#the reveal where they start monologuing their master plan together

[thepatronsaintoffilth]

the best shipping dynamic, bar none:

slutty ultra feminine bimbo that dies first in a cheap slasher flick x serial killer that only pretended to kill her in the first act so they could team up to kill more people together because they're both sick fucks

bonus points if their last intended victim is the final girl who they attempt to seduce or coerce into joining their thrill-kill team and make it a throuple because she's such a resourceful survivor and they're both turned on at the thought of having a franchise player like that in the squad

[benefits1986]

Digital Detox

When your modern daily cross is a black mirror, spending quality time away from it allows you to see the universe in full color.  Fourth of May. Cinco De Mayo. My Taurus Twin Tower’s birthdays. V’s 40th death day. C’s death anniv. All died too soon. And this Labor Day... my ina’s 40th death day. The past weeks have not been easy but, I know something really curious is coming, or perhaps, already started. Still hanging by each moment that is either a spiral or a sparkle.  What did I do the during my first-ever long leave this 2023?  -Finally had a video call with my soul sister that turned out to be a session about the inner child conversations PLUS was able to finally tell her something I’ve been meaning to reveal since we were 17 years old (Yes. I’m that “not an open book” even to those closest to me.)  -Visited ina’s grave several times without breaking down when no one’s watching and started planning her eternal home in a style that best represents her existence and her after life, too (Damn. This is not about the glam side of burial spots. It’s about carving her corner where her 70-80+ kids, grand kids and great grand kids can come together.)  -Planning the restoration of my ina and ama’s humble home and turning it into a humble ancestral home which is so surprising as this has been a really, really crazy ride; but is here and now. (Never expected that we’d be on this page; but, hyperinflation is real so, let’s proceed with caution and a consistent set of actions. Will most likely focus on curating bits and pieces of my family plus restoring photos, mostly in film.) -MatchaME’s first voyage in the hilly sides of my ina’s sleepy town, an art hub in Laguna, another sleepy town where there’s a tiny eatery I grew up loving called Beatles (This happened during my Taurus Tito’s birthday.) In fairness, this B is really a good buy after the long wait since 2015. Will talk more about this soon because it deserves its own space and pace. HINT: No vinyl stickers, no bathroom tapes, no bike skin. Laspagan szn is on na ba talaga? Abangan ang B-Rides & B-Rolls: South To North Edition, mga ka-thiccs. LOL.  -Seeing a red pimped pick up (Rar!) and a yellow butterfly during MatchaME’s first 7Eleven stop over. Cried fat tears in between chugging cold caramel mach and polvoron which again reminded me a lot of my Tito’s usual merienda in our roadtrips. The pick up was very much like my Tito’s aesthetic so it’s not about the glam car; but how it reminds me that I have to keep moving forward and that though a pick up is a dream; truth is, dreams could be demons and dragons, roaring in red, too.  -Getting my teeth cleaned and hearing (again) that I have to stop munching on ice because my teeth are in good shape for my age BUT the cracks are gonna bring them down. The dentist is a Gen X liberal-conservative lady who wants to set me up with male people because she feels I am prime for survival with a pack. Later, she realized that she’s gonna have a really tough time looking for someone I can actually date. Let’s see what happens because I already politely declined but she insisted. LOL. Mhie, house plant era na po kasi talaga ako.  -Getting a turtle named Master Splinter for Batulao garden house. :D I can no longer get another dog, so let’s go with the reptilian empire this time. Also, my inaanak Z has a pet turtle!  -H1 life audit (jusq). No further comment, your Honor.  And “so what?” and “what now” monologues.  -Managing my dad’s looming spiral without him noticing it as a sneaky shithead me (LOL). Losing a mom is really life-altering.  -Ambient noise and sound immersion. Didn’t listen to any PL and rarely watched any vids/content pieces which is so otherwordly. Ah, analog in lo-fi and hi-fi... you are liquid gold, indeed -Vitamin D dose :D (Still didn’t get caramel skin because my hair color is a blocker; but really had a good time under the morning sun plus sunsets, too) -Looking after my cousins as they face a final battle with the Big C in the family WITH specific boundaries  -More hustle, more intent, a volunteer work that’s really close to my hidden heart and soul and a new workspace ---all these are coming this week onwards. Test of maturity, patience and intent. Never easy to be honest, but, I’m really, really, really excited. There’s something about the testosterone x estrogen x progesterone high and lows that gets me going. I really need to turn the “spiral” vibes to “sparkle” vibes. The spiral is not about work to make it clear. It’s about the road to 2024 and beyond. ;) LUH.  My soul sister told me so many times that something is OFF the past weeks. Told her that, after so many struggles, I am choosing peace amidst the chaos, the noise and the non-essentials of the gods. She was taken aback and so I am. She also told me that my aura is radiating a glow. As an empath, she is amazed and still in disbelief because for the first time in forever, I might have been changed for good. Let’s see!  May the Force be with you and me!  PS: Really need to rewatch Star Wars. Road to geek na ba talaga ito? (Stereotyping na naman po tayo, so early in the morning!) Daming XY na tatawanan ako kasi mukhang kakainin ko mga bashing ko sa kanila from then until now a; but I don’t care. LOL.   PS2: Hogwarts Legacy is still on my mind, heart and soul. :D Ang mahal though ng mga gaming consoles but, I’m thinking of making content out of this. Rar. Eto na ba ‘yun? Para naman sulit ‘yung effort saka first of hanashes in life. Abangan! 

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Unfinished Meta #2

WWX is established in the text as observant, making it incongruous that he’d also somehow be at the same time ‘oblivious’

We all know that WWX is a genius and a prodigy, which is not that interesting (how many characters are geniuses and prodigies?). But WWX is not only smart--he’s very observant, which is already more interesting. It is not clear, to me, whether these observation skills come from WWX’s innate abilities, the way his parents brought him up in his early years, the challenges of surviving in the streets, or the result of having to negotiate the pitfall and tensions as a permanent guest of the Jiang household--or even a combination of all these. Whatever the source or reason, WWX’s quick wit and deductive skills is perhaps his most established character trait we get in our first introduction to the character. While the Mo Mansion arc is dense with characterisation (WWX kicking the door with his foot and then throwing the bowl to the side! WWX calling LSZ ‘xiao mianzi’ in his internal monologue 😭), there is a clear bias towards establishing very early this part of his character.

(here I wrote “add quotes” but you can just refer to the meta I actually wrote about the Mo Mansion arc lmao)

WWX is good at reading people, understands how to goad them into reactions or how to diffuse tensions (although is not a master manipulator like JGY or NHS, nor as good of a arbiter as JYL or LSZ). This is made clear even in the earliest memories we see of him, when he angers LQR into throwing him out of class, or angers LWJ into destroying the evidence of the spring book he brought into the Library. We see it in his treatment of other characters; for example, he realizes early on that Jin Zixun is a prideful prat who needs recognition, so WWX purposely pretends to forget his name to antagonise him.

But more often, especially as an adult, his ability to read others and guess their reactions is used to scrutinize them or assess a situation, to make people confess or say something they hadn’t meant to divulge. During Guanyin Temple, until the moment JGY brings up LWJ’s feelings, WWX is very clearly trying to make JGY reveal more about his plan and his past deeds, or trying to find ways to distract him and his goons. Likewise, he sees through JGY’s attempt to do the same (up until the moment he brings up LWJ, at which point WWX is too heartsick and heartbroken not to pursue that line of enquiry, even while knowing it is part of a ruse, of a means to best him), warning LXC against falling for his tricks, and having to witness JC falling hook, line and sinker later on when JGY goads him.

At times, he’ll play-act a character to achieve this goal, as we see in the Mo Mansion arc when he puts on the persona of a lunatic in front of the Lan Juniors so that they will not suspect him of being a skilled cultivator while he assess the situation and finds how to protect them from the unknown enemy. (here it said add more examples of play-acting lmao)

On top of it all, WWX is also established to be well-learned and knowledgeable about the cultivation world and politics throughout the novel, as well as being creative and inventive, coming up with a new branch of cultivation and many devices to help his endeavors, like the zhaoyin flags or the empathy technique.

Being observant and having good deductive skills should not mean however that the character cannot ever be wrong or misled in their observations and conclusions; in fact, most pieces of fiction including such a character will often use the character’s personal or internalized biases and prejudices to make them grow or to shape some parts of the plot; Sherlock Holmes was bested by Irene Adler because of his prejudices against the ‘fairer sex’; Lizzie Bennet, who prided herself on her abilities to read people, was fooled by Wickham both because she mistook his genteel manners for good nature and because she held prejudices against Mr Darcy and was already willing to believe him to be a villain. What is important in these examples is that there is always something that explains, something that contextualises why the observant character came to the wrong conclusion (and how they finally understood their mistakes).

The novel often puts WWX in a situation where he doubts his observation/thinking, and has to face conflicting or contradicting information in order to decide whether or not he’s sticking with his initial assessment or not. For instance, in Chapter 10, he starts questioning whether or not LWJ really is unaware of his true identity after surprising him in the Cold Springs, even he remains uncertain until LWJ tells him so (and then, it takes him a while to figure out how LWJ did realise his identity, but WWX does ultimately figure it out on his own).

He did doubt that Lan Wangji might have guessed who he was. However, the doubt was lacking in both sense and reason. As sacrificing one’s body was a prohibited practice, there were probably not a lot of people who knew about it. The scrolls passed down the generations were most likely partial pieces of the entire work, unable to reach their full potential. Things continued like this, and so there were less and less people who believed in it. Mo Xuanyu only summoned Wei Wuxian by looking at a secret scroll, wherever he found it in the first place. Anyhow, Lan Wangji couldn’t have recognized him just from the awful flute melodies that he played.

He asked himself whether or not he had a heartfelt relationship with Lan Wangji in his past life. Although they had studied with each other, went on adventures, and fought together, all of these experiences were like falling petals and flowing water—coming and going. Lan Wangji was a disciple of the GusuLan Sect, which meant that he had to be “righteous,” quite incompatible with Wei Wuxian’s personality. Wei Wuxian thought that their relationship wasn’t exactly bad, but it wasn’t that good either. The chances were that Lan Wangji’s opinion of him was the same as everyone else’s—being overly wanton and not virtuous enough, it would have been only a matter of time before he caused a disaster. After Wei Wuxian betrayed the YunmengJiang Sect and became the Yiling Laozu, he had a few significant disputes with the Lan Sect, especially during the few months before his death. If Lan Wangji was sure that he was Wei Wuxian, they should have already been engaged in a large-scale fight.

Yet, he wasn’t sure what to make of the current situation—in the past, no matter what he did, Lan Wangji didn’t tolerate anything, but now, even though he used whatever methods he had up his sleeve, Lan Wangji could still tolerate him. Should he be congratulated because of his progress?! [Chapter 10]

[shirtlesssammy]

4x02: Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester

Then:

Dean Winchester is saved

Now:

Olivia, a hunter, wakes to cold air and flickering lights. She runs for her shotgun just as Bobby leaves a message on her answering machine. 

Her EMF is going nuts as she patrols her house. Suddenly ghosts that she recognizes give her the one two punch and she’s a goner.

At Bobby’s, Dean is vehemently denying that he was “groped by an angel.” Bobby’s got lots of lore on angels, though. It seems they’re the only thing that could pull a human soul from Hell. 

Sam thinks it’s a good thing that Dean was saved “by one of the good guys.” And Dean wonders if there is a God. BABIES. Dean’s having a hard time believing there’s a god out there that personally believes in him. Oh, buddy, he cares just a little too much, I’d say. Dean’s self-loathing is off the charts though. And this is getting way ahead of myself here, but even though Chuck cares in the sense that Dean is a fun little puppet for him, it’s Cas that really cared all along. He believed in Dean so much, he gave up everything for this man. BIG SIGH. 

Dean demands pie before digging into the angel lore.

Sam runs off to forget get the pie, when he sees Ruby lurking. She wants to know if the angel stuff is real. Ruby’s scared for her demon life and takes off.

Sam gets back to Bobby’s in time for all three of them to take off to investigate why Olivia isn’t answering Bobby’s calls. Also, he forgot the pie.

They find Olivia disemboweled on her bedroom floor. And Bobby can’t get a hold of any nearby hunters. They check them out to find everyone dead. 

They need to get back to Bobby’s to regroup.

Sam’s getting gas for the Impala while Dean sleeps. He makes a pitstop in the gas station restroom. The room suddenly gets cold and Victor Henrickson appears!

He blames Sam for his death. He starts to attack Sam but Dean comes in with a save and a shotgun.

Bobby meanwhile is haunted by a couple giggling raggedy twin girls. Fun! 

Sam and Dean race back to Bobby’s. They can’t get a hold of him so they enter his house with shotguns ready. The boys separate and while Dean checks out the upstairs, Sam heads outside. 

Dean runs into the ghost of the woman who was once Meg Masters. 

She blames Dean for her possession...and Dean hates himself enough to actually believe it all. It wasn’t your fault, dude. Also, as much as they’ve learned about demon possession and all, if they would have met Meg at any point in the future, they would have just stabbed her with Ruby’s knife and she’d be dead anyway. Idk, saving people is good in theory, but hard in practice for these guys. I also know this is a manipulation. “Do you know what it’s like to be ridden for a month by pure evil?” HE DOES! Leave him alone! 

Meanwhile, Sam’s trying to find Bobby outside. He’s currently being held down by a couple scary ghost twins. 

Ghost of Meg continues to taunt Dean, and pins her sister’s suicide on him as well. MEG. NO.

Outside, Sam finds Bobby trapped in an old scrap car. He helps break him out and together they swing iron through the ghost girls. 

Dean drags himself away from Meg, and aims his gun at the iron chandelier up above. DAMN BOBBY that’s some fancy light fixture work! The chandelier smokes Meg out...for now. 

Back in Bobby’s living room, they realize that all the ghosts had a brand on their hands. Bobby hauls out the lore and leads the Winchesters down to...dun dun DUN...his safe room. 

We get the grand tour because this is the FIRST TIME WE’VE SEEN IT. This safe room has everything! Iron! Salt! Devil’s traps! Lore! Racy posters! Booze! Weapons! The vanished hopes and dreams of Dean Winchester! A cot complete with restraints! The Winchesters are impressed. 

Later, Dean breaks into a theological monologue while making salt bullets. My sweet sunshine! How dare you speak my love language! “If [God] doesn't exist...fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason - just random, horrible, evil. I get it, okay? I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?” (Because, sweetie, freedom is a length of rope and God LITERALLY wants you to hang yourself with it.)

Bobby finds the brand - it’s the “mark of the witness.” They’re ghosts forced to rise and destroy people. In fact, the Rising of the Witnesses is part of an ancient prophecy. A prophecy of...DOOM. It’s a sign of the apocalypse. Dean suggests coping with a series of wish-fulfillment trips including: Grand Canyon, Star Trek Experience, and the Bunny Ranch. Somebody please write me that fic. Instead of Dean’s plan, Bobby suggests running an ancient ritual to shut down the witnesses. To do so, they first have to race out of the panic room to gather ingredients before the ghosts have a chance to yank their insides outside. 

Ronald from the bank heist greets them at the stairs. Bobby blasts away Dean’s guilt ghost for him, and we cut to a montage of spell preparation. The three of them split up to fetch supplies. Ghosts appear to torment them. 

Meg appears to Sam, only she KNOWS more than she should. She knows about Sam’s fraternization with Ruby. 

In the kitchen, Victor appears to Dean. He reveals that after the Winchesters left, Lilith gruesomely tortured those left in the station for almost an hour before blowing up the place. While Dean absorbs this fun fact, Victor makes his move, plunging his hand into Dean’s chest.

Sam saves Dean just in time with a well-aimed salt round. They start the ritual, Bobby’s living room teeming with ghosts. Bobby chants while the Winchesters play shotgun whack-a-mole with the ghosts. Meg jabs a hand into Bobby’s chest. Bobby drops the bowl and Dean dives for it like it’s a football, then tosses the spell into the fire to finish the job. 

That night, Dean wakes from his slumber.

Castiel stands waiting for him (watching him sleep??) in the kitchen. He congratulates Dean on their triumph over the witnesses, and announces that he has already started doodling Mister Castiel Winchester in his notebooks! 

Dean feels a little raw about nearly dying (again) and wonders why angels are total dicks. “Read the bible,” Cas advises. “Angels are warriors of God.” Oh, and also? He’s not here to PERCH ON DEAN’S SHOULDER. Oh honey sweetie baby. 

Dean tries to read Cas the riot act and rails against God’s shitty parenting. 

Cas: The lord works…

Dean: If you say "mysterious ways" so help me, I will kick your ass

Cas warns Dean that big...no, cosmic things are afoot.

The Rising of the Witnesses is one of sixty-six seals that Lilith is busily unlocking. Each seal is a lock holding Lucifer in his cage. Dean has trouble believing that Lucifer is even REAL. Sassy Cas smiles. “Three days ago you thought there was no such thing as me.” 

Cas tells Dean that Heaven isn’t infinite. Angels have died in the battle so far, and more may be at risk. (Excuse me while I weep for the next twelve seasons. There have been 0 days since the last angel mishap.)

“You think the armies of Heaven should just follow you around?” Cas asks, telegraphing his series story arc. “You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in.” Cas flaps out.

Dean wakes up for realsies. WAS IT ALL A DREAM? He asks Sam if he believes in the Devil…

You Should Show Me Some Quotes:

All I know is I was not groped by an angel

If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?

When have I ever forgotten the pie?

Where’s the pie?

I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos -- you know, Michael Landon. Not dicks

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[thisaliennerd]

so true blaine, sam and britt are autistic!! but post about it i wanna know why u think that

I literally only needed one person to ask me this, so thank you for being that person, anon! Britt is very self-explanatory, and Sam is also pretty obvious imo (although I do have lots of notes on him too), but since I think Blaine needs a little bit more explaining, here is my evidence as to why I think he’s autistic.

First of all, let’s look at some of the common symptoms of autism in adults:

Difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling

Trouble interpreting facial expressions, body language, or social cues

Difficulty regulating emotion

Trouble keeping up a conversation

Inflection that does not reflect feelings

Difficulty maintaining the natural give-and-take of a conversation; prone to monologues on a favorite subject

Tendency to engage in repetitive or routine behaviors

Only participates in a restricted range of activities

Strict consistency to daily routines; outbursts when changes occur

Exhibiting strong, special interests

I think Blaine exhibits all or almost all of these things throughout the show, so let’s go through the list, point by point (with examples):

First, difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling. Blaine is very bad at this, especially romantic feelings. He doesn’t catch on to Kurt or Tina having crushes on him for way too long even though neither of them are subtle about it. He also doesn’t seem to pick up on most of Sebastian’s stuff. He seems to be aware that he’s hitting on him, but he doesn’t seem to be aware of his rivalry with Kurt or any of his malicious intent. Every time he and Kurt get into a fight he needs Kurt to explicitly tell him what’s wrong. 

Second, trouble interpreting facial expressions, body language, or social cues. Blaine is TERRIBLE at this. He doesn’t understand sarcasm, he can never tell when people are lying to him, he often doesn’t understand how to talk to his peers, and he has no idea when people are uncomfortable. I have so many examples for this and the first point, but here’s just a small sample: s2e12 (22:15) - not getting that Jeremiah was very uncomfortable with the song, s5e9 (37:20) - when he’s named valedictorian instead of Artie or Tina, he apologizes to them and says that he thinks that things get handed to him, they sarcastically say they haven’t noticed, and Blaine believes them, s5e14 (15:10) - when he asks Kurt if he’s smothering him, and Kurt lies and says no, he believes him even though Kurt is a terrible liar, and (my favorite example of this) in s6e5 (40:15) - saying that he should thank Sue for trapping them in that elevator because now he and Kurt are just friends, and she says, “So thank me” and he actually says thank you (followed by Kurt saying, “Don’t actually thank her!” - amazing).

Third, difficulty regulating emotion. Blaine is very bad at regulating his emotions, especially negative ones. Most notably, anger. Blaine has intense angry outbursts, which will tie in later. Examples of this: season 3 episode 8 (13:50) - getting into a fight with Sam, season 5 episode 14 (26:50 and 27:20) - yelling at Elliot, and season 3 episode 15 (22:35) - outburst at Cooper.

Fourth, trouble keeping up a conversation. Blaine frequently talks about how he’s bad at communication and talking to people, especially about feelings, outside of song. He often has to sing to say bad news or confess things. Examples of this: Singing to tell Kurt about him cheating (s4e4 - 14:30), singing to confess his feelings to Sam (s4e17 - 21:15), singing to tell Kurt he’s not in June’s showcase (s5e20 - 10:40). When he is confronted by a conversation that makes him uncomfortable or that he wasn’t prepared for, he often has to shut down to think about it. Examples of this are when Kurt confesses his crush in season 2 episode 12 (30:40), Sam telling him he knew about Blaine’s crush in season 4 episode 17 (37:10), and the Frat Boy Physicals incident in season 5 episode 16 (21:05).

Fifth, inflection that does not reflect feelings. Generally, Blaine seems to be pretty good at this, especially in comparison to Brittany, but when he gets upset, he does sometimes get weirdly monotoned or just puts on a strange tone of voice. The best example of this I have is in season six, episode four (9:40 and 10:10).

Sixth, difficulty maintaining the natural give-and-take of a conversation; prone to monologues on a favorite subject. This is definitely true, especially when he gets upset about things. Season 5 episode 7 has the best examples of this, he starts by trying to lead the glee club in Mr. Shue’s absence, but he ends up coming on too strong and speaking over his peers (00:40). Next, when Kurt implies that he’s being a puppet master, he gets very upset, and keeps focusing on and coming back to that, even when Kurt tries to change the subject (6:45), and finally, he starts ranting to Brad, and cuts him off when Brad tries to chime in with his problems (11:40). 

Seventh, tendency to engage in repetitive or routine behaviors. Blaine has the most consistent clothing and presentation out of anyone in the show, and as seen in season 3 episode 15 (17:15 and 38:10) and in season 5 episode 6 (28:15), Blaine has been dressing like this and doing his hair the same way since he was a kid. He even owns the same shirt in multiple colors (season 5 episode 6: 27:25). In season 4 episode 17, he talks to Sam about how his daily routine and how he walks the exact same way from class every day (00:45). This is also the first time Blaine mentions efficiency, he measures his routine down to the second, and it being efficient is really important to him. This comes back in season 5 episode 14 when he’s trying to make the loft more efficient (23:05). He also reveals in season 5 episode 20 that he needs to measure the stage before performing in order to improv (7:30).

Eighth, only participates in a restricted range of activities. Now you may be thinking, but Miriam, this doesn’t apply, wasn’t he president of like every club his senior year? Yes, he was, but this actually doesn’t disprove this one. He still really is focused on a few activities like glee club, student council, and school in general. He only signs up for the other clubs in a time of crisis, and he’s never seen doing anything outside of school in college or in seasons 2 or 3 (except for his special interests). And as these are all school clubs, that meet on school grounds, they’re still in his comfort zone. 

Ninth, strict consistency to daily routines, and outbursts when changes occur. So we’ve talked about his routines, what happens when they’re broken? In season 5 episode 14, Blaine attempts to set routines with Kurt, making him breakfast every day, scheduling their days rigorously, etc., which leads Kurt to feeling smothered, but Blaine tells Elliot that he feels like he doesn’t know how to communicate. He feels very uncomfortable with the change of living in New York and the shift in the power dynamic between them. This is reinforced a few episodes later in episode 16, when these issues come back. In addition, episode 16 has an example of Blaine having an outburst when a short-term plan is disrupted. He and Kurt had planned to walk to class together, and Kurt had bailed without telling him, and Blaine gets very upset (23:05). Another example of this is when he finds Tina and Sam making out in season 5 episode 10 (24:45, 29:30). Their plans were disrupted, and he has an outburst/meltdown. Another example of long-term routines being disrupted is in season 3 episode 8. Sam has just come back to McKinley, and immediately, Sam and Blaine dislike each other. They’re both trying to choreograph and don’t like each other’s ideas, and they get into a fight that gets physical. Both of them are having an outburst due to the other invading the other’s space and routines (13:50). This then becomes an example of point three, as Blaine is seen boxing (physical reaction) to regulate his emotions (effectively stimming), which he also does in season 3 episode 15 when he’s angry at Cooper (26:40).

Finally, exhibiting strong, special interests. This one is probably the easiest to prove. Blaine’s special interests include show choir (he knows everything about it, he even reads the show choir blogs - s5e11: 6:50), boxing (he started a fight club at Dalton - s3e8: 14:00), Broadway (when he coaches the Warblers, Karofsky mentions that it’s pulling teeth to get Blaine to use any music that’s not Broadway - s6e3: 00:25), piano, and even music in general. To give some specific examples, Blaine is also known for having some shorter-term interests that he gets just as invested in, the best examples of this are puppet making (I know, I know, but it applies, he gets so into it for that week) from season 5 episode 7, dressing up as a superhero (no neurotypical person could do Nightbird, please) from season 4 episode 7 and season 5 episode 10 (16:45), and star wars fanfiction (he and Sam have a whole conversation about how ewoks are obviously polygamists) from season 5 episode 15 (5:20 and 26:35).

Blaine also has some other general traits. If you’ve ever watched him sing, he is constantly bouncing on his toes. He’s prone to incredibly intense eye contact, and is very sensitive to criticism, rejection, and public embarrassment (Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria - I have too many examples of this to name). Little things that could be interpreted as sensory overload: season 5 episode 7 - hating loud chaotic environments, and lashing out because of it (00:35 and 00:55) and season 6 episode 5 - where he’s the first to say that they should just kiss to get out of Sue’s elevator because he’s getting very hot (29:00). In season 6 episode 1 during the break up scene, Kurt says that Blaine initiated a 3 hour fight about Kurt getting toothpaste on a towel (21:30), which is not neurotypical behavior, and Blaine responds in a way that indicates that it really bothered him. He’s an actor seemingly a very talented one, something that would make sense if he’d been masking his whole life. Finally, he has a very deep connection with Sam, who is clearly neurodivergent. He and Britt are the only people who understand Sam, and there are multiple times where Blaine knows how to calm Sam down when no one else can.

Now there’s also a case to be made about him having a terrible childhood and having some trauma from that, (I strongly believe that he feels like he has to be doing things for people in order for them to love him because of Cooper) but I also think that this is pretty compelling evidence.

The episodes that I found the most evidence in if you want to look for yourself are season 2 episode 12, season 4 episode 11 (this one’s also good for Sam), season 5 episodes 7, 14, 16, and 20, and season 6 episodes 1 and 5.

[forevercloudnine]

pre-new 52 scarebat ship meme

 (I actually have no idea what to call this period of comics. The dc wiki calls this the “New Earth” universe... it’s like, everything after Jason Todd was retconned out of being a circus acrobat up to Flashpoint. Anyway like a month ago I asked @heroes-etc​ to send me questions for this version of scarebat from this ship meme but then forgot that I did it because I got distracted by other ships. Sorry Jonathan...)

4. Who can’t keep their hands to themselves?

Bruce does DO physical affection — I mean, how many comic panels do we even have of him making out with Catwoman on rooftops — but he’s not especially forthcoming with it. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that his love interests are more likely to instigate contact than he is, especially when that love interest is a villain like Selina or Talia (can you even IMAGINE him trying to take them off guard in a fight by grabbing their face for a kiss? Because I cannot).

He does occasionally instigate affection with his children/proteges, though usually it’s in instances where they obviously need comfort. Bruce isn’t always great at handling complicated emotional situations, but grief and trauma is something he understands very intimately, and he never hesitates to physically reassure people who are in that kind of pain.

In situations where someone isn’t in the active process of being traumatized, he’s less forward with physical affection. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll reject it if it’s instigated — depending on who you are, of course. I’m guessing he wouldn’t put up with hugs from random members of the Justice League. Superman is his best friend and he would probably try to wiggle out of 90% of Kal hugs if doing so was physically possible. Most of his loved ones don’t really spring physical affection on him unless they need it or it’s an especially emotional moment, however. It’s not really Bruce’s primary love language. 

Jonathan seems even less physically affectionate than Bruce, though obviously doesn’t have a lot of opportunity to demonstrate how he feels either way. Master of Fear offers the only example of him expressing explicitly romantic affection that I know of (unless you count his terrorizing Becky Albright in New Year’s Evil as physical affection, which... might be how he’s thinking of it...?), and it’s entirely instigated by Sherry Squire. He does ask her to the Halloween party, but she’s the one who takes him down to the furnace room for some “one-on-one” time and tells him to kiss her. 

He also notably does not actually get a chance to kiss her, mainly because the whole thing was a prank meant to humiliate him. This might be why he doesn’t try to instigate anything similar with his next crush, Dr. Linda Friitawa (again, unless you count Becky Albright, but I can’t find New Year’s Evil to read anywhere so my only knowledge of his interaction with her comes from Tumblr. I’m like 80% sure he was supposed to be interested in her romantically, but asking someone to do supervillainy with you isn’t the most direct way to express attraction, so I’m taking that as more obliqueness from Jonathan).

He never expresses any direct romantic interest in Linda, but at the very least he clearly cares about her more than he cares for most people, since he, like. Defends her in conversation and apologizes to her for things that aren’t even his fault. Which means a lot, coming from a sociopath with no regard for human life. They do hold hands at one point, but Linda reaches out to him first, and he waits to see if she’s going to back away from his reciprocated touch before he reaches for her other hand. 

He never instigates anything further with her, possibly out of fear of rejection. Unfortunately, it turns out that this was a good call, because Linda was only pretending to be nice to him while Penguin was paying her to experiment on Jonathan without his knowledge. When Batman figures out what they’re doing, she immediately fucks off and starts dating Black Mask.

Even more unfortunately, his 45 seconds of hand holding with Backstabby McMad Scientist is probably the only mutual physical affection Jonathan has ever experienced in his entire life, so honestly I have no idea if he would be more into it as a concept if it was offered to him more often. He’s clearly willing to return physical contact when it’s initiated by someone else, so maybe it is something he would seek out in an actual relationship? He DOES get handsy with Bruce when he has Batman tied up sometimes. 

9. What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

Trip out on fear toxin, both of them, hands down. There are few things more embarrassing than, as Jonathan aptly describes it, being “reduced to whimpering quivers” in front of your enemy. Especially an enemy who’s presumably jotting down notes on your worst fears, since Batman/Scarecrow fights tend to just be competitions in who’s more frightening.

11. What do they hide from one another?

I mean, obligatory mention of the fact that Bruce hides things from absolutely everyone (with the possible exception of Alfred, because Bruce trusts him as completely as he is capable of trusting anyone, and also because it’s really hard to hide things from a parent whose involved in every aspect of your life and already knew you before you developed your pathological need to obfuscate your feelings and intentions).

As Wonder Woman pretty aptly describes during the Tower of Babel arc, even Bruce’s closest allies are never going to hear the full story from him. So it’s deeply unlikely he’d ever be 100% truthful with a supervillain, even if they got close AND Jonathan reformed. 

But it’s notable that Jonathan’s fear toxin has actually given him a more honest look into Bruce’s psyche than he would ever purposefully give to people who aren’t close family members. And by “close family members” I again pretty much just mean Alfred. Unfortunately for Bruce, nothing forces emotional transparency like mind altering drugs. Fortunately for Jonathan, nothing forces emotional transparency like mind altering drugs! Not that I’m recommending that anyone drug a romantic partner into being honest with them. But Jonathan is a trained psychiatrist, so I assume his psychological know-how combined with insights gleaned from the dozens of “sessions” he’s had with Batman in the past would leave him more prepared than most to decipher the mystery that is Bruce Wayne. (@heroes-etc: riddler is SEETHING.)

Jonathan meanwhile is more than capable of putting together a clandestine scheme, but in respect to himself he’s actually pretty straightforward. Though his driving motivation in this continuity gets more and more complicated over time, from the early 90’s “I just like fear” to the early 2000’s “my Granny tortured me with birds when I was a child and now I’m obsessed with inspiring the same fear and submission she forced on me onto others,” what doesn’t change is his willingness to monologue about it to anyone who’s listening.

Also, anything that Jonathan is unable or unwilling to go into detail on, Bruce is more than capable of puzzling out himself. In Scarecrow: Year One he successfully tracks down Jonathan’s old home to recover and read through Granny Keeney’s diary, and after Scarecrow’s Master of Fear origin was published, it’s clear that Bruce has done his research on Jonathan’s childhood. There’s even a (presumably unintentionally) hilarious scene where Bruce pauses mid-rescue of a man that Jonathan has kidnapped and traumatized with fear toxin to lecture him on having bullied Jon in high school.

Is this really the time, Bruce???

(@heroes-etc: oh 100% he nailed that timing.)

13. When do they realise they should get together?

Well, circling back to Tower of Babel, it’s revealed when Ra’s al Ghul has Talia steal Bruce’s contingency plans for defeating the Justice League that Bruce has “borrowed” Scarecrow’s fear toxin in case he has to take down Aquaman.

This was back when Scarecrow had a number of different toxins that induced different phobias, or made people hallucinate hyper-specific nightmare scenarios (such as “being eaten alive by roaches from the inside,” for some terrible reason). Batman notes in his contingency files that Scarecrow has already done the work for him; presumably Jonathan had already designed a formula to induce hydrophobia, so all Bruce had to do was steal a vial of it from a crime scene.

(The sentence “Why not make him incapacitate himself... perhaps through fear?” alone is like 90% of why I think these men would get along like burlap on fire if they ever actually cooperated on something. Also, unrelated, but the polaroid of Jonathan he has in the Aquaman file is weirdly adorable.)

Bruce’s plan for Arthur is incredibly effective, and notably also Bruce’s only contingency that isn’t either inherently lethal or a ruthlessly sociopathic betrayal of emotional vulnerabilities that had been revealed to him in trust and friendship (RIP Kyle Rayner).

(Notably, Bruce’s plans for Kyle and several other leaguers directly involve using their worst fears against them, even without a fear toxin conveniently tailored for this purpose. Bruce just really likes using fear as a weapon against people.)

After Tower of Babel, Bruce obviously needed to create new contingencies, since the whole point is that they were secret plans that no one could see coming. In canon, Bruce goes on to create the A.I. satellite Brother Eye for this purpose (which backfires even worse than his first set of contingency plans, because of course it does). But I think an interesting alternative could have been Bruce tapping Jonathan for more toxin strands tailored to taking down the Justice League. If Bruce Wayne offered to pay Scarecrow’s way out of Arkham in order to develop formulas that could neutralize the world’s most powerful superheroes, is there any way that Jonathan would turn him down? I mean, obviously he would plan on betraying Wayne at some point, and Bruce would similarly be working against Jonathan’s best interests. But maybe if they set aside their “who’s scarier” dick measuring contest to work together for once, they could come to recognize their shared passion: scaring the shit of people.

Also, the Jonathan in this continuity really likes books. And you know what’s a reliably sustainable source of books that can’t be confiscated by the authorities? Dating Bruce Wayne. The manor alone probably has an insane amount of rare books that have been hoarded by his family over the years. It’s like a weird reversal of the Beauty and the Beast, where the rude rich guy who gives a library to the love interest he may or may not have technically kidnapped is the pretty one.

21. Where do they get nervous about going with one another?

If they were dating, I’m guessing Jonathan wouldn’t want to go anywhere in public with Bruce at all. Bruce Wayne is a celebrity bachelor, and celebrity bachelors get a lot of attention, and people who take celebrity bachelors off the market get a lot of NEGATIVE attention. The public reaction to Bruce settling into a committed relationship with anyone would be the kind of weirdly resentful gossipy judgement that the girlfriends of famous princes or actors or musicians always get from tabloids and entertainment television, but in Jonathan’s case it would be a million times worse. Not just because he’s a supervillain, because if there’s any town that would expect its most eligible bachelor to eventually date a supervillain, it’s Gotham. But more specifically because “ugly social outcast” is one of Scarecrow’s most enduring character traits. Not exactly the traditional trophy wife. And though Jonathan’s Scarecrow identity seems to distance him from a lot of the shame he suffered growing up, I’m guessing that the kind of spiteful vitriol that would follow him anywhere he accompanied Bruce would at the least bring back some very unwanted memories.

Bruce probably doesn’t have the same discomfort Jonathan would with being seen together in public. He doesn’t care if people think Bruce Wayne is insane or lacking in judgement as long as they don’t think he’s Batman, and I’m sure he’d find a way to spin “dating a man who prefers to dress exclusively in burlap” into something appropriately characteristic of playboy idiocy. But while he'd definitely respect Jonathan's wishes to stay out of the public sphere, he would probably enjoy any opportunity to bring Scarecrow into Gotham high society, since his presence would definitely shake up a party, and Bruce is generally extremely bored at any social event where he doesn’t have anyone to snark with. And with Jonathan’s scathing wit as entertainment, Bruce might one day fulfill Alfred’s wish and actually make it through an intermission sometime.

I’d say that Bruce would be nervous about taking Jonathan out for “field research,” but I’m sure it would be one of Scarecrow’s requirements for any long term collaboration, so it’s something that he would have to get used to pretty quickly. He would probably endeavor to keep Jonathan away from anything that could retrigger his less healthy behaviors. On the other hand, it’s not like Bruce does that for himself, so it stands to reason that he probably wouldn’t be able to successfully control Jonathan in that regard either. 

It doesn’t help that one of Jonathan’s primary motivations in villainy is his childhood, which is... exactly the same thing that Bruce is fixated on. A significant portion of Scarecrow: Year One is the two of them waxing poetic about how similar they are in this regard. 

Relating to this, even though it might be a terrible idea, I don’t think Bruce would be able to resist encouraging Jonathan to reconnect with his mom. Bruce would never recommend for someone like Cassandra to seek out a relationship with her father, but if someone he cares about has a LIVING parent who WASN’T abusive to them? It seems unlikely that Bruce wouldn’t advocate for reconciliation. Jonathan’s dad obviously never cared about the teenage girl he knocked up or their bastard child, but Karen Keeney is a different story. DC Holiday Special ‘09 makes it clear that Jonathan was taken away from her against her will, and she’s spent a significant portion of her life wracked by guilt imagining what the woman who abused her was doing to her son.  

Ultimately she attempts to commit suicide because she feels personally responsible for every terrible thing her son has ever done, which is tragic because really she’s the only member of the Keeney family completely blameless in the creation of the Scarecrow. In Scarecrow: Year One Jonathan clearly resents her for leaving him and moving on to have another baby that she actually did keep, which I would call a really paranoid case of jumping to conclusions if it didn’t seem extremely likely that Granny Keeney told him his mother didn’t want him and left him to be tortured on purpose.

(Side note, it is REALLY weird how young Karen Keeney is depicted in Scarecrow: Year One. At times her son looks older than she is, and it doesn’t help that her second born child is an infant for some reason. Even if Jonathan is only thirty years old here, then unless she had him at younger than fourteen, she should already be in her mid-forties. Why did she only have a second child so late in life? The implication with her abusive husband is that she ended up getting trapped in a bad relationship for survival when her family kicked her out as a teenager for disgracing the family by having Jonathan. It would make way more sense for her child with him to be at least in elementary school. Also the scene would have been way more interesting if Scarecrow’s sister was old enough to talk.)

Thankfully Deadman manages to convince Karen to hold on to life long enough for someone to call 911, and she ends up surviving the suicide attempt. But were Jonathan ever to reform, it seems like reconciliation would be really healthy for both of them, since miraculously Karen still seems to care about Jonathan despite everything he’s put her through, and they’re both clearly still suffering from the after effects of Mary Keeney’s abuse. 

Bruce would be enthusiastic about this prospect for obvious reasons, although he would presumably still be nervous about the possibility of everything going terribly wrong. And even if everything went perfectly right, he would STILL be nervous, because everytime Jonathan goes to see his mother there’s a chance that she will mention the time that she kissed Batman full on the mouth. And that is not information you would ever want your psychologist boyfriend to know, unless you want to be mocked with Freudian buzzwords for the rest of your natural life. 

(...This would also count as a thing that Bruce hides from Jonathan.)

[achtung-attitude]

CHAPTER 46: Gangsta’s Paradise – Part 4

“Let it not be said,” Dust sighs, “I never gave you a chance.”

The preacher man walks backwards and morphs into the mirrors once more. Shizuka dashes in pursuit, but is suddenly overcome with a wave of lightheadedness. She stumbles and collides face first with a nearby wall, clinging to it for support, as her arms and legs tremor. When her vision blurs, she recalls her earlier, backfired attempt to turn invisible. “ACHTUNG BABY…?” she murmurs

But she doesn’t sense her ability circulating. Something more sinister is causing her affliction. From within the mirror in the alcove adjacent to her, and also from all of the phantom mirrors, Dust renews his sermon.

However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you...

Shizuka gags and collapses on the floor. The Escherspace begins to collapse, flickering out of existence. She tries to breathe, but can only choke. 

Truly, I didn’t want it to come to this. You were so proud of yourself for bending this dimension to your will, but you have always been in my grasp. This is what I meant by giving you a chance. You have been doomed since you entered this place...

The countless Brother Dusts look down upon the convulsing Joestar from the infinite mirrors, a look of disappointment on his face.

Humans inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide… GANGSTA’S PARADISE reverses this. Each breath you take starves your blood of vital oxygen and floods your body with deadly poison.

To think, how eager I was to finally meet you. You are strong, Shizuka Joestar. We could have achieved much together. But I am beyond strength.

The ground beneath Shizuka’s feet begins to fade into nothing. Grunting, she forces it back into solidity before she can slip through. She clutches at her throat as it seems to clog from the inside. 

“You…” she chokes, “talk too much…!”

ACHTUNG BABY flutters in and out of sight. With a wave of its hands, two new staircases materialize from the Escher-space. They swing like giant baseball bats at the mirror where Dust had entered, crashing into it, crumbling stone and shattering glass. Her efforts are futile, as the preacher’s resounding laughter proves. He is beyond her, safe in the mirrors. 

As Shizuka tries to lift herself off the ground, abruptly, she senses the preacher’s presence behind her.

“Brute force fails you. Like Job, you are helpless before divinity.” 

Shizuka turns, grinding her teeth at the sound of his smug voice as he continues, raising his black book in the air. “Behold, the hope of him is in vain; shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?”

Before Shizuka can move out of the way, Dust graces her neck with his Bible. Not a moment passes when, in her periphery, she sees something thick and blue splatter onto the ground. With horror, she dabs at her neck, feeling the slick blood running from the thick gash that has formed. “Agh…!!”

“That would be your carotid artery I’ve severed. To think, the Good Book is supposed to guide and heal. I’m not fond of warping its purpose this way. Perhaps you understand now, the desperate measures I’ve been forced to take?”

Shizuka pays no attention, as she’s lost in the pain of her cut neck. She kneels on the ground, her knees dipped in the dark puddle.

“My throat…!” her mind reels, “Can’t breathe at all now…! It’s taking all I have just to keep the Escherspace intact…! how do I get out of this... how can I defeat his Stand…?! Wait...” she stills, staring at her hands. “My hands have... Stopped shaking…! But why... no way, you gotta be kidding!”

Dust saunters towards her. “Could it be you’ve finally given up? It’s too late to change your mind, but perhaps you can make peace with-” The preacher’s pompous monologue is cut short by the rushing of air behind him. He shudders, sensing the oncoming threat, and ducks swiftly, barely dodging the staircase that swings past him. Looking back at the source of the staircase, he sees Shizuka on her feet again, stooping, blood still draining from her neck, but her eyes are as resolute as ever. From her jacket pocket, she draws the switchblade Kilo gave to her.

“I really hope this works,” she wheezes. “If not, then this’ll be a really stupid way to die.”

With that, she plunges the knife into her neck, right into the cut, and starts running the blade along the wound. Dust grimaces in displeasure at first, but then notices that rather than cutting deeper, the flesh closes along the path of the blade. An action intended to harm instead heals.

“You’ve adapted well to GANGSTA’S PARADISE…” Dust declares, raising the bible. “But it counts for nought, as long as I am in control of this world!” Dust’s book strikes her, but immediately, he senses something wrong. “You are not...!”

Shizuka smirks as the book hits her across the face. The strike blows a chunk off from the side of her head, revealing a glowing cavity. The body transforms into light, nothing more than a hard light clone. Dust turns just as the real Shizuka swings another Escher staircase at him. He guards, taking the strike, which sends him flying backward.

“How is she standing?! The carbon dioxide poisoning should still be affecting her!” As he flies, he notices Shizuka’s face, cheeks are puffed out, filled with air. “She’s holding her breath?! Of course! If breathing itself was killing her, then all she had to do was stop breathing!”

Dust lands feet first into a mirror, as he starts merging with it. “Just as I thought,” he thinks, staring at his opponent from his esoteric vantage. “She’s too strong. It’s not only her ability or her fighting prowess. It’s not even her intelligence! It’s everything! That persistent personality and her creativity; all of it makes her dangerous! Without a doubt, this girl... is the strongest opponent I’ve ever fought!” Before long, he slips completely out of view, planning his means of attack.

Shizuka glares into the mirrors. When he doesn’t reappear, she begins to sigh, then stops herself, careful not to exhale anymore precious oxygen. “Well, it worked,” she reflects. “But even so, my body’s running off the oxygen I’ve currently got left. Like a motorcycle running on gas fumes, I’ll break down sooner or later.”

She walks up a staircase and glances up. Above, GANGSTA’S PARADISE hangs in its usual position, never moving on its own accord. Shizuka glances into a nearby mirror, then another. In all of the mirrors, everything is reflected, except for the Stand itself. In the entire twisted dimension, there is only ever one GANGSTA’S PARADISE.

“I have one big advantage: While Dust in his mirrors, I can’t touch him. But the Stand is always in this space with me. If I can attack the Stand directly, then I can win! All I need to do is figure it out… What’s the source of its power?”

Shizuka rubs her stiff neck, unable to see the ominous discoloration around the scar left by the cut. She remembers the bright flash of light that beamed from GANGSTA’S PARADISE, right before the world was changed. The light that engulfed everything in sight. She pauses on the steps and stares, realization hitting her like a brick.

The light…

Before she can act on her realization, Shizuka staggers to the ground in front of the Stand, shivering like she’s freezing. A dark chill moves under her chest.

“What!?! What is this?... Why do I feel… like ice is forming under my skin!!” She inspects her chest. The veins over her breastbone bulge ghoulishly. “HOLY SHIT!! What did that bastard do now?!” 

Dust’s voice answers promptly, desperation peeking out from beneath his smugness.

This is not my doing, but your own, Shizuka Joestar! Blood is red because of oxygen! The purpose of blood is to spread life-giving oxygen through the body! GANGSTA’S PARADISE reverses everything it touches, warping its intentions! Now I ask you, what happens if GANGSTA’S PARADISE touches your blood?!

At that moment, Shizuka remembers the blue blood from earlier.

Yes! The blood cells deprive themselves of oxygen and turn blue! And now, by your own hand, that toxic blood runs through your body! Once it reaches your heart, there will be no hope for you!!

Shizuka looks down and stares at the blade she reverse-cut herself with, stained with darkened blood.

Bleed out, and I win! Heal yourself, and I still win! Every action you take benefits me! I told you: The moment you entered this place, MY place, you were doomed!! So long as I have this power, I am fated for victory!!! This is the penalty for rejecting my offer, Shizuka Joestar!!!

The girl can do nothing else but fall to the floor, as the Escherspace begins to crumble away. Dust takes out his terrible black book, leering down at her. .

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways!

The voice echoes and throbs in Shizuka’s ears, stage whispers like rusty nails scratching her from inside her ears. She can feel the thin membranes of her eardrums, afflicted by the evil sounds. The cold blood pumps through her veins, drawing closer to her heart. She knows, in her mind, they cannot endure this attack for much longer.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known!

She screams for the voices to stop, but she cannot tell if she screams it with her own voice or in her mind. Her eyes roll wildly, her heart rate accelerates, seeing the man in white surround her on all sides, sneering at her through infinity. Overhead, the chandelier swings, mimicking the sick joy of its master, the unnatural light bathing the refracted world in sickly pale blue.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love!

Misshapen light. So unlike that of the sun, which was full, warm and life-giving. The same light Shizuka drew her power from. Compared to that, this was just a pale pretender.

[otakween]

I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Volume 10

A nice "bridging" volume. We get the end of the Rainbow Stair arc, some downtime and then straight into the Black Work arc! That last arc felt pretty long but I also took a mini reading hiatus that could have contributed to that. Wonder how many volumes this new arc will stretch across...

Ch. 45

-It seems we're going to wrap up the Rainbow Stair arc soon. Again, I kinda wish they just did that in the previous volume but oh well.

-Kusue and Yusuke debate whether it's worth it to stop murdering people after you start to "save your soul." Kusue is a catholic confirmed!

Ch. 46

-So we get a chapter mainly from Cantil's perspective. We learn that he (and Fatina) are older than they look due to creature magic. Malita then becomes Cantil/Fatina's apprentice because she wants a new start. Cantil muses about the time skip mechanic and how he might not even be alive the next time the heroes come around.

-I think it was a good idea to give Cantil's POV. He emphasizes how Yusuke's a kid and still very malleable. Since he's not going to be around he asks Glenda to keep an eye on Yusuke for him. Some of the writing in this part was a little too "all hail Yusuke" for my tastes, but at least there was some healthy skepticism thrown in there.

-We get a very unsatisfying Q&A segment with the Game Master. Learned nothing.

-The players plan for improving the Ihar-Nemore society was interesting, but it all seemed to go a little too smoothly and quickly towards the end. I feel like realistically there would be more push back and these kinds of changes would take years, not months. Also, it was a little too convenient how everything in this fantasy world was an exact parallel to real world crises. Well, I guess there's only so many ways humans can interact/mess up, no matter where you are.

-Was that a Fortnite reference at the end there? Another reminder that Yusuke's a child.

Ch. 47

-We get a nice, in-between arcs, beach episode. Definitely nice to have these "real world" chapters for balance. We also get to see how the characters dynamics shift from world to world.

-While I think Yusuke and Yuka's inner monologues about how they're not used to the "IRL" world are exaggerated, I can kind of relate. Especially during the pandemic, I'm in isolation for the majority of the year, so I'm also the stereotypical, under-socialized geek.

-We see some other players in the USA and the host of the gathering reveals that the fantasy world and the real world are already connected via a small portal. It will be interesting to see how the players pool their knowledge.

-Seeing all these players together makes me wonder how many players died and didn't make it to the gathering. Considering how rigorous the quests have been so far, presumably some people couldn't cut it.

-You can tell this series doesn't prioritize ecchi based on how modestly dressed all the girls were at the beach. That's kind of refreshing.

Ch. 48

-Yaaay new guy! I really like his design/personality. Plus, we get a more balanced group with another adult and male. Funny to see an isekai lover get isekai'd.

-I totally related to Habaki's job struggles. His reasons for not quitting and his thoughts on how his job sapped all his energy and prevented him from reading any challenging books. Too real. (Of course, my job is way cushier than his, but I think these are universal struggles for any full-time employee).

-I guess the Game Master can help Yusuke commit real-world crimes so long as it helps with the mission. Until they revealed that I was like "uh...why is he doing something so risky??"

-It's pretty ridiculous that the Game Master has to drive Yusuke to save Habaki. Can't he just teleport him? lol. Also, another Seaman reference.

-We see the I'm Standing on a Million Lives manga in the background at the bookstore which hurts my brain

-When the people at Habaki's company were like "EVERYTHING'S RUINED!" I was kinda laughing because I work in systems and if everyone busted up our PCs it wouldn't be that big of a deal and we could recover pretty quickly. Luckily, they do acknowledge cloud storage which made it more believable.

Ch. 49

-We get another non-fiction section, this time about the WHO's recommendations for presenting suicide in fiction. Very interesting and mature of the author to acknowledge the problematic nature of his own text. It kind of felt like the disclaimer you see before some shows these days in streaming.

-After the blurb about suicide we get another one about "black" companies and "invincible" people. I had never heard the term "invincible people" in this context before, so that was fascinating. I feel like we don't categorize people the same way in the US. If someone does something dangerous because their life's falling apart, I think we would probably just pull out the psychology terms (narcissistic, personality disorder, sociopath etc.). In Japan they have all these archetypes (NEET, Hikkikomori, Invincible Person). I guess we probably have some, but you don't hear about them as much.

-So, the previous quest was completely pointless because the cities they saved were almost immediately destroyed. Womp wommmmp.

-The fact that "black" = corrupt in Japan is definitely awkward, but I understand it's just a cultural difference...

-The new storyline of a policy being put in place that no longer makes sense but a lot of people have died so there's no turning back, sounds very familiar. I'm sure you can compare it to a lot of things but it reminds me of the Afghanistan war...

-I guess it's a good thing that Malita left Ihar-Nemore when she did! I expect we'll see her again in the near future.

[tonystarkbingo]

Tony Stark Bingo Prompt Meme

So, we did another Prompt Meme game, and came up with these summaries based on a three-tag prompt. This is an open prompt, if any of these summaries look like fun to you, please feel free to write them!! Tag us or the writer of the prompt when you do so we can all see how cool you are and what you’ve given us for the promot

@summerpipedream - Winteriron - All Tony wanted to do after finishing up at MIT was to pack up his desk at Stark Industries and quietly fade into obscurity. Sure money was tight, but he never expected Jan to actually sign him up for one of those social media reality shows. Now, he was stuck in a house, with no phone, no internet, or access to the outside world, trying to avoid the sexy Bucky Barnes, who's mission in life seemed to be to never wear a shirt around him.

@darthbloodorange - The world is ending, an alien race has all but taken over the world, it is an apocalypse of devastating proportions, most of the world is dead. The Avengers, those who are left, have retreated to a bunker built a fourth of the way down into the Earth’s core. Tony and Steve have been growing closer, when they are not working together to find a way to fight back against the aliens, they are fuck buddies. Tony’s a genius, he knows the odd of surviving this are not in their favour. Odds were that they were going to die… and well, Tony doesn’t want to die without letting Steve know how he feels. Before the battle Tony corners Steve in the armoury and confesses that he loves him. Steve is aromatic, has been since project rebirth.  They are both so very sorry. 

@newnewyorker93 - After a series of strange killings where the victims are found set up kneeling like they're praying, Tony Stark (a private detective) is on the case. An initial (false) suspect is the local priest, Matt Murdoch, who ends up being a helpful ally in solving the case (and possibly more)

@27dragons - Winteriron: You'd think that Tony Stark would have learned to ski when he was growing up. You'd think wrong; Howard never saw the point in it. So here he is, almost done with his PhD, and his friends have decided on a spring break trip to go skiing. He doesn't want to admit to them that he doesn't know how, so their first night at the lodge, he offers one of the ski instructors a large sum of money to sneak him up onto the slopes for a few lessons that night. Against his better judgment -- but desperately needing the cash -- Ski instructor Bucky Barnes takes Tony up on the slopes. Unfortunately, just as Tony's starting to get the hang of things, it starts snowing. Hard. Even more unfortunately, the newfallen snow disguises a patch of ice and Tony tumbles out of control. By the time Bucky catches up to him and verifies that he's not badly hurt, the snow is coming down too hard to see the lodge -- so what else are they to do but seek shelter in a caretaker's cabin conveniently (TM) nearby and wait for morning...?

@gavilansblog - Tony is kidnapped as part of an Evil Plot (TM). He's handling things just fine, tyvm, until his would-be rescuer (who he's been pining for, obviously), gets dragged in and handcuffed back to back with him. Seriously, dude? If you insist on breaking the kidnapping procedure at least actually rescue me! The taxes come in when the Evil Plot Master does his monologue and reveals that the kidnapping is part of a Villain Logic scheme to get Stark Industries to throw money behind the campaign to get a new law requiring actually taxing billionaires to fail. Evil Plot Master is, naturally, a billionaire. Tony would facepalm if he weren't handcuffed to his idiot rescuer, seriously. And then the kidnapping protocol kicks in and Jarvis shuts the whole facility down only instead of being handcuffed by himself Tony is now handcuffed to his rescuer so they have to do the whole escaping part of the plan while handcuffed together, resulting is the standard Tension (TM) moments and possibly an almost-kiss.

Fey Relay - Bruce, Tony, and Peter, resident science geeks, get de-aged and really want to play in the lab. You know, the one that has lots of things that can kill them in it? But they're still sort of mentally in there, just cranky and smol. So they get assigned their own Non-Science Adults who they hand-hold and point to do their sciency bidding. Thor, Steve, and Natasha oblige them and have great fun!

@rise-up-ting-ting-like-glitter Dragons were real. Okay they were actually just souped-up dinosaurs, but that didn’t mean Tony wasn’t being hunted—with intent—by lizards. He hadn’t wanted to come to this stupid Island in the first place. SI funding had explicitly been removed from the crackpot idea to return dinosaurs to the food chain. He could have told everyone that this was going to happen. Instead he was climbing through a jungle with a one-armed man who refused to give his name and if they didn’t get to the raptor enclave, retrieve the anti-venom, and return in time, people Tony loved were going to die.

His guide had better live up to his scruffy wild-man appearance or Tony was going to lose everything.

@somesortofitalianroast - Nurse Bucky Barnes wasn’t sure what exactly was going on. The vigilante known as Nomad had just crashed through the (luckily) open fire escape window. While he was lucky not to have any broken bones, he was unlucky enough to have a bad concussion. A really bad one. One that meant he couldn’t fall asleep. Also unfortunately, he only had the one bed and the enormous Nomad wouldn’t fit on his couch, so they’d have to share. It was only after he helped Nomad into his bed that he noticed the blood, and, unthinking, he pulled the cowl off to check for another, serious injury. And gasped. Nomad was Steve Rogers, his best friend in school, who’d died in an IED attack in Iraq 5 years earlier.

@polizwrites Natasha Romanov and Virginia Potts are the proprietors  of  Chaykus -  a Russian tea room on the seedy side of town.  Its new mission  is to be a sanctuary for women  who have been smuggled into the country for sex trafficking purposes.  As for the men who engage in such practices? Well, they are quickly discovering that their days are numbered.

@dixiehellcat - Pepper is the manager of the heavy metal band War Machine. James Rhodes, lead guitarist and founder of the band, is looking for a new lead singer. He did not expect the woo-loving Virginia to get horoscopes cast for the applicants and decide based on that. He just wants somebody who can sing, dammit. This Stark kid is uncomfortably attractive, yeah, but he's been thrown out of two bands already. what? the shower sex? it was only that one time after a show, and they were both wasted...

@dracusfyre Tony was born without a soul mark. Bucky's was lost forever when Hydra took his arm.  Without the universe to give you a hint that this person is The One, falling in love is gambling with your heart. But soulmates don't have to be born, they can be made - and Bucky and Tony decide that the same should be true of soul marks, as well

@ceealaina Tony was like nerd prime growing up. Normally he doesn’t let it bother him too much — he’s got inventions to invent, after all. But all of a sudden he realizes that he’s almost 20, he’s got two degrees under his belt, and has no idea how to do much more than kiss. He’s not entirely sure how he manages to convince Rhodey to sleep with him to “get it out of the way,” or how he manages to convince him to keep sleeping with him to “help improve my technique,” but it’s the best sex of his life (not that he has much to compare it to) and he never wants it to end. But it’s the night when they’re watching movies, and Tony’s ends up dozing against Rhodey’s shoulder only to wake up to a feather light kiss against his forehead that he realizes he might be in trouble. 

@thudworm - King Anthony considers it part of his royal duties to protect his people by going out and taking care of any monsters harassing them. Of course, no one can know that the knight Iron Man is really the king, which leads to some fun assumptions about Iron Man’s identity.

@jacarandabanyan Tony’s mom forbid him to purposefully drive out his roommates so that he can have a room all to himself where he can tinker until morning light. She had to hear about it from friends, acquaintances, and other well-known socialites often enough when Tony went to boarding school and ran his roommates off there. Now that he’s in college, that behavior must stop. Luckily for Tony, he doesn’t even have to try to get the first two roommates at MIT to request a room switch. But then he meets his third roommate- a tall, handsome, funny man named James Rhodes. At first it was just natural joy at having a fellow competent engineer to hang out with, and perhaps the occasional dirty thought. But his crush on the man quickly grows. Before he knows it, Tony’s pining hard for his best friend. Every once in a while he thinks Rhodey might be interested too- but then he hears Rhodey lecturing a computer science senior for plying Tony with :beer: alcohol at a party because “come on, man, kid’s only 16. Have a little class and try chasing skirts a little closer to your age.” After that, he’s convinced Rhodey will only ever see him as a friend and a kid.

psychiccatpanda - Tony works hard and puts in long hours.  So what if some of his long nights turn into very early mornings at CHew 2 OH.  The only drawback is his business partner and head baker, Steve, with his disappointed looks and his continual arguing.  When Steve's friend Bucky starts hanging around the shop, though, Tony notices.  Oh lord, he notices. A month or so later, one night when he and Steve are working after hours at Steve's place to plan their seasonal menu, Steve tells him that he's noticed him checking out Bucky.  Tony hits him with a decorative pillow and things kind of get out of hand.  Surveying the damage (let's face it - Steve's coffee table was never going to be quite right again), Steve turns to him, "I was just going to suggest you get some practice kissing before asking him out."  Oh.  Oh...

@tisfan So... the problem with being a necromancer is being able to practice one's skill. The local cemeteries won't even let you look at a dead body if you're not a relative. Tony Stark, budding necromancer, forges a marriage certificate for the John Doe so that he can practice his craft. Only to find that it works perfectly. Bucky is No Longer Dead, and 100% interested in staying married...

@abrighterdarkness He didn’t mean to snoop.  He knew that wasn’t what he was being paid for here--the loud laughter of the party echoing from down the hall where he was actually supposed to be, was clear enough reminder of that fact. All Tony wanted was two short minutes to breathe without being pawed at--yes, yes, that might be his job but breathing room was much appreciated just the same--and now he was stuck in this closet sized bathroom with what sounded like a mob-hit being discuss right outside the door.  He knew he should’ve turned this job down.

magica - Howard Stark had an idea. Some people - alright, most people, stop hitting me, Maria! - would say it was a terrible idea. But it was only a little injection of stuff based on that strange glowing blue cube they'd found in the Arctic. And Tony was absolutely willing, let's get that straight, Maria! How was Howard supposed to know that it'd enable Tony to open up his own portals? And if some mystical green energy happened to swamp Tony just as he was opening a portal to Egypt? Well, that wasn't his fault. The dark-haired, well-built Priest of Anubis that Tony manages to bring back with him? That is not his fault either, damn it, Maria!

@festiveferret - Tony could say with absolute confidence - at least, if he could say anything at all in his current predicament - that this was not the way his PR rep, Pepper, would have wanted him to come out. There were, he figured, several hundred ways that the day could have gone better, but if asked to rank the top three, he'd put them thusly: 

1) That he decided to come out by having a wild, unabashed make out session with none other than Captain America, in the middle of a busy New York street.

2) That it was, in fact, the morning after their first "date" - a term he was applying loosely here - and not a tasteful reveal of a long-standing, safe, secure, adult relationship.

And 3) That at some point between the first floor lobby of his apartment building and the front door off his penthouse suite he'd suddenly, unexpectedly, and so-far permanently been turned into a ferret and no one knew.

It would also probably concern her to discover that of all these rather bewildering turns in his life, the one at the forefront of his mind was that ferrets couldn't send morning-after texts, and he didn't want Steve to think their little dalliance had been nothing more than an - albeit unfortunately public - one night stand.

Of one thing he was sure, however: Pepper was going to need a raise.

[galaxy-parchment]

Vampire AU

1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6  : 7 : 8 : 9 : 10 (you are here) : 11 : 12 : 13 : 14 : 15 (coming soon)

Woops guess who forgot to link chapter 9 to all the other chapters. I hope the sheer length of this mostly explains why it took a while to write mostly because of the whole trying not to directly plagiarise the comic but also I’ve been really busy with thankfully good things like weddings and birthdays and award ceremonies and all that fun stuff.

Of all the things Lanyon expected while he was checking on why nobody had shown up the Bethnal Green for the cleanup, Henry being covered in blood and losing control of everyone in the building wasn’t in his list of possibilities. Thankfully Henry didn’t seem to be in any sort of pain but rather was staring at the chaos of lodgers running up the main staircase.

His shirt was completely covered in blood and not going out to feed since the Moreau incident certainly wasn’t helping that annoyingly ravenous feeling he was getting in the back of his mind. God, he really should have gone out yesterday. He took his mind off of it by instead looking at Henry’s face, which had much less blood on it and turned to the ground with a very worried look etched into his features.

“Henry?”

“What?” his head perked up, drawing him out of whatever thought he was lost to, he turned and noticed who it was, “Robert! What are you doing here? I thought you were helping out in Bethnal Green today?”

“I was, but the lodgers that were supposed to be helping out today never showed up, also you’re bleeding” Robert said, carefully avoiding looking down and doing anything out of turn.

Henry quickly glanced down at himself and met Robert’s eyes just as quickly, “Don’t worry, it’s not my blood” despite the apparent reassurance Robert was getting, Henry still looked quite nervous.

“Is… is that meant to make me less worried? Have you been getting enough sleep?” he reached up and felt Henry’s forehead, which was cold rather than feverishly hot like he’d expected it to be.

Henry glanced up at the hand on his head with a look of panic. He quickly pulled his hand down and laughed nervously “I’m fine, Robert, just a little off schedule but I have it under control!” a knife suddenly appeared under Henry’s chin.

“Doctor Jaaaaaay…” came the calm voice of Rachel from Henry’s right hand side “Where is Master Hyde?” she yelled abruptly. Robert was lost as Rachel bickered with Henry but struggled his way back to listening to avoid looking down at the blood that was soaked into Henry’s vest. The first word he caught was ‘Hyde’ and his eyes widened in alarm.

“What’s all this about Mr Hyde? You’re not still in contact with that scoundrel are you?” he interrogated. He quickly found himself bombarding Henry with questions about that criminal. Why on earth would he still be on speaking terms with Hyde? He was not only a criminal but he’d been outed as a vampire. As much as it pained him to say, he hoped that Henry would be reasonable enough to stay far away from affairs with vampires if he could help it. He hoped there wasn’t any foul play in all of this.

A small metallic beetle suddenly zoomed into the room and halted in front of Henry, surprising all three of them as it blurted out a robotic voice that Robert just made out to be “Transmission for Dr Henry Jekyll”

Before Robert and Rachel could process what was happening Henry was suddenly out the door and off to find the lodgers that he explained were out in Survey. Robert and Rachel simply stared for a moment before the former uttered “What just happened?”. 

Robert decided he may just have to take matters into his own hands.

-

Jekyll rushed to his room to get the bloodstained clothes off of him as soon as possible and tossed them into a bag and away from his sight. He touched a finger to his teeth to check them. Thankfully, most likely because he’d fed last night, his fangs were barely longer than usual and Jekyll took the blessing in stride. Now he had to keep himself covered for the trip to find Bryson and his crew.

He took out a top hat with a wider brim than most, flipped his collar up despite how unflattering it was to his jawline, picked up a parasol and put on gloves so that he only needed to cover his face while he was out to avoid suspicion.

He spotted the balloon a mile off and walked as fast as a gentlemanly stroll would allow him, careful to keep to the edges of the path where it was shadier. Eventually he made it to the crash site and grimaced at the ladder leading up to where the group was waiting. To his annoyance, Helsby was waving for him up to climb the ladder, so he didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Jekyll huffed, closed and tucked his umbrella under his elbow and looked down and awkwardly climbed the ladder, nearly burning himself on a spot of sunlight on his way up. He clambered up onto the elevated ground that the balloon was resting in and tidied himself up before looking to the men and giant octopus in the basket.

“So what have you been up to on this fine adventure, gentlemen?”

Bryson looked into the distance dramatically and went on a convoluted tangent about how dangerous and mysterious their latest ‘journey through the cosmos’ was. After a few minutes of monologuing Jekyll grew bored and clasped his hands together cheerfully.

“I see! So what you’re saying is you got lost!”

“If you must put it into unscientific terms,” Bryson deadpanned.

“Not to worry, I’ll have a team out here to extricate your dirigible as soon as they’ve extricated themselves from Frankenstein’s clutches”

Bryson’s eyes widened, “Frankenstein’s awake? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”, neither he nor Helsby wasted a moment climbing out of the basket and sprinting back down the path Jekyll had just traversed, the accompanying octopus monster dragging itself along in tow at an alarming pace.

Jekyll stared defeatedly as the last of the lodgers were swept up in Frankenstein’s spell. Somewhere in the back of his mind Hyde stirred. Jekyll could feel the smug grin on him from whatever shadow he lurked in.

“Oh, poor Henry! After all you’ve done for the lodgers they abandon you for some clown with a famous name! I guess no matter how hard you try to hide all of those ghastly vampiric tendencies, the can still see how much of a monster you are, fangs or no!” he cackled, revealing himself in the shade of the nearest tree. Jekyll climbed back down the ladder as he spoke and reopened the umbrella, taking his time in making his way back.

“Why can’t you just stop existing for a week? You don’t normally hang around while I’m in control, what makes this different? You’ve already been to Blackfog for a night, as agreed.”

Hyde let out a growl of anger, “What? So you can just stop worrying about me forever? How convenient for you to just let me disappear forever!”

“You know that’s not true!”

“Right, because who else is going to do the sloppy murder you need to do to stay alive? Face it, Henry, if we weren’t a vampire then you’d probably have tried to get rid of me ages ago!” Hyde fumed, his shadowy form becoming less defined, “and for the record, you’re lucky that bartender knows not to mess with a vampire, that was by far the shoddiest luring I’ve ever seen and you’re lucky you found some depressed bastard that was probably baiting himself to get killed”

“I really don’t need to deal with this right now,” Jekyll groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose and eager to avoid talking about last night, “if you’re going to hang around, you could at least help me get a handle on this Frankenstein problem.”

“Go to hell, traitor!”

“Don’t be like that! Frankenstein is our childhood idol, I need a way to win her over, but I can’t do that so long as she has this stubborn idea that I’m some kind of imposter scientist.”

“She’s not too far off, when was the last time you actually did any experiments? These days you’re just worried about making sure nobody figures out you got turned so that you can get them to throw money at your beloved Society.”

Jekyll looked up in realisation, “Huh… I think you might be onto something… I’ve been so caught up in keeping the Society afloat and focusing on hiding all of my secrets that I haven’t had time to follow my own scientific pursuits! Sure I’ve occasionally tried to make a cure but never anything I could be open about, of course Frankenstein would think I’m a fake!”

A confused look formed on Hyde’s face, “Uh- yes she… why are you agreeing with me? Where is this going?”

Before Hyde knew what was happening, Jekyll started out on a tangent about everything he remembered about alchemy and the various plants surrounding them and was adamant that he’d found just what he needed. Much to Hyde’s chagrin his insistence that Jekyll was simply blabbering and had no hope of ever winning over Frankenstein were ignored in favour of Jekyll returning to his enthusiastically wild scientific endeavours and explaining his plan all the way home until eventually he had to shut up to avoid suspicion from the sudden presence of other people who wouldn't take well to listening to Jekyll talking to thin air about the tiny flowers he had clasped in his hand.

[cartoon-lizard]

Family Vacation

(In which Drake, LP, and Gosalyn go on a beach trip, but it’s much more than a relaxing time...)

(I’m super excited about this fic guys, so enjoy!!)

“And,” Drake announced with a flourish to his voice. “Here we are!”

The door to the condo opened, revealing a quaint, beach themed living space.

“Finally,” exclaimed Gosalyn, speeding into the condo. She tossed her suitcase to the side. “If I had to listen to the DW theme one more time, I would’ve jumped out the window!”

“Okay, okay,” Drake rolls his eyes. “The trip up here wasn’t that bad.”

Launchpad came in behind them, carrying the rest of the bags, despite Drake’s squabbling.

Touring the small area, Drake was almost impressed that S.H.U.S.H was able to score a place like this. He still felt a little uneasy that he had to leave St. Canard; but he was also promised a vacation, and so a vacation he would get. Finding the master bedroom, he looked out at the ocean view, sighing a bit. He needed this.

“Here’s your bag, DW,” Launchpad said, setting down the duffel bag next to Drake’s suitcase. “So, this is the other bedroom, huh?”

“Yep,” Drake nodded. “How’s yours and Gosalyn’s?”

“Mine?”

Drake cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, yours.”

“I don’t have a room!” Launchpad laughed, too calmly.

“What do you- they said there was a bedroom for everyone!” Embarrassment crept up Drake’s face as he put two and two together. “They didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

Drake shook his head, as if getting rid of his initial thought. “They must have thought you weren’t coming with us.”

Launchpad chuckled slightly. “They should’ve known! We’re partners after all!”

“Yeah,” Drake says, turning back around to gaze at the ocean. “Partners.”

“You can stop pulling, Gos,” Drake says, taking his arm back.

“C’mon, Dad, there’s a really good spot right over there!” Running up to the shore, Gosalyn, rather sloppily, staked the umbrella in the ground and threw her towel down. She looked back up, only to find that Drake hadn’t moved and was looking the opposite direction.

“There you are, LP!” His eyes drifted to the other’s choice of clothing.

“Sorry,” Launchpad said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m just a little stiff from sleeping on the couch.”

“I told you last night you could have taken the bed! At least I would have fit on the couch.”

“No, I’m not complaining about it,” he clarifies, shaking his head. “I just wanted you to be comfortable!”

Drake smiles at the gesture, waiting for the other to catch up so they could walk together.

“Sweet crop top, Launchpad,” Gosalyn commented before she ran into the water, splashing any poor passerby when entering. Rolling his eyes, Drake set up his chair under the umbrella and sat down with a sigh.

“You getting in?”

“I will in a bit,” Drake waves a hand at him. “Go get in. Gos’ll need someone to prevent her from washing up on the shore.”

Launchpad gave a salute, getting a snicker out of Drake, following Gosalyn.

Drake leaned back in his chair, his hand dragging across the sand. He watched Launchpad and Gosalyn, the latter splashing the other. He laughed when Launchpad was knocked over by a wave, this being followed by Gosalyn (who was laughing just as hard) falling over, too. Launchpad’s head popped out of the water, and his eyes were shut tight. He must have gotten salt water in his eyes, Drake thought.

The two started stumbling towards Drake, Gosalyn holding Launchpad’s hand and directing him. Drake smiled when Launchpad came up, searching blindly for his towel. He rubbed his eyes, then his hair, then all down his body. Drake watched it all.

Launchpad had just turned around when Drake felt a pinch at his fingers and jolted. A tiny crab had clamped onto him, and he yelped, shaking it off and tossing it to the sand.

“You okay, DW?”

Drake tried to hide his blush, which took form when reality settled in again. Hopefully Launchpad didn’t notice.

“I’m fine, LP,” he says, giving a nervous laugh. “Just a crab.”

Launchpad gave a thumbs up before heading back towards the water.

“I saw you making goo-goo eyes at Launchpad.”

Gosalyn’s voice broke the silence so abruptly, Drake practically jumped out of his chair. But what she said translated into his brain, and he scoffs, shaking his head, laughing nervously again.

“No, I was not.”

Gosalyn’s face didn’t look convinced, and neither did her tone of voice. “Then what was with the staring?”

“Listen, go back and play in the water,” Drake flustered. “Don’t you want to be doing something besides talking to your father.”

“Don’t ignore it,” she says, crossing her arms. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed other times!”

“Other times?”

The noise she made gave him a definite answer. The two both rolled their eyes at the same time, and Gosalyn spoke up.

“Why don’t you come in the water with us, Dad?”

“This sounds like a suspicious case of reverse psychology. What are you planning?”

“Nothing,” she exclaims, throwing her hands up.

“I swear, Gos, if I didn’t know you well enough, I’d be afraid you’d become a super villain!”

The sugary sweet smile she gave him did not rest his case.

“Dad, do you really have to,” Gosalyn whined while Drake packed his duffel bag.

“Yes, Gos,” he replies, giving the response second handedly. “S.H.U.S.H. called me directly about a crime spree happening tonight. And need I remind you that they would usually call-” he groaned before mentioning the “Duckburg Darling”. “You know who.”

“But what about the pirate show? Weren’t you looking forward to that?”

He shrugged slightly. “It’s not the end of the world, Gos. Besides, you and Launchpad can still go tonight!”

“He’s not coming with you?”

He wished. “Well, someone has to stay and look after you!”

Crossing her arms, Gosalyn left to let him finish his packing. Taking his costume off it’s hanger and folding it, Drake looked down at it, his brow beginning to furrow. He was lost in thought, staring at one of the buttons, contemplating if he really should go. He was on a vacation that the organization had provided for them. So why would they call in the middle of his week?

“Need any help?”

The voice rang through his brain after standing in silence, and Drake jolted. Shaking his head, he went back to folding. “Nope, I’m good, LP!”

He could hear Launchpad’s steps behind him, and then a hand on his shoulder. Looking up at his partner, who donned his usual smile, Drake couldn’t help but smile, too. Before Launchpad could ask, Drake spoke.

“I’m just a little bummed I have to work while on vacation. And also that you have to stay behind.”

Launchpad nodded. “Surely it’s not too much!”

When Drake was almost out the door, he was tackled down into a hug from Gosalyn, then a hug from Launchpad. Oh, to just stay there in his arms, and not have to go anywhere.

“Bye, Dad,” Gosalyn calls, already heading back to the couch and waving. Drake waves back, then catches Launchpad’s gaze.

“Make sure she doesn’t have sugar past nine, no TV after ten, and in bed by eleven-”

“Of course,” Launchpad says cheerily, taking Drake’s hands.

“Are you gonna be okay if I’m not back tonight?”

“Absolutely,” Launchpad’s hands squeeze Drake’s. “It’s not my first time doing this.”

“I know, I know,” Drake smiles. “It’s just- I’ve got the jitters tonight.”

“It’ll be fine,” he says, laying a hand on the other’s shoulder. “If you need anything just call me, okay?”

Drake sighs. “Okay.”

Launchpad hesitates before pulling Drake into another, longer hug.

Drake looks down at his phone. No messages or even phone calls from S.H.U.S.H. He thought that there would be more precedent to the situation. He clicked on the contact information and called the first number he saw. He revved up the car, waiting for the phone on the other end to pick up.

After quite some time, an old voice answers. “Hello?”

“J. Gander, it’s me, Darkwing.”

“Oh, well isn’t this a surprise! How is vacation?”

Drake’s blank expression screwed into one of confusion. “Sir, I’m having to leave, remember?”

“Leave,” he asks. “Where are you going?”

“You- S.H.U.S.H. sent me a message saying I was needed back in St. Canard!”

“Oh dear, I believe there must be something wrong,” the old duck says, Drake hearing the rustling of papers and a keyboard clacking. “No, there hasn’t been anything! Many villains are either on the run, in hiding, or in jail! St. Canard is at its calmest!”

Something wasn’t adding up for Drake. He looked at the number that sent him the message, then repeated it to J. Gander.

“All I see here is a ‘Sam J. Ritling’ fellow. Do you know him?”

“Not at all.” Drake reached in the glove box, pulled out a notepad, and jotted the name down.

“Well perhaps someone was ‘prank calling’ you,” J. Gander chuckles.

“Maybe,” was his response. “I’ll still head down and check things out.”

J. Gander made a sound of confirmation, then hung up. Drake stared at the name on the paper. Bouncing his pencil on the notepad, he turned the stereo on. The “Darkwing Duck” theme song continued playing. He looked back down at the name, and noticed something. Quickly rearranging the letters to the name, he gasped, throwing the notepad down in the passenger seat, and hurriedly drove away from the building.

A painful blow to the stomach sent Drake down to his knees. Jim. Of course it had to be Jim. He pressed his sleeve against his nostrils to prevent it from bleeding. In the moonlight, he noticed that his once idol, now rival, was monologuing about how he won the fight, coming closer towards him, until he was standing right over him. Kicking the villain’s feet out from under him, Drake got up in a flash, pinning the other duck to the ground.

“You can’t get the best of me,” says Jim, or Negaduck, as he so lovingly calls himself. “I know all about you, you can’t run!”

“Well, as the former president of ‘The Jim Starling Fan Club’, I can assuredly say the same thing abou-”

Jim kicked him in the jaw, rolling out from underneath him. Drake rubbed his beak before swinging at Jim again. Jim caught his hand and they struggled, both grunting as they tried to best the other. Drake felt all force leave him and he was thrown to the side of the bridge. He caught on to a pole just in time, one foot dangling over the side. He stood back up, running towards the villain, a right hook coming in play.

“You know you can always become me,” Jim gritted his teeth. “Once you get rid of your family- That’s right, I know about the girl,” he says in response to Drake’s gasp. “And I know that my fan is now your little bedmate.”

Drake went to retort, but then realized that they were still in a fight. He swung at Jim’s face, getting only the top of his head as the other ducked. “I’ll never end up like you.”

“Why,” he rolls behind him, clasping his hands together, laying his head on them. “Because you have the power of love to save you?” His voice was mocking.

“No,” Drake starts. He took his cape, throwing it over Jim’s head, yanking it down, the duck going down with it. “I’m too stubborn to do that.” Dragging the struggling cape to the edge of the bridge, he tied him up to a pole. “Enjoy your cocoon.”

The bundle of cape started yelling curses at him as he headed back up to his hideout in the tower. Going up the elevator, the weight of Jim’s words started pressing down on him. It wasn’t him saying he could become as bad as him, because Drake knew that would never happen. What got to him was that he knew of his whereabouts, he knew his personal number, he knew his civilian identity. He prayed that he didn’t know anything else; where his house was, or Gosalyn’s school, or how to get into the hideout, or Launchpad’s connection to the McDucks. Launchpad. He thought that he and Launchpad were together. Drake had a quick scare wondering if Jim was telepathic.

Walking in to the hideout, everything was barren and plain. Good, he thought, he didn’t figure out how to access anything up here. Taking his hand, he put it up to the scanner on the wall, the bright lights hurting his eyes when they came on. Every gadget and doohickey he owned rose from the floor, including the Ratcatcher and the Thunderquack, which he was so glad to see still in one piece. He was always so impressed that Launchpad built that thing. Launchpad. He built that plane with his own two hands. It was the best surprise he could have ever gotten. Checking everything, he started back out, pressing his hand on the panel again, everything disappearing. The scanner was meant to only identify his and Launchpad’s hands. Launchpad. How was their pirate show, he wonders. Did he get Gosalyn in bed on time? Is he worried about him?

In a few taps, Drake was calling his partner. The phone rang for quite a while, then finally a sleepy voice answered.

“‘Ello?”

“Launchpad, hey,” Drake said, very thankful his blush was hidden this way.

“Aw, hey DW,” Launchpad said, his speech slurred. “Did you find out what was goin’ on in St. Canard?”

“Well, it’s a complicated story,” he responds. “I’ll explain when I get back. How’s Gosalyn?”

“She’s good,” a loud yawn rang through the phone. “I put her to bed at 11 like you said.”

“Good,” Drake looked at his watch and laughed. “I didn’t even notice the time, LP! Did I wake you up?”

“Wh- Oh, yeah, you did,” the duck’s voice was slightly more awake now. “But it’s fine, I’ve just been here on the couch!”

“Launchpad,” Drake’s voice was chastising. “That’s fine, I’m coming back tonight, anyway.”

“You are,” he asks excitedly.

“Yes, so you better take your chance with the bed before you lose it!”

Launchpad laughs, they say their goodbyes, and hang up.

“So Jim hacked somewhere and found your number?”

“Right,” Drake affirms. “Which is the scariest part to me.”

Drake and Launchpad stood on the balcony, looking out at the black abyss that was meant to be the ocean and the sky, the stars giving the illusion away. Drake still had on his jacket, unbuttoning it and parting both sides to get some air on the turtleneck. He had come back to the condo to find Launchpad actually taking his word and was sleeping in the bed. Something told him that was the best he had slept the whole week, making Drake feel guilty.

“He said things about me- about us,” Drake says with a sigh. He looked back up at Launchpad, who had raised a brow. “It was just fake stuff, don’t worry.” As much as it hurt, it was true.

“Like what?”

“Oh, you know, saying stuff to get me distracted.” Launchpad didn’t get the right confirmation. “Stuff like- Saying we were a couple and all- He called us ‘bedmates’ which is ironic ‘cause you’re on the couch and- I don’t know, it was all weird-”

“Drake,” Launchpad stops him. It really does stop Drake in his tracks, hearing his full name come out of the other’s mouth. “It’s okay. Surely it’s not the first time, with how much we hang out!”

Drake cringed because he knew this for a fact, and wanted it to be true so badly. He felt selfish because he knew how many people Launchpad had in his life, and how many he had in his. But there was still a part of him that wanted to be selfish.

“How was Gosalyn tonight,” Drake asks, desperately trying to change the subject.

“Oh, she was great,” he says, noting Drake’s attempt to talk about something else. “Yeah, the show was great, too. She tried to get on stage a lot.” Drake laughed, not surprised in the least. “But I think she was more worried about you. She kept trying to get me to check my phone every other second!”

Drake smiled, turning back to look over the balcony. He heard the faintest sound of a door click and twisted around to find the culprit.

“And what do you think you’re doing up this late, young lady?”

Gosalyn slid the door back open, hugging her father.

“Worried, huh?”

“No,” she says quickly, unwrapping her arms from his middle and crossing them. “It’s just that sometimes you get a little too dangerous!”

“Well, you should know that-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Darkwing Duck always gets back up,” she interrupts. “How much did Launchpad tell you?”

“How much will get you embarrassed?”

She squinted her eyes at him. “Fine. I was worried,” she threw her arms in the air. “I just thought that phone call was a little phoney, y’know?”

“Oh, I know, alright.”

“What was it about, anyway?”

“I’ll tell you in the morning.”

“But it is morning!”

Drake rolled his eyes. “Later in the morning. Now, come on, let’s get back to bed.”

“What time do you consider morning?”

“Well, usually around four- Come on.”

As Drake ushered Gosalyn back to her room, he shrank inside himself, thinking about his flustering back there. He couldn’t just give a normal response to a question? Yes, it did fluster him and made him think of all the possibilities and hopes for the future he had with his and Launchpad’s relationship. But did he want to come to terms with it right now?

“No, I don’t,” he says aloud.

“Don’t what?”

Gosalyn’s voice broke his line of thought, and he looks down at her blankly.

“Nothing, honey,” he covers.

Gosalyn crawled into her bed, tugging at the elastic in her hair, before Drake did it himself, grabbing her hairbrush.

“So what really happened tonight?”

“That is an answer that will only be given to children who go to bed on time.”

She pouted, in between hard tugs on her head from the brush of course.

“Let’s just say Jim- Er, Negaduck, found my number and posed himself as a member of S.H.U.S.H.”

She jumped up, the brush dangling in her hair. “Really,” she exclaims.

“Yes, really,” Drake says tiredly, pushing her back down into a sitting position. “I don’t know how, and I don’t know where, but it’s a little scary. Did you like the show?”

“I thought it was a little cheesy, but Launchdad really enjoyed it!”

Drake’s hand stopped mid-brush and he froze. “What- What was that?”

Gosalyn stared at him for a moment, then laughed. “Sorry Dad, it was this whole joke we came up with on the way there! Just so people weren’t like ‘Who’s this random guy taking this kid here?’, y’know?”

“Oh,” Drake tried retrieving his air. “Okay.”

“If I’m gonna be honest, though,” she begins, looking Drake in the eyes. “He feels like a second dad to me. Do you know that? Have you ever thought about that?”

His mind was saying “Oh, if only you knew how much I do”, but his mouth said: “Sometimes.”

“I know you two have something going on, Dad.”

Drake’s face went through a mix of emotions, but he settled with a tired smile. He took his mask off, which he had just realized was still on his face, and he grabbed the covers of the bed. Gosalyn laid down, after her own internal battle to try getting more out of him. He tucked her in, kissing her forehead.

“Get some sleep, Gos.”

“How I haven’t died from exhaustion, I’ll never know,” Drake starts once he’s back out on the balcony.

Launchpad chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. He got up from his chair, deciding to lean on the railing as well.

Drake and Launchpad sat shoulder to shoulder, no words spoken, both looking down at the empty pool, the reflection from the underwater lights glistening on their faces. Drake glanced over, watching the water’s ripples swim all around Launchpad, unsurprisingly framing his face, like anything would.

After a long period of silence, Launchpad spoke up. “Do you feel those things,” he began, his hand moving up to his face but not finding somewhere to rest. “Like what Jim was saying? Or was he just- Just messing with you?”

Drake was caught wide-eyed, trying to decide whether to tell the truth. But then he thought about Gosalyn’s hopeful face, how right everything felt when he was with Launchpad, and how much he wanted this.

“Well, buddy,” his beak shriveled at his outstanding word choice. “Yes. I do.”

Launchpad’s face grew red, and he looked back down at the pool. Drake watched him, desperate for any positive sign. After what felt like ages, he noticed a small smile curled up on the other’s beak.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Launchpad looked back down at Drake, holding his shoulders. Drake’s heart was practically in his throat, unsure of what was about to happen. He could see the slight hesitation before Launchpad made his move. He bent down, kissing Drake’s cheek. Once he straightened back up, his hands dragged down Drake’s arms and found their way to his hands. The butterflies in his stomach were going crazy and Drake couldn’t form words.

“Well,” he says, rocking on his feet. “Thank you- For that, heheh-,” he cleared his throat. Looking back up at Launchpad he saw the smallest glint of sadness in his eyes, and something from deep inside made him act without thinking.

“Oh,” he says loud enough to scare Launchpad. “Who am I kidding?” Drake made the effort of standing on his toes, reaching up towards Launchpad. But, in the end, he found the back of his neck, dragging him down to his face, and landing a long kiss right on the beak.

Drake’s mind was doing backflips. He wanted this for so long, and in that moment he felt something. Launchpad didn’t try to pull away, he didn’t let go of Drake’s free hand, he didn’t resist any of it. Drake could almost feel his feelings. They stood there for what felt like hours. The sea breeze rose up and hit their faces. Drake was smiling. Fireworks were going off inside of him.

A whirring sound grew louder and higher in pitch and ended in a bright explosion, terrifying the two and making them break apart.

“Who on Earth is shooting fireworks off at this hour,” he exclaims, leaning over the balcony to try and get a better look.

“I dunno,” Launchpad says, just as confused, leaning next to him. The two turned their heads to each other, making eye contact at the same time. “Should Darkwing Duck go down and find out?”

Drake snorts, covering his mouth. “Sounds like he should.” He went into his room, grabbed his gear, and sat at the edge of the railing. “If something happens, meet me down at the beach.”

“Of course!”

Drake looked down, seeing figures running around in the sand. Shooting his grappling hook, it latched onto the pool house, and he inched off the rails.

“Oh, right,” Drake says after a short beat, turning his head to look at Launchpad one last time that night. “Remind me once we get home to change my number!”

“Will do, partner!”

Drake smiled, nodding. “Partner.”

[codenamesazanka]

Analysis of Shigaraki Tomura during the Stain Arc 

This is a sort of Part I to an ask I’m answering which I’ll be posting later! I’m irrationally proud of this meta because like I get to explain step by step Shigaraki’s thought process and argue that he’s 1) *smart as hell* 2) but weird and on the outside seems psycho and not even Kurogiri gets him 3) was not *that much* a spoiled tantrum throwing brat 4) it’s such a good, carefully written build up to the mall scene where he gets his enlightenment. 

So! Let’s begin. Oh yeah: Super long post. Estimated reading time: 11min?

Starting at Chapter 47:

Shigaraki (and Kurogiri) meet Stain, because Kurogiri thought Stain would be a good impetus to Shigaraki’s growth - because Shigaraki only cared about destruction, just causing it anyway he can. He didn’t need a reason, he didn’t need a detailed long-term plan, he just goes at it. Shigaraki sees Stain and himself as the same: wanton murderers of Heroes.

Stain disagrees.

Chapter 49:

Stain stabs Shigaraki, and monologues about his philosophy: Stain kills for a reason. Bloodlust without conviction is meaningless, and to achieve something, there needs to be a will.

And that was what Shigaraki seemed lack, at first. Shigaraki wanted to kill for the heck of it, no belief driving that desire, and not really a determined drive. It’s just the number one thing that he wants to kill is All Might, then everything else. Shigaraki was chaos and ruin personified. And he knows it.

But then Stain realizes that wasn’t so: he sees in Shigaraki a “will…[and] the seed of some warped conviction”: the intense will to kill, because of the conviction that All Might and Hero Society is trash. Shigaraki just hasn’t put it into words yet, nor has he self-reflected on it to cultivate it.

Chapter 50:

!This part is really important!

So Stain and Shigaraki (and Kurogiri) are now in Hosu, and Stain goes off on his crusade, still ranting about his creed. Shigaraki watches him goes, and is super annoyed with him. In response, he lets out the Noumu to rampage.

People have described this as another ‘tantrum’, or Shigaraki being a psycho, or just doing what the fuck he wants. That this wasn’t a carefully considered decision and plan.

Here’s the thing: it was. A plan with a reason, to accomplish a goal. Despite how he was acting in the last chapter, Shigaraki was listening closely to everything Stain said, absorbing it, reflecting on it. Stain says, to succeed, you need a reason to destroy. 

And Shigaraki disagrees. Will, convictions, creed - murderers like the two of them don’t need anything like that. Killing is killing, if you wanna kill, you kill.

Shigaraki’s counterargument is to declare a contest: Whose philosophy will be correct? The deciding factor is impact on society - both Stain and Shigaraki wishes to destroy the status quo, the current world. So, will Stain’s belief-driving bloodlust affect society more; or will Shigaraki’s pure destruction?

I’ve read the panel above in Japanese, Chinese, English.  「ブッ壊したいならブッ壊せばいいって話」he says.  ‘If you wanna destroy, then destroying is just fine’ So I pick FA’s translation as I feel it’s the more accurate one. This is Shigaraki stating his philosophy. 

Besides this being a very violent debate, this is Shigaraki’s carefully picked revenge on Stain. The guy stabbed him, he’s annoying, he dissed Shigaraki’s chaotic evil alignment. Instead of starting another knife fight, Shigaraki goes for something that he knows will really hurt Stain: his pride and dignity. Granted, this was Shigaraki expecting to win the competition, but had he won, he would’ve disintegrated Stain’s ideas, his life’s purpose - that he was changing the world, that his attitude to killing is the right one. It was all for nothing! And the whole world would know. (Shigaraki seems prefers this method of cold revenge - he does the same thing to Overhaul later.)

So! To put it simply: both want to destroy society, but disagree on the way to do it - will having a conviction take you further, or do you not need that and can rely on chaos alone? 

Not to mention as well, he even briefly re-considered the Hero Killer’s creed. “As I thought, we’re too different...” That line speaks for itself, and then he decides to release the Nomu.  

Chapter 51

So here and the following panels make it seem like Shigaraki is just losing it. That’s a fair reading, because he really does say: “Cuz I don’t like that Hero Killer. And I’m allowed to crush whatever I don’t like, right? Master.” Which does sounds very childish. 

I argue: Even as Shigaraki’s bleeding and wobbling, he’s already come up with his contest plan. Stain’s One-Man Culling vs Three Creatures of Chaos. 

Shigaraki wants to use the Noumu to cause indiscriminate damage - and more of it. Stain goes after Heroes one by one, so less destruction. What will the world take notice of? Who will cause more fear and panic and lingering unease?

Now, back to that ‘Can I go kill stuff’ line, with new knowledge from the recent chapters 220+:

I say it’s Shigaraki using what All For One told him before as leverage. He’s a brat like that. All For One raised Shigaraki to be a honed killing machine, to direct his intense rage at All Might and Heroes. He’s a weapon - he kills. He doesn’t like something, he goes after it. It’s what Teacher taught him, after all. Or is Master going to admit he was wrong? 

AFO pauses for quite a while before he answers in the affirmative, though he’s still able to show he’s boss. 

And finally, we have Shigaraki declaring that by tomorrow morning, the world will have forgotten about Stain. No one cares about his ugly 17-kills ass; instead, the focus will be on the Nomu and their mass destruction. 

Chapter 56

Near the end of this whole mess, Shigaraki’s plan gets unexpected factors. The UA kids are here, Stain killing one of the Nomu, Stain getting captured - he’s confused and frustrated. They’re extraneous variables in his experiment. Now the media might think they were working together. Now the results aren’t as clear cut. 

“Why aren’t things going my way?” is Shigaraki revealing himself to have been arrogant. He was so sure his plan would be executed exactly as expected, that he would win this contest. He was trying to be the mastermind he could be, but he hadn’t succeed 100%. He’s not so sure now. 

When it’s time to head back, we see that Kurogiri didn’t get it. He had no idea what exactly Shigaraki had being thinking - because Shigaraki never told him the plan. Shigaraki never spelled it out for anyone, not Kurogiri, not his Master, not the readers. Which is why Shigaraki calls him an idiot - he expected Kurogiri to just divine the plan, wasn’t it obvious? “We’re having a battle of ideas using Hosu as the metaphorical chessboard and measuring success by degree of societal impact via media coverage.” 

Okay, maybe I’m reaching and just shoving fancy words into Shigaraki’s mouth, and he’ll probably be speaking about it via video game terminology, but still. 

Hence, ‘it all depends on tomorrow.’ He’ll be ready. I’ve mentioned before that Shigaraki keeps up with the news - the man reads newspapers in the 22th/23rd century - so it would be easy and familiar for him to analyze multiple sources and reach a conclusion. Although, it’ll be obvious.

The winner: Stain.

Shigaraki lost and he’s pissed. 

-

whew. I apologize if this was like obvious and I was sounding repetitive and patronizing, which is not my intention! Thank you for reading allllll of this!! I hope it was good!!

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker-Review

After two great but flawed films, the third trilogy of The Skywalker Saga comes to a sputtering dud of a close in a disappointing, if occasionally fun, film.

(Review contains minor spoilers)

A message has been sent out to the galaxy from the seemingly dead Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) anxiously searches for the potential rival to his rule while also planning to turn this new player to his benefit. However, in order to defeat Palpatine, he will need to officially complete his goal of turning Rey (Daisy Ridley) to the Dark Side of the Force. Meanwhile, Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) work desperately to lead the scattered remains of the Resistance to victory. As the threat of Palpatine and his new fleet of super powerful ships becomes clear, a team forms to desperately search out a way to locate and destroy this new Final Order before it is too late.

The Rise of Skywalker arguably had one of the most difficult tasks of any Star Wars film. Not only functioning as the end of this particular string of films, this final installment of The Skywalker Saga is also burdened with bringing some sense of closure to the succession of plot threads, character arcs, and themes that have been seeded, toyed with, and explored since the first film debuted in 1977. It’s an incredibly hard challenge and it is easy to understand the amount of pressure that must have been on writer and director JJ Abrams, co-writer Chris Terrio, and the whole cast and crew to stick the landing.

From the outside, Abrams seemed like a logical, if safe, pick for the job. The Force Awakens, while it relies heavily on familiar imagery, is a well-paced, very fun film that is buoyant with heart, humor and an incredible ensemble of characters. After Rian Johnson’s delightfully strange, esoteric, and daring The Last Jedi, offering another fun romp to round out the trilogy seemed like a comfortable, if not especially brave, way to end a series of movies that was mostly chugging with momentum and heart. A plan may not have been evident, but having had delivered two films that were still among the strongest in the saga, a road map may have not been needed.

The Rise of Skywalker, however, proves to be a long, loud, and fumbling film that somehow goes out of its way to highlight the weakest aspects of this trilogy in a sloppy and uneven package. There is fun throughout, and on a surface level, much of it is a perfectly serviceable experience, but it sits as one of the most crowded and confused Star Wars experiences in recent memory.

Much of this comes down to Abrams and Terrio’s cluster crash of a script. The decision to return Palpatine as a form of connective tissue, bringing the Dark Side threats of nine films under a single roof, is not an inherently bad one. Ian McDiarmid’s wonderfully campy master planner was easily one of the strongest parts of both previous trilogy cappers, Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, and returning once more to his grand schemes, cackles, and monologues felt like it could have been a smart move to creating closure and consequence. Palpatine ultimately becomes symbolic for many of the larger sins evident in The Rise of Skywalker. His much hyped return is revealed in as purely flippant a manner as possible and his galaxy destroying resources are hand waived in with just as much nonsense and confusion. He exists purely as a scary, familiar plot device and nothing much more.

It becomes representative of a larger film narrative that feels more and more hacked together and confused the more one thinks about it. The Rise of Skywalker’s first thirty minutes are a chaotic nightmare that feel edited together with little thought to cohesion or comprehension. The audience is given no time to linger on a single scene and we hop from location to location with little thought or understanding as to why or clarity of transition. It’s a film that begins at a sprint and wants you to hear everything it has to say while it hurtles forward at top speed. The beautifully orchestrated first third of The Force Awakens that lovingly introduced us to an incredible new cast of characters feels like a far gone thought and the emotional start to The Last Jedi’s own ensemble saga feels all the more impactful. The Rise of Skywalker barely gives the viewer time to breath until close to the end of its first act and by then it will have lightly already bludgeoned many into indifference.

Much of the first half of The Rise of Skywalker plays out in a series of fetch quest related set pieces that range from fun to nonsensical, but it’s ultimately this portion as we head into the film’s playful middle where it is at its strongest. After spending two films mostly apart, Rey, Poe, and Finn finally get to spend time adventuring together and despite the lack of context, this trio of adventurers really sing as a group. The banter, chemistry and cooperation between this makeshift team is the film’s clear highlight and is a testament to the groundwork done by both prior films and the strength of these performers. Anthony Daniels’s C-3PO also gets some of his meatiest and most emotional material to date and Abrams smartly plays the shiny protocol droid as a mix of heart and humor.

All things considered, the individual character arcs for each of our central three heroes are threadbare but populated with great individual moments and asides. Isaac gets to lean into Poe Dameron’s swaggering heroism to an even greater degree here while also building on, ever so slightly, the developments to his person experienced in The Last Jedi. His occasional butting heads with the far cooler minded Rey is a nice touch, but his chemistry with Finn is a forever highlight, even if a much teased romance between the two never manifests. A connection to Poe’s past, Zorii Bliss, is a great new inclusion and is played with gruff seriousness by Kerri Russell of Felicity and The Americans fame. Yes, there are hints of a romantic connection between the two, but nothing serious occurs and hopefully leaves room to keep our famous Resistance pilot among our potential queer characters.

Finn was maybe the one character who did not get to live up to his potential in The Last Jedi. After The Force Awakens turned him into a charismatic but engagingly flawed co-hero, his story of finding purpose couldn’t help but feel like a weak link in a strong chains of subplots and it certainly didn’t help that it included the much maligned Canto Bight sequence. While Finn doesn’t experience as much of a clear character arc here, John Boyega certainly gets much more to do. As the emotional heart of the team that keeps Poe and Rey connected, Finn becomes an important balancing act to the crew and is privy to many of the film’s emotional moments. A smart move sees Finn bonding with another newcomer, Jannah, played by Naomie Ackie, who shares a similar past. The conversations between these two make for some of the film’s best moments and Jannah, along with Zorii, escape the film as its two best additions. There is even a subtle but very interesting development for Finn in this film that doesn’t get highlighted as much as it should, but will delight fans of the character. I won’t say more than that.

It’s ultimately Rey where The Rise of Skywalker heads into murky water. Dasiy Ridley has always been a talented performer and this film easily marks her strongest performance in the saga. Ridley brings nuanced and complex emotion to her close ups and manages to oscillate between playful heroism and conflicted personal drama with great skill. After years of (incorrect) criticism that Rey was a character that was played too safe, The Rise of Skywalker takes great pains to push her into uncharted waters and uneasy futures. It is here that The Rise of Skywalker consistently makes its largest storytelling missteps. One significant reveal is likely to produce audience eye rolls and feels like a betrayal of some of its predecessors’ most thoughtful themes. Ridley does her best with these moments and they do lead to some beats of weighty character conflict, but they feel like an ultimately safe and simultaneously sloppy route to take her character and it ends up bringing much of the film down with it.  

The Rise of Skywalker leans even further into Rey and Kylo Ren being dyads of both ends of the Force, but it’s ultimately Kylo that ends up being the most disappointing of the central characters of this trilogy. After spending two films being an unpredictable and intriguingly unhinged antagonist bursting with moral confusion, Abrams saddles Adam Driver’s Dark Sider with a mostly clear plot trajectory that lacks a fair amount of the nuance that made the same character such a magnetic part of the past films. He is privy to much of the film’s best action beats and one sequence in particular that functions as a creative escalation of the Force bonds from the previous film is some of the most inventive stuff in the movie, but it isn’t enough to really sell the final steps of his character journey. That being said, there is one, potentially very pandering and indulgent moment that mirrors The Force Awakens that comes across with great emotional vulnerability due in large part to Driver and his co-star’s performances.

The old guard are given surprisingly little to do here. After spending much of the press tour discussing Carrie Fisher’s posthumous role in the film, the end results end up being something of a mixed bag. Having Leia be a central part of the narrative is welcome and it’s nice to get a proper goodbye to the character, but the artificiality of her inclusion is far from seamless and often times is more distracting than it is moving. Billy Dee Williams’s long awaited turn as Lando Calrissian proves fine, but doesn’t amount to much of consequence. He feels like a stand in for all of the original trilogy characters that are inaccessible to this film’s plot. Luke’s return is serviceable as well and is competently acted but is directly tied to some of the wonky storytelling choices made with Rey and is often peppered with disappointing bouts of misguided nostalgia and fan service.

The Rise of Skywalker is a very big movie. There’s quite a lot going on and many players, new and old, don’t get their fair share. It’s hard not to be a little angry that after the abuse hurdled at her for over two years, Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose is given such little to do that she might as well be a bit player. The same can be said for Maz Kanata or any of the other supporting characters of the trilogy. The elusive Knights of Ren finally appear to do little more than stand around and look cool and their one action sequence is a titanic disappointment. The always petulant General Hux is sidebarred as well, but has a rather fun bit of character development that lets him leave the trilogy as a strangely despicable but enjoyable secondary villain.

As an action spectacle, The Rise of Skywalker is occasionally fun but frequently hollow. The early and middle portions concerning our heroes out running and sneaking past First Order forces prove to be the most successful and fun. Abrams injects some of these bits with clever uses of mobile cinematography and an Indiana Jones-esque chase sequence on the sands of Pasana is pure fun. The large Return of the Jedi meets Avengers: Endgame finale feels empty and weightless though. Despite the massive scale demonstrated, it all feels mostly hollow and heavy on effects and explosions. Because it is so predicated on the earlier mentioned loose and bizarre plot choices, it’s unclear what we are supposed to be feeling as we head into this chaotic showdown. Strangely enough, Abrams skimps on the cameos for our big rallying cry. For a film that rarely shies away from fan service, the one moment that seems primed for it is barely utilized.

Even John Williams feels tired. While his score blends together themes from all eight films with mastery, there isn’t much new to really give the movie its own identity outside a briefly heard finale piece.

The Rise of Skywalker isn’t awful. It has moments that are quite strong and more often than not it opts for surface level fun rather than daring choices. However, it’s moments of sloppiness and baffling script choices make its safer moments all the more frustrating. It is not the worst of Star Wars franchise, but it is far, far from the best and it’s hard not to leave the film disheartened, not necessarily by the events of its story, but rather that after all the love and adventure, it ends on such a half-hearted stumble.

Score: C+

[cutiepasta-thewriter]

DnD: Why we don't play with Peter

Tony knows how much Peter loves his nerdy tabletop RPGs. Every other week he'd sits down with his group to play a campaign but not recently.

His group was disbanded and while Peter was a little bummed he decided to find a new group.

Seeing this as an opportunity for some father son bonding he gets the other avengers to play a few games with him.

It was actually effective team building since the game requires the players to have patience and work together.

To everyone's surprise the GM was Dr.Strange who actually had experience with DnD when he was young and nerdy.

They decided on playing a Star Wars game with everyone split into Jedi and Sith teams.

Jedi: Steve, Clint, Peter, Thor, Bruce, Wanda and Bucky

Sith: Tony, Natasha, Loki, and Carol

The Jedis' job was to track down and defeat the Sith players.

The Siths' job was to gain political power, military power, influence, information and moral power.

The works was split up among the dark side agents which caused the Jedi to plan for each take down of the lords. Fortunately, they were all endgame battles.

Most of the Jedi were in training with Steve getting one of the master roles with Wanda.

During a training exercise Clint hit Peter in the back causing a random effect of dark energy lashing out and blasting the other character clear across the room.

Steve immediately took Peter aside to talk about power and using the right kind of power. Afterwards the other Jedi kept a close eye on Peter and rarely left him alone and never let him off the ship if they could help it.

Peter didn't object in the beginning but it was a headache in late game.

All the while the Sith players started spending their time gaining power. Carol had her own private army, Loki was rubbing shoulders with dignitaries that owe him a lot of favors, Tony gained control of his own citadel with control of his own trading port, Natasha kept her role quiet. To be honest the Jedi players were worried when they heard this because their most strategic allies were the enemy. Even Peter said he couldn't face his father.

As the game went on a few of the Jedi became that guy. You know the one, once he gets to high renown and is high leveled they begin changing alignment and becoming a dick. Those players can often ruin the game for others. Clint even told the Stephen to shut up, a cardinal sin in this game.

For Steve, his character began to believe his word should be law and micromanaged everyone. Peter who s task was to manage cargo and maintenance often got annoyed with him. Clint on the other had had the spirit of a murder hobo with the standard dubious morality. His reckless behavior got the team into many unwanted battles. This is how Thor ended up dead when Bruce wasn't there to heal him.

Bruce's character never forgave Clint since they were in a relationship with Thor's.

Later it was Wanda who died in a stupid battle and Steve got worse without the other master to stop him.

Each time the Jedi faced down the Sith the battle ended in a stalemate and the Sith getting away.

However during the invasion of the Citadel they managed to capture Tony. When Steve tried to kill Tony it was Peter who stepped in, in story Tony was the father of Peter's character and if Steve killed him it would end Peter's storyline since he wanted to turn his father back to the light.

Steve still did it since this was their only chance. He stabbed Tony through the chest as Peter screamed. The rest of the group OOC began yelling at Steve because that wasn't cool. Stephen said it was fine since the death was fair.

Peter immediately demanded he be given the body to deal with and later had it delivered to his homeworld. He wasn't the same after for a while but later said he accepted that this was because of his father's life choices and that he made made his own.

During the final showdown the two groups faced down. Steve delivered his self righteous monologue and in the middle of it he felt a saber at his back.

It was Peter holding it and smiling.

"Finally, do you know how old those speeches get after awhile. Dear god, you never shut up about the Jedi way! Do you know what it's like listening to you people with your self righteous bull. You think your so noble but your just as bad, you guys are constantly killing innocents and claim it to be the price of helping the greater good" Peter's character screamed as if he was in agony.

Steve turned his back to see not just Peter but Bruce and Bucky had also turned on him.

"I told you already. I can't go against my father." He said softly.

"Bucky? You too?" Steve asked.

"Sorry, but he has a point. We've done some fucked up stuff in the name of the light and I'd rather just not participate in any of this at all. I'm leaving." Bucky turned his back and left being spared from the onslaught by not choosing a side in what he sees as a pointless battle.

This was a pretty big deal since a player not participating in the last battle is unheard of.

Sure enough Bucky IRL was sitting back to enjoy the show.

That be said from behind the other Sith players came Tony who was very much alive. Where Steve had stabbed him in the heart was this universes equivalent of the the arch reactor.

Hearing Stephen describe this made the entire table break out in laughter and shock.

Apparently Peter had Bruce help revive Tony and had the sith shipped of to a private hospital he owned.

After Peter stabbed Steve in the back and Bruce made short work of Clint who was furiously trying to fight his way out, the game was announced over.

Stephen cleared up the confusion and stated at there were actually five Sith in the game one of which had the role of information (natasha) gathering the other moral influence. Natasha didn't say hers so the Jedi wouldn't be tipped off. Peter was there to gather what he could on the light and send it to Nat secretly and to turn their allies against them. They had failed to notice him the entire time. Every battle against one of the lords were sabotaged since Peter had already told them the plan.

In fact after Tony's "death" Peter made a shadow government to take over the citadel to make it look like the jedi had won.

All went according to plan and the Sith remained victorious.

You see when Steve and Clint got too out of hand Peter pulled Stephen aside. Since they were new to the game and hadn't yet curbed their impulses yet they had to be taught a lesson. The other party members agreed and allowed Peter his due.

One thing no one told the entire group was the reason Peter lost his previous group was because of his role. You see some groups may get out of hand with terrible party members who ruin the fun for everyone so instead of just kicking them put the DM will call in Peter who is well known for what he does by the DM community. Peter was known as a hobo killer. He won't just kill them though he would destroy them in an ironic twist he'd pull right before the end. He'd rob them of a satisfactory story line just so they couldn't reroll a character.

He had done this with the permission of his DM and caused all the toxic players to leave the group in anger. The DM was thankful knowing the players wouldn't be back after Peter released a terask apon the mortal realm and revealed that his character was a god and the end times were here.

That being said no one played DnD with Peter without being on his side and not being a dickish player.

[fgodestinyawakenings]

EOR SE.RA.PH Singularity: Final Act~END

At last the final part of this whole Singularity Chapter 1.5! It’s considered canon in ways but..... Why can’t DW just turn this to an actual main story chapter instead of that coming hell Singularity.... Sure it has about the same reason, but... Nevermind, time to finish this CCC collab

Final Act (1/5)

Inside BB’s studio at last, the final boss of this entire Singularity, or is it? With Tristan’s push, Gudas began their interrogation at BB for answer we’ve been waiting for. Suzuka totally not sorry while she apologize for siding with Gudas after betraying her. Tama Cat began going around on her own to inspect the whole area... Along with Lip, deciding to tell off her stupid mother once and for all

Don’t even fake your surprise when you knew Lip will betray you eventually. Aside from her R18 mouth, we’re starting our fight with her! Obviously we’re fighting until our death since our way in is our way out. And you probably locked it to ensure we get torture to death... So bring it on, AI!

<<NOT SCREENSHOT>>

One beating from Saint Martha later.... Someone looks damn cheerful for getting defeated as a villain. Yeah... And a blackout?! What the? Suzuka, everyone!!

After blocking an ambush... We’re in a place... With all those children inside the casket?! What the hell is going on here?!?!?!?!! This is similar to Chaldea with the coffin but.... So many....

Suzuka instantly realized the children’s magical circuits are what powering SE.RA.PH this whole time. All 128 children used as decoy Masters to summon the Servants. Emiya Alter then shows up.... So it’s finally here we know what Seraphix really is

Final Act (2/5)

The Celestial Body Simulator, System Animusphere aka the Heart of Seraphix..... Young children taken and immediately used by Seraphix and later Zepar to summon all 128 Servants. Children that’s already gone has their body used to power up Seraphix.

Must admit, I’m thankful to Emiya Alter for at least giving these children’s soul to rest in peace after a long suffering. And now that we know.... Emiya Alter corroded by some darkness is coming after the Gudas’s life as they are no longer needed.

While declaring his motive, another voice summarized his motive for us... But.... Robin! You’re alright?! Don’t ask us what the hell happened to Emiya Alter, help us now!! Save your reminsince banter with Lip for later!

After... After beatng Emiya Alter.... He...... He’s still trying to do what’s right........ What the fuck, Mable?! What the fuck are you doing here?!!! Where the hell were you and Arnold!!

What do you mean by that? We don’t even want to fight him in the first place! And Tama Cat? As she realized what’s beneath under Mable’s persona... A member of Tachikawa School of Buddishm? Her? Who is she?! What’s going on, Cat?!

Complying easily to remove her mask... “Mable” then undisguised her to reveal... A Buddhist nun? Wait, you’re the therapist for the church here?!! Kiara then reveals she’s the one who worked with Zepar. But she’s not a Demon God or anything... A human? No... So you say.... You worked together with Zepar.... But You’re..... BEAST III, one of the Seven Evils of Humanity: The Beast of Pleasure!!!!

Final Act (3/5)

Beast.... III.... A Beast..... The third Evil of Humanity....?! Kiara then reveals how she became one in a way... Where our Kiara was another victim of Zepar to be killed instead of CCC Kiara’s history.

So she’s the one Zepar made in contact with but... Because of that, that’s why the whole of Seraphix become a human body. Despite lamenting her pain, someone had one hell of lustful face. Robin managed to snap Guda out from Kiara and questioned if she was the one who summoned BB

Kiara confirmed it with Zepar teaching her of parallel world, eventually knowing CCC’s Kiara herself and the history. Because of what she achieved, the Kiara we know is merged with CCC’s Kiara. So from Lip’s summary, instead of digitizing Seraphix... He used Kiara to give SE.RA.PH a form

While Kiara tried to stop him, she no doubt failed since it was human against a demon god pillar. CCC’s version of Kiara swallowed all of the Sakuraface from Lip’s memory, hence they became sentinel from there. Although Zepar managed to convert Seraphix, Kiara then made use of BB and Gudas to run it.

....... Even saying she’s grateful and giving her gratitude for tryng to save Seraphix, that fake applause isn’t buying anyone here. Suzuka then stepped forward, knowing everything she said so far are lies or half-truth instead.

Demanding she confess, Suzuka asked where’s Zepar current location, how many Servants she swallowed as her body and Seraphix are one. Or... She’s the one who tricked every Master to come here in hopes getting their wishes come true!!

Not even guilty that she killed all the Servants.... Kiara even admits in pleasure of the killings she did on the Masters too. Robin was even surprised that BB never said, while both Suzuka and Gudas shows disgust at what she done. Good saying there, Robin! That’s something we agree no doubt, we definitely cannot let Kiara live this point onward!!

There’s a difference between patient and a sense morality, Gudas may have same or not amount of patience as you... But their sense of morality is completely way different than yours!! Suzuka immediately unleashed her Noble Phantasm at her, along with Tama Cat.

But... What the hell?! As Kiara disappeared, Seraphix hit the seabed... No we’re going all the way to the Earth’s Core?!!?!?! So that’s her plan all along?! Kiara’s voice revealed further of how she’ll use Earth to save all of humanity.... And, the place soon changes to her lair where Kiara’s true form is shown.

Not even thinking of giving up, Tristan’s threat is even useless to her to make her stop SE.RA.PH from sinking further. She merely smirked to say we can easily be defeated since we’re at the palm of her hand...?

...... Nothing really hits her.... And everyone was killed.... Kiara even knows about Goetia. Commenting all he know was destruction, she may still weak but.... And then.... Before Gudas was about to get eaten... BB stepped in to save us?! Immediately reyshifting with Lip’s help away from her lair to....

Final Act (4/5)

Zepar’s inner monologue begins at the start of the chapter. Unlike its comrade, it sees potential in humanity rather than destruction. After choosing Seraphix as it’s considered “unobservable region” from Flauros’s POV, it stayed to recover. Eventually deciding to use our world’s Kiara to hide Chaldea’s detection. A church therapist eventually hated by Seraphix members for her innate kindness.

If it weren’t for his intervention, our Kiara would’ve led a modest but happy life. Though it noticed there’s something more of her, so it acted while Kiara was asleep. And at some point, Kiara eventually agree to allow Zepar to use her body to save everyone.

Manipulating everyone in Seraphix with her help, Zepar even succumbed to human lust at some point of its work. Eventually, things turned around where she manipulated the Demon God. Once Seraphix was converted to SE.RA.PH, Kiara become an indispensable member to them... And the one who started the killing fest between the co-workers.

Wow... Even Demon God eventually got a better sense of morality once it sees the hellish sight it become. Once entered the planetarium... Kiara then have it summoned BB and 128 Servants. At this point, she got it completely wrapped by her fingers and ruled SE.RA.PH.

Kiara then learned more from Zepar about the Demon Gods and their current situation. Zepar then begged once it regretted so much for choosing and corrupting her. That explains the Zepar we met, is now a hollowed body with no soul at all.

Once Zepar disappeared, BB then confront Kiara about this. But the latter merely brushed it off like it’s nothing... Which BB then tempered the files of every personnel death before moving onto the Holy Grail War.

So while waiting for SE.RA.PH to emerge, that’s where they began summoning more Servants to amuse herself.

Final Act (5/5)

Now back to the Gudas, we’re transported into a classroom?! I guess the useless AI is useful for once huh, Robin. Both Melt and Lip are okay as well, phew... Uh, you did nothing so just get to your point of why saving us when you want us dead, stupid AI?

In summary, we all definitely died, even the Gudas too. But BB rewind the time before our death to save and reyshift us away from there. Uh again, not really. Coming from a brainless AI, you’re just more stupid than scary.

As they asked more further about the time, we can go back all the way to the time before Gudas arrived. But, we’re definitely stuck here within Kiara’s grasp. BB then admits she’s more of forced to do Kiara’s bidding than an actual follower.... But Robin got a point in defeating Kiara, since this isn’t Tiamat or Goetia at all.

Wait... We’re fighting half of Beast III aka the R side? Right or aka Rapture... So for this case and a certain one in Proto-type, it comes in pair? So, at this rate, she’ll completely become the Beast III/R like a butterfly coming out from the cocoon.

Using SE.RA.PH to become Beast but still bound to SE.RA.PH.... Hence she and the planet will fuse once she reached Earth’s core. So that’s where KP points come in with BB special items to beat her.

Selfish and stupid AI will always be that way, Robin. Might as well use this time to finish up all the quest we have to defeat her. Yeah yeah, oh useless AI, we’re still going buy from you so spare us of you being hardworking there. 

Later before going off, Melt came looking for the Gudas. The Sakurafaces reveals their own attachment to this classroom... As a fragment memory of a certain girl in CCC always looking at her Senpai. Thanking her that she’s joining us, Melt laughed and brushed off at how weird Gudas are for acting sentimental around her. But to her, we’ll always be her one and only Master once they returned back to their world.

But before Gudas can interrogate her, Melt admit that she hides nothing yet knowing there’s already something wrong within her.... 

Epilogue (1/2)

Buying every single buff+debuff in KP shop for an easier fight.... Kiara greeted us that we returned back to face her. Whether a moth or not, we’re coming here to stop you once and for all. And we heard better threats than your sexual harrassment too, Kiara.

Ouch, nice job Melt! That’s not a burn that can be healed by remove debuff for a long while on hitting her age. And unlike you, Kiara, Melt isn’t as much of nut job as you are despite her tsundere side.

Offering once more for Gudas to join her... They asked why did she become a Beast instead? We are not as crazy despite the amount of insanity the Servants available in Chaldea. Nevertheless, she replied she was envious...? Unfair? Seems like the joy of relishing Zepar’s memories in Solomon Singularity made her feel envy and to desire in feeling the same of countless of heroic spirits killing her.... As such her a mere human, unable to make that dream come true....

Unfortunately for you nut job, stupid AI have them start a killing fest so there’s only a few of us left. Also, it’s completely decided we’re never be able to come to terms with each other. Like Beast who love humanity in a twisted way, Melt described accurately all traits Kiara has. Even Alter Egos like the Sakura five are disgusted of her existence, sans BB for later reason.

In her eyes of her world, Kiara is the only “human” and everyone is nothing but “animals” before her..... Regardless what tragic past you have, Emiya Alter was only doing his job because of what you are. And you’re right, enough of this chit chat... For Emiya Alter... For Chaldea... For the world and humanity... We’ll not worshipped you as a god, but a Beast to be destroyed as an evil Demon! 

Epilogue (2/2)

Excluding her unnecessary comment, the Gudas and everyone dealt a fatal blow against her! But before everything ends, Kiara complimented their effort in fighting her... The area around her is collasping, and she’s dragging us along with it!!

Lip calls for everyone to hold her hands before we got suck in with her. Going down further, Lip also detected Zepar’s true presence from SE.RA.PH itself. Even if Gudas did win this Holy Grail War, the way back home is a trip to Hell first. Once laughing the last laugh, Melt decided to have Gudas used all their Command Seals on Lip and her for a powerful Noble Phantasm blast.

Knowing what it means, the Gudas handed their Command Seal all to them. Once BB got hold the Gudas, she also detected the Demon God’s presence being more and more stronger. Good to know how useless you are since you can’t stop what Kiara is doing at this rate

I’d like to play the song It’s Raining Men changing to it’s raining Demon Gods... That’s not what I’d like to happen here! Suzuka then offered herself to help BB to stop Kiara from spreading Demon Gods all over the sea.

Which as Kiara watched us despairing at what’s about to happen... Melt and Lip have a small talk with each other.... Before unleashing their Noble Phantasm together. A flashback involving Melt actually received a fatal blow from Kiara in the previous battle, getting tortured while Gudas are used as hostage against her, and killed before her.

Both eventually managed to escape with their combined Noble Phantasm, while Kiara earned her victory laugh from their first fight. And also later afterwards of meeting her other self in this world... In order to save Gudas this time, the Melt of the present sacrifice herself so the Melt in the past could save them

One last time... Lip used her Brynhild Romantia as a catapult to launch Melt at Kiara. Melt reminsince her past one last time... And unleash her own Noble Phantasm. Kiara caught off guard eventually panicked while yelling for Melt’s reason knowing she’ll die from this.

Beast III isn’t giving up on her hand by summoning more Demon Gods to catch hold of her body to use as catalyst for more Demon Pillars, stating they were one and the same Spirit Origin. But... Emiya Alter shot Kiara to stop her! He’s still alright for a little while more!!

Pulling Melt away... Emiya Alter made sure Kiara sunk way bottom and broken apart... Destroying her once and for all with one last head shot to end her. Though before death... She eventually decided to resummon herself one day as an Alter Ego, as she and Melt are the same kind of person.

The AI congratulates Guda for beating Beast III/R at last. Everyone else gathered once Gudas awake from that sinking place. When mentioned about Tristan and Melt... A flashblack revealed Tristan pulled Melt up with Emiya Alter’s cable.... But Tristan managed to have Melt save before sacrificing his own life. That’s coming rich from a stupid AI, who throws away all emotion to create those Alter Ego.

And seems like Tristan save Melt because she resemble Isolde... *shrugs* Hope DW can give a rough sketch of what she look like someday. But Melt eventually fades away after using all of her Spirit Origins to fight against Kiara.... After BB recording their irregular existence as a Servant in the Throne of Heroes.

So the Melt we meet will be a new Melt... One that have no memories of us and the CCC event. And a reyshift is here for Gudas! Suzuka went away first with reminding Gudas to text her if they ever want to meet. Tama Cat returns to Chaldea to prepare food for us. Robin went back to throne of Heroes since he got dragged here on a whim

Lip... Part us a farewell, knowing the next time we meet her, it’ll be a Lip that has no memories of us. Lastly the AI... Nah, we don’t show you anything. You still like to insult to the very core. So okay, bye.

Now... Finally back home at last, we’re... Greeted by Da Vinci who don’t remember what happened?! Wait, the past even change so that it’s now dismantled?!!?!?! 

That some reyshifting.... ANd.... Some sassy stupid lost child AI invited herself into Chaldea. Oh yeah, you hate humans so much you must travel all the way 2019 to study our technology. Oh wow, your stupidity has gone no bounds as usual! Yeah yeah, stay all you want, knock yourself out. Just because you stay, we don’t need to entertain you 24/7

Thoughts & Observation:

Aside from the crazy difficulty and grinding, I expect no less from Nasu who written the story himself... And again, aside from the unecessary harem scene of course.

Boss fight, majorly Alter Ego are the pain in the ass. Because 2 years later, their boss is still the same with no Anti-Alter Ego class currently

BB’s fight is hell for now, but at least 2 years later with Emperor mothman,.. It’ll be slightly better

Passionlip:

..... First round is what the hell, especially her AOE NP. And it’s better that’s it’s 3 charge, and first time for NA

Second round, it’s practically before first HP break to break it since she charged her NP fast

David apparently died on that second round... From that insta-death. Her third skill buff missed ignore invincibility.... But that insta-death definitely didn’t miss a shit on David

Though at least final hp bar is scrapping whatever luck I have to make sure insta-death doesn’t work....

Suzuka:

She’s.... She’s surprisingly not that hard. Maybe front two rounds is difficult, especially trying to hit a certain HP with that defense buff.

But her third round, after learning my lesson in JP.... Bring an AOE Archer to kill her and her later Shadow Hijikata on second HP break

Jeanne and Merlin have been my MVP since both are taking turns to pull out wide invincibility against her

Meltryllis:

....... She’s the only one I still refused to look forward in 2 years later

Taunting is one hell to go through. Skill seal + attack down that’s practically RNG based especially if it lands on your support to cast defense against her. And finally her hp recovery down every turn... 

It’s not bad if you can get Merlin’s NP spammable every turn.... Only thing is her fucking crits that outdo your healing

I can still remembering making sure Herc-chan killing her with his brave chain....

But main MVP is Vlad III Extra, surviving long enough with his NP to deal the damage most of the time

BB:

My only problem was because I’m too used to Emperor’s mothman, and looking forward 2 years later to beat her with borrowing as support.... Given if I’m unlucky again to not have him home in NA too

Borrow Martha Ruler, but initially had wanted to go for Amakusa... Because Martha Ruler was taking quite a while to beat the front

Even better... I used Arash to get rid of the front.... But I forgot there’s the guts buff. And neither him or the first wave died....

BB herself on boss fight isn’t hard with taunters around to lure her NP away from Waver and Martha

Emiya Alter

Not as bad as Melt, but I’m still not looking forward to his fight.

I did learn from JP’s experience... So I borrowed Melt with Waver and 3 taunters to fight

Had to make sure the Melt I borrowed had Sakura CE’s MLB so Waver can buff her NP up and she does her brave chain to quickly break away his first HP bar

That was my problem as I realize delaying it will means quicker death for my Servants

So once it breaks... All it left was making sure the taunters takes the damage from the NP while keeping Melt and Waver alive to fight

Kiara aka Beast III/R:

Maybe because it was using Jeanne... Combined with Merlin and Vlad III Extra, that it’s slightly difficult than usual

Especially this is still her NP without the overdue interlude that upgrades her NP to remove her stun

But it’s still not that bad, except some time Kiara tends to crit more often than usual

Fondut au Chocolat CE helps a lot when combine with Vlad’s NP to deal more damage against her

I don’t mind going back to Mash + Merlin setup with BB.... But I’ll try it one more time 2 years later, with Jeanne having her NP upgraded

While Agartha is debatable in how I’m going to go through for that, it’s time to go back to JP for the coming big Raid session!

[kyojuuros]

A little communication goes a long way...

Chapter 113 started making me really think about how detrimental everything has become for our heroes and all due to a basic lack of communication among everyone in the cast. The hints that communication was not open during the time skip were there, but what’s interesting is looking at the back-and-forths between the characters, the information that has been withheld, as well as the information that has been handed out and the consequences of doing so. 

The first major communication issue stems from Grisha withholding what he knows from the people of Paradis. He keeps his secrets locked up in a basement for no one to see, only expressing a wish to share this information with Eren after Eren expresses a strong desire to understand what is beyond the walls. Later in Trost, Eren questions why Grisha refused to share the information he had with anyone. Of course, his question is later answered when the Survey Corps find out about the First King’s ideology and the actions that the Interior MP’s take to prevent anyone from questioning the state of things. But Eren had a point: If Grisha had told more people about the truth of the world, things could have been different for Paradis.

A lack of communication is, again, brought up as something for us to think about concerning the Survey Corps and how Erwin withheld information from everyone who joined the faction after the fall of Wall Maria. Only a select few soldiers are aware of the goal of the 57th expedition, while the rest are left in the dark. This causes a chain of events:

Soldiers are unaware of the possibility of another intelligent titan attacking them leading to a breakdown of the long-range scouting formation and many deaths due to a lack of mental preparedness. 

Armin deduces out loud that the Female Titan is intelligent like Eren, prompting Reiner to ask more questions about the situation which ultimately led Armin to give up Eren’s location, allowing Reiner to communicate with Annie where to go next. 

Squad Levi dies, causing Eren to fight and lose, ultimately leading up the event that caused Levi to go out of commission due to an injury. 

The fight in Stohess occurs to lure Annie out. Levi being unable to help with the fight likely allowed more deaths to occur than what would have happened otherwise. 

The question of whether Eren, Levi and their squad could have fought Annie together in the forest and won continues to hang in the air. If Eren had known the goal of the mission, perhaps he would have made a different choice.

At this point of the story, Erwin’s withholding of information is seen as a necessary evil. If Erwin had divulged details about the true goal of the 57th expedition, Reiner and Bertolt would have been able to pass on that information to Annie. Either she would have gone with more preparedness, or perhaps the warning would have staved her off and none of those deaths would have had to happen. Of course, there is no way to know for sure. So that was the risk that Erwin took. Armin touts this as an admirable and even necessary trait to have in order to overcome the enemy: In order to defeat monsters, one must abandon their own humanity. 

Ultimately the narrative doesn’t reward this, as Annie encases herself in a crystal and our heroes remain without answers and only more questions. 

The next string of communication mishaps happen after Ymir reveals herself to be a titan. Hange begs the question, if Ymir isn’t their enemy then why didn’t she let the Survey Corps in on the information she has? Information and another titan ally would have proved extremely helpful even before the events of the 57th expedition had occurred. If Ymir had spoken up, then the people of Paradis could have known that humanity was thriving outside of the walls. Erwin could have known the truth rather than risk his life seeking it out, which would have prevented one of many strings of events that have led our heroes to the predicament they’re in now.

The unwillingness to communicate about the state of the world is further emphasized as Reiner, Bertolt and Ymir continue to keep Eren out of the loop during their conversation in the forest. They speak to each other in riddles, causing Eren great frustration in a situation where he is already heated by the betrayal of those he once thought of as close comrades. Despite Eren’s desire for answers, he lets his anger get the better of him and resorts to yelling and dishing out threats. Nothing gets resolved. Only more questions. 

In the Uprising arc, we learn about the First King’s ideology and the literal brainwashing of the people on the island. Paradis is drowning in ignorance in the name of “utopia” and thus, are essentially frozen in time, not knowing that they aren’t the only humans left in the world. They continue to fall behind the rest of the world in advancements as King Fritz waits for the day to come when the entire island will become decimated by the rest of the world. Not even the Reiss family understands the truth about the world, despite being the holders of the Founding Titan for the last 100 years. King Fritz was determined to make sure that everyone was left in the dark until it was time for them to die. 

This arc also highlights the danger of withholding information from the general populace. Our heroes are finally rewarded by the narrative in this arc by getting down to the truth, overthrowing the government that was suppressing it from the people, and revealing the truth that they have learned to the people. The Survey Corps gains a large increase of respect and are given the best sendoff they’ve ever had. 

During the RtS arc, Zeke points out the danger of the island’s ignorance during his monologue. Those who are ignorant will continue to make the same mistakes over and over because they lack the information to make better choices.

Bertolt refuses to divulge information and only tells Armin that the people of the island need to die, despite the fact that they’ve done nothing wrong personally. Bertolt chooses to escalate the situation by threatening Armin, rather than simply sharing the information he has so that Armin could have the potential to come to some sort of agreement.

Reiner continues to withhold information even with a blade to his throat.

The serumbowl is another event that comes about due to a lack of communication. It starts with Armin not telling Eren the true intentions of his plan which leads to his almost-death. While Eren has suspicions about Armin’s intent, it leaves him emotionally vulnerable to the idea of losing Armin. If Armin had communicated his intention to die taking down Bertolt, Eren may not have agreed with the plan, and a situation where Levi had to choose between Erwin and Armin may not have had to happen.

When Eren asks for the serum, he is unaware of the situation that happened on the other side of the wall and Levi doesn’t make it a point to communicate to him about it either. This causes Eren to feel entitled to have Armin take the serum without having to consider the lives of anyone else that may be dying on the other side of the wall - including Erwin. So when Erwin shows up, it’s a shock, and Eren gets angry with Levi for withdrawing the serum when this new issue arises, causing the situation to escalate quickly. The entire scenario causes comrades to go against each other, breaking down the trust that has been built over the last few months. 

While they are finally able to learn about the truth of the world after this, the price to pay for it was Erwin’s life, ultimately throwing our heroes into disarray since they no longer have their politically savvy, “chess master” leader to help formulate ways to resolve their situation - one that is now heavily rooted in politics.

Eren unlocks a crap load of memories after reading his father’s journals. He becomes a well of new facts about the reality of the world. One of these new bits of information being the concept that if he touches a titan of royal blood, it will allow him to fully harness the power of the Founding Titan. But due to his shaken trust in the military, he chooses to withhold this information in order to protect Historia from potentially having to become a titan herself. It is only when Zeke, someone with more knowledge than him, who appears to have the intent to help the island, confirms that this is the situation that Eren chooses to fess up. However, aside from this bit of information, we can assume that Eren has been open and honest about everything else he’s learned through his father’s memories. 

Unfortunately, Eren choosing to hand out the information he has about Historia only reaffirms his stance on not trusting the military with this information initially, because now the option to throw her life under the bus exists and the military is ready to utilize her as they see fit. He wanted to protect Historia and in the end, informing his people only caused her to be in more danger. Now she is being forced to carry a child in an attempt to avoid this fate. 

Despite knowing and understanding the cruelty of the world outside, it appears as though Paradis didn’t take his information as seriously as they should have. We see him start to disagree with his friends - Armin continues to hope for diplomacy, but Eren believes that the rest of the world won’t care what Paradis has to say about anything. Unfortunately, Eren is right. The rest of the world doesn’t want to hear what they have to say. Eren’s ideal solution is to bring Zeke to the island so they at least have the rumbling available to them while they try to figure something else out. But the military is mistrustful of Zeke and doesn’t want him over there, despite Zeke’s honesty about their situation and the fact that he is the driving force behind the Volunteer soldiers and the treaty with Hizuru. Instead, they choose to keep stalling while Zeke’s time bomb keeps ticking, hoping to only need him as soon as they’d be able to feed him to Historia.

Paradis learns that their situation is born from oppression from the rest of the world, yet the military pushes forward by treating the Marleyan prisoners-of-war as slaves, dishing out the same treatment that Eldians face all throughout the world. Paradis military starts to withhold information from the populace again. In just 4 years, they become no better than the government they worked to overthrow. The populace, again, has become ignorant to facts. 

Meanwhile, Hange and Armin continue to go on about diplomacy and showing the world they aren’t bad people, seemingly ignoring the fact that Eren insists the rest of the world won’t want to hear what they have to say. In an ideal world, Hange and Armin’s methods would work. But Eren knows the world isn’t ideal. 

Eren seemingly gets frustrated enough with the situation and with being ignored that he finally reaches out to Yelena in private to get answers and formulate a plan to push things forward and get Zeke to the island. It’s something he kept worrying about all throughout the flashbacks - time is not on their side, and Zeke and Eren both have very little left. They need to make a move or the situation will never get better.

Meanwhile, Reiner is not allowed to share his information about Paradis to anyone outside of the military. Perhaps if he would have been able to truly tell Gabi about his experience on the island, she may have learned a lot sooner that they aren’t the devils she was brainwashed into believing they were. This could have led her to be less inclined to pursue the life of a warrior and ultimately could have spared Sasha’s life in the end.

Eren and Zeke finally do communicate effectively while Eren is in Marley. The only problem is that they both have come to the conclusion that they are the only ones who can truly understand each other and the situation. It does seem as though Eren did try to spell things out in his letter to a degree. But that didn’t seem to be enough. Though the Survey Corps came to get him, he was not met with understanding. Instead, he was kicked in the face, restrained, lectured to and ultimately imprisoned because he acted on his own (something he probably felt he was pushed to do because no one would listen to him before). Likely, it was clear to him then that trying to communicate with the Survey Corps or anyone else on the island was going to be a fruitless effort and so decided to shut himself off completely.

The story, over time, has taught Eren that being open and honest only endangers the people he loves and/or gets him locked up. So why should he keep talking?

When Pixis confronts Yelena about everything, she chooses to lie. It’s hinted at by Onyankopon that Yelena is not fully honest with the Volunteer soldiers either. When Pixis is named the new commander, he throws his hands up and says they’ll give into the Yeagerists while secretly plotting to do away with both of the Jaegerbros. These are all things that continue to make the situation worse. 

When Eren’s in a position to finally communicate with his closest friends, this communication doesn’t seem to go the way he intended for it to go. He starts the conversation by saying that Eldia’s problems can be solved without any further violence. However, before he has a chance to explain things - most likely the Jaegerbro plan - Armin starts reaching out for answers and asks why Eren decided to side with the enemy. Mikasa then adds fuel to the fire by insisting that Eren is clearly under someone’s control. So, instead of telling Armin and Mikasa how Eldia’s future can be saved, he informs Armin about memory inheritance affecting current holders of the nine titans and uses that information to hurt him. Then he tells Mikasa what he’s learned about her heritage and jabs into her deepest insecurity as well. While he surely doesn’t hate his friends, from his perspective it seems that they have either lost sight of who he is or have lost faith in him, so he decides on the spot that they, too, will not understand, and chooses to push them away, rather aggressively, instead of let them in.

Likewise, Zeke opts to keep his lips sealed during his time with Levi. While he does explain to him the situation with Ragako, as Levi asks him about it several times, it doesn’t seem that he bothers to tell Levi about much else. Zeke believes that Levi would not understand and that he cannot be trusted with the information Zeke has. He even expresses some regret that they cannot trust each other enough to communicate effectively. Because Zeke doesn’t have anything to say to Levi about the plan, Levi is given no reason to trust him. So when Levi is presented a situation in which he is told he’ll have to be willing to kill Eren, he refuses it and turns his attention to Zeke. And because Levi decides it’s time for Zeke to die, Zeke transforms Levi’s comrades into titans to make his getaway to preserve his own life. Unfortunately, his miscalculation puts him in a situation where he is helpless and can no longer freely get to Eren, stalling their plans even further as the world comes knocking on Paradis’ door. 

Imagine how much could have been avoided if the brothers hadn’t been kept away from each other for an entire month. Perhaps their issues would have been resolved by now, rather than escalated. 

On top of this, there are potential hints that there is not total communication between Eren and the Yeagerists as well. Floch is very hush-hush about the wine, so it’s possible that Eren isn’t aware of it. We also never see Eren giving them orders, yet Floch insists everything he does is in Eren’s name. Just as well, the Yeagerists are probably also completely ignorant to whatever it is that Zeke and Eren have planned. 

So now most of our heroes are in the dark. Only Eren and Zeke know what the plan is to save Eldia and they firmly believe that no one else will understand. But now Zeke is out of commission as Eren continues to use the Yeagerists to try and locate him. Paradis is crumbling as the Yeagerists continue to grab for more power while oppressing everyone else in Eren’s name, making Eren look even worse. Meanwhile, the Marley military has hit the ground on Paradis and is moving fast toward the walled territory, the warriors are already in the walled territory somewhere, and many of our key players are locked up and/or out of commission.

It’s, in short, a shit show. 

Eren may have been right that trying to communicate with the rest of the world was probably a lost cause, but the shortcoming is the inability of our main cast to trust in each other to do the right thing with the information they are given. Armin is the one who is correct when he tries to seek out more information from Eren. But Eren came to the conclusion that it’s pointless to tell them anything. Just as Reiner, Bertolt, Annie and Ymir had decided so many years ago.

Zeke and Eren may not believe that everyone else would understand, but talking about what they know and what they intend to do would put Paradis in a situation where they could at least make more informed decisions. But perhaps in their eyes, it’s better to just keep them ignorant given their track record when learning new information.

Hopefully the fact that they all really do need to just sit down and talk things out comes to light before it’s too late. Eren may scoff at it, but it’s what they really need the most right now.