#the multiverse isn’t a secret to anyone but no one takes it seriously | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

davidmann95 · 4 years

Note

For definitely no reason whatsoever, in response to nothing specific, can you rank the DC Multiverse Earths and tell us a bit about why each is in its place on the list?

Were this in response to an article, I could assure that I generally enjoy the writer’s output perfectly well from what I’ve seen and was absolutely baffled by the bizarrely selective research that went into it. Anyway, I hope you feel guilty enabling the amount of work I put into this truly ridiculous task by the end.

Cliff notes for the relatively uninitiated: that gorgeous monstrosity up above is The Map Of The Multiverse from the miniseries Multiversity, presented as a series of concentric circles bordered by the ‘Overvoid’ that all of reality is suspended in (and framed in such a way as to make clear it is the white of the pages comics are printed on). You go inwards from the borders of creation - moving moreso with each sphere from abstraction to the realm of the physical - to the Monitor Sphere in which once lived the near-omnipotent, now nearly extinct Monitor race that observed and maintained the multiverse, into the Sphere of Gods where the various beings of myth and divinity dwell, and into the innermost sphere where ‘we’ live. The 52 Earths you see within aren’t the whole of the multiverse but the ‘local’ 52 worlds, with infinite other Earths dwelling in their own dimensional pockets; all these universes actually exist in the same three-dimensional space at the same time but suspended in a higher-dimensional substance called ‘the Bleed’, and vibrating at distinct frequencies. Also there’s a ‘Dark Multiverse’ that’s cosmologically speaking ‘beneath’ the map, disintegrating half-formed potential realities that new proper universes are culled from. There’s a lot more to it than even all of that, but that’s enough to explain what’s up with these.

My ranking here is obviously subjective, but mostly comes down to a mix of ‘how cool is this Earth’, ‘how much would this Earth be worth using again’, ‘how well does it work in the context of being part of a shared multiverse’, and ‘do I seriously see creators unearthing any of this Earth’s potential down the road’. Also, Earths 24, 27, 28, 46, and 49 aren’t here, as they’re among the 7 Unknown Earths on the map that were left behind for future creators to define; 14 and apparently 25 have since been revealed.

64. Earth 14

A worthy bottom-place entry, Earth 14 is at the top of the Multiverse Map, and is shown as physically different from the other Earths, seemingly vibrating as if in two places at once; map co-designer and illustrator Rian Hughes suggested in an interview the intent was that this was where new universes entered the multiverse. Instead, ending up the first Unknown Earth to be revealed after the doors were opened to other creative teams, it was shown as a generic dystopian world home to a ‘Justice League of Assassins’ that were quickly dispatched by a generic cosmic threat. A monumental tribute to contextual ignorance and creative laziness.

63. Flashpoint

This is one of several Earths I’ll touch on that exist in neither the ‘local’ nor Dark Multiverse, but has directly crossed over or been framed in reference to the currently operating version of the DC Universe and so is probably worth a mention even if I’m not going over every Elseworlds and Imaginary Story DC has ever published. Another dystopian world, in this one an attempt by The Flash at fixing a change to history resulted in an Earth torn apart by war between Aquaman and Wonder Woman, where Cyborg was America’s greatest hero and Kal-El was held captive his entire life in a military bunker rather than becoming Superman. Aside from the prospect of a Thomas Wayne who became Batman when Bruce was gunned down as a child rather than vice-versa - resulting in him being pulled into a recent Batman run after this worlds’ destruction, the reason for this Earth’s inclusion - absolutely nothing of value came of this or the stories tied into it, such that astonishingly in spite of being the impetus for one of the biggest DC reboots of all time with theoretically an entire revised history to play with, essentially no one cares about this anymore.

62. Earth 1

The site of DC’s standalone, bookstore-market oriented ‘Earth One’ graphic novels. The incredible tunnel vision of marketing these for that purpose with titles that exist in reference to their multiversal structure aside, the Green Lantern book is the only one of those I’ve heard about being even kind of good; the rest top out at an interesting failure in Wonder Woman, with a standard forgettable failure in Teen Titans and truly flabbergasting misfires in Superman and Batman. Even Multiverse Map co-designer and writer Grant Morrison described this Earth in a blurb as having a history ‘in flux’, implicitly permitting the reader to believe it’s something else if they really want to, but as it stands in spite of the theoretical wide-open possibilities the foundations have already been built on salted Earth.

61. Watchmen

Home to the cast of characters of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal miniseries. Crossed over with the DC Universe 30+ year later in Doomsday Clock, which clearly intended to set up this world as one ripe for future stories and development rather than a singular text, but instead misinterpreted, stripmined, and otherwise nuked essentially everything that might have had one interested in exploring it further in the first place (in spite of the source text’s very definitive conclusions to all major narrative threads and characters). The only reason this is not ranked even lower is the possibility that the upcoming, as-yet untitled Watchmen project by Tom King and Jorge Fornes might manage to dredge something out of this.

60. Earth Negative 11

The first of the Dark Multiverse Earths here, a gender-flipped Earth where Bryce Wayne generically altered herself into an Atlantean in order to do battle with Aquawoman and the forces of Atlantis. As the Dark Multiverse worlds we have seen thus far are described as being borne of Bruce Wayne’s fears, it’s odd that as opposed to the ‘want of a nail’ scenarios shown on all others, this includes the additional twist of making Bruce a woman, yet does nothing with that. Anyway, this is a very clear product of the Dark Multiverse’s debut in Dark Nights: Metal wanting an evil Batman to correspond to each member of the Justice League, and it’s the oddest, most perfunctory of the lot.

59. Earth 34

Home to the heroes of the Light Brigade, defenders of Cosmoville, this is an Earth meant to evoke the classic creator-owned superhero comic Astro City. However, as Astro City is itself made up of archetypal signifiers yet isn’t meta about its usage of them, being defined by its storytelling principles rather than the shared universe it builds up in the background, there are essentially no stories to be told here that couldn’t be told with the regular heroes of the DC universe. Which is a shame, those are some neat character designs.

58. Earth Negative 12

A Dark Multiverse Earth where believing Wonder Woman killed in a battle with the war god Ares, Batman took up the deity’s helm in hopes of redefining war, instead being corrupted by it and becoming an unstoppable monster. There’s basically nothing here.

57. Earth Negative 44

A Dark Multiverse Earth where a computer program meant to replicate Alfred after the butler’s untimely death, attempting to protect its charge, takes control of Batman by way of mechanizing him and turns Gotham into a digital nightmare. A little more on-point than the previous entry, but still not much here.

56. Earth Negative 22

A Dark Multiverse Earth where Batman is finally pushed into killing the Joker, but the Clown Prince of Crime secretes a particularly potent Joker Toxin upon his death that corrupts the Caped Crusader into a second Joker known as The Batman Who Laughs, who slaughters his way across his universe before ultimately making his way to the ‘main’ DCU. The prospect of a Batman/Joker combination is interesting, but an origin for the ultimate corrupted Batman ‘he got drugged into going bad’ falls short.

55. Earth Negative 32

A Dark Multiverse Earth where Bruce Wayne moments after his parents’ deaths was judged worthy of a Green Lantern ring, but having only his hatred of crime rather than the discipline and morality he would come to develop becomes the murderous terror of the underworld, with even the Corps unable to stop him when he manages to force the darkness of his heart through the ring into ‘dark constructs’. Another ultimately throwaway Earth, this at least illustrates the properties of the Dark Multiverse in an interesting way: the constructs he creates aren’t something that’s ever been indicated as being possible or even sensible with the ‘real’ Green Lantern, but as this is a world literally made of nightmares that’s irrelevant.

54. Earth 39

Home to the United Nations superspies the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R., who operating using super-technology with eventually deleterious side-effects. A pastiche of the obscure T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, it’s hard to imagine anyone with much to say about them wouldn’t simply wish to write an actual comic about them under the current rights-holders, though the concepts described in Morrison’s provided information are enticing.

53. Earth 41

A riff on several of the superheroes published by Image Comics over the years, they’re worth having around for the occasional heroes of the multiverse groupshots for your big crossover comics and Dino-Cop turned out to be charming, but it’s doubtful someone with a big Spawn story in them for instance would use Spore as their outlet.

52. Earth 9

All I know about this is that this is a ‘what if superheroes really changed the world’ Earth, and when those are a dime a dozen, the additional conceits of the names of the various characters not at all corresponding to their traditional backstories and attributes, and being the brainchild of creator Dan Jurgens, are far from enough to sway me. I understand there are some fans out there who may heartily disagree, to be fair.

51. Earth Negative 52

Another Dark Multiverse throwaway Earth, this time one where a Batman shattered by losing his various partners taps into the Speed Force so that he can finally be everywhere at once to stop all crime. This is distinct however in that he achieves this by defeating The Flash, chaining him to the hood of the Batmobile, and driving it so fast their atoms explode and merge, which is thoroughly rad and gets it big-time bonus points next to its contemporaries.

50. Earth 37

An Earth based on the DC works of creator Howard Chaykin, its conceit of being a world that progressed technologically far faster than our world but culturally remains decades behind us is interesting, but I’m not much of a fan of his work that I’ve read and most of what’s been drawn upon here doesn’t seem to have much of a following.

49. Earth 30

The world of Superman: Red Son, where Kal-L landed in the Ukraine and grew up to become leader of a global Soviet Union, before realizing he had deformed humanity’s development and faking his death. Leaving Earth in the hands of a Lex Luthor who while still very much a bastard found public approval in America for fighting Superman, Lex ultimately led Earth into a utopia that over time fell into complacency and became its universe’s version of Krypton, Jor-L (Luthor’s distant descendant) and Lara sending their baby back in time to survive and establishing a predestination loop. While several elements of the DC Universe are present in a limited capacity that could in theory be expanded on, Superman and Wonder Woman are the only superheroes of long-term note and both their stories are very much concluded, seemingly leaving little to do here except have the Superman with the hammer and sickle logo show up in event comics.

48. Earth 6

The world of the Just Imagine Stan Lee Created The DC Universe series, where the father of the Marvel Universe rebuilt several DC figureheads from the name and a few pieces of imagery up. The results were mixed at best, but a series of gorgeous artists involved in the projects mean the characters certainly look interesting even if it’s hard to imagine creators going back here in any meaningful capacity.

47. Earth Negative 1

A Dark Multiverse world where Superman turned on humanity for reasons unknown, and Batman deliberately infected himself with the ‘Doomsday Virus’ to gain the properties of the hulking monster and defeat his former friend. Now numbed to human emotion and vulnerability, this Batman hopes to spread the virus as to make humanity similarly indestructible, as well as shield them emotionally from what he has come to see as the false hope Superman represents. This Batman didn’t end up a major figure in the same way as The Batman Who Laughs, but the conceit is killer and I hope someone picks up on it one day.

46. Earth-52

A universe somewhere outside the local 52, a ‘remnant’ of sorts of the main DC universe circa 2011-2016 prior to cosmic revisions resulting in the current setup. A world where superheroes had emerged approximately 5 years earlier and home to lots of dudes in very dumb battle-armor, most fan-favorite stories from this era have been carried forward into the current history, and its unique version of Superman under Grant Morrison - a socialist crusader in a t-shirt and jeans who battled corrupt institutions and cosmic supervillainy in equal measure - was depicted as set loose from his world after 2016′s continuity changes as a defender of the multiverse. While a significant part of DC history both in-universe and publishing-wise, there wouldn’t seem to be all that much left here worth exploring.

45. Earth 2

A world where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman alone represented the first wave of superheroes, they nobly fell in battle repelling an invasion of Earth by Darkseid. In time a new generation would emerge that were modernized, youthful iterations of the Justice Society of America, the superhero team predating the Justice League in DC’s publishing history. While the logline’s an interesting one and the successor to Superman Val-Zod debuted to some acclaim, for the most part this reinvention didn’t end up received well by either new or longtime fans, and a last-minute overhaul where this bunch was transplanted into a rebooted world without superheroes probably didn’t help. You still see them in crossovers and there are promising concepts, but this world seems basically dead.

44. Earth 50

When Lex Luthor ascended to the presidency and soon thereafter executed The Flash, Superman snapped, executed him, and took over the world alongside his allies as the Justice Lords, until they were ultimately overthrown by way of a parallel universe Justice League and a repentant Lord Batman. A Better World unequivocally rules, but given this is supposed to be those specific versions of the Lords rather than a new iteration, it’d be weird to see them up against any universe other than the DCAU. And, well...

43. Earth 12

The DCAU, currently world of Batman Beyond and a future Justice League. The DCAU, you may be aware, extremely rules, but is also somewhat redundant in this context - the ‘regular’ DCU already has all its core components without too much aesthetic differentiation, and there’s already frequently a Batman Beyond in the future of said universe. It has its unique attributes that make people love it, it’s cool that it’s here, but on the macro scale it’s too clean an adaptation to bring much to the table to crossovers and whatnot, and you’d never see any further stories told there otherwise as really being part of the DCU cosmic landscape so much as a comic tie-in to the TV show.

(Also it’s odd this is placed here with the Justice Lords Earth as if to go ‘it’s secretly been part of the 52 all along, you just never noticed when it only crossed over with the one other!’ when there were two other parallel universes in the DCAU.)

42. Earth 43

A nightmare world haunted by the once-heroic, now vampiric Blood League, the obvious potential would be for this world to function as DC’s equivalent to Marvel Zombies. Recently however DCeased has come to fill that position, and while this world in practice if not concept skews more closely towards that source material as the former heroes still have vestiges of their old personalities - in theory distinguishing it as its own spin worth keeping around - it’s hard to imagine most takes on ‘Justice League but monsters’ won’t come out under the DCeased banner for the foreseeable future.

41. Earth 40

A world of pulp villains made to oppose Earth 20, these guys are simple but a hoot.

40. Earth 35 aka the Pseudoverse

More analogues to analogues, this time of the Awesome Comics characters largely defined by Alan Moore in Supreme. This opens up the promising vista of ‘DC if it were designed by Alan Moore’, but in practice as demonstrated by his work with both DC and the analogues these mimic, that would just be...well, good DC comics, which you don’t need a whole extra universe for. The notion of this as a universe artificially created by Monitor ‘ideominers’ however both gives it a unique place in the multiverse, tackles its status as a pastiche in a unique way, and gets back to ideas of the power of imagination in both Supreme and Moore’s other works, so it’s likely there could be something to be done here.

39. Earth 11

A bit of a study in contradictions. This is seemingly a rather straightforward ‘gender swap’ Earth with Superwoman, Wonderous Man, and so forth. Also, its version of Star Sapphire implied it’s not subjected to constant crises in the same way as the main universe it mirrors, maintaining a greater degree of consistency in the process. At the same time however it’s mentioned that the Amazons rather than leaving Man’s World for Themyscira shared its technology and philosophy with the world, changing it forever, suggesting a far different world from what we’ve seen in glimpses here. Until it decides one way or another whether it’s a simple mirror to the regular DCU or a radically different take, it hovers in a state of uncertainty.

38. Earth-2 aka Earth Two

The original version of Earth-2, home to the DC Universe of the 1940s with aged versions of Superman and company and the original Justice Society of America. The first take on a DC universe that would progress in something resembling ‘real time’ rather than keeping the headliners as perpetual twenty-to-thirty-somethings, this was also the birthplace of heroes such as Power Girl and Huntress. I’m of the perhaps controversial opinion that this is a concept that was explored better in later takes: there’s a sense here that the largely forgotten follow-up generation eventually introduced, with the exception of the two heroes mentioned above, will never really matter in the same way as their still fully-active predecessors in spite of ostensibly taking over the family business, meaning you never quite actually get what you want here, which is to see a DC where things meaningfully change and move on - well into his middle age and his mentor’s death long behind him, Dick Grayson is still Robin. Add in the odd, ignominious demise of the original Batman and its Superman’s odd eventual fate - which slide from bizarre to intolerable if you accept the frequent implication that these are meant to be the original versions of them from the 1930s - and I can’t help but think the enjoyable high concept was never realized as well as it could be here.

37. Earth 4

The Earth of the characters of Charlton Comics who would go on to inspire Watchmen, this initially seemed like one of the most promising worlds after its debut in Pax Americana drew perhaps the most pronounced critical acclaim of any single issue in the past decade as the site for creators with something to say to work with Watchmen without actually touching that property. Now, however, Watchmen itself is in the mix: most wouldn’t reasonably go here while the material they’re truly referencing is now freely available (especially those simply wanting to draw fan attention by visibly playing with those toys, the way Earth 4 sidestepped) even though that world itself is now massively compromised past the original text, and with the ‘Watchmen Earth’ no longer an option and the characters themselves - if cleaned-up, more mainstream versions of them - existing in the DCU proper, this world’s role seems to have been largely stripped from it. I have to imagine there’s still potential here for those with the talent and commitment though.

36. Earth 44

A world where in the absence of natural superhuman beings, Doc Tornado created a Metal League of robot superheroes to protect the Earth. A promising concept definitely worth a few stories.

35. Earth 15

Once a perfect universe destroyed in a rampage by another Earth’s Superman, it was artificially reborn through the will of Countess Belzebeth - a cosmic vampire - as a copy of the Prime universe with the Green Lantern Corps replaced by Belzebeth’s despotic Blackstars, the uncertain and bitter heroes of this universe warped through the lens of Belzebeth’s perceptions of them had no chance against her forces. While its inhabitants are a bit samey what with all life having been subsumed into the diamond will of Blackstar Controller Mu, the idea of a conceptually weakened DCU being turned into an army against the rest of the multiverse makes for a terrific threat, and the prophecy of the ‘Cosmic Grail’ (a Green Lantern power battery lost somewhere in the multiverse) and that the First Lantern of the multiverse Volthoom hail from its original incarnation lend it some extra mythological weight.

34. Earth 32

A mashup world hosting the likes of the Justice Titans, Young Justice International, and the Doom Society. A world that’s home to Aquaflash will probably never have an ongoing all its own, but plenty of stories, miniseries, and even a brief line of comics have been based on mashup characters before, so there’s plenty of proof of concept for this being able to endure.

33. Earth 23

An Earth where Batman (naturally) is the only white guy on the Justice League, and Superman is not only President of the United States in his secret identity as Calvin Ellis, but the leader of the multiverse-spanning superteam Justice Incarnate. It reads like Morrison trying to do his idealized take on an ‘Ultimate DC’, a more diverse and politically engaged superhero landscape that doesn’t scale down its big ideas in turn, and if I were ranking it at the time it was introduced it would go much higher. The problem is that its version of Superman is modeled after Barack Obama, and that guy isn’t President anymore (and for that matter his legacy seems to grow more complicated by the year). As a result the vibe goes from triumphant to wistful mourning if not outright bitterly ironic, and that’s a needle that would have to be threaded before doing any substantial work here.

(Also, since several Justice Leaguers here rather than being made black are replaced with various black counterparts they’ve had over the years, that means Wonder Woman here is the 70s Amazon Nubia. And, uh, that name is something that would have to be...something.)

32. Earth 19

Steampunk superheroics; superhero period pieces are usually fun, and this is built on a foundation of pretty Mike Mignola art (though confession that I’ve never read Gotham By Gaslight), so sure, this one has potential.

31. Earth 18

Same as above but cowboys instead. This gets extra credit because cowboys mesh better with superhero conventions, and the additional twist of this world being frozen in history by the Time Trapper, forcing them to approximate modern technology with 19th century resources.

30. Earth 31

A post-apocalyptic waterworld where humanity is protected by Captain Leatherwing and assorted other pirate superheroes. Another ‘superheroes but in another genre’ setup, the post-apocalyptic, environmental twist makes it unfortunately more relevant than its peers, though I don’t think it’s quite the best end of the world as we know it on the list.

29. Earth 42

Home to the adorable, innocent world of the chibified Little League...secretly robots unwittingly enacting an endless stage play for the malevolent being known as the Empty Hand, running scenarios of his devising in preparation for a coming war with the rest of the multiverse. It’s a neat little multipurpose world, able to be played both as amusing contrast, or as parody whether light-hearted or cynical, in their endless ‘playtime’.

28. Earth 7

Formerly home to counterparts of the heroes of Earth 8, it was shattered by the Empty Hand’s forces and its desiccated cities made his throne, the zombie hordes that were once its champions his armies. The ‘Ultimate Marvel’ to Earth 8′s Marvel proper (and now Marvel Zombies), the idea of the broken remains of the cool version of the cool superhero universe as the lair of the ultimate evil has a certain appeal.

27. Earth 52

The last of the Earth 52s on this list, this newly added 53rd core Earth is home to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight books. Much as the reception to it over the years has become...mixed, at best (for my money Dark Knight III is the only one that’s not at least bad in a very interesting way, and even it still has its moments), the surprised generally positive reception to the most recent entry in Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child suggests there’s still life in this oddball corner of the cosmos yet.

(Fun fact: this was Earth 31 in a previous version of the multiverse, and Morrison intended it to be included as such in Multiversity - hence why Earth 31 is made up of inky scratches on the Map - but Miller requested he not since he wanted to keep his domain separate from DC’s ongoing storylines. Instead he agreed later to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s use of it in Dark Nights: Metal as DKR is famously Snyder’s favorite comic, bringing it in as Earth 52.)

26. Earth 47 aka Dreamworld

Where the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld dwells, baby: all is groovy. It’s incredibly specific in both era and theme, but a psychedelic universe with heroes to match invites tons of possibilities.

25. Earth 10 aka Earth X

It’s the Nazi Earth that sucks. It has superheroes who unnervingly are about as well-intentioned and effective as the standard set in the New Reischman, opposed by the few remaining dregs of the Freedom Fighters led by Uncle Sam; only their Kal-L, Overman, once Hitler’s weapon, truly understands the scope of the atrocities that led to their ‘utopia’, having grown a conscience too late and ever-aware that no feat in the present can ever redeem the oceans of blood on his hands. You can do horrifying introspective stuff with them as in their Multiversity chapter, you can tell Freedom Fighters stories like the recent miniseries, or you can just have the Justice League show up to fight the Nazi Justice League. A Nazi world is a standard one in multiverse stories for a reason, you don’t get easier targets.

24. Earth 5G

The DC universe that’s...sort of here and sort of not. Doomsday Clock and other upcoming stories appear to be shifting us over to this, but in most of DC’s line of titles the leap hasn’t taken place yet. As we haven’t seen the bench of successor heroes apparently primed to take over only so much can be judged, but the vast changes suggested by the new ‘official timeline’ that’s been leaked suggest a bizarre attempt at incorporating as many of their editorially-favored biggest hits as possible into a bizarre selective mishmash, without particularly serving the status quos any of the constituent characters said history is meant to bolster (with the exception of Wonder Woman, now framed as the first superhero, which would at least be interesting and a deserved bolster to her profile if there were any particular impression her new standing would be meaningfully followed-through on), while also not only reinstating the mutually destructive retcon of the JSA as preceding Superman, but taking the absurd extra step of actively presenting them as his inspiration. Of course we haven’t seen it in practice yet, and at the end of the day good stories will surely still be told here, but the foundations here are about as shaky as they’ve ever been for the ‘core’ DCU as a wholehearted capitulation to placing dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s over the actual narrative logistics of making a shared universe function smoothly.

23. Earth Negative Zero aka Betwixt

A world where those whose senses of self entire disintegrate fade away to seeking to feed on those still well-defined, this bears similarities to the realm of Limbo where ignored superheroes reside, but with just enough conceptual differences and a hellish, malleable twist that makes it the best thing anyone’s come up with to date to do with the Dark Multiverse.

22. Earth 48 aka Warworld

While its iconography is rooted of all things in castoff characters from Crisis On Infinite Earths and no-hopers from Countdown To Final Crisis, the actual conceit here of a world where literally everyone and everything is a superhero that operates by superhero rules, a world built by the New Gods as defenders of reality, is wide-open and tantalizing.

21. Earth 38

Another major shot at a DCU that aged in real time, this version has its own idiosyncrasies but far more of a sense of forward momentum and meaningful change, with the original Superman and Batman still leading the pack one way or another but successors to both them and the rest of the heroes truly stepping up. Also the predominant hero of the 21st century is Knightwing, the grandson of both Superman and Batman who has only partial Superman powers but also Batman training, which is just really cool.

20. Earth 3

The good ‘ol classic evil mirror universe, where strength is the only law, the forces of evil always win in the end no matter how bright the day may become, and thus the Crime Syndicate operates as it pleases. It’s never quite as interesting as you want it to be - its villains are largely one-note - but its warped societal and cosmic rules, and that each character has a handful of twists on the mythology of their counterparts rather than being an exact (if morally inverted) duplicate, means it could easily one day come to live up to its obvious potential in the right hands.

19. Earth 21

Here, most superheroes were forced into retirement after World War II by McCarthyist paranoia, but at the dawn of the 1960s the few remaining and a new generation are emboldened to step back into the light, spearheaded by the Justice League of America. DC: The New Frontier is a modern classic, with a direct standalone follow-up virtually out of the question; as it doesn’t quite lead into the world of the actual 1960s DC Comics either, its sole function in its capacity as a world in the multiverse is as a 60s ‘period piece’ Earth. Given that’s where most of the architecture of DC as we now know it was built however, that’s hardly a problem.

18. Earth 26 aka Earth C

Funny animals are fun, and in a superhero universe that means you get superhero funny animals, courtesy of Captain Carrot and his amazing Zoo Crew. What’s not to love?

17. Earth 22

While time has somewhat dimmed the acclaim that originally surrounded it, Kingdom Come and its tale of a Superman coming out of retirement alongside his allies to try and reign in an out-of-control new generation remains a landmark moment in the genre, and in many aspects still holds up. Unlike many stories of its stature this world has always played nice with the mainline universe in terms of guest appearances and crossovers, including works by the original creators Mark Waid and Alex Ross, and as the most iconic and conceptually expansive work to date set in a DC universe that has joined in the march of time, that makes it a prominent and useful one to have around.

16. The Antimatter Universe of Qward aka The Reversoverse aka the Anti-Verse

The original dark flipside of DC reality, this has occasionally also played home to the Crime Syndicate - and their best stories by far, to boot - but mainly serves as a home base to the Weaponeers of Qward and occasionally Sinestro. While largely unexplored it has a massively central place in DC’s cosmology and the birth of the multiverse, the glimpses of a society of pure evil in early Silver Age Green Lantern and JLA: Earth 2 are far more fun and interesting than anything seen in Earth 3′s history, it’s about to get even more room under Morrison to find definition, and as the ultimate mysterious Forbidden Realm of the DCU the possibilities could be essentially endless in the right hands.

15. Earth-1985 aka Earth One

The DC universe of 1956-1986, and the dragon an entire generation of creators have spent their livelihoods chasing as the ‘classic’ iteration, as evidenced by one of them flat-out confirming it still exists somewhere out there. While that makes it frequently redundant when the main DCU is trying hard to mimic its feel - a few divergent notes such as Maggin’s idiosyncratic take on latter-day Superman and its version of Jason Todd aside - the prospect of a DCU that remained in that mold forever to a greater or lesser extent even if time may have moved forward could, in principle, free the main universe to go off in wildly different directions, knowing this image of DC always exists in its own space to return to when so desired rather than actively turning the current status quo to face backwards.

14. Earth 17

The Atomic Knights of Justice quest across the radioactive landscape of Novamerika in a world decimated by nuclear was in 1963 in search of Earth 15′s Cosmic Grail, their only hope against the coming of Darkseid. A mashup of the Justice League with the protagonists of one of the most fascinatingly bizarre comics of DC’s Silver Age in the Atomic Knights, a mythic quest, and most relevantly “What if Fallout had superheroes?” leaves this feeling like it’s just waiting for its moment to shine.

13. Earth 8 aka Angor

Known across the rest of the multiverse as the protagonists of the Major movies and comics (as opposed to the sub-imprint Essential Major reflecting Earth 7), in actuality the non-actionable champions of Angor - the Retaltiators, the G-Men, the Future Family, and The Bug, among others - are as real as any other superheroes, and while they struggle under the weight of both mistrust by the general public and frequent in-fighting, they’ve thus far protected their world from threats global, universal, and multiversal alike. The Big Two having stand-ins for each other is a longstanding tradition for good reasons: it not only allows for crossovers where the legal stars don’t align (and adds an extra fun shock of recognition whenever the reader realizes what’s happening), but provides each of them an ongoing version of those archetypes to play with within the confines of their own narrative, whether as contrasts or bending them to fit the tone of a very different shared universe than they were originally created for.

12. Earth 16 aka #earthme

The world where every sidekick, super-son, successor, and short-lived ‘new generation - of HERO!’ at last seize their moment in the sun...in a world already saved by their predecessors, with little left to do but lap up lives of super-celebrity and wish for one, just one little alien invasion or immortal tyrant to justify their existences for them. The best of DC’s futuristic/what-if-time-mattered alternate Earths in my opinion, taking to its logical conclusion the notion as stated by Morrison in interviews that as the Justice League will stick around as long as there are evils that need fighting, the ever-present promise of the torch being passed could only ever truly, permanently take place in a world where the job was already redundant. Playing as it does with in-universe history, real-life publishing realities, celebrity culture, generational divides, and the question of what being a superhero even means sans the usual confrontational justifications, it’s by its nature only going to become more expansive and interesting a commentary as time goes by and the regular DCU goes through its cycles of reboots, rebirths, and returns to form.

11. Pocket Universe 54471

Exactly what you see: Superman made a little pocket universe a half mile wide to go fishing in and he was gonna take Bruce and Dick there for the former’s bachelor party, and he knows about and/or created at least 54470 others. It’s absolutely delightful not only in its own right, but as an opening of the door to what the multiverse can mean in DC comics as a sci-fi idea generator beyond riffs on existing properties, while still being presented with a distinctly DC sense of playfulness.

10. Earth 45 aka Earth 45™

The origin of one of the best Superman villains of all time in Superdoomsday - the Superman idea in a world without him brought to life but twisted by committee into a murderous living brand - a horrifying corporatocracy standing for all Superman and company are meant to stand against, and an enduring threat with the world still in shackles and those in power still able to dream to life whatever vision they please of absolute power to be wielded in their name.

9. Earth 36 aka Terra

Justice 9, the defenders of Terra - or I suppose Justice 7 now after the losses of Optiman and Red Racer, though how long does that matter in a superhero universe? - is the most interesting of the direct analogue groups for my money. Technically speaking they’re another twice-removed set like 34 and 35, standing in for the heroes of Big Bang Comics, but given my understanding is that there’s no major “Like the DC heroes, BUT” twist in that book the way Astro City and Supreme have other than a retro ‘good old days’ bent (which definitely isn’t the case here with at least two queer members), Justice 9 basically function as direct analogues for the Justice League...in the same comics as the Justice League. To me, that’s actually fascinating: one of the most useful elements of stand-in characters like this is the ability to tap into the iconic power of archetypes without the familiarity surrounding the actual figures, in the way Planetary for instance uses just enough distance from the source material to make a couple dozen decades-old pop culture touchstones feel completely new, and this implements that approach to the material to the DC characters with heroes who can actually themselves team up with DC proper. As many approaches as could be taken with that though, that potential alone probably wouldn’t be enough to shoot it this high up the list if not for a major additional factor: in the same way that in the old-school DC universe the heroes of Earth-1 had comics reflecting the adventures of the heroes of Earth-2 long before learning they were real in another universe, DC Comics are published on Earth 36. Aside from the neat trick of putting our leads in the same position as the Golden Age heroes, it means Justice 9 grew up with the Justice League as their heroes in the same way as us the audience before becoming heroes themselves, and then they grew up to learn they were real. These folks absolutely deserve to become multiverse standbys.

8. Earth 51

The Earth where all Jack Kirby’s ideas live as a single cohesive world and adventure. No further justification is needed.

7. Earth 13

A world of occult danger where DC’s traditionally superheroic magical figures such as Zatanna and Deadman are given the full Vertigo horror treatment, while the more intimidating and morally dubious figures such as Etrigan and John Constantine get logos and codenames. Not only an expansion but an offputting inversion of one of DC’s most acclaimed corners, this oddball bunch could bounce off of the capes and tights crowd as easily as your Shadowpacts and Justice League Darks, in ways no other team from any corner of the multiverse could.

6. Earth 20

Pulp champions of a 21st century that remains aesthetically moored in the early 20th, of the handful of Earths converting DC standbys into different genre territory in the local 52 the homeworld of the Society of Superheroes hits hardest, given the role the likes of Doc Savage and The Shadow played in that time shaping the conventions of superheroes as we know them. Add the wealth of concepts presented in their oneshot and the decision to hew away from the traditional Justice League riffs of parallel Earths, and of all the truly new worlds introduced in Multiversity, Earth 20 is the one that most feels like it could support an ongoing all its own.

5. Earth 29 aka Htrae

You gotta have Bizarro World. You just gotta.

4. Earth 33 aka Earth Prime

The in-universe representation of our very own pale blue dot. Whether it’s the birthplace of Superboy Prime where assorted DC creators had to deal with a visiting Flash and Superman throughout the 60s and 70s, meta games with the various incarnations of Ultra/Ultraa, a looming threat yet also victim in need of rescue through the eyes of Justice Incarnate, or the unwitting home of the ‘Superman’ or ‘Batman’ of Kurt Busiek’s off-center takes on the characters in Secret Identity and Creature of the Night, over the years DC has shown a decent amount of restraint in not going back to this particular well too often unless someone has a really clever tale to tell, and as a result it has maybe the single best batting average of all the ‘parallel Earths’ that have been regularly returned to by DC over the years. Give yourselves a hand, folks!

3. Earth 5 aka Thunderworld

Home not to ‘Shazam’, but Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family in all their glory, a technicolor world playing by the rules set down by Otto Binder and company where a superhero can literally battle planets and the most dangerous villain of all may be a very, very mean worm with glasses, a place of dream logic and childish innocence even by the standards of superhero comics. Captain Marvel at his best is one of DC’s most iconically potent players yet many seem to agree that much of his woes in recent years have come down to trying to find a unique space for him in the DCU proper. While I don’t know that it’s at all impossible to make that work, it’s certainly true that Marvel as he was originally presented doesn’t quite make sense in that world, whereas back in his own he keeps a flavor entirely unique to himself and his partners, whether for solo adventures or teamups with the heroes of the other worlds, playing it straight or examining some of the unsettling implications established by Thunderworld or finding a new way to make it work. Much like Bizarro World, it’s simply a locale the place doesn’t quite feel whole without.

2. Earth 25 (?)

While I’m a bit dubious on it definitely being Earth 25 in the core 52 based on interpretation of an offhanded line from Mr. Terrific (it has a multiverse all its own!), the fact of the matter is that America’s Best Comics came roaring out of the gate as proof of its own title, and basically didn’t stop until it ended. A couple after-the-fact Tom Strong miniseries (containing perhaps the most singularly cowardly hack move in the history of shared universe comics in undoing the end of Promethea) can’t detract from the core ABC lineup being made up of some of the most singularly clever, gorgeous, and heartfelt superhero titles to hit the stands, pretty much the platonic ideal of what you want books like these to look like. If this universe can hang around in any capacity at all until someone god willing picks them up again in a big way, it’s a win in my book.

1. Earth 0 aka Prime Earth

The extant version of the main DCU for at least a little longer, it really does feel like more than just about any version before it - at least for my money - they finally got all their ducks in a row, albeit right before blowing everything to hell. Most of the stories you really want to still have some sort of weight for the major characters are still in play to be built on, and most of the stories that clearly needed to be dropped are dropped. The cosmology’s fleshed out and expanding, the big names mostly work as they should ideally work while still heading into new territory, the JSA is mysteriously somehow around in the past without interfering with the primacy of Superman and the Justice League as the first known superheroes (a mystery that will never be resolved now due to the current reboot; damn shame) and the Legion of Superheroes have a new coat of paint, and there’s room for stories cosmically massive and intimately personal and utterly bizarre throughout the line rather than there being a single overriding idea of what these books should be. It may not be the perfect DC Universe by any means, but it’s a real, real damn good one, and of course without that thing, none of the rest of these universes would have been there in the first place.

#DC Comics #Multiversity #Opinion

78 notes · View notes

starkbucksbingo · 4 years

Photo

Week 23 ♥

—————————————— Title: Ghostly Memories [Moodboard] Collaborator Name: iam93percentstardust Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: I4 - Body Sharing Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: General Major Tags & Triggers: N/A Summary: Tony is one of the most powerful mediums on the east coast, possibly in the entire country. He can hardly go anywhere without being tracked down by some ghost or another asking for his help as they cross over into the next life. Bucky isn’t like that though. Tony is the one who finds Bucky after a dying man tells him about his long lost best friend. Bucky doesn’t know why he can’t communicate with the living, why he can’t find a single medium who can tell Stevie about the truth behind his death. Even Tony can’t hear him until he suggests an alternate method, a dangerous one. Bucky can’t tell Tony what’s wrong but he can show him - by taking over his body, showing Tony his memories as if they were his own. Word Count: 0 —————————————— Title: Stop Me if You’re Heard This Before Collaborator Name: Faustess Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: B2 - Leap of Faith Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony/Steve Rating: Teen Major Tags & Triggers: pre-Serum Steve, Getting to Know Each Other Summary: An artist, a super-soldier, and a billionaire walk into a bar - you haven't heard this one yet, have you? Tony Stark, recently divorced dad, head of Stark Industries' R&D department, and Iron Man, has been lonely. Rhodey's the best co-parent anyone could ask for, but he's moving on... and Tony's lonely. Bucky Barnes was pulled out of the ice almost five years ago. Even now, he's still not comfortable with the celebrity that goes along with being Captain America. And it's isolating being both younger than your teammates and at least 3 generations older. Bucky's lonelier than he'd ever thought possible. Steve Rogers made a name for himself as a graphic designer and illustrator - good with both digital apps and hand-drawn sketches. But romantically, there may as well be tumbleweeds and dust in his bedroom - it's that close to a ghost town. It's hard to be taken seriously, though when you're 5'4" and 100 lbs soaking wet... and that's a lonely life. So a better way to phrase this would be: three lonely hearts walk into a bar to see what they can find. Word Count: 4007 —————————————— Title: Mechanics Like To Fix Things [Chapters 4-8] Collaborator Name: Sharkie335 Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: [ch 4] B4 - Winter Soldier, [ch 5] G3 - Bucky/Tony/Bruce, [ch 6] N2 - Nonsexual Intimacy, [ch 7] B3 - Running Away, [ch 8] I2 - Reunion Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: Explicit Major Tags & Triggers: Disregards Civil War Summary: When Bucky approaches Tony to fix his arm, which is malfunctioning, it sets off a chain reaction. After all, at his heart, Tony is a mechanic and they live to fix things. Word Count: 25046 —————————————— Title: Coconut Cupcakes Collaborator Name: betheflame Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: B2 - Bartender Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: Mature Major Tags & Triggers: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bartenders, Birthday, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Getting Together Summary: Tony's birthday goes by unnoticed, so he decides to pop into his favorite bar to see his favorite bartender and hopes that will cheer him up. Spoiler: It does. Word Count: 1812 —————————————— Title: Continual Kink Negotiations [Chapter 5] Collaborator Name: betheflame & HogwartsToAlexandria Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: [betheflame] I2 - Spa Day, [HogwartsToAlexandria] I3 -Letting Go Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony/Winter/Steve Rating: Explicit Major Tags & Triggers: ABO, BDSM, Aftercare, Deep Throating Summary: Mind yourselves, chickens. This explains Bucky's reaction in the previous chapter and we hear about a mission he/Winter did that involves some canon-typical violence. But Flame wrote it, so it's not graphic because she doesn't know how to write that kind of stuff. But if you'd still rather skip, scroll to where Tony talks about shampoo. Word Count: 19073 —————————————— Title: The Auld Triangle Collaborator Name: betheflame Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: O2 - Helping Behind the Scenes Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony/Steve Rating: Mature Major Tags & Triggers: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Alternate Universe - No Powers, established bucky/tony, Mutual Pining, Fluff, shameless flirting, Polymory, Poly Negotiation Summary: In which Steve owns a failing Irish bar and Bucky works at that bar and is also married to Tony and the latter two desperately want to bring the former one into their relationship... But this is Steve, Tony, and Bucky we're talking about. So they're idiots about it. Word Count: 8669 —————————————— Title: It Always Has Something to Do with Stane Collaborator Name: betheflame Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: I5 - Parallel Universe Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: Teen Major Tags & Triggers: Comics/Movie Crossover, Fluff, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multiverse Summary: “That’s actually why I’m here,” Gwen said. “Tony was shutting down War Machine - they’d pivoted to green tech and Bucky was thrilled and we had this big party and everything and then three days ago, Tony told Bucky it was all a mistake and he started putting money back into weapons.” “Now there’s something I’ve never done in any universe I’ve met me in,” Tony replied. “Usually when I see the light, it’s permanent.” Gwen nodded. “That’s what Miles said, too, and my Bucky is freaking out. He thinks it’s got something to do with Stane.” A chill ran up Tony’s spine. “It always has something to do with Stane.” Word Count: 1085 —————————————— Title: Somewhere in Paradise [Moodboard] Collaborator Name: iam93percentstardust Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: N5 - OT4 Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony/Steve/Thor Rating: General Major Tags & Triggers: None Summary: Following graduation, Tony passes the company off to his PA and sets off for a year-long vacation, starting with Italy, where his mother grew up. His trip takes him around the world, across the world’s most gorgeous beaches, down sun-drenched roads in rural Italy, into culture and art and the best food he’s ever tasted and maybe, though he’ll never admit this in a million years, into the beds of some of the people he meets. Word Count: 0 —————————————— Title: Mechanics Like To Fix Things [Chapters 10-12] Collaborator Name: Sharkie335 Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: [ch 10] O5 - Blackout, [ch 11] N3 - FREE, [ch 12] N5 - Schmoop Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: Explicit Major Tags & Triggers: Disregards Civil War Summary: When Bucky approaches Tony to fix his arm, which is malfunctioning, it sets off a chain reaction. After all, at his heart, Tony is a mechanic and they live to fix things. Word Count: 36332 —————————————— Title: Language of Love Collaborator Name: iam93percentstardust Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: G4 - Schmoop Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: Teen Major Tags & Triggers: Alternate Universe - Wings Alternate Universe - BDSM, Dom Bucky Barnes, Sub Tony Stark, Praise Kink, Hand Feeding, Schmoop, Subspace Summary: When Bucky agreed to let Tony plan their first anniversary, he hadn’t expected Tony to tell him they would be spending the anniversary right at home in the tower. They had spent Tony’s birthday at his lake house in upstate New York and Bucky’s in Barcelona. For Valentine’s, Tony had flown them both to Paris. To be told that they’re going to stay here for their anniversary, an event that Bucky would argue is bigger than either Valentine’s or their birthdays, is a surprise to say the least. But when he steps off the elevator to reveal the penthouse lights dimmed low, a picnic blanket spread out in front of the fireplace, and Tony standing nervously beside it, wearing nothing but the silk robe Bucky bought him for his birthday, he can’t bring himself to be upset by it. Word Count: 2440 —————————————— Title: A Quiet Morning Collaborator Name: iam93percentstardust Link: HERE♥ Square Filled: O3 - Thirst Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: General Major Tags & Triggers: Established Relationship, Secret Relationship, Fluff, POV Outsider Summary: Natasha figures it out on a Saturday. She hasn't known up to this point what brought Bucky and Tony together but she figures it out on a quiet morning Word Count: 751 ——————————————

#Starkbucksbingo2020 #sbb2020 #weekly roundup #week 23 #starkbucks

1 note · View note

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

Text

Ghost-Spider #5 Thoughts

That was awful.

You know how I said last issue was padded out? Well this issue felt really rushed. Half the plot should’ve been shunted to last issue and the remaining half expanded upon here.

The art dips in quality again (specially when it comes to depicting the Jackal himself) but that is to nothing to the plotting and characterization. Jesus Christ where to start. Fuck it, I’m going to go from page 1 and just move forward.

There is a random civilian being mugged at the very start of the issue. She threatens the muggers that if they don’t leave her alone she will tell Spider-Gwen about them. This makes no sense not only because Spider-Gwen can’t track 3 random muggers but more importantly because they could just kill her and then take her property.

The Jackal is a dipshit in this story and looks like such a fucking loser. Even in the Clone Saga, as unearned as it was, he at least came across as threatening to some degree. Here he is literally surrendering to 3 goons with guns.

The tone of this issue doesn’t know what it wants to be. Initially it seems to be a crime story with a dash of comedy, but then it becomes just outright surreal when a Jackal monster in a suit is riding in the back of a truck making vaguely threatening small talk, then he just jumps immediately into being physically threatening

Earth 65 Miles Warren says he’s theorized about multidimensional travel but unless I am mistaken wasn’t Spider-Ham a key witness in the fallout of Gwen’s identity going public.

Earth 65 Warren claims that Gwen’s not been seen much in the day and that she’s been interfering in crimes less recently. Not only does this reaffirm what I’ve been saying this whole time about how irresponsible it is for Gwen to go to school in another universe, but it also makes the man-Wolf’s gang dumb as shit because why don’t they just commit crimes during the day!

Earth-65 Warren trusts his 616 counterpart waaaaaaaaay too easily given that he’s a stranger and you know…a jackal monster….he just jumps immediately to showing him the secret anti-Ghost-Spider weapon he’s whipped up.

65-Warren critiques Jackal for wanting a woman half his age. First of all how does he know the Jackal’s age when he’s transformed? I guess you could argue he’s presuming that they are the same age. But then Jackal responds that thanks to cloning his body is half as young as their real age. This is just baffling. Does this mean the 616 Jackal we’ve been following is a left over clone? And if he is really half his real age why does he still look like an old man?

The issue references harry but once again, it doesn’t clue new readers into who the Hell Harry is or what the deal is with him and Gwen.

The issue has a call back to a joke from last issue that if this was your first issue would leave you lost

65-Warren has arranged a trap for Gwen based upon the route she takes swinging home, although he qualifies she isn’t normally as early as she is in this issue. If she isn’t normally this early how do they know to arrange the trap for now?

Where was Gwen’s spider sense when the sedative grenade was thrown. And even if it is designed to affect her symbiote suit, why is she herself knocked out? The costume I understand, but why does she faint, especially considering no one else does?

The goons dialogue to their hostages makes no sense. They tell the hostages they’re saved but then they kill them. “It worked you are saved.” But…they aren’t Spider-Gwen is knocked out so even if this was a charade they weren’t saved.

One of the goons asks if Gwen was hurt by the sedative but like…why would he give a shit? He just murdered a woman and 2 children.

Jackal knows about the pendant AND how it works, the whole pricking your finger thing. A reminder, last issue he couldn’t possibly have seen how Gwen travelled between dimensions.

“…the multiverse is ours!”-says the Jackal. Call me nuts but at what point in this, or any story, did the Jackal’s ambitions expand to encompass the entire multiverse? When was that ever his goal? Why would he even want to dabble in that? Not to mention it undermines the character’s strength (when written well) of being much more grounded.

The Jackal says the universe keeps returning Gwen Stacy to him but it doesn’t. This ONE time maybe he could view it that way but on every other occasion he cloned her. He returned her to himself.

So a huge part of the resolution to this story involves, and I’m not making this up, Gwen’s 3 band mates (who I remind you are teenage girls) tracking her down to a secret secure laboratory because Em Jay is mad she is missing band practice. That is contrived and fucking ridiculous, how could anyone ever take this seriously? Em jay doesn’t even react believably to the human jackal monster in a suit running towards her!

Except for Gwen no one in the room is reacting realistically to a freshly killed body with blood spewing from it’s goddam throat. Em jay continues to moan about band practice for God’s sake.

Let me get this straight. The Jackal as a non-powered middle aged man could get the better of a super human like Spider-Man in the 1970s and in the 1990s when he had made himself a fellow super human. But in the 2010s when he is super human a teenaged girl can stun him by elbowing him in the stomach….yes….okay….

To my joy this extended Jackal story hasn’t been wrapped up and he’s stuck on Earth-65. God forbid one of Spider-Man’s notable villains be around for him to fight instead of farming her out to a different hero altogether.

Over all, this issue was garbage, this arc was garbage, this character and series continues to be garbage as it was in 2016 and whilst I might skim issues from now on to see what happens to the Jackal I am unlikely to read issues cover to cover anymore or do posts like this one them.

Don’t read this crap.

#Spider-Gwen #Ghost-Spider #Gwen Stacy #Jackal #Miles Warren #Em Jay #mjwatsonedit #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson

9 notes · View notes

jess-the-vampire · 5 years

Text

Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 28

Previous / Next

Landon was waiting for judas when he left through the door, almost scaring him as he approached, he didn't entirely seem pleased about his father and judas interrupting his plea to have his crush over, nor did he all that much about not even being able to talk to judas as a result of that situation but fine, at least it was over with. Judas did give him an apologetic look for the situation though, trying to comfort his brother with a hand on his shoulder, trying to be more conscious about hurting landon due to stuff like this, Landon didn't bring the matter up though, grumbling and turning his head. "Dad tell you anything interesting?". "Well, i think we might have some new chores over the next few weeks if you consider that interesting...", he was partly joking but he did basically sign the family up to clean his father's wizard room for a good while, and it sure would take a good while, even with magic. "But no, dad....he wanted to talk to me more about...my arm and that kinda stuff. But I'll get into more of it later if you want to know, I personally wanted to ask about what you wanted to talk to me about and then maybe...we could hang out?". "You and me...hang out?".

"Landon we're brothers, i don't think it's too uncommon for brothers to hang out...". "Well uh.....", he crossed his arms and turned his head, "It's more like you don't really hang out with me and mason like you hang out with sky....Like i get you see us all the time, but we don't "Hang Out" like you "Hang Out" with skyler." He wasn't entirely wrong, usually when he did hang out with his brothers it stemmed from a family thing then them actually choosing to spend a ton of quality time together as brothers, but judas still persisted on this. "Well, this time i'm asking for both of us to hang out together, and you can tell me about...whatever it is you need to tell me...", landon didn't really protest as judas led them to keep going, passing through the dark hallways of the underworld castle and trying to talk to each other. You'd think them being brothers would make it easier to speak to each other but it didn't in a lot of ways, somehow it felt easier for judas to tell sky everything going on with him then landon and he wasn't sure if it was a matter of their dynamic or personalities. Could've been both as landon tried to speak through the awkward silence. "Judas...so...look, me and celeste found something and we kinda think there's someone we need to question but i'm not sure how you're gonna respond to it so it's a little weird...", how was he supposed to tell judas his best friend could've been responsible? Or that she had powers she may not of told him about? Judas would never believe that about her and he knew that, even he really wasn't sure about sky doing anything since literally everyone knew she wasn't an amazing magic user of manipulator to find some way to be behind this. But still, if she knew she had this kinda power, she needed to tell everyone, right? "It has something to do with sky right?". Oh "how'd you-?". "If it's gonna be something you were worried about telling me, it had to be about someone close...and if it had been about our parents or mason, you'd have no reason to not have said it in sky's presence.". Guess when you put it that way,it was more obvious what was going on then it seemed, "Landon, we know sky's under suspicion by the high commission for being responsible for a lot of the things going on, we're trying to keep her out of most of these dangerous missions for a reason, if she gets caught at the scene of the crime she's in danger...". "But you still took her to save nora...". "That was a more desperate situation, we needed more help and sunny and galexia had to stay back to keep our parents busy, not to mention you and celeste were gone...", he kept him close as he watched out for listeners, "I'm just worried whatever you found is either faulty evidence used against sky to frame her or-". Landon quickly shoved the paper into his hands, silencing him, "Sky's wand, how much do you kinda know about that thing personally?". "W-what?" "Dude, luna wanted to look at sky's wand when she tried to team up against you, we found that page and we think we know why she wanted a closer look, apparently that wand as a very odd opal attached to it...can see other realities?". Judas's reaction as as expected, as in, looking entirely confused and outright non-believing. "Uh....wait...are you indeed claiming that sky....has a gem, that allows her to peak into other dimensions, hence saying she's responsible for everyone being here like she said she wasn't?". "Do i need to repeat it?". "Dude that's....a pretty wild claim...", he sounded a little caught off guard, his voice oddly cracking during his response, "I mean....sky being able to peak into other dimensions with her wand? She had a hard time doing a cloudy ride spell not even all that long ago, she kept summoning her mom's...sky's just not that supremely powerful to send them all here even if she wanted to, she still needs more magic practice for somethign crazy like that....besides i'm her best friend, i'd know this if it were true...". "Celeste translated this for me, look at it, it's sky's page! I'm not making this up judas, sky's wand is weird and she's not telling you for some reason...i don't want her to be in trouble as much as you...but it's like.....weird isn't it?". Well, he couldn't deny that, that was for sure, sky was pretty open to him about a lot of this stuff, she wasn't the type to not tell him something like this. Him looking over the paper and trying to rack his brain about it. "Maybe we should ask sky if she actually wrote this..". "What?". "C'mon landon, it's not rocket science, I should talk to sky about her page, the page you found.....we should get confirmation from her if she wrote in this book all this stuff about her gemstone. You finding this random page in the woods that looks like a page from her book needs a little more proof behind it before we start getting the pitchforks ready on her?", the younger brother rolled his eyes, "We didn't find it in the woods, fae did and we saw her drop it....somewhere and besides...celeste thought it was kinda legit..". "That's not enough...". landon shot a look to judas that could kill, "What do you mean it's not enough? Like i might not have a book of spells but it looks like a page from it! and a fellow princess confirmed it!". "I mean, anyone with knowledge of the low mewman language could've written this in her book, torn out the page, and left it out there to trick someone....we should talk to sky ourselves before we start really pointing any fingers." The pink boy didn't argue with him on that, not like he really could anyway, there really wasn't any evidence that sky had been the one who had written this for sure in this page. They did just find it without so much as thinking someone who wasn't sky could've written in it. "Look i don't want her to be behind anything...I'm just....I don't like the implication....she's your friend and like....if this is true it's super freaky and ugh...there just has to be a reason luna wanted to see sky's and and if this is not it then i don't know what is!", if judas asked if landon thought sky was bad enough to keep this from him, he'd say no, the situation just unfortunately left him wondering if maybe sky was more secretive to judas then he thought, they were close....almost perfectly close...sky didn't typically keep secrets from judas if any. And this was a big thing to not be telling everyone, especially if it was the keep to solving their problem in the first place. "I'll talk to her about it later landon, we'll see what's really going on...", Judas tried to reassure his younger brother, though landon couldn't help but wonder if judas was left a little suspicious or conflicted or was seriously loyal to his friend on the matter, though whichever way he was feeling....landon was not feeling better about this at all. "Yeah but what if-". "We'll see later..". Judas sounded particularly dismissive about the idea of sky being up to anything, well, it's not like it wasn't expected since landon was basically accusing his best friend of being at fault, whether knowingly or not. Though it did leave landon a little annoyed. " Let's go get some ice cream...I think right now i need a break...", he walked a little faster and landon had to hurry to catch up with his older brother, taking note of jude's less then smiley personality right now. Landon tended to be the grumpy brother of the group, well, usually the grumpiest person in general of their family. It was considered sorta a normal thing, being angry, but theses days the grumpiest were landon and tom occasionally, their dad. Well, even their grandparents could get mad but they were usually very loving people who were very protective and wanted to help in their own way, the family wasn't entirely used to anger coming from Judas more then anyone. Yeah he had an arm that was considered the equivalent of a ticking time bomb attached to him and that made everyone afraid of him, but judas had a prime focus on never wanting to hurt anyone. He didn't like the idea of making someone cry, or get hurt, in fact he had a fear of it since he was little since everyone made him afraid of himself. Landon kinda wanted to be mad at him for not being more suspicious of sky but then again he'd be pissed if judas accused bernard of this so he might do better to back off before he made things worse until they had better proof. Judas usually tried to be a positive person, so when he was upset, he was upset. The boy put his hands in his pockets and was quiet as the two continued, landon grumbling to himself before trying to ease up the tension and spouting something under his breath before he could even consider what he was saying fullly. "I think I'm starting to like bernard...more...", judas's ears pricked up as he looked over to his younger brother, "Wait...what was that?". Landon blushed and grumbled, well he had to do it now, and spouted it out a little louder this time. "I think I have a crush on bernard....". The older demon's eyes lit up in realization, "Oh....OH, wow wait really? You serious?". Landon felt like hiding all of a sudden and almost tried to make a run for it when judas took ahold of his arm, a smug smirk on his face now, "Good for you, I knew it...". Landon felt redder then red,"Look, just....we don't get to see each other in person as much and I want him to come over and look....maybe you could....convince our parents into doing it sooner then later?". This was more humiliating then it had played out in his head, there was a reason he kept his tail hidden, it exposed how he felt too much in every situation. He knew full well if it were exposed now it'd be trapped between his legs and only making him look more pathetic right now as he tried to explain his plight. "I just want to be able to hang out with him down here....or...let you guys get to know him more, well...without mason trying to set us up hopefully..". Judas patted his back, "That sounds great....uh....sorry about mason, I kinda was the one who egged him on to that.....sorry. BUT in my defense i was trying to keep him from finding out any....stuff he still shouldn't know about, though i am sorry.". Landon shrugged him off and sighed, "Whatever, just don't do it when he's here...if my parents and grandparents start setting up dates for us i'm gonna be utterly humiliated and I can't handle that right now...". "Eh...i know the feeling actually...". "Anyways....look....it's really important to me and you're better with our parents so...". Judas suddenly felt a little worse, geez landon really did see him this way didn't he? He reached out to comfort his brother but landon shrugged off the action, "I just want your help, it would mean a lot to me if you could help me...get more time with him.". Judas got it, reassuring him, "I'll give it a shot, y'know, we were mostly teasing you about having a crush on him, uh...sorry if that was weird considering you sorta ended up kinda liking him...". "No it's....it's fine....i mean we all relentlessly made fun of you for crushing on sky...". "Yeah, when i was 6! And had a crush on anyone my age willing to talk to me..."., judas still seemed slightly embarrassed by that judging by his blushy face and hand rubbing his shoulders in anxiety, "When you're a small child who doesn't have a lot of friends and not a lot of people understand you...it was easy at the time for me to feel that way before I got older and did some growing up. I was really young and naive, you're not and if you really feel that way then I'm sorry if it was a little too much....I know i can kinda hurt people when I tease sometimes..". "Still.....but whatever...". "Yeah but....we shouldn't have been teasing you so much about it, so...yeah I'm sorry about that. But hey....I think it's great you've found someone you really like, You thinking about asking him out properly?". Landon just shrugged as he tried to reduce the redness as much as possible, "I dunno, i don't want to make things awkward, not to mention he's my only real friend so if i lose him....well it'll kinda feel like i caused myself to lose the only real friend i had...I mean, yeah i hang out with sky and such kinda...but it's not the same, they're your friends judas...not mine...". "You should probably be honest with him at some point though, i mean, what if he does feel the same way about you and you're both trying to avoid saying it to not ruin your friendship? Imagine him saying something similar to melaine right now....", it was wishful thinking of course, it's not like judas knew the human as well as landon did and honestly melaine's response was more likely to be worried that bernard had been possessed by a demon curse then be playing matchmaker....but it was a nice thought. "Right now i just want to see him in person, and as far as i know, earth magic doesn't allow him to teleport here like we can do....". "Well...I'll give it my best shot.....we gotta get my lil bro a date!", landon groaned as judas tagged him along, "C'mon, it's ice cream time!". The two boys heading off further along the castle, a mewman girl with a giant card chasing after them from behind. "Galexia?", they turned around and stopped in their tracks as she approached them with a skid, her long brown hair probably dirty from all the things she most likely ran into on her way over to find the boys in the first place. Even with a giant card practically making it hard to see her face it was fairly easy to tell the tall girl running down the corridors was the green-eyed princess, honesty judas was more surprised she didn't pop up next to him out of nowhere. She shoved the card into their hands before they could even say much else and markers as well, "Sign! Get well card!". Landon glared at Judas and he just gave him an awkward smile. "I'll try in get you a chance in the next few days, promise...", Landon sighed and nodded, "Fine....just...tell me what Sky says when you eventually ask her...ok?". Judas went silent but left a nod as he attended to galexia's current request, Landon was just going to have to trust him on this situation, he didn't really have much of a choice considering judas was sky's closest friend, though he just hoped his brother's emotional status wouldn't get worse over this. They got ice cream shortly later and even though judas was in better spirits as he enjoyed his mint chocolate chip sundae, landon chose not to speak anymore of sky as he took small bites of his cookies and cream, the two talking more about other matters till they parted ways. Sky was always a sensitive subject for the guy since he was so protective over his best friend and landon just hoped for everyone's sake judas's protectiveness didn't lead to anymore issues down the line. Last thing they needed was to be at each other's throats more then anything. - Some time passed for the next few days, and sky's attention had diverted from luna to focusing a little more on angel then she would've liked. She was still very suspicious of luna, and deeply uncomfortable with her knowing what she did and her powers, but with all the fingers pointing to angel right now she was definitely missing something on his end. Whether guilt or innocent, there was still something fishy about her and his people these days and getting it out of him wasn't going to be easy. The direct approach, was probably a bad idea considering there was a high chance of ruining whatever good graces their relationship had had recently. So the most likely way was to just act like nothing was wrong and keep an eye on him as they hung out, though at least she didn't have to do it alone. Her best candidates to help, were judas, sunny and nora and that seemed fine enough. Though nora was still processing the whole "Multiple dimensions" thing, her research into angel's species was a good way to get some insight onto him and the situation. Sunny of course said she did this all the time back home, befriending monsters and keeping company. Judas told sky sunny was a sweetheart, but she was clever and a little scary sometimes, especially since she was more powerful then she looked. As long as Sunny stayed friendly and didn't end up stabbing the prince with her tail knife, hopefully things would be easier from then onwards. Sunny seemed more then happy though to help out, though angel seemed less fond of her bubbly personality in comparison to the others. Probably with no intention to be rude, but he seemed to get along better with people who weren't as "out there". Judas seemed to be the person he was the most comfortable with next to sky, and that was fair, he knew judas for longer and he and judas had always had a more respectful relationship between them. Sunny and Nora were cool but judas seemed to make angel feel more relaxed since he knew him better and well, Judas seemed to usually get along with anyone who didn't antagonize him right off the bat. Judas told sky that angel was mostly about as strange as he usually was though, and if he did have anything to hide, he had become very good at lying recently. Judas himself had been wanting to speak to Sky on something recently but Sky had the feeling her clear stress made him shift his entire focus on Angel for her sake. If Judas was shifting his focus so heavily to help Sky deal with something that was bothering her tremendously, she must've been pretty bothered by it. He already spent a few nights reassuring her and trying his best to relax her with hot chocolate or offers for game nights just to offer her a break for a few minutes. Maybe Sky was being too paranoid about angel, but it was hard for her to help it either. She'd spent a long time dealing with this boy and they seemed to finally be getting along for better and now she was forced to re-question everything once again that she had known about him. Then again, angel has never been clever enough to hide this much from her in the past, she was getting a headache from this, it was getting to be too much to deal with. Which had probably been why she called melaine tonight to get a break, and to vent to someone else and get another opinion. "I dunno mel, what if he does turn out bad....am I being too paranoid?". On the other end of the line she could hear the earth girl scrambling around her very messy room, though considering she should be asleep at this hour, sky wondered if her mom was lying awake right now. "Oh no no, in a lot of stories i read the heroes get paranoid when their turned good team member's past comes back to haunt them...like they'll become evil again! But then sometimes, it's usually not the case at all!". Sky was looking up at the ceiling and her face twisted, "Well angel wasn't really evil..so...". "Spiders aren't usually the good guys though? They're a primal fear for most humans, the many eyes, the pincers...all the hair...". "This is the same thing you said about judas when you first met him, you were all like 'Demons are bad guys cause they steal your souls and make deals and all that'!' Y'know all your earth books and shows and movies don't always depict the truth. I mean, I know earth isn't entirely used to monsters...but c'mon mel, you're judging them too hard. Maybe like, you need to watch more stuff with monsters as the good guys, like angel's species doesn't drink blood, judas doesn't regularly eat humans, you gotta let it go mel...". "But didn't you-?". "Didn't I what-?" "You liked to talk about spider boy being a pain all the time.". She wasn't wrong, even as much as Sky wished she was, since Judas usually had never really approved of Sky fussing about the prince, she had usually done it with melaine, telling her about how how frustrating the boy had been. The stupid plans he did, the destruction he caused from whatever fight. Sky almost spent every night after ranting to melaine about Angel, It was something she'd grown a little too used to especially since her mom wouldn't listen much to it, her other mom found it more amusing then anything, and judas would lecture her on the matter. No wonder Angel and her had issues. Sky felt her throat welt up, trying to soften the matter, "Well yeah, in the past, and maybe it was stupid, but right now i just kinda wanna move past it....at this point it's gonna do us more harm kinda biting at each other...". "But still you kinda-". "Mel c'mon....i want all my friends to get along here and you're making it difficult with all your talk about what monsters and demons and all kinda of stuff do, like c'mon....i don't live in a spaceship and i don't probe people. You gotta let it go for them like you do me...like i love hearing your cool theories and stuff but this stuff is kinda like....rude.. and maybe i was being rude too with angel and everything...I was just...mad about being forced to...deal with him because of my mom....". Melaine was still running around on her end judging by the sounds of papers being throw around and sky bit her lip. "Melanie?" "Yeah?". "Mel, you're really cool, it's just....like....you don't know mewni very well, it's just a lot different then what you're used to thinking it is. And like i really need to be able to talk about this without all the bias against them, It would just mean a lot to me ok?" Mel hummed on the other end, and sky sighed again, maybe she needed to speak mel's language to get through to her. "You're like one of the people in stories who y'know...gets lost in them too much that they don't notice the truth or consider what they're used to might be wrong...", sky wasn't familiar with tropes like she was but that had to be one right? "Oh..."., she felt relieved knowing she finally got to her, though at the same time she almost felt responsible for her past issues with angel and anything else she might've said before to melaine on a rather bad day. She was supposed to be queen and she was talking heck about all these people to her friends. A little bit of time passed and Sky sighed to herself, she had really been kinda a pain before hadn't she? She rubbed her face and pinched her nose as she spoke. "I mean, it's partially my fault, i guess i don't really y'know, help you learn much about mewni? Maybe I really should get you involved more with mewni stuff...", she could practically see melaine's eyes lighting up on the other side of the screen, even if she couldn't actually see her. "REALLY?!", and sky smirked, and rolled over on her side, "Well, yeah yeah....I think it owe it to you to explain mewni a little better...so you and judas can get along...all that stuff...". Melaine squealed on the her end and sky worried it'd wake someone up at this late in the hour. "Yeah, it'll be cool, just...be careful what you say...ok?". "Ok!". Sky wasn't sure how much to believe her, but she could worry about it later. "Anyways...I just....ugh i'm worried....I feel like i'm being paranoid...and i don't want to be wrong or right and...ugh.". She shoved the pillow over her face, "I can't believe i'm getting worked up and frustrated over ANGEL of all people...but right now i need allies and people i can really trust and with loki under a spell for who knows how long that makes things way scarier. Me and Judas had a suspicion that maybe angel was under her control and....". Her eyes widened. "Under her control.....and now she seems to have some possible connection to their kingdom...possible vendetta against the butterfly kingdom and me, lucitor kingdom, and spiderbite kingdom...magic user...." She bit her lip as she grabbed her compact, "Mel, i'll get back to you, start working on some theories, lemme know if you come up with any good ones and uh...say hi to your mom for me, we'll find a time to meet up soon ok!". Melaine squealed on the other end as sky immediately went to texting judas. He might not see it till morning, but she had to send him a message, quickly. It was an assumption, and who knows if she was right for sure, but it was there and it couldn't go away. Chills running down the girl's spine as she typed in the dark room. Sky: Hey Jude... Sky: How do you feel about Angel's mother being our masked foe? - "Landon sweetie, you need to relax....", marco watched landon run around in circles in his room, worrying, "How can i relax? Bernard is coming over tonight! I didn't really expert him to be allowed over so soon and now i'm not sure what to wear or what to say or...ugh...". Marco smiled, sitting on the bed and sighing, "For the record, me and judas both convinced your father to do this today, it wasn't easy, but he softened pretty quick...he had a hard time with friends in the past, so i think he was more forgiving despite everything...". "I know but-.". "Landon, he's going to love you, it'll be fine....you guys had a great time at the sleepover right? Don't treat it much differently then that! He's gonna meet up with the rest of us for dinner and you'll both hang out, it'll be just fine....". Landon didn't feel so sure though, staring as his violin as if were something rotten, "I wanted him over and now i'm worried he's not gonna like it, what was it like with dad? Was it weird? Cause you guys seem...really happy these days...". "Well, your dad and i didn't really get off to a good start, our first technical date was even a set up for his anger issues, but things did improve and we ended up getting along just fine. Trust me, you can't get as bad as we did at the beginning, you'll be just fine...". Landon stopped his pacing and took a deep breath, "I know you guys keep reassuring me but it's still scary...just promise me dinner doesn't get weird....? And by that i mean...don't start asking if we're dating and stuff like that...". "Oh trust us, we'll try....though might wanna keep a careful eye on your grandparents just to be safe.". Ugh, of course. "They did that when you were together?". "Something like that...let's just say granny gushed a little too much how much i meant to tom and how much we cared about each other, i swear she was planning our wedding long before we even dated!". Oh geez, that sounded like a mess, if he could avoid that, then he'd sure try to. Bernard and him were just friends right now, and nothing could be worse then his family trying to make that humiliating for them both, marco reassured him as he tried to clean his already pretty neat room. Boy he was getting too worked up over this. He felt the queen put a hand on his should and move him away, "C'mon...maybe we instead should focus our priorities elsewhere...? let's go make sure dinner is ready, bernard doesn't have any allergies right?", landon was dragged away , out of his room and down the hall as he thought over their conversations. "No but he does say his folks are like...health conscious? He says they really focus on calories and food products and all that and it's hard for him to even just eat a bag of chips sometimes...". "Protective parents huh?". "He talks about them a lot....so I guess it feels that way...". "You think we're too protective over you boys?" "Well...I mean, i dunno....aren't all parents kind protective most of the time?", which resulted in a shrug from the human, "I mean, every parent is different, just like every child is different, some parents don't want to risk putting their child in danger, some want them to make choices for themselves. Bernard's folks may just raise him a lot differently then we tend to do. Now the true matter is if we should feed him like they tend to do so out of respect or-". "No no no, trust me, bernard is looking forward to eating something else today....TRUST ME.", marco smirked, "Alright alright, just be wary as a parent if anything happens, his parents are gonna blame me.". Landon was wary, he was just hoping it would never come to that point as they reached the kitchens. They were making a classic, spaghetti and meatballs, luckily without any trace of obscure demon food this time, though landon was still on the fence if bernard would eat normal demon food or not. Marco seemed pretty happy, looking over the garlic bread being served along with regular salad, the demons in the kitchen didn't seem too pleased making food that wasn't native to their culture but they could live with it for a day. Seeing the food seemed to ease landon's worries as marco asked to have the food tested just to be safe and they continued on their walk, landon checking his compact often. "I have to pick him up myself, so I...just want to wait till he tells me he's ready..". "It's going to be ok landon...breathe...". He took a deep breath, is this how his dad felt most of the time with work and his anger issues? It probably was, being so over stressed and almost at the brink of blowing up all the time that he needed to take constant breathers. Usually his mom was with him to help make sure he calmed down, the king almost preferred it, since marco was very good with helping him through it. Geez if he was this stressed all the time landon was glad for once he wasn't going to be king. He messed with the strap of his violin case and stood close to his mom, staring at the floor, "I wanna do right by him, i can't help it...I'm not trying to panic so much, i just want to impress him and stuff with our family and everything....i guess i'm jut not used to people coming over..". Marco ran their fingers through their son's hair, trying to comfort them as they walked along portraits of other royal demons, "It's ok to be nervous, but i promise we'll try not to embarrass you so much.". "So much?". "Can't promise you we won't embarrass you at all, though don't worry, we won't bring out any baby photos today.."., he knew his mom was being silly and teasing him but right now it was hard to laugh at the idea, baby photos always looked corny to show off to a crush, especially when you lacked a ton of confidence already. Marco seemed to notice landon's feelings, kissing his cheek and sighing, "You know i got your back mijo, if something happens just let me know..". 'Yeah i know....". Marco tugged them close and placed their other hand on their hips, looking around at the demon portraits and reminiscing, "I know it's a little rough dealing with your feelings right now, but give it time, you'll figure out when you want to talk to him about it soon enough. For now, just get fully comfortable being best friends, it took awhile for me and tom to start dating, so don't rush into it...right now, this is all about getting to spend time in person and having fun and everyone's excited to see him!". "I dunno if i'd really ever be able to confess honestly...". "You will, when you're ready, but not tonight....let's just make tonight fun and stress-free. I think we all needed something like this". "I guess i've just never had a crush before...", landon huffed, trying to fix his hair to the best of his ability, "I Guess it's just weird to like your friend like that.....like maybe it's too soon to think of him that way? Maybe it'll make things....worse between us...i don't want to stop being friends with him". The human kissed the demon's forehead, nuzzling it, "Crushes aren't easy things to deal with...I should know, but it's perfectly normal to feel like this with someone you really connect with....don't be ashamed to like him...". "He's just cool and nice and i'm being weird....", the queen seemed to find it amusing, "You're just nervous, it's ok, your a handsome young man and you're gonna do great. Just be a good friends to him for now and you can figure out the confusing feelings part later....right now, your one of his closest friends and he's one of yours....just have each other's backs...ok?". Marco was just doing their best as they usually did, and sometimes with landon's downer mind they needed to reassure him over and over, landon just hoped tonight went well and he could fully push his problems to the back of his mind. Then his mother left out a laugh, "Ah, you two remind me of me and your father...a demon hybrid and a human, i think if our relationship can make it despite everything we've been put through, i think you two no matter what will do just fine...". Landon would've had a retort but just then his compact buzzed and he knew what that meant. "I better go get him...i'll be back in an instant...", he was pulled into a tight hug, landon sighing into the embrace before his mom kissed his forehead and landon teleported off. At least it wasn't hard to find bernard's house, moving across from his grandparent's place saved him from needing to remember the address to the exact, though he just hoped his grandparents weren't outside painting or anything, because if they spotted him he was going to have more problems to worry about. Though seems he was lucky this time around, approaching a simple blue home, white fence, and seemingly well kept garden. Bernard mentioned at one point his folks liked to grow their own food though not much seemed to be growing so far, then again bernard never said they were experts at gardening either. Bernard seemed about as eager to get out of the house as landon had been to see him again, trying to struggle out of his mother's arms to head out and meet him. Landon had seen Bernard's parents before when Bernard first moved here and through pictures bernard sent on his phone. Though Landon wasn't sure how well his parents knew him, he'd yet to be over their home yet and honestly his appearance could vary in reactions. Though it almost seemed like earth just didn't care about him having three eyes and horns at all in most cases, he'd had a few incidents of scaring kids before, which of course were on accident but yeah....he wondered what bernard's parents thought. If Bernard hadn't told landon already he was adopted, landon might've found the complete differences between him and his parents jarring, but honestly considering landon himself was born out of magic, being adopted was really not strange despite how bernard made it out at times as he almost had a weird urge to explain it to everyone the second they saw him in comparison to his mom and dad. Landon couldn't help but feel Bernard had been embarrassed by it in the past and that's why it made him so anxious, thought honestly landon felt he had been bullied for worse, and he was royalty. Guess it wasn't fair to judge, but Bernard was too cool in his mind that people picking on him so something as small as being adopted just seemed dumb. Bernard seemed reassured landon didn't care so much though, kinda like how landon was reassured bernard seemed to care less about landon being plain compared to his brothers. It kinda felt nice to have someone to trust like that. Despite all the nonsense going round the two were texting vigorously, talking about their days, terrible moments, exchanging favorite songs or movies. This was probably how Sky felt with melaine the more he thought about it, not being the friend you hang out with 24/7 but the friend you always contact and check up on and get to know through hours of fun communication and calls and video chats. A lot of people were too nervous to talk to their crush and landon knew his favorite colors, celebrities, and was the person he seemed to most confide in when he was grumbling about his family or dealing with echo creek high school. Bernard adjusted his vest and t-shirt and tried to fix his hair as he stuffed some things into his pockets, smiling at the sight of the prince and crossing his arms, "It's good to see you in person again, almost thought your super magic would transfer me through the phone...". Landon snorted, "Har har...trying to have you come over was just a pain, you're not mad right?". Of course he wasn't mad but he still wanted to ask just to make sure of it. "I'd be mad your family is struggling and are worried for my safety? It's pretty reasonable....you're my personal bodyguard right?". "Well, as long as you don't go out and do anything stupid i won't have to be...". He smiled. Landon felt red as he hoped his already pink skin would hide it a little better, the guy just had a nice smile, and he got way too worked up about it. "So yeah, just don't wander off, don't eat anything we haven't tested already for anything dangerous, don't go outside the castle cause we live on a cliff thing surrounded by lava and you'll die in that kinda heat, and if you need to go somewhere and get something you'll need me to come with you...or one of my parents....maybe judas too...". The human seemed to get it ok, which put him at ease for tonight more. Landon took out his hand and the boy happy took it and held tightly. They teleported back immediately and bernard took a second to get himself together as he looked over the castle halls of the underworld once again, "Y'know, sometimes i have a hard time believing i'm in another dimension...underground...". He was still impressed, so that was a good sign. "Gotta admit though, doesn't it suck to not get snow? Do you guys have a hard time telling when it's dark out or not?". Landon as an answer, redirected him to the nearest window, only adding to his confusion as he saw a purple...sky? "Uh...wait...what?". "We have a sorta magical simulation of a sky, it's not real...but it exists.... "Huh.." "I mean it's more exciting then staring at stalagmites and stone, it even changes depends on the weather....it rains lava down here, so stay close to me if you plan on ever going out, you're not exactly fire proof.". Bernard seemed amused though and impressed, "Don't worry, I wouldn't want to go around out there without you anyway, wouldn't be nearly as fun...". Landon felt a sigh of relief, bernard seemed pretty causal, it was going pretty well so far. "My family is royalty but trust me, they're rarely that formal or anything, well I mean they can be but usually they aren't or anything...". Bernard left the window and put his hands in his pockets, walking side by side with his friend as they strolled the halls together, gaining eyes from passing demons and monsters. "I have a few tricks i wanna show off to them if that's ok? I've been practicing card tricks and I've even gotten better at uh...you know what..", he winked and landon snorted. "I'm not sure that's a good idea to be doing at dinner of all places...". "Maybe not, but i think they'll think it'll be cool! I've been practicing and I get it back out at least 70% of the time now! Which is much better then It used to be", he seemed so proud of it, smiling heavily and making landon smile in return, "Well, that's good! I mean....good for you and all that...doesn't that hurt though?". The human shrugged, "It takes a lot of practice to get the hang of it, my parents don't exactly approve honestly of it, which isn't a surprise but...yeah...". "I mean, don't magicians always say 'Don't try this at home?'" with the kinda stuff you're trying?". "Well i mean, how do people learn to do this if they don't try in the first place?". "Just don't die on me bernard...". "Promise, cross my heart, I won't get myself killed...". It was so much nicer to talk to him in person then just in text and just from calls, Bernard had a soothing voice and it almost contrasted his strange appearance. All his piercings, even a stud in his tongue, his multicolored hair, a vest. Though honestly it made landon feel normal by comparison, everyone always said he looked like a punk and he played something as formal as violin which seemed unfitting for his appearance. They were a couple of oddballs it seemed liked. "How's school back on earth anyway? Still lame?", the demon said with a tint of laughter, trying to make the human laugh. He seemed delighted to earth a smug grin in response as the human droned on, "Could be worse, but don't worry, mel seems to keep my life pretty eventful. She likes to drag me out to her investigations as libraries or just to see movies, i guess without spending so much time with sky she's just kinda happy to have someone to hang around with her...". "My brother's not too big on her, she's kinda weird about us being demons...but she's weird about mewni in general..", landon didn't even see her as much as even he knew enough about her to know when it came to anything that wasn't like normal life on earth it made her wild, and a little annoying. "Sky like showed up on earth one day, mel saw her and they've kept touch ever since, though it's kinda like i'm not sure if they're friends or mel just thinks she's cool...". 'It's a little of both...", the boy's hand pushed some of his hair back, trying to make it a little less messy, "She considers sky her friend and tells her everything, but she also likes the idea of being apart of that world and being the hero of a fantasy story. Though i suppose what she reads in stories isn't the same as in your world?", it was an obvious trick question, but landon shook his head anyway, "Yeah, assumed as much, hey, mel saw a world she always dreamed of and wants to be apart of it....it's kinda fair....your world...is kinda cool...". "It's like..not all fun and magic though..", the prince grumbled, "Like i guess it's cool to an outsider but it can still be super boring and upsetting if you've lived here as long as i have...people suck sometimes, some people hate monsters...some hate mewmans....some just hate...failures...". He coughed into his hand and decided maybe now he better change the subject before things got anymore awkward then it was clearly already getting to be. Lucky for him, he didn't need to, Bernard seemed to notice the tension rather fast himself and immediately got to work. "Hey landon...how ok are your family with like...humans and all that?". "Hmm?". The human almost looked embarrassed, trying to repeat the question in a way that made it sound less strange, "Like, your mom.....they're human right? Are demons down here super cool with humans or is it just your parents or something?". Landon have him a strange look but tried not to think much of it, bernard probably wanted to know as much as possible about this place if he could, it's not exactly like he knew all that much about the underworld outside of some things landon explained every once in awhile. "Well i mean, my grandparents are fine, and most demons seem mostly ok....my grandpa isn't a demon so he had some trouble for awhile but you don't have to worry about my own family getting on your nerves. Don't let being human get to you too much...". Bernard raised an eyebrow at finding out there were more non-demons among them guess it was to be assumed from his perspective only demons would live down in these hot and lava filled landscapes. "Anyways, my family is cool...sorta...don't worry, you'll get used to them...", bernard eased up as landon gave him a tour around the castle for a bit, keeping him close as to make sure he didn't wander off and get himself in trouble on accident. Like landon said, most likely he'd be fine down here but that wasn't to say some demons were harmless and didn't have any vendettas against humans they'd want to cash out on, so better not risk it if he could help it. Bernard was slightly iffy during the tour and Landon couldn't help but feel worried if he was making him feel nervous or scared, though bernard seemed to be trying to hide it and keep smiling and listening regardless. When the dinner bell approached, landon hadn't even realized he grabbed onto bernard's arm to direct him to their dining room till they made it to the door, making landon tense as he immediately removed his hand, blushed and tried to prep the human for his entrance. "Ok so just...act natural, and if my parents or brothers, or grandparents say anything weird...find a way to change the subject". He was sweating wasn't he and he felt bernard's gaze on him, "Landon, you don't gotta be so nervous around me...I'm not doing anything wrong am i?'. Oh shoot, now he was making bernard feel bad, he quickly tried to ease over the situation, "No no no, it's just i've never really had a friend over so I'm worried about making you feel uncomfortable...". "I'll be ok, don't worry so much", now he was trying to help relax landon, "I'm excited! I'm really looking forward to this, i'm sure it'll be great!". Landon sighed as he pushed open the door and forced himself to relax, the rather large door opening and bernard gasping at the sight before him. He'd somewhat seen and met landon's family before, but the giant demon sitting next to a...human? was not what he expected at all, the room was also rather large but then again, demon royalty. There were also a couple of girls he remembered seeing at the sleepover there, but he paid them much less mind. Landon's parents looked more then excited to see him, waving over as they found their seats, bernard struggling to not lose his mind. He seemed more anxious now then he was before, only making landon more nervous, perhaps his grandmother and the large room made him a little nervous? Though as judas looked around, it was a little weird with his parents being lovey as always, judas seemingly engaged in a text conversation with sky, celeste being her grumpy self, and sunny and mason exchanging ideas for the next session of their roleplay game together. Bernard was most likely a little left out, and landon felt himself kinda get a little annoyed at him being mostly ignored as he tried to strike up a conversation, everyone piling food onto their plates. "So...bernard is from earth, he's...new to echo creek..". that was a good opener right? "How you liking echo creek so far?", thank god for his mom on helping him out, the human taking a bite out of their pasta and making their guest fell more at ease. "Oh well, it's alright, the school is ok...it's nothing all that special". Marco looked a little worried they had said anything weird though so bernard tried to explain further, "My family moves a lot, so it's hard to get too attached to a place, i've been to a lot of different states at this point.". "Aww i'm sorry-". "No no, you don't have to apologize! It's not your fault, besides um...it's not bad here, i wouldn't be here today if i hadn't moved here after all!", smooth, that seemed to make things a least a little bit better. Landon's parents were smiling and overall the situation was less awkward then expected. The food was actually really good as well, and eventually judas looked up from his compact to get more involved with the family, though whatever he was presumably texting sky about seemed to worry him greatly. Even Wrath was in a good mood, offering the human more food and cooing so much so, forcing the family to translate for her for a bit so bernard wasn't left confused. As dessert rolled up he found his opening, reaching into his pockets, "So I kinda like.....do magic? I mean, well, not your demon magic...or or....mewman magic either! We humans have our own kinds magic for entertainment purposes, um....is it ok if i show off a few tricks i've been learning?". No one seemed to mind at all actually, if anything everyone seemed ecstatic, sunny and mason were especially excited but that was expected coming from them. Had Bernard ever actually performed in front of an audience before? Maybe his parents and melaine , but usually this wasn't how he normally did things. Nonetheless he started with some simple tricks, pulling coins from ears, doing some simple card magic, pulling things from his sleeves and utterly fascinating them when he appeared to puke cards or pull a handkerchief from his nose. He seemed to feel more confident the further he went along, landon wished he shared more of that confidence sometimes. Everyone was enjoying their lava cake when he got to his grand finale, which left everyone excited but landon a little nervous. Though despite that he was thankful when he saw that bernard was swallowing a small peice of hard candy then a key or stapler or anything of the sort. It didn't seem anyone was actually sure of what he was about to do before he started doing it, swallowing the piece whole before trying to push it back up, however the situation seemed to panic pretty quickly. Wrath starting making troubling growls, dave stood up, tom seemed about ready to use his telekinesis if possbile, judas looked about ready to panic, celete's usual grumpy mood become more concerned, and both the younger kids were speechless. It was not particularly the reaction bernard had wanted at all, even if he was aware this could possibly happen. And landon wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in this kind of situation, it probably wasn't normally for your friend to show off how he could swallow and puke something and then proceed to figure out what to do when it didn't come back up. Marco immediately got on their feet, panicking and turning to landon, "Is he choking?", which led to landon immediately trying to clam them down despite his own anxiety. "N-no it;'s part of the trick, promise, he's just fine.". Though marco didn't seem so sure, walking over before landon tried to somewhat bodyblock his friend who was violently coughing, and if bernard hadn't slammed his fist on the table, swearing under his breath in frustration, marco would of not doubt pushed past their son to give the boy CPR. Bernard looked both embarrassed, and frustrated. He wanted to try again but reading the room told him that was probably not a good idea. Instead he silently excused himself, scooting away his chair and stomping off in utter embarrassment. He shut the door behind him and sighed before leaning against one of the walls nearby, landon rushing out to meet him moments later. Landon looked really upset, though for very different reasons as bernard crawled up in a wall and softly hit his head against the wall. "Hey...dude....it's ok, it just didn't work this time, you can try again later and-". "Your family thought i was choking!". "Well i mean, yeah but....it's part of the trick right? To gag like that to get the thing up your throat?". Bernard pulled at his hair, "They looked so panicked and worried, ugh i screwed the rest of the night up with my stupid tricks didn't i? I was doing so well too and....ugh...". Landon felt a wave of sadness wash over him, wow this really got to him didn't it? He slumped and sat next to the panicked boy against the way, he'd never seen the boy like this before. He'd seen him upset before sure, he was human of course, but not to this extent. He hesitated, before reaching a hand out towards him and resting it on his shoulder, trying to calm him down almost like how his own mother would when he was stressing out. "It's ok, I promise no one's really mad...". "But I am!", he said back, before forcibly trying to hide his face in his shirt, "I was so nervous to be here because i wanted to make a good impression! Y-your family is royalty and powerful and.....I wanted to impress them, i didn't want to screw up...and make them worry and maybe they're creeped out and will think less of me or you and...". Landon tried to get his attention to stop his worried rambling, tugging on his arm and finally getting the boy to calm down a little from his worried panic. "You really cared about my family thinking you were cool? Heh, i was worried you were gonna think my family was uncool....or...scary...the entire night i was panicking about you being scared of them since you hadn't properly met most of them before.". "Landon i'm not scared of your family, they're cool, i've honestly accepted your creepy vibe at this point.....I just don't want them to...not like me.". "You don't need to-". "Landon, you're a prince, you're incredibly talented, and your family is full of chill people. I'm the weirdo between the two of us, I don't really have any friends outside of you and melaine and i might lose you guys too, i still can't master all my tricks perfectly, my family isn't even all that supportive of my hobbies. Like, you shouldn't be trying to impress me, i should be trying to impress you! You are.....you....I'm sorry landon, I'm making you uncomfortable aren't i?". "W-what no?", his face was heating up a little more then he liked right now, but he needed to focus right now, focus on helping bernard feel better. "Bernard...like c'mon, you're super cool! I mean, i'm not even all that good at demon magic and you do pretty good for yourself with human magic! I suck at demon magic like...WAY more, i mean, you can swallow things and spit them out! You got a really pretty singing voice, and you're super friendly...like have you SEEN me? I suck at making friends, or getting along with a ton of people, i like.....sit in my room and hide away from literally everyone...". "Landon...". "Like, you're super cool compared to me....you just seem so confident in yourself and i'm...not...". Now HE was breaking down, and he felt guilty about it as he felt tears coming on, he was trying to comfort bernard and somehow he turned this session into his own weeping fest, feeling the human pull him into a side hug. "Landon...I'm sorry....I-I....I didn't mean to make this night about me....I knew you just wanted it to be a fun night and i turned it into a night about impressing your family...I....I didn't mean to...". His words wandered off as landon wiped at his eyes, "No It's....I want you to get along with my family...and well...i don't want you to beat yourself up...". "Well neither do i!". "then why are we beating ourselves up?!" "I don't...I don't know...I just.....I care ok?" Bernard felt his hair and rubbed his forehead, his fingernails tracing over his piercings. "Look....I didn't actually have really any friends back in my previous homes...i kept trying new persona's everytime we moved to y'know....fit in?". He closed his eyes, "But my friends that i made just....weren't really my friends, they didn't really know me and i was forcing myself to be friends with them and when i moved it was easy for them to forget me and me to forget them...". "Dude...". "But this.....this isn't a persona this time....I swear...i gave up trying to be appealing like my folks wanted me too and well...i decided a year ago to do whatever i wanted so....I dyed my hair, got piercings, decided to do something wild like magic of all things! And here I am now....and somehow...I well....you wanted to actually me my friend cause of it...and i wasn't doing it as an act either...And after everything else i don't want...I don't want to screw this up..". "Well, maybe you're trying too hard....and maybe i get it as well...", the demon got the human's attention away from himself again as he went on, "I kinda do a lot to make sure everything's great for you and maybe that's just too much, you should know my family and what they're like naturally more then me dictating what to do and make everything super perfect...it'[s taking a lot out of them....and a bit out of me it kinda seems...i just wanted you to like it...". Bernard seemed pretty touched, sleeve wiping his tears some more, "That's really nice of you to care that much...even if it was too much...". They finished their moping and starting to weakly laugh, landon trying to fix his running eyeliner. "Then can we make a promise to stop comparing each other and just...stop thinking we're losers? Or maybe...be losers together...?". Bernard snickered, "Maybe that's a good idea....though, i am still sorry for worrying your parents....I didn't mean to make either of us...look bad....", though landon bumped him playfully, like he was used to seeing judas and sky to each other to mess with the other. Bernard seemed to feel a lot better due to landon's shift, and bumped him back, trying to fix his multicolored hair. "I know you didn't mean to, it's ok... don't let this whole thing keep you from practicing...you'll figure it out eventually...". "I know...I just wish now of all times i didn't end up swallowing the candy instead...". "Like i said, my parents are super cool, this won't make them hate you or anything...I promise...they just care about your safety....", he kinda did promise to take care of bernard so that itself probably added another layer to the bad situation, "We should probably go back and see them right?". He knew they'd have to, he couldn't hide here forever, he had to go up and see them again before the night ended. He picked himself up, trying to make himself seem presentable as landon stood up next to him. "Thanks for....talking to me." "I wasn't gonna just leave you upset out here...like i'm responsible for you here and you're my friend...", bernard was more then thankful, working himself to re-enter the room with landon at his side. Though as they entered they could see not everything was as they left it, judas was pacing and mumbling something to himself, still looking as his compact. Celeste was mostly keeping to herself and eating her dessert, the two youngest perked up at their arrival, and the adults in the room were having a discussion that the boys had clearly interrupted. "Ah, see, they're just fine!", marco seemed more then happy with their return, immediately coming up to see the boys and hugging their son. "Uh.....". "Don't take it personally, they were worried bernard left or something...but i told them you'd be fine, I raised you better then to then that and you could handle it.", marco gave their inlaws another look, "Sorry, they're just uncomfortably used to people storming out of dinner and leaving when stuff like this happens. But I'm at least glad to see you both seemed to have talked about the issues and hopefully we can move on from what happened...just be careful with your tricks next time....ok?". Oh "I'm sorry about the trick...", Bernard stepped forward, "I didn't mean to worry any of you so much, i promise landon didn't do anything wrong, i just wanted to do the trick and i'm sorry....", marco let out a relieving sigh and placed a hang on the boy's shoulder, glancing over at the other adults. "Don't worry, i promise we're not mad, i'm glad you're ok, let's just try to make sure the rest of the night is still welcome and not make it all about this ok?". "Thanks..". "I've done much worse when i was younger, i promise you that, it's ok.". Bernard beamed. "What now?", landon mumbled under his breath, "Does he have to go home or....?". But marco shook their head, "No, i think instead let's go and play some games together tonight, is that ok? Judas might be a little distracted to play but hey, might give us a better chance at winning." Marco's smirk was enough for them, and it wasn't even that much longer later when they found themselves going up against tom and marco in a battle of ping pong. Bernard wasn't particularly good at the table sport, bu the laughter and goofing off seemed to make him happier then Landon had seen him in a long time. At one point they even knocked into each other and landon felt himself blush hard before laughing it off. He hoped they were allowed to have more days like this in the future, well, minus all the crying but at the very least having fun and getting to let all their emotions out with each other in person. There seemed to be a good chance after this night they'd get more days to hang out, at least he hoped so. By the time he finally went home, he was already planning on another visit in the near future. Maybe someday soon landon would build enough courage to make an actual move with him, but for now, this was just fine. Any opportunity to hang out and get to understand each other a little more was good enough for now, he could worry about the crush aspect later. There had been a lot of rough nights for the past few months or so but as soon as he fell on his mattress, he'd slept the best he'd slept in a very long time. Though the same could sadly not be said for his older brother in his own bed, having texted sky constantly over and over because of her most recent accusation. His eyes looking straight at the ceiling, he'd been thinking about it since she mentioned it and it was hard to get it out of his mind. Was that why the masked being looked at him so long before, because angel's parents liked him? But the queen couldn't be running around if she was sick right? Unless she was faking it and this was some elaborate scheme in it's entirely. He couldn't sleep thinking things like this, no matter how hard he tried. Especially with the thought that she was right inside the castle right now, she had got inside, with nora, sky, luna, and lexi. It was not a good feeling, at all, and they didn't even know they were right yet so he wasn't even sure if he should confront it, though if he did he could get someone hurt, but if he said nothing someone could still get hurt. He couldn't stop worrying and Sky definitely sensed it from the other side of the compact screen, trying her best to not have him panic. Judas was typically the level-headed one after all, but also the most caring and protective. He tossed and turned in his bed before sitting up and tussling his messy dark hair. No, if this had any chance of being true, they needed to confront this sooner then later. He took his charging compact from his nightstand and flipped it open to find who he needed and sighed. Judas: Nora....we need to talk about this It was a little while later till she responded. Nora: Judas...is everything ok? What do you need to talk about? Judas: Meet me tomorrow, in the gardens, we need to talk further about the arachfords

#star vs the forces of evil #svstfoe #svtfoe #sky and the forces of the multiverse #janstar bby #tomco bby #ostar bby #my art #fanfiction #fanfic #tom the demon #tom lucitor #wrathmelior lucitor #dave lucitor #queen lucitor #king luctor

12 notes · View notes

monkey-network · 5 years

Text

Good Stuff ~ Stray Thoughts: Steven Universe’s Movie

It’s high time I finally looked at this film. 100%, Monkey Style. Let’s roll...

Ah, a curtain raise. Fancy Schmancy.

Chance the Rapper! Good seeing him have a hand in the music, cause I doubt it’ll sound any different.

I wish the tale was more than just about Steven

Lucky she got planet earth, I guess.

*Holds onto the laugh* She latched onto Greg’s seed. HEHEEE KEK!

That’s one way of putting it

You know, I would’ve preferred he was 18 instead of 16. It makes sense that he’s still a teen, but that is me

I guess this film wouldn’t have gone the way it did if Steven didn’t dox himself like that.

“Saving.“ That reminds me. What of the Cluster? “They’ll never mention it.“ I know. *sigh*

I’m so glad this time skip makes me ask more than accept, trying to make me compelled for season 6 to know what happened in between that time. You’re not slick here, movie.

“The White Power Hour will be right back“

Am I the only one finding this scene with the Diamonds creepy?

“Come on, Steven. You’re all that stands between me and doing the racism.“

Connie! Glad you look spry and well in your 65% of screen time.

Cheek peck! Lovely!!!

Shoot, they could make a whole episode about him being a guest at the space camp. I mean I’m saying this cuz I doubt they are.

Ah, the “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” song.

Zach is quite the singer when he can sing more naturally

Come on Pearl, don’t make me believe Rose was a character

Oh the chest is open. Neat. Wish I cared.

Unconsenting head warp

1st Born Amethyst is adorable.

*sigh* Wonderful. It’s a shame I’m gonna forget this song.

Ah, the best character in the series has arrived

Real Talk tho: How did our antagonist get to Earth with that craft so quickly? Like, let’s say it took 10 real minutes at best between Steven giving his Homeworld speech to resting on that hill. She just had that injector, roaring to go, and knew exactly where Steven might’ve been all in that short amount of time? “You know logic is not this show’s strong suit.” Let me dream, damn it!

Again, none of this would’ve happened if Steven didn’t out himself

Ruining other people’s happiness. I love her already.

Why did Steven getting his face kicked feel satisfying?

“Pink Diamond“ Ah, the secret word.

While “Other Friends” is such a bop, one of the only good songs so far, I knew this movie would have it’s musicals take place every.... less than five minutes.

Wait. The villain has stretchy powers, so there's an in-Universe reason to be off-model all the time? Oooooh, they’re fucked.

It was at that moment the villain knew, he fucked up.

Again, Steven getting kicked feels so satisfying.

Reaper? Awwwww ye!

I’m telling you. She let him slice her.

What? How can he not control his powers while he’s aware of- ugh.

Surprised he didn’t revert back to no neck Steven

Ok, that quick censor joke got a laugh outta me.

Two for two laughs, Greg is on a roll

How would gems know what seashells are?

Three minutes apart. Not bad.

Whaaat was that zoom?

Ah, the “For the Newbies/clueless” song

We’re doing the amnesia plot, Pearl, keep up a bit.

I’m somehow giddy and uncomfortable at Spinel’s presence.

Beautiful song. Sad I won’t remember this one.

Wonderful lip sync there.

Oh no, chekov’s scythe.

Heheheheheheh, Spinel’s dead eye stare

Ah Lapis, if only the show treated you better

That’s some morbid logic. I can dig it.

Seriously, if you are aware of your powers, then why can’t yo- ugh.

Ye, get the Diamonds. They could punt the injector out, everything could go as planned. Only problem would be having to listen to them.

I doubt Garnet would know what to do, honestly.

Spinel’s VA must’ve had a blast with the role

About five minutes apart. Doing better.

Song is better too. Not memorable, but it’s a fist pump worthy tune.

Dang it, Spinel, you’re precious!

I’m with Steven, I’m getting Cupcakes vibes with that pizza slicer

Ye, just let her pick up that weapon. It’ll conveniently advance the plot.

Oh a lovely constitutional for those two.

Rise of the Shield Hero!

Four minutes apart. Slightly better.

Weakest song by far, but the visuals were amazing.

Subtle moment here. I’ll express later.

Is Onion teleporting?

So sad Ronaldo.

Okay, that was a wholesome moment. “That’s why Amethyst and Steven ARE the best.“ You know it. *fist bump*

Ye, I think it’s best to get out of there?!

I doubt it’s gonna kill everything on Earth

Oh wait, what about the Clu- “It’s not gonna be mentioned.” The Cluster deserves better, man.

I honestly would’ve loved to see Steven lift that entire thing

Great, you made it worse.

But forget the end of the world. We got music to make.

A little over five minutes. Pretty good.

Why am I getting Pat Benatar vibes from this tune?

'Disobedient’ is bad btw

The look Steven and Greg gave before rocking out? I felt that. Now....

There comes a time in all forms of media consumption where you are so utterly bewildered by an event taking place that there are so many things wrong with it that you don’t have words and you simply laugh.....

When I saw this sequence for the first time I wish I recorded it. I burst out laughing, struggling to compose myself, and I was fundamentally blown away at what in the world I was seeing. And the kicker? I wasn’t even entirely sure of why.....

It’s like so many issues cascade on your brain at once, you are overwhelmed and you couldn’t possibly pass it out in the amount of time you have left before something utterly ridiculous happens on top of what you just saw....

So that is why posts like this exist, to collect and come up with a sensible way to exhibit one’s feelings about the sequence because.... what. the. fuck. Let’s roll back.

Chad Gem? Chad motherfucking gem.

Got a pompadour, super-sized mullet, potentially 8-pack, and a clean shave which surprised me the most. They just... *MWAH* pulled no punches with Multiverse’s design.

The powers however confuse me. Can he just fly now and make anyone fly?

I get where people were coming from with their discomfort, but honestly this is the funniest thing in this entire movie. Nothing about this feels right and that just makes it hilarious.

I’m just gonna say it.... *DEEP BREATH IN* RULE 34 MUST HAD A FIE- *snap* Sorry, low hanging fruit.

Did Pearl just literally sploosh?

It’s Always Sunny honestly did this better.

Opal, you’re back for a minute! I forgot she could talk.

We All Float.

Damn Steven, you look like shit.

Steve-o, you’re not helping her situation. Comfort her, fool.

Oof, this is gonna be a painful number isn’t it?

Such a dear jester

A nice detail is that Spinel’s voice feels slowly exhausted and empty the more she shares of her memories. It makes that scene where she snapped at Steven make a lot more sense.

I also like that it isn’t clear if Steven sees what she’s envisioning but can understand what she might’ve remembered.

*taps the mic* Pink is a CUNT. That will be all.

'Drift Away’ was.. beautiful. Ugh, not gonna remember it though, which sucks.

That brings up a question. Was there never a message saying that Pink was “shattered”? Like you’d think news like that would’ve reached any and everywhere, Spinel especially. That certainly would’ve changed a few things.

Okay, ‘Found‘ was a great AND memorable song. That’s two out of.... ten. Not bad.

Greg is honestly the best in this movie.

Uh, Steven? You’re just leaving her there.

“Just Forget.“ How to make someone on edge feel worse in two words or less.

Welp, there’s Chekov’s scythe.

Pretty convenient he kept that around to further the plot.

I would say Spinel’s gone off the deep end, but.... uh, ugh I can’t help but side with her? I really just wanna give her a hug before the end of the world happens.

Garnet, are you gonna do anything? Were you this stagnant?

Ah, it’s the “Marketed like Let it Go” song.

I love that we got chill music in the midst of the apocalypse. It’s a good way to die.

Guess they saved the animation budget for the violence? Lovely.

Wait, that’s it? All that fluid and it doesn’t even look like it’ll destroy the world? Just Beach City? That kinda... kills the tension.

And why was everyone just standing there? Jesus, this feels messy.

It’s the final bout!

Tch, Get Dekt, Steven.

Shield hero’s back!

Spinel I love ya, and I don’t blame ya, but singing’s all they’ve done this entire movie.

Dead.

I got Mob Psycho vibes from that nuke. Don’t know why.

That reminds me. WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE MILITARY?! “Cause and Effect is not a stro-” Shut up!

Then stay with him, Spinel. Travel the world, be more than a single one’s friend and... oh, the Diamonds are here.

That’s a fate worse than death, dictators moving in with you.

It’s only been one night, White.... Seriously, this all happened in a day. It feels weird.

I’m with Yellow. That is sickeningly funny.

Seriously, their song is creepy. I don’t trust them like that.

I got a problem with Spinel’s ending deep down. Then again, if she can be happy... then I’m happy that she’s happy. That’s something, I guess.

Okay, I’m tired of the singing.

But when I think about it, I feel bad for Steven. All he just wanted was some time to himself where he didn’t have to deal with any bullshit. Had to teach whole dictators and remodel a whole empire. Yeah, he’s gonna change as he grows, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having “me time” so to speak. Can’t the kid have a chance to not have to worry about anything, actually live a life? No? Jerks?

Well that was a bit of fun. While the musicals and most of the characters felt like an afterthought, save for Greg, Spinel, and Steven, there were a few moments that honestly made the watch worth it, intentionally or not. I really have no interest in seeing this again, but I’m satisfied with the events that transpired and I’m glad the crew got to make this film. “What about the moral of the story?”

Eh, it’s Steven Universe, morals are whatever.

#su the movie #su critical #thoughts #cartoons #Good Stuff #dumb #long post

10 notes · View notes

buckyxsteve-r-in-love · 5 years

Text

FANFICITON IDEA UP FOR ADOPTION

I had this fanfiction idea, but I really dont have the time to write it. So, here’s the idea and its up for adoption if anyone wants it...

Starts off by dealing with the consequences of Steve’s ending in Endgame - In my little universe, when Steve went back he DID create an alternate reality/timeline and the kids in CAWS aren’t his, because ew.

So, Steve goes back to Peggy and lives his life under the alias of Richard Barnes, so as not to create hysteria by the fact that Captain America is back from the dead and only like a select few people know who he really is.

Steve does go on missions and he does save Bucky and prevent hydra from infiltrating SHIELD etc. But when alternate Bucky finds out about how Steve left MCU Bucky he can’t forgive Steve, and the two fall out.

Steve and Peggy have kids and grandkids, but only ONE of them has the combination of genes that gives them superhuman powers... Rikki Barnes (Grandaughter of Peggy Carter and Richard Barnes in the comics). Steve teaches Rikki how to fight. The kids don’t know that Steve is from the MCU, they just know him as Richard Barnes who is a secret super soldier (or whatever).

So, when it gets to around the time frozen Steve is going to be discovered, MCU Steve says bye to Peggy and goes back to the MCU timeline to hand back the shield to Sam... But he doesn’t tell his kids and grandkids because they wouldn’t have let him go, and they think he’s past away

But when they go to defrost the Steve in that timeline... he doesn’t wake up. Tony said ‘You can only mess so much with time before it starts to mess with you back’. And MCU!Steve being in the wrong timeline for so long basically fucked everything up.

So when the battle of New York happens in 2012, everything is different. Steve isn’t there as captain America, Iron man never happened (because Steve would have made sure Howard raised his son right). So, Rikki fights with the remaining avegers who are still in that timeline, but of course they lose because they needed Tony and Steve to win.

In that reality they Earth is destroyed, but the tesseract (or a portal) opens up and that timelines Rikki falls from her world into the MCU timeline... which of course has her grandfather who she thinks is dead.... Thus she is the ‘girl without a world’ from the comics.

Now it goes to the MCU, with Sam and Bucky.

Sam and Bucky are dealing with there feelings about what Steve has done - Anger at leaving them. Bucky feels worthless (my precious child), Sam is unsure about taking over as Captain America

Because the government are gross, they dont exonerate Bucky just because he fought for them in Endgame. So they put him in a psychiatric facility, for rehabilitation.

Plus, the government aren’t just gonna be like ‘Oh yeah, Sams the knew Captain America because Steve said so’. So they create a new captain America who they see as the ‘ideal’ soldier, and Sam has to go on the run with the shield so he doesnt get arrested for what happened with the ACCORDS.

Sam breaks Bucky out of the psychiatric facility and they go undercover as spies, with the help of Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Sharon Carter (Who will be a badass woman, who is not reduced to be anyone’s lover). They go on missions to prove this new Captain America is evil, and also to investigate these portals from the multiverse which have been opening up.

INSERT BUDDY COP HUMOUR

Eventually, they are going to run into Rikki Barnes whose gonna be super confused about who they are and where she is. They battle and she recognises Bucky from a photo in Steve’s office from her world. And they take her to old!Steve who is out living the quiet life.

He is forced to tell her about how he left his world because he was so broken. She’s really pissed off because technically she shouldn’t have ever existed, plus she’s really started to become pals with Bucky and can’t understand why Steve could leave him.

Bucky always loved Steve, and Steve loved Bucky - but Steve thought they’d be toxic for each other if they ever got together because they were so broken.

Rikki tells Bucky what happened to her world, but she refuses to tell Steve because no matter how much she hates him, she knows it would kill him if he knew what he had caused.

There’s an epic final battle where Sam, Rikki and Bucky team up and share the shield to defeat the new Psycho cap

Everyone is so pleased that they exonerate Bucky and Sam is the New Captain America

Rikki decides to travel the multiverse under the alias of Nomad (from the comics) fighting crime. Steve asks her for a favour before she goes. He tells her about the timeline where Thanos doesnt exist, and asks her to travel there to make sure that that Steve saves Bucky. She says she will do it for Bucky but not for him and leaves.

I had ideas for a sequel too, might post it later. Maybe I’ll get round to writing this one day, but seriously doubt it :(

#avengers infinity war #captain america #bucky barnes #stucky #avengers #tony stark #iron man #fanfiction #fanfiction ideas #avengers endgame #eventual avengers endgame fix it #steve rogers #sam wilson #sam wilson captain america #falcon #winter soldier #rikki barnes #nomad #girl without a world

8 notes · View notes

qqueenofhades · 6 years

Text

Starlight & Strange Magic, Chapter 21: In Which Lucy Makes An Executive Decision

Rating: M Summary: Lucy Preston, a young American woman, arrives in England in 1887 to teach history at Somerville College, Oxford. London is the capital of the steam and aether and automatonic world, and new innovations are appearing every day. When she meets a mysterious, dangerous mercenary and underworld kingpin, Garcia Flynn, her life takes a turn for the decidedly too interesting. But Lucy has plenty of secrets of her own – not least that she’s from nowhere or nowhen nearby – and she is more than up for the challenge. Available: AO3 Previous: In Which The Best Laid Plans, Etc., Etc.

Lucy doesn’t stir a single eyelash until ten o’clock the next morning, which coincidentally is when the sun is finally coming up. Admittedly, “up” is a bit of a misnomer, since it remains low enough to cast long shadows for most of the day, but she becomes aware of the weak glow on her face, peering through a break in the curtains, and grimaces, mumbles, and raises a hand, a cave-dweller suddenly disturbed by news from the overworld. She is extremely comfortable and could sleep another few hours anyway, but as memory trickles slowly into her rebooted brain, that possibility seems unlikely. Not even like this, engulfed in Flynn’s arms with her head on his shoulder, her legs thrown over his, her –

Wait. What? Not that she objects, but she can’t remember when exactly she ended up in Flynn’s arms, other than a brief and general memory of him crawling in next to her last night (and if she hadn’t insisted, she has the distinct feeling that this idiot would have tried to tough it out on the floorboards with a full-body beating and a badly broken leg). Even with that, she was expecting the same stiffness and distance of their night in St. Petersburg, when he caught himself apparently relaxing too much and hastily tried to separate them. But she has woken up instead with both his arms wrapped around her, practically spanning her twice, and her entire body fitted into the cracks and crevices and rugged places of his, like a lost hiker sheltering on a mountainside. When she moves as if to pull away, he rumbles in his sleep and unconsciously, reflexively draws her closer. He is warm and solid and very strong, somehow – incredibly – real, after everything they went through to get him, and it takes her breath away.

Since she doesn’t really want to get up anyway, and since she might as well savor this before he wakes up and wigs out again, Lucy wriggles around to look at him better. There are a few flecks of silver in his stubble and in distinguished touches at his temples, but his hair is thick and dark and just the right length to flip over his forehead. He has faint lines around his eyes, deep grooves around his mouth, and his nose is long. A few scars that look like claw marks stripe the heavy muscle of his upper arm, making her wonder how many were-beasts he’s tangled with apart from Wyatt, and he has clearly lived a hard life. There is a small red cicatrix just under his collarbone that looks like a healed bullet wound, and she hopes he won’t go around catching any more of those. She is overcome by a sudden desire to put her lips to it, to kiss it, to soothe this evidence of old hurts since her ability to help the new ones is so limited. She doesn’t even exactly know why, and she shouldn’t. He said no, before. He said no.

Lucy bites her lip, shifting still closer, finding nothing else to do with her left hand apart from settle it on Flynn’s chest, slowly rising and falling to the rhythm of his breathing. Moving it down feels like an invitation to awkwardness and disaster, so she slides it up instead, into the hollow of his breastbone. He doesn’t seem to be sleeping fitfully, so maybe he isn’t in too much pain from his leg, and when she lifts her hand and ghosts her fingers over his forehead, he isn’t running a fever. He was yesterday, so maybe he’s on the mend, though this would be a fast healing by anyone’s standards. Maybe the Raven King stepped in.

At that, Lucy frowns, trying to remember a dream that she’s fairly sure she had last night. Another one about ravens, though this one wasn’t seeing them above the train. This time, she was in a boggy grey field, the wind blowing in her face, and there was someone standing on the far side of the fog. She thought it was a man, but the shadow he cast was an endless forest, and ravens kept rising in whirling storms. He did not say a word, or come closer. Merely remained there, in some sort of stasis, as if waiting for a moment, for a sign. Waiting. Waiting.

That, however, reminds Lucy a little too uncomfortably of the forest in her room during the revenant attack, and since it stems from the same magic, perhaps that is understandable. But it also suddenly makes her wonder if the Raven King, if he is the maker and master of the revenants, might be considerably more dangerous than they are. She already noted Priscilla’s leery reaction to the idea of contacting him, and while she knows that Flynn reveres Matija Korvin, that Korvin is responsible for however they got out of the jam with the train, and whatever else, it makes Lucy feel that further reliance on him might be something to avoid. She doesn’t know what Korvin is, other than a very powerful otherworldly magical being that clearly has not let earthly death stop him from doing his thing, and might in fact have leveled up as a result. She has not taken his magic seriously before, and it got her attacked by the revenant. It is more than time that she takes more than a little caution with it now.

There is, however, still the fact that Emma and Rittenhouse are looking for Korvin’s lost library, and the idea of contacting him directly might also occur to them, rather than muddle fruitlessly around the Balkans in search of it. As far as Lucy knows, Emma hasn’t heard for sure that she herself is in Russia, but the news of Flynn’s capture was definitely sent back to London. Rittenhouse might not yet know that Flynn has escaped, given as the tockers on his train were all destroyed, but someone will have been waiting for him to arrive in Arkhangelsk, realize that he has not (as far they know), and start asking questions and mounting a search. Even if Flynn was in a state to be walking around the city, he shouldn’t do that. Someone here is looking for him. Might have gone to the station master, asked questions. Not to mention, Rufus and Jiya are now here too. If Emma could catch them in the same place, together, she could wipe out the whole team at a stroke, and end all further resistance to Rittenhouse and everything they could achieve across the multiverse. The chance would be too tempting to resist.

These troubling thoughts are starting to cut into Lucy’s enjoyment of the carefree, comfortable moment she woke up in, and she supposes that she can’t loaf around in bed, or in Flynn’s arms, much longer. Her leg is still sore, but her feet have been messed up in some way since she got here, and she’ll find some liniment or bandages to splint it up if she has to do a lot of walking. She pauses, then pets her fingers over his cheek, since she doesn’t know when they’ll wake up like this again and, selfishly, wants to keep it that way for a moment longer. This time, however, he stirs, eyes closed, hand rising out of the quilts to catch hers and curl his fingers around it. “Moja ljubav,” he murmurs, voice thick and hoarse with sleep. “Dobro jutro.”

Lucy’s heart turns over. She doesn’t know exactly what he said, but the tone makes it more than clear that it’s an endearment, and the fact that it was spoken in Croatian means that he – understandably – is not yet awake and thinks, however briefly, that he is back in bed with his wife. She doesn’t get the sense that he has been remotely near any other woman since then, and as much as she tries to tell herself that it’s understandable, that she doesn’t grudge it to him, she turns her head away, so she doesn’t have to see the disappointment in his eyes when he opens them and realizes otherwise. “Good morning,” she says. “It’s – it’s me.”

She’s still halfway in his arms, and she feels them tense. She steadfastly keeps her gaze on the window, waiting until she feels it would be safe to look back at his face. There’s a long pause. Then he says, “Yes.”

It doesn’t sound disappointed. It doesn’t sound – well, like anything. She’s not sure what sort of answer yes is anyway, unless it’s confirming that he has recollected himself and remembered who he was speaking to. He opens his arms as if to make it easier for her to slip out, and Lucy does so, not sure that she’s ever felt more mortified in her life. (That includes the drunken hookups in her acting-out freshman year at UCLA, when she woke up in some dorm room smelling of rancid socks, next to some pasty-ass kid she didn’t know, and had to scramble to remember if they’d used a condom.) She disentangles herself from Flynn and sits upright, on the edge of the bed, to make it clear she’ll put space between them and wasn’t trying to sleazily make a move on him when he was asleep. Her cheeks burn. Silence.

“So,” Flynn says, after an excruciating pause. “How… how are you?”

“Fine?” Lucy can’t tell if he’s taking refuge in inane pleasantries to smooth things over, if he’s asking if she’s physically on the mend, or – or what. “I’ll do. I really should be asking about you. How’s your leg? Is it any better?”

Flynn wiggles it experimentally, which does not cause more curses or grimaces. “Better,” he agrees. “I had a dream that – well, anyway, maybe there was some leftover magic for it. It still feels like someone stuck it with a thousand hot needles, but that’s an improvement.”

“Either way, I don’t want you running around on it,” Lucy orders, sounding like a stern hospital matron to her own ears. “It was broken literally yesterday, and besides, there have to be Rittenhouse people in Arkhangelsk looking for you, if they were sending you here in the first place. You stay in today and rest. I’ll go out and see what I can find.”

Flynn looks briefly inclined to protest, but stops with a wince as he moves his leg again; evidently it’s not completely healed, and even his absurd pain tolerance has its limits. Nonetheless, he does not agree to be confined to bed and fed gruel like an invalid, and heaves himself up, the too-short nightshirt hiking up his muscled thighs and nearly giving Lucy a look at something she would rather not see. Not that she would find it unattractive, but really, the opposite. She is trying with all her might to mind her manners and maintain the boundary he asked – the kiss was an emotional, spur-of-the-moment, enchantment thing, she can’t count on him wanting to do it again – and she does not need to be taunted like this.

After considerable effort on both of their parts, they get washed and dressed, which almost feels familiar from their room-sharing in Oxford, and head downstairs. Rufus and Jiya are awake, talking cautiously with the landlady, who has cooked an enormous breakfast since it’s the off-season for trade and they are the only guests in the boarding house. “What about your friend, in cellar?” she asks, spooning more eggs onto Rufus’s plate even as he protests that he couldn’t eat another bite. “I bring him also some food? Bacon, sausage?”

“I – yeah, I think he’d probably like some meat,” Rufus says, visibly chewing his cheek. He’s been reluctantly persuaded that Wyatt is safe to be around after he’s been removed from the Raven King’s magic and taken a large dose of medicine, but he also has the look of a man who spent the night jumping at small noises. “Whatever large carnivores eat.”

“We could ask him to come up here,” Lucy says. Wyatt probably feels enough like a dirty animal, tied up and stuffed in the cellar and shunned, brought down scraps from the kitchen table, and while she doesn’t know if it would help, it certainly can’t hurt. “He – it’s all right, you know, he’s not… it’s controllable.”

Rufus, who has had a far too eventful time since his crash-landing in Westworld, gives her the fish-eye. “Lucy, I know I’m new around here, but it feels like rule number one would be don’t get too cozy with the – ” At that moment, he notices the landlady listening avidly, remembers that they haven’t told her what’s up with their extra tenant, and waves his hand. “You know.”

“I’ll see if he wants to come up,” Lucy repeats stubbornly, ignoring the communal wince. She gets up, goes to the cellar door, and after calling down reveals that Wyatt is awake (“was he howling at the moon?” Rufus asks behind her), asks if he wants to join them for breakfast. It takes a while, as evidently Wyatt is no more eager to be around them than Rufus is to have him, but he finally appears, pale and haggard-looking. He glances around at the tense expressions of everyone at the table, then sits carefully at the end. Rufus watches him like a hawk.

“Hey,” Wyatt says, once the silence has gotten excruciating. “I’m – sorry about – you know. The other night.” He glances at Flynn in particular, since the goose egg on his head is still quite purple, as is the corresponding eye. “Did you have to hit me so hard, though?”

“Did you have to keep a secret like that?” Flynn arches a cutting eyebrow back at him. “You’re lucky I only hit you. If I’d had the right gun with me, I would have shot you.”

Lucy doesn’t really feel that this is getting everyone off on the team-spirited foot that she had hoped for, and clears her throat, trying to break apart Wyatt and Flynn’s staring contest. “We can all agree that nobody was expecting it. So – ”

“Yeah,” Rufus says. “You know, like the Spanish Inquisition. Also a noted bad thing.”

Lucy gives him a look, and Jiya giggles, even as Flynn, the only person at the table who doesn’t get the joke, stares at them like they’re crazy. Even Wyatt has to snort. Once he has been served by the landlady, and she has stepped out of the dining room with some of the dirty dishes, he says, “I just – I thought I could keep it under wraps until I found a way to get rid of it. Yeah, I didn’t tell you, I’m sorry. But do you think anyone would want to help me, or even be seen around me, if I’m like, cool story bro, I’m a werewolf? I asked someone what happened to them. They said they either went insane, got shot by hunters, or did horrible things and turned into scary stories. Funnily enough, none of those options sounded that great.”

“When did it happen?” Flynn asks, ruthlessly practical as ever. “How long has it been?”

“About ten months after I got here.” Wyatt rubs his face. “I was looking into some supposed associate of yours in Romania, I got lost in a thunderstorm, and had to bunk up in some ruined castle. Next thing I know, it’s a fuckin’ horror movie in there, and I…” He trails off. “I don’t remember most of it. I had to visit some crazy old witch and she told me what happened. That I had to get my hands on some special kind of medicine, or it was, you know. What went down the other night. That’s why I kept working for Rittenhouse. I needed the money for it.”

“You stayed in a ruined castle in Romania? At night, in a thunderstorm?” Flynn looks absolutely incredulous, as if Wyatt could not have more eagerly jumped up and down in front of the universe begging it to turn him into a werewolf if he tried. “You couldn’t pay me to do that. All of them are under Dracul’s curse. Some more than others, but everybody knows that.”

“Yeah, well,” Wyatt says, with a very sharp edge. “I’m not from here, am I? I didn’t know that.”

Flynn shakes his head, half in horror at Wyatt’s professional incompetence and half in grudging acknowledgement that he was terribly briefed for this job and it’s not his fault that he was dropped into a magical, dangerous world without so much as a memo. At that, however, Rufus looks up sharply. “Wait. So you – Flynn, you’re up to speed on the whole… thing? About where we’re from, and – all that?”

Flynn shoots an odd, oblique glance at Lucy before he says, “Yes. I’m aware that all of you are from a neighboring reality and have arrived here by different means and methods. I assume the question of how to get you home will be sorted out later.”

“There’s something called the Mothership,” Wyatt says. “It’s how I got here. Rufus said back in St. Petersburg that he knew how to drive it, if we could steal it.”

“It’s the only way we’re all getting out of here,” Rufus says. “The Lifeboat was only modified for one, and it’s back in New York anyway. The Mothership can take six. Plus, we’d leave Rittenhouse without a time machine, which kind of seems like an important strategic move.”

“But Emma could find the Lifeboat, if we left it here in Westworld,” Jiya points out. “She wouldn’t turn a hair in leaving everyone behind to use it for herself. We’d have to find it and destroy it, or remotely detonate it, or have someone go back in it separately. Maybe you or me, in case something went wrong.”

Lucy looks away. All this talk of how they’re getting home is, of course, very important, but it makes something odd and unhappy squirm like cold lead in her stomach, and she doesn’t even know why. She’s been here a while, maybe it’s natural that she’s ambivalent about leaving. She’s met Ada and the Sokolovs and other people she likes a lot, she’s had her time at Oxford, she’s even managed to enjoy herself between the kidnappings and monster attacks and other events that have consistently occupied her time since she got here. She reminds herself that she wants the Internet and jeans and modern life again, trashy television, proper medicine, not getting side-eyed by misogynists in monocles and top hats every time she dares to venture out of doors alone. (There is plenty to be said about the modern world still being misogynist, but at least not so overtly.) Her time in Westworld has been very interesting, but there’s no reason she can’t go, no reason that she’d feel some sort of inexorable gravity pulling her back, when her life, her existence, her friends, are all in her birth reality. When she can’t give that up for a man who doesn’t want to, who is still in love with his dead wife and devoted to –

Rittenhouse is in her birth reality. Her childhood, her entire life, the Cahills and the youth groups and Noah and the brainwashing. Her mother telling a ten-year-old that she was a princess, Henry Wallace’s face, I’m not your real father, Lucy – a week later, he was in the coffin, pale and stiff with formaldehyde, she wonders now if Rittenhouse killed him, had a hit put out to punish him for spilling the beans, anything that might lead her from her true destiny as –

Lucy can feel the breakfast threatening to come back up, and swallows heavily, bracing her hands on the table. Rufus and Jiya glance at her, concerned. “Lucy?” Rufus says. “Lucy, are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” She manages a very forced smile, still feeling a little sick. “We really need to find out what Rittenhouse is doing here. What’s the plan?”

It turns out that frankly, they don’t have much of one, but they try to thrash out a few particulars nonetheless. Of their four Russian speakers, two (the Sokolovs) are in the hospital and one (Flynn) can’t walk. As before, that leaves Karl, so if anyone is going to ask questions and pick up rumors, it has to be him. Rufus is, unfortunately, conspicuous as a black man in nineteenth-century far-north Russia, so he’s going to draw a lot of attention if he walks around town. He is also very leery about being paired up with Wyatt, though Wyatt, as a private bounty hunter and ex-soldier, is pretty good at investigative work. “Look,” he says at last, sounding frustrated. “I can’t help that I’m a damn werewolf, but if we run into the Raven King’s magic and I start transforming again, just run really fast in the opposite direction. Otherwise, I have the medicine, it shouldn’t be a problem. I want to get out of here too, so… allies for now, all right?”

Rufus continues to eye him suspiciously, as if to say it’s always idiot white people that die in a horror movie, because their black friends are smart and know not to fuck with things that will kill them. Finally, however, he says, “Okay. So what, pee on the fire hydrant as a warning if you feel it coming on?”

Wyatt gives him a death stare, and Rufus raises his hands. “I only want to make sure we’re clear here. I’ve never worked with a werewolf before, I’m just trying to establish the rules. If we determine that I don’t taste like kibble, then – ”

Wyatt growls, sounding not-unlike his lupine self, and Rufus jumps, apparently deciding to can it with the dog references for now. There’s another awkward silence, and then they clear their throat and rise to their feet at the same time, jostling the table. Lucy and Jiya get up as well, as if sensing that interference may possibly be needed on any number of fronts, and go to get wrapped up, since they’ll be the other half of the recon team. As they’re pulling on coats, fur hats, and mufflers, Jiya says quietly, “So, what exactly is it with you and Flynn?”

“What?” Lucy was under the impression that she was managing to be generally circumspect about looking at him (or not looking at him) during breakfast. “What about Flynn?”

Jiya gives her a look. They haven’t exactly had girl talk about anything in a long time, especially not boyfriends, since there hasn’t been anyone in Lucy’s life remotely fitting that description. But Jiya and Rufus know Lucy well, and Rufus might have filled her in on some of the things that he observed while recovering in the warehouse. At last Jiya says, “You were more determined than I’ve ever seen you to get him back, and I’ve seen you be determined about a lot of things. You were stuck to him like glue that entire night on the train. And now you’re looking at him, like – well – ”

“Like what?” Lucy’s voice sounds briefly high and unnatural to her ears, and she tries to modulate it. “How exactly do you think I’m looking at him?”

“Like you…” Jiya looks as if she can’t decide whether to say this out loud, when she has a feeling Lucy already knows damn well what she’s going to say and is being deliberately obtuse. “Like you’re completely gone over him, and have no idea what to do about it.”

That, Lucy is forced to grimly admit, is an unfortunately accurate précis of her present situation. Even so, she feels some instinctive need to modify it, to push back on it, to make it sound somehow less consuming and terrifying than it is. “It’s not that,” she says quickly. “Not exactly. I just – all right, I guess I have a little bit of a crush on him. It’s been a long time, and he – he understands me. But it’s not – ”

“Crush, huh?” Jiya winds a long knitted scarf around her neck, pulls her dark braid out, and ties it. “So that’s what you do for all your crushes? Come on, Lucy. Is that why you were sitting there looking like you were being boiled alive when we were talking about how to get home?”

“I wasn’t,” Lucy says weakly. “Of course I want to go home with you.”

Jiya eyes her for a moment longer, then shrugs, pulls on her mittens, and steps to the door. “Well then,” she says. “We’re not going to have much daylight, we shouldn’t waste it.”

Grateful for the abrupt change of subject, Lucy follows her out, winces as the full blast of the cold hits her in the face like a fist, and can feel it even through her multiple layers of heavy clothing. She and Jiya trundle through the several inches of fresh spindrift, glancing back to make sure they know where the boarding house is, as Wyatt and Rufus emerge on their heels and they split in opposite directions down the street. Lucy swings by the gang’s accommodation to chivvy Karl off his ass and out into the cold, which he does with a deeply resentful look at her, and then tries to guess where Rittenhouse might have been expecting to stash Flynn. Not that they can storm it with just her and Jiya, and the last thing they need is another Sibley’s-office fiasco, but they have to start somewhere.

The day remains a low, chilly shade of blue as Lucy and Jiya search through the warehouses on the waterfront and some of the outbuildings around the railway station. The port is locked in with ice, an eerie white carapace spreading out to the horizon, and all the ships are in dry-dock to avoid being crushed, making Lucy think of Shackleton and the Endurance. That, of course, was at the literally polar opposite side of the earth, but it has the same wild winter ferocity, the sense of a place only incidentally lived upon by humans, where the might of nature could rise up and flick these insects off its back at any time. The tip of her nose has gone numb, she hopes she doesn’t get frostbite, and while it’s not as cold here as the interior of Siberia, at Yakutsk or some other place where you can throw boiling water out the window and it freezes instantly, it’s more than damn cold enough, and Lucy is feeling cramped and sluggish. “This is pointless,” she says, breath gusting in white billows. “Rittenhouse has some other safe house. They’re not – ”

At that moment, they’re cut off by the crunch of footsteps from just around the corner, and Lucy throws out her arm, pushing Jiya back against the wall, as she draws her gun with the other. It’s too cold to run automatons regularly around here, since their joints and gears would freeze up, which means that the approaching entity is likely human. It could just be a confused merchant or whatever, but as the man appears, face just visible under a fur hat, Lucy recognizes one of the thugs who was with Emma in Mr. Li’s opium den, back in London. They stare at each other, it hits in the same moment, and then he goes for his gun.

He’s fast, but he has to get it out from under several layers, and Lucy, who has hers already out and ready for action, is faster. She nails him right in the kneecap, and he goes down with a crash, spraying snow. He’s still fumbling, trying to get his gun one-handed, so she strides over and kicks it away, spinning the revolver and pointing the barrel dead at his head. “I wouldn’t.”

“What the h – ” The Rittenhouse goon grabs at his bad leg, groaning with pain. “What the hell are you doing here, you crazy bitch? You’re supposed to be in England!”

“Yeah, well, doesn’t look like I am, am I?” Lucy is tempted to shoot him again for the crazy bitch part, but she is savagely enjoying having the drop on Rittenhouse for once, and she needs a lot of answers. Not that she thinks this one will provide them without acute persuasion, and she isn’t someone who will torture a suspect into talking, but there are other ways. “Sorry to mess up Emma’s evil plans. And you were here, what, to get the sacrificial altar ready? Kill a few black cockerels first?”

“I don’t know what Emma’s doing.” The goon tries to find something, to no avail, to wrap around his shattered knee. “Just go and – ”

“I think you do.” Lucy keeps the gun trained on him. “Why are you in Arkhangelsk? Is Emma supposed to join you here? What did you have planned for Flynn?”

“Go to hell, I’m not – ”

At that, again, something very weird happens. There’s a shift in the air, a faint smell like wet earth and starlight (she didn’t know that starlight had a smell, but she does), and then another man steps into sight from behind the brick wall. He is handsome, black-haired, and very pale, almost the same color as the milky sky, and is wearing a long black fur coat. His brows are thick, his strong nose reminiscent of a raven’s beak, and it might be Lucy’s imagination, but he doesn’t seem to leave footprints in the snow. Despite the cold, he isn’t wearing a hat or gloves, and comes to a stalking halt in front of the whimpering Rittenhouse agent. “You. Thomas Brent?”

Both the agent – Thomas Brent, apparently – and Lucy gape at him. He’s spoken in English, but with a strong Slavic accent, and with a conscious cadence as if thinking hard about it. Something about his voice makes you want to kneel down in front of him, and Lucy finds her legs starting to bend unconsciously, before she stops. Jiya shoots a look at her in complete bafflement, and Lucy shakes her head, mouthing, I have no idea. The mysterious black-haired, black-dressed newcomer stares down at Brent, who winces for seemingly more reasons than his smashed knee. Then the man says, “I recognize you. You were the one that the woman sent to search the dark places in Slavonia. You were searching for my books.”

Brent stares blankly at him, drop-jawed, as a sudden realization hits Lucy. This is probably a very bad idea, but she can’t help it. Shocked, she blurts out, “Matija Korvin?”

“You know of me.” He turns his head, cocking it as a bird does to look at her, as the full force of his uncanny eyes train on her. They are just as black as the rest of him, with no visible pupil or iris. “I know you as well, Lucy Preston. Perhaps you are surprised to see me here, in this mortal ken, in a form that can be perceived by your eyes. I have been less obvious until this moment.”

“You helped us the other night, on the train,” Lucy says. “With the ravens destroying the tockers, and – and making the locomotive move. Thank you.”

Matija Korvin seems amused that she thinks he wants her gratitude. The edges of his form blur slightly when she looks at him directly, as she remembers Flynn telling her that they believe the Raven King never really died, only took up a throne in Faerie instead, and now lives forever beyond the gates of the human world. Sometimes he still returns to wander his old domains, and to assist those who call upon him, but he must always go back. “I know this man,” he says, turning that stare back on Brent, who now looks thoroughly unnerved. “His mistress wants my library. She has many plans for it, apparently. Is that so, creature?”

“Y – yes?” Thomas Brent might not be great at making life choices, judging by his employment as Rittenhouse bruiser, but even he is smart enough not to lie to a terrifying fell being. “Look, man, I don’t know anything about this magic shit, I just do what Emma tells me. I knew there were some books she wanted me to find, some raven guy, but – ”

“Silence.” Matija does not raise his voice, exactly, but it’s distant and rumbling and inexorable as a thunderstorm, and Brent shudders. “Do not profane yourself by speaking of what your filthy tongue and your rodent brain cannot begin to comprehend. You greedy, vicious, short-sighted mortal, ruled by your baser impulses like the rest of them. I should kill you, Thomas Brent, since the lady is too gracious to do it. But I suspect first that she has some questions. Is that not what I interrupted you in, Lucy Preston?”

“Ah – yes, you did.” Lucy does want Brent to talk, but she is also oddly wary of getting too close to Korvin himself. The air feels still colder around him, and she has that brief sense of the forest, as if the revenant is drawing close again. Lucy isn’t sure what the protocol here is exactly. Finally she says, “So, we were on the subject of what you were doing here in Arkhangelsk.”

“I don’t – ” Brent’s gaze flickers fearfully between her and Korvin. “My leg, I can’t – ”

Korvin utters an exasperated noise and waves his hand, and Brent howls as the shattered pieces of bone snap back into place with an audible, wet pop. “There,” the Raven King says. “You humans and your much-troubled legs. I was unaware that the leg had any bearing on the ability of the mouth to speak. Now answer her, or I will break it again, and others.”

“We – ” Brent licks his lips, breathing fast and shallow. “There’s something here called the Angel’s Gate. Emma sent me to find it. It’s the place where we can establish a permanent passage back to our world, once we have enough aether, and once we worked out how to stabilize the singularity. She thought it and the rest would be in the library, that’s why she wants it. That way, we wouldn’t have to risk taking the Mothership back and forth every time, and with the railway in operation, we’d have a constant pipeline for. . .” He hesitates. “For magic.”

“Oh?” Lucy recalls what Anton told her, the legend of Arkhangelsk standing on the spot where the Devil was defeated, and her thought that there might be some kind of shield wall between the branches of the multiverse. Apparently, that is essentially it, but this is where Rittenhouse intends to permanently jam that door open, to drain away this world’s magic into ours. “So that is what you wanted Flynn for? The sacrifice to open the gate?”

“Emma doesn’t know how to open it for sure.” Brent has turned almost as pale as Korvin himself, though Lucy can’t tell why. Maybe shock, or cold, or something else. “I was supposed to help figure that out. She said that most of this old kind of magic would take a human sacrifice, and Flynn’s a pain in the ass. Once we finally got him, yeah, I was gonna see if killing him would finally do something useful for us and – ”

Lucy stares down at him. She is aware of her blood beating in her ears, rushing in her head, in a way that almost frightens her – not least because she wants to pull out her gun and finish Brent off on the spot, interrogation or no interrogation. It is briefly all she has space for inside her, the knowledge that this man would have killed Flynn as part of some attempted black-magic ritual for Rittenhouse’s ultimate power if he got the chance, and it takes her a very long moment to recover herself. At last she says, “Where is Angel’s Gate?”

Brent hesitates. Korvin clicks his fingers. Something snaps in Brent’s leg with a crunching sound, and he gags. “Ah! Dammit! Solovetsky, dammit! Solovetsky Monastery! On the island! About a hundred and fifty miles west of here, in the White Sea! I was trying to figure out how to get there with everything frozen up, so – ”

Lucy is dimly familiar with that name from somewhere. She thinks Solovetsky might have been the prototype for the gulag system; it was a place of exile for the enemies of the tsars beforehand, as well as religious objectors to Russian orthodoxy, and many writers were imprisoned there after the Russian Revolution. The monastery has a spirited history of independence and idiosyncrasy, and in this reality, the monks must also be magicians, the guardians of untold mystical secrets, including a gateway between worlds. However, as Brent says, getting a hundred and fifty miles out into the frozen White Sea at this time of year is not a walk in Hyde Park. Lucy thinks briefly, and wildly optimistically, that this logistical difficulty might also stymie Emma, but that would be extremely foolish to assume. She’ll probably ice skate out there if she has to.

“Anything else?” Lucy asks. “Anything else at all?”

“No.” Brent gulps. “No, come on, that’s all I know. I swear, I swear. Come on, just – ”

Lucy eyes him coolly and pitilessly, unmoved by his pleading. Nobody stirs, until Korvin clicks his fingers again. Brent convulses, as fine black cracks spread up his face, like a piece of porcelain dropped on the floor. Then he smashes like glass, and a flock of ravens come soaring out of him, screeching and cawing, as his body crumbles to dust. In an instant more, there’s nothing but a heap of grey ash in the snow in front of Korvin, who bends over and regards it dispassionately. Then he straightens up and turns to Lucy. “My apologies for that mess,” he says, with grave, old-fashioned courtesy. “But it was a maggot, not a man. He should have known better than to be discourteous to you.”

“Ah – thanks?” Lucy was prepared to kill Brent herself for a moment there, but it’s still slightly disconcerting to see him literally dusted. “Your – Your Highness, this has been very informative, but maybe we should – ”

“Why do you hasten away?” Korvin has the air of an immortal to whom time is only a vague and mildly irritating concept, like the distant buzzing of a fly. “There is more that we could speak of, Lucy Preston. You are an impressive woman, and clearly most powerful. For a human,” he adds, as if she shouldn’t go getting too carried away. “Yet you grieve. You wear heartbreak like a shadow on your brow. Why is this?”

“I – ” Lucy isn’t sure if the goddamn Raven King just asked about the dismal state of her love life, but that was what it sounded like. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“Is it a man who turns you the color of woe?” She has to admit that he has an unusual, poetic way with words, though that probably comes from being a very well-read, four-hundred-year-old magician. “You should wear a crown of roses, not of thorns. I could fashion you one, like so.”

With that, Matija holds out his palm, and a delicate silver tiara materializes it in, bedecked with fine, tiny pearls and a diamond as clear as cut ice. Lucy has an urge to put it on, as reflexive as the insistence to kneel earlier, which startles her. She is aware, however, that that would be a bad idea, and if she did so, it would be very difficult to take it off again. She is aware that she is being enchanted, and it is a strange, dissociating, giddy feeling. “It’s beautiful,” she says, having to work harder for words than usual, “but no, no thank you.”

“Is it the warmth of human flesh you wish?” Matija raises a hand, as if to set it alongside her cheek, but not quite, and she can feel the chill radiating off it. “Yes, I forget. I could make it so for you. My last wife died many years ago. I was quite fond of her and did what I could, but she never took to Faerie, not entirely. You, though. I think you would. You would be a dread and lovely queen, and no man would ever mistreat you there, or speak you ill, or give you anything less than what you deserved. Certainly not this one who seems so ignorant of what he has, so determined to stubbornly spurn you, as Garcia Flynn. He owes me a debt, you know. I have recently been to remind him of it. Shall I ask for you as my payment?”

“What?” Lucy has been struggling to stay awake, as her eyelids are starting to feel heavy and she can hear the distant, unaccountable sound of bells. That, however, jolts her back to consciousness. “What do you mean, your payment?”

“I have done great magic for him.” At close range, Korvin’s eyes are matte black, with no reflection or light in their depths at all. “He owes me something of equal value in return. Those are the laws. Those have always been the laws. I think it would be an arrangement not to the dissatisfaction of either of us. Shall I ask for you?”

“I. . .” Lucy’s head is still fuddled with the scent and weight of magic, like heavy incense, but at that, she manages to shake it. “I – no. No, thank you. That’s very generous, but no.”

Korvin does not answer for a long moment, looking her up and down. She has the sense he is not used to being refused, which indeed probably doesn’t happen when you’re a demi-god prayed to for centuries by your people, their patron saint and their legendary hero. Nor does he seem very pleased by it. “Neither of you can break the laws,” he says. “You would be most unwise to try. You would be a most powerful Raven Queen, Lucy Preston. It is a great destiny I offer you, a choice given to few. I will ask again soon. Perhaps you will have reconsidered. I urge you so.”

With that, with no further ado or pyrotechnics or movement whatsoever, he isn’t there anymore. Lucy feels as if she’s had a bucket of cold water dumped on her head (in this already-too-damn-cold place), staggers, and blinks very hard. She glances around, sees that she is still standing in the rundown warehouse, and she takes a few anxious steps. “Jiya? Jiya!”

In a few more moments, she finds Jiya, who seems strangely unclear on what has just happened or where exactly Lucy was. She can vaguely recall that there was someone else there, and that she saw him, but can’t put it exactly to words. “Was it – did we just meet some sort of major Westworld cryptid? Is that what happened?”

“Honestly, I think that’s probably the best way to put it.” Lucy rubs at her eyes again, trying to chase off the remaining haze. “Did you hear the part about Angel’s Gate?”

“I. . . think so?” Jiya frowns. “It was. . . somewhere?”

“Solovetsky,” Lucy says. “Solovetsky Island. That’s where Rittenhouse wants to go, that’s where they want to set up their permanent wormhole and magic supply route to our world. Emma doesn’t know how to open it – yet – but she’s probably not far off. That’s what Flynn was for, a test human sacrifice. We need to figure out how to get there.”

Jiya frowns at her. “Where did you learn all that?”

“From the Rittenhouse agent,” Lucy says, which is true enough. “You were there, do you not remember any of it at all?”

“It’s just really fuzzy,” Jiya says. “Who was that man in black? Was there a man in black?”

“That was the Raven King.” Lucy debates how much to explain. It occurs to her too late that she didn’t ask him about the revenant, about how to free Amy, while they were face-to-face, and yet she can’t help but feel that that information would definitely not have come for free. “He’s a famous magician, kind of a big deal around here. I found out a little about him, but Flynn told me more. You don’t think I still have any of his magic on me, do you? The last thing we need is to go back and set Wyatt off again.”

“I guess not?” Jiya says, in a tone of voice indicating that this is way past anything that even she understands. Almost any kind of science or math, she can get, but magic was never on the curriculum at Caltech. “Lucy, you’re feeling okay, right?”

“I’m fine.” Lucy is surprised by the question, since Jiya is the one who doesn’t seem to remember anything that just happened right in front of her. “Look, at least we have something to report, and it’s still freezing. Let’s go back.”

They trudge through the frozen snow to the main promenade, as Lucy looks out at the ice sheet of the White Sea and tries to think how they are ever going to get to Solovetsky Island. She has definitely been put off the idea of calling on the Raven King again, since what he said about the debt Flynn owes has considerably rattled her. That is definitely not something that Korvin is going to just graciously put aside and forget about, and it sounds very much as if he knows exactly what he wants to settle it. Lucy said no once, but is she going to be able to do it again? Fucking off out of reality to go be an awesome fairy queen and live forever in a magical land is not a terrible fate (you know, if the alternative was coming home to Trump, maybe she should seriously consider it). And yet, Lucy knows it’s not what she, at her deepest and most fundamental level, really wants. It’s not something she appears likely to get. But it still is.

The sun has edged very low on the horizon, even though it’s only midafternoon, by the time Lucy and Jiya, huffing and puffing with cold and exertion, plod back up the steps of the boarding house and knock to be let in. The landlady opens the door, and the air inside is almost scalding in comparison, so Lucy strips off her wraps too quickly and then feels her body complaining vehemently that it doesn’t know what temperature to be. She is somehow both shivering and sweating at the same time as she walks into the kitchen, which is a very stupid state of affairs, and stops short at the sight of Flynn sitting at the table, bent over a stack of books. “Shouldn’t you still be in bed?”

“I told you that I wasn’t staying stuck in there like some weakling.” He answers without looking up, turning the page and frowning at whatever he sees on the other side. “I haven’t been walking, like a good boy. What did you find out?”

“Several things,” Lucy says. “Apparently you were supposed to be sacrificed to see if it would open something called Angel’s Gate. Rittenhouse wants to use it to move aether into my world. It’s on Solovetsky Island, and I have no idea how to get there. And. . .” She hesitates. “And I met the Raven King.”

“What?” It’s only at that last one that Flynn looks up, with a rather wild expression. He pushes back his chair and jumps up, bad leg or not, as if to run toward her. “You – are you – you’re not, he didn’t – ?”

“I’m fine.” Lucy debates whether to mention the rest of it, as she herself is increasingly unsure if it happened, and it is starting to turn jumbled and unclear in her head. “He appeared while we were. . . talking to the Rittenhouse agent I caught. He helped get him to talk. That was how I found out about Angel’s Gate. He said something about a debt you owed him.”

Flynn has an expression of total and badly managed panic on his face at that. He raises a hand as if to run it through his hair, stops, starts to say something, and likewise can’t get it out. “You didn’t. . .” He seems to be forgetting all the words he knows, in any number of languages. “Did he ask if you. . .”

Lucy wants to say that he did, but she can’t remember, and she’s a little thrown by his apparent horror, since this doesn’t seem to be where she recalls leaving things off with them. “I decided against it,” she says. “Whatever he was asking.”

This appears to do nothing for Flynn’s ambient terror level. He mutters a curse under his breath and turns away, almost losing his balance on his bad leg, and has to grab for the table to steady himself. Back to her, he says, as if needing to put it into words to see how unbelievable it sounds, “You rejected the Raven King.”

“Would you rather that I didn’t?” Lucy takes an angry step. If he’s going to tell her that he wished she did vanish into Faerie forever and never saw him again, she’s going to – she doesn’t know, but there will be a lot of slapping involved, which he is possibly fortunate to have evaded. It hasn’t felt sporting to hit him when he’s been in such decrepit shape, but still. “Did you want me to say yes? Or just – go?”

Her voice chokes on the last word, she can’t quite get it out, and she thinks just then that if he says yes, if he does say anything remotely in that vein, it will in fact break her heart, and she doesn’t know what to do with that. It’s not a crush, it’s not a passing fancy, it’s not something casual and commonplace and easily replaceable. As she stands there, staring daggers at Flynn and strongly tempted to kill him – which you’d think would not be the correct moment for this realization, and yet, that is Garcia Flynn for you – Lucy feels it settle into her like the snow itself, as cold and frightening and unshakable, elemental, unbearable. Oh shit, she thinks. Oh, shit.

At last, slowly, Flynn turns around and meets her eyes. “I don’t,” he says, as if still struggling to remember how to words. “I don’t – I don’t want you to go. Lucy, how – Lucy, I don’t, I can’t – that’s not why I’m here.”

“Oh?” Lucy takes another step. They’re almost nose to nose despite the height difference. “Then why are you here?”

Flynn opens his mouth. The look on his face is hard to categorize, aside from a blend of shock, confusion, alarm, and consternation, none of which feel like a prelude to an impassioned love declaration. He raises his hand to cup her cheek, as if it’s too hard to say it aloud and he is going to struggle with all his might to demonstrate it instead. That’s not a kiss, right? It can’t be a kiss. But the look in his eyes is heartbroken and tender and more devoted than Lucy thought was possible for one human man, and she rises on her toes, opening her mouth, closing her eyes, ready, so beyond ready to give herself to him, if he will have her, and –

Just then, the kitchen door bangs, a snowy Wyatt and Rufus barge in, and Lucy and Flynn spring apart as if they’ve been electrocuted. It’s good to see that Wyatt is in fact un-wolfed, but Lucy practically wants to throttle him herself for the interruption – even as she is, ridiculously, almost relieved. If it was then, if it was real, if it was what she thought it was just then. . . she doesn’t know if her heart could bear it. She knows it, she knows it, and it’s possibly the first time in her life that she’s been absolutely sure, and she is terrified. She’s in love with Flynn. She’s in love with him. She feels sick at the idea of leaving this reality because it means leaving him and never seeing him again. That every step they get closer to beating Rittenhouse, if they can even flatter themselves that they will, means one step closer to permanent goodbye.

“Well,” Rufus says. “I’m really not sure how much use that was, because we didn’t learn anything. Aside from the fact that it’s freezing, which was obvious. Lucy?”

“Yeah?” She struggles to recollect herself. “What, Rufus?”

“Did you find anywhere about where we’re supposed to go, or do, or – or what?”

“Yes.” Lucy doesn’t know for sure what’s waiting out there in the dark, in the frozen sea, in the night and the wild, and yet. All the woods belong to him. She might not know what, but she does know who, and it gives her a chill beyond all sense or speech. “Solovetsky Island.”

#timeless #timeless ff #lucy x flynn #garcy #garcy ff #starlight & strange magic #steampunk au #fun fact! this is now as long as tangled web #are we done?#no #no we are not #i don't know why they're like this either

48 notes · View notes

anistarrose · 6 years

Text

Some Sunny Day - Ch. 1: Prologue (Gravity Falls Same Coin Theory)

Summary: Time isn’t linear, Stan has a catchy piano tune stuck in his head, and blue flames threaten to consume the peace that the Pines family has found.

Warnings: None for this chapter

Next chapter

AO3

(Based off the Same Coin Theory by @dubsdeedubs and @renmorris, a longtime favorite theory of mine!)

The gryphon they encountered on the rocky Alaskan island was nothing like those that Stanford had met before. The near-omniscience was impressive enough, but given what he knew about gryphon vocal cords, Ford almost thought the fluent English was even more extraordinary. Almost.

“Stanford and Stanley Pines,” it addressed them, not moving its beak at all. “Though you’ve both gone by other names at different times — most notably in Stanley’s case, of course.”

It gently floated to the ground, then folded up its wings and began to groom (preen?) its chest fur.

“I’d appreciate it if you put your weapons away,” it told them. “Though I don’t blame you for that sort of reaction. I am something an outlier among my family.”

It spoke the word family in a way that made Ford suspect it was referring to its entire species. And seeing as this gryphon was the only one they’d met that hadn’t tried to eat them, Ford was inclined to agree with it.

“Of course. We apologize,” Ford told it, holstering his gun. He noticed that the gryphon was a bit smaller than the ones he’d seen before, though not drastically, and its wings were a darker dappled brown instead of the usual beige. Were the biological differences a result of its unique abilities, he wondered, or were those abilities an adaptation made in response to the disadvantages the biological differences caused? Being nothing if not a scientist, he couldn’t help but ask.

“If you don’t mind the question, what is it that makes you you? What is the cause of this outlier status?”

The gryphon tilted its head at him like a dog expecting a treat. Ford supposed it didn’t get very many chances to talk about its talents — or talk to anyone, really — in this barren environment.

“You could probably trace it all back to my precognizance,” it told him. “I can see into many different times, but knowledge of the future was what changed me most.”

Stan narrowed his eyes. “Oh yeah? Give us an example of this future knowledge.”

Ford could relate to Stan’s skepticism. Most people would have believed it without a second thought — the gryphon had addressed them by name, after all — but being raised by a fake psychic tended to make you suspicious of such things.

“Gladly,” the gryphon replied. “First of all: there is a reunion awaiting in your future.”

Aware of the usual cold reading tricks, Stan and Ford stayed silent, careful not to give the gryphon any extra information.

“You’ll return to a familiar situation, but you aren’t trapped in a cycle — there once was a cycle, but you’ve already broken out of it. You will, however, reminisce on past mistakes, and the correction of those mistakes. And you’ll both find answers to questions you didn’t know you had — at least not consciously.”

It paused. “Is that sufficient? I don’t want to go and spoil everything, you know.”

Stan and Ford exchanged a look.

“The ‘reunion’ thing means spendin’ another summer with the kids, I guess?” Stan suggested.

“Probably.” They had indeed been planning to reunite with the kids in Gravity Falls next month. “Returning to a familiar place… that’s Gravity Falls, of course, but I have no idea what cycle we used to be trapped in.”

“Petty arguments and grudges?”

“Fair enough, I suppose. But what about the questions we didn’t know we had?”

“Well, right now we don’t know we have ‘em, duh.”

Ford sighed. The predictions were vague, but the more specific parts seemed plausible. Only the passage of time would allow him to seriously assess their accuracy… though Stan, for his part, had taken the whole thing (relatively) seriously, which meant he probably believed it was real. And given how skilled Stan was at spotting scams, his gut instinct was more than good enough for Ford, even as unscientific as it was.

“That’s sufficient. We believe you,” Ford told the gryphon. “But if you don’t mind, how exactly did you gain this ability? Is it inherent, or acquired?”

The gryphon spread its wings — preparing to take flight, Ford realized. He knew gryphons didn’t like staying in one place for too long, but he’d hoped this particular one would stick around for a bit longer — he just had so many questions…

“Time isn’t linear,” it said, “you of all people should realize that.”

(Was it just Ford’s imagination, or did the gryphon look briefly at Stanley?)

“That means that seeing the future really isn’t all that difficult. A lot of people can do it — at least to some extent — if they’re taught the right way. But if you must know — well, I can’t go spilling all of my secrets, but I will leave you with this: there is a being I am indebted to in many ways, a being that itself sees many things that from your perspective are yet to come.”

For a second, Ford was afraid that that was all they were going to get, that the gryphon would fly away and leave them with only questions and no answers. But then, it added:

“Stanford Pines, I believe you’ve heard of the Axolotl during your travels?”

And with that, it took to the sky and didn’t look back.

Well, that was an answer that just raised more questions in its place, Ford thought, his mind whirling as Stan gave him a concerned look. But I’ll take it. I’ll definitely take it.

“Ford? Earth to Ford?” Stan asked. He may have repeated it a couple times; Ford wasn’t really sure. “I’m guessing you do know something?”

“Yes, something. You could say that,” Ford finally answered. “Let’s get back to the boat and pray we have an Internet connection. There are a lot of things I want look into.”

***

“We’ll meet again…”

Stan was by no means a good singer, but Ford thought he’d gotten used to it over the past eight months. And really, he was used to it — it was just the song that he couldn’t bear to listen to.

“Don’t know where, don’t know when…”

He was trying to ignore it, to not make a big deal out of something he shouldn’t have cared about, not after the better part of a year had passed, but —

“But I know we’ll meet again, some —”

“Could you shut it already?” Ford snapped, slamming his fist onto the rail of the Stan O’ War II with more force than he’d intended and instantly regretting it. Not so much because it hurt his hand (though it was a little painful), but because he worried how Stan might react to it — not well, that was for certain.

But Stan just gave him a look that was more concerned than hurt. “Whoa, Poindexter, I’ve been singin’ for about six seconds. Somethin’ wrong?”

Ford looked down. “I’m sorry, I just… I don’t like that song. Do you think you could sing something else?” He could have elaborated on why that song unnerved him so much, and Stan probably would have understood right away, but Ford had stayed up unhealthily late the past night researching and wasn’t in the mood to talk about Weirdmageddon.

And Stan couldn’t have possibly have believed him that it was that simple — Ford never snapped at him unless he did something remarkably stupid or unintentionally triggered a painful memory, and Stan wasn’t doing anything remotely stupid or risky at the moment — but he didn’t question Ford.

“Meh, my voice is kinda tired anyway.” It was a blatant lie, and the attempt to change the topic that he followed it up with was just as blatant. “So, you figure out anything else about that salamander god?”

Ford accepted the escape route Stan had offered him. “Well, technically I suppose I have, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.”

They’d spent three days sailing south since the gryphon encounter, and despite their Internet connection holding out far better than Ford had ever dreamed of, he’d hadn’t been able to find very many things that he hadn’t already known.

“It manifested itself to countless groups across the multiverse, I’m sure of that, but it seems that the only surviving records in our dimension were created by the Aztecs. And you know I’ve already read nearly everything there is to read about their god Xolotl.”

“Yeah, god of ‘twins and deformities.’ You’ve had that obsession since, like, middle school.” Stan tried not to pronounce the names of the god or the amphibian if he could avoid them. “And you even had one of the pink frilly guys in your lab.”

“I wish we could visit Mexico to conduct more research of our own,” Ford mused. “I have a vague idea for a summoning ritual, but I need more…” He paused as Stan’s words sank in.

“Yeah, too bad the kids will never forgive us if we skip out on them this summer to search for a magical fish lizard,” Stan told him, not realizing anything was wrong. “And I can’t remember what name my all my arrest warrants in Mexico were put out under…”

“Stanley, wait. You said you found an axolotl in my lab?”

Stan blinked. “Yeah, the one in the fish tank. I was afraid I was gonna accidentally kill him or somethin’ after you… ya know, fell through the portal, ‘cause I didn’t know what to feed him or how to clean his tank, but the little guy stuck around almost until you got back. You… you knew about it, right?”

“Almost until I got back?!” Ford asked. “Axolotls can live for fifteen years if they’re cared for well, but twice that?!”

“Yeah, I always wondered if you did some weird spell on it or somethin’. But… you really didn’t know about it?”

“I never kept an axolotl in the Shack,” Ford confirmed. “I honestly would have loved to have one as a pet, but I didn’t have the time to take care of one. They require a specific type of food, a specific temperature range, a specific type of materials in their tank… I can’t imagine any way one could have gotten there by natural means!”

“Would it freak you out more if I told you it just disappeared a couple days after the kids showed up last summer? Literally nothin’ left behind, like it dissolved in the tank or somethin’?”

Ford slammed his hand against his forehead. “Stanley, I can’t believe you had a ghost axolotl in your house for three decades and never brought it up until now.”

“Hey, how am I supposed to know what’s normal for pink salamanders? They could have all lived that long and disappeared like that, and I would have sounded like an idiot for bringing it up!”

Ford shook his head. “It has to all be connected!” For about the seventh time, he regretted not bringing a bulletin board and red string with him on the Stan O’ War II. “Your axolotl, the god Xolotl, the countless references I’ve heard across the multiverse to a benevolent creature that guards against evil and patronizes those with prophetic ability…”

“So… you really think it was the Axolotl in that tank all those years?”

“I think it’s quite probable. But… just what would the Axolotl want with you, Stanley?”

***

Ford had fretted over the Axolotl for several more minutes before they encountered what had to have been some sort of cursed seagull — no normal bird could possibly crap that much, right? — and their attention was very quickly drawn elsewhere.

As they were cleaning up the aftermath of the attack, Ford mentioned something about the Axolotl probably knowing that Stan was destined to defeat Bill, but he quickly abandoned the thought to continue cursing out seagulls in every alien language he knew. The explanation must have at least partially satisfied him, though, since when they went ashore that evening Ford fell asleep almost immediately in the hotel.

“I’d still like to do more research, of course,” he told Stan before completely losing consciousness. “Maybe we could sail south after this summer, visit the region where the Axolotl manifested himself as Xolotl. But I do think it’s likely that he paid you a visit knowing about your eventual role in Cipher’s downfall.”

Stan wasn’t as satisfied, for reasons he couldn’t quite pin down. Rare were the times when Stan was the twin lying awake at night, thinking about the day’s unsolved mysteries, but tonight, for whatever reason, he’d transformed into the resident sleepless conspiracy theorist.

He had a weird gut feeling telling him there was something he was missing — forgetting? — about the Axolotl, and he’d learned to trust his gut over the years — it had saved him so many times he’d lost track. His subconscious apparently knew a hell of a lot more than he did — though that really wasn’t much of an achievement, he figured.

There was a weird sense of urgency to his gut feeling today. Stan wasn’t sure he’d be able to describe it if he’d tried. There was just a hard-to-explain emotion — not really fear, he didn’t think, but definitely not a positive emotion, either — that rose up in his chest whenever he thought of the future: of returning to Gravity Falls, of reuniting with Dipper and Mabel and everyone else, of actually traveling to Mexico with Ford one day to learn more about and maybe even meet the Axolotl.

Big things are coming, he thought. And I can’t stop them.

Then he thought, Come on, Stan, you’re getting as paranoid as Sixer. Next thing you’re going to be keeping a diary all written in code.

So he ignored his gut and let himself fall asleep, a familiar tune about reunions and clouds and sunlight running through his head just as it had been ever since leaving that barren Alaskan island.

L wrog brx wkdw zh’g phhw djdlq Vdlg L glgq’w nqrz zkhuh ru zkhq. Exw qrz wkh vxq lv vklqlqj Vr pdbeh zh’oo uhdolch L’p qrw frplqj edfn RQH GDB — L’yh EHHQ edfn iru rxu zkroh olyhv.

Thanks for reading, feedback is appreciated as always!

I’m aiming for weekly updates, but I can’t promise anything, especially if I’m struck with inspiration for other unrelated one-shots and the like. I have the whole plot planned out, and completed fic will probably be about 14 total chapters, plus or minus two.

#gravity falls #same coin theory #stanley pines #stanford pines #bill cipher #the axolotl #fic: some sunny day #rosalia writes fic #i am truly excited to share this fic #(partly bc it's the first multichapter fic i'm posting #and partly because i'm just so excited about this theory/concept!)#this is just the prologue so it's just setting up themes and foreshadowing #but (bill voice) big things are coming #you can't stop me #seriously the next chapter is almost done #and i am very proud and hyped to share it

80 notes · View notes