#their run is so weird in each incarnation

[championashley]

Alright. I said I would write this and I’m gonna stay true to my word.

I’ve been seeing a lot of takes since The Giggle has come out questioning the potency of 14’s ending. People have been citing multiple different times during the reboot era where the Doctor has “settled down” somewhere, from Darillium, the university in S10, to even Trenzalore. However, I think all of these comparisons are apples to oranges, completely missing the details of each instance and how The Giggle’s ending rebukes all of them. 

So, because I cannot leave an inaccurate take alone, I’m going through every single one of these instances and explain why 14’s ending is different from them, in chronological order.

I’m gonna start with a weird one: S7EP4, The Power of Three. Because it provides a good example of all the things we’re going to be talking about. 

Prior to this episode, long time fans already had a good idea that the Doctor…does not do well in monotonous environments, a truth that is consistent across multiple incarnations.

“I don’t do families.”

“Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I’ve never had a life like that.”

“Here you are, Living a life, day after day. The one adventure I could never have.”

“Christmas dinner.” “I don’t do that sort of thing.”

“Oh god I had a terrible nightmare about you two!” [Talking about Amy and Rory having a normal life in Leadworth]

The entirety of The Lodger

“There’s a bigger, scarier adventure waiting for you in there.”

The Power of Three, spells this truth out in bold, montage style marker pen. The Doctor “needs to be busy”. Why, as Amy later asks?

Personally I think this answer varies slightly between regenerations, based on experiences and losses each face goes through. 9 couldn’t imagine a life of peace coming out of a war, a war that he had a major hand in. 10 continues that idea, with the added baggage of losing Rose. 11’s reasoning is a bit subtler: he says to Amy that he is running to things before they go, as if he now understands how short beautiful things last. He’s going from one thing to the next in avoidance of staying to watch things die. 

“And what’s the alternative? Me standing over your grave?”

This doesn’t change by the end of the episode. The Doctor explicitly tells the Ponds that he’s only staying to watch the cubes, and once the threat is gone, he’s already out the door. He only stops because of a potential threat, an idea we will return to in the next example. He even accepts the idea of Amy and Rory wanting to stay behind: “things to do. Worlds to save. Swings to swing on. Look, I know. You both have lives here. beautiful, messy lives. That is what makes you so fabulously human. You don’t want to give them up. I understand.” The Doctor is saying, ‘I know you have lives here, and that I can’t always be a part of that. And that’s ok.’ 

This episode in my opinion is a perfect microcosm of The Doctor regarding this topic, spelling out explicitly why The Doctor can't ever settle down. The Doctor needs to have something to run to because they don't feel secure enough in any place to not allow their altruism outweigh their need to process their trauma. The only thing that could motivate the Doctor to stop, even just for a second, is the promise that their friend(s) will be there too. The next example is the worst-case scenario of this issue.

Trenzalore is an interesting case. When I first heard of it being counted, I immediately shut it down, because Trenzalore was a literal war zone (wars are obviously not a good place for mental health time). But in doing research, there is actually way more baggage contained in this period making it unsuitable for this argument than just that fact. 

Trenzalore was set up to be the Doctor’s final resting place, where they would truly die. It wasn’t the first time a death prophecy had surrounded the Time Lord, and once again, just as with The End of Time, the thing that kills them is, what Davros would later call The Doctor's “greatest indulgence”: compassion. Tasha Leem warns 11 that she will burn the planet upon the possibility of the Time Lords returning, a warning the Doctor takes extremely seriously.

“This planet is protected.”

“Christmas has a new sheriff.”

For 300 years, 11 stayed true to his word. He fought long and hard, for the townspeople and his own. He was celebrated and was loved. But Clara returning with the TARDIS revealed how he really felt about all of it. 

“Everyone gets stuck somewhere eventually.”

“But you didn’t have your TARDIS.” “Well, that made it easier to stay.” 

There’s an unspoken sentiment in these words, echoing 11's philosophy in Power of Three: the Doctor will always want to leave, in this case, to understandably avoid his prophesied death. But he doesn’t, because “Every life I save is a victory”. Their compulsion to help, their innate capacity to help those in need. So often it’s been their greatest strength, but here it’s framed as destructive selflessness. 11 has become so wholly committed to helping others before himself that he’s willing to accept his own death. 

Clara correctly calls this out: “What about your life? Just for once, After all this time, have you not earned the right to think about that?” The Doctor didn’t stay on Trenzalore for himself, he stayed for everyone besides himself. It’s only because Clara gave the Time Lords a proper verbal smackdown that the Doctor managed to survive. Had they not intervened, The Doctor would've suffered and died, once again to protect them, despite already saving them from annihilation in the previous episode, Day of The Doctor. Trenzalore wasn't The Doctor stopping, it was a century-long effort to keep satiating the bottomless survivor's guilt they still carried from The Time War.

Darillium is yet another case of looking like a time the Doctor settled down somewhere on the surface. But the details don’t match that conclusion. The entire thesis of 12 and River’s final conversation was about the fleeting nature of their situation. 

“Times end, River, because they have to. Because there’s no such thing as happily ever after. It’s just a lie we tell ourselves because the truth is so hard.”

The Doctor says this, cries at hearing the Singing Towers, despite already knowing they have 24 years in a night. Because he knows it can’t last. There’s already a deadline on their moment of peace before it’s begun. Eventually River must go to The Library. 

The final quote of the episode punctuates this: “And they lived happily ever after.” Fading away until “happily” remains. Because they didn’t have their “ever after” and they didn’t “live”, because a person can’t entirely experience life to the fullest with a clock hanging over their head. 

While they got their moment of happiness, it was only a moment. 24 years is just a blink of an eye for a Time Lord, and sure enough, we see by the end of “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”, the next chronological episode, 12 is ready to leap back into the fray. Still the same overall Doctor he was before.

The University is an extension of this. We find out that the only reason he has stayed is to guard Missy in the vault. When 12 tries to mindwipe Bill (an eerie parallel to both Donna and Clara), he directly says: “I have no choice, I’m in disguise. I have promises to keep.” Just like with Trenzalore, The Doctor’s altruism has trapped him somewhere he doesn’t actually want to be. The second he hesitates, he immediately runs after Bill, inviting her into the TARDIS and sneaks off to the universe behind Nardole’s back.

So, now that we’ve gone through each past instance, what’s the connection? What’s the key issue(s) that prevented the Doctor from permanently stopping in any of these cases?

The (fear of) loss of their friends, and the Doctor’s own self-loathing. Either out of fear of the march of time, or the chains that their altruistic nature binds them to, The Doctor always runs away from the picket fence life.

Now, let’s look at 14 and how this ending departs from all other examples.

Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle more prominently explains 14’s origins as a coping mechanism. The reason why 10’s face came back was to retreat to an incarnation that didn’t invoke the loss of The Ponds, Clara, and Bill. The second destruction of Gallifrey and the reveal of The Timeless Child. The Doctor’s avoidance of their trauma has now been made physical, just like how mental stress can often manifest as physical changes or ailments. 

“We stand here now, on the edge of creation, a creation that I devastated, so yes I keep running, of course I keep running!! How am I supposed to look back on that?!”

Already this is a departure from the instances we’ve discussed, because by the very nature of having 10’s face again, it’s forcing the Doctor to ask why. 

“It’s like I'm trying to tell myself something. Like I’m trying to make a point.”

But 14 chooses not to answer it, because answering it means accepting the truth: it’s too much. The trauma can’t be avoided anymore, because The Doctor would always be reminded of what they’re trying to avoid by looking in a reflection. 14 telling Shirley, “I don’t know who I am anymore.” Then asking Donna, “what am I? What am I now?” It’s not because he’s been given a blank slate and doesn’t know what to do with it, like other regeneration stories. In trying to run away again, to bury the trauma and pain, The Doctor has made it more visible than ever, and doesn’t know what to do with that. 

Ironically, the Toymaker causing the bi-generation was the greatest gift he could’ve given the Doctor, because 15 was exactly who 14 needed to see. He’s happy, energetic, full of life and wonder, but also empathetic, understanding and open. He’s the only other person in the entire universe who The Doctor will listen to (well, one person, we’ll get to the other later), because he knows all of the trauma they went through, and yet, made it through ok.

“But you’re fine.”

“I’m fine, because you fix yourself.”

15 is leading by example, their own ‘ghost of Christmas future’ but positive. 14 now has an ideal self to strive towards, a face born from love and empathy. 14 doesn’t have to ground herself out of moral obligation, 15 will now protect the universe. 

But that leaves one question: why Donna? Out of all of the people to settle down with, why her? That’s easy: because she gets it. 

Donna, out of all of the companions the Doctor traveled with, understood the soul behind the legend, because she recognized someone fundamentally similar to herself. One of Donna’s signature character flaws is her horrendously low self esteem: “I’m nothing special.” no one ever listened to her (thanks Sylvia, for at least cleaning up your act later), so she covered up the silence with noise. She held onto whatever indisputable moments of genius she had to drown out the cacophony of voices shutting her up. Wild Blue Yonder explained this perfectly: Donna believes she is both brilliant and stupid at the same time. 

She lives in two contradictory self images at once, and so does The Doctor. The genius and the idiot. The universe’s most fascinating person, and the person who would easily throw away their life for the betterment of others. She’s seen their blinding arrogance/rage (the Racnoss, Jenny) and their crippling self doubt/loneliness, and always met both with empathy and kindness. 

“Doctor! You can stop now!”

“Cause sometimes I think you need someone to stop you.” 

“It won’t stay like that. She’ll help you. We both will.” 

“Is ‘alright’ special Time Lord code for ‘really not alright’ at all?” “Why?” “Cause I’m alright too.”

Donna shouldered the burden of destroying Pompeii, she silently hugged 10 after coming back from Midnight. All because she knew what all of that would feel like in her own life. She didn’t need to know the history of The Doctor and Davros, because she saw her best friend afraid and knew he would want comfort, because she would too.

Even if Dalek Caan manipulated the timelines to get Donna to him, That friendship was completely real to both of them. We saw what Donna was like without the Doctor in Forest of the Dead and Turn Left, and she always felt some level of unhappiness. 15 years removed from them and she still felt as if something was missing. In every future/reality, she always wanted them there. Same for the Doctor too. Within only a few episodes of losing her, 10 started to fall into becoming the “time lord victorious”. 12 looks the way he does because of Donna’s plea to adhere to his name, and save people. Even before 14 came into existence, the Doctor was willing to tell other people how important she was to them, on account of River recognizing Donna by her name: “you’re Donna, Donna Noble.”

Donna didn’t just travel with the Doctor and she wasn’t just friends with them. She completely understood them, their soulmate. Two halves of a greater whole, The DoctorDonna. 14 stayed because there was a more stable incarnation to take his place, and because his best friend would be there alongside him, helping and supporting him through and through. The Doctor stayed because, for the first time in their life, they felt safe. In where they would be staying, and what they would be leaving behind. 

That's why 15 doubling the TARDIS was so significant. In giving 14 her own TARDIS, 15 is allowing his younger self to have what they always removed from the equation: free will. The Doctor can still go anywhere they want, which makes them even more motivated to stay and fix themself. 14 can feel safe staying with Donna, Wilf, Mel, Rose, Shaun, and Sylvia because the option to travel is still there.

And the truly amazing part of all of this is that the TARDIS knew it from the beginning. Was it a coincidence that very soon after 13 regenerated into 14, the TARDIS landed close to where Donna and Rose would be shopping? 

“You didn’t always take me where I wanted to go.” “No, but I always took you where you needed to go.”

The TARDIS brought the Doctor home, and this time, they stayed. Because it was a place where they wanted and needed to be. 

[gremoria411]

*This post will contain spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. Also, I’ll probably ramble more than usual here, since a lot of my points are interconnected*

Alright then. I was planning on doing a big post breakdown on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury after rewatching it, since I find that my general thoughts on a series typically coalesce around the second viewing. However that probably won’t be for a good while yet, so I figured I’d do a big post now, and I’ll add a few notes if anything jumps out on me on my (eventual) second viewing.

In a nutshell, I found The Witch from Mercury to be really, really good, with an excellent cast and gorgeous action. However, I feel it’s let down by its comparatively low episode count.

And I’d like to stress that that low episode count is basically my only major criticism - I have several smaller ones, but they’re ultimately all extensions of that low episode count.

The Cast.

As above, really good. You’ve got a good selection of characters coming from various strata’s within society - Spacians, Earthians, Mercurians. It’s a good variety of characters and seeing how they interact with each other. They all feel pretty well-rounded as characters honestly.

Like, Suletta’s great, obviously. I feel like you don’t need me to tell you that which is great, because I’m not sure how to put it. I guess I like how emotive she is, how she portrays how she’s feeling so well, but then that might be because we, the audience are close to her as a protagonist (I’d argue that Miorine and Guel could also be counted as protagonists, if you wanted, but Suletta’s the one we spend the most time with). Suletta’s also good because she’s a newcomer to the Asticassia, so not only do we learn things with her but she’s also absolutely primed to upend the status quo there, which she does fantastically. I like the contrast between her doubts and capabilities - she’s not the most social of characters and doubts herself multiple times, but put her in a mobile suit and she is confidence incarnate.

Miorine feels like an extension of Gundam’s “Princess” archetype: your Sayla, your Relena, your Lacus. I really like how proactive she is - we first meet her in the process of attempting to run away from her school, and her arc feels more about her recognising the power she weirds and how to best use it for what she wants, rather than rejecting it outright. She’s in the process of actively cultivating “soft power” (negotiations, word-of-mouth, etc) rather than just having it inherently and -crucially- because the hard power isn’t actually that valuable. Compared to, say, SEED. Lacus has a whole lot of soft power, but it’s Kira and the Freedom that’s the driving force of the plot. Suletta has Hard Power - Aerial, but it’s borrowed power fundamentally, and it’s Miorine’s soft power that ultimately does more good. Actual Diplomacy versus Gunboat Diplomacy, if you will. I also like how Suletta and Miorine’s relationship progresses - they balance out each other - it starts out with Suletta having the power Miorine needs, but as Miorine grows they start relying more on each other. Also their interactions together are really great. They’re compelling because of both who they are in universe - a pilot and a princess, and because of their personalities with each other and how they spur each others development.

I do want to call out Lady Prospera as being amazing. She feels exactly how Char would be as a mother - manipulative and ruthless, but still caring in her own way. I’m given to understand she’s the first female Char Clone in the series, which is neat. Her relationship with Suletta (and Miorine) is just really good. She’s not unpleasant and she’s certainly charming, but she won’t sugarcoat how things are. Miorine knows she’s being manipulated in her interactions with her, but it’s genuinely good advice so she goes along with it, even as she has her own reservations. It’s also rather telling that once Prospera doesn’t need Suletta anymore, she leaves her. While callous and heart-breaking, we know now that Prospera fully believed she was going to die. While this doesn’t exactly forgive her abandoning Suletta, it does cast her interest in Suletta making friends and having relationships outside her in a new light. Prospera wants vengeance for Nadim and the rest of the Vanadis Institute, but she recognises that that is her and Eri’s vengeance, not Suletta’s. And doesn’t that sound similar to Mr Char “I have never once betrayed any one, in my life, ever” Aznable, who just wants his sister to grow up in peace while he avenges their family? It’s a fun relationship dynamic and it’s done well, is what I’m getting at. I also like how unapologetically villainous she is in some of her actions - both the audience and Miorine kinda clock her as a threat immediately, but we can also see why Suletta trusts her so much, even if it’s not the healthiest relationship. I just really like the juxtaposition of her being sweet with Suletta, uncompromising with Miorine, and absolutely brutal with everyone else.

Setting

I find the school setting genuinely fascinating, I don’t have a clever segue so I’m just going to get into it.

Asticassia School of Technology is a school to pilot giant robots. Great, Instantly appealing. However, then you get into all the ways it’s indicative of the wider society. It’s maintained and run by the Benerit Group - a Mega-Corporation that dominates the field of military-use mobile suits, which requires actual military force to be brought to heel and is basically a sovereign nation all its own - it’s rather telling that we never really see any national representatives throughout G-Witch, it’s all about the companies. So it takes this normally aspirational thing “wow, a school to pilot giant robots!” And extrapolates it out to what kind of setting would create that. Giant Robots are used in military applications, so you end up with a facility basically dedicated to the production of child soldiers to serve this military-industrial complex actively profiting from the glaring class inequality present in the setting, as set out in the prologue. And because the characters exist within that system there is no “easy fix”, the story ends with the characters making small progress against those inequalities rather than solving them in one fell swoop because the inequalities are systemic, and you can’t just take out the superweapon and expect everything to work out on its own. The existence of child soldiers is baked into the setting- not as a desperate gamble or as an illustration of the necessities of survival, as in other series. But as an accepted and -crucially- normalised thing. Notably, no-one expresses surprise or horror at Sophie and Norea being pilots - just that they’re a threat and have GUND Format units. We also see several child soldiers in Fold of Dawn in addition to Asticassia itself, so there’s also the angle of generational differences - the children exist in an unfair world built and maintained by the adults, fighting for the causes they are taught to. Many of the Benerit Heirs have unhealthy relationships with their parental figures, typically conflicting over them wanting different things (Guel vs Vim’s expectations, Shaddiq going out from under Sarius and basically everything about the Elan’s). So there’s the angle of the children fighting against the unfair world of adults, tying into the familial relationships in the cast. Which is a theme Gundam’s got a lot out of historically. So the school setting shows to illustrate how Ad Stella is civilised a first glance, but far more beneath the surface, and demonstrates several of the issues inherent in the setting.

I also really love how GUND format is actively debilitating to its pilots and how Suletta, while still a very good pilot, is essentially unbeatable because she has a way around the downsides for most of the series. Because it feels like an examination of “the Gundam is the strongest mobile suit”. G-Witch essentially states that having a stronger or better weapon does not solve these problems, in fact, the various elements of the company all fighting over Aerial gets several people killed, so if anything it feels like a takedown of “Gundam” as a concept (ie This great strong weapon that will win us the war”). It also puts emphasis on themes of dehumanisation - both the Elan’s and Sophie&Norea show that child experimentation, while not exactly common, isn’t unfamiliar ground in Ad Stella, particularly with Elan being replaceable, which again ties into the child soldier angle. I also find it delightfully hypocritical that Benerit, the weapon merchants, have issues with it because of the PR backlash of it killing its pilots, not because of any “moral” reason. It’s a bad look to have a weapon that can harm its user - who’s going to want to pay for that? The militant liquidation of Ochs Earth was essentially a PR stunt to show that Benerit will not make these weapons (not that that stopped Peil). Which is really horrifying to think about, really.

The Space Assembly League, Quiet Zero and the Interplanetary Laser Transmission System (or ITLS, that big gun in the finale) all function as illustrations of the excess of corporate power - a near full-scale war/ large scale destruction is only prevented because of Suletta and Ericht’s intervention. The SAL functions as a regulatory body for the corporations, but while it isn’t exactly lacking in force, it acts far too late to prevent the damage - Benerit has been allowed to run independently for too long, so it’s difficult to pull back even with evidence and force because it’s just so big. Meanwhile, the ITLS was constructed under the guide of a power transmission system, but it’s intended to be fired as a weapon. Furthermore, the destruction it will cause is written off as “Oh, Peil will get the reconstruction contract”, killing hundreds for corporate gain. The fact that it’s Peil specifically is also notable, since they are probably the most ethically bankrupt of the three corporations and were actively involved in the GUND-format technology themselves. But because the corrupt elements of the governing body favour them (and can presumably cut a deal for reconstruction costs), much of their misdeeds would have essentially been swept under the rug. Notably, other than their stock plummeting, we don’t actually see much in the way of consequences for the Peil CEO’s.

Mechanics

A fairly short one here - I’ll admit I’m not crazy about a lot of the mobile suits in Ad Stellar, but I like how each company has a different designer and are different thematically. Jeturk has big, bulky beetle-esque machines - heavily armoured and analogous to Zaku’s and other grunt suits from the series. Peil focuses on mobility - spindly MS with lots of thrusters, and typically deployed with aerial combat in mind. Finally, Grassley tends to lean towards units with exotic systems, such as the Michaelis’ beam bracer and Anti-GUND format and often have monoeyes. It’s a good illustration of the competing philosophies within the group and each one is distinct and easily recognisable (Burion’s utilitarian, I don’t have much more to say on it). It also emphasises what a big shakeup the Gundam’s are, since they look so different, and can put down any of these units with little trouble. I rather wish we saw more of the smaller developers - those units Suletta swatted aside en masse with the Aerial Rebuild, since they seemed to have a greater variety of designs (I particularly liked the little Acguy-looking one - the Hosler II?). Also, really liked the Prodoros used by Dawn of Fold (though that’s likely due to how it moves).

Criticisms

Or rather Criticism. Your typical Gundam series is usually around 40-50 episodes, whereas Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is a comparatively paltry 25. Now, one series having a lower episode count than another isn’t inherently a point against it - better a short story well told rather than a long story poorly told, and it’s a new show, and (despite my persistent comparisons with other Gundam shows) should be allowed to stand and be judged on its own merits. But it kinda feels like it was meant to be a 40-50 episode series that was cut-down mid-production and fundamentally, it feels like we could’ve gotten more.

The pacing of the second season ratchets up considerably compared to the first, and I would like to stress that Witch From Mercury is a very-well-paced show - every episode has some sort of plot development, but it feels like that’s because it had to be. And every criticism I have of the show feels like it flows from that cut-down episode count.

It kinda feels like Peil Industries was supposed to be a much bigger player in this, and the Pharact doesn’t really do anything after its opening fight.

Peil’s never brought to justice, and Elan 5 just decides to join Earth House’s move on Quiet Zero. Meanwhile, the real Elan Ceres just resigns from Peil, even though he was presumably in on the Enhanced Person stuff too.

Lauda’s whole subplot about him piloting the Schwarzette had very little foreshadowing - I assume they put just enough of it in that they couldn’t cut it entirely (i.e. the Schwarzette), and it was necessary for Guel’s character arc.

Guel taking over Jeturk Heavy Industries didn’t really go anywhere.

Sophie Pulone and Norea Du Noc are really only there to tick gundam’s “Doomed Child Soldiers” box. Also Dawn of Fold just…… still exists after the events of the series?

The fact that Ochs Earth was still a thing kinda didn’t amount to much did it? Prospera just destroys them and their Gundam Lfrith’s. The ones used by Dawn of Fold might have well been older models, scavenged or bought by them.

Chuatury (Chuchu) Panlunch - great character, great design, excellent illustration of the tensions of the setting, but it feels like she was supposed to have a subplot focused on the people supporting her on Earth.

It just feels like they made the first 12 episodes of a 40-50 episode series, with a bunch of setup that’d pay off later, and then they got cut down to 24 episodes and had to cut a lot of stuff to fit. I’d like to stress I think they made a good compromise - most of my criticisms are minor and the Suletta and Miorine are the heart of the series, and they come out very well. But all the same, I’d rather the compromise didn’t need to be made in the first place, so we could’ve seen the “full thing” as it were.

Even my….. restraint on the mobile suits designs can be pinned on this. My favourite designs are typically Monster of the Week and late-season Weirdo’s - the stuff that’s the purview of your charismatic villain or a specialised grunt. But if you’ve got to cut stuff for space and time, then by their very nature, those designs won’t stick around.

I should however mention that I’ve been unable to find any reputable source as to wether The Witch From Mercury did have its episode count cut, before or during production. My criticism is mostly about the series feeling like it should have had more, not that it was actually cut down. It is possible that Bandai wanted to see if the show could make a comparative return on a smaller budget than usual, especially considering most of their recent Gundam output has been adaptations (IE. Shows that already have a proven audience and prior success, and are consequently a lot less financially risky), like Unicorn or Thunderbolt.

All that said, I do think that the emotional core of the show - Suletta and Miorine was excellently done, and I found the action and themes to be similarly well-done. I’m mostly only complaining we didn’t get to see more of the world, since it has so many interesting concepts that feel like they would’ve been interesting to see.

[sciderman]

YES SCI YES YOU GET IT

like. okay, i dont think david way's run was AMAZING. it was flawed!! i think it struggled a lot with the execution of its ideas especially since there wasn't more natural flow between the comedy and more serious aspects, they interfered with each other a lot. HOWEVER. if you ignore the execution and just look at the underlying concepts behind the stories in way's run you start to appreciate it. way had such cool and fun ideas (i may be cringe but i really do like "evil deadpool" as bad as that name is not necessarily as a character but conceptually and as a medium for wade to Work Through Shit) and i think he may be gets a bit too much shit for it.

(i do, however, hate that way's run was basically the only reference material used for the deadpool game bc they stripped any more serious moments and themes from the run and JUST did the lol random humor and did irreparable damage by painting deadpool the taco memes guy and nothing more)

((also i might reread way's run now too :] ))

oh i have THOUGHTS about the deadpool game

way's run had such an impact on deadpool's pop-culture presence and my god. i think it was the timing of it, being at peak rage-comic icanhascheeseburger meme era of the internet where people would share panels out-of-context for the haha funnies and so that kind of was just how people were exposed to deadpool. deadpool became like, the comic equivalent to like, trollface or something

it's kind of over now, we kind of have a more complex deadpool out there doing his deadpooliest - and i can't say i miss the era of 7 different deadpool books and all of them being cringe incarnate. but i do miss the playfulness of way's era of deadpool. i think duggan and poeshn literally. actively did everything they could to "normalise" wade. make him like everyone else.

get rid of the boxes ✔️ give him a wife ✔️ give him a kid ✔️ put him on the avengers roster ✔️

i don't know, it was kind of a huge endeavour to make him normal. he still had all his misery, sure, but it became a lot less fantastical and probably more...? relatable? to your average straight middle-aged guy. but i think it's a shame, because i do like fantastical. i think it's fun to get fantastical with it. these are fantastical characters. so i love the grand hallucinations and indecipherable nonsense. i love the creativity. i love not-normal.

i think wade is boring now. comics wade is boring. he's boring, he's cutesy, he's not the weird messed up problematic fave that i fell in love with. i miss the problematic parts of him, instead of him just being a pity-fest. i miss his weird brain. i don't know what's going on up in there anymore. maybe dua lipa's "dance the night" en loope, maybe that's all that's going on in wade's head right now. yeah.

[a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire]

What is UP moonlight and ire nation, Im being tormented by intrusive thoughts rn, so I have decided to read a chapter of A Court of Mist and Fury and hope they stop when Im done with this. Last time on the Flames and Darkness Liveblog we had Lucien finally finding Feyre and Feyre being needlessly cruel to him until he left again. also, Feyre used her Tamlin-powers to shapeshift herself a pair of wings and I think that was pretty much it, I feel like not a lot happens in these chapters tbh. And yet I always have so much to say to say about them... Whatever, lets get into this

Chapter 48

Is Feyre smelling the other people at this inn having sex? what kinda smells and noises is she talking about

Theyre in a village that consists of just the inn theyre staying at, a tailor, a grocery store and a brothel? I mean presumably theres actual houses there too but that doest seem right. Also, if its as in-the-middle-of-nowhere as Feyre claims, where the hell are they getting groceries and what kind of groceries are they selling

of course theres only ONE BED and its soooooo small oh noooo do you guys think theyre gonna have sex or what

Oh and of course Feyre cant demand that Rhysand sleep on the floor because its too small to even do that theyre gonna have the wildest sex, and by wildest sex I mean theyre both gonna squeeze each other into the bed under the comically small ceiling of this broomcloset of a room and lay on top of each other without moving like a sandwhch made out of just faemeat

I feel like a cape thats cut to fit around these bigass illyrian wings would lose a lot of its functionality tbh, unless it was like, a wrapping for the wings to protect them from the cold, but I dont think thats the case with Rhysand's cape, i think it either just has holes or is some kind of weird shape, but I feel like if your in these harsh winter winds, having a cape fluttering around your wings would be pretty distracting considering how sensitive supposedly they are

WAIT. do we count this cape as a new Rhys-outfit or do we not. Im on the fence because on one hand, he's just wearing it with his usual illyrian leathers and its really just an accessoire, like I wouldnt count what he wore in the CoN as a new outfit just because he wore a crown with his black tunic, but on the other hand, I feel like a cape can really drastically alter the look of an outfit in a way most other acessoires cant. let me know what you think

of COURSE feyre would call the hypothetical painting she would make of Rhysand 'Death on Fast Wings' im gonna commit a crime

'"I love it when you look at me like that. [...] Like there's no reason to run away from my power. Like you're looking at me."' Does this imply that Rhysand identifies with the descriptor 'death on fast wings' because idk that seems weird. then again, he is a weirdo

Rhysand's pronouns are death/incarnate <- thought that popped into my head while I was writing the previous bullet point

By far the worst part about this book are all the sections where Feyre will just suck Rhysand off for a paragraph, she would not fucking say that

'"No, [you weren't afraid of me]. You were nervous, but you weren't afraid. I've felt pure fear often enough that I know the difference. Maybe that's why I couldn't leave you alone."' god, rhysand is such a creepy little freak. and not the good kind either

Feyre is being all like "oh, sure, the bed isnt small but we couldnt possibly both sleep in it without completely getting into each other's personal space, especially with his wings" girl??? tell him to put those thangs away???

god this paragraph is so annoying 'Fae-men were possessive, dominant and arrogant but the men of the Spring Court had a certain disregard [for my wishes] laying beneath the the surface' my brother in christ you have been in two and a half (2 1/2) courts and you know seven (7) fae-men personally

Also, this part where Feyre is like "if I was wasting away and Rhysand just stood by without doing anything about it, Cassian and Azriel would've gotten involved and given him a piece of their minds" is so funny knowing whats gonna happen in acosf, like no they fucking wouldnt! what are you talking about!

Oh man it just occurred to me. this is the chapter where Feyre finds out theyre mates isnt it. Or like, this part whre theyre at this inn is when she finds out, Im pretty sure itll last for multiple chapters

"[Rhysand] saw right through Ianthe the moment he met her." yeah because she broke into his bedroom and sexually harassed him and just outright told him that she wanted to have his children for the sake of power ?? I would hope he would see through that

I feel like theres been this pattern in this book of Feyre only being able to compliment Rhys in contrast with Tamlin and its very strange because you would think that after speedrunning their relationship development and spending about 500 pages worth of time with him, she would be able to point out some of his positives without immediately connecting them to her ex's negatives, but I guess thats too much to ask of this ROMANCE

Like, I forgot if this was something Feyre already said or if this is still coming up but I know theres a point in this book where she's like "I think I just loved Tamlin pre-UTM because I was so broken and traumatized from my shitty homelife that I fell for the first person to show me some kindness" and that is not how their relationship felt in ACOTAR at all atleast in my opinion, but that definitely is how Feysand feels in this book

I really hate it when male characters are described as having "hard muscles" it sounds so unpleasant. im saying this primarily as someone who likes to read about characters cuddling and prefers it when theyre soft for that, but even if we're just talking smut, does having sex with a "hard" guy sound pleasant to you? or, well. you know what i mean

!! NEW RHYS-OUTFIT DROPPED !! hes wearing wide thin pants (even though theyre sleeping in an ice cold broom closet) and a tight cotton shirt, both of unspecified color

Oh yeah, Rhysand is just sooooooo powerful you guys, he needs to constantly use his magic otherwise itll just take him over and turn him into the joker

'Everyone at his Court had a use, some kind of great ability. And here I was, a strange, unpredictable hybrid that was more trouble than it's worth.' girl you are literally fae jesus what the hell are you talking about

Maybe Im just in a bad mood but this part where Rhys n Feyre are telling each other about how they would tear the world apart if they were ever forcefully seperated is so deeply annoying to me

Im not gonna translate the shit Rhysand just said to Feyre, tldr he thinks shes hot and wants to fuck her but the room is too small for that woe is him, and ughhhh. Im struggling to explain this in a way that doesnt make me sound puritanical, but something about the horniness of their relationship makes it feel really gross to me, its not just the fact that this relationship is horny because I can very much enjoy a horny fictional relationship sometimes, but the horny relationships that I usually enjoy are like, warm and pleasant from the eroticism of it all, Feysand is just kinda gross and sticky to me

Feyre's negative self-talk in regards to her feelings for Rhysand and Tamlin feels so forced, like cmon man, you keep talking about how much Tamlin sucks ass and how much better Rhys is for you how are you still experiencing any kind of inner conflict about this

Also, Feyre talking about how she was constantly thinking about Rhysand even before she left the spring court is just, a lie. does SJM not expect her readers to remember anything

Now theyre spooning and Feyre is stroking his wings and Rhysand is humping her and its like, this isnt sexy to me this is just kinda weird

bro how come Ive never seen anyone talk about Rhysand being like "I love your boobs so much, oh, you dont even know how much I love them" thats so funny

The rest of this chapter was just Rhysand fingering Feyre and honestly, it wasnt too bad, with the extreme proximity and him warming her up I can see why some people would find it hot but idk. its still a sjm smut scene and its german which makes it pretty unpleasant for me

[captain-mj]

London Fog

And this is the end! It's been fun guys!

also, my apologies about the poll, when I was writing this, one of the options was winning and I only found out later it lost :( sorry

Link to the full thing

Ghost sat on the roof of the courthouse, smoking quietly. He had the gun aimed right at Wayne’s head in case anything happened. 

Jason had easily accepted their request to agree with the police that it was a misunderstanding. Thanks to Wayne’s military status, things were quickly swept under the rug in an act that could only remind him of why he hated police as a kid. It had been tied up with a pretty little bow. No charges put down. No care about the person hurt. Luckily Jason made an extremely quick recovery. If it was because Ghost pulled a few strings with some magic people he knew, that was no one’s business. 

The fact only made Ghost more bitter than he already was. So he had the gun pointed right at Wayne. He was sitting in a coffeeshop, waiting for Soap to arrive. Wayne should be kneeling on the ground. Ready to beg and plead once met with the presence of Soap. 

What a goddamn fool. Reckless asshole. However, that was to be expected by someone who acted like him. Who’d mistreat Johnny so callously. 

It would be the last mistake he ever made. 

Soap arrived, looking flushed and so alive. Everything about him was brighter. He had purposely picked something typical of what he’d normally wear, but it was definitely different. The clothing seemed to tug differently. His beauty unmatched. Right before he went in, he gave Ghost a small smile, directed right at him. Sun incarnate. The very sea itself wrapped up in human skin. Volatile and loving and loved and ready to crush you once you went too deep. 

Johnny was very different from Soap. Still the same in all the ways that mattered, but he was just so damn good. He dragged Ghost back into bed each morning and now that he was able, he drew all the time. Ghost had never, ever liked his face but seeing it drawn with pencil and pressed onto shitty notebook paper? Maybe he could stomach it. He also worked better than whiskey. Soap had the ability to knock him out and let him sleep through the night. Either through sex or by cuddling. Something about his touch just felt right. He was perfect. 

Ghost watched them talk. Wayne was harsh. Something about his edges. Wrong. Cruel. He was talking to Soap like Captain ordering Sergeants. It set his teeth on edge. But Soap wanted to do this, so he stayed here. Watching. 

Soap looked soft. Sweet. A picture of the same mockery of a person that he was before. Ghost imagined slowly slitting Wayne’s throat for Soap. Having him watch. Tell him to slow down. To make it last. Blood starts to fill his mouth and he realized in his excitement that he bit his own tongue. 

It felt nice. The liquid getting between his teeth. Would Soap be worried if he knew? Make him wash his mouth out and tell him to be more careful? Would he tell him to sink his teeth in deeper?

Soap nodded along to what Wayne was saying. He smiled and flashed his teeth and did all the things he’s supposed to do. He’d make a lovely siren with how easily he pulled Wayne into his thrall. 

The drink he had stayed untouched on the table. It was clearly a hot drink, which Ghost found weird because Soap preferred cold. 

Wayne stood up and left, Soap trailing after him, cup in hand. Once they stepped out of the coffeeshop, Ghost stood up and made chase. He leapt from rooftop to rooftop, gun in hand, keeping them in sight every moment. 

Wayne’s voice floated up. Harsh syllables in a harsh voice. Picking Soap apart. 

“Why didn’t you tell me a man was going to be in our home?”

“I didn’t think about it. He was just supposed to run in and grab something.”

“He had your coat.”

“He knew I was a selkie. I apologize, darling, I didn’t know what he planned to do.”

Wayne whipped around, grabbing Soap easily. It rattled Ghost. How the man just… touched Soap. Did his skin not burn from doing so? 

Soap stared at him. Doe eyed. 

Wayne saw something in those depths. He let go of him. “Your coat. Who has it? Where is it?”

“Not here. I Have it.”

“I see.”

“I want to give it back to my husband.” 

Husband. The word made something in Ghost’s soul preen. He had figured out, without Soap explaining it to him, that thanks to the back and forth of the coat, they were married in Selkie eyes. 

And once Wayne was gone, Ghost would be his only husband. The only person that mattered. He grinned and readied his gun again. Letting the familiar weight guide him. One small movement and Wayne’s head splatters on the ground. 

Soap started to lead him to an alleyway. “Please. My darling. You want me back, right?”

Wayne followed. Moth to fire. A rat chewing through flesh to get to the prize. “Of course I do. You’re mine.” 

Ghost could hear their voices. The angle was getting difficult for sniping so instead he stayed poised with a knife. 

Soap smiled at him brightly. His teeth… Were they always that sharp?

They were bloodstained moments later. Ghost was only supposed to help him if he started losing, so he wouldn’t be helping. 

Military training and raw strength did nothing to help him. Soap sank his teeth deep in his throat to damage his vocal cords and grabbed him by his shoulders. He shoved him to the ground and started punching. It was less animalistic than Ghost was expecting but no less feral. No less enthralling to watch. 

Ghost jumped down, not making a sound as he hit the pavement. He stalked around them, enjoying the sight of blood mixing with crisp morning air. 

The cup sat on the fire escape of the nearby building. How Soap managed to do that with neither himself nor Wayne noticing was beyond him. Out of curiosity, Ghost grabbed it and smelled it. 

Earl grey. Soap probably got it for him. He hated the stuff. It made his insides feel warm and fuzzy as he lifted his mask to drink it before turning back. 

Punching him must’ve not been enough after a minute, because Soap had gotten to strangling him. Blood still poured from the wound in his throat. He’d be dead in minutes anyway. But it gave Soap some satisfaction, watching the life drain from his eyes. 

He kept choking him long after he was dead. Needed to make sure. 

Ghost wrapped his arms around him and grabbed his hands. He slowly helped him uncurl his stiff fingers from the pulsing, bloody mass of his throat. “It’s done, love.”

“Mo chridhe.” Soap leaned into him, letting Ghost pull him up. “This won’t be suspicious right?”

“I’ll handle it. Nothing is ever going to happen to you.”

Soap nodded and tilted his head, kissing along Ghost’s throat. He was an image like this. Covered in blood. There was something in his eyes. Something new. 

“Simon.”

“You’re using my first name. Must be serious.”

“I want to join the military.”

~~~~

Six months. Soap did it in six months. 

Ghost tried to pull strings, speed it along, but Soap refused his help, wanting to do it on his own. 

When he was finally a big enough name though, he allowed Ghost to make sure he got on the 141 instead of a random unit.

So Price handed him the papers and Soap happily signed them. He had bulked up. Still short and not quite as big as Ghost, but definitely bigger. The tattoo on his arm was new, but Ghost had been there when he got it. He also knew that if he went further up his arm to where his collarbone was, there would be dozens of little hickeys and bites from Ghost. 

One new thing was also a scar on his chin. It was small but there. Ghost questioned if it was good idea to do this. He’d never raise those concerns to Soap though, not wanting to control his actions. Even if maybe jumping into the military was a bit… of a… choice. Yeah. It was definitely a choice.

As long as Soap was happy. And Soap did seem very very happy.

“I did it!” He grinned up at Ghost. “Now we can go on missions together and eat breakfast and sit with each other while doing paperwork and…” Soap stopped to catch his breath and Ghost kissed him. Nice and easy. 

“Yeah. Anything you want.” Ghost wrapped his wings tight around Soap who melted into him. 

“Love you, Simon.”

“Love you, Johnny.”

Taglist:

@the-snarky-dragon @elevencloudsofnine-blog @lukewarm-chickensoup @nervouspsychologynerd @korym @cthulhusstepmom @princess-heathen @revenge-of-the-bucket-demon @roachboy @shadowsnowberry @crazies-unanimous @shiftylookingcrow @joltom @xenomorphee3 @thedeepvoidinmyheart

[sehtoast]

Remember Me (Homelander x OC)

2.7k | memory loss, drunk homelander, mild angst, slight starlight appearance, new first kiss, spidersona oc | Fic Directory

Original Request: Forgotten hl x Ben. Ben loses his memory and doesn't remember hl.

If there was a form of torture to be found in the entire world that could truly hurt him, it was this.

Watching the love of his life, the star in his sky, the pulse in his very veins run around without a care in the world for him.  See, his little Benjamin suffered quite a blow to the head a while back.  That’s all it should’ve been. Just a bump on the head.  But, no.  No, the supe who hit him had to go ahead and hit him so fucking hard that he gave the bug amnesia of all things.

It was a knife in Homelander’s heart when those beautiful brown eyes looked at him without an ounce of recognition.  He was there when Ben woke, but he almost wished he wasn’t.

He circled the planet 30 times that day to keep from burning the world to ash.

Worse than all of that, though, was watching him change.  Sure, John tried to interact with his little spider and renew the spark, but it was impossible to do when the only thing he knew was the old Benjamin.  The one that loved him, that cared about him more than anything in the world.  This new  one was… just not the same, and Homelander didn’t know how to start at square one again.

The others did, however.  Especially Starlight, who seemingly seized the opportunity to tell Benjamin of every dirty deed he’d ever done.  Homelander knows because he’s heard it.  Lingered outside the wall of Benjamin’s suite and heard every word Starlight said about him, each over dramatized detail about how he was every fucking thing under the sun.  A murderer, a thief, a nazi-fucker, a tyrant– every goddamn insult she could possibly find.

She did it in such a clever way, too.  Wiggled her way into his life with her sickly sweet kindness, spent time with him, introduced him to Butcher and his band of supe-killing pieces of shit.  Ben had already been weirded out by his attempts to woo him once more, so it apparently wasn’t all that hard to convince him that his former lover was the devil incarnate.

Homelander had to watch as the love of his life began to conspire against him.  Had to see the look on his face as he listened to every accusation, every truth and half-truth, and it was the most agonizing experience he’s ever gone through.  Not even the torture of his childhood could cut this deep.

He’s never been one for attempting to drown his sorrows.  Normally, Homelander would go destroy something– maybe punch furiously through a glacier or launch himself into one side of a mountain and emerge from the other, but he felt truly and wholly weak.  Vought had been crafting an experimental alcohol that could intoxicate even the most powerful supes.  He never intended to be their first test subject.

Four and a half bottles of the stuff later and he was three sheets to the wind.  He stumbled through his penthouse for a time, snuggled up to Ben’s favorite also-forgotten blanket, ranted and raved with his other self in the mirror, and generally did all sorts of unbecoming things.  By the time he unscrewed the fifth bottle, he had managed to find enough courage to enter Benjamin’s apartment through the access panel he once used every day.

His normally graceful footsteps were anything but as he stumbled through the kitchen, back the hall, and into Benjamin’s bedroom.  The web-head had been sitting cross legged in bed and fiddling about on his laptop, and he certainly looked more than a little startled.  Homelander stood there for but a moment, staring, before breaking down into weak sobs.

“Miss you s’much!”  He sniffles, lip quivering.

Benjamin rose from the bed and approached him slowly, as if expecting a threat or violent act.

“Uhh… Homelander?  You okay?”  Ben asks carefully.  He’s unsure of how to handle the possibly nuclear situation that all but broken through his door, but he couldn’t just sit there.  “Hey, c’mon buddy, I got you.  Here, come sit down.”

Homelander lets the love of his life lead him to the desk chair he used to sit in regularly.  The thought makes him cry more.

“Can I have that?” Ben inquires with an outstretched hand.

Homelander forks over the bottle immediately.  He’d give his little spider the whole world if he asked for it.

The wall crawler reads the label for a moment before huffing a laugh.  “How many of these have you had?”

“Like four or seven. I dunno…” Homelander shrugs.

“That’s… a lot.” Ben declares.  He sets the bottle on the desk and spins the chair to face the bed, where he sits.  “Why so many?”

Homlander’s lip quivers again as he mulls over the possible answers.  His drunken mind can only muster one, though.

“I miss’ou s’much!”  He slurs in a way that would have his sober self feeling thoroughly humiliated.  “Y’were my world, but now I have no world ‘cuz you don’t like me anymore.”

Ben sighs softly.  This song and dance again… 

“For once I fuckin’ liked my life, but now you’re gone and I got nothin’ but your fuckin’ blankets to remember you by!”  Homelander lurches forward, startling the bug.  He presses his face to Ben’s thighs and cries against him.  “Meant everything t’me, please… Please come back!”

Ben can’t deny that there is a certain ache in his chest when he’s near Homelander.  But he doesn’t know  this man, only what he’s heard– which has not been good.  A part of him believes Homelander’s confessions, believes they really were an item, but he doesn’t know what to think of it.

He’s drawn away from his thoughts by Homelander’s knees hitting the ground with a heavy thud.  The god of the supes clings desperately to his dangling legs, crying his heart out.

He recalls Starlight’s words.  He always did have a soft spot for you.  We could use it to our advantage.

But that feels… wrong.

His hand smooths over the top of Homelander’s head and he swears the cries grow louder.

“Here, c’mon.”  Ben tugs at him to help him stand.  “Sit up here with me.  You don’t have to grovel, y’know?”  He directs Homelander to sit beside him.   Seeing the man with splotches of red on his tear stained face was certainly a huge difference compared to his usual cold, commanding expression.  Something about it made every cell in Benjamin’s body scream to give him a hug, so he did.

“What’s your name?”  The wall crawler asks.  “Like, your actual name.”

“J-John…”  Homelander sniffles.  “Y’used to call me–”

“Johnny?”  Ben doesn’t know if he was just able to assume that or if he somehow knew it, which is such an incredibly odd feeling. It wouldn't be the first thing he's known without actually knowing. 

Queue another lurching sob from his drunken visitor.

“Yeah!”  Homelander cries. He looks almost hopeful. 

“Look,”  the web-head moves away from him.  “I’m not… How do I wanna say this…”

John’s shoulders hunch as he prepares himself for disappointment. He should've known better… 

“I don’t know you.  But I guess I did– like, really well.  I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you, but… I just don’t know you.”  He explains softly.  “But I’m willing to give it a shot.”

Homelander’s eyes light up with excitement.  Hope stirs in his core and he swears the alcohol practically leaves his system in one go.  He feels a little more alert, at least.

“So… why don’t you stay with me tonight.  We can watch some shitty movies and talk about things.  Hopefully you’ll sober up a bit and you’ll be okay to go home tomorrow.”

At that, Homelander gave a laugh.  “I live two floors above you, silly!”  Feeling happiness bubbling in his gut had become such a foreign feeling over the past few weeks.  He thought he’d never feel it again.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ben laughs.  “But no supposed boyfriend of mine is gonna be allowed to drink and fly, so you’re stuck here till you’re good.”

By morning, Ben wakes to find Homelander curled against his side.  There’s an odd tranquility to it, and he even kind of likes it.  They decide to do it all over again the next night– sober, this time.  

And then the next night.

Two weeks go by and Benjamin finds himself elated to see Homelander every time.  He wonders how mad Annie must be with him, but ultimately can’t find it in his heart to care when he’s being flown around in those strong arms.  They touch down on top of the Queensboro Bridge– a location Homelander had described as one of their spots.  

They used to like to watch the sun set over the river, just as it was doing now.

“Pretty,” Ben lifts his mask and wears it more like a beanie.  Easier to bask in the beauty of the golden rays without the lenses.

“Sure is,” Homelander breathes, lips twitching into a smile when Benjamin catches him staring.  “Sun’s nice, too.”

“Psssh,” the bug giggles.  He chooses to recline on the rusty platform and Homelander follows.  Below, they hear the honks and insults of an instance of road rage.  They share a laugh and it all feels so familiar. 

Ben turns on his side to face Homelander.

“You’re not like everyone says, y’know.”  He declares softly.  Before Homelander can ask, he’s already elaborating.  “You’re sweet.  You're a hard ass with the team and you torture Ashley a bit too much, but you’re a good guy underneath all that badness.”

“Yeah, right.” John rolls his eyes.  “I’m actually evil, don’tcha know?”  He didn’t mean for that to sound as dejected as it did.

“Mm, well, I’ve always had a thing for bad boys,” Ben smiles sweetly.  “Especially ones with blonde hair.”

“It’s not naturally blonde.” John retorts, though he’s more than pleased when a gloveless hand rakes through his locks.  He didn’t even notice Ben taking it off.

“Still nice.” Benjamin replies, giving a gentle tug.  He scoots in a little closer, propping himself onto his elbow to lean just slightly over him.  

Homelander stares up at him with soft, doe-like eyes.  It practically makes him melt.

“I’m glad you got drunk that night.” Benjamin confesses. He can see the embarrassment flicker in Homelander’s eyes, but he only smiles wider.  “No, really.  You– I dunno if we’d have ended up spending time together if you hadn't just barged in like that. God knows I'm too nervous to ever make the first move.  But, I’m really glad you did.”

He traces the faint lines on John’s forehead with his forefinger.  As he trails it lower, he can see those beautiful blues dilate.  A tinge of red blooms in John’s cheeks.

“Cute when you blush…” Benjamin grins.  They still hadn’t done more than this.  Just laying next to each other, sharing mostly innocent touches. Not even a single fucking kiss. The sound of leather creaking preludes a bare palm resting on the back of his neck, and Ben swears the touch alone sends a shiver down his spine.

Homelander bites back every impulse to lean up and kiss his little spider like his life depends on it.  He’s fucking petrified of scaring him away, of losing what little progress he’s made.  So many times now he could’ve had him.  Could’ve swooped the boy off his feet and into bed if he’d just had the goddamn audacity to take what he wanted.  

But he was so afraid of driving him away.   He can’t lose him twice.  

He can’t.

So he shuts his eyes, sighs through his nose. Of course he was blushing like some sort of love struck fool.  That’s exactly what he is.

That finger brushes over his lips and he parts them on instinct.  It feels so good, so fucking good every time Benjamin touches him.  He aches for more, but he knows he must wait.  It’s why he doesn’t just dart his tongue out and suck that curious digit into his mouth. Ben has to want it too. 

“Sometimes I get flashes of things,” Ben tells him.  “The other night I remembered that you like this.”  

Homelander practically sings a moan when Ben dips his finger inside.

“You like milk, like… a lot.  You wear red briefs that always give you a little wedgie, but you don’t like wearing boxers– at least not in the suit.”  Benjamin begins, smiling fondly at him.  “You like pepperoni and bacon on your pizza, but you’d never admit it because you think it’s a bad look to even eat the stuff.”

He laves his tongue over Ben’s finger as he listens, staring up through clouded vision.  Had he really started to remember?  Such little things, but… maybe one day his precious Benjamin’s mind would be whole again.

“You think the funniest thing in the world is eating seafood in front of The Deep.”

With each musing of recalled memories, Benjamin leans a little closer until the only thing truly separating them is his own hand.

“We flew to a beach in New Zealand a few times. I got stung by a jellyfish that one time and you convinced me to actually let you pee on my leg!”  Ben laughs happily.  “Turns out it’s just a myth that pee helps the sting.”

Homelander chuckles at the memory, but tears up too.  His little spider was remembering.  Bit by bit, their life together was coming back.  Small things, but he’d take anything.

“We used to sit on the Chrysler Building a lot… I think I fed you ice cream up there once.”  Benjamin slips his finger free slowly, tracing it back over Homelander’s lower lip before cupping his cheek.  “We kissed for the first time on my couch…”

Even the slightest breeze would fucking knock their lips together.  John laid perfectly still, scared out of his mind that somehow the moment would be ruined if he so much as moved.  His lips parted and he fucking prayed.

“Much as I can't remember stuff about myself, I'm starting to remember you. And I really, really like you…” Ben breathed before finally closing the gap, sealing their new first kiss with a smile.  The bug felt fireworks explode in his body, tingling everywhere, searing his heart and mind with a fresh memory that felt so very old.

And Homelander… he’d be humiliated by the weak cry that shook him were he with anyone else.  He couldn’t help it.  The relief, the joy, the bliss– it was too much not to.  His head began to swim with every breath, every taste, and he could’ve sworn he was floating because–

Wait… He was. Just a little.

“Sorry,” he gasped against Ben’s lips, making the bug giggle that adorable sound that always sent a tingle straight to his heart.  “I got a bit–”

“I don’t mind,” Ben murmurs so sweetly.  The web-head plants the most tender kiss to his forehead before leaning back.  

It’s like seeing stars, the way those eyes sparkle above him.  It makes his heart feel fit to burst, like he could vibrate out of his skin from how happy he was. There was more than just a simple chance for them.  So much more.

“I don’t mind at all.”

From that moment on, he felt whole again– or, at least, as much as he ever truly could.  It took time, but Benjamin’s mind started to return.  Some things were still hazy, but he was there to fill in the blanks until the day came when he didn’t have to.   Eventually, it felt like nothing had ever gone wrong– save for Starlight’s attempts to woo his little spider over to the opposition’s side.

Homelander admittedly ended up taking an opportunity to roll Ben’s mask up a smidge and kiss him silly right in front of her, much to his little spider’s embarrassment. The look on Starlight’s face was fucking priceless, but that wasn’t the best part of it all.

The best of the best was waking up beside his little love bug every day.  When they would send their cute back and forth texts, spend their breaks together, eat dinner, relax, chase each other around the city– just… everything.  Every single thing they could possibly do together was the best part of it all.

Every second is a gift.

[fxlling13]

Just before I get into the story I would like to explain a few things. Originally, I wrote this story on wattpad. It did quite well on there and, seeing as it is unfinished, I thought I would; rewrite, improve and upload it here chapter by chapter. In this version, im going to be uploading a prologue first in the 3rd person eith the rest of the chapter's being in your (the readers) pov. So, I hope you enjoy my story.

For You

13th doctor x female reader

Synopsis: The doctor finds you on her first outing in her new body. But who are you? And how will you impact each others lives.

Prologue:

Sunlight shone down harshly on the desert like planet below. Looking up to the sky, the doctor sighed and looked at her new gang. Only two-three days into a new regeneration and she had already found herself friends. Hopefully this incarnation would be more open than the last (she hoped anyway).

"Those suns are starting to set. They're moving way faster than I realised. "She told the others absently, not really paying attention to detail until Graham piped up.

"Well, back in the tent, that bloke Ilin said do not travel by night." Realising he was right, she nodded to herself. Nothing could ever be simple.

"We need to move, fast." The doctor stated only for the group to turn around and come face to face with a group of armed, inhuman creatures.

"Whoa! They weren't there when we came in." Graham stumbled back slightly in shock .

"Where did they come from?" Ryan shouted out to no one in particular. Pulling her sonic out the blonde, scanned over them rapidly.

"I don't know. "Her voice was calm but, in actuality, the doctor was panicking and she hated that. Yasmin groaned angrily and looked at her for a way out of this. After all, the humans were only there due to a fault in the doctors original method.

"Oh, my God, Doctor!"

"So much for no life forms on this planet." Looking at them The eldest began to explain , or rather try to.

"They're not alive. They're robot guards. Why would you need robot guards on a deserted planet? Good news is, they're not fully active. So, what we all need to do is very slowly, totally unthreateningly, back out of here."

From inside they suddenly heard the sound of two guns going off within seconds of each other. There was no guessing it was Epzo's doing. Being so aloof, he had probably got himself shot in the progress. However, the robots gears began to turn and they came to life in less than a second.

"Argh! They've been activated! Run!" The doctor yelled and began to rush past the armed robots.

"Move! Move, everyone! Come on!"

Graham encouraged everyone as the others followed. But the robots were too smart.

"Ah! Ah! Swerve! Don't run straight. They're predicting our path! In here!" The doctors voice echoed in the small space as she tumbled into the room that looked like a shooting range. After making sure everyone was in and the guards had lost them, the doctor let out a breath. Waving her hand, she leant against the wall.

"Sit, catch your breath." Not needing to be told twice, Ryan flopped down with a groan.

"You are so dramatic." Yaz scoffed, joining him in a calmer manner. Graham laughed at the younger man's face, he looked deeply offended.

"I am not dramatic."

"You so are." The doctor watched them bicker affectionately and smiled. She loved humans and all their weird little quirks. Gazing ahead, she took in the state of the room. It was big, empty and extremely dusty. Some of the targets had dents and holes from bullets and blasts. At some point, there was working lights on the ceiling. Now, however, there was big gaps or smashed glass in place of them. Also, it was so quiet. So still. In fact, the place looked like it had been barren for many years. Who knows how long. From the corner of her eye, the doctor saw something. Only slight movement, but still, something. Maybe it was sone sand falling. No, it couldn't be. There was a noise, subtle but defensive there.

"Shush.." She muttered, swearing that she'd heard a small cry. Which, should have neen impossible. Why would anyone be there? When the group didn't go quiet as the doctor needed, she huffed and turned to them.

"I said shut up!" And they stopped. Hearing another whimper she put a finger to her lips, signalling for them to be silent as she approached the noise. Behind a pillar, in the corner of the room, sat a huddled figure. Their face buried into their knees. 

"Hey..."The Doctor tried to sound gentle as she sat on her knees in front of the person. They whimpered and tried to get even further away. She frowned, sensing the fear this person was radiating. It took a minute, but she eventually spoke, trying hard not to spook them.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Can you look at me? Maybe we could help you?" After a few seconds the person finally lifted their face. The Doctors eyes softened as she saw all the deep wounds. Some looking old, some fresh. It was a girl. A young girl. Her face was cut up badly in some places. Neck covered in dark bruises, she was trembling and trying to hide as much of herself as possible.

"Oh I am so sorry sweetheart. Can you tell me your name?" She looked at them clearly scared. Her eyes almost shook in fear. The doctor could feel her hearts constricting. Or, maybe, that was the pent up regeneration energy. Sure, she had fainted but it was barely any time to recharge.

"Its (y/n)." A cut by her mouth opened up and began to bleed as she spoke.

"Gosh, you're really beaten up. We can help. I promise you." The doctor smiled warmly, gently wiping the blood away. The two locked eyes, the doctor instantly feeling a sense of knowing.

"Doc I don't mean to alarm you but they're nearly here." Graham spoke gently . Probably trying not to scare (y/n).

"Ok ok. Quick introduction then. This is graham, Yaz and Ryan. Oh and I'm the doctor." She nodded startled with how quick they were going.

"Can you walk?" Yaz asked her, offering a smile as well. (Y/n) thought for a moment before attempting to move. Very slowly, she got to her feet. Just as she took a step, her knees gave out. The doctor was quick to react, catching her instantly.

"Is it okay if I pick you up?" Shyly, the girl nod, allowing the doctor to lift her gently.

(Y/n)'s arms wrapped around the tallers neck, the doctors arms holding her up with ease.

"Want one of us to help doc?" Graham asked as they headed towards the exit. Glaring slightly, the timelord shook her head.

"No. She's fine with me." Taking the hint. He simpered and nod. All the while, (y/n) let her head rest upon the doctors chest, listening to her heartbeat. Wait, no. Heartbeats.

[encrucijada]

PÍA RAMBLES #8

you might have seen this post or this wip intro. i'm here to talk about this book because i think it's really cool @teddywriting and i wrote almost 40k words by simply playing dolls with our ocs.

(yes i will be using screencaps of before sunrise, 1995 for any and all subsequent updates regarding this project thank you very much)

what's weird about this book in particular is that, despite maripaz and theo taking up way too much space in my brain, it's also incredibly hard to talk about them?? i know every single detail about them down to what they might order to eat at a mcdonald's, and yet i feel no one outside from teddy and i really knows these characters. their lore is weird and a bit convoluted and explaining it feels like i'm trying to explain the plot of a television show with like 18 seasons of character development you just had to be there to witness to understand even a fraction of it.

but first some basics about the actual book

title: babylon boy (book 1 of the home habitat duology)

genre: literary fiction

category: i say adult because there will be no censoring of topics but in this first installment our protagonists are around eighteen years old. you might consider that ya but i wouldn't

a small summary: having independently run away from home for their own reasons, theo and maripaz meet while homeless on the streets and form an alliance of convenience to survive. while theo vehemently denies the drug addiction he’s nursing, maripaz tries to deal with the way both want and revulsion seem to exist in her at the same time. falling in love is probably the easiest thing they do.

teddy and i are co-authoring, as in we both write the words. they will be primarily working on theo's chapters and i will be primarily working on maripaz's chapters but we'll both be involved in fully crafting this story.

talking about your book is hard when all that happens in it is character work so even whether someone gets sick at one point feels like a spoiler you want people to be surprised by.

we created mari and theo in 2020 on a whim. i can't even remember what prompted it exactly. we wanted a new pair of characters to play with and we decided to make two assholes to bicker and be mean to each other. this iteration saw three reincarnations before we put the characters on the shelf and almost resigned ourselves to them being a miss... if not for one important detail... i really, really believed they should have kissed. this first version of them would eventually be known as the homeless au.

looking back it's Wild thinking about how different mari and theo used to be. we moved onto new aus to play around with, landing on a superhero-type beat that became their new canon for a while. we had fantasy and sci-fi and musicians and hadestown and the raven cycle (that last one did so much for us it's insane). every new thing we tried shaped them more and more until they were unrecognisable from their original versions. one day i really want to go through their threads from start to finish and look at that change in real time.

there was a new thesis to their characters and it was no longer "what if two awful guys with issues were forced together and tried to bite each other's heads off". instead we were looking at two characters that through every new incarnation became more sincere and gentle. they had meta-narrative character development.

(every new au also gave us more characters to populate the world including but not limited to theo's twin sister, maripaz's seven siblings, alex, philip, a whole lot of parental figures, a quirky cast of friends... but i'll talk about them some other time)

then i did it again. in the 2.0 version of the homeless au there was one scene i loved beyond words where an argument between our two protagonists resulted in maripaz punching theo right on the mouth. when she tried to swing a second time he stopped her hand and warned her that if she wanted to hit him he would hit back. they fought and the scene ended. i said to teddy: they should have kissed. we laughed and imagined how homeless au would go now that their characters had changed so much. we started thinking about it more and more until we were moving the pieces of their cinematic universe around to fit this new idea... and suddenly we had plot for a book that would revamp that original homeless au... and a sequel too! (but more on that second one another time)

teddy started a rp thread of what came right after the opening scene of babylon boy, where theo and maripaz would shoplift and he would steal the angel necklace she wore (<- this is important)... and we just kept going... and going. we'd already had a few keys scenes to work towards, one those being that punching scene that started it all, as well as the ending. teddy added two new scenes we began calling the halo scene and the church scene, and we moved something we called the pool scene into this book from another au. we just had to fill in the blanks... fill in the blanks we did.

these right here are the names i gave each individual thread of the roleplay-ification of babylon boy. their purpose is not so much to be chapter titles but to make specific scenes easy to find for future reference. though obviously i had to be a bit artistic about it.

i don't know if babylon boy will have chapter titles, and if they will have some sort of theme going on (usually i like just putting two words together to create some imagery). "angel face" is probably what i would title chapter 1, but i also hesitate on that decision because i think i would like to save angel for later.

these threads are less of a draft and more the skeleton of a draft, that's why i called it a draft 0. its purpose is to give teddy and i direction and reading through them i already know how i want to shift the timeline and how i'd rewrite some of the scenes to make them a lot better, but it did give us a great cause and effect look of things. the way teddy and i approach our roleplay threads is more loose than what i do with @on-the-river-lethe (with whom i'm currently roleplaying draft 1 of our book lupine trail and also a giant hunger games au). fluffy and i write responses between 1k-4k words, they are basically chapters. teddy and i instead do a quick call and response, mostly focused on dialogue, we build on top of each other and neither of us really knows where a thread will go when we start.

there are no actual non-roleplay words written for babylon boy thus far. teddy is in charge of chapter 1 as we open with theo's pov but we are both busy or focused on other things. right now we're enjoying the playing around stage of the process (which i don't see going away even once we start seriously writing, i know for a fact we'll probably do various roleplay-type passes to babylon boy).

you've probably noticed the christian imagery is rampant here. it happened kind of by accident and the already mentioned halo scene is entirely to blame for it. like i said, teddy and i have this very "yes, and," approach to storytelling together where we kinda build on top of what the other puts down. teddy gave me the description of one (1) scene where theo sees a halo of light around maripaz's head and i decided "well, this is now i thing that is here to stay". church scene really brought it all together and there is a scene in book 2 adeptly nicknamed the angel scene that is kind of the culmination of this.

the imagery is almost exclusive to theo's pov as mari is more the subject of the imagery than the one pushing it forward. teddy and i will be doing our most to fill this book with visuals: characters lined with stained glass windows, lights shaped like hearts, signs and graffiti that say meaningful stuff.

babylon boy, as the title suggests, is more theo's book. both he and maripaz have meaningful arcs but theo's is really at the core of it, mari takes centre stage in book 2 (titled gossamer girl). i think i talked about this somewhere before but the titles just kind of... happened. gossamer was relevant for that superhero au and it's just a word i really adore so i wanted to use it on the title. you can't go wrong with alliteration so gossamer girl it is. and because i love when books in a series match i had to do something with boy. like gossamer i adore babylon for some reason, and so we got babylon boy. i wasn't sure about that one because while gossamer girl made sense with the theme, what did "babylon boy" even mean, exactly? teddy came in clutch and analysed the title for me. they connected it to theo's drug addiction and now i can't think of any two titles that are more perfect for this series.

like i said, there are no actual words written for this book so sadly i cannot share any excerpts. but i will share

Festival was very much the result of teddy and i having just watched before sunrise, 1995

we watched before sunrise, 1995 because the mannerisms of the two leads reek of maripaz and theo

"until a miracle happens" became a recurring thing said in the draft and it wrecked me

Our Fears is probably my favourite thread both thematically and visually. followed closely by Church Angels, though that one is mostly visually

The Pool is the longest thread with about 90 responses and all of it is beautiful. i would probably consider it the companion to Our Fears

"mutual pining they're both just idiots"

the closing image is probably my favourite one of the book

the core themes are very much trust, love, and communal help. we've got such an array of npcs who simply... help. i love the human race.

i'll probably do another update before we start properly writing talking about maripaz and theo as characters specifically. a bit of a crash course on who they are, really.

anyway. i'm giving you a golden star if you read all of that ⭐ do ask me or teddy about this story!! we'd be happy to talk about it. or even just about the characters.

cheers, pía

[mack-anthology-mp3]

tell me about christopher ecclestons doctor vs david tennats doctor

or explain what the hell is goin on with the daleks

or you could tell me about (insert musician)’s influence on music

just some options for you to lore dump to :)

RAHHHHHHH OKAY THANK YOUUUU this will be um. super spoilery for doccy whomst.

okayyyy so christopher eccleston plays the ninth doctor who tragically only gets one season AND HE'S SO FABULOUS he's really funny and sarcastic and he says 'fantastic! :D' a lot and is also a massive dork and yayyyy i love him - the interesting thing with nine is that we dont see his regeneration. like we don't see him come into being but its implied that the incarnation before him was horribly injured in The Time War and then became nine, who wanders around alone for a bit racked with guilt and lonely and full of regret and all that fun stuff until he meets ROSE :DDD who pretty much says you're super weird & offputting but also the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me and he's like cool uhm. maybe i do need friends after all so then he takes her on a date to the destruction of her planet to show off that he wasnt kidding about the time machine bit. he also has a really cool leather jacket. and a northern english accent and a sliiiiightly butch lesbian buzzcut. anyways he's very fabulous and also kinda tragic but yeah!! i love him.

BUT THEN universe under massive threat from daleks etc the only way to save the world will be massively catastrophic etc etc so he sends rose home to save her. and she is understandably super upset by this so she ABSORBS THE HEART OF THE TARDIS (pro tip : usually people dont survive that) so she can get back to him, resurrect this other guy who kissed them both and rewrite time so that this will definitely always happen & also destroys a whole lot of daleks. this is called BAD WOLF (<- the capital letters are important. to me.) and its killing her so nine kisses her to pull it out of her (she doesnt remember this) so it kills him instead. then *magicical girl transformation* he explodes into golden light and becomes david tennant!!!!!

david tennant is the tenth doctor and I LOBVE HIM FORVER ADN EVER my specialest little scrunkly girlboy pathetic wet cat terrifying alien guy-shaped-being <33333. rose is understandably like wtf who're you (because the doctor Never does timelord 101 and tells them about regeneration and the two hearts thing) and he is sad about it. so he takes her home. then passes out in front of her mother and sort-of-boyfriend who're also like wtf. anyways he's fine and rose pretty immediately is like wow this guy is actually beautiful & way less grumpy now and they go n do a whole bunch of stuff and they very clearly love each other A Lot (like she loves him when he's nine too of course but it changes) and in my head it's teenage lesbian undefined relationship mutual obsession b/c those be the vibes. a Thing happens and she end up trapped in an alternate universe from which she can never return and the doctor manages to hologram himself in there for a minute to say goodbye and HE ALMOST SAYS I LOVE YOU TO HER but the connection runs out. a lot of other stuff happens and ten is actually pretty scary at points in a way that nine never gets to and A Lot happens to him. my beautiful babygirl she has Every Problem.

see cos the doctor is actually massively emotionally repressed and while nine was a lot closer time-wise to destroying his own planet, ten was coping a whole lot less. ten is often described as the most emotional and most human of the doctors and thats probably true but he's also the most afraid of that vulnerability - he just cant help showing it. he's full of love but he's also full of a desperate sadness and guilt. a lot of guilt. nine has this guilt and the love he just has found a way to not be so raw with it. he is far more measured with his emotions. i reallllllllyyyyyyyy wish we could have seen what would have been done with his character had we got more time with him but alas t'was not to be.

like a good example of that is when we meet nine he's been alone for some time and appears to be more or less okay with that, maybe not super happy but more or less adjusted and functioning. when ten is alone for a while he sort of loses it a bit until he find someone..... like after he and rose get separated, and i mean IMMEDIATLY AFTER, he meets donna who I LOVE :D but he's still so racked with grief that he kills a whole race of spider things and canonically would've destroyed himself along with them if she hadn't been there to tell him to stop. (like legitimately there's an episode, Turn Left, about what would've happened if the doctor died and it's uhm. its unnerving to say the least). ten can't deal with being alone but Also can't deal with loving someone. especially when he is so very aware that he has to lose them.

ten has three seasons & then a year of specials, and he has and then loses the most companions of the doctor and the way he deals with this is Fascinating. he is separated from rose, martha leaves of her own volition b/c she realises that she cant spend her whole life living For Him and that she deserves her own life too, and then he has to wipe donna's memory to save her (she gets it back like. fifteen years for her and ~1000 years for the doctor later but thats a whole thing). like nine does the whole 'no one can get close to me because i will always end up hurting when they die/leave and that will usually be my fault' thing BUT TEN. TEN feels the same way he just can't help himself from making friends and falling in love (grayaroace) with everyone he meets and still being emotionally destroyed when they die. nine's way of coping with the guilt of the time war is to push people away in the first place and ten's is Never Stop To Think Never Stop To Examine Feelings. so yeah. lots of fun.

ALSO the daleks!! theres a ton of lore to them as well, but in short they're genetically modified creatures who have been selectively bred by this guy davros (who has major darth vader vibes. down to the voice and the mechanically supported body) to only feel hate and want to destroy everyone who is not a dalek. they're these weird little things that kinda look like rubbery octopuses inside the metal thing (they're not robots they are actually alive) and they suck. also they're really hard to get rid of like. i swear at least five times the doctor says 'this is the last of the daleks' like bestie just you wait about half a season. the daleks and the timelords (the doctor's species) fought The Time War which really really sucked and they're mortal enemies. so yeah!

[hanakihan]

to follow @i-bring-crack, here i present you all

Sung Jin-Woo / Woo Jin-Chil Weird AU WIPs Bingo (because my fantasy runs wild)

Fatal Frame AU: Jin-Chul disappears on assignement to investigate disappearance of people near small village. Jin-Woo, worried, plagued by nightmares and paranoid over moving shadows in their shared apartment, goes to find Jin-Chul himself. He had no idea that he’s Abyss’ creation that helped It to find and seek back what belongs to It. Jin-Chul was the only survivor in sacrificial night because his mother helped him to escape and ritual failed, entire village consumed in eternal darkness that froze this place in time. Jin-Woo, fighting with his nature as Abyss’ creation, arrives at sacrificial altar, where remaining piece awaits, clad in white and reds. The question is, will he succumb to shadows and finish ritual that failed or will defy his fate.

Houseki no Kuni AU: Clinohumite (Jin-Woo) is a right hand for Gray Diamond (Go Gun-Hee), not the hardest yet not the most fragile of gemstones. Being the one to keep track of all gemstones and their schedules, it falls on him to find always sneaking Alexandrite (Jin-Woo) and finally assign him a proper task. Game of hide and seek results in first proper meeting, the best fighter among them all that catches Clinohumite from falling and breaking, while shining purple eyes laugh at him. Since Clinohumite won by finding him, Alexadrite arrives next day at meeting in clear blue glory, under different light he changes his color and slightly personality. Clinohumite once was on Moon and returned from it barely whole but has no memories of it, because Alexandrite was his initial partner on patrol duty until he failed to save Clinohumite from abduction and that’s why he avoids him, ashamed of his previous weakness.  Clinohumite’s abduction resulted in appearance of other self in Alexandrite (basically pre Monarch awakening Jin-Woo as blue hue Alexandrite at day and Shadow Monarch Jin-Woo as purple hue Alexandrite at night).

Idol AU: Jin-Chul wanted to be a normal office clerk, not to work as an idol manager. He lacks enthusiasm but he gets the job done, but even then he decides that he’ll quit after his final assignment. Final assignment happened to be the most popular Idol in South Korea - Sung Jin-Woo, who, compared to other Idols, is actually nice and easy to manage. Poor Jin-Chul has no idea what a disaster Jin-Woo is, especially after Jin-Chul caught his eyes.  ‘After our contract ends i’m going to retire’ ‘Oh great i plan to graduate from idol industry and take a vacation with you’ ‘Congratulatio-- WAIT WHAT’ And Jin-Woo’s graduation alnum was full of love songs that broke top charts in less than a day.

Absolute Being Incarnation AU: No matter what, Shadow Monarch seeks his God, while God seeks familiar presence. They both awakened through pain and suffering, but in the end they’re together after lifetimes of separation. They’re Origin and Finality of everything, but most of all, they’re two pieces that perfectly match. 

Gacha AU: Jin-Woo was a prime example of pop-culture illiterate. And then apparently Jin-Ah drags him into gacha hell where in addition to his Shadow Monarch title he earns The Supreme Whale title and he absolutely doesn’t regret speding money on 2D husbando when in theory he can have 3D one. Two pining dorks whaling the hell out of game for each other’s content because they’re afraid to speak about their feelings in real life.

Childhood sweethearts AU: Jin-Chul was a white crow that other kids avoided. That is until a really cute boy approached him and asked if he wants to play. Jin-Chul had a thought to be rude so other boy will leave him alone but honestly it won’t hurt to play with a child who’s younger by some years? After that they were playmates for some time because Jin-Chul’s orphanage took kids out to play in park, and one day this boy gifted Jin-Chul really cute but clearly child made plushies of himself and that boy, and Jin-Chul almost cried because no one gifted something directly to him and for him. And boy had courage to propose to him despite being at least head shorter and younger, and Jin-Chul told him to grow up first. That was their last meeting, but Jin-Chul still held those plushie dolls dear to his heart, caring and repairing them when time came. Jin-Woo never forgotten that lonely but pretty boy from childhood to whom he promised to marry once he grows up, and deducted it was Jin-Chul after seeing those old plushies that are clearly taken good care of.  ‘If that boy from years ago to propose to you again, will you accept?’ And Jin-Chul silently drops plushies he was holding, seeing a fine man that still look at him with same admiration and affection just like that pure boy on playground.

Howl’s Moving Castle AU: Jin-Chul is a workaholic who rarely rests, but he still finds time to be kind to people. After unknowingly helping a Shadow Monarch in disguise, he gets cursed by other Monarchs for contacting with exiled one. Now it’s up to Shadow Monarch to return a kindness favor to human who got caught in this mess and fall in love with warmth and brightness of his soul despite his eldery appearance. Also there’s definitely a scene of Jin-Woo lovingly stroking Jin-Chul’s golden locks as man becomes youthful in his sleep again wrapped in blankets near fireplace.

Hades and Persephone AU: Under request of Gun-Hee (Demeter), Jin-Chul (Persephone) visits Underworld to welcome and help new God - Jin-Woo (Hades), since Jin-Chul knew previous Shadow Monarch and helped him from time to time to run things in Underworld. Because Jin-Woo had no idea, he accidentially fed Jin-Chul food from Underworld. Jin-Chul found a solution, thus creating seasonal cycle. Jin-Woo feels bad about his mistake and doesn’t notice how he fell in love with god of spring and nature.

Frog Prince AU: Jin-Woo is a soon to be heir to a kingdom, and he needs a spouse. Unfortunately, he’s not interested in getting married when whole country is open for explaration. In the end, his parents make him to shot an arrow - where it lands, there will be his spouse. Jin-Woo finds his arrow in swamps and near his arrow is an ordinary looking frog. Ashamed to lie to his parents, he brings frog back to palace, where he becomes an object of laughter. Heir’s spouse shall go through trials to show their skills, but seeing that heir brought a frog with him, no one took it seriously. But surprisingly, each morning Jin-Woo found each required item made with utmost care. Jin-Woo goes to bed ready to be a laughterstock next evening because there will be a ball to congratulate him on his engagement on swamp frog, but before falling asleep he feels someone stroking his head and whispering to wait for him at ball night. At that same night instead of a frog a beautiful man enters the room, a shining brilliance that adresses Jin-Woo as his future husband who took a good care of him while he was small and weak. Jin-Woo later finds and burns frog skin making things worse, because Jin-Chul was a cursed missing adopted prince that king Gun-Hee tried to find for years. Now it’s up to Jin-Woo to lift the curse and fix his mistakes.

Palace intrigue AU (Heavily inspired by Kusuriya no Hitorigoto and Cinderella): Jin-Chul’s parents were high ranked prostitutes in red light district that raised him in brothel. By sheer luck and because brothel owner knew General Go Gun-Hee by old friendship, he ended up in his care as a right hand man. By no mans Jin-Chul was a best educated man, but he knew basics enough to preform taks given to him. Who would’ve known that during his visit to palace with Gun-Hee he’ll manage to save princess Jin-Ah from being poisoned? Apparently brothel knowledge comes in handy when someone tries to assassinate someone. And just like that a faceless soldier with no name behind him and no education gains a favor of the Emperor, whom almost no one saw. And on top of that some palace minister, who happens to be Gun-Hee’s friend, has a tendency to drag Jin-Chul into problems while Gun-Hee laughs on background because while Emperor Jin-Woo is in disguise to escape his obligations as a ruler of a nation, it’s still hilarious to see that sparkle in Emperor’s eyes when your adopted son scolds the Emperor for doing something dumb.

IB-inspired AU: Jin-Chul is a busy salaryman, but when given free tickets to attend an art gallery dedicated to famous missing painter Sung Jin-Woo who had a very distinct style focusing on blues and purples, he attended. Too caught up in admiring art pieces, Jin-Chul doesn’t notice changes in gallery and accidentially falls into one of paintings. Ending up in reverse gallery with nothing but a vibrant yet dead looking yellow rose he wanders around and tries to avoid hostile Shadow series paintings that came to life. In the end Jin-Chul finds missing painter - albeit he has some memory issues. But then also he finds that Jin-Woo made a themed self portrait for Shadow Series before his disappearance titled ‘Shadow Monarch’. Now Jin-Chul questions who’s real and who’s impostor while questioning if the person he bonded with is the real Sung Jin-Woo or a pretending Shadow Monarch.

Genderswap AU: Jin-Chul never understood what Hunter Sung found in her - he got the looks, the power, everything he can desire at this point, he’s surrounded by best looking hunters out there, yet despite it all he follows her around, a workaholic, constantly tired and not best looking person out there. She’s tall and too sharp for a dream girl, no curves and softness, only sharp angles and muscle, no skirts and heels, only suits and occasional loafers. She even gets confused for a man most of the times so yes, what Hunter Sung potenially could’ve found in her is a complete mystery for her.  On side note if both are women, Jin-Woo domineering the fuck out of men but chosing bae over hoes because she has her lesbian priorities okay and because chairman’s right hand lady is so fun to tease

Nier AU: After fall of humanity, two Androids - B1 (Jin-Woo) and A8 (Jin-Chul) - continue to wander on Earth trying to fulfill their mission despite no need. B1, who in reality happened to be E1 type Android and A8 - an old model - locate and destroy Monarchs - signle A.I. units that stop Earth from self regenerating. They succeed, but in the end, nothing is left on them, empty falling apart shells that want to meet their end together, because maybe they found humanity while it ceased to exist? /whoever gets why there’s numbers 1 and 8 ilu

Titanic (kinda?) AU: a rich class young master and an ordinary overworked coal covered engineer meet on luxurious cruise ship even though they were never supposed to. What can go wrong on nighttime when both of them meet and talk without social boundaries surrounded by lull of waves? As a part of engineering team Jin-Chul stays on sinking ship and after securing his family Jin-Woo having none of this self sacrificial shit because Jin-Chul has people he cares about too.

Gambler/Organized crime AU: Investigator Jin-Chul having a cold case on his hands - and potentially, the Shadow Monarch, one of Monarchs that rule underground criminal world in Korea, has needed leads to finally solve it, so killing spree can be ended. Once a month his syndicate organizes gambling night - a type of gambling battle royale between participants and Shadow Generals for winning and having a chance to have an audience with unreacheable Shadow Monarch. Jin-Chul, desperate to find a lead, signs in as a participant and slowly climbs him way towards victory, avoiding death along the way. Surprisingly, he gets small aid from ‘benefactor’ who seems benevolent enough. Jin-Chul survives the night and has a meeting with a mysterious Shadow Monarch, who’s curious what a government dog (heh--) is doing in such place and why going to such lenghts. Jin-Chul saw Monarch’s face and learned his name over a cup of herbal tea and didn’t even thought how he’ll walk out of here alive after that. It was written all over his face and Jin-Woo had best laugh in years because of that and after drugs kicked in and exhausted Jin-Chul fell asleep, Jin-Woo spared him, curious of what Mister Investigator will do and will his actions shake Monarchs balance in underground world. 

Benelovent God AU (Crane's Return of a Favor inspired): Jin-Chul led a simple life as a peasant - there was food on his table and his adopted father was well, and that was enough for him. One night he got lost and stumbled upon a butterfly field, pleace clad in darkness yet luminated by flapping wings of blue butterflies. In middle of it grew an old majestic tree and right under it was almost destroyed altar. Jin-Chul, feeling tired after field work, tidied place a little and prayed to unknown god, asking for forgiveness and a chance to sleep near tree. Next day he wakes up covered by expensive looking robe and with butterflies sitting on him, but instead of taking anything, he draps it over altar and even leves small offering from remaining food he had. Jin-Chul continues to visit that altar and take care of it, eventually sharing how his day went or his troubles while doing work here, and when that happened, one of butterflies always ended up following him back home only to disappear later. With time his household started to flourish and life in village became so much better, and Jin-Chul one day asked if unknown god wants something in return for shown kindness and unknown god finally manifests, replying that Jin-Chul showed kindness first even though he had no idea to whom he prayed. It was kindness of a stray human that awakened a sleeping god that fell in love.

Fashion industry AU: Who would’ve thought that an average looking manager will catch worldwide known fashion designer’s eye? Jin-Woo was having a slump of ideas, none of best models inspired him, he had no one to model for his recently released collection photoshot. Enter Jin-Chul who was just accompanying one of models to end up dressed up and groomed for a photoshot under careful eye of essentric fashiom designer Jin-Woo. And then he gets an offer to be Jin-Woo’s personal model for next collection? Cue sexual tension during a simple measurements taking scene--

Blind and Mute AU: Jin-Chul was born blind. Jin-Woo became mute because of trauma. Two of them meet in a park, awkwardly sitting on a bench. Jin-Woo helps Jin-Chul to navigate around new places while Jin-Chul talks with Jin-Woo without demanding answering back. They grow comfortable around each other and their communication method is touch, two become function as one, comfortble and complete.

Villain/Hero AU: Jin-Chul was absolutely unfortunate enough to be selected as a Hero that will go and slay Shadow Monarch. Turns out Shadow Monarch is a bored shut-in who didn’t even leave his lands and has no idea that someone does crimes under his name. Entire misunderstanding gets resolved with a good cup of tea and Shadow Monarch decides it is time to socialize after being a shut-in for 1000 years. Jin-Chul thinks it was a bad idea. Jin-Woo says that hero now can rest since Shadow Monarch was slayed - his heart now belongs to a tired man who unceremoniously entered his palace to slay him.

Soulmates AU: with appearance of Gates and Mana, in rare cases hunters can become Soulmates - those who have a connection through which their mana reaches other. Jin-Woo was weak, but he felt much stronger mana trying to keep him somewhat safe, while Jin-Chul felt a weak flicker of someone’s mana shyly touching his own. The stronger Jin-Woo becomes, the more Jin-Chul knows and feels it, and eventually Jin-Woo’s mana starts to terrify and hurt him. Jin-Woo has no idea that Jin-Chul is his soulmate since his own mana started to eat other’s. Weak warm touch of other’s mana is what reminds Jin-Woo of who he is and that he mustn’t lose himself in his own power.

Omegaverse AU: Jin-Woo is a weakest hunter but also a completely ordinary beta. Then he gets hit with Ashborn’s yassification and changes to alpha that demands to domineer to claim to own. And then there’s Jin-Chul who’s also a normal beta and has no idea that Jin-Woo is an alpha because betas literally cannot smell others or feel. Despite Jin-chul being a beta, Jin-Woo still finds his smell rather nice and soothing, not annoying like alpha’s or sickeningly sweet like omegas. Cue alpha’s courting that an ordinary beta completely doesn’t understand. Alpha in Jin-Woo is completely overjoyed when Jin-Chul allows him to mark his neck with a bite even though it does nothing to beta and it’s a literal pain in neck but oh well, he can survive this (he has no idea it will become worse once it’s rut period someone save him).

That’s some weird ass AUs okay but those are at least fun sounding (i hope) because i have additional 30 in my safe but G O D they need brushing because they’re an overall idea mess WHEEEEEEEEEEZE)

[empressofthesunwriter]

Yin and Yang

Balance is a key aspect in the world, so why shouldn’t the Avatar have an opposite?

In a world where Raava and Vaatu merge with humans, the Avatar and the Daimon try to keep the peace between the four nations.

Aang and Hua are the current incarnations, but wake up 100 years in the future.

How will these two learn all four elements in one year and defeat the Fire Lord?

Wow, thanks to you all for the love you have given my little idea!

Please if you could comment, it would make me even happier. :D

A few words before we go into the first chapter of this book.

Hua's outfit was inspired by Toph's winter outfit from the comics and from Mao Mao clothes from the anime The Apothecary Diaries. It’s a great anime, you should totally watch it.

I made a pic of Hua so you can see how she looks. It’s on my DeviantArt Account: EmpressOfTheSun. ^^

Now happy reading ^^

Book 1.01: The Children in the Iceberg

“You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained...! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!”, screams fourteen-year-old Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, the last waterbender and younger sister of sixteen-year-old, non-bender Sokka at him. 

She is so done with Sokka!

Blaming her bending,  even blaming her gender, for the situation they found themselves now in.

On a piece of ice in the middle of nowhere.

The young girl doesn’t realize how she bends and breaks, one bit for bit, an iceberg behind them.

Sokka who sees this, wants to warn his sister. 

This is surely not safe to bend in anger, they could get hurt!

However, Katara's anger is more powerful.

She continues to rant: “Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!”

“Uh ... Katara …”

“I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!”

“Katara, settle down!”

“NO! THAT’S IT!! I’m done helping you. From now on, you’re ON YOUR OWN!”

Her last movement is her most agitated and it creates a huge wave which, when it impacts the iceberg, sends several fissures to snake their way up the iceberg; one of them reaches the top of it, splitting it completely in half. 

Petrified, Sokka gasps for air, and it is only now that Katara turns to look behind her.

She gasps as the two halves begin to fall away from each other and collapse into the water. 

A wave larger than any Katara cast at it radiates outward toward them and they are thrown to the ice as it pushes their floe backwards.

Protective Sokka wraps an arm around Katara as they both look over the edge of the ice.

“Okay, you've gone from "weird" to "freakish", Katara.”, tells her Sokka drier than a desert.

Astonished the young girl mumbles: “You mean I did that?”

“Yep. Congratulations.”

Suddenly several small bubbles appear on the surface of the water directly in front of them and a small spot of water begins to glow with a bright bluish and orange hue. 

The two siblings scramble back in renewed terror from the edge, just as a large, roughly spherical iceberg breaks the surface of the water.

Mesmerized by the iceberg, Katara strays closer and stares at it; behind her, Sokka halfheartedly stretches out his hand, as if to hold her back.

In the iceberg, she can see three forms. 

One is big and represents nothing the waterbender knew.

Then there are two no doubt human bodies in lotus sit.

They seem to flow.

One is male and bluish.

The other female and orange.

Katara raises her eyebrow in confusion.

What was going on and who where this?

In answer the male and the female open their eyes, one a bright pair of white and the other a burning orange, elating shocked gasp from the siblings.

“They’re alive! We have to help!”

Before Sokka can grab it, Katara grabs his club out of its sheath on his back and pulls her hood over her head, heading in the direction of the mysterious pair.

Sokka again reaches out his hand in an attempt to hold Katara back, though she is already running across the ice.

“Katara, get back here!”, yells the older boy, picking his spear from the ice and running after Katara, who is already at the ice's edge.

The waterbender hops across the short distance between her floe and the iceberg on five tiny chinks of ice; Sokka, close behind her, does the same. 

Reaching the iceberg first, Katara repeatedly strikes it with the club. 

On her fifth strike, the club breaks through the surface and a great gust of wind, which escapes from within the iceberg, throws her and her brother back from the side of the dome. 

Fissures quickly snake their way over the whole iceberg and, in a massive outward explosion, the entire orb of ice destroys itself.

Two beams of light burst from the core of the iceberg and rocket into the sky.

Sokka hugs his sister protectively as the gale slowly settles.

Then he lets her go as he looks around. 

Lights still encircle the remains of the former mountain of ice, now reduced to a hollowed-out crater. 

The Watertribe teen looks at his sister and they both get to their feet, Katara holding onto her brother. 

He points his spear at the crater, ready to defend them, though lowers it in shock as two figures emerge slowly from the depression in the iceberg.

Quickly Sokka brandished his spear in defense once again.

“Stop!”

Now standing atop the crater, the figures slowly erect themselves and look down at Katara and Sokka.

The two siblings stare back in wonder and fear.

Finally, the circles of lights dissipate as the strange children stop glowing. 

The figures are revealed to be nothing more than a young boy and girl, who each moans in exhaustion and suddenly they faint. 

Katara gasps and runs forward to catch him before he hits the ground. Sokka follows behind to catch the girl.

How absurd and crazy the situation was, Sokka wouldn’t let a young girl get hurt.

Like his sister, Sokka puts his charge gently against the crater.

He looks for a moment at his sister with the boy. 

He is strange, decides the older.

What kind of clothes is he wearing and why does he have arrows as tattoos?

Shaking his head he looks down at the foreign girl.

Before his father and the man of his tribe left to join the war effort, a merchant from the Earth Kingdom would visit the South Pole four times a year to trade with them.

So it’s no problem for him to recognise her as a member of the Earth Kingdom.

He knows how Earth Kingdom habitants mostly look and what colours they wear.

The girl has dark black hair in a low-side ponytail, holding it together with a dark pink ribbon. 

She wears a fur jacket with white trims in a light yellowish-green and a green strip from her chest down the end of the jacket and a green strip on each sleeve. 

A small dark teal haori incircles her thin waist. 

Under the jacket, he sees a bit of a green kimono-styled tunic, he would bet and she wears wide pants in dark pink, which are stuffed in her brown fur boots.

The Earth Kingdom girl's eyes are still closed, however, Sokka bet she also has green eyes, which are common for the Earth Kingdom.

Earth Kingdom girl, is younger than Katara. 

Her face still possesses some baby fat, but the swing of her full rose lips is sad.

She looks like someone who hasn’t laughed much in her life.

It was kinda sad.

His mussing stops as he hears how the strange boy practically yells at Katara: “Will you go penguin sledging with me?”

“Uh, sure ... I-I guess.”, answered his sister awkwardly.

The shout must have woken up Earth Kingdom girl since her eyes flutter open and she stares like a deer-cat at Sokka's face.

Green, like he hypnotized, although why is she staring at him like that? Does he have something on his face?

A cute blush forms on her pale face, as she coughs: “Erm, hi?”

“Hua!”, yells again the strange boy. “You are okay! I thought you had flown off!”

With elegance, he swiftly raises to his feet, as Katara and Sokka look at this in shock. They never saw someone so light on their feet!

The now-known Hua seems not slightly impressed with the strange boy and just earthbends herself up.

Sokka can formally see how excited his sister is getting. Even if Hua isn’t a Waterbender, she is another bender and Katara has never met someone else like her.

“Not thanks to you.”, hisses Hua to her iceberg buddie. “Thanks for not saving my behind in the freaky storm.”

“Hey! I tried to grab you!”, protests the tattooed boy with a pout.

“Leave it! It’s not like we are friends. We only agreed to travel to Omashu together and then anyone would have been on their own. I shouldn’t expect and want anything from you!”

“Now you are being unfair! We may not be friends, but I promised to bring you to Omashu, if I could have grabbed you, I would have done it!”

Clearly, you can see and hear that these two, even if they were in a iceberg together, can’t stand each other and are ready to argue more.

Something they can do later decides Sokka, he and Katara needed answers.

“Hey you two!”, he calls for them and they turn towards him curious. Okay, this was a bit creepy how synchronously they had done it. “How did you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?”

He pokes the boy in his side with his spear.

Lazily the boy pushes the spear away, while Hua crosses her arms and tilts her head, thinking. 

“I'm not sure.”, answered the bald boy with the blue arrow on his head.

“I just remember the huge storm, SOMEBODY…”, angrily the Earthbender side eyes her companion. “...steered us in!”

“Give it a break, Hua. I don’t control the weather, you know it appeared too sudden for us.”, reminds her the boy, giving her a look.

Hua just huffs and looks away, which makes the boy roll his eyes.

Yeah, no love is lost between them.

A low, gruff noise suddenly fills the air, coming from within the crater of the iceberg. 

Quickly, the boy scrambles up the ridge of ice and happily jumps on the head of a large, furry creature that has the same arrow-shaped marking on his forehead as the boy.

“Appa! Are you all right?”, he asked. “Wake up, buddy.”

He opens an eyelid that immediately closes again once it is released. He jumps down to the front of the animal and tries to lift its enormous head. 

Hua, Sokka and Katara appear around the corner as Appa finally starts to react to his owner, opening his mouth and licking the boy with his giant tongue. 

“Jiayi, girl, where are you?”, calls Hua and looks worried around for something.

Suddenly something jumps down from the saddle and tackles Hua to the ground.

Sokka's and Katara's jaws drop upon seeing the beasts.

Especially, Hua’s who is licking her so joyfully.

It’s so tall that it can probably be ridden like an ostrich-horse. The fur is a beautiful red-orange and nine bushy tails swing around.

“Sokka, is this a real Kyuubi?!”, whisper-shouts Katara to him, seeming to grasp for air.

Her brother can only nod, still shocked. 

One of the legendary nine-tailed foxes!

Everybody thought they had died out, like the dragons.

Well, all but one as it seems.

Needless to say, Sokka was more worried about the giant fluff beast.

Legend said that Kyuubi’s were calm, wise and herbivore creatures, so no danger of getting eaten by Hua's furry friend.

So he asked Arrow Boy what Arrow Beast was.

“This is Appa, my flying bison.”

“Right, and this is Katara, my flying sister.”

This earned the Watertribe boy an annoyed look from his sister, a little giggle and blush from the now-standing Hua, who was petting her Kyuubi head and also a head title from the Kyuubi.

In its blue eyes, Sokka could see intelligence, it understood them, alright.

Arrow boy looks questioningly at Sokka for a moment, but his attention is diverted back toward his bison when Appa starts to inhale deeply. 

Realizing what is about to happen, he ducks before Appa sneezes, sending a large blast of green snot flying directly onto Sokka, who becomes completely covered in it. 

He squeals in disgust and begins to frantically try to clean it off, rubbing his face in the snow under the amused gaze of his sister, Hua and Jiayi.

“Don't worry, it'll wash out.”, reassured the bald boy. “So do you guys live around here?

Pointing his spear accusingly again at the boy who is surprised to see the thing, Sokka warns Katara: “Don't answer that! Did you see that crazy bolt of light?! He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy! I bet Hua is his prisoner or something.”

“I’m the prisoner of who?”, repeats Hua astonished, while Jaiyi lets out a yip, which sounds in Sokka's ears like a mock.

Whose the Kyuubi mocking him?!

Sokka's spear gets pushed away again, this time by Katara who addresses him sarcastically: “Oh yeah, I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy. You can tell by that evil look in his eye. Never mind that he travels with someone from the Earth Kingdom.”

Arrow head shoots the water tribe siblings an earnest grin, as Hua just deadpans and leans on her nine-tailed fox.

“The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You never told us your name.”

“I'm A ... a-a-a-Achoo!”

The boy sneezes, creating an air blast that sends him soaring into the air. He lands on the ground, unharmed.

“I'm Aang.”

“You just sneezed …”, uttered Sokka in disbelief. “...and flew ten feet in the air!”

“Really? It felt higher than that.”

“You're an Airbender!”, realizes Katara surprised.

 “Sure am!”

Hua and Jiayi look at each other, wondering why Katara and Sokka seem so shocked about Aang being an Airbender. 

How long did the Southern Water Tribe not see one? 

It can’t be that long.

Or?

“Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders, kyubbi’s…”, laments Sokka walking away. “I think I got midnight sun madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense.”

He realizes, however, that he is stranded in the middle of the ocean with no way home.

Again he hears the mocking yip of Jiayi.

Now he was sure the Kyuubi was mocking him!

“Well, if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift.”, offers Aang.

“Jiayi and I would help you out too, but she can’t swim for a long time. It’s probably the best if we go together.”, adds Hua.

“We'd love a ride! Thanks!”, says Katara runs to the side of the bison, where Aang is already sitting on Appa's head.

“Jaiyi, small, girl.”, commands Hua and, unbelievably, the Kyuubi shrinks down to the size of a fox cub!

Sokka and Katara had heard the legend that Kyuubi’s had a lot of mysterious powers, one was the ability to change size, crazy that it was true!

With a little hum, Hua picks Jaiyi up and earthbends them to Appa's saddle, while Aang helps Katara get on.

Getting over his shock to see one of the Kyuubi’s powers in action Sokka formally stomps his feet: “Oh no! I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster!”

“Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home?”, challenges him Katara. “You know, before you freeze to death?”

Sokka opens his mouth in defiance and points at Katara, ready to retaliate, but he cannot think of anything. 

He sighs and bows his head in consent and defeat.

Now all, beside Aang, are sitting on the saddle, Sokka has his arms crossed in front of him with a sulking expression on his face, Hua sits cross-legend with Jaiyi in her lap, while Katara is full of excitement and anticipation.

“Okay, first-time flyers, hold on tight!”, warns them Aang. “Appa, yip-yip!”

Aang whips the reins and Appa growls in response. 

He moves his tail up and down and takes a huge jump into the air. He soars through the air for merely a few seconds, making it appear as though he would fly, before belly-flopping into the water with a splash. 

The bison begins trudging through the water slowly. 

“Okay…that’s new.”, mubles Hua. 

She has flown often enough with Aang or Monk Gyatso on Appa, he had never done this.

Jaiyi made an agreeing sound.

Katara crawls to the front of the saddle while Aang tries to get Appa flying, whipping the reins again.

“Come on, Appa. Yip-yip!”

“Wow, that was truly amazing …”, sasses Sokka, making Hua and Jaiyi giggle quietly.

Katara shoots her brother an angry glance, as Aang explains: “Appa's just a little tired. A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see.”

The water tribe girl smiles at Aang, who returns this gesture. When she wants to move back, she realizes that he is still smiling at her.

“Why are you smiling at me like that?”, she wonders in discomfort.

“Oh, I was smiling?”

Flattered, Katara smiles back.

Sokka throws his head back and sticks his tongue out in disgust while groaning loudly which makes Katara glare at him.

“Ain’t she a bit too old for him?”, whispers Hua to Jaiyi.

She may have reacted to Sokka a bit too, he was a handsome older boy, but it would be creepy if he would react to her.

He was at least sixteen and she was twelve. 

This would be just wrong for a lot of reasons.

Well, if Aang wanted to crush on an older girl, this was not Hua's problem.

She just hoped Katara was not a cradle snatcher.

Two years may not seem much, but when one was in puberty and the other was a pre-puberty it did raise some flags.

Clicking her tongue Hua petted Jaiyi between the ears, while Appa continued to make his way through the icy sea, flapping his tail in the water.

Some time passes and Hua starts to fall asleep. She has laid down with Jaiyi on the saddle, trying to catch some rest.

However, she hears Katara and Aang talking.

How the older girls ask him about the Avatar and the Daimon, if he knew them if she, Hua, knew them.

Thankfully Aang doesn’t blow their cover.

Hopefully they would be soon at the Water Tribe Village and then Aang and Appa could drop her and Jaiyi at Omashu.

The black-haired girl was done travelling with the monk.

***

Lightning splits the sky.

It is raining and Aang is sitting on Appa's head, holding the reigns and screaming at the top of his lungs in terror while they go down. Hua holds everything she got into the saddle, holding Jaiyi tight to her chest. A potent gale throws them off the saddle as Appa and Aang splash into the waters of the ocean. Appa resurfaces again, and growls, but is quickly subdued anew by another wave. 

Humans and animals fall unconscious into the water. 

As Aang releases the reigns and drifts off, his eyes and tattoos suddenly start to glow brightly. At the same moment, Hua's eyes start to glow orange.

They slam each of their fists together, creating a bluish-white, orange-dark sphere that encases all four of them. 

As the air sphere slowly solidifies into an icy globe, the young Earthbender hears a voice calling for her…

***

“Hua, good morning, it’s time to wake up.”

It’s Katara.

Slowly Hua blinks and looks around.

Ah right, they had reached the village in the middle of the night and then had just gone to bed.

“Morning Katara.”, she greets the older girl and gently strokes Jaiyi, still in her fox cub form, awake. “Come on, girl, time to rise and shine.”

“I will get Aang, go and make friends with the village.”, tells Katara enthusiastically.

Not like she has anything else to do.

So Hua picks Jaiyi up and walks out of the tent.

The Southern Water Tribe is really…something.

Hua is used to poverty in the Lower Rings of Ba Sing Se, however, the small pathetic size of the Water Tribe makes her heart twist uncomfortable.

“As Daimon it is your duty to help the people.”, she hears Monk Gyatsu's voice in her head.

The black-haired girl shakes her head to ban away that thought.

She didn’t ask to be the Daimon.

It was not her problem.

So she just waves back at the few Water Tribe women who greet her and smiles at the children who look in wonder at Jaiyi.

Hua sees Sokka beside a tent, sharping a boomerang and decides to talk to him.

She greets him with a smile, which he answers with a little manly huff.

It’s then that Katara steps out with Aang and presents him to the whole village.

“Aang, this is the entire village. Entire village, Aang.”

Aang bows respectfully toward the villagers, but they cower away in fear, bringing a surprised look to Katara, Aang's and Hua’s faces. Sokka just watches, while Jaiyi titles her head.

“Uh, why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?”

Confused Aang checks his clothing while an elderly woman steps forward out of the line of villagers.

“Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct until my granddaughter and grandson found you.”

“Extinct?”, repeat Aang and Hua shocked as Jaiyi makes a confused sound.

“What…did she say 100 years?”, wonders Hua quietly.

This must be a joke!

They were at the Souther Air Temple just a few days ago, which was full of airbenders.

Sokka heard her and told her: “You can thank the Fire Nation for that.”

This only confuses Hua and Jaiyi more.

What has the Fire Nation to do with this?

What is going on?

Meanwhile, the old lady turns out to be Katara and Sokka's grandma, called Gran-Gran, as Sokka walks up to the Airbender, demanding to know what his glider is.

Hua only halfheartedly pays attention to Aang's demonstration of his glider, which makes all besides Sokka ooh-ing and aah-ing and the eventual destruction of a Watchtower.

Even hearing that Katara is a waterbender, doesn’t make Hua move or say anything.

Her brain is in overdrive, trying to understand what is going on.

Gran-Gran says how the airbenders are extinct, how for 100 years no one has seen one and Sokka says it’s the Fire Nation's fault.

It couldn’t be that they had been in the iceberg for 100 years, she remembered with clarity how she and Aang had run away from the Southern Air Temple, so they didn’t have to be the Avatar and the Daimon.

Aang wanted to travel the world and she had wanted to go to Omashu to visit Bumi before going home to her family.

Aargh, she never should have allowed Aang to make a quick trip to the South Pole because he wanted to go Penguin sledging.

Look, what happened!

They freeze and the world turns crazy!

“Come, Jaiyi, let’s go for a run. I need to clear my head.”, states Hua, walking out of the village.

Her loyal nine-tailed fox jips in agreement and shifts to his larger, riding form.

The Earthbender climbs her mount, then they race along the icy tundra of the South Pole.

How long they just race and enjoy the beauty of the frozen land, Hua couldn’t say, she only knew that her thoughts weren’t getting quieter.

She doesn’t want to talk with Aang about Avatar and Daimon's business, they had agreed to forget this aspect of the other and what it meant because they wanted to be normal kids again.

Sadly it seemed, she had to talk with him.

Would she ever be free?

Deep in her thoughts she nearly misses Jaiyi growls.

“Hmm, what is it?”, she wants to now as the Kyuubi stops before a ship.

A Fire Nation Ship, lifted with ice.

“What the…?”, she stutters. “That looks like a war vessel!”

Out of nowhere, Aang with Katara in his arms jumps out of the ship and lands beside them.

“Hey Hua.”, greets her Aang solemnly, while Katara gets let down on the ground.

“Do I wanna know what is going on?”, she asks shaking, she has a bad feeling in her stomach.

“Hua, can you give us a lift? We should return as soon as we can to the village.”, begs Katara.

The Earthbender nods.

Jaiyi understands and gets larger so Katara and Aang can sit behind her.

It’s like Katara is hugging her as she quietly tells her what Aang and she realized on the Fire Nation Ship.

Tears flow done the green eyes of the black-haired girl as she absorbs anything.

They really had been in the iceberg for 100 years, the Fire Nation had turned evil and the world was at war.

However, Hua could only think about one thing.

Her family.

Her mother.

Her father.

Her little brother.

They were probably dead.

She was alone in the world…like Aang.

It would have been better if they had stayed in the iceberg!

Better than feeling this pain!

Softly a gloved hand wiped away her tears.

A little comfort in the terrible reality Hua finds herself now.

This… was her punishment for not accepting her faith as Daimon.

Hua was sure.

Yes, Yua has an animal companion and I thought why not a nine-tailed fox? If dragons exist, why not them?

The Avatar world has a lot of cool fusion animals, but none seemed fitting for Hua, so Kyuubi’s exist now in the Avatar World. :D

Jaiyi means Lucky One for everyone who is interested to know.

Thanks for reading and love a comment! <3

[recurring-polynya]

Hi! I saw your post on Bleach world building and I loved it! It was so interesting and I feel like the intent behind how you use all the elements you mentioned really comes through in your writing and makes the world feel so much more grounded. The bit about the Zanpakutous reminded me of a previous post (a long time ago I think hah) where you said that Senbonzakura’s appearance in the Rebellion Arc wasn’t how you imagined them or something to that effect. Since you said you’re starting to write more of them, anything you can share on how you picture them to be? Sorry for the long ask!

Thank you!!

To be honest, I have not done enough thinking about Senbonzakura, and I've taken this ask as an opportunity to do so. Fanfic writers have weird hang-ups and one of mine is that I don't really want to make up zanpakutou headcanons for characters that are not my main blorbos. On the other hand, I have written enough Byakuya that he is...I don't know what he is to me, but at this point, I feel like it would not be too presumptive to have some my own spin on Senbonzakura.

So! For starters, I actually do like Senbonzakura's physical design in the Zanpakutou Rebellion Arc. I tend to think there were too many human-shaped zanpakutou spirits, but Senbonzakura is one that I would keep.

Here are the things I did not like (which I mention not to be a hater, but just to help me get my thoughts together):

I did not like his juvenile "become ungovernable" personality (this was mostly in the follow-on Sword Beasts Arc). I know this was meant as a comment on Byakuya's Rich Inner Life and was half a gag, but it doesn't extrapolate at all to the lifelong companion and advisor of one of the best and most disciplined swordsmen in the Gotei, a man whose life if riddled with tragedy.

I did not like the way Byakuya was generally very dismissive of him both during the climactic fight with Kouga and then again, in the Beast Swords Arc, leaving him for Rukia and Renji to deal with. I like to think that Senbonzakura is incredibly important to Byakuya. I think he is closer and more open with his sword spirit than any person in his life, and that he would regard Senbonzakura manifesting as an opportunity, not a pain in the ass.

I did not like the way some of the other zanpakutou spirits were horny at Senbonzakura (perhaps this is more of a complaint about them).

I did not like the way Sode no Shirayuki was somewhat subservient to Senbonzakura. The Sword Beasts arc made it clear that the manifested zanpakutou had bankai-equivalent power, even if their shinigami had not yet reached bankai. I can see younger zanpakutou being deferential to hella old zanpakutou, like Minazuki or Sougyo no Kotowari, but Senbonzakura and Sode no Shirayuki should regard each other as peers, imo.

I did like the fact that Senbonzakura was masked, but instead of the sort of running joke about people trying to see under the mask, I think Senbonzakura should always be masked. Is there anything under the mask? Are they human, actually, or are they animate armor? This is Senbonzakura's business and no one else's, not even Byakuya's.

My original headcanon for zanpakutou spirits was that they were a sort of an agglomerate ghost passed down from shinigami to shinigami, where when the shinigami dies, they become part of their zanpakutou spirit, when then attaches itself to some young person with shinigami-potential. They retain their values and general themes, although these may influence the person they select, but they lose their form between incarnations, and gain a new one that is shaped by imagery that is meaningful to their new person. I guess there was some stuff, maybe in CFYOW?, about asauchi being made from thousands of souls of dead shinigami. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it's not entirely incompatible with my original idea, so I'm sticking with mine.

To that end: I think Senbonzakura embodies the spirit of bushidou (or whatever variant of bushidou exists in Soul Society). In my mind, one of Byakuya's youthful struggles was that the adults in his life spoke one thing and did another-- they spoke of honor and morality and uprightness, and then turned around and played politics and displayed favoritism. Senbonzakura is an idea that Byakuya can look to and admire and aspire to, who doesn't have a disappointingly human side. Appropriately, they take the form of a samurai, always seen in battle dress.

I think a lot of zanpakutou are tricky or roundabout, because they need their shinigami to learn essential truths about themselves, or just because they are Like That, but I think Senbonzakura is extremely straightforward. Byakuya has to deal with enough convoluted noble bullshit in his daily life. I think Senbonzakura would give B easily explained, but nigh-impossible challenges like "Go cast sokatsui 10,000 times and get back to me." Byakuya would just go fucking do it, and then Senbonzakura would teach him some new thing.

When Byakuya was young (and I think he met Senbonzakura at a very young age), he thought Senbonzakura was male, and Senbonzakura never corrected him. As he got older and had some thoughts about people he knew and about himself, Byakuya realized that there may be masculine and feminine expressions of concepts like honor and duty, but those concepts themselves are genderless, and Senbonzakura seemed to encompass all of them. I tend to think that Byakuya identifies as male by default, and because it affords him more power in society (which is not personally important, but because it's his duty to head his clan and power is a thing he needs) but he doesn't feel particularly attached to the concept. He's also bishounen and is into a lot of stuff like flowers and poetry and tea that was very masculine in the Edo era and has been more feminized in the modern era and his signature color is Barbie pink. He probably wouldn't have given it much thought, but once he realized that he didn't know what gender Senbonzakura was, he started thinking about it more, and realized that sometimes Senbonzakura is more female and sometimes more male and sometimes both and sometimes neither, and maybe that's very cool of them, actually.

Byakuya also thought that Senbonzakura was also very not into love and romance and sex stuff. He also thought this was very cool of them, because he also wasn't much into that stuff, and many of his peers were and talked about it incessantly. Then, when he met Hisana, it turned out that Senbonzakura was big into idealized, courtly love. From what I've read, the Japanese concept of chivalric love was majorly influenced by Heian era women poets, and Senbonzakura spent most of the Hisana years in, quite literally, A Big Sapphic Mood.

I think an important thing about bankai is that it reverses, or at least removes the master-student model between zanpakutou and shinigami. Senbonzakura relinquished this very readily, and slid into the role as Byakuya's equal partner, his comrade-in-arms and truest companion. I think Senbonzakura hated Byakuya's villain era during the Soul Society Arc, because Senbonzakura's interests mostly align with the law, but when they don't, they don't. Having his zanpakutou disagree with him didn't exactly put Byakuya into any better of a mood, and he in some part blamed it on Senbonzakura being still hung up on Hisana. If he hadn't yet gotten bankai, they might have come to loggerheads, but despite their disappointment, Senbonzakura's loyalty to Byakuya won out, and they stood by him, even though he was being a butt.

I don't remember if they hung out much in the Zanpakutou Spirits Arc, but I do think that Senbonzakura would like Hyourinmaru a lot, because they are both Noble and Dignified Beings, and I think Hyourinmaru returns the feeling, because Senbonzakura is polite and honorable. As I said earlier, I think Senbonzakura should regard Sode no Shirayuki as a peer-- they are somewhat alike but also very different in some respects. I think Senbonzakura is rather curious of Sode no Shirayuki, actually. Mysteriously, at least to Byakuya (and definitely to Renji, if he knew about it), I think Senbonzakura has a very "yeah, they're cool" attitude about Zabimaru. Senbonzakura is very fond of both Rukia and Renji and their zanpakutou and is very hype for Ichika when she comes along.

I think that's all the Senbonzakura thoughts I got in me for now! This was a lot of fun, thanks for the ask!

[forffax]

returning the favor with oc asks since i always wanna hear about yours !! if you had to pick like your top 5 favorite characters who would they be and why 👀 bonus if you want to pick your favorite like settings/worlds/universes youve made for ocs too!

OOOUH thank u chase!!!

I'm gonna list out my favs then talk abt my main oc universe a bit ^_^

This got ridiculously long so it's going under a readmore <3

1. Tos Family (sorry this is going to be. the whole family bc I cannot possibly choose between them)

i. Lux Tos (he/him)

(realizing now i haven't drawn him in a hot fuckin minute)

MY DAD. guy of all time ever. everyone's favorite half-human time traveling alien war vet. it always feels weird referring 2 him as part alien even if it's technically true sdjfgs. fun lore fact: he was the Dead Older Brother in original iteration Zephyr's Sad Backstory but I liked him too much so I decided he got to live <3

Lux is one of my older ocs that I still actively draw and think abt (late middle school...) and he's changed a LOT over the years but he's so so so dear to me. my guy who has Seen the Horrors and is now happily gay married with a kid :') sdfkjsk most things abt his story is just me being So Incredibly Self Indulgent (cool powers, complicated sibling relationships, gay) but it makes me happy and I love sharing it with ppl! Someday Voided 2 will be real and ready to share with the world...

ii. Ferdinand Tos (he/him)

Dad....2!!!!!! I don't remember when exactly I thought him up but it was probably around when Lux's backstory was getting a major overhaul... He's a man out of time he's training to be a doctor and his will to live is so strong he spent the better part of nearly two decades building himself a new body! Guys who died but got better <3. I think I literally got brain blasted one day and decided he's a non-op trans man and it was the best thing ever for him actually. He's a southern californian stuck in the cold northwest (probably. either that or the northeast im not settled on that aspect yet skdjfs). He's been super fun to write from a worldbuilding perspective too bc his main goal is to pioneer a new branch of medicine using his powers! His relationship with Lux and the rest of the family (and his reconciliation with his sister) is sooooo important 2 me :]

iii. Athanasius Tos (she/her)

THANAAAAA most normal sibling (lie). She was adopted formally right after Lux "died" and had a bit of a complex about just being a "replacement" for a good while, and she THOUGHT she had worked through that when Lux suddenly re-appeared... they're on great terms now but it was Tense. She's a biochemist and probably makes the most out of the household (she shares an apartment with Zeph!) It's very important 2 me that she can let herself be vulnerable with her family and close friends after years of bottling everything up... Epic nerdy autistic butches in your area <3 Fun fact she is the only full human of the main cast!

iv. Zephyr Tos (she/him)

My fuckign auncle. Within the story she only recently realized he was bigender and is much happier for it, even if you couldn't tell by her permanent scowl skjdfgs. Zeph was the original protag (along with Thana) of the short story I wrote in middle school that turned into Voided 2! In-universe he was very clearly supposed to be the protag but missed/ignored the "call to action" phase and just got a shitton of Issues and Traumas instead <3 She's so everything 2 me he's a freelance writer/artist she's kinda cringe and he is trying only as hard as she absolutely needs to in order to get by. While his relationship with Lux is MUCH better than it was when Lux first came back, she's completely inseparable from Thana and would do anything for her (I feel like they spent equal times protecting each other from bullies as kids...) He's changed so much from her original incarnation but developing him has been SO much fun <3 Since Voided 2 runs on real-world time (in that I have specific real-world dates for most major events) she turned 50 fairly recently and that's fucked but also funny. old.

v. Alan Tos (any)

Alan! Love this kiddo. He's Lux and Ferdinand's adoptive kid! Xe doesn't learn about it for a while but she was a government secret experiment test-tube baby (they were trying to artificially fuse souls together, distantly related to the later Child Soldier School ze was placed into) (kid cannot catch a break). He's a good kid, if not a little clueless and naive... someone who would hold no ill-will if you had to cut their leg off (this is not a hypothetical GJSKDS). Somehow, despite all this, she is by far the most Normal out of xer family <3 His fashion sense is some kind of spectrum between 60s businesswoman and scene and tbh? Very fun to draw! Her friends and family are very very dear to them and at the moment xe's just kind of letting life take zem wherever.

2. Vague (it/they)

unauthorized fucking thing kill it with hammers NOW!!!!!

Vague started as I think just a proxy for myself in vent art I drew in like early high school sdhjfgds they have since become. something. my mascot I guess? (I still end up using it for vent art sometimes bc it's functionally unkillable and it's fun 2 get narsty sometimes.)

originally it was just the weird cat-shaped angel thing but a couple years ago I gave them a human design that I really love too <3 vague technically has a place in Niko and my other cat furry ocs' story but their human form exists in the real world and is just Like That i think. vague is just a little guy okay? they're sorry about crying and bleeding all over the place (not bc it sees any issue with this they just noticed you looked upsetskjdfhs)

3. Niko (he/they)

Baby's first fursona! Niko was always mostly his own character but now that I have new This is Just Me sona(s), they've been officially retired from that front <3 Niko's story is mostly planned out, I just desperately need to write it somewhere skjdbfs but the gist is that Niko works a shitty minimum wage call center job and finds meaning and love through forming a band with people he happens to meet... also there's some whistleblowing and betrayal and vague slams down out of the sky at some point <3 Niko's band doesn't have a name but they're the lead vocalist! (Niko 🤝 Blue (is blue and sings in their band)) This is a universe where everyone is cat furries simply bc I wanted to design lots of cat furries but also I haven't drawn like half of his bandmates/friends.... orz

Fun fact I found my original doodles of him in an old math notebook and apparently I seriously considered the name "chandler" for them. Help,

4. Larkspur (they/them)

Laaark my friend lark :] they're my player character for a friend's tabletop campaign! *hands you a bug* *hands you a bug* *hands-

Their design was super fun to come up with and they're fun to play as :] They were raised on a farm and have a deep love for animals (insects in particular), but they have a hard time connecting with others and understanding why people act the way they do.. They wear an eyepatch to cover their multiple other eyes bc it gives them bad sensory overload to see with them! They also spent quite a bit of time as a bounty hunter before they were blacklisted from further work bc they let a target escape on purpose... Lark is a ranger/bard and they play the hurdy-gurdy! They're dear to me and I really need to draw them more sjdfhgs

5. Chungy Fresh (she/he/they)

Chungy my belungy.... she's a mimic who spent most of his life being a chest in the temple of a forgotten goddess until they gained sentience and saw a fursuit from far away and decided yep! I'm gonna look like that Now <3 She didn't get all the details right but he's never been happier! I think Chungy spawned from me drawing a weird fox thing and simultaneously thinking "hey wouldn't it be funny if a character had a verbal text/forum signature and it was also their name" skdjfgjskdfls. Chungy is def up there with "most fun ocs of mine to draw" bc she's so Noodly and Malleable... I started playing as him in a friend group's tabletop oneshot thingy (where multiple ppl write different unrelated oneshots but we use the same characters for each session) and it has been a lot of fun!

OKAY OC UNIVERSE TIME. I call my main oc story "Voided 2" bc it takes place in the same universe as my v personal self insert oc story "Voided" that I have been working on/writing/thinking abt since late middle school... It's kinda vaguely modern fantasy/sci-fi? Main things are that there are beings born at the beginning of the universe made of pure energy called Lunoirs. There are countless universes, and each universe has Lunoirs in some capacity. They mainly exist to "keep the balance," but if you ask any specific Lunoir what that means you'll get a million different answers. Mainly they gravitate towards any life within their universe and integrate with them, observing them and protecting them from Shadows and Vacares. Shadows are the unliving souls that will eventually be reborn and reformed into a living soul inside any given universe-- they exist in the space between universes, called the Void. the Void looks different to any being that crosses into it, and it's hard to say what its "true" nature is. Vacares are Lunoirs that have had their souls corrupted and eaten, usually by other Vacares. While Shadows, being amalgamations of soul energy, are strictly neutral, Vacares seek to cause chaos and eat more Lunoir souls, increasing their numbers in a vain attempt to satisfy their endless hunger.

The Lunoir population on Earth is fairly numerous, and since Lunoirs can take on whatever form they choose, many of them live and love and have children with humans, making partial-lunoir children (physically they are nearly indistinguishable from full humans, save for longer lifespans, odd hair and eye colors, and sharper teeth. also they have semi-physical wings, but these have to be manually brought out and often ppl don't even know they have them (*cough* zephyr *cough*)

Lunoirs aren't fully immortal, but they have a different life cycle to most other forms of life. When a non-lunoir dies, their soul disintegrates and is amalgamated with the souls of others in the Void to become Shadows. When a Lunoir dies (outside of having their soul completely corrupted/destroyed), they instead go into a sort of stasis and are reborn later; they have no memories of their previous life (the ones on Earth don't, at least) and they can take on wildly different appearances.

Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs have powers in the form of energy manipulation, particularly when it comes to the energy of their own souls... They can use their souls to form weapons, mainly to fight against Vacares that tend to be immune to physical weapons. Most people have one weapon that they specialize in, but in a pinch nearly everyone can form a knife. Humans can manipulate their own soul energy in this way too, but this ability must be taught/"unlocked" by a Lunoir or a partial Lunoir first (Zephyr, at some point, did this for Thana without either of them realizing it). Lunoirs can also manipulate the energy of the very universe to create Rifts in time and space, sometimes leading between separate universes... These rifts also open of their own accord from time to time, and there's a good number of people who have been displaced from their time or even their universe by unwittingly falling into one.

Every living being has a "soul" (a collection of their life energy), and through a kind of "reaching out," one can feel/taste/smell/hear/see another's soul... every soul is a bit different, so this is an easy way to identify people even from a distance!

The Earth Lunoirs once had a country where they congregated called Saluria, which was the site of a brutal multi-year war against an army of Vacares that wanted reign over Earth... Many Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs across all of Earth's history felt drawn to Saluria, often willingly or unwillingly being rifted to the time of the war to go fight in it... Some partial Lunoirs especially believed it was their sacred duty, while others believed it was a curse leading them to inevitable death... there's even whispers that Saluria itself is alive, luring in young partial and full Lunoirs out of self-preservation.. who's to say. Ultimately, the Salurian War was a victory, but not an easy one.

Lux and Zephyr are half Lunoirs (their mom being full), and Ferdinand is 3/4ths Lunoir! Alan is a bit of a weird case but functionally he's also half Lunoir :]

This is v much simplifying Years of worldbuilding ssjhdfgjks and I can FEEL I missed a bunch of stuff but it's all very very dear 2 me :]

[ganymedesclock]

The Sonic Series' kitchen sink elements are really... well, "kitchen sink" is a good way to put them. You got Shadow's backstory over here, characters stuck in particular eras or mediums, humans in some games but not others, etc, etc.

All that to ask this: how do you go about harmonizing the desperate elements of StH's various incarnations without doing what Frontiers did?

The short pithy funny answer is 'will it blend?'

The longer answer is. I think a lot of big long-running legacy franchises like Sonic, that have a zillion different branches and continuities and different this-and-thats that sometimes contradict each other and have about eighteen versions of the same story at any given time- think also most superhero media- are really, really fun to get into. People dread and fret if a particular incarnation is mediocre or too weird for their tastes, but I think the fun part of it is there's something worthwhile and interesting in almost all of these. Like I personally don't care for Sonic Chronicles very much at all, but I like Shade's visual design and I thought the alien designs were pretty neat, even if I don't think their lore fits well into the bigger Sonic universe and for the most part disregard them.

And there are zero consequences to me doing so! Basically, the franchise is your oyster. Take what you love and mix it up. This is why my personal longstanding Sonic AU has been what it is- it's not an exercise in me feeling like I'm "fixing the canon" because that's silly, it's not broken, but rather just making myself a fun smoothie out of the bits I really like.

It is so, so, so fun to me, to be in a world where stuff like Sonic Unleashed exists, that we can go, "yeah there was a whole game where Sonic was just a werewolf. yes he also had stretchy arms". The works both official and fannish that I've enjoyed the most tend to be ones that aren't afraid of being a little silly or digging into "worse" installments of the franchise to play with them.

I think it's very important that the Sonic series isn't afraid to be silly. At the end of the day it is a story about hedgehogs in running shoes fighting evil robot armies. This premise is never going to be stodgy and respectable and it doesn't need to be. It absolutely has it within itself to tell both serious and silly stories, and mix them together.

To also answer your question about reconciling, honestly, being willing to take a bunch of silly stuff from odd franchises and glue them together to make a more complete picture works wonders. Like, in pre-reboot archie comics- I'm talking back in the gag-a-day bizarre early stories- they just threw in a worldbuilding detail that Mobius has a colossal number of moons full of weird stuff; when the games have established Little Planet, Lost Hex, and Space Colony ARK as things floating around Mobius's general vicinity, taking that otherwise forgettable detail would line up a bunch of different things, and it lets me be cheeky about the thing where in the game canon, there's a blatant continuity error with the moon having a hole shot in it back in Adventure 2 and then in Shadow The Hedgehog, a game that heavily references the plot of Adventure 2, the full moon is very prominently featured.... with no missing chunk whatsoever. I can go, well, in my personal fanon, that's just a completely different moon!

[xenonmoon]

Some last note before moving to MK 2016 volume 3:

Pros:

I really like the subversion of the "it was all a dream" trope. It being "all a dream" doesn't actually solve things, it makes them even worse and messier

Pacing is great, using switch frequency and entity of the bleedout among each one of them to build tension towards not the final act of this volume's plot but what appears to be the middle one, turning instantly in a moment of surprise when all parallel stories instead of converging with each other drop out into Marc's. The second part with the confrontation instead of escalating again it de-escalate step by step from action to calm, heartfelt moments until only Marc is left, alone. Nice

I keep thinking using different artists and scenarios for each character is a BRILLIANT way to have a visual rendition of how different alters filter the situation through different lens

Despite being a bit cartoonish/exaggerated I liked how frustrating the police interrogation felt with its ableism towards Jake. Makes you feel the character's powerlessness in that situation

Leaving Vengeance (and the latter part of the 2006) aside, since they only features Jake and in a very ambiguous way that's very passable as Marc With A Different Name, Steven and (proper) Jake hadn't had a real active role in the narrative outside when Moench was writing them. It's nice and refreshing to finally see them back as being part of Moon Knight as they should be.

Steven's narrative is how the Bendis run should have been and you can't change my mind

Love love looooove how Lemire recontextualised the dubious writing the character's had over the years into Marc's point of view - how he thinks about his condition and how to deal with. He also does a plentiful of acknowledgements that are a HUGE step forward to stop considering having alters as something bad - despite still thinking he need to get rid of them to be "sane". But will get back at this with the volume 3

Cons:

Jeff Lemire possibly only read the first volume of the Epic Collection, so he knows the basics of the Oldies but not enough to use them effectively inside the plot. They're either "extras", background stuff, namedrops, or very vague and/or ooc. This leads to their appearances being one of those cases when the callbacks are best enjoyed if you're in the middle of the spectrum between not knowing the characters and knowing them fairly well: you either just heard of them (and/or seen very marginal stuff) or remember them by long faded memories. One of those cases where elements and/or a product holds itself up for most part by nostalgia or a very shallow knowledge of the source.

This also lead to potential thematically relevant characters to be cut out of the narrative, like Morpheus.

Jake's characterisation is. I don't know how to describe it. It was fine and fairly coherent with Moench's up until the confrontation scene, when by the way Marc talks to him it seems backbuilt almost from scratch to fit Wood's heavy drift (or switch with Marc's, can be also seen as that). That resulted in a weird superimposition between him and Moon Knight and while he is not identified as "the evil alter" it flies dangerously close by being at least the violent one. This is 99.9% what inspired MCU Jake's (I can't really say characterisation since we see him for like 2 seconds but. actions?). Detaching itself even from the last bits of Moench that the 2016 still kept the MCU incarnation took a long turn away from the comics' original concept and well. I think the moon knight tag is full of self-explanatory examples of the domino effect it caused on the long run. Sighs

Despite this run's approach to MK's condition being revolutionary in the context of the history of how this character has been written after the original run closed, there are some bits that are still based on misconceptions around how the condition worked - meaning, the core theory according to which there is one "real" or "original" identity in the system and the others all formed later and- ugh that they are or used to be childhood imaginary friends. Surprisingly, the original Moench run which was written back when people knew next to nothing about the condition is more accurate on this point since it treats all three (four considering MK) more or less equally as different identities of the same individual

Let's talk about Commander. I get it, Lemire needed an alter to function as a "placeholder" to Marc for the tripartite altered narrative that dominates the heart of this volume, but you can feel by the way he's treated that's kind the throwaway one. Or, at least, the most throwaway one once its purpose in the narrative is fulfilled

That's all I could cook up for this volume! Moving to the third and final one!

[amageish]

Very Belated Thoughts on Gwenpool Strikes Back #4

With Gwenpool becoming a certified canon aroace icon, I wanted to give my thoughts on the significance of Gwenpool Strikes Back issue #4 as I’ve seen a lot of people making some... bold claims about that issue’s implications for Gwen’s continuity.

For those unfamiliar, Gwenpool Strikes Back #4 opens with Gwen in a conundrum: she needs to defeat the Incredible Hulk in a fight and she, with her usual powersets, definitely doesn’t have the ability to win (why is she fighting the Hulk? don’t worry about it). When knocked into the gutterspace by one of the Hulk’s punches, she hatches a plan while visibly concussed: she will travel through her own publication history and take various incarnations of her from their comics to assemble her own team of (anti-)heroic Gwens to help her save the day.

This gaggle of Gwens, dubbed the “Gwen Hive,” all have their own personalities, goals, visions, belief systems, and general vibes, inspired by how Gwen was written in the comics they were taken from. Superior Spider-Man Gwen is hyper-intelligent, Champions Gwen is incredibly over-excited and ready to punch the bad guy in the face, Civil War II Gwen is half-naked and has an unhealthy love of firearms, etc..

This sequence calls attention to the ways that Gwen has been written in the past and both the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between them. It acknowledges how different creative teams have had different ideas on how to depict the character and that they don’t all necessarily vibe with each other. This is a fair observation and was kind of a relief for fans of the character at the time, who were often very vocally frustrated about the inconsistency in how Gwen was written.

The core observation behind this sequence, however, is not at all unique to Gwenpool?

Every Marvel comics superhero - heck, every character from a franchise with shared continuity that lasts between multiple creative teams - has this happen to some extent. Different creative teams have different visions, different ideas, different art styles, etc. They will emphasize and de-empashize different traits of characters to fit the story they want to tell. And - potentially hot take here - that is a good thing! I like it when Editorial gives artists creative freedom to tell unique stories with their characters. There are stories I like more than others, of course, but it’s still generally a good thing that we aren’t usually being forced to relive the same one plotline for each character over and over...

Gwen assembling the Gwen-Hive from her past appearances is a direct acknowledgement of and satire of the inconsistency in her characterization, but I don’t think it is saying she literally completely resets in-universe every time that she has a new creative team. She is just observing a basic reality of how the comic book industry works. Gwen can summon the Gwen Hive, but you could easily have a Peter Parker Hive or a Wolverine Hive or a Kate Pryde Hive made up of different versions of and interpretations of the character - and, just like the Gwen hive, they would be unlikely to agree on everything or see everything from the same point of view!

In that regard, the Gwen Hive is just an extension of her usual powerset. Gwen can grab onto the corners of panels and enter gutterspace, taking advantage of something that most comic books have (gutters between panels) to help her fight and survive. Through the Gwen Hive, Gwen is able to take advantage of something that most comic book characters have (a multitude of appearances with various unique personality quirks and perspectives) to help her fight and survive her encounter with the Hulk.

And I think that’s really cool! I don’t love all of Strikes Back, but I think that this sequence is a really fitting take on the character’s powers and history. Super neat stuff.

So, now in 2023, years after Gwenpool Strikes Back finished its run, it is really weird to me that people are responding to Gwen coming out by saying “Oh, but the Gwen Hive exists, so therefore Gwen HAS NO CANON ACTUALLY and HER SEXUALITY COULD BE RETCONNED WITHOUT EXPLANATION” because... That wasn’t the point of Strikes Back’s story? Gwen is more aware of how she changes from story to story then other comic book characters are (because, y’know, fourth-wall awareness), but that doesn’t mean that the way she changes from book to book is any different. She changes because writers want or need her to change. She becomes smarter and more genre savvy in Superior Spider-Man to be a foil to Doc Oc and she becomes dumber and more presumptuous in Champions to be a foil to the Champions.

TL;DR - Marvel Editorial isn’t going to let someone retcon her asexuality on a whim after greenlighting an entire comic about her coming out as aroace and then putting her on the cover of a Marvel’s Voices Pride issue.

She’s Gwenpool. She’s aroace. Let’s not worry about having her taken away from us, okay?