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jennyeverywhereday · 3 years

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The Disappearance of Jenny Everywhere

Here is a story written by Lupan Evezan featuring all sorts of characters.

The Disappearance of Jenny Everywhere

Pulling her scarlet overcoat tightly around her, Jenny Anywhere leapt towards her foe. The villain dodged, darting around her, and reached for a weapon - but Anywhere was faster. In an instant, she had grasped her opponent by the collar and thrust her down onto the damp stone floor of the castle.

Her foe struggled, then tried to shift away, only to be pulled back by Anywhere's opposing force. Removing a length of chain from her pocket, the red-clad heroine fastened her to a wall.

"Where... is... she?" Anywhere hissed, staring into the profoundly evil eyes of Jenny Nowhere. "Answer me, or this shift-proof chain stays in place for the rest of eternity."

Nowhere looked confused. "What are you prattling on about, knockoff? I can't speak for my other incarnations, but I haven't

kidnapped any sacrificial maidens in, oh, months now."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Anywhere snarled. "She's gone - all of her - and you're the only shifter twisted enough to pull something like that off. One of you, anyway, and this incarnation works as well as any other for interrogation purposes."

Realisation dawned on Nowhere's face. "Oh, that! Well, of course I've noticed, copycat, but you can't possibly think - look, if I was capable

of something like that, I'd already be ruling this slice of perceivable omnireality. Come now."

"Funny - for some reason, I just don't believe you."

Turning towards the table in the corner of Nowhere's hideout, Anywhere picked up the weapon that her foe had reached for earlier - some sort of aether-bladed dagger. She angled it towards the captive Nowhere.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you - which is why you'd better start talking. Tell me what you've done with her."

"Tsk, tsk." Nowhere clucked. "Would she approve of all of this? I'm impressed, mind - it must have taken you ages to find these chains. But I'm afraid all of your effort has come to naught, because I'm just as baffled as you are. Whether you believe me or not, it's the truth."

Anywhere kept her grip on the dagger - but something in Nowhere's words seemed genuine, beneath the mocking tone. It could be a trick - was almost certainly a trick. But she'd never heard the anti-shifter sound so sincere.

"Fine. Give me a reason to believe you, then. Or - to reiterate - I leave you tied up here. Forever. If you ever want to leave this room again - let alone this universe..."

"A reason?" Nowhere asked. "Fine. Simple: I would never do something like this."

Anywhere snorted incredulously. Nowhere shrugged.

"Yes, I suppose it is a bit hard to reconcile. But it's the truth, completely. I may hate her, yes. I may want to see her destroyed, defeated, foiled at every turn. But wiped completely from the multiverse?" The captive villain blew a strand of hair from her eyes before continuing. "I am Nowhere. What significance can that concept hold without its opposite? What would my purpose be, if she were truly gone? Individual incarnations, certainly - but I would never truly want all of her eradicated. I really wouldn't."

"But she is." "She is." Nowhere acknowledged. She sighed. "And I really, truly don't know why."

Anywhere stared at her captive - something in her eyes, while still evil, seemed genuinely sad. She bit her lip, thinking.

"Fine. I'll believe you. Provisionally." "You'll let me go, then?" Nowhere asked. "Not yet. But I'll be back." Anywhere turned her back to her foe. "And she'll be with me." "I'll hold you to that, wannabe." came Nowhere's voice from behind. "Give her my worst regards." "Count on it." With a flash, Anywhere shifted away.

She rematerialised in a rain-soaked city and sat down on a nearby bench. The local incarnation of Jenny lived nearby, and they would often meet at this corner, guided by the intuition that the other was waiting. She stayed put for many minutes, hoping against hope that she'd show up - but she didn't. Of course she didn't.

Anywhere sighed, resting her head in her hands. There was no denying it. She was gone. Every single one of her, across every reality.

Jenny Everywhere had disappeared. And Anywhere had no idea what the multiverse was going to do without her.

****

Tying her frizzy orange hair into a bun, Laura Drake got to work.

Jenny was gone. Jenny - her best friend. Her only friend, really. Jenny, who had defended her from bullies in grade school, who had helped her secure her current position with one of the world's leading scientific innovators, who had once fought off a demon for her (well, they couldn't all be normal life events - this was Jenny, after all).

Laura still remembered the first time she'd learned about Jenny's powers - how could she forget? That was a memory that would stick with her for the rest of her life, she was sure. She'd walked into her best friend's bedroom just in time to see her vanishing from reality. That had been an interesting discussion.

It had, obviously, been a fairly shocking thing to witness - but she'd gotten more or less used to it eventually, after seeing it happen so many times. Up until the very last shift, which Jenny still hadn't returned from. That had been almost as shocking.

Of course, Jenny had disappeared for long stretches plenty of times in the past. But she'd always let Laura know that she'd be away, without any exceptions. Leaving without a warning, Laura was sure, could only be a sign of something very bad. And she absolutely was not going to let something very bad happen to Jenny.

Stepping back, she admired her handiwork. Not bad for something whipped up so quickly - the fact that she'd used... borrowed technology from work had helped on that front (and if the Altern Corporation didn't like it, tough luck). But looks weren't everything. Would it work? That was the real question. There was only one way to find out.

Taking a deep breath, she connected the power supply. With a crack, reality seemed to stretch before her eyes before snapping back into a bright blue vortex that hung within the frame that she'd created.

So far, so good.

Glancing nervously about her workspace, she donned her protective gear - which she really should have been wearing all along, but it had slipped her mind. Steadying herself, she strode forward.

This is fine. It's all fine. It's all going to go perfectly without a hitch. No chance for accidents here. I'll just be in and out. Find Jenny, come back - nothing to it. Easy as pie.

She stood before the portal. The mental reassurances weren't helping much - this was still undoubtedly very frightening. Jenny had taken her on a few trips to other worlds before, and even that had been nerve racking - but it certainly didn't compare to diving off into the unknown without anyone to guide her.

But Jenny was gone. And she was going to find her.

Taking another breath, she stepped into the crackling rift. ****

With a shout, Jenny Anywhere leapt into the gaping maw of a serpentine abomination. Darting swiftly past the outstretched fangs that dripped with sickly-green venom, she plunged onward towards the back of the throat and landed a pulverising kick to its uvula. The creature retched, then careened into a nearby mountainside as Anywhere jumped out between its teeth and skidded to a stop on the ground below.

The thing unleashed a strangled roar, its snake-eyes locking on to to its pink-haired foe. Anywhere crossed her arms.

"Had enough yet, beast?" she yelled up at it. "Ready to tell me where she is?"

The creature choked again, then spat a drizzle of venom droplets. Anywhere dodged, watching as the spray burned away the undergrowth.

"Well?"

"I have already told you!" the monster hissed, rising painfully from the mountain where it had landed. "That I have no idea where your friend is - and I certainly didn't eat her! Now, don't mistake me - I absolutely would have, had she been through this way. But - and this bit is crucial - I have never so much as laid eyes on her! I promise! Please don't kick me again!"

As Anywhere considered the creature's words, someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned to see her travelling companion, the shifter known as Hakhe. The two had run into each other shortly following Anywhere's interrogation of Nowhere, and had decided to continue their search together.

"While I understand and appreciate the thoroughness and... ruthlessness of this investigation - " Hakhe began, in Thai, "in an infinite multiverse, I think it might be best to limit our interrogations to those who have actually heard of her."

Anywhere crossed her arms. "I know, I know - but we've pretty much exhausted every twisted villain and horrible monster that she's ever told me about, so I just figured..."

Hakhe nodded. "You're right. But maybe this isn't the best way to go about finding her at all. We could be at it for the rest of our lives, at this rate, and still be no closer to finding any answers."

"I guess you're right." Anywhere sighed. "I just don't know what to do. This is all completely wrong. One incarnation might go missing, or even a few hundred - but all of them? Every single incarnation of Jenny Everywhere, in every single universe - all vanishing at once? It just... isn't supposed to happen."

"But it did. As far as either of us can tell, anyway. And to address a possibly-unprecedented problem, I think we're going to need an unprecedented solution. Or something close to that." Hakhe adjusted her red scarf, the garment that she held in common with their missing friend. "And I think I might have an idea."

"Oh? Do tell!" "Did Jenny ever mention something called 'the Infinite' to you?" Hakhe asked. "Oh, yeah - the bridge-reality that only she can shift to. But what does that - ?"

"Well..." Hakhe mused. "She once told me that there are a few incarnations who stay there full-time, to make sure the dimension is functioning properly. And if only she can get in - well, maybe whatever made the rest of her disappear couldn't affect those Jennys."

"Of course! And they might know what happened to the rest of them!" Anywhere exclaimed. "But, er - we can't get in, either."

"Maybe not - but I think I know someone who might be able to."

"Another person? I don't mind working with you, Hakhe, but I'm really not much for teams."

"I know - but this could be our only chance." Hakhe reminded.

"Oh, alright. Let's go, then."

With a nod, Hakhe refracted reality around her and jumped into one of the dispersive universes. Anywhere followed. The serpentine abomination slithered off to get some bed-rest.

****

Laura Drake spiralled through an interminable vortex of space and time, passing through the membranes of the universes. She tumbled past alternate timelines, parallel dimensions, pocket realms - each of them completely Jenny-less. She could sense it.

But Jenny had to be somewhere. She had to.

As Laura fell, she tried to cast her mind out into the muddle of realities - to search for some echo of her friend. Jenny. Jenny Everywhere. The Shifter. Goggles. Scarf. Flower pin in her hair. Come on, come on... where is she?

Laura wasn't sure if she'd be able to leave the vortex even if she did spot a sign of Jenny - and she certainly didn't know how she was going to get home. But that was a worry for later. For now, she just needed to find her.

Scenes from across existence played out before her as she drifted by - a tranquil rainforest, a war-torn dystopia, a world made entirely of swiss cheese.

Come on, multiverse. If you can show me this stuff - show me Jenny. Please.

Something flickered, then changed. And Laura saw her.

She could tell, somehow, that what she was seeing wasn't happening 'live', so to speak. But the scenes had morphed into images of Jenny - of thousands of versions of Jenny, playing out events from prior to her disappearance.

Laura watched in awe as her vanished friend saved reality a hundred times over, vanquished evil again and again, explored countless worlds and embarked upon billions of adventures. There she was, fighting off villains - liberating entire planets - riding a dragon - taming a comet - flying with Amelia Earhart - doing anything and everything imaginable. Across the universes, there was one constant - one person who could defy any limits, who couldn't be held down by any artificially-imposed constrictions. A person who could take on any mission, any story, any challenge that arose. A shifter. The Shifter.

A person that the multiverse absolutely needed to have around. And I can find her, Laura told the multiverse, If you'll just show me how.

There was another flicker. Something buzzed, and then - a portal opened in the vortex-tunnel before her.

Bracing herself, she dove in.

****

On the bridge of the starship Wilson, a blond-haired man in a purple uniform prepared the computers for an unprecedented jump.

"Michael, pardon the interruption - " one of his companions began, raising a finger as the blond-haired man finished hooking an unspeakable number of back-up generators to the main server.

"What is it, Ill? I'm busy."

"Actually, I've been going by 'Lit' recently - er, but that's hardly the point. I just... feel the need to reiterate the point that trying to 'brute-force' reality-shifting like this is liable to destroy the entire ship."

Michael shrugged.

"Yeah, that's why I left the crew over on that moonbase."

"Yes, and I have chosen to remain with you in the hopes of shielding you from a similar fate - but such an intervention would be completely unnecessary if you would - "

"Look, I'm sorry, but Jenny is missing. The synchs aren't telling me where she is - so I'm going to look for myself. The Infinite seems like a good place to check, and I can't get there on my own, so - "

Michael gestured to the mess of equipment that he had connected to the Wilson. The Abstract of Illumination, embodiment of the concept of light, sighed.

"So you've decided to connect yourself, a cache of Jenny's genetic makeup, and a ludicrous amount of power to the ship's computers, make the jump, and hope for the best?"

"Now you're getting it!"

As if to prove the specifics of his scheme, Michael connected a wire to the bulky headset that he had fastened to his forehead. The ship's terminal blinked in seeming confusion at the new input. The Abstract pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated.

"Have you considered that this might be a trap rigged by Chaos or one of his ilk?"

"Sure I have - but this still seems like our best course of action. Without Jenny - well, without Jenny, all of existence is in Chaos's grasp already. We have to try to find her, no matter what it takes. Flip that switch for me, will you?"

The Abstract reluctantly flipped the indicated switch. Energy coursed into the server, causing it to hiss. Michael prepared for the shift.

"So... coming?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. "Not to late for you to go join the others." "Oh, I'm not worried about myself - it's you who should give this a good mulling-over." "Done! Let's get going, then!" The Abstract rubbed his temples as Michael Wherever initiated the jump.

**** Somewhere in space, a dark force shifted.

It had been watching, lurking, spying on the crew of the Wilson as they made their preparations. It had heard it all - it knew of Jenny's plight.

Besides, it could feel it - the lack of the Shifter. They were connected, in some twisted way - the Shifter and the Fallen One. After all, it was not just one being, not one entity. No, it was the gestalt consciousness of thousands of the many monsters felled by the Shifter - held together by hatred and vengeance and the all-consuming power of Chaos that blanketed this universe. It hadn't had anything to do with the Shifter's disappearance - but it was certainly not averse to taking advantage of the situation. Far from it.

Jenny had destroyed it time and time again, ended a thousand of its lifetimes. Now it was her turn to feel that pain. She was out of the picture - she could no longer defend her allies.

It would pick them off one by one, consume them, and finally, finally have its revenge. Nearly chuckling to itself with a hundred mangled voices, the horrid amalgamation crept into the

proverbial shadows of the universe, ready to strike. ****

"So... let me get this straight: you want me to take you to the Infinite?"

"That's right!" Hakhe confirmed. Anywhere nodded.

"And... you think this is something I can do? Really, I'm asking - I have no idea."

"Well, all of the Jennys can get there, right?" Anywhere said. "And you're - well, you're not quite a Jenny, but you are a clone of her. Same DNA and whatnot. That's more than either of us can say."

Jenny Somewhere nodded.

"Yes, I suppose that's true - but it's not like we're connected or anything. I mean, all of the proper Jennys disappeared, right? But I'm still here. And even if I could get in - well, maybe you don't realise this, but I can't exactly aim. We'd probably end up in some kind of death dimension or something, instead."

"Well, yes, we do know that." Hakhe replied. "But we can, so we thought - maybe we could be your navigators, so to speak?"

"Oh. Well - I guess that might work. But - are you sure she'll be there?" "No... no, we're not." Anywhere admitted. "But it's the only real idea we've had. If - if she isn't

there, I don't know what - "

"Don't worry." Hakhe reassured her. "We'll find her. No matter what, we will find her."

"Well, I'd like to help, if I can." Somewhere told her new companions. "And I suppose it can't hurt to try. Probably. But my living room might not be the best jumping-off point. Let's go to the void

between the universes first - sometimes I have slightly better aim from there, to begin with, since it connects them all."

Somewhere held out her hands. Anywhere took one, Hakhe took the other, and they shifted. ****

They stood in the void, gazing into the surrounding nothingness.

Well, stood wasn't quite the right descriptor. Floated, was more like it.

"Only a short jump from here to the Infinite." Somewhere said. "Er, you know. Hopefully."

"Well, we're off to a good start." Hakhe noted.

"No time to waste - let's shift!" Anywhere put in.

The three shifters clasped hands again, preparing their most difficult reality-jump yet. Anywhere and Hakhe focused intensely. Somewhere summoned her strength.

They shifted.

The void melted away. The universes seemed to part. They fell, tumbling through an endless wormhole. They pushed onward - they glimpsed the Infinite - they touched the boundaries of the bridge-universe...

Then snapped back into the howling void.

"It... didn't work." Anywhere mumbled. Hakhe put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry. We'll figure out some other way to - "

A tremendous rending sound cut her off as, beside them, something tore open in the nothingness. A woman with frizzy orange hair stumbled out.

They stared at her. She stared back. "Wait... Jenny?" she asked. Somewhere shook her head. "Not quite."

"But we are friends of hers!" Anywhere put in. "You're one of the Lauras, right?"

"One of the - ?" Laura shook her head. "No, that's not important. Yes, I'm Laura - you know Jenny, too? Do you know where she is?"

"No - we're looking for her, though." Anywhere replied. "And we think we might be on the right track. Er, how did you get here, by the way? That was some entrance."

"Oh, it was... quite a journey." Laura said, brushing residual ashes off of her protective gloves. "But that's not important, either - the right track to find Jenny, you said?"

"Well, hopefully." Anywhere answered. "We're following the best idea we've had, anyway."

"Well - can I help, then? I'll do anything to get Jenny back."

"Hmm..." Hakhe rubbed her chin. Her eyes lit up. "Actually, yes - I think you could. The three of us couldn't quite enough to make that jump work on our own - but it's my understanding is that the Lauras of the Multiverse tend to have a special connection with the various Jennys, unlike any other. So..."

"So adding her to our, er, biological navigation system here might actually increase our odds!" Anywhere exclaimed. "Great idea!"

Hakhe nodded, then held out a hand to Laura. She took it. "So - what is your plan, then? Where are you trying to go?"

"We'll explain on the way." Anywhere answered. "But I don't think we should waste any more time around here. The roving abominations are starting to look hungry."

The others nodded. Clasping hands, the four companions focused, then shifted with a bang. ****

They hadn't expected the Infinite to be so... infinite.

Physically, yes, they had been fairly sure that it would live up to its name. But it wasn't just the dimensions of the bridge-universe that were endless - it was everything. The very concept of the place seemed to encompass every possible experience, assimilated from every other reality. Standing there, the four world-travellers felt as if they were living a billion billion lives all at once. It was just a fragment of a feeling, of course - an echo of what it must have been like to be Jenny, when she tapped into the network of all of her infinite selves.

Despite everything, it wasn't overwhelming - it was exciting. The sheer possibility of every imaginable adventure seemed to dangle before them.

But they hadn't come for adventure. They had come to find their friend. And the Infinite, in addition to being unimaginably vast - was empty.

"She... she has to be here, right?" Anywhere sputtered. "Right? She has to be! How could... I mean - she has to!"

Anywhere ran off through the Infinite expanse, with Laura tagging closely behind. The others followed.

"Jenny!" Laura called, her words echoing back to her alongside the words of countless others throughout the multiverse. "Jenny?"

She stopped. "I... I don't think she's here." she mumbled. "I don't know why, it's just - it doesn't feel like she is."

Somewhere nodded. "Yeah, I can usually feel some kind of connection when she's nearby. But I'm not really getting anything here, unfortunately."

Anywhere shook her head. "She has to be here. She has to be."

"She's somewhere, even if this isn't the place. We'll keep looking." Laura declared. "I'm not giving up."

"Neither am I." Hakhe said. "But - "

Hakhe stopped, then squinted at a ripple in the distance. As she stared, it opened into a rift. A large space-vessel popped out with a crash, then skidded to a stop before them, its engines fried.

A hatch opened, and a blond man in a spacesuit fell out. A pale person with black hair followed him.

"See!" said the blond man. "See, I told you that would work!"

"If by 'worked', you mean 'blew out all of the ship's mechanisms and probably would have killed you if I hadn't invoked a favor from the Abstract of Life', then..."

"Hey, we're here, aren't we?" As the two new arrivals continued their bickering, Anywhere rushed over to their ship. "Hey! Are you here to find Jenny, too?" "Sure am!" "Do you have a scanner on that thing? Something you can use to see if she's - ?"

"Oh, yeah - we do! Nearly forgot about that." Michael ducked back into the ship as the others waited anxiously outside. "Hey, it still works! Now, let's see..." came Michael's voice. It fell silent again. "Well?" Anywhere called. "...no, I guess she's not here." he replied, before exiting the ship again, looking forlorn. Anywhere was silent for a moment. "...oh." The group of companions took another look around the Infinite. "So... she's really gone, then."

Hakhe placed a hand on Anywhere's shoulder. Michael exchanged a sad glance with the Abstract of Illumination. Laura wiped the tears from her eyes, as Somewhere removed her goggles and gazed at them wistfully. They stood together in the middle of all realities, wondering if they'd ever see their friend again.

****

A dismal fogbank rolled over the small seaside town to which the grieving party had relocated. Ordinarily a peaceful place, it had taken on a gloomy atmosphere this morning - which suited the moods of the six travelling companions well enough.

The town was one of Jenny's oldest haunts, home to some of her oldest friends. It had been the first place different incarnations of her had shown both Laura and Anywhere. It was familiar to all of them, and they had all decided that it was the best place from which to mourn.

They had held out hope that they might happen upon her here, unlikely though it would be. That they might find her at the coffee shop or down by the pier, getting into some kind of scrape. But they hadn't, of course.

So they sat, dejected, on a secluded beach. And they hoped that they might find her eventually.

As waves broke against the shore, the six companions stared out at the sea. There were still places that they could check, of course - but what were the odds of finding her within any reasonable span of time? In an infinite multiverse, they didn't look so good.

The waves continued to roll in - and so did the fog. It seemed to gather around them, growing darker and thicker with every passing second. It blotted out the sun, covering the sand in shadows.

And then it spoke. "companions of jenny everywhere..." it hissed in a thousand broken, sibilant voices. "mourn not

your missing friend. mourn only for your own pitiful lives - for WE have come to take our revenge."

The fog closed in, stitching itself together into a tower of shattered faces. A tendril formed.

"What... is this?" Laura asked.

"Not good. This is not good." Hakhe replied.

The Fallen One lashed out at the six companions, knocking Michael off his feet. A shockwave of pure hatred shoved Somewhere into a sand dune.

"W - what do we do?" Laura breathed.

Hakhe looked up at the thing, scared.

"I don't know. I... I don't know. If Jenny were here..."

"But she isn't." Laura said. "We're... completely on our own. The multiverse is on its own."

Hakhe nodded. The beast drew closer, howling mouths opening along its incorporeal form. Somewhere's scarf was sucked in and turned to grey ash.

Anywhere stared at the monster. Her eyes narrowed. She stood, leaping in front of it. "No!" "No?" Somewhere asked, rubbing sand off of her jacket. "no?" the nightmare-being hissed.

"No." Anywhere confirmed. "We may be on our own - but the multiverse isn't. Jenny may be gone, but we're not. We've all managed to break the rules of reality within the last day or so - I think we can stop this thing from wreaking its havoc. It's what she would want!"

"You're... you're right!" Hakhe shouted. "We're not going everything she's done go to waste!" "I'm certainly not!" Laura added. "Yeah, and besides, it's my duty as a clone!" Somewhere put in. "Er, probably." "Jenny's prepared us for this!" Michael nodded. "I assume!"

"I'll certainly not let such a creature of darkness blot out the light on my watch!" the Abstract of Illumination agreed.

"foolish creatures. total destruction is your only destiny."

The Fallen One rushed towards them in a roiling ball of energy. They rushed right back.

Anywhere leapt into the air, landing a pulverising kick to one of the monster's warped faces. It recoiled, hissing, before spotting Hakhe. Forming a pair of jaws, it leapt towards her - but she dissipated on contact. Behind, the real Hakhe collapsed her dimensional projection and struck the unsuspecting thing in an unguarded eye.

It fell to the ground under the combined force of the blows, only to find itself caught in the searing beam of a handheld weapon.

"I actually forgot that I had this with me." Laura explained, as the creature writhed. "It was supposed to be a gift for Jenny. For making toast quickly."

The beast broke free, rising into the air once more. Somewhere ran towards it, crossed her fingers, and reached into another universe. Pulling, she produced a sword.

"Huh. I was going for some kind of laser gun, but - eh, this is cool."

She dealt the beast another blow, and it shrieked, letting loose another shockwave. As its opponents recovered, Michael appeared behind it in a puff of purple smoke and whacked it with a large plank that he'd found on the shore.

"Teleportation!" he called. "Whaddya think of that, Lit?"

The Abstract of Illumination smiled, then undid the collar that he wore around his neck. His full powers unleashed, he directed a beam of undiluted light towards the creature.

It collapsed again, and all six combatants rushed it. The struggle raged on, kicking up sandstorms and causing the sea to churn. The monster fell, rose, and fell again. It lashed out, screamed, then seemed to fall silent for a final time.

The companions gathered around it. "Is it - ?" Laura began. She was quickly cut off.

"foolish... things..." it hissed. "you have defeated but one form. but WE... are hate. WE... have thousandssss."

The clouds swirled as more twisted forms flowed into the universe, joining the creature on the ground. It rose again, becoming a tentacled hydra.

"We can't give up." Anywhere decared, stumbling forward. The thing snapped its jaws, ready to strike.

Something flickered in the sky above. A flash of red cut through the darkness, and the Fallen One recoiled.

"no... no. it is... impossible!"

The burst of red became a solid form - a human. A scarf flowed behind the figure - a pair of goggles glinted on its forehead.

Jenny Everywhere leapt into the Fallen One. With a final scream, it shrunk away and was gone. The Shifter landed on the beach and dusted off her parka. Everyone stared, disbelieving. She waved. "Oh, hi! Er... what did I miss?"

****

"So, well, what with existing everywhere all the time - sometimes I have to... rejuvenate, you know? Not absolutely every one of me - but enough that you might not be able to find me. Enough of the shifter-network gets worn out, and we automatically zap off to some secret realm beyond time for a week or so. And I... honestly don't know what happens there. Some elements of me are secret even to, well, me! It's extremely rare - only happens, oh, once every few millennia. And, well, these last two decades have been so cosmically chock-full that it turned out to be just about the right time for it! But I'm sorry I wasn't able to warn any of you."

Jenny took another bite of the toast that Laura had whipped up with her heat-ray and looked out at the sunset of the seaside town.

"Aw, it's alright. I know how these things are." Anywhere assured her. "I'm just glad to have you back. We all are!"

The others nodded. Jenny grinned.

"Aw, thanks! And thanks for dealing with that monster, too - it's good to know that if I ever really disappear, I've got a great group of friends to take care of any loose ends out to get me!"

"But please don't disappear again." Laura said with a smile. "We'd miss you too much. Everyone would."

"I second that." Hakhe agreed. Michael and Lit nodded. "Yeah - can't have my ortet disappearing on me!" Somewhere chuckled. Jenny smiled again.

"Don't worry. Whatever happens, one thing's for sure: I'm here to stay. Now... how about a toast?" They each raised a slice of toast. "To the Shifters! And to every story we've had - and will have!"

****

Written by Lupan Evezan

The characters of Jenny Everywhere, Jenny Anywhere, Jenny Somewhere, Laura Drake, and Hakhe are available for use by anyone, with only one condition.This paragraph must be included in any publication involving these characters, in order that others may use these properties as they wish. All rights reversed.

The characters of Michael Wherever, the Abstract of Illumination, and Chaos were created by Benj Christensen and released into the public domain.

All concepts and plot events introduced in this story are hereby declared open-source and may be used in any work provided that a paragraph is included noting their status as open-source concepts.

Happy Twentieth Anniversary to Jenny Everywhere!

#JennyEverywhereDay #2021 #Lupan Evezan

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the-wanted-man · 4 years

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The Ex-Con | ‘Lawrence’ ⌐ LFRP

THE BASICS –––

Name: Roman “Lawrence” Wyld In-Game: The Outlaw

Age: 25

Nameday: Uncelebrated or unremembered. (29th Sun/4th Umbral Moon.)

Born: The New World (Raised in Garlemald)

Race: Hyur - Whalaqee & Garlean

Gender: Male.

Alignment: Chaotic Good w/occasional deviation towards what feels good.

Marital Status: Easy come, easy go.

Orientation: Poly. Mostly straight.

Server: Balmung

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE –––

Hair: Short to Mid length and unkempt. Dark brown w/ white highlights.

Eyes: Silver. A swirling mix of mercury and ash.

Height: 6′3

Weight: 238 lbs

Distinguishing Marks: A long scar over his left eye reaching brow to cheek. Various other mappings of scars across his body. Particularly stabbings, bullet wounds, and burns.

Build: He’s tall, almost lanky for a normal hyur with strong shoulders that slope downward over a broad chest. His waist is tapered, his legs are long. His hands calloused. Both his weight and musculature are practically built, and his lifestyle keeps him lean like a coyote with a noticeable lack of fat to spare. If he missed a meal he’d surely feel it. He seems the type for dexterous tasks, but carries deceptive strength.

Common Accessories: Two loaded six shooters, a cutlass or his Gunblade. A bowie knife/ hatchet, some lock picking & whittling tools. Paracord or rope. Extra revolver cartridges (regular and aether loaded). A deck of cards numbering 51, or magitek dice for recreation. Magitek gizmos. Peanuts, Cigarettes, a flask of whiskey. A single tarot card (The Star), kept in his left breast pocket. A red bandana. Compass / Pocket Watch. An eagle totem necklace. (2) multitools: one with eating utensils, bottle/wine opener, and knife. The other with Magitek specialty tools. A big, gold belt buckle. A cowboy hat, usually dark. Wolf fang earrings. (1) perfectly weighted coin.

PERSONAL –––-

Profession: Handyman. Gun-for-hire. Gardening & Gravedigging. Naturalist & Survivalist.

Hobbies: Finger dexterity puzzles. Card games. Gambling. Sketching, whittling.

Languages: Common. Garlean. Whalaqee. Some Ishgardian.

Residence(s): Nomadic, favors Wellwick Woods and the Burning Wall. Any wild will do though. Has an unknown location of interest in the deep Shroud.

Religion: His religion has no name.

Patron Diety / Spiritual Guide: The Wanderer | The Eagle

Fears: Cleithrophobia. He’ll get really freaked out if he thinks he’s stuck somewhere.

Distinguishing Traits: A rural drawl that lilts and flows.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: Never.

Parents: Augustus cen Ferox & Valentina wir Maximian

Siblings: An older half-brother, Leviticus wir Maximian

Other Relatives: Cousins he’s not close to.

Pets: No pets, just all manners of beasts both companionable and not. • A paint mustang named Trigger • A multi-colored dog w/ no name yet.

Traits ––– -

*doing something a bit different

5 Positive Traits (Generally beneficial)

Truthful • Hardworking • Easy going • Agreeable • Optimistic

5 Neutral Traits (Can be good or bad)

Lustful • Restless • Pensive • Observant • Trusting

5 Problematic Traits (Generally never good)

Mercurial • Irritable • Reckless • Trigger Happy • Indulgent

RP Hooks ––– –

Past History: Lawrence has had a variety of names and sobriquets he’s gone by. He’s wandered wide and far. Significant history points can be from his growing up in Garlemald, or his crash landing in Eorzea. He’s been imprisoned in several Eorzean Gaols, and has had cellmates. He’s saved and helped commoners and utilizes allies to do that as well. He robs the rich and gives to the poor.

Present Hooks: He can meet people just about anywhere and will generally be found getting up to trouble, or working his way there. Known to be an ex-convict of some caliber. Can more commonly be found out in the wilds, but on occasion hits cities and residential zones. He’s been known to pick fights with bullies, and be fairly helpful. Clever minds and observant eyes can likely piece his bounties together to determine his identity, or recognize him from some old wanted board.

Hiring Hooks: As an ex-convict, he’s in constant need of employment and is more than willing to work. He’s got a wide set of skills that are largely based in that of a naturalist and outdoorsman. He’s also a fine craftsman, and has been known to tend estate gardens and gravedig for local churches. He can be consulted for knowledge on the flora and fauna of the land, as well as knowledge on native beast tribes and their relations with other spoken.

Ally Hooks : He’s in constant need of healing and safe spaces, given his ongoing fugitive status. ‘I need healing’ would be a common phrase from him if he was an NPC. He can always use teachers or mentors to help him learn more - particularly when it comes to magic, aetherology, and demonology/voidsent. Posse members, and people who do crime for good reasons can become fast allies. Closer relationships can be talked down like family, or ex loves, etc.

Friction Hooks: I always welcome friction. Not every interaction is a great one and I like to embrace these ideas on an IC level. He could certainly use some rivals, or people with conflicting mentalities to him such as bounty hunters, corrupt officials (or lawful ones), bullies, villains. People that can challenge him, his morals, his limits, etc. As long as the dynamic isn’t one sided. The goal here isn’t ultimate capture or ultimate defeat to me but rather the growth developed through antagonistic engagements.

Contact Information ––– –

Discord: Message me here first and I’ll pass it.

Additional OOC:

Shipping: I prefer slow burn ships for anything specifically serious and won’t jump into ERP with anyone unless it makes sense story wise. Even then, FTB is a high possibility with strangers. Sorry. Additionally, Roman is poly and will be unlikely to solo-ship.

Will Nots: I don’t engage in explicit self-harm/suicide/extreme depression storylines or scenes of sexual violence/abuse. Vague references or allusions I’ll deal with, but prefer any explicit detail 1000 miles awaaaaaaaaay.

Boundaries: I like making friends and highly value platonic relationships IC and OOC. That said, I am skittish and will cut engagements if I feel discomforted by something. This includes the pushing of character boundaries I’ve established as not possible without my consent. Please, if I have discussed something as a lacking possibility, do not keep suggesting it.

Communication. This is big for me. I will speak up if uncomfortable, and encourage the same! This is a definite requirement if we’re doing deeper plotlines. I don’t need to be talked to every day, just let me know if something’s up so I can adjust. We’re all here to have fun!

Health & Scheduling: I have a pretty shit schedule being an essential worker and all, on top of being PST. 44 hours a week without a phone, no less. Mon-Thur I’m basically non-existent until the weekends and these will be the days I am not as talkative/active. Coupling that with chronic pain and mental health that is also affected by my job, some days I am just not capable of being around. I try to be up front about this. I don’t always have the energy. If I’ve dropped off, there’s a high chance my health took a serious dive and I just can’t bring myself to be about. All I ask is patience. Move on if you need to, but don’t be a jerk!

#LFRP #The Outlaw #Balmung Server #Crystal Data Center #FFXIV #Final Fantasy XIV

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musical-in-theory · 5 years

Text

Magnificently Malcontent Pt 10

JJ’s arm jerked back almost immediately after Henrik started applying a salve to his burn. They hadn’t noticed it at the time, but Marvin’s fire had definitely left its mark on him. Henrik gingerly brought his little brother’s arm back in front of him and continued to treat the wound. Henrik kept his eyes downcast and focused on the task at hand. He may not have been able to prevent injury, but he could damn well treat the ones that had occurred.

Jackie and Chase sat in two different corners of Henrik’s room. They had all headed straight there as soon as they arrived back at the house. Jackie and Chase chose their respective seats and stayed like that for the entire time they had been there. None of them had uttered a word, and all of them were too afraid to be the first one to break the silence.

Henrik walked over next to Chase where the bandages were stored. As soon as he laid a hand on one of the rolls, Chase’s hand was on top of his. Henrik looked up at the man who was still staring at the floor. “We have to stop them- I mean him. W-we have to stop Anti.” Chase choked out. His hand fell limply back to his side.

Henrik wanted desperately to help his younger brothers. They were all hurting, but it was in a way that he couldn’t heal. All of his medical training was useless in the face of this trauma. If he was honest with himself, he was hurting too. What he saw…

He shook the thought away. Heal the burn. Heal the family. Focus on the task at hand. There would be time later to think about everything else. He grabbed the bandages and walked back to JJ. “Zhis should heal in about 2 veeks. Reapply zhe ointment in zhe morning and before bed.” Henrik spoke quietly. JJ nodded and launched himself out of his seat to latch onto the doctor.

Henrik stood frozen until he heard soft sniffles coming from his chest. He raised his hand to smooth the hair on JJ’s head. Henrik was never one for sentiment, but seeing his brothers so broken at the hands of the people he had once loved brought tears to his eyes. He had never felt so lost.

Jackie suddenly got up out of his chair and started marching toward the door. “Und vhere do you zhink you are going?” Henrik stared down the hero while still keeping JJ close to him.

Jackie stopped in the doorway, not looking back. “I’m gonna go kill Antisepticeye.” He tried to leave again, but Chase’s hand on his arm stopped him. Jackie looked into his pleading eyes, “I have to. He keeps hurting everyone! And now he has Marv on his side. How can I keep calling myself a hero, when I can’t even keep my own family safe from those villains?” Jackie was practically screaming.

JJ pulled back from Henrik and glared at Jackie. “Do not call Marvin a villain. Don’t ever call him that. We can still save him.” he signed so fast that Jackie almost didn’t catch it.

They all looked at JJ with pity. He could tell that there was something they weren’t telling him. Chase was the first to speak up, “Jameson… I don’t know how much of Marvin there is left to save. He took each of us out of commission using what we care about most. He almost incinerated you! I think… I think Marvin is gone. I’m not saying we should kill them,” Chase threw Jackie a pointed look and then returned his tired gaze to JJ, “but we have to stop the both of them at all costs.”

JJ screwed his eyes shut and balled up his fists. How could they just give up on their own brother? He glared at all three of them as he backed away. He shakily signed, “No, no, you didn’t see what I saw. He’s still in there. He has to be. He’s still in there. He’s still in there.” JJ continued to sign the same phrase over and over again until Chase walked to him and grabbed his hands.

“I know that this is hard to accept, but think about it. We barely escaped with our lives. Marvin was the one trying to kill us when Anti only order him to capture you. We have to face facts. Our Marvin isn’t coming back.” JJ nearly collapsed to the ground in sobbing mess, but Chase caught him in time.

JJ shakily took his hands back from Chase and lifted them up, “You can’t be right. You can’t be. If he wasn’t able to be saved, then Anti wouldn’t have him perform that ritual.” His hand movements were so unstable, Chase at first thought that he misunderstood.

“JJ do you know vhat zhey are planning?” Henrik cautiously moved towards the little gentleman.

JJ looked up to his eldest brother, “All I know is that I found the tip that led me to you was next to a very dangerous spell. One that will keep Marvin by his side for as long as he lives. Why? Why in the everloving world would Anti do that if he wasn’t scared that Marvin still has a chance?” JJ stepped continuously closer to Henrik until his hands were practically in his face.

Chase stayed where he was, speechless. He wanted to believe it was true, but what Marvin had him live through… He hated that he could never make that dream a reality, and that had to be the magician’s intent. Marvin got inside all of their heads and crossed a serious line just because Anti said that he should. Chase also couldn’t forget the hatred he saw in Marvin’s eyes. There was no way that it was completely from Anti’s influence.

“Chase, vhat do you zhink ve should do?” The question pulled him out of his thoughts. Chase made eye contact with Henrik and was sure that he must have heard wrong. Henrik and Jackie were the ones who made plans. Henrik saw the disbelief that Chase tried and failed to hide from them and put a hand on his shoulder. “You have gotten us all zhis far, so vhat is our next move?”

“Uhhhh, okay, okay. I-I guess we, uh.” Chase trailed off and looked around the room. His brothers were counting on him. They believed in him. He wouldn’t let his family down. Not this time.

He took a deep breath and continued, “Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do. Henrik, I need you to start preparing syringes. Fill them with any kind of strong sedatives you can think of. If we can take them down without killing them, then that’s the route I wanna take.” Chase peeked over at JJ to make sure he was okay with that. He seemed conflicted but ultimately nodded.

“Jackie, I want you to listen in on those police scanners you stole. Yes we know about them. Keep an ear out for any major power drainages or explosions, something that might point towards Marvin performing a spell. We don’t know for sure whether they moved locations or not, and we can’t afford to be wrong.

JJ you knew-know, you know more about Marvin than any of us. We need to know weak spots or ways to counteract his spells. I understand that you don’t want us to hurt him, but if we don’t stop him then he won’t hesitate to take us all out. After all, we all barely made it out last time.” Chase took another breath after he finished. He had never been much of leader, but there was a first time for everything, right?

Just then, Jackie whispered to himself, “No. It was too easy…”

“Too easy? Did you not just hear the part where I said we barely escaped with our lives? What part of that sounds too easy to you?” Chase turned his head to squint at the hero. Jackie looked up startled as if he hadn’t expected for anyone to have heard that.

He regained his composure and explained, “I’d ask if you’re blind, but Henrik’s the only one here with glasses. Didn’t you see? Anti just watched us go out the door. Even Marvin stopped attacking long enough to let us go. Anti said he needed us, so why just let us escape?” Jackie stepped away from the door and began pacing around the room.

“Perhaps ve veren’t zhe target.” Henrik looked over at JJ, “Perhaps ve vere merely zhe symptoms of a larger virus zhat Anti vanted to get rid of.”

JJ signed, “What in thunderation are you talking about?” They all could tell how nervous he was. Henrik learned quickly that whenever his little brother was scared, he liked to revert to old-fashioned sayings and phrases.

Chase stepped up, “He’s saying, JJ, that the reason Anti and Marvin let us escape is because we were making it too hard for them to get you unharmed.”

Meanwhile across town back at the abandoned building Marvin was thrown against the wall. “Two tasks. That’s all I needed you to accomplish. Two simple tasks, and you failed at both.” Anti stalked over to the magician who sat limply against the wall. He failed his master. He deserved this. Anti grabbed Marvin’s chin and forced him to look up, “Maybe I should take my strings back and throw you to your brothers, let them deal with you.”

For a brief moment, the word “escape” flashed across Marvin’s mind, but it was quickly replaced with visions of his brothers torturing him for the monster he had become. Those visions morphed into ones of life without Anti as the static creeped in. Without Anti, how could he think? How could he live without his permission to do so? His magic was his master’s alone to control.

Marvin shook his head pleadingly and Anti smiled, “Then get back to work, and next time I expect you to be able to kill when I tell you to.” Marvin thanked him and ran back to the sigil, but the word “kill” had seeded a bad feeling in his mind, a feeling that he just couldn’t shake.

Sorry for the long wait. I have had so much on my plate with a whole heaping side of writer’s block. Thanks for reading! I really hope I’m doing this story justice, considering it started as just a small idea. I never thought that it would get this far honestly. Thank you all for your support of this story. As always feedback is highly encouraged and always welcome. Thanks!

Taglist:

@beerecordings @hexatrash @whydoilovesomanyvillians @egopocalypse @rachelclutch @aether-mae @egos-n-others @antibeaneverybody @sa2-lovefrme

#magnificently malcontent #writing in theory #marvin the magnificent #antisepticeye #jameson jackson #henrik von schneeplestein #jackieboy man #chase brody #jacksepticeye #jse egos #jse fanfiction

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jorrmungandr · 6 years

Text

Aesthetics and Evil

So, I’ve been thinking about something lately. It’s a bit hard to explain, having to do with a lot of sort of vague concepts that I am not particularly educated on. But I will endeavor to be as clear as possible.

This has to do with how evil is presented in fiction, and in media in general. Bad guys, acts of cruelty and violence, and those who perpetrate it. The power of aesthetics to shape the way that people view the world around them. The morality of using the finely honed skills of modern artists to push an ideological agenda, and what effect that can have even, and especially, when it’s unintentional.

I think that fiction warps the way people perceive the world, and makes them reach for easy, aesthetically-oriented answers instead of actually engaging with ideas. This isn’t to say that people are lazy, but the world is complicated and loud, and they’re going to take shortcuts whenever possible. It’s only human.

But that’s a bit heavy and dense. Let’s start with something simple: The Picture of Dorian Gray.

In this famous novel by Oscar Wilde, a young dandy has his portrait painted by a friend. He becomes obsessed with the idea of not growing old, but more importantly not having his appearance blemished by any sins he may commit in his life. And lo, a miracle happens and it comes true, the painting suffers the effects of his misdeeds, and ages in his stead.

In modern interpretations, it is often simplified into the painting aging while he remains young. But it is a big point in the original that for every horrible thing Dorian does, the painting is altered in some way. The idea being that the evil in his heart is externalized more and more as he indulges in it.

When I saw a stage version of this story at the Book-It theater last year, this really stuck out to me, because that’s not actually how it works, in real life. You can’t see a “curl of cruelty” on someone’s lip. Immorality is not necessarily externalized, and even in the modern media climate we have to learn this lesson over and over again. Bill Cosby didn’t get uglier every time he assaulted an unconscious victim. Louis CK didn’t have a shine of cruelty in his eyes even as he continued to victimize women. Evil thoughts and actions do not have an effect on appearance, actually.

Who do we have to keep learning this lesson? What is the cause of this cultural amnesia? We expect evil people to announce themselves through their aesthetics as well as their actions, because that’s the way it works in basically all fiction, everywhere.

Stories are crafted, by human hands and minds. They don’t spring fully-formed from the aether, people think about what they’re making, and the put a lot of work into it. There are all sorts of techniques of various sorts used to imply things subtly, to clue the audience in without saying it outright. The use of colors, shapes, tones, staging, camera direction, all sorts of different things, combine into what I refer to under the broad umbrella of “aesthetics”. This is what I mean when I say that “evil” is usually accompanied by appropriate aesthetics.

So, when you spend your whole life seeing this presented to you in media, that evil always warps the world around it to be presented a certain way, why, it’s only natural that you actually think that way. When you’re taught something, so universally if subtly, it can only affect the way you think!

This isn’t to say that this is universal, or absolute. I absolutely do not mean to say such a thing. It varies from person to person, and even then there’s the matter of taste, which is in fact the most dangerous and troublesome thing of all.

You see, the intentions of artists don’t really amount to a hill of beans when it comes to interpretation by the audience. When I was a kid, watchin’ cartoons and movies, I often sympathized with the villains because they were more interesting, visually and conceptually.

Let’s use a concrete example: I love the aesthetic of the Republic of Zeon in the Universal Century series of Gundam media. They’ve got the cooler-looking giant robots. They have cool uniforms. I like the idea of a group of space colonies declaring and fighting for their independence from Earth.

Also, Zeon is fascistic and unimaginably monstrous, according to the fiction of the series. But that almost all plays out off-screen. In the lead-up to the original Mobile Suit Gundam, one third of humanity is killed in a variety of atrocities committed by Zeon. Their leaders are horrible, power-grubbing monsters who fall to infighting, but they’re characters and they’re interesting. So, despite all that, I still like them.

Now, I happen to be aware of all this extra backstory, but there are an awful lot of fans of Zeon among the fans of Gundam, who are in it purely for the aesthetics of the robots and whatnot. There’s a lot of Zeon merchandise. There’s a lot of sympathy for these horrible fascists, who keep coming back and losing over and over again.

This kind of appreciation can start out as ironic, and morph into something more sincere with repetition and time. Or with the intervention of just the right kind of charismatic individuals. The appreciation for this kind of aesthetic is easy to co-opt, especially since it’s based on fascistic regimes in the first place!

The problem is that people will engage more with aesthetics than ideas, because media presents aesthetics as a shortcut to ideas. But it’s all open to interpretation, and people aren’t always going to take everything seriously.

This all goes back to an idea I’ve had rattling around in my head for ages, and I’m not sure exactly where it came from. A lot of different places, I suppose. But it’s this: it’s impossible for evil people to create good art. Anything they make is ugly. All art produced by Nazi Germany, for example, is actually ugly, because it’s promoting fascism and genocide and whatnot.

But that’s just not true. That’s sticking your head in the sand, and saying that the sky is green. It’s putting ideas ahead of aesthetics, which is all well and good when you’re talking hypothetically and engaging only with ideas, but in reality it falls completely flat.

Look, I’m not comin’ out here going to bat for fascists and murderers and rapists, saying you should give their art a chance. What I’m saying is aesthetics have no inherent ideology. Using aesthetics is just a skill, like any other. You wouldn’t say that a plumber must be bad at his job because he’s a racist. The evil of great art and artists isn’t something that’s just for you, personally, to confront, but to consider in a wider, societal context.

You can say that fascism is inherently ugly ‘til the cows come home, but I will still look at the fight between Norris Packard and the 08th MS Team and think he looks super fucking cool. If you teach people to rely on aesthetics for hints towards ideology, they will do it.

All I’m saying is... be aware of it.

#my writing #gundam #the picture of dorian gray #philosophy #aesthetics #holy shit this is so long #but important #mumm ra the ever living #long post

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zchaotic · 5 years

Text

Decent story telling deciphering. Episode 3, Lusamine

Finally, the third member of the Aether Family and the one that has the most different adaptations.

Lusamine; President of the Aether Foundation and the mother of Gladion and Lillie.

Contrary to how the adaptations seem, they kept one big thing about her intact. Being a lousy mother with some messed up priorities.

From Vanilla SM, we have the one most of the fanbase is familiar with... as a terrifying villain and an example of how NOT to write a tragic villain that we want to see have a turnaround.

Let us start with her backstory, that gets better explained in USUM in comparison. She was someone who inherited the Aether Foundation from her father, met a man named Mohn, found love and had two kids.

Lusamine, is someone who is all about giving love to others and being loved back. According to the backstory, she was someone who loved her family that much, but has a fixation on it.

The desire to love and be loved becomes a key component into her downward spiral when her husband, Mohn, had an accident involving researching an Ultra Wormhole. The man was sucked into a wormhole, never to be seen again and left Lusamine with a member of the family gone, the only things that were left was a Cosmog and notes on Nihilego, the only clue she has in regarding to where Mohn is.

This... as Lillie said to us on Exeggutor Island, was around the point Lusamine changed... for the worse.

Lusamine became fixated on wanting to get Mohn back, to the point of trauma induced madness, where she blindly searched for ways to open the wormhole and look for him.

This resulted in Type:Null being created, a weapon made from several pokemon, to fight against the Beast beyond the wormhole, it came off as a failure and was frozen away. In addition, she started becoming more controlling of her kids due to what happened with Mohn, where she decided everything for them and never let them make their own choices.

She either continued to mess with the wormhole so much that eventually she encountered Nihilego in some way and got high on neurotoxins that turn her into her most warped, extreme self that only cared about Nihilego OR became so focused on researching wormholes to the point of obsession of where only the beasts matter... which makes things very confusing in the games since neither are explained very well.

What we gotten by the time the games plot started, was a woman that was putting on a friendly facade and only had one goal, get the Ultra Beasts. She was willing to manipulate, control and use everyone around her for her schemes, just to reach Nihilego. With no regard to the safety of others and her obsession with the beasts and beauty, lead to really disturbing implications that many... myself included, believed. Like dressing Lillie up as Nihilego, so she would resemble the only thing she cares about, the only thing worth of her “love”.

It gets worse when Lillie got taken to Aether Paradise, when Lusamine verbally tore at Lillie, saying she wasn’t pretty, that Lillie isn’t able to do anything on her own, among other horrid things. We see her with many pokemon that she froze as part of her collection, her screaming at Gladion and Lillie, saying that they stole from her and betrayed her.

Was callous in her treatment of Nebby when she used its power to open many wormholes to bring the Ultra Beasts over, while taunting Lillie over the fact that it might die. Had Guzma... a gang leader, under her thumb and willing to do what ever she says, because she gave praise to him and possible was only taking advantage of him, follow her into Ultra Space, to be with Nihilego.

To be blunt, Lusamine was a grade A cunt!

During you and Lillie’s journey, we were giving some dialogue from the girl that things were not always like this. That Lusamine wasn’t the big uncaring cunt we saw... and that was the only hint as to why we were going into Ultra Space to rescue Lusamine and Guzma.

The Beasts that were let out of Alola were a problem that was swept under the rug and apparently, the big reason Lillie wanted to go into Ultra Space was to tell Lusamine off.

Seemed to make sense after learning that Lusamine ditched Guzma to do her own thing... which resulted in the gang leader latched on by those things for a moment.

Lillie calling Lusamine out only set that crazy woman off into flinging more abusive language at Lillie and letting Nihilego latch onto her. Becoming the Mother Beast and try to kill you and Lillie, Nebby shot at Lusamine in the end, separated the two and all of a sudden Lusamine became nicer and gave Lillie some sweet words before falling into a coma. Lillie instantly forgave her mother for all that, dragged her and Guzma out of Ultra Space and later on, Lillie felt obligated to help Lusamine recover by going to Kanto. With hints that Lusamine still doesn’t know what she did wrong.

In the post game, we learn that Nihilego wasn’t much of a mind control venom, we have no good hints into when, if and how she got infected and then Gladion mentioned the backstory with Mohn. It was the wrong place and the wrong time in the story FOR this information.

Leaving many players to care little about wanting to see this woman recover/ rebuild her relationship with her kids and either A. Want her dead or B. are more concern of the many messed up things she did to her kids. In addition, it is pokemon, Lillie and Bill, WILL find a way to pull that recovery off and Lusamine would have gotten off way too easy despite her crap.

Very sloppy way to end a story and left no closure... despite being an effective villain and an accurate portrayal of an abusive parent.

Gamefreak end up becoming aware of this and in came USUM with its rewrite of her.

A similar if identical backstory came around and it brought more light into Lusamine as a character... and actual character instead of a villain.

Instead of being allowed to pursue Nihilego to the levels it did in SM, she encountered people from another world (The Ultra Recon Squad.) that told her about a pokemon called Necrozma, that would steal the light of Alola and bring about the apocalypse.

We have Lusamine delve into a messiah complex, believing that she is the one to go after Necrozma and protect everyone, despite still being a bitch to her kids.

For many fans, this created a backlash and to them... think it was butchery of her character... when really it isn’t.

This when you bring everything into context, reveals the real reason she was obsessed with the Ultra Wormhole and expand on the Lusamine we knew from the first game.

Lusamine was obsessed with revenge, revenge against Ultra Space and the Ultra Beasts for stealing Mohn away from her. This is the reason why she allowed Type:Full to happen, Faba created it as a way to appease to her, without her knowing and the woman caught wind of it.

So she allowed it to happen/ oversaw it as a way to have a tool of vengeance. But, Type:Full didn’t go accordingly and she had it frozen. This fits perfectly in the woman’s descent into madness, for vengeance is a very strong motivator to terrible things.

Because Lusamine lost Mohn from things that became beyond her control, she vowed to make sure she doesn’t lose anyone else, due to things beyond her control. Which is why she became a control freak to Gladion and Lillie, why she still has all those frozen pokemon, it wasn’t about keeping things beautiful/ because they were play things to her, it was about not wanting to lose those close to her.

Lusamine... still....went.... nuts!

This brings a different light to Lillie’s old look as I mentioned, it’s resemblance to Nihilego was nothing more than a coincidence... Nihilego has nothing to do the metaphor. Instead, the clothes are a metaphor to how overbearing Lusamine is to her kids. “Children would be all much happier if they’d only listen to the adults around them.” A quote from the bitch herself.

She actually thinks that she knows best and everyone who said otherwise are to shut up/ get out of her way. Which helps make things like Nihlego showing up at Aether Paradise through an Ultra Wormhole, make all the more sense despite her goals having nothing to do with Nihilego... why she needed the Cosmog despite the Ultra Recon Squad having another way into Ultra Space. Why did any of that needed to happen despite that.

She wanted to use HER Cosmog, to open a wormhole to Necrozma and go after it, despite the URS planning a more controllable approach. She wanted to channel her frustration out on it, look for Mohn and keep her self appointed image as a protector of all. This is very selfish, all her talk of protecting others was just that... talk to hide her truer.. darker motives. All of it is displayed in the main story this time when Gladion brought up Mohn.

Thankfully, due to Nihilego not being Lusamine’s central focus this time, we got to see what would have been if that was never the case. In USUM espite how messed up of a person Lusamine became and how messed up as a parent she became, she DOES care about her kids and the pokemon under her care. Which makes her bitterness towards her kids understandable... despite it still being her own damn fault they ran and how Lillie and Gladion had every right to run. She really was hurt by how they left her, she lost those she held dear and her reasons for battling you and going after Necrozma becomes even more fueled... she wanted to prove to those around her that she was right and they were wrong.

This makes her, even in her grief fueled insanity, much more human compared to the monster she was in SM. While she isn’t the caricature of an abusive parent she was in SM, she is more effective as a character in USUM because we see the bigger picture with what has happened to her.

Despite how Hau said “I know she was a good person” Gladion’s reaction should have been enough to tell us that he doesn’t believe that to be the case, he knows Lusamine became horrible BUT he does get why she is doing the things she is doing.

Why she became the bitch she was and why should we care for her having a turn around and making repairs with her kids.

She is someone we still want to slap hard in the face, for all the mega bitch things she pulled and is someone that would turn around for the better.

Her relationship with Guzma... still hasn’t changed much, but brings more into light that YES the things she said to give praise to Guzma were genuine... though she still took advantage of him. The URS and their request for help against Necrozma, an excuse to try and look for Mohn while hiding that selfish reason.

Then Lusamine and Guzma got their asses KICKED by Necrozma. Who followed them straight to an evolved Nebby, these two... agroo’d Necrozma to the last thing ANYONE wanted that thing to be near.

It created a chain of events that lead to things from the first game happening, Ultra Beasts being let loose and calamity nearing. Unlike in SM, there was a reason why the Beasts were ignored this time, Necrozma was the bigger issue for you the player, it took Nebby as its fused form and escaped into Ultra Megapololis.

While this was happening, Lusamine was at the mercy of a pissed of Recon Squad and to Lillie who had a few things to say to her. Lillie told us what it was at Vast Poni Canyon’s entrance and with Lusamine in a better position to listen to Lillie.

During the time between you going after and beating Necrozma... Lusamine listened to Lillie and have a realization into how messed up she was as a person. That is why she apologized to Lillie, admitting that her kids were right to take the two pokemon (Nebby and Null) and run away from her. As her first act of repentance... she tended to what was the Cosmog she hurt for her goals.

Her second act.... letting her kids go. She let Lillie go back to a healthier family environment... away from the toxicity she wrought, she let Gladion go off to Kanto... waving goodbye to him all the more. (I still find that scene heartwarming and... arguable better than when Lillie went on that boat due to all the implications fueling it.)

In between your initial league victory and Rainbow Rocket, Lusamine had a small identity crisis. She knows she isn’t in any position to face her kids after the crap she done to them and she knows she lost the right to claim she was protecting anyone, after all she had hurt... she realized how low she sunk.

Then RR came, she tried to fight Giovanni and got held hostage, with the Don intending on making her into his servant. She may have turned into a Damsel and not do much on screen... but this is generally how things go in Pokemon Games, where a former villain says they are going to change for the better and that is the end of it. (Looking at Archie and Maxie.)

Once RR came... she found a resolve of what to do, made a vow to protect pokemon and love her kids from a distance. That she knows her kids are not her possessions and that she would only be involved with them again if they need her. If you go back down to the Aether Labs after RR... you have an employee tell you that the frozen pokemon are scheduled to be thawed. I didn’t mind the frozen pokemon still being there after that bit of digging, because reality ensues, a mess like that is going to take a while to clean up.

Then a month later, Gladion visits you for title defense and then visits Lusamine for unknown reasons. (Signs that the relationship is being mended.) Mohn appears, the reason for Lusamine’s downward spiral and what she done everything for... he has amnesia due to being a faller and doesn’t recognize his own wife. Lusamine... despite the torrent that was going on in her mind, made it into a casual conversation and let him go back to his new life. Very likely because if Mohn knew what she done... it would have just made him miserable in the end. With Mohn himself making a possibility that he will meet her again.

Very bittersweet, very effective closure to the Aether Families drama. Anyone who says USUM butchered their story, botched Lusamine’s character or retconned her into a “good person” or “a selfless angel” disappoints me to a great degree since SM only focused on her as a villain never bothered with that closure. The only thing that was done in USUM that would be a concern is that the family lost focus for Necrozma’s story, thus we don’t get the same emotional weight compared to SM.

SM’s Lusamine was a beta... and effective villain, but not what Gamefreak wanted from her. USUM made her into a more fleshed out character at some exchange for her villainy and gave her closure that she needed!

Now begins the third... and arguable the one to surpass the other adaptations despite being the most different out of all the others.

The Sun and Moon anime.

In this adaptation, despite having similar things happen in the background.

Her obsession with the Beasts is more of a scientific curiosity, wanting to see one than the things we saw in the SM games.

She didn’t become an abusive parent and would sooner smoother her kids with affection (unwanted affection.) then any of the things we know of from either sets of games.

The incident with Mohn... resulted in her being so depressed that she uses work as a way to null the pain, rather than an obsession with wanting to open the wormhole and look for him.

Is an adorable goofball and is actually a good person.

Despite those changes to her character, she still has quite a few things wrong with her.

She does things the way she wants to do it, her affection towards Lillie was unwanted and she doesn’t get that. In addition, she never really socializes with her kids before making those big decisions in changes. (Like with Clefairy, despite it being her’s and despite Clefairy touching the moon stone willing, Lusamine should have asked Lillie if it was okay to do so.)

Her neglect towards her kids... regardless of work or otherwise is disturbing due to what she allowed to happen. The event that lead to Lillie’s trauma, to Gladion’s distrust AND to all of it festering for a while, in addition to Faba being able to do all sorts of things under her nose.

Her unwanted affection comes off as shallow because work ended up coming before her kids.

They took out the evil aspects of Lusamine’s character... but kept in everything else that was wrong with her, contrary to what many think.

This resulted in the Aether Family having such a strained relationship, why Lillie is so hostile towards her. It took until Gladion chewed Lusamine out, to get it through this woman’s head just how poor of a parent she was. She wasn’t really there for Lillie when she needed her and Gladion thought Lusamine was in on the things Faba has done.

It took Lusamine having to do much to repair that relationship and part of the thing that showed her development was at the episode where Faba used Nebby to open a wormhole and bring in Nihilego. The beast was about to attack Gladion and Lusamine pushed him out of the way to protect him.

For me, I smiled for two reasons and was horrified by another. Lusamine showed her development and showed that she cared that much for her kids... and that I was going to have my sadistic wish of having Nihilego turn her into something close to the nut job we had from the SM games.

And I wasn’t disappointed when we next see her, we the audience may have a reason to care that our heroes are trying to rescue Lusamine... but she was screaming at her kids and in her temper tantrum nearly killed them.

As the Mother Beast... Lusamine was reduced to something like a child that was having her toy taken away from her and made it easier for Nihilego to have her under its control. This is what Lillie verbally struck at the Mother Beast, giving Lusamine a sign that she really need to make improvements as a mother... that realization struck past Nihilego and caused the woman to reach out to Lillie... only for Nihilego to cover her up with her own hair and tried to swat Lillie.

Then Ash uses the Z move and zaps the jellyfish off of Lusamine.

She was rescued, brought back home and had a short recovery. Then she thought of the idea to form and be the mission control of the Ultra Guardians... a group of kids that had experience with dealing with UB’s that are to deal with them.

For the rest of the series... we see the Aether Family slowly make repairs to where it resembles and behaves like normal family. From the Necrozma Arc, to the school play episode and lately, the Mohn episode.

That one, we actually see Lusamine watching in despair at Mohn being dragged into an ultra wormhole. Where is this family going to go in the end?

This answer, might make the SM anime the best adaptation of this drama, in its focus, closure and how it made it relatable to us... despite also being the most different.

I honestly hope Gamefreak does better with their next antagonist and make them easy to understand. Lusamine was a complete mess initially and that caused a ripple in the adaptations we saw.

#Analysis #Lusamine #I'll talk about the Manga later

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originaljediinjeans · 5 years

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Avengers: Endgame (Spoilers) Reaction

Things I didn’t like:

Seriously Thor had to end up LIKE THAT? SERIOUSLY THEY REALLY RUINED HIM

Tony being “stuck in space” just wasn’t a huge deal after all, thanks a lot

Just...five years of trying to “accept” what Thanos did? They literally can’t do anything? That is just so wrong.

Also REALLY BRUCE? Sheesh so tacky

Tony comes right back from space, settles down w/ Pepper and refuses to talk to anybody

First thing when he comes back he’s all like “Steve UR a liar and I hate you” Like he doesn’t want to go after Thanos bc deep down he’s like “Bringing back half the universe means bringing back your precious Bucky but I don’t think so” (he’s actually just bitter about losing to Thanos but you know me, I’m autistic, it’s all about Bucky) gosh

Wait, so the cosmos depends on the Infinity Stones existing? So Steve just puts them back where they came from, nothing is changed, what happens now that Thanos is no longer around, where do they end up?

Or did they get destroyed?

So Thanos isn’t really dead? Neither are his minions? Someone can bring them back? They’re really just in the soul realm?

Everything about that one death scene. Like they used the exact same footage and imagery from Gamora’s death in Infinity War.

About 30% or more of the movie is montages, I needed more actual scenes with dialogue and characters connecting!

Also Thor taking off with the Guardians 2b a space bum forever. That is like...the worst. Who wrote that?

Things I am on the Fence about:

“Resentment corrodes. BTW you can have your shield back. Dad made it for you.” okay, guys, that’s great but this is a three-hour-movie, surely you have time to sit down and have a real heart-to-heart apology session

Captain Marvel as 80% CGI and 100% goddess

Really? It was that easy to get the Aether out of Jane without the Svarthaelfen coming for it? Also Rocket what did you do to her?

Steve Rogers ending: I guess it’s what the fandom wanted. Judging by Hayley Atwell’s smug face she may have written the scene herself. But I was kind of getting used to the idea of Sharon (even them just being friends), and Steve actually moving on...

Also I get that it’s more politically correct to let Sam be Cap, and that “poor Bucky has suffered enough”

TBQH I get why he’s okay just saying goodbye to Bucky and leaving him in the present. They grew up together in Brooklyn, so they had those happy years together, and now Steve has freed him from Hydra and Bucky can go live his own life so it’s all good. Steve only knew Peggy for 1-2 years so he needs the time with her, if he wants it

Heil Hydra: I know that this is totally a reference to that one thing in the comics. But dude, did you want them to think you were Hydra? Or you were just telling them you were onto them? Well, either way it worked.

Things I Did Like

The Ancient One meeting Bruce Banner and serving him the tea, also his astral form is still Bruce Banner and this pleases me a lot

Tony and his dad afjlfakjfdsajhladfhk j

Clint and Natasha being space pilots can I get more of this please?

Tony being a selfish jerk and hiding from the Avengers and ignoring that the rest of the world is suffering...but at the same time being a dad and a husband and living his best life and taking time for himself and not suffering

And then Tony getting off his high horse

Natasha refusing to not be vigilant or give up even though everyone else has

Scott Lang talking to Tony Stark like, what up, dude! We need to take a chance!

PEPPERONY OFFSPRING IS A THING! BLESS!

STEVE DID THE THING!!!!!!!!!

Ebony Maw is back and he is uglier than ever

*cackle of laughter* Justice. Sweet justice.

Thor having the talk with his mom

Thanos over the course of the film slowly becoming a better villain, and finally attacking with all of his powers and deciding that benevolently destroying half the universe isn’t enough

Thanos real desire: to satisfy his own ego

Thanos is not in Endgame as much but by the end of it he is a 50% better villain than he was in Infinity War

AND THEN EVERYONE COMES BACK AND ALL THE PEOPLE COME THROUGH THE PORTALS AND IT IS AN EPIC BATTLE, A TRULY GLORIOUS FIGHT

Like everyone who got snapped and then some come out of those portals armed and ready 2 fight like they’ve been itching for this for 5 years

okay so their “souls” still existed in the Soul realm, good, I was afraid they were all disembodied particles floating in random

Captain Marvel showing up to the boss fight and smacking Thanos but him being able to smack her back, finally she’s not invincible!

Also her shorter hair --ooooh hair envy!

Rocket talking to Thor on Asgard and telling him to get a grip, that was good

“I am inevitable.” “I am Iron Man.”

4-year-old Nathanial “Nate” Pietro Barton, Cooper and Lila, Laura--Clint’s family--yeah if Clint had died it would have been devastating

Clint and Wanda’s moment after the funeral, demonstrating how she and Nat were also part of Clint’s family

Scarlet Witch versus Thanos, YEAH THAT’S RIGHT YOU SON OF A MOLDY CASSEROLE, YOU GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO VISION

FEMALE AVENGER BOSS FIGHT

VALKYRIE LEADING THE ASGARDIANS

“Avengers...Assemble.”

I WAS LITERALLY CHEERING AND SCREAMING DURING THIS WHOLE SEQUENCE YOU HAVE NO IDEA IT WAS SO COOL

Just seeing Bucky again my heart afdskjfad;l

Just the epilogue and the funeral and seeing everyone together again as they should be, more or less

Steve and Tony going back to the 1970s--the whole segment is just great. Loved it. Steve’s undercover uniform is nice

I didn’t realize he could possibly run into Peggy until just before he realized he was in her office!

“Bucky is still alive.” Well, that’s one way to scare a body

Sam, Wanda, and Bucky at the funeral

New Asgard is a thing. This pleases me.

Re-enacting Peter Quill entering the temple on Morag and then him getting hit over the head *points finger and laugh* like that was literally the only good thing about the time travel and revisiting the past

The GOTG staying for the funeral, that was nice of them.

I have literally never been happier to see Spider-man in my life

Sebastian Stan’s face, that’s all

Steve and Bucky hugging goodbye, “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” “How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” OKAY NOW I’M HAVING FEELS

Also it’s really nice of Hank Pym to go to Tony’s funeral--did he go to Howard and Maria’s?

Things that Should Have Happened:

Where the heck is Loki?

Steve and Bucky should have had a scene together during the battle, fighting side-by-side

Bucky should have been the first person that Steve saw

Bucky carrying the gauntlet during the big hustle would’ve been a nice bonus

Loki stealing the Tesserract and disappearing--all that does is set up his Disney+ TV show. Shouldn’t that have led to more problems?

Like they seriously set up everything that could possibly go wrong but only one or two things do--well the movie was only 3 hours long, if they’d had five they could have made it more complicated

They could have made Thor a weepy alcoholic without making him a gross bum.

More of the main characters dying besides the two that did.

Tony and Nebula needed 10 whole minutes of relationship time.

Just more of the 06 Avengers and Rhodey spending more time with Nebula and Rocket and their personalities bouncing off of each other

We should have at least been shown Tony and Pepper having a private civil ceremony, also her telling him that she’s pregnant

If Natasha needed to die at all, it should have been her going down in a fight, getting stabbed or something. Like someone could have showed up at Vormir, like Thanos sent someone once he got the intel from Nebula, and Nat and Barton had a boss fight at the top, and then Nat gets stabbed and thrown off

I was still actually expecting Tony to literally adopt Nebula

They could have done something about the fact that the Red Skull is the freaking Guardian of the Soul Stone(TM). Wouldn’t Nat or Clint have recognized him? Like the fact of his identity isn’t even relevant to anything--gosh, him meeting Steve must have been interesting

So Nebula didn’t kill Thanos. Hmph. Was there a way it could have happened, though? Is there a way she still “beat” him? Maybe by killing the past self that was still loyal to him?

You had three hours to tell a great story and make the things we didn’t like about Infinity War better, and all you give us is beer-belly Thor and a lot of time travel gimmicks? sheesh marvel

#SPOILERS BUT IN ALL CAPS #ENDGAME SPOILERS #DO NOT CLICK #SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS #avengers: endgame spoilers #spoilery discussion #spoilers here #here there be spoilers #ALL THE SPOILERS

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notajinn · 6 years

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Ranking Video Games Played in 2018 But Less Detailed Because of Procrastination

Starting this in the evening on the 31st, so let' see if I even get this done in time. Normally I start more ahead of time, and provide seperate detailed post for each game in my list. Initially I wasn't planning on making a list at all this year since I played very few 2018 releases. But then I realized not only that I played more than I thought, but that the non-2018 games I played for the first time this year deserve some love as well.

I conveniently played ten games this year, so here is the ranking of my top ten games:

10. Marvel Puzzle Quest (Mobile)

This game is garbage, and I play it every day. It's a Match-3 puzzle game, which I somehow never played until this year. And it's on mobile and with a Marvel flair to give it an edge, plus a Gacha mechanic for longevity and scum.

Pros

The actual puzzle gameplay is fine. I have no other Match-3 to compare it to besides Puzzles and Dragons, which I tried out around the same time solely due to Persona 5 characters being in it. And I enjoyed Marvel more. You can only move each gem one space rather than across a line or column, or straight up anywhere like in Puzzles and Dragons. But there is no time limit, which I really appreciate.

I like a lot of Marvel characters, so I don't mind them as the rewards. Each one also has different Abilities which make a bigger difference in the gameplay than I initially expected. I unfortunately do not have Ms Marvel, Gwenpool, or Silk yet, but I do have Spider-Man.

Speaking of, the free characters they give you are pretty decent. Within the first few missions, you will come out with Spider-Man, Iron Man, Storm, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Thor. You can also get Juggernaut and Venom with only slightly more effort.

The game has thus far been very generous with the gacha resource, but I can't comment on the actual pull rates (which may be where they really make their money).

Cons

You may get a lot of chances to pull, but you have a limited barrack you can recruit characters into. And the resource to increase slots is VERY slow. Which means you could potentially pull a great character, but either wait a few weeks to earn enough coins to buy a new barrack spot, remove one of your existing characters, or give them money. And if you wait more than a few weeks, your un-recruited character will be automatically "sold" for resources. I've lost one or two characters to this already. At this point the smart thing seems to be to never pull unless you have open slots, since your recruitment resource does not expire (that I'm aware of).

The difficulty is all over the place. Even the so-called "Prologue" has unusual difficulty spikes in terms of enemy levels.

The leveling system is also garbage in general. You need duplicates of characters to level up, but higher rank characters start at higher levels. Which means even though I pulled and merged like 6 Iron Man, the single 3-star Dr Octopus is significantly stronger with no effort.

Final Thoughts

This game is garbage, and I will continue to play it.

9. Fire Emblem Heroes (Mobile)

Not long ago, Fire Emblem Heroes was one of my favourite games. But the game fell so far in 2018, perhaps outlining the heightened speed of a gacha game's life-cycle.

Pros

They started adding alts of characters that were not from Awakening or Fates. It's not exactly good that we're getting so many alts, but at least they're not all Camilla or Xander.

The new Aether Raids mode is legitimately good. It allows you to create your own mini-maps with different structures and traps, and play against other players. You win a new resource called Heroic Grails, which you can use to summon otherwise limited-time free characters like those from Grand Hero Battles, or the Tempest Trials. I should specify this lets you select characters, not go into a random gacha system. You want more of Joshua? No problem, just select him from the list and hand of the Grails, and you've got him. A lot of characters I like fall into this category, so I especially appreciate it. The actual mode of fighting in user-created maps is also fun.

Book 2 of the story had some good moments early on, and I liked some of the new characters. Said new characters were also added into the summon pool, and not as limited-time units either.

A lot of older characters got new weapon refinements to help them keep up with the cast slightly. Some of these are only okay, but some have been amazing. Still waiting for my man Matthew to get one.

Also this one is kind of cheating since it didn't happen yet, but we are confirmed to finally be getting Laguz (the beast units from the Tellius games) in 2019, which I am very excited for.

Cons

After a decent start, Book 2's story fell into disarray. A comically bland villain was the worst offender, feeling like an OC a child came up with that kept getting sudden new powers for no reason.

Said main villain is also the focal point of the powercreep in the game this year. The absurdity of how good 2018 units are compared to before is frustrating, and I say that as someone who doesn't particularly care about ranking. A lot of these new units and skill sets are just plain not fun to fight against.

Outside of Aether Raids, the game felt pretty stale in terms of having things to do, and I simply found myself far less interested.

Final Thoughts

Laguz will keep my interest for at least some of 2019, but I see myself playing this far less next year. And with a new real Fire Emblem game coming out, I may leave this game entirely.

8. Final Fantasy Record Keeper (Mobile)

This is an unusual one because I didn't play this game much this year. For a few months, I didn't even bother logging in. And 90% of the time I do log in, I just grab the daily rewards and leave. So how did this beat Marvel Puzzle Quest and Fire Emblem Heroes?

Pros

This game is absurdly generous with resources. Keeping in mind this is a gacha game way past it's prime, and being cannibalized by its own parent company through other newer Final Fantasy mobile games, Record Keeper has been trying very hard to keep people playing. Even as someone who barely plays, I am flush with good resources. Enough so that, if I get interested enough, I could probably catch up to the meta-game.

The game has also continued its policy of "characters are free, the gacha is for equipment" that I love. I have no trouble getting characters I want (new ones I liked added this year include Marche from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Sora and Riku of Kingdom Hearts).

The gacha itself is also generous, with multiple event banners that guarantee at least one 5-star for every 11-pull. I wish other gacha games were this generous.

It also keeps the great aesthetic and soundtrack that got me into the game.

Cons

I've played it so much over the years that it's not super fun, but I appreciate it's there for me and doesn't feel like scum.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for doing a gacha game well, Square-Enix.

7. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)

Though I got this years ago in a Humble Bundle, it wasn't until one bored weekend this summer that I actually tried it out Wayforward's other first-party game. The Mighty Switch Force DLC trailer for Shantae: Half Genie Hero also helped.

This is an interesting little arcade action/puzzle hybrid that's a little unusual. It puts you into different areas where you have to use the main gimmick of moving things into and out of the foreground along with other puzzle mechanics to find and arrest some escaped criminals.

Pros

The main mechanic of moving objects forward and backward is pretty fun, and while it's been occasionally seen in other games it's worked more effectively here than I've ever seen. I also appreciate that most levels will add a new mechanic you have to learn.

The levels are short and easy to digest on the 3DS.

It's got the classic Wayforward cartoon aesthetic.

Cons

This is mostly personal preference, but I don't play puzzle games a lot; they don't hold my interest too long. So this was a one weekend game. I didn't beat it, but I got my fill in those two days.

The lack of story really drives home the "arcade" aspect of the game, which is frustrating because I like the often silly pacing of the Shantae series. I'm also someone who invests in characters heavily, so having very little to go off but designs really hurt my long-term interest here.

Final Thoughts

This is a fun little puzzle game I recommend to try out considering it's often on sale and under $10. It's far from the best game, but you'll probably have fun with it.

6. Bayonetta (PS3)

For better or for worse, my first introduction to Bayonetta was when she was added as a DLC character to Super Smash Brothers 4. Suffice to say I was bummed a character I had no interest in won the people's choice, and that definitely negatively tainted the series for me for a while. But after getting itnerested in character-action games by playing Nier Automata and Platinum's Legend of Korra, I ended up picking up Bayonetta on sale on the PS3.

Pros

Oh my god, the combat is so strong. I knew this from Platinum's other games, but it has a different feel. Korra was ultimately a budget game, and Nier Automata was an RPG first, but Bayonetta was a character-action game through and through. The combat is not easy to learn, but when you figure out and see the radical moves you're pulling off, there's a certain unmatched joy to the gameplay.

The plot is campy and silly in the vein of Devil May Cry, and has a good handful of characters I like (particularly Jeanne and Luca). It ramps up to hilarious scales.

The music is so good, and I wish more of it made it into Super Smash Brothers.

I love that you have a space to practice combos without any repercussions by turning off the timer in the loading screen transitions. This helped me so much early on to get a hang of which combos I could both pull off effectively, find a use for, and actually enjoy.

Checkpoints are fairly generous, and so long as you don't care about your score you can continue to try again with no repercussions until you win.

Cons

There are certain sections of the game where you are pulled into on-rails vehicles. These sections are not fun, and last FAR too long. To make matters worse, the best boss fight in the game is in the second half of a level where the first half is one of these terrible vehicle sections. Which means I'll never fight that boss again since I don't want to go through that initial part.

Through a combination of the initial negative reaction and the fact there are more interesting characters around her, I didn't end up attached to Bayonetta herself, which is disappointing considering how much I like Dante and the Nier Automata cast.

The first few levels are also far harder than the rest of the game. This happens because you're learning a new combat system, have less moves purchased, and most importantly do not have the Bat Within ability that increases your dodge invincibility. This move probably saved me so much, and you can get it pretty early, but not until you get past some hard parts. In particular, the first major boss has you contend with the above issues and, for no particular reason, is the only major boss without any checkpoints. This boss almost made me give up on the game, and heavily slowed down my progress and general enjoyment.

Probably the biggest issue is that this is a PS3 era game, which means you can expect tons of QTEs that cause instant death if you fail them. These even happen during bosses. It's such a product of its time.

Final Thoughts

If you can struggle through those initial hard (but not un-fun) levels and that first frustrating boss, you have a great game ahead of you. With some truly awful vehicle sections thrown in, but mostly great. At the very least, grab the soundtrack.

5. Dragalia Lost (Mobile)

Oh you thought the mobile games were all at the bottom? Then you forgot about Nintendo's newest IP, Dragalia Lost. Which would be fair, because this game is available officially in very few countries, and it's kind of crazy.

With the success of other mobile games, Nintendo decided to try out a new IP in a mobile game with the help of the experienced developers CyGames. What we got was a mobile MMO with a heavy anime aesthetic and a lot of love.

Pros

The character designs vary, as they do in any mobile, but one major strength of Dragalia Lost (and the reason I started the game) is the large percentage of dark-skinned characters. It may seem silly, but as a South Asian it's so rare to see dark-skinned characters in this aesthetic. You'll get your token characters here and there, but Dragalia Lost alone probably has more than I've seen in a few other series combined. I'm pretty sure they have more than Fire Emblem Heroes, or at least an equal amount.

The developers have been very generous with resources, and so far have given you a free 10-pull whenever there's a new event.

We've also already had a lot of improvements due to developer feedback, which is a great sign for the game's future.

The strangest thing perhaps is...the gameplay is really fun for a mobile game. It's a top-down action RPG with heavy MMO elements in terms of leveling and co-op play. While your party setup means a lot, your skill in-game means even more if you're skilled at dodging, effectively moving around the map, and knowing when to throw out which ability. As you have such a heavy level of interaction with the characters, you also feel more attached to them, which is great for longevity in a gacha game. Each weapon type plays very differently, and with different elements and abilities you get a lot of variety. You also have different dragons you can transform into as essential limit breaks.

I really love how seamlessly co-op is integrated. You can play any mission with or without co-op, and it takes very little effort to group up with people.

Cons

It's still a gacha game, so a certain level of garbage is expected. The rates of pulling a 5-star seem far worse than Fire Emblem Heroes and Final Fantasy Record Keeper. To make matters worse, you can potentially pull a 5-Star Wyrmprint (a type of equipment) instead of a character or dragon, thus resetting your pity rate.

In co-op, if a host quits the entire battle is considered a fail. Which makes logical sense, but it's frustrating when the host quits while you're winning.

Bows are also significantly worse than the other weapon types, but my favourite character is an archer. This presents a problem.

It’s only available in a small number of countries, with still not announced plans for others.

Final Thoughts

It's the best mobile game I've played this year, but it's still a mobile game. Unless you're looking for a mobile game, I recommend just appreciating the art from afar. If you ARE looking for a mobile game, however, I highly recommend this. And if you care about Nintendo, maybe keep an eye on this; I could see this IP eventually coming out of mobile.

4. Deltarune (PC)

It's tough to write these all at once. Okay, Deltarune. The surprise game from Undertale's creator. I still don't want to get into too much detail in case you haven't played this free and relatively short game, but it's been a while. There will be sort of spoilers below, so if you want to go in blind, skip down to number 3.

Pros

From the graphical style to the writing to the soundtrack, it's got the same great charm of Undertale in a smaller package.

The battle system is more involved and honestly a lot more fun. You're also not forced to go Pacifist to get the good ending, so you can actually enjoy it like a normal RPG. Even if you do go Pacifist like I did, the inclusion of different abilities gives you a lot more to do than just dodge enemy attacks.

The progression of Susie and Lancer as characters is fun to watch unfold, and the game does a great job making you invested in these characters within such a short time frame.

The final section of the game, without mentioning any spoilers, is also a nice little reward.

Cons

Simply because of playing Undertale, you may assume you have to play Pacifist and thus miss the main combat. This is untrue, but hard to know since you also want to go in blind on your first run. This is entirely a self-made issue, but it is nonetheless a common issue I can see.

..I don't really have any other negatives offhand except that it's short?

Final Thoughts

If you played Undertale, play this. If you didn't play Undertale, probably play that first and you'll enjoy this more. But you'd probably enjoy this regardless. And hell, it's free and under 5 hours, and runs on probably any modern PC.

3. Dragonball FigherZ (PS4)

There have been so many Dragonball Z games, but the quality never hit this level. Remember when we considered the Budokai games to be amazing because of the competition? Now we have a DBZ fighter that's not only the best of the series, but also a legitimately great fighting game when compared to the other big fighting series. No weird 3D mechanics, no attempt to heavily integrate fighting. This is just a solid 2D fighter with some unique elements and a DBZ flavouring.

Pros

Made by Arcsys, the gameplay is unsurprisingly amazing. It's fluid, has a lot of ease-of-use for beginner players, and a lot of more complex mechanics to make high-end gameplay fun to watch. I was able to teach some friends in a short amount of time how to play this decently, which is very important with a multiplayer game.

And despite most of the characters fighting extremely similarly in DBZ, each character feels unique here. They're all just throwing punches, kicks, and energy blasts, but they all have their own distinct feel. Even the various orange-gi-black-hair characters all stand out with different silhouettes and colour tinting.

The new OC that Arcsys seems obligated to add may be strange as an Android/Buu hybrid, but adding a new female character to such a male dominated series is much appreciated.

The online lobby is easy to find the types of fights you're looking for, and provides a good deal of variety.

Cons

The DLC lineup is awful. Two versions of Goku, two versions of Vegeta. Really? Do we really need that? Then we got Goku's dad Bardock, who visually looks like another Goku. And then we got Fused Zamasu, who is basically an alternate version of base game charater Goku Black. The only characters unique in both design and gameplay are Broly (who I generally hate), Android 17 (who's great), and Cooler (who's not quite as cool as his brother). There's so many good choices for DLC, but short of a second season, this is what we got stuck with. And honestly, good DLC characters can make or break my interest in a fighting game long-term. This was what broke it.

Final Thoughts

It's a great fighting game, and hands-down the best Dragonball Z game. But there's only one fighting game series that is able to hold my interest long-term.

2. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate (Switch)

It's still wild this was announced and came out in the same year. After being used to a long pre-release for Super Smash Brothers games, Ultimate really bucked the trend. It's also not like the other games in other ways as well, opting to include as much old content as possible instead of taking the usual "add a lot but cut a lot" approach.

Pros

One of my long-time top wished characters finally made it in: K. Rool! And he's so well-animated and sporting so many references! They really put a lot of love into him.

I'm vicariously excited for all the Ridley fans who finally got their big space dragon into Smash. They were always steadfast beside us K. Rool fans, and really deserve this win.

No one has to worry about their main being cut, because everyone is here. For those few people that legitimately liked Pichu, that must be a great feeling.

The core gameplay also received a nice boost in speed so it's not overly-fast like Melee, but still a lot more fluid than the other games. Bringing back moving air dodges, and clamping down on over-dodging have helped make the gameplay feel much smoother.

After the disappointingly poor single-player of Smash 4, I love all the single-player modes here. Classic has been redesigned to give each character a tuned and unique experience. We have a big single-player mode in the World of Light, and the smaller but more long-term Spirit Board.

Spirits in general are just a great way of reusing Stickers from previous games in a way that makes everybody excited. Seriously, they are just your typical gacha JPGS, but throwing effects and levels onto them really makes them feel more involved than trophier or stickers in past games.

My main, Zelda, got significantly buffed. This is really specific to me, but it makes a big difference.

Mii Fighters also feel far more viable this time around.

The range of music and stages in the game is just amazing.

Cons

For a game that promotes itself as having everything, it's bizarre and frustrating that the Stage Builder was completely removed. I really enjoyed playing around in there, and being able to use tracks I like from stages I don't like.

We also lost modes like Target Smash and the Home Run Contest for almost no reason. Short of these being added in future updates, I find this odd.

I could make a lot of complaints about character choice, but I'll keep it short and mention that I'm one of the few people not happy about the Piranha Plant, and I would really have had almost any non-3DS FE character instead of Chrom.

World of Light is also really long, and unlike the Subspace Emissary lacks cinema scenes. The opening scene everyone has seen is great, and then...that's it so far. I am expecting one more at the end (I'm maybe halfway through), and maybe one in the middle, but it's not going to live up to the SSE.

I also can't believe the huge backwards step taken in the online mode. Rather than having a separate Casual and Competitive mode like every other fighter (including the last Smash Brothers), there is only one queue, and you can easily get thrown into the opposite type of style you want. I actually cancelled my plans to buy the online service after I heard how bad this system is.

Final Thoughts

It's a Super Smash Brothers game, so I will enjoy it for a long time. The Spirits add a lot of longevity, but unless the online is heavily fixed I can see myself dropping out of this game within the next year.

1. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

This game had such bad timing. Released alongside the similar but more anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on a competitor system, and the different but same-system Persona 5, I think a lot of people completely missed this game. Or as many as can miss a big AAA game. If this came out just a few months earlier or later, I'm sure I'd see a lot more talk about it. But as things stand, it seemed to disappear from everyone's minds very quickly.

If you're one of the ones that forgot, Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action-adventure about a post-apocalyptic world where humans are left to deal with the increasingly dangerous machine robots built by pre-apocalypse humans, and is just as much about dealing with different tribes and cultures that emerge in this new world.

Pros

Alloy is one of my favourite new main characters in a long time. Not just in video games, but in general. While having some of that player-character "choose their personality" feelings here and there, she is mostly a defined and often interesting character with distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Voice acting from Alloy as well as the entire cast is superb, and really sells the world.

The gameplay is heavily archery focused with a lot of traps and different ammunition to help you bring down the machines that heavily outmatch you in a straight fight. The game is built to allow you to play with stealth or as an action game depending on how you select your skills. It's also got a good level of difficulty where you will definitely die a few times, but never get overly frustrated.

The story hits on many different points, and most of it has something interesting to offer. Don't expect story quality on the level of something like Nier Automata, but for a new IP it's pretty impressive.

One thing I love about fast travel is that, early on, you have to use consumable items to do so. This means you're initially encouraged to manually explore, and in doing so will learn a lot more about what the game can offer. Once you get a little further, you can unlock the ability to fast-travel with ease so you can backtrack and do quests without an issue. It's a good way to try to balance having people skip over environments.

Also it's a big AAA game with NO MICROTRANSACTIONS AT ALL!

Cons

The subtitles are pretty small based on my TV size and the distance I sit at. If you sit closer to your TV, it's probably fine.

For a game with such good quality everywhere else, the soundtrack is honestly pretty average outside of the main theme.

The open world is nowhere near as fun to explore as in Breath of the Wild, and holds far less secrets.

Final Thoughts

This feels strange to say for a AAA game made by first-party Sony, but please don't sleep on this game. It's really good, and it's been insanely cheap for the latter part of this year.

That's it. That's all the games. This took a lot more time than I expected, and I don't feel like proofreading since now it's already almost midnight. 2018 may not have had that many good new releases, but I found fun with video games.

Looking forward to playing Fire Emblem Three Houses and Kingdom Hearts III next year, and talking about them next December. Hopefully not on the 31st again.

#top games of 2018 #even though half came out in different years #holy crap this took forever

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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What If…? Episode 3 Ending Explored

https://ift.tt/3mAM15C

This article contains spoilers for What If…? episode 3.

The third episode of Marvel’s What If…? goes in a different direction than the two that preceded it. Instead of switching roles like Captain Carter and T’Challa as Star-Lord, the third episode hides its turning point under a murder mystery. It’s an episode about the Avengers never existing, which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual comic issue What If the Avengers Had Never Been?, but instead turns out more like DC Comics’ Identity Crisis.

In this branch reality, Hope Van Dyne ended up becoming an Agent of SHIELD. Reading between the lines, she was most likely killed in action by the Winter Soldier (the location she died is the same place Bucky wounded Black Widow). This caused her father Hank Pym to go completely off the deep end. Wearing the Yellowjacket costume, he proceeded to murder Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Black Widow. He was ultimately defeated by a vengeful Loki, who then went and took over Earth in a mere 24 hours.

And hey, good for Loki! When it comes to What If…? stories, Loki is up there with Magneto and Kingpin as a villain who rarely ever wins. Sylvie’s decision paid off for this world.

In the epilogue, we see that Nick Fury has not given up. Even with all those Avengers dead, he’s still going to rebel against Loki with the help of Captain America and Captain Marvel. Maybe in the second season we’ll get a continuation and see if Captain Marvel is overpowered enough to take on everything Asgard has.

In the meantime, I can’t help but think about the other players and factors in this brave new world. Who else could help the Captains and Fury?

The Thanos Threat

So, good news! Thanos probably isn’t going to be a looming terror anymore thanks to Loki’s success. The Tesseract is still on Earth and Thanos would still be interested in it, but the difference is that he would not have found Loki floating through space and would not have used him as a minion. That means we’d probably see him outsource to his other top goon, Ronan the Accuser.

In the regular timeline, Thanos gambled on the mission by giving Loki the Mind Stone, only to lose both. He’d probably try the same strategy with Ronan. Remember what happened when Ronan actually got his hand on an Infinity Stone? He IMMEDIATELY betrayed Thanos. That’s definitely the easy option for him, considering the last time he tried invading Earth he ended up escaping with urine trickling down his leg.

Ronan and his mind-controlled Thanos are more of a problem for the Nova Corps. Let them deal with that.

Iron Man’s Friends and Foes

At the very least, we can count on War Machine helping out. He may have missed the boat against Loki in regular continuity, but he’s still ready to attack with…Hammer tech. Ah, crap. Yeah, Justin Hammer’s just going to be a liability in this situation.

On the other hand, one has to wonder where this leaves Ivan Vanko. He wanted to destroy Tony Stark. Hank Pym did it for him. There is no glorious suicide or massacre destroying Stark’s legacy. What’s next for Whiplash? We could really use the know-how of someone who actually understands arc reactor technology.

Who else has Stark pissed off in main continuity…? The Vulture is a non-factor here, as the events of Avengers do little to push him away from the blue collar lifestyle. Aldrich Killian might oppose Loki via straight-up terrorism by sending exploding Extremis soldiers towards Asgardian forces. I don’t expect any collaborations coming from his corner.

Now, Quentin Beck is someone who might actually prove his worth. It’s too perfect. A man using trickery and illusion to go toe-to-toe with the godly expert on trickery and illusion. Mysterio could really become the alternate universe superhero that his mainstream counterpart pretended to be!

Hulk’s Odds and Ends

Hulk is mainly important in the grand scheme of things for being the perfect wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet and undoing Thanos’ scheme. Otherwise, he’s the big supporting character of the MCU and having him gone is no big loss in terms of ripple effects.

It does mean something that the events of Incredible Hulk are half-finished. Emil Blonsky is a super soldier, but Hulk exploded before he had a chance to kick Blonsky into mush. He might still mutate from the serum he took, but he should at least be an asset for Fury. Having Rogers with him would probably be for the better.

Meanwhile, Samuel Sterns gets to continue his gamma experiments. Who knows if such a thing will pay off?

Where Does HYDRA Fall?

The episode does a good job of using HYDRA as a red herring early on when Black Widow is being led away in handcuffs. They’re still integrated into SHIELD and, unfortunately, that’s probably good for Loki. Unless ego means too much to those in charge, Loki’s rule is everything HYDRA could ever want. Not only order through fear and control, but what’s more for a Nazi offshoot to love than being ruled by Norse gods?

The real problem is that the corrupt part of SHIELD would have access to the Tesseract. In other words, Loki would have access to the Tesseract. That’s very bad.

Darren Cross

For once, Darren Cross is interesting. He’s the x-factor in all of this because of how Hank Pym turned out. Cross was the crazy, rebellious son figure in Ant-Man, furious that Pym wouldn’t let him tamper in God’s domain. One has to wonder, does that mean that he wouldn’t be so villainous in this brave new world? Would he still be rebellious, but in relation to a madman, thereby normalizing him?

I would argue that Cross is still bad news. Pym would probably embrace Cross’s attempts to meddle with Pym Particles. Why would Pym care if the technology would go into the wrong hands when he’s already the wrong hands? It could very well be that Cross was already an accomplice to the Avengers murders. It would certainly explain Pym’s costume’s design choice.

Ragnarok

One elephant in the room is the events of Thor: Ragnarok and how they’re affected. Guys, Asgard is doomed, especially without Thor. We’ve already seen how lax Asgard becomes with Loki in charge. Think how bad it’s going to be when he’s spread thin and nobody has been keeping tabs on Surtur. This is not going to end well for that world.

Hela’s arrival is only a matter of time. Then again, I’m not sure how the destruction of Asgard would affect her powers and threat level.

The Heroes Yet to Appear

The new characters from Avengers: Age of Ultron are for the most part negated. There’s no Ultron and therefore no Vision. The Maximoff twins won’t be exposed to the Mind Stone and Stark being dead has to do something to soften their need for vengeance. On the other hand…is Wanda truly off the table?

What If…? Episode 3 Review: The Avengers Initiative Is DOA

By Kirsten Howard

Marvel’s What If…?: The Huge MCU Ramifications of Episode 2’s Ravagers Lineup

By Gavin Jasper

Wanda already has that magical spark. Does it HAVE to be the Mind Stone that sets her on her path to becoming the Scarlet Witch? The Aether is still out there. Maybe Jane Foster still finds it. Maybe not. It’s also possible that reality simply finds a way for someone who unconsciously controls probability. Wanda becoming one with a red energy that warps reality itself is just too on the nose to ignore.

Falcon only joined the superhero business because he got roped into it. Still, considering his skill with the wing tech, Fury could easily be aware of him and what he’s capable of. Sam being one of Fury’s pinch hitters isn’t too big of a stretch.

That leaves two extremely powerful parties. First, there’s Wakanda. I can’t imagine they were really conquered by Asgard. Not if the whole conflict ended within a day. Wakanda probably fell through the cracks of Loki’s interest, seen as a powerless country with no threats worth caring about. He sees the surface and it’s beneath him. Now there’s something to Earth’s advantage.

Then we have the sorcerers. It’s hard to really measure how much these events would alter things with Doctor Strange and his cast of characters. We’ve seen Strange be pretty damn effective against Loki before, but that was without Loki having an entire Asgardian army at his command. Does Doctor Strange even exist as a sorcerer here? Would Loki’s magical tyranny help nip the Kaecilius problem in the bud? This part is hard to call.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Yes, there’s a lot to play with in the sandbox of this world run by Loki. What’s important is that Mjolnir is still sitting in that crater. Loki certainly can’t move it. Even if it isn’t Steve Rogers, someone has to be worthy of putting it to good use.

The post What If…? Episode 3 Ending Explored appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2WjbF4l

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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crystalelemental · 7 years

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USUM Did Bad - Lillie’s Family

Ooooh god. Okay. I wasn't originally going to bother. I feel like other people have said it better, and I got my complaining out. But I've apparently made this into a series of articles and I've referenced this in every single one, so fine, let's talk about the biggest blunder in Pokemon game history: Lillie's family, and the absolute removal of their characters from USUM.

MOHN Let's talk backstory. In Sun/Moon, through files you find, you learn that Mohn is a professor who studied the ultra wormholes, but went missing. Based on appearance and implication, everyone figured out Mohn is Lusamine's husband. His disappearance is oft cited by defenders of Lusamine's actions as the reason she is this way. Personally, I agree. I think Lusamine's always been controlling, but Mohn's disappearance was something she couldn't control, and it resulted in her losing the one she loved. People talk about Nihilego's toxins, and Mohn's loss as causes, but they're really not. It's catalysts at best. Lusamine was always set to be this controlling. Mohn's disappearance just spiked the behavior to the point things got bad. Even Gladion confirms, she was better when he was around, but it got rough when he vanished. Given how Mohn is as a person, I don't think he'd stay with someone who was always an abusive level of controlling. More than likely, she was controlling, but able to keep that in check. That's the impression I always got.

Now, in USUM, Mohn comes back! For a short scene in the post-game, in which Lusamine talks with him, and lets him leave without a word because "he seems happy." Excellent writing, USUM, great job. The woman loses her husband, spirals out of control, and we're just going to brush that all aside. Get used to the term "brushed it aside," by the way, because it happens a lot with this game.

LUSAMINE So with the history out of the way, let's talk Lusamine. Because I can't explain how bad Gladion and Lillie got it until we've talked about Lusamine. Lusamine...is awesome. I love her as a villain. My main complaint in Sun/Moon, however, was that her entire character, through implication, seemed to hinge on Mohn's disappearance. I don't blame people who say Mohn is the main cause of Lusamine's actions. The game kinda frames it that way. All we ever get from Gladion is that Lusamine seemed okay prior to their dad's disappearance. Certainly implies he's a cause. What we never got was what she was like before. Based on her actions, I think it's safe to say that she was likely always fairly controlling, just not to the intense degree we see in Sun/Moon. In those games, she's awful. Lillie dresses only the way she wants, she manipulates Guzma into following her despite him having nothing to gain, and she preserves her Pokemon in ice to keep them with her forever, probably against their wishes. She is all about control and manipulation, and it likely stems from both her being that way, and from a heavy sense of loss. I never minded that Mohn was a catalyst. I minded that it was implied he was the ONLY reason she was like this. Fear of loss is a powerful motivator, and for that to be expressed as the reason she manipulates and controls brings in a sense of her being damaged, and having the potential for a redemption arc. Implying that her husband disappeared and I dunno man, she just went crazy, implies that she has little agency as a character, and Mohn's return would be a simplistic fix.

Which was EXACTLY what I feared would happen. I saw the spoiler that Mohn came back to Aether, and we all knew they'd try making Lusamine good in the upcoming games as some ridiculous twist. I expected it to be the worst possible confirmation. Instead, they somehow did something WORSE. Oh, they talk about Mohn disappearing as a reason for her actions. But that's explicitly stated more than implicitly felt. At no point is there any dialogue or action that implies her reason for seeking control is to keep things safe. Instead, they deviate. Now she wants to stop Necrozma. Best case scenario, it's to help people. Worst case scenario, it's to add to her collection she still has. Phyco implies she's the worst case scenario, stating that it's arrogant of her to attempt solving all their problems on her own, but again, that's the only line of dialogue to that effect. Everything else implies that she was being selfless, because they next time we see her, she got beat by Necrozma, you take off to combat it, and in the time you were gone Lillie tells you she talked with Lusamine and they're fine now. No redemption arc, no struggle, just an off-screen brushing aside of the entire conflict of the previous game.

It hurts Lillie and Gladion substantially, but it hurts Lusamine as a character as well. What could have potentially been an explanation to her actions and a push toward redemption through this whole "working together" undertone they had going, instead gets brushed aside in favor of a quick and tidy resolution in which no one has to talk about the hard stuff. It's like they started with the ending premise that Lusamine was going to be a good guy, and someone mentioned "Hey, didn't we make her kinda really abusive to her kids?" And instead of backpedaling and deciding whether this was a good idea or not, or hell, going forward but acknowledging how hard it would be, they decided "that's fine, we'll just say they talked it out and it's all good."

YOU. CANNOT. DO. THAT. It invalidates EVERYTHING. Not just the suffering that Lillie and Gladion went through, but any and all meaning for Lusamine's redemption. Let's be real here: does anyone truly believe that USUM Lusamine is not still an awful, horrific person? She kept her frozen Pokemon. When Lillie tries to confront her and talk her down, Lusamine still snaps and tells her she has no children because they dared to disobey her. Gladion is still terrified the entire time they go through Aether to save Lillie. SHE STILL HAS HER FROZEN POKEMON COLLECTION. Lusamine wasn't redeemed at all. Her actions are still terrible, and nothing was shown to demonstrate that she's gotten any better. We're just told she did.

I know people who were entirely against any redemption arc for Lusamine. I can understand this, but I myself am not against it. I think there's always a way to demonstrate a good turn from evil, but it's a process. It takes time, it takes effort, and there's a reason that so many redemption arcs end in death. It is incredibly hard to do redemption, and it gets harder the more villainous you've made a character. Granted, this seems to apply more to relational villainy, as someone who, say, abuses their kid is seen as much less redeemable than someone who just wanted to unmake reality because of their ennui. But still, it can be done. The important thing to remember when deciding to redeem your villain, however, is to make sure that you're showing how difficult it is. That you're demonstrating how hard it would be to mend relationships, or break old habits, or even just acknowledge what you did was wrong. When you do that, it can be a powerful story. When you decide instead to go "They're a good guy now, just make them talk it out off-screen," you invalidate that process, demean the suffering of the victims of their actions, and insult the reader by expecting them to just go along with this paper-thin facade. And you cannot impress me with this.

GLADION Remember when Gladion's power-seeking attitude was because he had immense guilt over running away from his problems instead of facing them head-on and leaving his kid sister in the hands of his abusive mother to fend for herself? Yeah, neither does USUM. Because now, Gladion did all this because he wanted to be strong enough to fight the cool guy Necrozma (who is super cool, did you know?) so his mom wouldn't have to.

Honestly, do I even need to keep talking? Re-read that paragraph. Lusamine is virtually unchanged in any significant way, they just tell you things are different. And Gladion, who acted terrified the whole way through Aether? Yeah, I guess that was just nerves about fighting Necrozma or something? Probably not important. Certainly not related to any psychological scarring brought about from years of abuse or the immense guilt for not being able to help his sister out of the situation too. Definitely not.

His character is so set aside now. He doesn't DO anything! And his relationship with Lusamine, for some reason, is just fine. The entire time they interact, it's fine. He's concerned about her safety. Okay, fine. Maybe if you want to demonstrate the lasting impact of the emotional abuse, we can show that he's willing to fight Necrozma in her place because she's somehow manipulated into it. Oh wait, no, she's insisting she'll do it herself and calling him a good kid, literally seconds after shouting at Lillie that she has no children. Seriously, does no one else hate the whiplash of this scene? We went from Lillie trying desperately to talk her mother into listening and being told that she wasn't Lusamine's child anymore, to a scene where she's calling both of them good kids and wishing they would just let her handle this so they're okay. These are back to back scenes! Did you even think? Just remove the first one if you wanted to go the route of the second! This is not that hard!

LILLIE Okay, deep breaths...

Lillie is a fan favorite, and it is super easy to see why. So easy, in fact, that most people would be surprised if someone said they didn't like Lillie. So easy, that the only way to not understand why Lillie was such a relatable and well-loved character, would be to have your eyes closed shut, head stuck in the sand, shouting "lalala, can't hear you!" while making loud farting noises with your butt. Which must've been what the writing staff did, because good GOD.

For those uncertain: Lillie is so well-liked because she is a character caught in a situation where her mother is emotionally abusive and controlling of her every action. In an act of empathy and desperation, she defies her mother to save Nebby's life, and is teleported to a place she's wholly unfamiliar with, scared and alone, until Professor Burnet takes her in. She spends all her time out in the world amazed at what it's like, but also fearful of everyone she encounters until they've proven they're a friend. In the end, she grows enough as a person to change the appearance her mother crafted for her, and confronts her mother by calling out her actions as awful. She reaches a place where she can reflect on all that's happened and say "I don't deserve this," and pushes back against unjust actions. That is not a narrative often seen, and to have the message that victims don't deserve this treatment and that people are not something to be controlled by another, is incredible. Lillie, as the main character of this story, shines beautifully. For those who are good with a redemption for Lusamine, the end of this confrontation, where Lillie is still willing to save her mother's life and help her recover, only makes her more likeable. She's able to state that what Lusamine has done is not okay, but is still willing to make an attempt to help her. It's an implied beginning to a redemption arc, and frankly, if you're gonna go that direction, that's what you need to do. Imply. The time it would take, and the effort it would take, cannot be demonstrated all within this game. But you could try. Instead, they chose a reasonable sendoff, with the implication of mending the damage, rather than trying to force a quick resolution.

Then USUM shows up and is like "That's for idiots, watch this!" and tosses it all aside. Lillie is virtually removed from this game. The entirety of her character arc following the Aether invasion? Gone. She still gets her change of clothes, and still has the scene on the bridge of her running forward, but she doesn't confront her mother, she doesn't get her scene with you on Exeggutor Island, and she doesn't even get time with Nebby. What she does get is an off-screen resolution, where she tells the player all that she needed to do was talk to her mom and it was fine.

I've been trying my best to cut back on swearing, but BULLSHIT. Not only is that insufficient to mend what's been done, but do you know what Lillie attempted to do during the Aether invasion? TALK TO LUSAMINE. She was actively trying to get her mother to stop and consider her actions, and Lusamine told her that she had no children because they won't do as she says. Did they just forget? How else do you explain the fact that they kept the scene of Lillie talking to Lusamine and being shut down, but then turn around and insist that talking solved their problems? It's ridiculous. And more than any other character, it hurts Lillie. Her entire character got removed. Oh, she's still there, but like most of them, she's a caricature. She exists for no purpose now. We've taken the focus off of Lillie's history and the damaging family dynamic for her and Gladion, and instead we've replaced it with...what, exactly? What does Lillie still have going for her? She's cute? She doesn't have any agency. And that's the entire issue.

This whole family was taken out of the equation. They have virtually no bearing on the plot, barring Lusamine's decision to awaken Necrozma for some reason. And even then, her justification for doing so is conflicting within the scene it's established, and the justification they want us to believe isn't consistent with her actions. She's just as quickly removed after waking up Necrozma, so there's nothing to build on after that either. Gladion's fear of confronting his mother is completely unjustified with their new setup, and his actions of running away and getting stronger to confront Necrozma doesn't even make sense given his age at the time of leaving, and when the Ultra Recon Squad showed up. And Lillie. Poor Lillie was just removed from every poignant scene she had, and was given an immediate off-screen resolution to everything she experienced. The story is disjointed, the characters inconsistent, and this entire family rendered meaningless within their own game, all in favor of focusing on a new Strawman Group and the lame Ultra Necrozma fight.

CONCLUSION USUM is known to be the last handheld game. "Steve, the Switch is-" No. It is not. Pokemon is leaving handhelds, and this is straight-up their sendoff. They've confirmed it. And looking at it as that sendoff, as the beautiful wrap-up of 22 years of games, I am horrified. We've made so much growth over the years. We went from a very basic game with virtually no plot or characterization, to full-blown stories about ethical treatment of animals, or how people handle abuse, or even just exploring the human condition. But at the end, at our cap-off, what do we get? Characters and story brushed aside in favor of what they think is a really cool and hard final battle with a big glowy dragon thing, and a post-game story focused on the Gen 1 team again. You could've done so much to be a send-off. You could've shown so much of your growth and highlighted so many things you've developed. And instead, you went back to nostalgia pandering and flashy battles devoid of meaning. If this is sincerely the best cap-off you could produce, and is meant to be the demonstration of you moving into the future console, then for the first time in 22 years, I am inclined to agree with genwunners and say that Pokemon is dying or dead. Because this? Shameful. Pathetic. Inexcusable. I honestly feel like you didn't even try. If this is the level of quality we can expect from here on out, then we've hit a point where old fans are dissatisfied because they cannot be satisfied, and newer fans are dissatisfied

#lillie #lusamine #gladion #mohn #this is the worst thing they've ever done #usum did bad

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imagine-loki · 7 years

Text

House of Cards in the Wind

TITLE: House of Cards in the Wind CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter Seventeen

AUTHOR: wolfpawn ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine you were a powerful villain who was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and put in Cryogenic storage because there was no other way to deal with you. After doing some research, Loki learned about you and became obsessed. So much, that he looked for you and woke you up, knowing that you’d seek revenge and he would be more than willing to help. RATING: Teen and up

NOTES/WARNINGS: This story is the result of an imagine I saw on another blog theartofimagining13. The credit for the imagine goes to the author on that page.

Rebecca and Loki remained silent as they attempted to figure out how to deal with the change in events. Both were angered and somewhat startled by the altering of the status quo. Stark’s genius was underestimated and they were paying for it.

‘We need to keep on the move.’ Rebecca stated, not liking the feeling of being in one place too long.

‘In battle, until you have a plan you stay still and wait.’ Loki retorted. ‘Being out and about can get us spotted.’

‘Being in one place can give them a chance to surround us.’ She argued.

‘You would notice.’

‘Before, yes. Now, I am not sure.’ For the first time since she was thawed, Rebecca felt worried.

‘When you begin to doubt yourself, you are setting yourself up to fail.’ Loki growled.

‘Knowing your limits is integral too.’ Rebecca countered.

‘We are limitless, you controlled a dragon.’

‘A dragon is a living thing, robots are not.’ She pointed out. ‘I can’t…’ She looked fearfully at him. ‘I am not as durable as you are. If they come for me, I mean it, I will die before I will let them take me.’

Loki gave her a side glance, concerned with her attitude. ‘You do not need to worry about such things.’

‘We should move.’ She repeated.

‘No, it is safer to….’ The pair paused as the sound they had realised was the repulsors of Stark’s machines. ‘They…’

‘I knew it, I….’ A blast came through a wall and as Loki dealt with it, the suit shot something at Rebecca that clamped around her neck like a collar. ‘What?’ She tried to pull it off, but it held fast.

‘A gift.’ Rhodes voice played out of the suit, ‘From Tony.’ A moment later, a light came on and Rebecca felt nauseous and lightheaded. ‘Tony?’

‘About time.’ Stark’s voice came over the radio. ‘Get me a damn suit.’

As she began to feel worse, Rebecca realised just what was happening. ‘No!’

‘Yes,’ Tony’s voice rang out. ‘You pissed off the wrong people, Kid, and your stunt with Peter, that is going to cost you extra.’

‘Go to Hell.’ Rebecca spat.

‘Well, as they say, ladies first.’ The suit in front of her raised its arm and began to charge. A moment later, Loki used his daggers to attack it.

‘We need to go.’

‘I….’ Rebecca felt too dizzy from the collar. ‘I can’t.’

Loki pulled her to her feet. ‘What does it do?’

‘I don’t know, Stark is mobile again, I think it….’ She began to vomit violently. ‘I…’

Loki looked at her in bewilderment, wondering how they could engineer something so advanced. Before he could answer his own internal question, a being in an all black suit that was almost feline-like landed near them out of a suit that just arrived. ‘Do you like it?’ He asked, his accent was thick, not like one Loki had heard on Midgard before. ‘The best Wakandan technology.’ There was almost a smugness in the man’s voice. ‘Even you will find it hard to break it.’ Loki snarled and let Rebecca slip to the ground before going forward, daggers drawn and beginning to battle with the man, who was as agile as a feline also. They fought viciously, but in doing so, Loki was distracted as Rebecca tried to get to her feet once more, she was stopped, however, when she was violently grabbed by one of the suits and thrusted into it before being flown away. She could hear Loki roar over the sound of the suit.

It flew for several minutes before she was thrown from it again, this time into a room, surrounded by heavily armed and ready Avengers, including Stark in another one of his suits. Ill from the collar and the journey in the suit, Rebecca remained on the floor looking up at them. ‘Just do it, you know you want to.’ She did not speak to any in particular.

‘No, death is too easy, you welcome it.’ Thor growled. ‘The ice is a better option.’

She scoffed, much to their shock. ‘The ice is only asking for me to be thawed again in the future, can the world risk that? Think about it, one electrical fault and I am out again, I am a risk again.’ She warned.

‘She’s not wrong.’ Rogers looked at her.

‘Think about it Stark, think about what I did to you, to that boy…’

‘You’re not going to get me.’ Stark dismissed, thinking of the now injured Peter that Rogers had to render unconscious to protect them from.

‘What I got your lovely BFF to do, does Banner still feel guilty, all those people….’

‘Enough!’ Thor yelled. ‘You and Loki….’

‘Ah yes, Loki, the gullible fool.’ She laughed. That caused Thor’s face to fall. ‘He was the most fun to control.’ She smiled. ‘You should have heard him beg and plead for me to leave you alone in his head. He even asked that I take him in your place, such a good little brother, wanting to protect you. But after a while, he thought he was in control of himself, that is what made him the most fun, he forgot himself.’

‘He….So this was not him?’ Thor half demanded.

‘No.’ She scoffed again. ‘He just wanted to go back to Asgard, mind his own business and be allowed mourn his precious mommy like any little mommy’s boy would.’ Her tone became scathing and ridiculing. ‘Poor Frigga, dying to protect her son’s beloved Jane only for her to toss off as soon as she got back here. So your poor mother died for an ungrateful cow who is now allowing another man screw her into next week; she doesn’t even think about you, or the sacrifice your beloved mother made for her.’ Thor’s hand balled into a fist as it began to shook, outside, thunder began to rumble. ‘Ooh, still a sore spot?’ Rebecca taunted. ‘I don’t need to be able to see into your head or to control you to know how much that hurts you. Which hurts more, the dismissal by Jane, or that it cost your mother’s life? Do you know, Odin hated you for that, for taking his lovely Frigga from him. That’s all he thought about as he died, getting back to her, he didn’t give a rats ass about you, it was your fault she was gone after all.’

‘No, Loki…’

‘Loki did not bring the Kursed to Asgard, or some pathetic woman carrying the Aether though, did he? You cannot blame Loki for that, that was you, all you.’

Thor swallowed as she voiced what that small voice in his mind had spat at him as he sat alone thinking of the past. ‘You have said enough.’

Rebecca laughed. ‘To you, I have, haven’t I?’ She turned to Stark. ‘You know, I regret not killing you, I didn’t want to, I mean, you are incredibly captivating, but in the end, I forgot under all the excessive drinking and public laughs, you are a genius, though I am curious, Rhodes said this thing was a gift from you, yet that guy in a catsuit said it was Wakandan, is that the word?’

‘A little teamwork, my knowledge, their technology, it seems to be doing well.’ Stark grinned.

‘Yeah, it is. I can’t do a damn thing with it on, is the nausea necessary?’

‘Unpredicted side effect, I hope you’re suffering.’ Stark spat.

‘Oh yeah, like a bitch.’ She nodded. ‘Not like you to team play, especially with the Soldier, I mean, your dad begged him to save your mother before he killed her.’

‘Shut up.’ Stark and Rogers growled together.

‘And he just shot her, point blank, in the head before walking around the car, Howard watching the blood drip onto that lovely dress, the one you knew made her feel great, and waited, knowing he was next, that there was nothing….’ To Rebecca’s surprise, it was not Stark that grabbed her by the throat but Rogers. ‘Why Captain, didn’t think you had it in you.’ She laughed.

‘Stop.’

‘Not a chance.’ She spat into his eyes. ‘So adamant to protect Bucky, if only it was reciprocated. Honestly, could you be any more pathetic, you are a great shield for him, you will do anything to protect him, that is why he is still here, not out of loyalty, especially against Stark.’

‘You talk a lot of shit.’ Stark growled.

‘I only speak the truth. I cannot read your minds now, but I have read them enough, I know what you all truly think. You all hate each other still, but right now, I am the concern, after me, you will go back to bickering. As I wait in the ice, making plans for my release again, you will destroy one another. With you gone, time will forget my sins, and when I do get out, I will come for you that are left, and then I will destroy your legacy.’

‘Seriously, let’s just sort this and call it an accident.’ Romanov snarled, her patience obliterated and her gun aimed.

‘Tempting, but we can’t.’ Rogers threw her over to Bucky, who sneered at her as he pulled her along; Rebecca unable to walk properly with how dizzy she felt, stumbled with him. They made it to a cell, that was made of some form of thick glass and threw her in before turning and walking away. Feeling even more nauseous but with her stomach empty, Rebecca just dragged herself to the small bed and curled up on it, angry that Loki did not do as she asked and left.

A few hours later, she heard a ruckus outside her cell, when she turned, she saw Loki, gagged with some sort of muzzle and heavily chained and Thor. She gave them a small look before turning back around. ‘I told you, Brother, she does not care.’

That caused her to turn again and look at Loki, who seemed hurt, she rose to her feet and groaned. ‘Really, are we doing this now, fine, I was trying to get some sleep.’ She walked over to the glass. ‘Happy to be free, Little Loki?’ She sneered. Loki frowned. ‘Oh come on, you hardly thought you were actually free, did you? How could I risk it, you were too close to me, you could have hurt me as I slept, so of course, you were under control, more so than anyone else I ever controlled.’ Loki looked at her, his hurt blatant, he shook his head. ‘What? Finally realising it, I was using you, Loki. You thought to unleash me and have someone that was your equal, someone to help look out for you, so selfish and yet so innocent, I am not your equal, I am more than you can ever be. You only wanted to be safe, to finally have a true ally, but what you revealed to me in your thoughts, I saw so much potential.’ She chuckled smarmily. ‘Not to mention, you’re pretty well endowed, so that was fun. A girl’s gotta get some satisfaction somewhere, right?’ She sneered. ‘Thanks for the good sex, the rest though…..you’re so pathetic, so needy for affection and praise. It’s laughable really.’ She turned and went back to the bed, not looking around again.

Loki looked to Thor, who seemed to look as though he felt some sympathy for his adopted brother, as well as a healthy amount of “I told you so” before he pushed him on to a cell further down the hallway.

For two weeks Rebecca said and did nothing only sit in a corner, the light on the collar on her neck glowing every few seconds to tell people it was functioning as she sat there. The nausea subsided after a time; she realised it only occurred when she tried to use her powers, so she did nothing regarding it, instead just eating and drinking as she needed and sat still, much to the concern of those watching her, including the Avengers, who felt she was too sedentary.

When a guard came in to collect her tray one evening, used to her not moving, he left his guard down and she was able to grab his baton and render him unconscious.

No one had any idea how she escaped the facility, the Avengers were all sent in search of her, none could find her. Even the tracker on the collar could not be traced, there was no sign of her on the whole realm, so Thor went to search other realms. There was no sign of her anywhere.

#loki #other #submission #submitted fic #chapter 17 #house of cards in the wind #wolfpawn #Powerful #villain #captured #S.H.I.E.L.D.#cryogenic storage #research #obsessed #revenge

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nemrut · 7 years

Text

Untitled W.I.T.C.H. story

As I watched Cornelia, Irma and Matt step out of the portal, I frowned.

“Where are the others?” I asked, as I moved to hug Cornelia.

“Hay Lin had to help out at the Silver Dragon, Taranee was dragged along by her brother for something and Will’s mom kinda drafted her to assist with something work related. Honestly not sure, Will was yelling about needing rescue from evil paperwork and running but I’m not breaking into her mom’s workplace again. Red is on her own.”

“I love your teamwork,” I said, “Always so encouraging to see the Guardians of the Veil stepping up and show why it was them that were chosen to safeguard Infinity.”

Matt, the abandoned girls boyfriend rolled his eyes as Cornelia shoved me with a snort. “Shut up, you ditched us more than once for a sale.”

“And am I a guardian, Cornelia? Do you see me wearing these ridiculous tights?”

Irma clutched her chest as if her heart had been shot, a look of betrayal on her face. “How dare you! Ridiculous tights? It’s the finest fashion and armor Kandrakar has to offer.”

Cornelia was equally outraged. “We deposed the last ruler of this planet and we’ll do it again,” Cornelia threatened with a smile and I laughed.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Irma and leaned over the balcony to see a lot of construction going on. “What’re you building over there?”

I took a deep breath, knowing that this might not go over all that well.

“Phobos’ weird Star Gate thing, on a really small scale.”

Cornelia, Matt and Irma spun around looking at me, eyes wide and mouths open.

“I’m sorry, I think the last fold did something to my hearing. I could have sworn you said something like building a fold portal to earth.” Matt’s voice got a bit shrill which couldn’t have been good for his singing.

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“WHY!?”

“Look, guys, it’s very simple. Yes, I may be the Queen of an entire planet and have magical powers akin to a literal goddess, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss electricity or the internet. Or good plumbing. Or refrigerators. Or modern medicine. Or tampons, well, magic kinda makes that way more convenient actually, but for all the others who aren’t me, tampons would be neat. Which is most people here, basically everyone else. You know, modern technology and science. All the good stuff. I want it here. For me and for them. I’m a giver.”

“Why do you sound like a villain when you say it like that?” Irma asked raising an eyebrow which I ignored.

“I’m not going to steal anything or kidnap anyone. I am going to take gold and jewels from our treasury here, change them to earth currency and get a lot of books. Thankfully our languages are similar enough and the most difficult thing is coming up with stuff anyway. With that already handled, all we have to do is to learn how it is done and try to apply it here, without the mistakes that you people did, of course. Earth people are bad at this, you know. Would be cool to have everything without wrecking the planet and nature. Here I am hoping magic will do the trick.”

“You people?” Cornelia looked baffled and incredulous.

“That sounds great and all, but you really just want the internet back, right?” asked Irma at the same time.

“Oh yes, so much. Movies, make-up, fashion, movies, games, music, electricity in general. I need it back, guys!”

“You said movies twice. Also, I’m not learning how to build steam engines,” Cornelia said, crossing her arms. “As if I didn’t have anything better to do than uplift this backwater hellhole. No offence,” she hastily added.

“Yes offence but that’s not why I asked you morons here. If I wanted technical expertise, or any kind of expertise for that matter, I would have bribed Taranee here. No, you lemmings are going to, for now, work as my gophers. Take a few of my subjects and give them an earth crash-course until they know enough to make transactions.”

Matt took out his smartphone, pushed a few buttons and read something for a few seconds before he spoke. “I just checked my schedule and it seems I’m too busy for that Elyon. Looks like I’ve to do anything else but that. Sorry for that, would love to help but I really don’t want to. Solid talk we had and good luck.”

“What he said,” Irma pointed at Matt and Cornelia nodded.

“Hard pass, gorgeous.”

Well, it’s not like I expected them to be helpful, especially after they told me they had ditched Will the way Caleb had his mother in the necklace.

“Way to be helpful, guys. Here you are, lounging in the lap of luxury and privilege that is western civilization and refuse to do give even a little bit of time to help those in need. For shame.”

“Said the wealthy, magically powerful very much not elected monarch.” Irma wasn’t impressed but then again, she had always been a sharp one.

“Yeah, didn’t think you’d buy that line either.”

“Honestly, in all seriousness, that’s your long term goal? Get a few books and build stuff that is way above the technological level of this world? Never watched all that much Star Trek but seems to remember that it was a bad idea there.”

“Well, I’m going to be cheating a lot. With magic. Like, the portal thing is there so that the fold will be permanently open to allow for cables in-between worlds. So it will be less inventing the meridian internet but rather accessing the internet and electrical networks of earth.”

“That’s possible?”

“Well, I could plug in the charger of my phone with a fold between my bedroom here and on earth. And as long as the fold is open, I even get a weak wifi signal.”

“Aren’t you stealing internet?”

“Oh, is miss mind control trying to argue morals with me?”

“Objection retracted.”

“But no, I would have paid for the Brown house. Of course, if I want to set up things, would have to pay for other stuff but I would first need to research what I would need exactly. And how to make it so that no one wonders where it all goes to.”

“Imagine the whole different worlds thing gets blown because Aldarn was shitposting on Twitter.” Irma seemed amused at that and crackled after a few seconds thinking about that.

“So, you’re going to have your people toil away in order to give yourself access to youtube and facebook. What was the difference between monarchy and dictatorship again?” Matt asked.

“The difference is fuck you,” I replied, shooting him a cross glare. “And having electricity and warm water and modern sanitation and all that is going to help everyone as well.”

“Easy there, your majesty,” Irma was barely holding back her laughter. “You really have gotten quite demanding and bossy over the last few months.”

“What? No, I’ve not.”

“Elyon, sweetie, you have. It’s not bad or anything, but you did get a bit more-“

“Like Cornelia,” Irma helped her finish her sentence for which she was rewarded with a cute snarl.

I, on the other hand, was aghast. “I haven’t gotten that bad, did I?” my hands went to my cheeks.

“Oh, screw you two bitches! You wish you were half as awesome as me.”

“Who are you going to send to earth to learn earth customs?”

“Well, Caleb seems like a good choice. He already has a solid grasp on a lot of things and it’s not like he isn’t there enough. Might as well do something useful when he is there. You know, pleasing Cornelia should take only a few minutes, lots of free time afterwards.” Cornelia flipped me off, the rude tramp. “My parents are probably going to be the main people taking the helm on that one. They’ve lived there for years, they know it very well, they are already established and our house serves as a nice basis. And they’re adults, so, yeah, that tends to make things easier than having a seventeen year old try to do this shit.”

“What was this crap about us having to take care of newcomers then? Seems like we’re not needed at all.” Irma sounded confused.

“Well, it would be helpful. But truth to be told, I’d like your more…esoteric help. Mainly Will and Irma, really, so it’s too bad she isn’t here.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You wanted us to abuse our powers to grant you unlimited access to technological facilities and applications? Brainwash people and infiltrate computer systems? That’s what you wanted us for?”

“You make it sound worse than it is.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Elyon, you must have confused us for the Guardians of Corporate Espionage when we’re, in fact, very much not that!”

“You’re so dramatic,” I complained to Cornelia. “I know Irma uses her powers to let herself off easy with tests and oral examinations. How is that any better than me wanting you guys to fudge the numbers in order to help tens of thousands of people.”

“Oh yeah, you’re really desperate to give Aldarn and the rest of the Rebellion access to porn and catvideos.”

Matt, Cornelia and I laughed at that and Irma flashed us a confident grin.

“Oh boy, I would pay to see that, to be honest,” Matt said, not even trying to reign in his grin.

“Not going to lie, porn would be a huge success here,” I admitted, “think it definitely has potential as a business endeavor but we don’t want to go too fast. Folks are in some ways a bit more conservative. It’s a medieval setting, after all.”

“You know,” Irma started, “I always wondered how close they are to our world.”

“Well, racism isn’t really a thing between humans, seeing they are living together with countless other races and this world has been aware of Kandrakar and other worlds for quite a while. That said, it still very much exists with regards to shapeshifters and other life forms. Lurdens as well. And whatever Tracker was.”

“How come they still haven’t technologically progressed if Kandrakar has been connecting them to so many different worlds?” Cornelia wondered.

“Phobos didn’t make things easier on that regard but before that, no idea. Maybe they like the aesthetic?”

“Well, Kandrakar isn’t exactly high tech either,” Matt said, scratching his chin. “I mean, it’s pretty much monks in robes and aether and whatnot.”

“But mostly because they have magic, right? No need for an electric heater if you can just magic the right temperature and stuff. Light, communication, heat, whatever, everything can be done by magic. Why bother with technology?” I said. “Which is different to here, because not every citizen is a wizard or sorcerer. And no magic in the world can replace YouTube, so, yeah. I want this done.”

Really, it was like herding cats with them. Every time I had them to a teensy thing, they started complaining and bickering.

#fanfiction #w.i.t.c.h.#w.i.t.c.h. fanfiction #elyon brown #elyon escanor #irma lair #cornelia hale #matt olsen #witch #witch fanfiction

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beautiful-lusamine-blog · 7 years

Text

Lewis was always alone.

Well - That wasn’t entirely accurate. There were times when happiness, laughter, and friends filled his life - But these always ended in backstabbing, shouting, tears, and loneliness.

So, after a few times of going through the same thing, Lewis decided to stay alone - Not like anyone would take him after how damaged he was, anyways.

The specifics of his past, his childhood, his family, why he left them as he cried and shouted, running off from home to god-knows-where and never calling or coming back, none of it really matters. Not in the grand scheme of things.

Things were always complicated for Lewis - Always. Every detail of his life is a sad story of failure and, of course, complication - So what’s the point of explaining them all if they tell the same tale? There is none. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyways.

For a time, Lewis’s desires mattered - But, suddenly, there was a time when they didn’t anymore. At first, he did follow his dreams, getting a degree in Acting, but going to University changed him. He did give up everything he had ever owned and any chance of financial security later in life just to get through it, after all. He almost found himself with friends at college - Someone named Ryan seemed to not hate him, at least - But he usually pushed these kinds of people away when they got close. He didn’t need another set of stitches in a heart that had been broken many times before.

After he graduated, he lost all will to live. He’d gotten his degree, and suddenly realized that no one really wanted him. Any networking opportunities he may have encountered over the years he’d pushed away, along with the people offering them. He was at a dead end. He had nowhere to live, couldn’t pay for his own food, and he had no one to turn to. It’s not like he could have gone back home, not after... Not after what had happened.

Eventually he received a letter in the mail - his uncle had died, his uncle that didn’t really like anyone in the family but Lewis. The uncle who had owned several stocks and successful companies...

And then Lewis was a millionaire.

First, he changed his last name to Ninapaamake and moved to Alola. The last name not only helped him pretend he was just an Alolan native, but also made him harder to find. He had known his uncle was a strong advocate for the protection of Pokémon from being driven out of their habitats by humans and abuse and neglect by humans, so he started the Aether Foundation in his uncle’s memory.

Somewhere along the way he found Faba, an employee who was willing to do pretty much anything to stay favorable to Lewis and on a high salary, and of course Wicke - An invaluable employee who never gave up. The charming Florie was there to keep the computers from exploding, and Jazz was there to keep the financial side of the company stable. In addition there was, of course, the unbelievably hard-working and respectful Zenith.

However, all ups have downs - And now that Lewis had started a global foundation and made his name famous for advocating for the protection of Pokémon in a way that didn’t disrupt their relationships with people (unlike some Pokémon rights organizations), it was time for his life to become hell.

And become hell it did.

Kidnapped; drugged; raped, perhaps - The details alluded Lewis after it was over, probably due to the second item on the list... So he honestly couldn’t say for sure what they’d done to him.

What he did know, however, was that an International Police team led by an officer named Looker had rescued him: Given fake money and then, once he had Lewis, turned around and led an assault against the mysterious, masked kidnappers.

They’d fled, however, and it was virtually impossible to identity any details about them - Who they were, why they took him, what they wanted. He knew they’d be back someday though, so for a few years he waited nervously for that particular penny to drop.

Even if he’d remembered what happened, he wouldn’t have answered. The abuse was too much for him to talk about; the little details that he did recall sat at the bottom of his mind, and frankly he was quite content leaving them there.

Things were okay for a while, and he’d eventually told Looker to give it up. It didn’t matter anymore.

Then came the security breaches and the photos - Oh, god, the photos...

Numerous hackers, perhaps affiliated with each other or perhaps just hired by the same person, began to attempt to breach his company. They tried to take many files, which didn’t surprise anybody, but also tried to plant many within the computers: All of them beginning with the prefix PHEROM-LWS, all contained within folders labeled from Alpha to Zeta.

But, most troubling of all, were the photos of a woman who was apparently pregnant with Lewis’s child.

Soon, his office was swarming with International Police officers once again, asking him all kinds of question he either couldn’t or didn’t want to answer. He told them what he could - That anything could have been taken from him during the kidnapping. They eventually advised him to respond by leaving messages in his database for the hackers to find, since keeping them out seemed literally impossible.

He was informed that, yes, some of his reproductive material - A lot of it, in fact - Had been taken from him and frozen while the masterminds behind it contemplated how best to use it.

A baby had already been born. He was about to turn one.

Another was being carried by the woman - Who Lewis suspected was not exactly a willing participant in what had happened - and would be born in about one month.

Lewis realized, very suddenly, that he was the father to two children, about a year apart in their births.

He was sent pictures of other people holding the boy or cradling that woman’s large stomach, and plenty of scans showing the fetus.

He knew it was designed to get under his skin, yet he let himself fall for it anyways. He was too furious. He finally caved in and, against Looker’s suggestions, demanded to have the children.

But, as Lewis had learned in his life, everything has a price. Nothing is free.

Control of the Aether Foundation, including its facilities and money, handed directly to whoever was behind this. That was what the price tag on his own child’s wrist said in the latest photo.

He worked his closest employees and himself to the bone trying to fake the whole thing. They worked in secret for days without sleep, sometimes. It was a living nightmare, but Lewis needed to hold his own children in his arms, and he’d do anything to achieve that.

After about two months of living hell, he was given a video of his one-year-old and his one-month-old being forced to watch their birth mother be shot. That was when he decided that the plan they’d prepared had to be good enough - And if it wasn’t, fuck it, because he wasn’t going to let this continue for another moment.

The whole thing was over surprisingly quick - About 56 hours without sleep filled with cyber warfare and a few break-in attempts which were prevented by the guards Looker had fortunately stationed outside of Aether Paradise.

The first 16 hours was getting the children and faking the deal - And, frankly, that was the easy part. They were delivered by a messenger who they had agreed to not kill, wrapped in green and purple blankets with notes that read “Beta” and “Charlie.” Lewis didn’t really have time to think about what it meant, because the next 50 hours were spent warding off the relentless villains who’d very quickly realized they’d been duped.

Finally, he was told he could keep the children. He gave his employees and himself a week off after he was sure they weren’t bluffing.

He decided to name them after flowers.

Unfortunately, in about ten years, when the two children he’d decided to call Gladion and Lillie vanished and left in their place an anonymous note, he realized why he was allowed to have the children - Because it would hurt more if they were taken later. It was all a game of cruel, calculated vengeance.

Lewis once again enlisted the help of the International Police.

The month spent rescuing them once again was so stressful to Lewis that he didn’t remember much of it afterwards. He’d read studies about how the mind would sometimes block memories of traumatic events, but he hadn’t believed them before he experienced it himself.

Next came the parts of his life that made Lewis want to kill himself.

Yes, he had his children back - But did it matter? Now everything was worse. Now Lewis was slipping. Some days, he’d wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, and realize with sudden panic that he’d forgotten the events of the past day; he’d be talking to someone and then slowly quiet down and move to stare at the wall before shaking awake and no longer remembering where he was, would realize he was crying in his room alone and wonder what he’d done that time - Did I hit my children? Did I insult the employees? Did I starve my babies?

It had started as just being overprotective because he was afraid of losing them again - But, before long, he was spending hours calculating meal portions for his children to ensure they stayed underweight (although he always took out a bit of the result of his calculations, just to be sure), and then eventually hitting them if they misbehaved and begging them to love him if they cried from the sting of his hands.

Then came the dreams - They were always the same: Monsters that looked so real, pursuing him relentlessly as he ran from them until he hit a dead end, left him curled up on the floor, crying, just waiting for one of them to kill him...

They always ended the same way - He’d cry, and then tentacles would envelop him and shield his eyes so he couldn’t see who they belonged to, and then carry him to some room, setting him down gently. He’d then look around the room and see a man’s bloody body, bullet holes scattered all over him, and then look at his own hand, which was absolutely covered in blood that he knew wasn’t his own and holding a note.

He couldn’t ever read it. It was blurry, at first, but it got clearer each time he had the dream. Even when the image cleared up, the shapes on the page were incomprehensible to Lewis. It was almost like another language.

As Lewis got worse and worse, the shapes seemed to begin to make sense to him. Eventually, it got to the point where, in the dream, he could read it - His dream avatar could read it - Yet when he awoke he realized that he, himself, could not read it.

I believe you know the rest of the story...

The monster with the tentacles began to manipulate him during the journey to the room with the note, whispering false promises in his ear: Find me! Come to Ultra Space and find me! It will make your children love you once again! It will wash away your sins! They whispered all kinds of things to him while they carried him, and Lewis became haunted by the promises.

I assume you see where this is going...

“When did you... Start becoming beautiful?” He whispered, his hand rubbing her soft cheek. It was terribly heavy, so, so heavy, and it seemed like holding up an entire ocean just to keep it there. He let it fall, slowly, to his side, and then he smiled and slept.

During that sleep, the same dream came back to him, but this time it started in the room.

He realized suddenly that it was not a dream, but a memory!

As the International Police began firing at the masked figures who had been laying in wait to guard the door, Lewis slipped by them into the room. He’d worn black, unlike the Officers’ obnoxious blue and purple bullet-proof vests, and was now about to make Looker livid.

He snuck into the room and was unnoticed due to the chaos of the room and the fact that he didn’t have a weapon.

He stepped into the hallway behind the door, and took a right, padding quietly like a cat to the end of the hallway and taking a left turn.

Now he was faced with a long hallway, laid with a deep, blood-red carpet. It ended in a single, black door with a knob that was absolutely stunning - Intricately crafted and clearly made of gold.

He sighed and slowly took the pistol out of his pocket hidden on the inside of his jacket, and then took the silencer barrel out of his pants pocket. He’d practiced screwing them together many times, but he’d never actually shot a gun before.

He put them together slowly, exhaling deeply once again. Looker would kill him for this.

But what choice did he have? He couldn’t rely on them now. He couldn’t rely on anyone now. All that mattered was getting his own children, on his own, by his own work.

He took his first few steps on the carpet, his heart hammering loudly in his chest so hard that he could see his chest expand and contract rapidly. He couldn’t hear anything but the heartbeat in his own ears.

Finally, after what seemed like years, he reached the door.

He closed his eyes, breathing slowly, and then opened his eyes once again.

He placed his hand on the door carefully.

He turned, and pushed.

Inside was the leader of the awful group, standing with his back to Lewis.

“I was wondering when you’d make it here, Lewis.” He said with a proper British accent. His voice was dripping with, for lack of a better word, evil.

”And just how did you know I’d be coming here alone when the International Police attacked?” Asked Lewis, his voice quavering.

The man laughed and shrugged. “Because you’re incredibly foolish and overconfident in your own abilities. Oh, you’d never reveal it, you always act like you hate yourself for your stupidity - But subconsciously you see yourself as a genius and would take any opportunity to be the goddamn hero.”

“That’s not true!”

“Well,” He said, chuckling. “It is. You just don’t know, because it’s so deep in your head you don’t even realize you’re doing it.”

Lewis’s finger twitched as it hovered over the trigger of the gun he’d tucked back into his coat.

Suddenly came a muffled noise, and Lewis looked to the left. To his horror, it had come from Gladion - He and Lillie were gagged and bound on a bed in the corner. He gasped in terror, his other hand covering his agape mouth.

He turned his attention back to the man, who had turned to face him.

“Yes. You’ll get them when we’re done here. I must say I’m a little flattered. You did all this extra research to figure out who I was and that I’d be back here.”

Lewis shrugged. “It was easy. Just had Florie break into the International Police’s server and get me the information Looker refused to provide me with. That’s all.” He was trying to feign confidence, but he was stuttering in fear and he was pretty sure he was failing at this.

“Hmm. Well... In any case, I’ve been recording our conversation. Not because I’m going to tell Looker or anything, but because I... Well...”

Here he stopped speaking and moved to the right side of the room, grabbing a phone from the desk that was there.

“See this? It’s recording it all. And, let me tell you, shooting it will do nothing, so there’s no reason to reveal the gun you’ve probably brought. It’s being uploaded to our server as it records, so even if you destroy it, it’ll all be there.”

“You talk like your... Organization will continue after you die.”

“Oh, believe me,” He said, smiling wickedly. “It will. Let’s start assessing your damage, Lewis. By the end of this you’ll have PTSD, obsession with your children, and probably social anxiety and depression thrown in there for extra fun. Imagine how fragile you’ll be, especially once you forget all of this due to the stress. Then, we take you in that fragile state, and we subliminally force the audio recording into every part of your life - Oh, and the security camera over on that wall is taking video, too. We’ve already installed wireless speaker units in your bedroom and analyzed your sleeping patterns so that it plays while you sleep, see. Like Charlie Gordon! Only difference is that in this case it’ll actually do something. We’ve also planted all kinds of undetectable malware softwares in your computer network that will play short, millisecond-long clips of the thing every time you use one of the computers. We’re going to fuck you up so hard, oh my god, it’s going to great. Well... In another sense of the word, we actually did fuck you up pretty bad the first time we got you...” He said, cackling.

“You - You son of a bitch,” Exclaimed Lewis, his words punching the air. Tears began to well up in his eyes at the thought of just what they may have done all those years ago. “You son of a bitch, you fucking planned this whole thing out, didn’t you...?”

“Of course! And here you were, thinking you had the jump on me and were going to surprise me. No, we knew what you would do. The whole thing was a trap. And, besides... While Florie is extremely talented, I doubt a single hacker could breech the International Police’s network without even a little bit of help from the big dogs...”

Lewis swallowed hard. “You... You fucking weakened the security so we could get in, didn’t you...”

“Tsk tsk. You’re really quite slow, aren’t you? Keep up now!” He said. His British accent was really beginning to annoy Lewis.

“Well - Well what good does this all do you, anyways?!”

“Oh, we forever ruin your relationship with your children, and your life, and their lives, and keep you under our thumb for another ten years or so. It’s a win-win-win-win, revenge wise! And by that I mean, not a win for four parties, but four wins for our party. None for yours, I’m afraid. Er... Unless you like that. You were quite the submissive little fuck, if I remember correctly.”

Lewis’s hand tightened on his gun and he hoped the man didn’t notice. He bit his lip to fight back tears. “There’s no way... You can’t... There’s no way you’ll be able to successfully gaslight me. There are too many people around me who would realize what’s going on.”

“Actually, see, that’s where you’re wrong. It would only happen on your computers, and it would be so quick you don’t see it. No one’s sleeping in your room, either, now that the kids are older. So, actually, no. I can, and I will. You won’t even know what’s going on. As I said, you’ll forget due to stress.”

“No, I won’t!” Shouted Lewis. “I’ll remember this fucking shit for the rest of my days... Trauma isn’t enough to block my memory.”

The man smiled. He was holding something small and white in his hand. “Perhaps I’ll help it along, then.” He said.

Time stopped for a moment, and then, all of a suddenly , he was pushing Lewis against a wall and pinning him there, trying to shove the white thing into his mouth. Lewis resisted for what seemed like an eternity, but eventually he had to give in. He simply had no energy left. As the capsule went down his throat, he felt like he’d lost all will to live. This was it. What was left now?

He kissed Lewis roughly, taking without asking, grinding up against him and choking him with his tongue. He drew back, grinning like a madman. The thing that was the worst about it was how familiar it felt, how Lewis had, on instinct alone, threw his neck back and thrusted his waist slightly as he moved onto his toes, eyelids fluttering and a small moan escaping him. He’d been trained like an animal and been so drugged he’d forgotten it.

In the moment when the man smiled wickedly, he also relaxed his grip on Lewis, who kicked him just below the waist. The man went sprawling, his own gun dropping from his hands and sliding across the floor.

He moved to get up again as Lewis fumbled his hands into his jacket, trying to pull the gun out. Please, move faster, please don’t fucking drop it, please don’t fucking miss... He thought.

He finally got it out, just as the man had regained his footing. He shot him in the abdomen, and a rose of blood bloomed on his white suit. He stood there, horrified, for just a second -n and then he smiled.

Lewis swallowed. “Fuck you,” He spat. And then he shot the rest of his ammo into the man’s body, not stopping until his pistol made little click noises when he pulled the trigger.

He moved to the body, as if propelled by some unseen force, and looked in the pocket of the coat. He kept making the clicking noise, because it was the only thing keeping him sane. Here he found a small note.

He dropped the gun with a loud noise and held the note up to his eyes.

Through the tears, he read:

Just because the puppet master was killed, this doesn’t mean that the strings were detached. They are here for anyone who wishes to pick them up again. And, believe me, I have people in mind. I wouldn’t spend all these years building the perfect little marionette if I had just intended to let him go, would I? Oh, and, yes. To answer your question, yes, I did plan in case you killed me. You’ve got a world of hurt coming your way. My advice would be to not tug too tightly on the strings, or whoever’s holding them might tug back and kick the chair out from under you, leaving you to die hanging from the strings I once controlled you from.

Things weren’t okay now - They’d never be okay.

But Lewis had escaped the temptation of the Nihilego and had his house searched for the speakers and had the network disinfected, and was now making efforts to be a better father for his children.

He could never make up for what he’d done, not really - But he could at least apologize and do everything he could to be better, and he did.

While the warning of the second puppet master did frighten him a little, he wasn’t going to worry about it. Whoever it was would have done something by now, unless the other man had been bluffing. Lewis decided it had to have been just that, a simple bluff, and resumed his life.

Things weren’t normal - But Lewis knew that, if he tried really, really hard - They might become normal... Someday...

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jewelwriter · 6 years

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My Two Cents: Why yez, Gen 7 is the worst of them all.

Disclaimer: "My Two Coins" are to be read as such, someone's two coins about the topic at hand. IF at any point you disagree with it or agree, remember they are just my coins about said topic and the value you have of it will differ from my own because of religion, upbringing, beliefs, and logic based on your own experiences. Do not assume my coins are the international equivalent for it may be considered of a lesser value in the bank of public exchange. Thank you.

Pinks, You asked for it. YOU KNEW how stupid your commentary to defend Gen 7 is and yet you did it and I gotta rip you some new ones. I’ll even go...

Yea. I’m going this far TO KICK YOUR ARGUMENT and banish it in all it stands for to the Shadow Realm! Though first things first.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen. You've found a wild Jewelwriter.

And here’s the reason why I’m going at it and I’ll be commenting on it non stop so if you value your gen 7 souls then escape and don’t look back.

Oh boy... You seriously were that worried that it is a not belonging in the place where it belongs and is going to be ripped by me where I wouldn't hold back. Trust me... I know your brain is deep in Gen 7's cave of wonders but it's time to get your head out of there and get with bleeping reality. Trust me I'm tempted to use memes to say you are so wrong that it hurts. And I'll get even the pictures that you point out so I'll be thoroughly ripping this up with a sword and not a chainsaw.

OH, it is... I mean seriously do I got to list them... but if I gotta say it there's going to be a gen 7 of that bleeping picture and your call of calling hypocrisy so allow me to poke of each point you pull up.

-If not counting all the added Pokemon the difference is 7 more for everyone thinks Ultra added more. This wasn't a bugger to me since I expected a low number and its clear people aren't getting it.

-Exp isn't too bad and I was keeping it on since it was meant to be on and I still felt the challenge was more with two of the 3 starters and everyone's frog was the easy mode for people when I felt the "Charizard" of the generation is Chespin and Fennekin gets it easier at least as well be the next second since through the playthrough of X and Y, gym one has bugs with one a bug water, followed by rocks, then fighting types (Fennekin's evolution gets psychic moves to soften this) then grass types (Unless you got a poison move, Fennekin gets this faster) and then we get to electric which isn't good for both and then fairies (with fully evolved Pokes now, Chespin's line is in trouble sans poison.) then Psychic and then ice (Poor Chesnaught times two more) And Chespin and Fennekin's line doesn't get love at all in the Elite 4 either.

-Story is not bad but it's true that story wasn't good but it wasn't going for hyper twists, it was more on the nose and wasn't ashamed of it. Pluse there was more expressions in that than both su and moon games.

-This is true that I can't fight it but I'll say that I saw them as a copy of team rocket if Giovanni decided to return just in time for a new kid to smack them stupid and if Giovani had a death cannon.

-Only the true rival of sorts being your opposite without the hat and the others...mixed.

-Skip since this is true for all Pokemon but it doesn't last longer than both Sun and moon and Ultras.

-Customization was first introduced so it would be limited.

-Fairy Pokemon is the first big shake up and I like it.

-Depends on your mega. OH, gods.... it ranges from ...Garchomp to Mega Rayquaza (who was introduced in ORAS) though I will say this....this should have been the end of Smogon's reign. I still want it gone!

-Postgame was in Lumiose, and it was short and otherwise, it was the battle house. (Delta episode in ORAS)

-This I don't mind... And here's the funny thing...you never could get out of that Linear road in a sense unless you are thinking gen 1 at when you take on Saffron City and gen 4 which allowed you to break that norm when crossing Mt Coronet.

-This I can get on ORAS on for teasing that and it not showing up since post battle content really shrunk in gen 6 but it's worst in gen 7 so it's not getting off that hook.

I was willing to buy X and Omega Ruby (and gained Alpha Sapphire as a gift which I thanked.) which was a good thing overall.

And now...let's see how right you represented how it is the worst....which you tried to hide.

-This is wrong... the number where it stopped before getting the special Pokemon is 78. And I'm not counting Alolan forms.

-The Island Trials don't feel as rewarding since you only get emergen-z gemstones and nothing really marking progress.

-This is a sad truth that hurts making it fun. Super Training allows one to EV how you want without battling and having to plot how to grow your Pokemon there. Triple Battles I can say I'll not miss as much as Rotations since Rotations is battle intelligence pushed into one great format that you don't have to worry about Rocks and other entry hazards in a sense. Just tactical play! Contests came back and were lost is a sad thing since there could have been more potential if done right. And HMs I see is sad because they were a better gate block than what those silly borders and the HM rides are which were so underused it's ridiculous.

-SOS battles are the only way to get high IV Pokemon from the wild and yet they were able to annoy to no end since it means you might get a Pokemon Interrupting your catches and will burn more resources. They kind of fixed it with the Ultras but still exists the moment you trigger SOS. Hypertraining is an IV copout while breeding your best mon isn't loved anymore. Festival Plaza....oh gods that is a mess more of a mess than what happened at Gen 4's first steps into Wifi. And the Ultra Beasts...I can't tell if they are legendary or out there Pokemon that are in the wrong series.

-This is entirely correct with how many Pokemon of Gen 1 got not only representation but given special forms....and guess what...no extra Alolan forms!

-If you picked Primarina's line you were on easy street, even on Ultra when taking on Necrozma after dealing with the BS handicap of the Pokemon getting boosted artificially to make difficulty. Rowlett is able to take on only the first Kahuna, the new Kahuna of Poni island and for a while Team Skull/Aether President...Keep in mind of who has poison type but otherwise...You'd be recked with the owl... and Litten..let's see Bubble beam with the Kakuna of MElemele, Rocks with Akala's Kahuna, Team Skull's Bugs when you go john Incenaroar on top of the water type and bugs while on Ula Ula, And Poni island's new Kahuna if you can endure the dragon of the north star.

-I mentioned it earlier....tutorials are needed but this did it so wrong and had nearly all of island 1 be this. You get pushed to a school of it, you get forced into battle with the false rival, and you get guided by the Nosepass by Rotom.

-Returning to Hau... he's the 'Bianca' rival which I didn't mind but knew people would uproar but I guessed it wouldn't show up at all. I was wrong. It was the Professor who is the true rival (as in get the starter strong to yours and would be the real challenge) and they pull that off with the best First championship battle of Alola in Sun and Moon.

-Skip since I already covered this in gen 6 but it's worst since it is to nearly all of island 1.

-This was less forgiving as we got such fewer options than before as far as attire. Least you can lose the hat.

-the Emergen-z moves are in fact worthless. As I stated in a bit of a comparing document. Z-Moves are Hyper Combos that can be 'blocked', countered, or even snuffed out before you pull them off. Mega Evolution is a boss character with upped stats that can be harder to take down in battle and would be on the field still until you KO the Pokemon.

-This has less postgame than what X&Y had and this is when counting the Looker missions vs the UB hunt for the startups and the Delta Episode vs RR Episode is at least a stronger fight to one side....and while I give Zennia the lore and potential aspects, the RR gets you all villains of the past trying to get the world with grandpa Giovani at the top who should have RETIRED by now but nope...

-(sarcasm) It's so linear here that you got a Pokedex pointing the way to where to go. Great job Programmers. (sarcasm ends here.)

I at least hold my ground when it comes to this kind of argument.

For the picture comparing B2W2 to USUM...

[]

Pleasantly surprised [Vs] worried and sickened.

Didn't come to mind [Vs] Why would the series leave the 3DS? Which I say is a stupid idea still!

I had a good surprise on this and took it [Vs] WAIT will you...the fact you can still play them is proof you can wait.

This was a great surprise and showed they cared [Vs] Super rushed game that barely got out before 1 year of the game's release...which most of the other mainline Pokemon games weren't released in under a year.

New story and set in a truly different timeline [Vs] it barely changed and any changes were mostly seen near the end and were cheap shots.

This would be entirely wrong Vs IT is highly true!

That's because nothing really did change sans Ultra Recon Squad as far as plot goes and the killing of an already weakened char when USUM came up.

On sales, this would be one thing on its own and yet I was able to smell bs and not buy them (somehow I still got them because someone didn't get the note I DIDN'T WANT THEM!) and it's good I rate games based on what is within them...not the sales and that.

So sorry, it still belongs to gen 7! And there's a diff between good changes and BAD changes. You kept ignoring all the bad changes while also trying to make it look like the other generations did it worst.... sorry but This is utter BS to the nth degree.

I haven't claimed that 8 will be worst but I have a worry about what will be in it if certain games sell well.

Also Funny you use someone that you hate for someone to be the big comment here. I can't help but laugh it up. (I got stories of this but that's a need to know a thing)

[-|-|-]

So excuse ME for killing all your hopes and dreams but they are really nightmares and falsehoods that you have tried to hide behind all this time. TIME to come into the light and maybe wear this while you're at it.

As for me... this wild one runs away!

#m2c #rant #nintendo #opinion #pokemon gen 7 #response

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