he appears to be the LEAST, and especially perfect here now that Sora’s symbolically if not possibly literally on his turf? Waiting I’m guessing another 3-5 years is gonna be hell (I’m guessing IV’ll be announced next year or maaaaaaaybe late this year because thus far Kingdom Hearts has never gone with no announced games on the horizon longer than the end of the next calendar year, and we’ll see how development goes after that; like I said, I imagine the pressure is on for Nomura), but this could not look more like my shit.

So that’s, after all these years, Kingdom Hearts III: an understandable, maybe unavoidable, but still crushing disappointment that undermined itself narratively before it even began production and ran on a burned-out crew that could never meet the impossible expectations surrounding it. Until it suddenly winks, brushes itself off, and lives up to damn near EVERYTHING on its shoulders in the most incredible ways possible while also transcending its previous limitations as a story right in front of you, and then breaking your heart before planting the seed to repair it and charting a path towards an even more exciting future. All said and done, I liked it a whole lot, and it’ll always be special to me.

* At this point, I really could go for the ending of the whole thing literally being Sora and Kairi walking into the sunset together, with the camera panning up into the sky and text (not mysterious narration like in the past, but old-school Disney-cartoon-style outside-the-world of the story cursive text) appearing to declare 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇. That is the level of closure and myth and satisfaction it’s gotta be building towards after everything thus far and everything to come.

** If you are reading this without having played or watched the game: given I know that’s now in the realm of possibility, no, I don’t literally mean Luke Skywalker showed up.

Yet.

#Kingdom Hearts III #Kingdom Hearts #Analysis #Opinion

7 notes · View notes

lepus-the-bun · 8 years ago

Text

Garlameld and it’s Real World Inspiration

Okay, so I’m gonna open up a bit of discussion. The main reason why, is multiple times over the past month, I’ve heard people equate the Garlean Empire to the Third Reich. Which... Isn’t terribly accurate. So here, I’m going to discuss where I believe the garlean empire is based off of, and where else they take inspiration from.

WAIT! No no don’t just skip by! I know, a lot of people just don’t give two shits about the Garlean Empire, but it’s kinda becoming important to a character perspective that we -do- care to understand their basis and their lore more... Even more so with the increased focus they are getting.

Alright, so lets get started... And please, if you disagree and wish to say so, by all means do it politely and in a way that facilitates discussion. So right off the bat, let me hit out a quick disclaimer.

THE GARLEAN EMPIRE IS NOT MEANT TO BE FF14′S GOOD GUYS, NOR IN ANY WAY AM I ATTEMPTING TO SAY THAT THE EMPIRE IS JUSTIFIED IN EVERYTHING THEY DO, AND HOW THEY DO IT. I AS AN INDIVIDUAL SEPARATE FROM MY CHARACTER, DO NOT CONDONE THE ACTIONS PRESENTED IN LORE AND GAME.

Okay. With that out of the way, let me quickly say -why- I believe it’s important to understand where they are based off of.

BECAUSE WE HAVE A LOT OF SHIT GOING ON IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE WORLD REGARDING PEOPLE HOLDING BELIEFS ALONG THE LINE OF HITLERS NATIONALIST SOCIALIST PARTY.

It’s awkward, I know, but -PLEASE- bear with me. I remembered when I first started playing FF14, and encountered the Garlean Empire. I took one look at Black/Red uniforms and immediately my mind clicked and went “Oh so they are supposed to be fantasy Nazi’s.” It’s easy to consider that, so lets go over some small points as to why people think they are Nazi’s right off the bat.

Red/Black color scheme, common in association with Nazi characters. Aggressively expansionist against peaceful nations. (I will get into this later) Experimentation on humans and human like races. Very technologically advanced. Racists. Also that one time they tried to blow up all of Eorzea. And they kinda keep killing all the beast tribes.

On the surface, we look at these, and see well... Nazi’s. Really easy right? I mean, they’re dicks, they use Nazi color schemes and everything. Well, lets go into a few of those points.

#1: Fuck you hitler for ruining Red and Black color schemes.

Seriously, it’s a color scheme. I don’t know what you want me to say, but they’re not wearing SS uniforms, and shouting in german while goose stepping through the lands. Some legions, use red and black for their uniforms--- What’s that? Some Legions? Yes! With the advent of seeing the Doman legion, (Who’s uniform we get) we see that the uniforms change their appearance as their uniform is black with a gold trim. So... It’s a color scheme, for some legions, and that’s pretty much it.

#2: Aggressive expansionists.

Alright, this one is just a -bit- tricky so please -please- stick with me on this one. Garlean conquest is based on purely, conquest. Only in -one- place in the lore do we see someone claim Garlean Purebloods to be superior to the other races, and that’s from a mad scientist (Who I will get into later). Instead, what we see is the Garlean Empire expand out, conquer territory, and then subjugating them to service of the Empire, with the ultimate goal of incorporating the inhabitant’s and their descendants as -Citizens-.(This is important)

On the flip side, Nazi expansion was based upon the ideal of Racial Superiority, with a disputed intent among historians. Some believe the end goal was just europe itself, allowing the Third Reich to then create a system of government based heavily upon nationality with the intent to solely benefit the ‘Aryan’ race whom was considered superior over all.

This is not something we see in Garlean expansion, infact whenever a garlean insults member of a newly controlled country, it is all based upon their CITIZENSHIP. This ties in closely with another historical group who I will talk about later...

And as a final point, as to how we see them -treat- conquered territories... We see that for lands that rebel against them, they are quick to put out harsh punishment. Then when ZENOS THE CRAZY FUCKING ASSHOLE gets involved, he -deliberately orders the conditions to be worsened for him to get his jollies off-.(This will be important later.)

#3: Human Experimentation

... This has happened in the lore, within the Garlean empire. Yet, while compared to the Nazi goal of just ‘dicking around and discovering as much fucked up shit as they can’, the experiments we are shown are centered around granting Garlean Purebloods magic, which they cannot use naturally. Infact, the only reason we -SEE- this experimentation, is because Zenos (Aint Nepotism a Bitch) picked up the lost puppy of a mad scientist, Aulus mal Asina.

First off, FUCK THIS GUY. Seriously. Fuck him. He is not the -STANDARD- within the Garlean Empire. We are even -told- that he became Zenos’ little pet because NO ONE ELSE WOULD SANCTION HIS WORK BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT HE WAS CRAZY. He, is -why- the XII legion is filled with weird mutated creatures and other bullshit. Because Zenos, the crazy fucker decided to bring him -in- to the fold.

Is this a sign that Zenos was just fucking deranged and held little value for life? Or that SE wanted add a dash of Nazi war crimes into the mix of the Garlean empire? Well, personally I believe it was meant as the first, with a little dash of the second. Hell, some could make arguments that the Nazi’s weren’t the only ones to do cruel and inhuman experiments... (YEAH I’M LOOKING AT YOU JAPAN, DON’T THINK YOU’RE OFF THE HOOK EITHER)

#4: They are one of the most technologically advanced groups.

... A lot of former countries/people started empires because they had a technological advantage. This could just as well be based off the USA, England, Egypt, Greece... Or what I’ll point out later.

Secondarily, there is a -CLEAR- lore reason behind this. Garlean purebloods cannot use magic. That’s it. In the lore, the Garlean Republic was often bullied by neighboring countries, and in their search to find a way to fight back... They found Magitech, and then started to -steamroll- through the other nations. So it’s not just making them technologically advanced because “MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE NAZI’S”, there’s a bigger grasp of the lore present... Where it’s used to make UP for a weakness held by the purebloods, which turned out to turn the tables and enable their conquest.

#5: Racists.

They as a nation, are racist. It’s true. So were Nazi’s. So were the Greeks. So were Romans. So was the Japanese Empire. The Chinese Empire. The French. The English. The United States.

Moving from IRL to the game, there is racisim aplenty there too. Limsa violates treaties with Kobolds because ‘fuck those guys’, and then plays victim. Girdania shows in the MSQ they don’t care about the suffering of the Ala Mhigans, but care more what the elementals think, and Ul’dah... Do I need to really go into how racist and filled with assholes Ul’dah is? Save the Sultana, who is a sugarbun too pure for this world. Hell, it was considered a -great- advancement when a Hyur got to the Syndicate... And Ul’dah also committed literal genocide against a fellow city state in the past.

Discrimination, is not unusual. Hell, it’s -common- in Eorzea, and the world in game from what we see. This is all COMPLETELY different from the racial beliefs of the Nazi party however. As we see no extreme equivalent to the Waffen SS, hunting down the ‘impure’ or those of theological differences. We don’t see concentration camps, though there are prisons for those who -do- resist/rebel. But the distinction of the reason WHY they are in there, will be important at the end. But lets get to the important one...

#6: They want to kill all the beastmen!

... No. I was -shocked- by this, but from what we have seen, the Empire is perfectly fine coexisting with a beast tribe... UNTIL THEY SUMMON A PRIMAL. At that point, they do not discriminate and wipe out the tribe in the area. From the Lupin, to the Anatana, to even the use of Kojin as mercenaries. The Lupin are even brought in as conscripts to be -used- in legions. Anatana are mostly left alone, and end up being attacked by a FUCKING IDIOT WHO DIDN’T THINK PROPERLY.

We even see the empire preparing to clean up some Vanu during the heavensward MSQ... And after having a chit chat with the emperor, and your friend showing up, they bounce back off to their GIANT FUCKING AIRSHIP THAT COULD HAVE OBLITERATED WHERE YOU WERE STANDING.

But, we also know -why- the Empire despised beastmen... They summoned primals, and primals, slowly kill the world. To the Garlean empire, the moment a tribe summons a primal it is an attack upon the world, and -needs- to be quelled... This is -not- the same as the Nazi’s irrational hatred. HOLD ON DON’T GET READY TO THROW ME TO THE GALLOWS! This does NOT mean it is justified, and right... But rather the distinction is IMPORTANT. Moving on from this...

#7: They kinda tried to blow up Eorza.

... That is a thing we did. that is very much a thing we did. Although, that is really... Really not a Nazi thing, and if anything, was more a ‘America and the Nuke’ inspired event.So... Not Nazi inspired. Just as genocide inspired as dropping the nukes, WHICH I UNDERSTAND AMERICA WAS/STILL IS PRETTY FUCKING RACIST AND EVERYTHING AROUND THAT WAS JUST FUCKING TERRIBLE...

But it’s not a Nazi thing. It’s just a insensitive to life thing. Of course, the whole reasoning behind it ICly was “FUCK YOU IF WE CANT CONTROL YOU WE WILL BLOW YOU UP” because Eorzea kept allowing primals to be summoned left and right, and outside of one group... Really was not prepared to contain them. So yeah. Crazy, stupid, morally wrong, but not Nazi.

FINE NOW WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO SAY THEY ARE INSPIRED OFF OF?

The Roman Empire. More specifically, during the decline of the Empire. To simplify and not take up too much time, allow me to use a quick list for ya’ll.

-Liberal use of Roman Military structure, with consistent use of roman titles. -Consistent use of citizenship for conquered lands, including the popular ‘military service for citizenship’ -Brutality is often used as a response to rebellion, and not just because of someone’s lineage -The nepotisim that brought Zenos to power, and really, Zenos just embodying late roman emperors. -A republic that became an empire, while still keeping the senate intact.

These are just a few. But hey, if you disagree or wish to discuss, please... Feel free.

#Rp #garlean #ff14

87 notes · View notes

yazziyoudaydreamer · 8 years ago

Text

Chapter 1 of Setting a Hurricane of feelings Ablaze

Here is the first chapter of my Harry Potter My Hero Academia story! Completely set in the My Hero Academia world.

You can find this story on facebook, fanfiction, and on Archive of our own.

Summery

Sirius couldn't have picked a worse time to screw up a spell! Deciding to try a faded out ritual on the fire place wasn't one of his brighter ideas because when Harry steps through the floo to go and stay at his Aunty Bella's place he doesn't ever come back. Stuck in a place where Heroes and Villains exist with powers straight out of a comic book, Harry must learn to cope and thrive in this technology driven world. It isn't easy when his magic changes to form a powerful destructive quirk and his adoptive dad wants him to become a hero. That and the fact that he becomes ridiculously protective when he's around male friends for some reason.

Warnings, eventual Yaoi, MPreg

I don’t own My hero academia or Harry potter.

Start Chapter 1

Pounding pounding pounding. His whole body felt like it was being torn apart and smashed back together again. Ugh his head, even in the welcoming embrace of the darkness of unconsciousness where he should have been completely unaware of pain it tore at him, stabbing him as his magic violently disagreed with something.

Ringing ringing ringing. His dark place refused to quiet. A piercing terrible noise. After what seemed like a eternity the pain eased a strange obnoxious beeping continued to torment him. Refusing to quiet. A rhythmic sound. Beep be-beep beep unending.

A rolling nausea rippled through Harry, his eyes darted open and he groaned as his body seemed to protest at his eyes even moving. "Sick." Was all he was able to managed out before he began heaving. His body almost seeming to protest his very survival.

"Shit! Here-here you're gonna choke to death!" a masculine voice said frantically, forcibly turning Harry's head and holding some sort of tub under his chin. Ugh he felt like he was going to heave up his guts! When was the last time he ate? It was like all he had was a stomach full of acid... But he had literally just ate before leaving home? It didn't make any sense! Though the pain didn't either...

Slowly the man pulled the puke tub from Harry's face, wiping at his mouth with a wet wipe. "You alright now kid? I mean not to sound like an ass or anything but you look like crap... Nearly died so I guess that's probably the reason... but... uh. Yeah. Anyway. How are you feeling?" The man asked. Harry's vison refused to stop blurring exhaustion was almost all consuming and all he felt like doing was sleeping, not talking. He forced himself to sit up though, stiffening when the man's words finally sunk in. Wait he had nearly died? What?! His vision seemed to almost snap into place after that. The strange man that had helped him becoming crystal clear.

Tall, he was very tall but ghastly thin and gaunt. Thick brows with strange sunken eyes. His hair was spiky and blond with two strange long strands in the front. Even looking deathly sick and frail Harry could feel power a kind of power that filled the air and took over an entire space, cloy and potent and consuming. It was a power that choke the breath out of all but the most powerful of beings by just being in the same area with it. Harry was thankful he was a very powerful wizard or he would be having some trouble as sensitive as he was to other's magical strength. He shuddered lightly as the taste of bile made the nausea roll through him again. He was hardly able to keep it in check.

"Kid?" The man pressed. Looking nervous, leaning forward in his set like he was expecting Harry to get sick again.

"I-I where am I?" Harry finally managed to get out. His brain still jumbled and confused. The annoying beeping was even louder when awake he thought distantly.

"Huh... Yeah... Well you're at the hospital, I mean pretty obvious right? Anyway, uh... So do you remember anything?" The man asked Harry, absently he sat the tub of throw up on a little side table next to the bed.

"Rem-ber anything? I-I left home... I was going to go to my Auntie Bella and Uncle Rabastan's home... Mum and Dad... they.. Were going to leave to go on a trip with friends for a few days. I-" Harry furrowed his brows trying to remember what happened next. "I had just finished lunch and used-used the floo to head over but it's been acting up because mum used some manky old spell he found and though would summon something I guess... and we hadn't gotten anyone out to fix it yet... It was taking us to random places but... I-I thought it would be fine. That-that since it was taking me to different floos I could-could just use the one I got spat out of to get me to my Aunt's. I stepped through then-then," Harry paled and his eyes widened becoming distant, nearly blank looking, "I saw a strange purple glow and felt a pull. Like I was... b-being being torn apart and put back together over and over again... It hurt so much!" He whispered shuddering. The memory making him nearly heave. Suddenly the feeling of cotton mouth hit him, making him go into a fit of coughs.

The man immediately snatched up a cup of water and carefully put to Harry's dry lips. Forcing him to take little sips so he wouldn't throw up again. After a few minutes of silence the man began to speak.

"No idea what the hell you are talking about... spells and such... but I'm assuming you're talking about a quirk or something. But it sounds... like the guy that you got spat out of's quirk must have somehow crossed with your mother's and grabbed onto you... in the middle of the battle he was... in with the heros." The man said, grimacing and itched at his cheek.

"H-heros? What are you talking about? What's a quirk?" Harry asked trying to straighten himself up more.

"What? You-uh a quirk? They didn't say you hit your head!" The man said, looking at Harry with pure worried disbelief.

"I'm a wizard! Wait, where is my wand?" Harry asked, panic filling him. He desperatly tried to force himself upright.

"Wait wait wait, wand, like from movies? You must have hit your head way harder than I thought! I saw a white stick literally burst into flames on it's own like some fantasy movie or something when you hit the ground but I mean it was a stick. It didn't look anything like like merlin's staff or anything!" The man insisted, looking like he was trying to force back laughter.

"I'm not joking! I'm a wizard, Harry Lupin-Black, heiress of both lines! My family must be worried sick! Auntie Bellatrix will be on a rampage by now, likely cursing anyone she comes across and my Uncles won't be far behind! All of this and I don't even have my wand so I can at least try and figure out a way to get home or protect myself!" Harry insisted, tears filling his eyes. What was he supposed to do now?

"What? Cursing what the hell does that mean? Wizards, kid you aren't making any sense!" The man said, looking at Harry like he thought him crazy, even scooting away slightly.

"My Auntie Bella is vicious she'll try hunting me down! My uncles to but Auntie Bella is um... a little unstable.." Harry vaguely explained.

The man cringed going stiff at what he had been told. Was this the child of a villain? Even so he was unwilling to judge so fast. What was all this magic crap though it sounded almost like this kid was a noble or something. What was up with the heiress bit though? He had thought the kid was a girl at first but this... kid clearly had at least the outside equipment of a boy. Something felt kind of creepy and archaic about this.

"So what you don't have a quirk or something you have magic and wands and crap?" The man asked, trying to get the kid to explain more.

"I don't even know what that-that is! And yes we do! I'm from a magical wizarding community in Britain!" Harry insisted, looking ready to bawl his eyes out.

"Ugh. You know the ability you are born with? 80% of the population has one! The guy that spat you out had a type of warp quirk that made it so he could create portals and spit objects out from other places. He unfortunately died because he ended up imploding after spitting you out. You obviously have one as well, I mean green lightning lashing out at everything... You were nearly dead before anyone could even get anywhere near you." The man explained.

"What? Wait... So most people have these abilities?" Harry Asked in a hesitant tone of voice. Dread slowly filling him, drowning him.

"Yeah of course! Why?" The man asked. "Wait, hey, hey you alright?" He asked jumping to his feet as Harry went a deathly shade of grey and dry heaved, trembling head to foot.

"It-he- the spell mum did must have done this! He- no no no! Magic in my world is only able to be used my a few people! This is bad-bad! I thought it felt different... My-my magic is all twisted. It isn't the same anymore! It isn't just a part of me anymore... it-it is me! There is no separation, not even slightly." Harry babbled hysterically.

"Wait slow down! What the hell are you even talking about?" The man demanded, wide eyed.

"I'm not where I should be! No wonder I was in so much pain... My magic changed somehow. It feels so strange!" Harry said, ignoring his pain. He managed to fully sit up.

"What? You know this sounds crazy right?" The main pointed out, pale.

"It's not like I tried to make this happen! I'm-I'm never going to see my mum and Dad ever again am I? I'm all alone now!" Harry sobbed realization just truly fully hitting him, a desperate fearful sorrow filled his eyes so completely with hopelessness that the man couldn't help but feel sick. That look, the kid had lost everything no one could fake that kind of hopelessness and emotional pain. In that moment he believed him. This kid, Harry or whatever... Oh god. This poor boy! So small and alone. He had to help him, to protect him!

"Hey, hey it's... okay." The man said, placing a hand next to the boy's arm. "I mean it isn't... but I'm not going to leave you all on your own okay? You'll live with me." The blond haired man said compulsively. Moving his flexing hand to place it on the child's head. He still had trouble believing that this kid was a boy. He inhaled, startled by the softness of the kid's silky hair.

He couldn't remember ever seeing a boy so pretty before with his delicate small frame, soft lightly curled nearly shoulder blade length ink black hair, and large soulful strange almost luminescent green eyes. Something in him insisted that he had to protect the kid. He was just so tiny and vulnerable looking, fragile, poor thing! He looked like he could hardly be more than nine or ten, though the blond man knew that was unlikely by what doctors had told him.

The man gave the boy his best smile, his super hero smile. In an attempt to reassure him.

"R-Really? But you don't even know me!" Harry pointed out sniffling.

"Yeah, really you'll stay with me, okay? I mean... It's not the same as having your family but... Well... Anyway, we'll probably have to figure out a back story for you or something... My name is Toshinori Yagi by the way. You can call me Toshinori." The man said, grinning at Harry. What was he even doing? Offering to take some random kid in! Toshinori forced that from his mind, trying to put the kid at ease with a good natured guff.

Toshinori couldn't let that poor boy be all alone in a completely different world than his own... Especially with his odd... Ability to get pregnant the doctors had mentioned and besides that he looked to only 9 or 10 and already everything about him screamed vulnerable cinnamon bun Uke boy! He definitely would protect him who would if not him? Ugh the idea of even leaving the poor kid all alone made Toshinori feel ill. Some creepy would happily take advantage, he was sure!

"Thank you!" Harry exclaimed, lunging forward to try to hug the man, falling into his lap instead as his body seized with pain.

"You-you shouldn't exert yourself like that kid! You literally just-just got out of a 3 day long coma! Besides that you shattered your leg." Toshinori stuttered, uncomfortably patting at Harry's back as he quietly whined and shuddered in pain, his leg absolutely on fire along with the rest of his body.

"Didn't think bout it!" Harry whimpered. Trying to take in a deep breath. His cheeks beat red.

The blond haired man slowly stood up and sat Harry back on the bed, careful not to yank out his IVs and tossed the blankets over him. "I'm going to go see if I can get you another blanket or something, you feel kind of cold. You need to be careful from now on, you don't need another surgery on that leg to... I'll be right back." Toshinori muttered, shuffling from the room.

As much as Harry wanted to protest his body demanded he went to sleep, he felt drained emotionally, physically, and the pain he was in made it even worse. He wished that someone would just hand him a pain potion, an extra strong one would really be appreciated at the moment! Even as stressed and nervous as he felt, sleep almost instantly forced itself on him. Even then Harry could hear the obnoxious beeping in his sleep, like before. It thundered through his troubled dreams beep be-beep beeping all around him.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000

Harry had been in the hospital for nearly a month before finally being able to be allowed out... more convinced to be allowed to leave. He didn't heal nearly as fast as most people. His blood results were apparently strange, interesting but also worrying in some ways as he had several different mineral levels that were low. After several tries to up them it became apparent that he had issues things like mineral absorption and heat regulation. They also were worried about the way his body may be reacting to his quirk. Even with everything, Toshinori had thankfully managed to convince the hospital staff to release his new charge. Harry hid his twinges of pain from his changing body and badly broken leg. He wanted to just get out of the place that smelled of death and antiseptic. Toshinori was with him nearly constantly, other than a few hours a day. Teaching him about this 'new world'. The man had actually found the hardest part of everything to be trying to teach Harry about technology and things that Harry had deemed 'Muggle'... what ever the hell that meant...?

"So here's My place! Your room is over here! I tried to go by what you were telling me you like so sorry if it isn't to your liking..." Toshinori said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. Feeling more nervous than he had expected.

"No, it's perfect!" Harry insisted. Smiling kindly up at the man. Hearts and stars shining around him. Making Toshinori recoil, looking at him with his face twisted in horror at how utterly adorable and sweet he looked. It wouldn't be long at all before boy's would be trying to take advantage of his ridiculously pretty sweet heart of a charge because there was no way in hell this kid was going to be attracting any girls, at least not straight ones! Why, why did he have to be such a... Uke boy?

Toshinori let out a nervous gush of air, smiling. "Good I wasn't sure." He admitted, 'I've never had to figure out a room for anyone let alone practically a girl before. I'm so glad I hit the nail on the head' He left out. Harry's, or as he had begun to call him, Harrison, because no way was he going to be calling him 'Darling Flower or Darling Harrison' like the kid's weirdo uncle apparently called him, taste seemed to strongly lean towards delicate and ...well girly things. It was like the poor kid was preprogramed into wanting kids and babies which at 13 years old was rather alarming for Toshinori. Especially as the man had already begun to find himself feeling an almost parental attachment to the child. And as his kid, Harrison would not be making him a premature adoptive grandpa or what ever the hell he was now going to be! The idea of it made Toshinori shudder in horror.

Harry gimped across the room on his crutches and sat on his bed flopping back onto it, marveling at how comfortable he could already tell it was. He couldn't ever remember finding a bed even half as comfortable as the ones at the Malfoy estate before. This one had to be just as comfortable and from what he had learned they couldn't cast softening charms in this place. How did they manage to make the mattress feel so nice without one though? Harry laughed rolling about on it, rubbing his head against the mattress, marking it with his scent. He loved it so much! All of it! Toshinori was so good to him! Everything was so pretty!

Harry's bedroom was a dusty purple color consisted of a queen bed with vivid peacock feather print bedding with it's coloration varied from emerald green to a bright purple. It had a large desk, and a plush dark green love seat next to a nearly bare book shelf. Harry squealed when he one of his hands felt something worn and familiar feeling. He immediately snatched it and pulled it to his chest, tears beginning to weld up in his eyes. It-it was, how did he find him? Paddy! "How-how did you find him? I thought he got destroyed or something?" Harry bawled, hugging his childhood stuffed animal close.

Toshinori smiled, sitting down next to Harry and affectionately ran a hand over his hair. "He was in a pocket on the inside of the bit of the clothes you had left... When you told me about him... how much he meant to you I... I went and got him repaired." Toshinori explained, rubbing his neck.

"Thank you so much!" Harry exclaimed, hugging the man, tears still running from his eyes.

Toshinori cringed when he pulled away and saw the bleach spots on Harry's far too large, shirt. They would really need to go clothes shopping as soon as possible Toshinori decided. Harrison couldn't be using the same two pairs of clothes forever and he forgot to get some stuff to wash Harrison's hair! Damn it! He'd have to go out and get some. It wasn't like bar soap or straight shampoo could be used with hair like that. Toshinori sighed, he was already doing a crap job at being a parent.

"Hey... So hows the leg feeling?" Toshinori asked, nibbling his lip. Hoping that he wouldn't need to leave Harry on his own.

"Hmm, it's alright. It doesn't hurt as much today as yesterday or anything." Harry said, sitting up and running a hand through his lose hair, Paddy was still fir.

"Good, want to go out to eat or something? Then we could go get you some stuff after if you're feeling up to it." The man said, giving Harry a nervous smile.

"I'd like that. Um, could we get a decent brush or something to? The hospital comb is practically useless." Harry explained, blushing as he ran a hand through his hair. Giving the man another nervous gentle smile that made him absolutely melt.

"Of course. Anything you need kid!" Toshinori cheerfully agreed, fully meaning it. He hadn't known him long but Toshinori could already feel himself truly caring for the boy.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

It had been a few months and in that time Toshinori had grown to love Harry as if he were his own flesh and blood child. Even with all the awkwardness that came with having a boy raised to be a 'heiress' with an adoration of stuffed animals well and live animals, children and really just cute 'girly' things in general and with the unnerving ability to eventually have.. them... like a girl, some day ugh, Toshinori couldn't stop having nightmares of Harry coming home with a baby and declaring him a grandfather for some reason. Getting use to going shopping for painfully cute clothes and learning how to braid hair wasn't exactly things he was expecting to have to learn either.

The hardest thing to deal with was the random quirk spaz outs though. Having to try to explain away why one of his bathrooms had to be not just repaired but completely rebuilt hadn't been easy especially when he was supposed to be a quirkless man with a strange probably bordering on creepy obsession with All Might. Asking them to have to completely rebuild half of the upstairs 2 weeks later had been awkward... and that was understating it. All over one goddamn spider Harry insisted was the size of a football and had pulled knife on him that he had never even seen. He was pretty convinced the kid was seeing things when he was half asleep in the middle of the night.

Harrison's quirk... was destructive to say the least. Toshinori had learned the does and don'ts around Harrison who was a rather meek and shy especially if he didn't know someone. He was prone to panic attacks and in general didn't do well in situations he wasn't familiar with or that involved being around lots of people... coming up behind him while he was half asleep without making any noise was also a total nono... electric shocks really weren't fun.

Anyways, reacting in fear all the time to things didn't seem to be a good thing when it came to such a quirk which he didn't seem to have much control over at all. His abilities lashed out in situations of stress, much like a small child's would sometimes do. Unlike most children or well people in general Harrison's quirk was dangerously powerful and destructive even without direction... Especially without direction! Lightning and Hurricane force winds... yeah not a good combo for a necrotic person. Mother nature must have either had a cruel sense of humor or was a total idiot.

In Toshinori's opinion Harry really would have been more suited to a quirk like super cleaning or something to do with babysitting things he would enjoy and be ridiculously good at... not something that could destroy a city block if he became too frightened because he had the control of a toddler. That was okay though, because Toshinori was sure that given a little training and encouragement that Harrison could become a great hero! They had a little over a year after all to get him ready and Toshinori was sure that they could. He believed in Harry who was already catching up with school sorts of things incredibly fast. He was extremely intelligent and a very fast learner It shouldn't take much for him to get a hold of at least what ever basics there were to control his quirk once they figured it out. And of course with an amazing quirk like that Harry would surely get into the Hero program at U.A.! Toshinori was sure Harry would be one of the greatest of heros!

Sadly even as amazing as he was, how kind and sweet, Toshinori didn't think that he would be suited to being the next torch bearer of his particular quirk. With his fragile body Harrison could never handle such a quirk. And Toshinori was certain that no matter how much training he were to ever do, it would never be enough. That was why when U.A. got into contact with him, Toshinori accepted their offer. He was going to be a teacher for at least the semester at the world premiere Hero school. He would pass the legacy of his quirk on and would surely be able to find the perfect person for it in a school for heros, the premiere school for heros to boot!

Agreeing to be a professor at U.A. meant that they would have to move. Something that Toshinori felt extremely stressed out about, not for him, but for his sweet nerotic Harrison. Being forced into a place packed with people all the time. Being forcing Harry into a school with other kids. Nearly sent the man over the edge with worry. Kids could be so mean after all and what if Harry got scared or needed him? He was such a sweet sensitive child after all! They hadn't been separated more than a few hours at a time since Toshinori had saved and took him in.

Toshinori had been homeschooling him in an attempt to catch him up to more normal things as the kid seemed to be able to brew up a mean headache reliever quite literally brew one which was freaky and ridiculous that wizards and witches apparently literally taught their kids to make potions with cauldrons, but knew nothing about science or conventional math. Toshinori still had trouble wrapping his head around it.

00000

"It says here that you have to connect the red cord to the third bracket down." Harry said, sitting cross legged on an air mattress, hair dripping wet.

"Okay got it." Toshinori said, giving a thumbs up. "What's next?"

"Uh, give me a second." Harry said, flipping through a booklet. "Okay now all you have to do is connect the input.. Jacks into the matching colors." Harry said, squinting at the ridiculously small print.

"Yes done! Now what movie do you want to watch? I've got that new one, Vindicator- civil war or Dr. Odd." Toshinori said, holding up two movie cases.

"Dr. Odd, he's supposed to discover magic right?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it's got really good reviews." Toshinori nodded.

"That one then!" Harry insisted, eyes lighting up with excitment.

Toshinori removed the DVD from it's case and crawled over to the flat screen sitting on the floor and pushed the open button on the player sitting next to it, putting the disk inside of it before closing it. Before sitting down he rolled up the inflatable mattress that refused to work and stuffed it back in it's box, he would return it in the morning he decided, the sooner the better after all. Toshinori snatched the remote and shuffled on his knees back. Sitting next to Harry on the huge inflated mattress. "Wait, you should probably brush your hair out before it dries too much." The man pointed out, his little over a year worth of strong parental instincts telling him Harry would regret it if he did it in the morning.

"I don't know where my brush is yet. I think I accidently put it in a box with my bedding stuff." Harry explained, smiling sheepishly.

"Well, sit in front of me then." Toshinori ordered. Clicking play on the DVD remote. He began carefully running fingers through black hair, absently easing through knots and tangles. After doing that, the gaunt man pulled a dark green scrunchy from his wrist, without even glancing from the screen he began braiding silky locks effortlessly. Twisting the hair tie around it's end, not having to look at what he was doing even once he was so practiced.

He and Harry continued to sit there like that for the remainder of the movie, making commentary, only pausing it a once when they forgot to grab some snacks. Harry fell asleep leaning against Toshinori Going completely limp, snuggled up against him making the man almost want to coo at his cuteness. Toshinori yawned, clicking off the TV. Glancing at the mess he grimaced, pushing the bowls away with his sock clad foot. "I'll deal with that tomorrow." He mumbled to himself.

He picked Harry up and laid him down on the inflatable 'super tough All Might' air mattress sitting among a couple dozen unpacked boxes in the living room. He tucked Harry in nice and tight, parental adoration bubbling up in his chest as Harry nuzzled his pillow and curled up in a tight ball. The blond haired man crawling in on the other side of the mattress with his own blanket and sprawled out, thoughts of everything they had to get done whirling in his head before he finally fell asleep, feeling hopeful and content as his pride and joy, his 'baby' slept soundly next to him.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Toshinori flailed around in panic, Harry would be meeting his protegee today in the entrance exam for U.A.! He hoped he liked him. Toshinori didn't know what he would do if he didn't! Harrison's opinion was more important than anyone's to him, they just had to get along! He was glad that Harry at least wouldn't have to worry about the hero program portion of the exams. Being the world's greatest super hero definitely had it's perks in everyone listened to him when he said something.

Toshinori was still worried though. Harrison hadn't been in school the entire time he had him. It was for both his and other's safety, Harrison's control hadn't really improved much other than being able to cause things to sort of happen with it at will. It wasn't that Harry didn't try to learn control it but his ability was too wild and powerful and was out of control in such a way that Toshinori really didn't know how to help deal with it. How did you gain control of something as wild and unpredictable as a true natural disaster? He sure as hell didn't know that was for sure! Dealing with it was nothing like dealing with his own quirk. Harrison's was like trying to treat a rattlesnake like a dog. Not exactly easy when all it wanted to do was kill you! Toshinori was convinced that half of the problem was Harry's lack of confidence and naturally nervous demeanor. But he was sure his sweet boy would still be an amazing hero once he learned the trick to controlling his quirk.

"Are you sure you're ready to go tomorrow, I wouldn't care if you wanted to you know... stay home if you wanted." Toshinori wheedled wringing his hands together. Sweet literally poured from the man.

"Nah, I-I think I'll be okay!... I need to get into a-a good school so I can get a good job when I'm older." Harry insisted, scuffing at the floor with his toes.

Toshinori practically deflated at Harry's words. He really much rather have Harry never leave, then he at least would know that he was okay and no one was taking advantage of him or being mean to him. Harry smiled up at him in that sweet adoring reassuring way that just melted Toshinori. No he needed to support Harrison! Not make him feel like he was doing something bad! Harry already had enough confidence issues without him making them any worse with his hovering. Toshinori instantly forced himself to straighten up and laughed enthusiastically, his super hero laugh on full display as he grinned, "Of course if that's what you feel comfortable doing I'm behind you 100%!"He insisted, giving Harry a thumbs up. "Now go on! Go take a bath so you won't have to be in a hurry tomorrow, alright? Then straight to bed." Toshinori insisted, affectionately running a massive hand through Harry's near mid-back length hair.

"Okay! I promise." Harry agreed.

" No staying up until 3 again reading, got it? I don't want too you tired for tomorrow." Toshinori warned, suddenly looking far more serious.

Harry squeaked in embarrassment. "That was one time!" He eeped covering his cheeks when he felt them heat up.

"Uhuh." The blond haired man snorted. Practically shrouded in a cloud of scepticism.

"I'm-I'm taking my shower now." Harry muttered looking very much like a scolded pouting puppy.

00000000000000000000000000000000

"You remembered your lunch right?" Toshinori asked, looking half ready to panic on Harry's behalf, frantically darting around trying to find everything.

"Yeah, right here." Harry said, holding up a zip up lunch cooling bag.

"And your bag right?" Toshinori exclaimed, eyes frantically darting around his whole body jittering as he wrung his hands together.

"Um, yeah. It's on my back..." Harry said pointing over his shoulder to his bag with cute little green puppy paw prints on it. "Have everything I need." Harry assured the man.

"Your phone?" The gaunt man pressed, blatantly ignoring Harry.

"In that Faraday cage thing you got me." Harry sighed, jingling the rubber and metal contraption at his side.

"Oh, you forgot a hair tie." Toshinori called out in triumph, ready to drag his charge back home that very moment.

"Oh I did didn't I? It's fine it looks nice this way anyway, doesn't it?" Harry said, tossing his hair out of his eyes. Not realizing what he had done had looked horrifically seductive.

Toshinori twitched, "Yeah, you're putting your hair up." He insisted hissing slightly at how ridiculously attractive his Harrison was.

"Oh... Okay?" Harry mumbled, completely baffled looking.

Toshinori pulled a scrunchy out of his pocket with a grimace. Quickly putting Harrison's hair up with a triumphant noise. He completely recoiled in horror and began making choking noises and almost looking like he was seizing when Harry turned to him as the bell rang, tilting his head and running a hand over the top of it. Practically sparkling and shining. Oh god what had he done?! Showing off his full face was way way worse! He was almost sickeningly adorable with his hair that way! Oh god he didn't want to be a grandfather yet! No!

"I guess I have to go in now. See you later um... D-dad!" Harry said nervously smiling at the man before heading towards the building. Looking back at the man looking slightly concerned as he continued to just stand there, clawing at the air and gasping. Delusions of Harry showing up with a baby running as clear as one of his beloved flat screen movies through the man's mind.

000000000000000000000000000000000000

"First day of school. Room A 1. General education." Harry muttered to himself. Harry had been worried during the exams that Toshi had signed him up for the hero courses, being All Might, but he didn't have to do more than the basic exams. The only thing that he had to really worry about the whole time is if he had answered a few essay questions satisfactory. No terrifying robots, no chance of severe injuries. It was a major relief! He didn't want anything to do with that lifestyle at all. No matter how much he loved his adoptive father he didn't want to be in constant danger. What Harry did want was a calm fulfilling job and to find someone to fall in love with then have a big family.

Harry tried to not be very noticeable when he entered the room. Thankfully it didn't have too many people in it yet so that wasn't too hard. He sat down, trying to be as discreet as possible he stayed quiet, too nervous to try and introduce himself. For some reason he always seemed to garnish a ridiculous amount of attention when he entered a room. Harry really wasn't a fan and was baffled why.

"Are you listening to me! Get your feet off of that desk! Be respectful of this institution and the students before us!" A very serious looking black haired student with a pressed uniform and glasses insisted. "Um... are-are you alright?" The teenager asked the boy he was lecturing after seeing the look on his face. The ash blond haired red eyed, sharp toothed boy's face was turning a worrying shade of red, eyes wide and vacantly staring. The boy backed away as the air around the blond began to heat up.

The tall serious looking student nervously followed the other boy's eyes confused by the display of anger towards a petite rather beautiful student, siting quietly, nervously arranging writing utensils. What a ridiculous response to someone sitting respectfully waiting to be educated! Something was obviously wrong with this barbaric boy! He would just have to make sure that the hooligan left her alone.

"Hi their cutie! My names Denki Kaminari! What's your quirk? Mines Electrification. I bet a pretty person like you has a really pretty name!" A electric blond haired boy said winking and flexing his arms flirtatiously, accidently knocking everything on the desk to the ground. The boy jerked away fearfully when he heard an enraged almost feral sounding growl.

"What the hell do you think you are doing extra? She obviously doesn't like you shit head! Look what you've done, knocking shit all over the floor what an asshole!" The ash blond teen suddenly yelled, his whole body smoking. He immediately stomped over making the other boy flee out of intimidation and began to help collect Harry's things. "He. He didn't do anything else.. Right?" The boy asked, face still a worrying shade of red now almost purple as he fidgeted with his sleeve involuntarily.

Harry shook his head, still completely confused by the boy's odd behavior and more than a little concerned about the smoke emitting from the boy's skin. The heat felt nice though. He was always pretty cold so being next to a practical heater didn't feel too bad.

"Good or I would have had to beat the shit out of that pervert!" The boy snarled, sparks rolling over his palms, his eyes almost crazed looking.

"Okay?... Um anyway I guess it's nice to meet you-...?" Harry said, trying to remember what the boy's name had been... he swore he saw him up on the screen when the students wanting to enter into the Hero program had been assigned to different practice city simulation grounds or what ever they were. That meant... aww! He didn't make it into the hero class, it wasn't what he would want to do but like many attending the exams it was likely his dream. Poor guy! Being in his class that meant he must not have passed!

"Katsuki Bakugou. Losers are only allowed to call me Bakugou, my last name, but I want you to call me by my given name Katsuki!" Bakugou said in a bragging tone of voice. The tone he used while telling Harry he wanted him to call him by his first name sounding much like he was bestowing upon him the greatest of honors.

Harry gave the boy a kind smile. "Oh-okay if that's what you want..."

Bakugou's eyes widened, feeling his mouth go dry. What was this weird feeling, like his heart was going to explode? She was so-so... pretty.. No more than that bigger calling her pretty would be like saying his quirk was just 'okay or average' no he was fantastic practically a god! Saying such a thing would be near blasphemy. No maybe beautiful, gorgeous? There weren't words to describe this person. That smile though. It made him want to hide this person away from the world and keep 'her' all to himself. Something was so unbelievably genuinely sweet and innocently almost fragile about them. Like a sunny day almost, the feeling reminded him of the day his quirk appeared. He wanted to protect this person. Wanted them to be his.

Bakugou nearly choked as realization hit him. Did he really just develop a crush on someone he had only just meet? Did he really have an actual crush, is that what this was his first one? No it was something else, stronger. Yes, he wanted this person to become his girlfriend... m-maybe possibly more! "Of course that's what I want! I wouldn't have said I wanted you to call me that unless I wanted you to!" Bakugou grumbled, looking away and rubbing at his neck feeling nervous and pathetic like-like that loser, Deku. NO! Nothing he did could be anything like that quirkless lesser! What else did he say though? Wait, what was her name? Yeah that's what he was supposed to ask right?

"So uh, what's your name anyway?" Bakugou asked, leaning against the desk behind him.

Harry shyly twirled a finger through a lose curl. "Harrison... I'm not sure if it's Yagi or still Lupin-Black... since my adoptive... Dad... and I decided that I would probably have less mix ups with paperwork and such... And well then-then I... wouldn't stick out so much if I had the same last name..." Harry explained, an uncomfortable look on his face.

Bakugou nearly cringed at the shitty name his crush had. Who in the hell named their kid, let alone daughter something as awful as that? A thoughtful look inched itself across his face as he forced his way past the name and focused on the other information revealed to him. Harrison... Yeah he would need to come up with a good nickname or something... was adopted. Where her parent's dead? Was she abused and taken away? Was it neglect? Ran through his head at rapid pace. He could already tell that she seemed to be a bit of a nervous person though he wasn't sure if it was because he was talking to her or if she was just shy.

"You can call me Harry if you want though, that's what everyone use to call me." Harry said.

Bakugou went stiff and growled, forcing himself not to blow up anything. NO way in HELL would he be calling 'her' that! It absolutely infuriated him that anyone had ever even called Harrison that! How could she let people demean her like that? The future girlfriend of Katsuki Bakugou would not be allowed to be made fun of that way! Katsuki would just have to make sure of it! "Come on, you can sit by me..." The aggressive boy growled, snatching everything up that was left on Harry's desk. A vein throbbing at his forehead at the thought of someone calling his, well soon to be his girl, that! feeling furious didn't even start to describe how angry he was. He stormed over to a desk and sat everything he had grabbed from Harry's desk down on the one next to the desk he chose for himself. It was in the front row at the very corner of the room. Being there would make it easier to keep track of Harrison and keep others away.

"W-wait... so um does this mean we are... are friends?" Harry stuttered, half curling in on himself as he stumbled after the other boy.

"Why else would I be letting you sit next to me? Of course." Bakugou said, feeling nearly giddy at the idea of the other wanting to be around him even though 'she' didn't seem to even know him past what he had just told her. Though it did hurt his pride a little to. That was okay though, forgivable, because it sounded like she wasn't from the area. Her ignorance of his magnificence could be forgiven. He already had a feeling that there was probably not much that he would think unforgivable from the other though.

Bakugou froze as Harry suddenly lunged forward and hugged him.

"I'm so happy! I hope we come to be good friends! I haven't had a friend in forever..." Harry nearly cheered, his chest swelling with happiness grinning. He was so lonely. He had Toshinori and loved him very much but the companionship of a parent and a friend were two very different things. He was so glad he had found a friend even if he seemed a little odd acting and a bit rough. It sort of just reminded him of his old friend, Cerburus... though with a mix of Dionysius added in...

That smile completely melted Bakugou, making him feel strange and oddly content the anger he normally felt seemed to simply fade away like it hadn't even been there. He couldn't help but smile back, all sharp teeth. Running a hand through his hair. His smile twisted into an enraged sneer when he heard the extra pestering him introduce himself excitedly to someone stuttering in a sickeningly familiar way. He turned to look on reflex. What, why the hell was that little shit here? Deku! He would pound that no body into the pavement! He would crush him to bone dust! He would kill hi-

A man's voice began to grumble in the hallway making everyone quite down in curiosity.

"It took you 8 seconds to quite down." a strange unkempt looking man grumbled, surveying the students. "Time is a precious resource. You aren't a very... rational lot, are you?..." The tired looking man voiced, sighing. He rolled his blood shot eyes then unzipped himself from a sleeping bag and walked over to a podium in the front of the room, dragging the bright yellow cocoon like bag behind him. "I'm your home room teacher, Shota Aizawa... Pleased to meet you." The homeless looking man said, grabbing his sleeping bag and holding it out to the meek seeming green haired boy that Bakugou had been half ready to kill earlier. "Quickly, hand these out... All of you, change into your GYM uniforms and head out to the grounds. I'm going to be testing your quirks."

"Wait! But what about the entrance ceremony?! Or our guidance sessions?" A girl with brown hair whined, looking half devastated along with most of the other students.

"There's no time to waste on that stuff if you want to become real heros. Shows like that are useless in the real world." Aizawa muttered, pulling out a juice pouch and began sucking on it.

Harry went green at what the man had just said.. Feeling vertigo. He instantly held his hand up, arm shaking.

"Yeah? What is it?" The man half groaned.

"Um, I'm sorry but I think I was put in the wrong class! I took the exams to go into General education, not the Hero program!" Harry squeaked.

Bakugou's face twisted into a mixture of confusion and anger at that admission.

"What's your name?" The man asked, now seeming to be mildly interested.

"Harrison Lupin-Black!" Harry said, trying to force himself not to just run out of the room screaming in terror.

The man leafed through a pile of papers. "Yeah, this isn't a mistake... You got a recommendation, something pretty hard to come by, now please sit down." The man said turning to continue speaking to the rest of the class.

"W-What? This is the first I have heard of this! I-I am requesting that I be allowed to talk to a councilor or something. I need to get this changed right away! I'd be no good at this at all!" Harry exclaimed, feeling ready to throw up.

The man's eyes narrowed. "Well someone obviously thought you were... And you got... a 96% on the test, second best over all on the written exams."

"They were obviously wrong!" Harry couldn't help but snipe. " My-I-I have taken a career aptitude test and everything. Hero definitely didn't come up as one of the careers recommended for me! I'm much more suited to be a elementary school teacher or daycare provider and the closest things I got to being a hero was being a social worker or a veterinarian!" Harry explained, beginning to sound manic. He pawed around in his bag to try and find the paperwork. Practically ripping it out of it's labeled folder to hand it to the man.

"Yeah... I don't really care. Mine said I should be an accountant or life coach of all things.. so... I kind of take crap like that with a grain of salt. Please, just sit down. I'm not changing my mind." The man grumbled.

Harry did as he was told, his throat feeling like it was closing up on him. He gripped his knees, trying not to visibly tremble.

"Anyway, get those on so we can head outside for your assessments. Today is the first step for some of you in the right direction to becoming pro heros."

End Chapter 1

1 note · View note

buzzdixonwriter · 8 years ago

Text

Writing Report June 11, 2017

Yet another example of how the writer’s mind -- at least this writer’s mind -- works, in which I create a story I will probably never write…

…but more on that below. I shall annotate as needed.

Thursday morning, after finally getting a good night’s sleep after being sick most of the week, I awoke with a story title in my head: ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway”

I actually saw the title already printed up in my dream, in the style of old time men’s adventure magazines.

[Annotation #1: Men’s adventure magazine -- affectionately known as “sweaties” -- were a popular format / genre from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. While their predecessors existed in the earlier pulp era, the “sweaties” were different in several key aspects. For one, while sci-fi / fantasy / mystery pulps transmogrified into square bound digest-size publications, the “sweaties” melded with the saddle stitched racy pin-up magazines. For another, their stories, while remaining mostly fictional, attempted to pass themselves off as factual true events. While the stories remained somewhat plausible at the beginning of the “sweaties” era, by the mid-1960s they were thinly disguised male wish fulfillment fantasies of increasingly improbably proportions. Nonetheless, they were a hoot to read, and even now the genre has fans such as those found at Bob Deis’ Men's Adventure Magazines & Books on Facebook.]

Back to my dream: I awoke with the title in my head, and from the style of the title I knew the story had to be in classic men’s adventure magazine mode.

But what kind of story?

Well, obviously, something to do with highways (…duh). I had just started re-reading Jack Kerouac’s On The Road in the original scroll draft (which, technically, is a memoir or a travelogue, and not an autobiographical novel as the first edition was), so the story would be constantly moving, traveling, going somewhere, but…why?

Because of Kerouac, my brain instantly flashed the story would need to be set in Quebec. Somebody had to get somewhere -- why?

My brain flashed again: Roman Holiday, a delightful classic romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn as a young princess who just wants to have fun, and Gregory Peck as a world weary journalist who treats her to a night on the town when she sneaks away from her embassy.

Great story…

…but “sweaties” demand gut-slammin’ jaw-poundin’ tire-screechin’ gun-blastin’ !A!C!T!T!I!O!N!, not some wimpy romance.

So…keep the basic idea, only…only the princess has just been orphaned: The time is immediately at the end of WWII. The royal family of some small but strategically important Eastern European nation sat out exile in a remote ethnic community of their countrymen in Quebec during the war. They planned to return as soon as the war ended, but not everyone in the ethnic community wants the old royal family back; some are communist agents who kill her parents.

The princess escapes and is hidden. However, spies and assassins are everywhere, and even though they’ve tried to disguise the teen as a typical bobby-soxer, her regal manner makes her stick out like a sore thumb.

[Annotation #2: Where the hell is the RCMP in all this? Gonna need some handwavium to keep ‘em at arm’s length, but I can come up with that later.]

So my protagonist -- a melding of Peck and Kerouac -- knocks the regal out of the princess by forcing her to clean a public toilet by herself.

The effort leaves her tired / grossed out / pissed off…

…and not at all regal looking.

Now our hero can get her on the aforementioned highway and go barreling down to Montreal where her embassy awaits to protect her.

Well, that evokes memories of Thunder Road which is great: Plenty of car-chasing / car-crashing action to go around, plus some occasional bomb-throwing / gun-shooting / fist-fighting for variety.

Now we’ve got our title, our premise, our conflict, our main characters, our setting, and enough hi-octane high concept to keep the inventive juices flowing…

…if I choose to write it.

See, everything you just read, including the various asides, formed in my head in the space of less than two and a half minutes elapsed time from the moment I woke up. (Oh, and I was carrying on a conversation with Soon-ok simultaneously.)

150 seconds to whip up 650 words worth of story concept -- and I wasn’t even thinking about it!

This happens all the time. I’m minding my own business, not bothering a soul, not really thinking about anything, and BOOM! suddenly an idea has exploded in my head and is screaming “WritemewritemeWRITEME!!! Write me write NOW!”

Ain’t gonna happen, compadre.

Least not anytime soon.

As fast as I can come up with ideas, I’m nowhere near as fast writing them down.

“Writing them down” is a misnomer. It really means I’m researching the idea, probing for weak spots, fleshing out the characters, coming up with plot and incident and dialog to drive the story along…and that doesn’t include all the work that comes ///after/// it’s written down, either.

If I decided to write this store, I would want to keep it short (under 6,000 words). That means if I committed to it, I could probably finish a rough draft in a week’s time.

So why don’t I?

Well, ignoring the huge backlog of other stories in various stages of completion in my mind / on my desk / in my computer, the reason is going to cause a lot of you to look at me as a snob, and if you do, so be it; you’re not the one occupying my skin, I am.

There are, in my estimation, three classes of fiction: True Fiction, Genre Fiction, Stock Fiction.

There’s nothing wrong with any of them; as noted above even Stock Fiction can be tons o’fun to write and read

But each possesses certain strengths, counter-balanced by equal weaknesses.

We’ll start at the bottom of the barrel and work our way up: Stock Fiction is nothing but formulaic stock characters involved in formulaic stock situations, saying and doing formulaic stock things.

And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that (lord knows I can’t get enough old B-movie westerns to satisfy me).

Sometimes all you want to do as an audience is turn off your brain and go through the pleasant (e)motions of a story.

Even when done professionally, as likely as not it’s just a better grade of fan-fic.

You could literally get a computer to write this kind of stuff; it ain’t rocket science.

Stock Fiction takes what already exists and rearranges it slightly and peddles the product as new.

But there’s nothing there. It’s all just empty calories like a cheap snack food: One bite and it’s gone (but oh, how delicious while chomping).

The second form is Genre Fiction, and this is essentially Stock Fiction written well.

The same caveats and criticism apply, but there’s a little more legroom, a little more breathing space, a little more originality here (not much, not nearly enough, but some).

Genre Fiction basically takes stock characters and stock stories then amps them up with a dollop of originality.

If the pleasure of Stock Fiction is the beauty of the form, the pleasure of Genre Fiction is the deviation from the norm.

Take a Stock Fiction story, give it just enough insight and wit and originality to boost the characters from one dimension to two, and you’ve got a palatable hit on your hands.

The geniuses of this field -- and true geniuses they are, no snark here -- are many, but let’s focus on four in the tiny, tiny sub-group of really well done detective fiction: Hammett, Chandler, and MacDonald’s Ross and John D.

Through their philosophizin’ PIs, their complex and compromised characters, their willingness to tell the truth about the world around them via their genre of choice, they create something new and fresh and wonderful…

…but not completely whole.

When they work well -- as Chandler did, as John D. did when Travis McGee was fresh and new in the world and found only in paperback originals -- they create genuine art, something any reader can consume without shame, something adding to this weary world, not merely draining more from it.

But there is a limit, stylistically if nothing else, that holds these writers and their works back.

They can ride their literary steeds as high up the hill as possible, and in the fading evening light they can catch a glimpse of the city they can never visit, the city they can imagine, the city they can yearn for, the city they can never visit.

True Fiction -- good fiction, pure fiction -- starts so much further out and beyond from Genre Fiction.

It starts with an idea that is fresh! and original! (though sometimes the idea ends up coming to it).

There are no genres in True Fiction, real fiction. Life is not defined by terms and conditions we conjure up, it is what it is. We may later find a conveniently labeled box to drop it in, but that’s not what it is, that’s never what it is.

A work of True Fiction comes out of nowhere, entraps us, and takes us all…Somewhere! Anywhere! we never visited before, indeed, may never even realized existed before exquisitely brought to our attention.

It is a work of art first, a bundle of tropes second -- if at all!

Truth be told, True Fiction may not do well in initial release, but what gives it staying power is that it takes readers someplace brand new even though they’ve already seen it a million times.

”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” is straight stock fiction, one from column A, one from column B formulaic storytelling. I might, if really pressed, come up with enough originality to ooonch it up a notch or two in the form of a scene here, a supporting character there.

That’s not what I’m trying to do.

My goals and ambitions lay higher, and while I certainly have some genre and stock influences in me, I’d like to think I’m aiming higher, unwilling to fall back.

Because that’s what Genre and Stock Fiction would represent to me, a falling back to safer pastures.

I probably won’t write ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” because I can see nothing in it that promises to rise above Stock Fiction.

If I applied myself and worked hard at it, I might be able to boost it up to the level of low grade Genre Fiction.

But that’s as high as she’ll get.

I have a limited number of years allotted me on earth, and while I night fail in the attempt, I’m gonna spend ‘em trying to write True Fiction.

[Annotation #3: Some of my more pragmatic friends will ask why I don’t write ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” anyway and sell it and use the money to help buy time to write True Fiction. Because there’s no market for that kind of fiction anymore, that’s why. Once upon a time a writer could sell two hours worth of TV scripts a year and earn enough to coast thru the next nine months writing True Fiction. Not anymore: The freelance market in everything has long since evaporated and the amount of time and effort taken to place a short story simply ain’t worth it other than in publicity and egoboo. Yeah, ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” could probably make a good low budget indie film, but it takes forever and a day to get those kinds of films made; I lack the time and patience. So this is as close as we’re ever probably gonna get to seeing ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” written down.]

[Annotation #4: Least any of my sibling scribes think I’m trash talkin’ them for what they choose to write…no. This is about me, my POV, my values, my motives, my soul. If you’re writing a continuing character who makes you money and your readers happy, you go for it. Nothing shameful about that at all. If I’ll watch crappy 1950s sci-fi movies, I’ve got no business telling you what you can or can’t write, should or shouldn’t feel good about. Fly your freak flag high.]

#writing report #art #literature

0 notes

aion-rsa · 8 years ago

Text

INTERVIEW: Remender Talks New Studio, Comic Work Update

Rick Remender is passionate about creator-owned comics. That passion has translated into a number of critically acclaimed titles, and given him the freedom to tell a variety of stories. Remender’s current creator-owned output published by Image Comics includes science fiction tales like “Black Science” with artist Matteo Scalera and “Low” with artist Greg Tocchini; the coming of age, crime thriller “Deadly Class, where he collaborates with artist Wes Craig; and the recently launched fantasy series “Seven to Eternity,” which features art by Jerome Opeña.

That diverse body of work has also drawn the attention of Hollywood and other companies looking to produce adaptations and licensed merchandise based on his work. So in order to build his brand and help fans and other interested parties find the work he and his collaborators do, Remender recently launched Giant Generator (Giantgenerator.com), a new studio which will serve as an umbrella for all the creator-owned books he and his co-creators produce, as well as the films, television shows and merchandise associated with them.

We spoke with Remender about the origins of Giant Generator, how it will operate, and his vision for the studio. The discussion also included updates on the status and storylines of all his creator owned books as well the development of the television adaptation of “Deadly Class,” which Remender has been working on with the Russo Brothers and Sony.

CBR: Rick, what exactly is Giant Generator? What inspired you to form it, and why do it now?

Rick Remender: Well, I have four different projects that are being adapted and developed as TV shows, and then another that we are working on a film pitch for and, on and on, as more of this kept happening it occurred to me that I needed an umbrella and company name. Someone jokingly referred to the projects as parts of the “Remenderverse.” I chuckled — and then realized I had to get a company name to make sure that didn’t stick. [Laughs]

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Low” #17

That was really the inspiration for it; just recognizing that I’m in a position where we’re starting to make toys and sculptures, a whole line of comics, maybe movies, and TV shows. It was time for a name for the old production house.

Is Giant Generator comparable to what Robert Kirkman has with Skybound?

Yes, except while we have an exclusive arrangement with Image, and I see no sign of that changing, I am not an Image partner, and Robert is. Sky bound is a little different in that it’s a lot like Top Cow. It’s an official part of Image, whereas Giant Generator is just my home studio and will serve as an umbrella for all my jive and collaborations.

As business builds, and these creator-owned books become more and more viable for film, television, video games, and other media, more money goes on the table, which makes the business practice more difficult. In the past twenty years of working on creator-owned books, I’ve always shared ownership 50-50 with the artists. In the course of doing that as long as I’ve done it, I’ve had a couple situations where it really bit me in the ass, and I considered that it would just be easier for me to hold the copyright to myself and I’d make all the business decisions.

I see plenty of sensible reasons to do that, but ultimately one of the things I wanted to do with this company was to say, “No, with the energy, effort, and love that’s put into these things, we should co-own the properties. If that means the artist wants to do something with low scruples or doesn’t have great business sense, [Laughs] so be it.”

Giant Generator is a business model where I co-own all of the properties with the artists. Usually it’s 50-50, but in some cases it’s split up a little more than that with the colorists and other team members. The artists are part of all the business decisions too, which means for those who want it the Image accounting statements get sent to both them and me, and they are involved in everything, from beginning to end.

Some other studios occasionally feature books where the main creator develops an idea and then passes it off to other creators to run with it. Is that something you see yourself doing at some point with Giant Generator?

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Seven to Eternity” #5

I was considering that at one point for “Tokyo Ghost.” I had an art team and another writer lined up to take my outline and do the next 10 issues of the book. One factor is navigating the money of it all, but ultimately, what Sean Murphy and I created with “Tokyo Ghost” was a real labor of love. It was something we spent 2-3 years creating and was fairly personal, so it was hard to hand it off even if it might have been better with the new team. We had some very talented people lined up to take it over. Maybe that will change.

It didn’t feel natural to me to hand off my story in that kind of way. I’m not a publishing house at Image in the way Kirkman is with Skybound. I’m not going to be publishing other people’s books. This studio is my books and people that I’m working with. I don’t see myself doing that anytime soon, although I have come pretty close to it. It could just be that I’m a control freak and I can’t hand one of my things to somebody else. [Laughs]

Let’s talk about the books that fall under the Giant Generator umbrella. March’s “Black Science” #29 brings the current arc to a close, and then it looks like the series comes back after only a two-month gap.

Yeah, we had a little slowdown because Matteo injured his arm significantly. He’s gone through an operation and had some ligaments replaced, so he’s back up and running. Not at full speed, but he is sort of an inhuman monster of perfect and fast pages even when he’s injured. At this point, he’s done half of issue #29. #30 wraps the sixth volume.

Speaking to your question about the other books is the way Grant and the cast in “Black Science” can meet the cast of the other books. This is something I’ve got worked into the next arc and am pretty excited about. A way for me to get Led and Debbie form “Tokyo Ghost” or Bethany Black from “Strange Girl” out of retirement for a bit.

We recently slowed things down and dealt with character development, they are now in pretty terrible situations, which I like. Starting around issue #29 though I put my foot back on the gas and the next 12 issues will very much resemble the first six issues in that it’s a huge outline condensed, boiled down, and crammed into a smaller space. It’s going to be very fast and full of action. So for these last 12 issues I wanted to try and reduce the gap between the shipping of arcs. We’re going to do what we can and hopefully ship them all in a bit over a year. That’s our goal, anyway.

March’s “Deadly Class” #27 comes in the fallout of one of the series biggest reveals: Marcus and Maria are still alive. How did it feel to finally reveal those characters’ fates?

EXCLUSIVE: Cover art for “Deadly Class” #28

It felt good. It was a hard decision, though. I had two outlines written, and I had gone back and forth repeatedly on which way to go. Maria was going to come back in either one. Then in one outline I kept Marcus dead and the other one I brought him back. In order to make the decision, I literally had to write both outlines and see what each of them did. [Laughs]

Once I had done that, I negotiated it with Wes and I negotiated with our editor, Sebastian Girner. I also spent a lot of time talking with my screen writing partner on the “Deadly Class” TV show, Miles Feldsott. Miles was very passionate about the return of Marcus. His passion, and the other debates, convinced me to go the road where Marcus comes back, and I think we made the right decision.

It was also nice to see the reaction people had when the book came out. I think it came out at a time when there wasn’t a whole lot of good news, and “Deadly Class” in particular is not the most cheery book. Our loyal readers, who have been passionate about the series, stuck with us, and turned our book into such a hit, needed some good news, especially since we had taken things down into the depths of darkness. Getting that burst of good news seemed to make people pretty happy.

“Low” also returns in March with issue #16, which is the start of a new arc. What do you want people to know about this new story and the book’s return?

We’re at a point in the story where things seemed rather hopeless. Now is the fun of getting to see if there’s a way through to the light, and to find out what it is that they’re exactly contending with since we saw some terrifying new villain types show up in issue #15.

As we were moving into this, Greg Tocchini had an idea that I really fell in love with. He pitched an idea for issue #16 based on some of the things that we have coming up. We developed it together, he broke the outline with Seb, and then he went off and did it. So issue #16 is pure collaboration. It’s a jump into the past where we get to meet some new characters. We’ll also seem some familiar faces, and something that will play a big role moving forward in where were going with the story.

A lot of Greg’s pages are almost fully ink wash painted with Dave McCaig coming in and doing his magic thing. It’s one of the most beautiful issues we’ve had to date. We spend this whole arc in the City of Salus before we return to the surface and see what happens to Stel.

In April, “Seven to Eternity” returns for its second arc with issue #5. I thought the first arc moved at a highly satisfying and brisk pace. What can you tell us about this new arc?

EXCLUSIVE: Art from “Deadly Class” #27

I allowed myself to keep the pace of the first arc slower and grounded in character. Ultimately, I wanted to tell a story that didn’t rocket past everything. It’s been a joy to write this way.

The thing about working with somebody as brilliant as Jerome is that every page he draws takes him three days. That can be somewhat daunting in that you want to make sure that every single page is worth his time in visuals and action. I really had to pull myself away and ignore the fact that Jerome was going to take 10 months to draw these issues. The way I did that was, I wrote it all at once. I started writing “Seven to Eternity” a ways back, and I wrote all of the first 16 issues in one big go, and now the mighty Opena is slowly producing it. We are also bringing in some very talented friends to do origin stories and side adventures to round out the world. News on that soon.

What we see when we come back in issue #5 is the Mosak and Adam Osidis are on the road trying to take the Mud King to the wizard Torga so she can disconnect him from all of the people he has insinuated himself into. The fun of it is, issue #5 in particular is just part of the journey, but the journey allows me to go hog wild crazy in fantasy town. I get to make up new villains, new cities, and just see Jerome cut loose. [Laughs] Jerome and I like to do cinematic, fluid, widescreen action sequences, and I think that “Seven to Eternity” #5 has the best one we’ve ever done as our characters meet a new villain, another child of the Mud King.

What really surprised me about that first arc is, we meet the series’ big, seemingly all-powerful villain — and then he’s suddenly in the custody of your heroes, and the book becomes a prisoner transport story.

I’m glad that turn surprised you and hopefully hooked you. That was the turn I was going to open on, but ultimately I decided we needed to spend a couple of issues with the characters and the backstory. Then it would be surprising when that happened as opposed to just opening up with that. I struggled with where to open the book, but hearing what you just said and talking to some other people at the signing I did last week tells me it was a satisfying and unexpected turn that sets up a new situation.

You’ll be announcing a new book at Emerald City Comic Con that we’ll talk more in depth about in another piece, but any interest in revisiting the worlds of some of your older books to tell new stories?

We still talk about more “Tokyo Ghost.” Like I said, I have the next story outlined, and I know what it is. Sean is super busy over in Batman town. So I need to find someone who can follow Sean. I had someone lined up, but it’s going to be a style shift no matter which way we go. I would still like to get to that and I know the story would be pretty satisfying.

Finally, what can you tell us about the progress of your books that are being adapted for film and television?

EXCLUSIVE: Cover art for “Low” #19

“The Last Days of American Crime” adaptation got pretty far. We had F. Gary Gray directing and Sam Worthington starring in it at one point. So I almost got to see that made before it all crumbled in front of me. [Laughs] I’m told that iteration is dead, but they are working on some new angles for the project.

“Deadly Class” is a little further than that in terms of the pieces that are in place. We recently turned in a new draft to the Russo Brothers. We’ve been wrenching on it with them our incredible show runner Adam Targum for a bit now and they’re notes are crazy, insightful. I’ve been working on this pilot with Miles for quite some time so it’s very easy to become snow blind where you’ve rewritten outlines and scenes so many times that you might not be aware of where they’re working and where they’re not working. The team we have producing are ensuring what we do it working, and I genuinely think that it is. The screenplay is many magnitudes better because of their contributions. We’re one to two drafts away from taking the screenplay to the network. We haven’t announced the network yet where it landed. Then we find out if they’re going to pull the trigger on it.

It’s exciting, but it’s also terrifying, because I’ve dumped so much of my time and love into it that if they’re like, “No thanks” I’m going to want to run off to the woods and hide in a cave for three years. [Laughs] Here’s to hoping. I’d have to eventually come back from my cave and get back to work as we have some incredibly exciting stuff happening with “Low,” “Fear Agent” and “Black Science” as well. Fingers crossed.

The post INTERVIEW: Remender Talks New Studio, Comic Work Update appeared first on CBR.com.

http://ift.tt/2lXbW6p

#Aion_Rsa

0 notes