#this is super old but it was the first chapter of an episodic series based on a crew of misfits following the reaper war

[binart]

SRPA Chapter 3

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(Content warning for hallucinations, dissociation & PTSD episodes!)  

—

In late evening of the next day, Keith messaged Lance.

All members of their team had retreated back to their rooms (though Hedrox and En suspiciously left together), and Lance had just finished a call with his mom. She apologized like she did in all of them, for crying. But she clearly missed him just as much as he missed her.

As Lance grabbed some tissues from the shelf above his bed to blow his nose with, his phone next to his pillow dinged; the specific beep to indicate one of the old Voltron crew was messaging him. He dove for it.

A text from Keith, “Samurai 😫✨💦” in his phone, read: “Meeting with the team tomorrow. 0700. Deploying in the PM. See you then.”

One thing Lance found really endearing about Keith was his old person way of texting. If someone mixed Keith's texts in with his dad's, they'd be practically indistinguishable aside from the subject of the texts. He scrolled up to their last conversation.

“Good training. En wanted extra pointers. Staying behind for a bit.”

                                “K, I'll save u some of those spicy green chips u like 👍”

“Good luck........... Chip fiend Hedrox won't be happy. L. O. L.”

                                 “🤣 Thanks for the heads up man! See you soon.”

“Over and Out.”

                                  “🫡”

“L. O. L !”

“🫡”

He set his phone down and buried his face into the softness of his mattress. Then he threw his pillow across the room for good measure. He went about his nightly routine a little lighter despite the homesickness pulling at his chest, and wondered what they'd be doing tomorrow. They still hadn't gotten a replacement for Torat, and Hedrox confirmed there was still possibly a weeks-long wait before they could move on any intel from the bugged base. Maybe they'd be going on a super spy infiltration somewhere? Though there were plenty of other things the Blade of Marmora was doing these days too. They were trying to become a more public-facing organization, after all.

Slipping into a hazy state of half-consciousness before long, Lance only vaguely registered a far away blue flash against his closed lids, and an oddly familiar fuzzy jostling of his arms before falling asleep.

—

0700 on the dot. He arrived at the team meeting room, same one as where they gathered the last time, only now without Torat leaning up against the wall. As Lance walked in to see the others already there and waiting, he wondered what the big guy was doing now. He'd been transferred to a different team, but that was about all he knew.

“Morning, Lieutenant.” Kestin, though usually pretty quiet, was the first to notice him, and waved. Keith looked up from the hologram table he was studying with En and Hedrox, and smiled.

“Mornin'.” Lance was still a little tired despite mostly adjusting to the longer day cycle, but everyone else seemed full of energy. En sharply saluted him, then turned back to face Keith.

“Hey Lance, sleep well?” Lance nodded in between a tired yawn. “Pff, you sure?”

“I got my nine hours, I just had a super weird dream..” He'd dreamt of one of those pretty furry moths back on Earth, except huge, that kept trying to lick his face and sit on him. It was mildly terrifying. “Anyway, I'm good. What's going on with this mission?”

“Big supply delivery to a colony. I'll show you the details.” From all around, everyone approached the table and regarded the screen sat within it. Just as before, a series of images with accompanying text lit up in the 3-d display. Lance eyed a familiar looking planet.

“Elysium-2?” Keith nodded.

“You've seen the news, then. Good. The refugees from the original settlement landed about half a year ago, and we're gonna hand out some medical and food supplies that are running lower than initially projected.”

“And actually—the Blade wasn't the only one to volunteer to offer supplies, but the Inter-galactic Coalition thought it might be good PR for us,” Hedrox supplied as he raised a lanky finger. “Looootta people are still afraid to trust us since, y'know. Most of us are half-Galra and all..”

There was a brief silence, then En leaned forward and regarded his teammate with lowered brows. “A prejudice we shall eradicate, in time.” Hedrox tilted his head back and forth in a strange motion before letting out a watery chuckle.

“That we will! Anyway, what are our roles, Commander?”

“..We'll be working distribution and security. There's a couple of teams on this for the different areas of the settlement given how big it is, and we'll be stationed here.” He pointed to a glowing yellow point on the planet-sphere in front of them. It swiftly zoomed in to show a 3-d rendering of the area. Two additional yellow spots appeared. “We'll drop down and hand out supplies here, and monitor security over here.” One of the dots was placed within a very modern looking building, similar in design to the ones quickly built back when New Altea was being settled.

“There's been reports of potential suspicious movement in the system, so in case anything happens, we want our best on sight.” Keith looked at Lance. “You in?” Immediately Lance's face grew hot. He certainly didn't feel like he deserved to be called their best, but he cleared his throat and gave a assured 'mhm!' regardless. “Good, that's everyone on board, then. We'll go over the specifics of the layout and the expected timeline for everything going down. After that we'll grab our gear and Kestin will take us in.”

Pre-mission anxiety skimmed and bubbled in the pit of his stomach once again, but this time Lance found it a little easier to ignore.

—

Touchdown was at 1300. Kestin joined up in the atmosphere with two additional fighter pilot personnel manning the supply ships to make up B squad; Keith's team, Kolivan's team, and another Blade commander called Thiga's team. Landing went without incident from teams A to D who kept in close contact despite the miles of distance between them. Lance gripped his sniper rifle's strap across his torso tightly when the ship lurched to a stop and snuck a subtle glance at his friend beside him.

For this mission, he'd be separated from Keith. Lance was, embarrassingly, more anxious about that than anything else. It was important for higher profile blade members like Kolivan and Keith (as well as Krolia in D team) to be the face of the operation, and so they would be handing out supplies to the residents. There was potential danger there if the reports of suspicious movement were to be believed, and so Lance was pretty sure that's why Keith delegated Lance to overseeing the security division of their group. He and Hedrox would rendezvous with the blades under Thiga's command in the building across the way from the supply ships, then from there observe to make sure everything went smoothly. He didn't like the idea of Keith openly risking himself while stashing Lance away, but was surprisingly too embarrassed to say anything. His mask was activated, and as the doors to the shuttle hissed open, Lance headed towards the exit.

“Hey Lance.” He turned around to face an also masked Keith. “Watch my back out there, alright?” Lance thought about his only strength—his aim, and how he'd probably be useless if he were at Keith's side like he wanted to be.

“..You bet. Careful out there, Keith.” He nodded, and Lance picked up his pace to meet up with Hedrox.

His nest this time was a lot different from the last; A large office-like space within the building had been cleared out to make way for several massive server-looking machines that were clearly Marmorite-y in design. He had no idea what they were for. Hedrox and Lance entered to find the security team already there and settled in. When they noticed their approach, all but one of the members of Commander Thiga's team whipped up and gave sharp salutes. “Lieutenant!” There were six of them in total, all of various size and race behind their masks, and stood stone rigid in front of him as he shifted uncomfortably. Normally Lance would have loved to be treated with such clear importance, but he was distracted by the unease of not being able to see if Keith was okay.

“Uh, at ease, soldiers.” He wanted to get himself set up at the windowed opening straight away, but realized he should probably do the leader stuff he was meant to do. “Status?”

“Ready and at your command, Lieutenant!” The shortest blade rumbled in the deepest voice Lance had ever heard. “And might I add what an honor it is to work alongside a Paladin of Voltron..!” Lance jerked, then immediately caught himself and stiffly walked over to the windowed opening. He turned away.

“Cool, cool, uh, I'll set my stuff up here, and you guys do... your thing. Let me know if anything happens.”

The stony line of blades once again saluted, and quickly set about their work. Hedrox pulled out some supplies from their blade-issued backpack, and sidled over to Lance.

“You good, Lieutenant..?” He whispered through their personal comms as he set up several tablet devices next to Lance. With his rifle now pointed towards the platform in front of the supply ships where Keith was standing, Lance breathed out a small chunk of worry. His right ring finger tapped the comms button on his palm.

“Why'd Keith make me leader? I dunno how to lead! I'm just here to shoot bad guys if they show up.” Hedrox snorted.

“Oh, I dunno, Lieutenant. Maybe because the Commander always goes on about how much everyone respects you, and how insanely skilled you are, and how much he trusts you?” Lance whipped his head up to look at them so quickly his neck clicked.

“H-He said all that..?!”

“Uh-huh. It's also favouritism for sure, but you still absolutely deserve to be here if that's what you're worried about.”

“Distribution commencing, Lieutenant,” a blade informed from off to the side. Lance studied Keith in his scope next to Kolivan and some other masked blade that was probably that Thiga guy, and swallowed to help with his suddenly very dry throat. En was there, too, loading the heavier of the alien supply crates onto hovering carts.

“U-Understood, thanks.” He pressed the button on his thumb once again. “I didn't know Keith said all that stuff!” Hedrox once again tilted their head strangely as they typed away.

“Really? I thought with how obvious the both of you are about your feelings for each other, you already knew..” Lance nearly fumbled his rifle then and there. His pulse picked up as his face grew sweaty.

“F-Fee—Um! What?!" Quiznack, why were they talking about this?! And how did he know?!

“Lieutenant... Come on. Or, actually... Would it be helpful if I told you how much I love the intricacies of human social interactions? And humans in general. You guys are so cool and interesting, so uh. I tend to notice that sort of stuff.” From beneath his hood, Hedrox's little sunflower bots fluttered to life around him. “But both of you are also super obvious.”

Lance was at a loss for words. Under his mask he knew he was red as a beet as he watched Keith unmask and start handing out supply kits to the forming lines of residents. His ponytail had gotten a bit loose and strands once again framed his handsome face. He was smiling.

“Keith's—I mean. He's—into guys?” His hands were sweaty now too, with his arms beginning to shake from holding them so tightly still. He hoped nothing was going to happen, because his aim was definitely shot!

“Maybe not all of them, but you? Yeah, Lieutenant, yeah. Very. It's really sweet how much he likes talking about the stuff you guys used to do together! Hmm.. I just assumed you two were already a thing, though, so maybe it's not really my place to talk about this. My bad.”

“No, uh, I was—Like I didn't know if Keith was into—“ Lance lifted his right hand away from his rifle to gesture at himself and distantly wondered how crazy he looked to the other blades who couldn't hear their conversation. He retreated back to his position. “So I didn't wanna. Assume? A-Anyway!” Frantically Lance desperately searched his mind for something else to talk about, because this was quickly becoming too much to deal with. “Human behaviours? That's your thing? How'd that come about?” Hedrox chuckled.

“Subject change, understood. Yes! Humans are the coolest—I'm gonna move to Earth someday, so I started studying your speaking and social patterns so it's easier to fit in. And because it's fun.”

From through his scope, Keith raised a hand to his ear, nodded, then continued to pass out supply canisters. “Huh.. Why us? I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of cooler alien species out there than plain old humans.”

“Now that's where you're wrong, Lieutenant! Humans are fascinating. All so similar, yet none exactly the same.” They pressed their back up against the plain, modern wall next to Lance. “..On my planet, conformity was umm.. kind of a given. Our ancestors were actually a hivemind, so.. we stay close to our roots and expectations.” A hivemind? Lance could recall only a single occasion where team Voltron interacted with one of them, and it was super weird.

“Data crunching comes really easily to most of us,” Hedrox continued. “And I actually found out about Earth when I was snooping around the Blade database of our highest ranking members and found—um, the Commander's mom. Super classified, by the way, don't tell anyone I was doing that.” Lance laughed.

“Reminds me of Pidge, but yeah, my lips are sealed dude, don't worry.”

“Coolies, thanks. Anyway when I learned about Earth I quickly discovered all of the amazing things you guys have like movies, and music, and so many different cultures, and—and individuality in general! Also, related, I'm insanely ugly by Yorith standards. Look.” Lance obeyed and turned his head to watch as Hedrox's mask shifted away from his face,

and one of the most shockingly attractive faces Lance had ever seen appeared. Blue tinged skin, rosegold eyes with soft lashes, near-glowing long golden locks curling around a sharp but also somehow soft jawline, intricate neon swirling designs tracing around the outer portions of his face and onto his horn... Maybe not as much of Lance's type as Keith was, but man oh man he was hot hot.

“........Dude. You're hot, what?”

“I know, right?!” Quickly, they reactivated their mask when they saw the other blades turn to examine them. “One day me and En are gonna settle down on Earth and I'm gonna be a crazy popular stone—er, rockstar, that is. That's my dream.” Some of his tiny floating bots scooted out of the window as he curled his legs in close, and Lance wondered what his and En's relationship was. “But only once the empire is totally gone.”

From the opening his rifle was pointed out, excited chatter from the beings below drifted upwards and into his ears. There was a sizable crowd now, and Lance listened to Hedrox as he kept his eyes peeled for threats. “Yeah, I get it. Too risky otherwise. My family's in New Altea just in case they keep attacking..”

Hedrox sighed. “Yup.. The empire invaded my home planet half a millennia ago and everything sucked, of course. But when I was growing up it was at least always.. quiet. Then one day they sent in some giant planet cracker and destroyed it. For some rare material near the core used to make ship parts.” Lance went cold, and thought of his old house, half buried beneath rubble and waves.

“Geez.. Sorry to hear that.”

“It's okay.. I've had a while to get over it. That's also where I met En, actually! He was in charge of the mining operation before he double-crossed the empire for killing most of his crew.”

“En.. worked for the empire?” Sharp, immediate fear pierced Lance as he watched the very same alien pass close by keith with a large hover cart. He obscured his vision of Keith for a moment before continuing on to the residents below. “C-Can we trust him?!” His breath sped up, and his scope immediately honed in on En's masked head.

“Yeah, don't worry, Lieutenant, he's trustworthy. His non-Galran half makes it so that, when he bonds with someone, it's a lifetime thing. He's got a rough exterior, sure, but only to keep his extra soft inside parts safe!” Lance still felt queasy watching them move around so closely to Keith. “And if you need more convincing,” Hedrox began, and pulled off one of his gloves. He lifted up his palm, and it glowed a brilliant color Lance couldn't even put a name to. “On top of all my amazing gifts and genius, I can read souls.” His fingers wiggled. “Hivemind remnants, and all that. He's good people, I checked very thoroughly, since originally I was gonna, uh. Kill him.”

Man, that was a lot to take in. “...Okay, I guess—Yeah, I trust you, at least. I'm just worried about—I dunno, something happening to Keith.”

“I get you, Lieutenant, all of us are pretty much the same. The Commander's the whole reason we were even able to do anything with our lives, after all. We basically owe him everything.”

Before Lance could respond, he noticed a subtle shift of Keith's head, before his eyes widened. A blade made a noise of concern from beside him, Keith shouted something, then En dashed towards Keith and grabbed him. Lance moved to immediately take him out, and then—a massive explosion.

The force of it reached Lance and the rest of the security team as the building gave a violent shudder, though he couldn't see an impact crater. Dust and smoke filled their view, and Lance quickly pressed his comms. “Keith?! You okay?!” Rapidly he pulled his scope around to try and see past the debris. Hedrox sent out all of his drones, then began furiously typing away at his console. For a moment there was no response. Then,

“Ugh.. I'm alright.” Keith's strained voice filtered into his ears, and he coughed. “En's hurt. D squad was just attacked too. Can you see anything from up there?” Lance quickly scanned the horizon again, still just as obscured. Screams and wails came from down below.

“Just getting smoke and dust up here..!”

“Must be a smokescreen. Kestin, what's your status?”

Kestin spoke in a mildly panicked tone into their comms. “The ship's controls are jammed. Something external. If we can get it online I can activate thrusters to help with visuals. Hedrox?”

They were already out the door. “I'm grabbing En, then I'll come help.” Lance turned back and squinted through the obscurity. In the corner of his eye, a hundred or so meters away from Keith, something glowed. Purple. He swivelled and pointed his rifle, zoomed in, recognized the glowing insignia, then fired.

“Your 3 o'clock, incoming sentry drones, guys!”

A small hoard of bright, glowing purple poured into view. They weren't running, no—there were barely visible bursts from jet-boosters coming from the swarm's backs. Some of the other security blades began firing away on their own rifles alongside Lance. But there were what looked to be hundreds. The telltale sound of galran rifle firing began at the same time as another explosion roared off to his right. The foundations shook. Lance couldn't breathe.

Focus. Focus! Find Keith. Keep him safe.

The smokescreen thinned slightly for a moment and Lance spotted Keith next to Kolivan, carrying a limp En with his arm under their shoulders. Another set of glowing insignia's erupted from his right.

“9 o'clock too. Couple hundred drones on both sides!”

“Keep us covered until Hedrox can get us into the ship.” He watched as Keith immediately vanished from his view, followed by Kolivan and then En. From his wrist, he watched as the battery on their cloaking began to drain.

Didn't need to tell him twice. “Roger.” He switched his rifle to rapid-cooldown mode so he could fire off more shots, held his breath, then began to take them out.

Easy. No complexity to their movements. Lining themselves up to be mowed down. Hedrox's cloaking went up, too. More screaming from down below. Couldn't worry about civilians. Keep Keith safe. Exhale, inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire. Exhale. Distantly,

“Alrighty, in we go!” The doors to the shuttle opened, but some sentries from his left had nearly made it there already. Nope, no no no! Not today. Immediately he took them out.

“You six, focus on the eastern sentries!” Lance barked a command to the other blades with him. They were all obnoxiously slow, and he couldn't rely on them to help with the sentries already too close to Keith. He had to do it himself. The sky brightened, and so did the ground, and Lance, once again, took aim.

It was impossible to say how long it was until Hedrox and Kestin brought the ships back online and activated their thrusters. He was lost to the repetition of taking aim, firing, taking aim, firing. His vision swam, his wrist ached, his rifle was his old bayard again, but he was going be damn sure no one could hurt his friend.

And then, wind. The flash of light and familiar sound of the ships bursting to life; a booming twister whipped up the smokescreen that was making his job harder until it was nearly cleared away. Civilian bodies on the ground came into clear view. Don't look.

To his right, through the light filling his mask, too many sentries were still closing in. Still a threat. Keith. Inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire.. No response?

His rifle was overheated. The other blades were still too slow. Useless. He arose from his weapon, and would apologize for bruising egos later on after Keith was safe. The other sniper closest to him was the big one who didn't salute, though was easy enough to pry off and throw out of the space he needed to work. Back looking through a scope, inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire. The sentries fell like flies. He could do this, he could be helpful.

“Lance, status?!”

“East and west sentries just about taken care of.” ..Was that his voice? He sounded weird. Like he was talking through a mile of water. Huh. His bracers had at some point shifted into his paladin uniform again, too. Now that Lance had a second to think about it, that was also pretty strange. Was something wrong with him?

“Huh?!”

“Commander, look—he's right! How'd they—”

“—Com..mand..er! These tactics.. are known to me.. We are being.. herded. Southern f-forces... We must needs—evacuate.” Man, En spoke annoyingly slow. The rest of the sentries to his left and right were already downed by the time they finished gasping out the intel. Lance grabbed another blade's sniper rifle and slipped through the opening of the building, activating his boosters so he could get around to the other side and start taking care of the rest. His pulse was surprisingly quiet as he landed down on the ground next to the corpse of Silvio.

“Heyy, uhh, Keith?” Several miles of water now, his voice was barely audible to himself. He wasn't sure if Keith even responded. “'Think something might be wrong with me. Dr. Nguyen was prob'ly right. I'll tell you after. ” He laughed at how easy it was to admit to Keith now, when he promised himself he'd never breathe a word.

A whisper of a voice. Keith? Impossible to tell. The light in his mask was near blinding, but he rounded the first corner of the building, watched a hilariously massive swarm of sentries arise from a crater in the ground, looked back for a second at the ship Keith was on, then, somehow, looked at it from above.

His bones felt strange. There was wind pushing all around him. Oh, he was flying. How did that happen? He tried to laugh but water came up.

And for a second, he thought he heard Blue.

-

CLIFF HANGER! okay so one of my goals has been to get across that Lance is a very unreliable narrator, and has avoidant tendencies where he doesn't like to think about the things that upset him (let alone talk about them!!), so I hope that's come across in these chapters! I wanted to vaguely hint at things like, for example, his old therapist (Dr. Nguyen) at one point recommending Lance not becoming a soldier again. Or how Lance planned on never telling Keith about that since obviously Keith wouldn't have invited him to be a Blade if he knew, & would probably feel really guilty! But I also worry I'm being too vague, so. I at least want to offer some clarity and context here. 🤣 Apologies if it's confusing at times!

ALSO. Kosmo has taken to teleporting into Lance's room and cuddling with him almost every night. This will be revealed to Lance later on LMFAO.

[glassmarcus]

Dragon Quest 4‘s JRPG vibes

So weirdly enough, I had never touched a true Dragon Quest game until this year. Sure I've played the first Dragon Quest Heroes, checked out the Dragon Quest Builders demo, watched like 5 episodes of the Dragon Quest: Adventures of Dai reboot, and played a few matches as The Hero in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but I never experienced a numbered entry. I’m not sure if you've heard, but Dragon Quest is a bit of a big deal. Even of you don't make full eye contact with the franchise, It's pretty hard to avoid seeing it in your periphery. Dragon Quest was always something that I assumes was up my alley, but I don't want to get sucked in to playing 11 games that aren't all necessarily accessible. So I avoided its gaze. But upon the passing of franchise artist, Akira Toriyama, my attention towards the series became harder to divert.

It was never a question of if I would engage with main line Dragon Quest, but to what degree I would. First of all, its character art is helmed by the GOAT himself, so I was magnetized towards it by default. I'm willing to give everything Toriyama had a hand in a shot. If my Xbox Series S had the ability to play games that aren't Sonic Unleashed, I would have already played Blue Dragon by now. But even beyond wanting to celebrate Toriyama's legacy and appreciating his craft, Dragon Quest was always an inevitability due to its DNA being a part of every Japanese Role Playing Game that came after it. The curiosity is too strong for me to resist.

When the first entry in the series was on sale on the Nintendo Eshop, I pounced at the chance to try it out. My first reaction to this purchase was "Wait, this isn't the NES version". It seemed to be some mobile rerelease of the original game. I didn't research this, I just know in my soul that's what it was. The graphics looked a bit more modern and I assumed there were quality of life additions that would make my journey smoother while still evoking the soul of the original. So I started playing it, and seeing it in motion really caught me off guard. When you combine the constant idle movement of the sprites with the mediocre art, this game becomes profoundly ugly. I was having trouble keeping my dinner down with how ugly it was. I'm talking Greek tragedy where the goddess of beauty gets jealous of someone levels of ugly. My face was scrunched up for the next hour after seeing it. I came to this series because of the art, I wasn't going to subject myself to this much of a downgrade. I had no choice but to accept my lost 3 dollars and drop the playthrough.

I decided to not trust Dragon Quest 2 and 3 on the Wshop a jump straight to Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen. Still seeking Quality of Life improvements, I gravitated towards the DS remake. And I was elated to see that this version of the game isn't a hideous chimera of conflicting art directions. It looks good for the most part and the sprite art for Toriyama's designs really shine in the battles. The overworld sprites leave a bit to be desired but I'm sure the original wasn't much better in that regard. Again, not researching this at, it’s just a gut feeling I have.

Going into a popular old school JRPGs such as this, I expected to get closer to the roots of the conventions I've come accustomed to. With Dragon Quest 4, it wasn't just to norms that I saw start to blossom, but the more fringe ideas as well. Dragon Quest 4 has a very odd structure. It's set up like a 5 act saga and it adds such grandeur to the whole journey. And what makes it so different is that the first 4 acts are basically nothing but set up. Each act follows a different group of main characters and their own mini adventures. They're vignettes, but they are also well connected in that they increasing build toward the main scenario in act 5. Each story in Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen acts as its own tutorial on how to play a JRPG

Chapter 1 is the base essence of the gameplay loop: Hit creatures that are weaker than you, so that you can get stronger and have more creatures that are weaker than you that you can hit. You play as a knight who can only attack and defend as options. And you won't be defending in this part of the game. It's quite dull, but I will admit there is a satisfaction to just slugging it out with the boss of the chapter after leveling up to the point in which you can do so.

Chapter 2 adds far more to the basics with party management and magic. In this part of the game you follow the adventures of a Tsarevna and her two vassals. I'm not sure how it works in the original, but in this version you have full control over each party member's actions and those actions are far more varied than just attacking. This is where the battles become even slightly interesting as you have to manage party members hp and mp and figure out which roles they will play in fights.

Chapter 3 introduces an important aspect of all RPGs, the economy. This vignette is about a merchant trying to start his own business, and the only way to do that is by completing quest and selling inventory. Gameplay wise, it's similar to chapter 1 as you only control one character without any magic. But the task you do outside of battles are far more complex and require exploration and knowledge of the world.

Chapter 4...doesn't really have a strong identity of its own. You play as 2 sisters who are both magic users so you aren't doing anything particularly new. The only lesson it serves to teach is how vital item use can be mid battle, as that lesson acts as the bouncer for the real game that comes afterwards.

Chapter 5 is where the game opens up for you to fully explore. It takes a hell of a long time to get going, but I respect the structure. It's very similar to how Mother 3 introduces its party members before chapter 4 starts. I have little doubt that Mother 3 derived its structure from Chapters of the Chosen, unless there's some other older RPG that takes this vignette approach. I'm not expert on the roots of RPG history, I really only know the bullet points. Regardless ,I love seeing connections of mechanics and tropes throughout time.

I played this game mainly for research purposes and I walked away with many mixed conclusions on it. It was pretty much exactly the experience I sought out. Dragon Quest 4 has Immaculate JRPG vibes. It feels like an adventure where anything can happen and it can only achieve this by being unhinged. A lot of modern RPGs have a fair level curve where you can usually beat any enemy you encounter and can avoid the ones you can't beat. Dragon Quest plays by different rules. Every area of this game is a potpourri of monsters of varied strength and composition. Some encounters might be cake walks, others might be marathons. You'll be fighting a couple of weak healing slimes in one battle and then pulling up to a hardened gang of shamans who can Insta-kill you in the next. It is frustrating, but the friction the game provides does a lot to sell this dangerous, yet wondrous dungeon delving world.

The disorganized balancing is but a small piece to the Dragon Quest puzzle. This opposition to the player is baked into every mechanic in the game. Dragon Quest 4 is game composed almost exclusively out of monkey paws. There are a lot of really strong spells your party members can use against monsters and it adds a lot to strategies you can build in fights. But the down side of this is that enemies can use any of these spells, so those same ones can be used against you. I know spamming sleep magic is effective because I've seen the results on both the sending and receiving end.

And it's not just the spells being symmetrical in availability that acts as a double edged sword. The effects of those spells follow that same internal logic. Spells can miss you seemingly at random, but your spells can just as easily fail. Even the ability to resurrect party members isn't guaranteed on both sides. My favorite example has to be the bounce spell. It reflects spells back at the caster and can be a great counter to magic attacks. It is not however, a good counter to healing magic, as that is also reflected. Characters with this buff cannot be healed sometimes. When you cast bounce, you need to be sure your character doesn't need anymore buffs afterwards and that you have plenty of healing items to use instead. It adds this risk and reward to the spell and ends up being far more interesting than if the spell only worked with damaging spells.

Keeping up to date with the best equipment available is vital to your success in this game, so it's only natural that the most brutal double edge sword can be a literal double edge sword. Cursed items are an RPG staple. Them being present in Chapters of the Chosen is no surprise, but the commitment to the permanency is still appreciated. You will get a debuff if you have a cursed weapon, and you will not be able to unequip them. There may be some way to cleanse the curse, probably at a church or something, but when I encountered it I didn't know how and just had to adapt and accept that my tank would always go last in turn order.

The adaptation to the brutal old RPG design sensibilities is what makes this game enjoyable. If there was no memorable adversity, I would have just been bored. Modern RPGs, hell, even just slightly later RPGs than this one, have more interesting battle mechanics and satisfying traversal. They don't really need this kind of design to be fun and would probably just get in the way. If Octopath Traveler pulled some of the shit this game pulled, I would have never gotten through it. I know this for certain because the secret final boss feels like some early JRPG bullshit and I never actually beat it because the 60 hours of game prior to that were relatively friction-less. I feel like there's a balance between mechanical smoothness and roughness that I want games to have.

I don't think Dragon Quest 4 comes close to hitting this balance, I still had fun with it. I don’t know if it is good or bad, but it's funny and charming, which I think are all I really require to like a game. its consistency in its mechanics and indifference to the player feels brutal, but that only strengthens the contrast from the surface level coziness of the setting. That dissonance is where I think the essence of classic JPRGs comes from. If this story had a dark and grim tone, but was mechanically the same, I wouldn't fuck with it. But it's a colorful world filled with goofy Akira Toriyama Monsters. So when I get jumped by a gang of Giant Slimes and get party wiped, I can really help but smile along with them.

[mollybecameanengineer]

Milestones

Summary: Imprisoned by the Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder and Scully must work to save their son… and themselves.

word count: 8,418 | Mature | MSR | @today-in-fic

Read on AO3 or check out the first chapter below the break

This is part of an episodic series called A Second Chance. All the episodes are collected, in order, using AO3’s series feature. The concept of the series is to rewrite seasons 8 and 9. It deals with Mulder’s return from the dead, the birth of William, and Mulder and Scully trying to juggle family life with impending doom.

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, but want to read this story, here is what you need to know…

Previously on A Second Chance: After Mulder returned from the dead, he moved in with Scully. (Reentry). Scully, while pregnant, was infected with the black oil and somehow neutralized it (Immunidad). The Cigarette Smoking Man (and a new syndicate) learned of this, and became interested in Scully’s baby. After William was born, Mulder and Scully were determined to keep him safe (Sinister). However, after they learned that not only can William neutralize the black oil if infected, but he was also immune to the Super Soldier virus, Mulder planned to go on the run with William, leaving Scully behind due to the chip in her neck (and therefore her ability to be tracked). However, the Smoking Man got to them first. Mulder and Scully agreed to go with the Cigarette Smoking Man because he promised that he would keep them together and protect them from the alien colonists (who want to kill Mulder, Scully, and William) in exchange for letting him make a vaccine from William’s blood. (In the Space of a Day) When Maggie discovers that her daughter and family are missing, Skinner and the rest of the crew start a search, only to find evidence that Mulder and Scully ran, but died in a car accident. This evidence was planted by the Smoking Man and his associates, but no one knows that, and Mulder and Scully don’t know that everyone thinks they’re dead. Meanwhile, Mulder, Scully, and William leave with the Smoking Man, (Loss) who takes them to a remote military installation in Oregon. There, they are given base housing, and William is examined by the medical team. After exploring the facilities, Mulder and Scully decide that Scully will work with the team to develop the vaccine, while secretly trying to find a way to make William no longer immune, and thus no longer special. (The Gilded Cage)

Chapter 1: One Month 

June, 2001

“Hey Scully, say cheese!” Mulder said, pointing a camera at her. 

“Where did you get that?” she asked. She was lying with William on the couch, trapped under the napping baby. He was going through a phase where he didn’t want to sleep unless attached to one of them. 

It was annoying. 

Mulder was still standing there, camera in hand. “I asked for it,” he replied to her question. “Now, smile!”

She tried her best to smile, despite not feeling like it. Mulder clicked the picture. 

“I thought it would be good if we had a camera. I think we’ll want baby pictures, even if they are in this place.”

This place. Their prison.

They’d been here for five weeks now. What Scully found the most distressing was, after a while, being here kind of seemed normal. They ate, slept, and tried to keep William alive. She honestly didn’t know that her life would be that different if they were home, other than her only worries would be normal new parent things, rather than being held prisoner and worrying about your child being turned into a science experiment.

But tomorrow things would change. She would start going into the lab to help develop the vaccine. She had wanted to go even earlier, but between her physical recovery and hating to be separated from William, she waited. Six weeks was the recovery period for a vaginal birth, she knew, so she decided she would wait that long.

William was now seven weeks old. It was time for her to work towards getting them out of this place. She would develop this vaccine or figure out how to make William no longer immune to the soldier virus. She would save them the only way she knew how. 

Mulder brought over the camera, turning it so she could look at the back. “It’s one of those new digital cameras.” On the back there was an LCD screen, where the photo of her and William was displayed. It was a bad photo. Even with the low resolution, she could see the bags under her eyes and the extra weight in her face that still hadn’t dissipated. 

“God, I look exhausted,” she said. 

Mulder pulled back the camera to have a look for himself. He shrugged. “Well, it’s been an exhausting seven weeks.” 

Scully studied Mulder. He now sported a beard, having given up on daily shaving in favor of weekly trimming. It tickled when he kissed her, but it was also bushy and soft, in some ways better than day old stubble. His black eye had finally healed a couple weeks ago, but there were dark bags under his eyes. 

They were getting more sleep than in the beginning, but William was still waking up two or three times in the night. And then there were Mulder’s nightmares and her inability to stay asleep. She longed for the lazy Sunday mornings they’d had a year ago, when she’d sleep a full nine hours, and Mulder would bring her coffee in bed. These days she was lucky to get four hours and all Mulder ever brought her was a screaming baby. 

In short: they were a mess. And she didn’t think her going into the lab daily was going to make things easier. 

***

A few years ago, if one had asked Mulder if he wanted to settle down with Scully, have a kid, and be a stay at home dad, he would have laughed at you. The having sex with Scully part would have sounded good, but the rest of it was outside his comprehension. He was still searching for his sister, trying to get to the bottom of a vast government conspiracy. There was still so much he didn’t know, like why they took Scully, and what the chip in her neck did. Mulder was the lord of questions, and his fiefdom didn’t hold many answers. 

But now? He’d found his sister. He’d been abducted by the same men (and/or aliens) that took Scully. All his searching, all his and Scully’s sacrifices – they’d brought them no closer to the truth. All it had done was hurt him and everyone he loved. He’d told Scully last year that this had to stop, that there had to be an end to all of this. 

He just didn’t imagine the end would be them locked away on a military base living a pretend suburban dream. 

Scully was feeding William while Mulder prepared breakfast as well as Scully’s lunch. He’d requested a lunch box for her, and just for kicks he’d asked for one with the Brady Bunch on it, mostly to see what would happen. He was surprised when three days later, a metal lunch box circa 1975 emblazoned with the Brady Bunch appeared. It was great – she would hate it. He’d hid it away as a surprise.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” he heard her saying to William in the other room. Mulder knew he was going to miss Scully. They hadn’t been apart for more than an hour since William was born. He was going to have to take care of their child, alone. He knew he could do it, but he wasn’t looking forward to not having any backup.

Not to mention he felt useless, since he wasn’t contributing to getting them out of this situation. He wished he was the one heading out, on a mission to save them all, rather than staying home with the feedings and diapers. 

Scully appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, William in her arms, just as Mulder was plating the eggs. She sat at the table, and Mulder soon joined her with the food. 

“What are you going to do today?” she asked between bites. 

Mulder shrugged. Survive? “I haven’t thought much about it,” he replied. “Probably just watch TV between diaper changes.” He honestly didn’t know what else was on the table with an infant. He’d spent most of the last seven weeks talking with Scully when he was bored. He didn’t know how to fill that void.

*** 

Scully was exhausted.

When she was pregnant, she’d often wondered what exactly it would look like to return to work after having the baby. She’d always known she didn’t want to stay at home full time, and then when she’d become a single mother, that wasn’t even an option.

She’d thought that after dropping her child off at daycare, she’d have a normal day at work just like she used to. That bit of her life wouldn’t change, it would just be truncated to being between 8:00AM and 5:00PM. 

Scully could not have been more wrong. As she’d been shown around the lab, she’d been distracted thinking of William, wondering if he was ok. She was almost glad she didn’t have a cell phone, because she was sure she’d have called Mulder every thirty minutes to check in.

And then there was the pumping. She’d been given a lab bench, but it was in no way private. She’d had to ask her bench mate, Judy, about where she could pump, which set off a chain reaction of supervisors trying to figure that out.

Her first pumping session had been in the handicap bathroom stall, as they were still discussing and she couldn’t wait any longer. 

By the time she needed to pump again, they’d found a closet with a lock on it and had put a chair in there. It had a naked bulb and reminded Scully of all the times she’d been abducted and stuffed in a confined space. 

She chose to pump in the handicap stall again. 

Now she was walking back home, carrying her pump, milk, and ridiculous Brady Bunch lunch box. Thankfully no one had commented on it, but she didn’t enjoy the prospect of carrying this thing everyday. She knew Mulder thought it was funny – and it was – but she needed these people to take her seriously. Or at the very least she needed to blend in. Tonight she would ask him to get her a plain bag, while trying to not hurt his feelings. 

Scully found her way to her house, and opened the door. Mulder was in the kitchen, wearing William, and trying to keep something on the stove from burning while bouncing and singing, “Oh you can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need.” Based on William’s cries, he wasn’t in the mood to listen to talk of not getting what he wanted. 

Mulder turned at the sound of her closing the front door. “Oh, thank God you’re back.” He quickly divested himself of the baby. Scully barely had time to put the milk in the refrigerator before Mulder thrust the infant at her. “He’s hungry but I knew you’d be back soon…” 

Scully nodded, and took the baby to the kitchen table. Once he was latched, she looked up at Mulder. “Rough day?” she asked.

Mulder let out a humorless laugh. “Let’s just say I understand the song Mother’s Little Helper a bit better.” Before Scully could comment on that, he said, “How was your day?”

“Weird.”

“How so?”

Scully didn’t want to tell Mulder how much she’d missed being at home with them. He was evidently already not enjoying this arrangement, and she didn’t want to add any fuel to the fire. “The lab feels like any university I’ve ever been at. No one was really watching me. The only restriction I had was I couldn’t be there alone, and my computer isn’t hooked up to the internet.”

Mulder perked up at the word internet. “The computers have internet?” 

She nodded. “But to log into the other computers, you have to have this thing that looks like a calculator.”

“Two factor authentication.”

“I think so. Judy—” 

Mulder interrupted. “Who’s Judy?”

“My bench mate. I think she’s been told to keep an eye on me.” Judy seemed nice enough, but Scully had no inclination towards trusting her. “Anyway, Judy would type in a password, then a code into the device, and then put that code into the computer.” Scully paused, remembering that people were likely listening. “But tell me about your day,” she said, pointedly. 

Mulder nodded, understanding the change of subject. “Oh, you know, daytime TV and diaper blowouts. The fun never stops. Though I would have won the Showcase on the Price is Right today. Scully, we could have had a boat.”

She laughed. That was all they needed right now: a boat. 

Continue reading on AO3

[tragicclownwrites]

How old is everyone in "F" is for Family?

First things first, I hope you're excited for the second to last chapter(s) of "F" is for Family! 🥳🤩 Thanks for sticking around!

Given some of the timeline specifics that come up in this chapter, I felt it might be helpful to give you an explanation of how old everyone is supposed to be in my fic, so these time skips don't feel as random.

Math admittedly isn't my strong suit but I've double-checked my calculations repeatedly and am feeling somewhat confident in the numbers I came up with.

DISCLAIMER: Like most things that come up in my fic, these ages are just my headcanons. Don't take any of this as actual fact or canon! The one thing you should take away from this is that cartoon logic is weird AF which makes it hard to say anyone's ages are canon tbh.

Explanations/ramblings - and SPOILERS - below the cut!

♥️ Tragic 🤡

SpongeBob

I'm starting with our favorite little yellow friend here because I think he is where much of the age discussion first came up - starting with a certain driver's license that showed up in the episode, "Sleepy Time."

It says he was born in 1986, which would mean that we just celebrated in 37th birthday in July. However, there is one problem with this... the episode in question's debut air date is January 17, 2000.

If we go off the idea that he is canonically 37 as of July 14, 2023, this would mean that he was only 13 YEARS OLD in January 2000. In my country (the U.S.), if SpongeBob was 13, he wouldn't be old enough to:

Work at the Krusty Krab, especially not full-time.

Live on his own without a parent and/or guardian.

Attain a driver's permit, let alone a license. He'd have to wait another two years just to do the former.

I've considered the possibility that perhaps this episode doesn't actually take place during the actual air date. However, SpongeBob's driver's license also kinda debunks that theory. The expiration date is listed as December 14, 2003. Driver's licenses typically expire up to five years of issue date (depending on the state or country). This would, thus, confirm the episode takes place during 2000 or even earlier than that - making SpongeBob even younger than 13.

Seeing as SpongeBob is confirmed to be an adult during the series and is eligible to do the things listed above, this doesn't really add up.

Therefore, while I do think SpongeBob is an adult who is likely in his 30's, I don't think he's actually 37 years old (assuming he even ages).

It's also worth mentioning that they removed his birthday from later appearances of the license, leading me to believe they didn't really think that through initially. Interestingly, the expiration date has remained mostly consistent so... 🫧✨cartoon logic✨🫧

Now, to put my fanfic headcanon hat on for the duration of this post.... 🤠

Based on the timelines in my fic, I actually think his age is closer to 32-34 years old at the absolute most.

I believe I've mentioned somewhere in the story about how he and Squidward started working together about a decade prior to the events of the fic. This would mean that SpongeBob was in his early twenties when he began working at the Krusty Krab. which makes much more sense than him being 13 lmao

Squidward

So, I don't actually know how I came up with Squidward's age in this fic aside from general fandom headcanon, though I did see somewhere that his birthday is October 9, 1977 - making him 45 years old.

However, given what my analysis above revealed, I'm going to take this with a truckload of salt (especially since the actual year isn't confirmed in any official capacity). If this were true, he'd be ~21 years old in May 1999 (i..e, when "Help Wanted" premiered), which I don't think is accurate for him not to mention super awks. He was likely closer to that age when Jim was still working there.

I do think he's at least close to BlackJack's age and a bit older than SpongeBob, Todd, and Stanley. Therefore, my headcanon age for him is about 38-40 years old.

Harold & Margaret

In Harold and Margaret's origin story during this chapter, Harold and Sherm's ages are the only ones explicitly given. At the time of the story - which takes place roughly 53 years ago - Harold was confirmed to be 15 years old and a freshman in high school. Given that she was also a freshman at the time, Margaret is likely the same age.

If we do the math, Harold - and presumably Margaret - are about 68 years old at the time of FifF.

Sherm & Jolie

As previously mentioned, Sherm's age is also confirmed: he was 12 years old and just started junior high (6th grade in U.S.) when Harold and Margaret's story takes place.

In his and Jolie's own story - which happens about 46 years prior to the present - Sherm and Jolie are both freshmen in college, making them about 19 years old at the time.

Again, if we do the math, Sherm - and likely Jolie - are about 65 years old in the present day.

Blue & Sally

Unlike Harold and Sherm, Blue's age is not directly confirmed in Harold and Margaret's story. However, it is confirmed that he was a senior in high school, and he was old enough to drive. Based on this info and his younger brothers' ages, Blue was about 18 years old during this time.

In chapter 4, Blue also mentions that he'd been on the police force for 35 years. It's worth noting that the average amount of time people spend in the police academy is between 2-4 years. Assuming Blue enrolled right out of high school (as the story implies) and joined the force ~20 years old, he would've been around 55 years old when he officially retired. I like to think he was more ambitious/eager to climb the ladder when he was younger but grew more content staying in his police captain role since its already pretty senior and he had a family at that time.

Blue and Sally's origin story takes place about 41 years in the past from the fic's start.

In this story, Blue is described as being "one of the youngest lieutenants the force has ever seen." I can't recall how I got to this number if I'm honest, but I rounded his age to about 30 years old here as it is still young but not too young as to be unrealistic. I also felt it made more sense in the timeline for him and Sally to have had BlackJack a few years later (I.e., after she got released).

If we do the math from there, Blue would be around 71 years old during the time of the fic.

It's not mentioned anywhere, and she is deceased, but my headcanon for Sally is that she's about 1-2 years younger than Blue. Therefore, she'd likely be about 69-70 years old if she were still alive. In chapter 5, BlackJack reveals that “[Sally’s] been dead for ten years,” so she was ~59-60 when she actually passed.

Todd

From this picture, it's clear Todd shares some physical similarities with SpongeBob. Therefore, I felt that it would be likely for them to be close in age as well.

Starting from chapter 2, when we first meet Todd and the rest of the family, it's implied that Todd is at least "slightly older" than SpongeBob. He is also explicitly mentioned to be Stanley's older brother throughout the fic.

In chapter 5, we get the following exchange between Todd and SpongeBob:

Todd: “Besides, I am the oldest one here, so it only makes sense." SpongeBob: “Todd, we’re the same age –” Todd: “But I’ve got two months on you so that still makes me older."

Based on this, we can discern that Todd is also somewhere between 32-34 years old. Since he's two months older than SpongeBob, his birthday would take place sometime in May.

Stanley

While Stanley's canonical age is also not given, I got the impression that he was a bit younger than SpongeBob in his episode, "Stanley S. SquarePants." Stanley's curiosity about the world around him and his absentmindedness could be contributing factors to this, though that's not really indicative of age. In actuality, I felt it was SpongeBob taking him under his wing akin to a mentor or older sibling that really solidified this idea.

Therefore, in FifF, he's the baby of the group. 😇

Speaking of which, in chapter 13 (mini spoiler for next chapter when it goes live), it is mentioned that he was a baby while his older brother was a toddler - which would make Todd between the ages of 2-3 years old at the time.

With this range in mind, Stanley would be a few years younger than both Todd and SpongeBob, making him about 29-31 years old in the fic (assuming the other two are ~33).

BlackJack

BlackJack's age (in my headcanon) was more dependent on Blue's age between the time he met Sally and when they realistically would've had him together. I also felt he'd be closer in age to Squidward than he would be to his younger cousins.

Assuming his parents had him shortly after Sally got released from prison, BlackJack would be roughly 37-38 years old in the present day.

Grandma & Grandpa (Dotty & Simon)

Grandma and Grandpa SquarePants - or as I've named them, Dotty and Simon - met about 76 years ago.

While most prima ballerinas are slightly older than this (~25-30), Dotty was about 20 years old when she met Simon. He was likely a few years older than her, so I'd presume he was about 23-24 at the time.

With these numbers in mind, Grandma is about 96 years old during the events of FifF. While he is deceased and I didn't mention how long he'd been gone, Grandpa was likely between 97-99 years old when he passed.

[otakween]

Head Start at Birth - Chapters 1-10

This one popped up on MAL suddenly because the JP title begins with a "0." Always excited to read/watch something new for a change, but this looks kinda bottom tier. Not only is it an incredibly generic plot, but its adaptation is a short episodes anime 😬

ALSO, this manga is being sold in the west as chapters and in the Webtoon style? I'm old school and kinda hate this. Why can't I just buy volumes?

Ch. 1

Oof this is so generic. I'm trying to give it a chance but the cliches are too much. The art is...fine but not very memorable. At least it's in color.

The mom got over her 3 year old making land management recommendations waaaay too quickly.

>_> Is that much older looking dude the love interest? I'm gonna throw up.

Lilia was 30 when she got isekai'd so I guess I'm supposed to be the target audience here? I feel like if I was in her position I wouldn't be like "YEAH, LET'S LEVEL UP!" I'd be like "YEAH! A CHANCE TO BE A KID AGAIN AND GOOF OFF!"

I feel like they vaguely implied that the mom is an evil capitalist (monarchist?) since she won't give people tax relief. That could be something interesting to explore...

Ch. 2

Reslar (the dragon) sounds suspiciously close to Rizzler lol

They introduce 3 age appropriate boys and then she immediately falls for the older guy. I get that she has the mind of a 30 year old but it's still weird. They'll probably go the "he waits until she's older" route. Whatever -_-

I was pleased that Lilia's parents stayed on her side as she was slightly rude to the royals. Their loyalties are in the right place at least.

Why does every shoujo isekai gotta be fixated on otome games and villainesses? It's honestly so bizarre how keyword obsessed media is these days...

Ch. 3

Yeah so, this is a romance isekai where the MC is 5 and the love interest is 15 🙄 I get that it's kinda based on the olden days when engagements like that were normal due to political marriages, but still. We don't really need to be romanticizing this stuff nowadays, right? Especially when it's a fantasy world where everything's made up and the points don't matter. Oh well.

This situation reminds me of The Familiar of Zero when Louise had a much older fiancé. Although in that series I think it was kind of portrayed as a little creepy/unsettling. Wow never thought I'd be praising The Familiar of Zero as a more progressive option 😅

I do appreciate that the dad (Guy) is ride or die for his daughter, but the joke about him thinking she'd been raped was a little tasteless.

We have yet to see what the plot of this series is going to be. Is it going to follow the romance angle mainly or is it going to be more about Lilia's personal development?

Ch. 4

Lilia's mom looks a lot like she stepped out of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. It's probably just the cravat lol.

We learn about Elrich's tragic backstory (his parents were executed for treason). Unfortunately, it didn't really make him a more interesting character. I had hoped he'd have at least some sort of reaction to the engagement but he's pretty much just "bland perfect husbando" so far.

The sex fantasy was something I could have lived without. Straight to jail.

Hopefully we can get an Elrich chapter here and there to flesh him out. I don't care how much he looks like Lilia's fave otome game character.

Ch. 5

I was wary of the parents at first, but they seem to actually be really good parents? Also, Lilia's mom is super politically smart too (girl boss lol). I guess the doting dad thing is basically just a stock character, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Glad the spirits get to show some actually emotion for once (well, Reslar does anyways).

I do like that Lilia is more focused on her ambitions than Elrich. She just happens to also be really horny for Elrich lol (I'm sorry...that's how it's portrayed).

Ch. 6

Okay, I'm kinda getting into this >_> it's just shoujo isekai brain rot basically but the art is so cute and it's been a long time since I've read a manga in full color

Dressing in your fiancé's color is so romantic ;w; (although I guess people don't always have signature colors irl lol).

The dynamic between mom and Lilia both being badass boss babes gives me Yor/Anya vibes because of the ages haha.

That gothic look with the princess curls was serving (werk)

Ch. 7

Urgh my anime arch nemesis appears...head pats. I don't think they're cute at all, I think they're weird and demeaning. (Even if I was 5 years old I think I'd be like "get your hand off my head" lol). I still don't know if this is a thing Japanese people do IRL or not.

Lillia being instantly OP at everything she tries is pretty boring, this manga could use more conflict right about now.

Ch. 8

I like the princes' names (Isaac, Leonard, and Ferdinand). IDK if it would be better or worse if Lilia went for one of them instead. You can't win with rebirth scenarios lol

Ch. 9

Wtf, the spirits get ikemen versions? I can get on board with that actually. Some of my OCs are fantasy creatures with human versions actually...

"This is like having a sister" (file under: objectively weird things to say about your fiancé)

I can relate to Lilia's inability to relax. Productivity is fun to me 😅

Ch. 10

Still no ikemen Reslar, I'm surprised by the mangaka's restraint lol.

Wait how did people even learn about Lilia's dissertation? I thought they were keeping it on the down low.

The hedgehog spirit was cute. I'm glad they spared it lol

Lilia's spirits are just as OP as her of course -_- -yawn-

Well this was pretty forgettable, but it's a fluffy popcorn kinda read, so I'm not complaining. It's a bit unnerving having no idea how long a series will stretch to in these early stages. Hopefully this isn't a 100+ chapters one...

[ghostwise]

ch 1 :: the tonitrus

It was not immediately clear what had occurred, but Solimar relied on a keen intuitive sense which told them that the ships crowding around the mass relay were all wasting their time, and that in all the confusion following the inexplicable destruction of the reaper forces, there was a hidden possibility for reward; it was only a matter of where, and how.

Astrophel was less optimistic.

“I hate this. We still don’t know what’s going on,” he said, glaring at the control screens of the shuttle as he maneuvered them over city ruins. “We should just leave while we can, before something else goes horribly wrong…”

“You worry too much,” Solimar said with a grin. “Trust me. I got a feeling that relay isn’t going to budge anytime soon. And what’s the first thing everyone will want when they realize it?”

“Um…”

“Supplies!” Solimar tapped the viewscreen, making Astrophel jump. “These warehouses used to be full of rations… we might find something interesting while everyone’s distracted, yeah?”

“But… why did the reapers just keel over out of nowhere?” His mandibles flared, he shook his head. “No. Something’s wrong. It could be a trap. It doesn’t feel right.”

“I don’t know why the reapers do what they do, Astrophel. But shit’s already hit the fan. There’s no cleaning it up, so let’s just do what we do best and try and salvage what we can.”

And though Astrophel could think of ten more reasons why Solimar was wrong, he couldn’t bring any of them out of his worried mind. So, he flew the shuttle, in uneasy silence.

The red sun was setting over Benning when Astrophel set them down on an old abandoned courtyard. The city had long been evacuated, leaving them alone in the rubble.

“Stay put!” Solimar grunted, tapping a few commands into their omnitool and opening the hatch as they landed. “Should be easy for a coward like you, anyway!” In a burst of blue biotics they sped off.

Astrophel’s mandibles flared in irritation. He soon followed at a run.

.

In any war the front lines were never clearly delineated; they wavered, changeable as air currents, and a city street could just as easily be a battlefield the next day. However, there was a predictable standard of deviation to war, and Sol knew it well.

Things were kept mobile. Portable servers, comm devices, makeshift hospitals that could be packed up in minutes. As a professional profiteer, Sol didn’t know what to search for, but they’d know it when they saw it.

Flitting across the landscape they scanned their surroundings, while Astrophel puffed along behind, out of breath simply due to his nonstop bitching.

When the turian finally caught up he opted simply for shooting a steely glare at his companion. Solimar grinned at him.

“Good, you came after all! Did you notice comms are down?”

Astrophel’s expression softened to one of confusion. “How can that be?” he asked, opening his omniscreen. “Even through the worst, Palaven was still getting comms through. Benning wasn’t hit that badly was it?”

“Dunno. But whatever’s going on, it won’t be long before someone comes along to secure everything. In the meantime…” They nodded at the scraps of metal they’d found.

“A drone?” Astrophel’s eyes lit up, despite his unease.

Solimar nodded. “Here, reroute some of your omnitool’s power and help me get it back.”

“No.”

“Astrophel, c’mon!” Solimar threw their hands up, exasperated. “We don’t know how much time we have! This is important!”

The turian glanced back, raising an eyebrow plate. “What exactly are you hoping to gain?”

“Information,” The asari tapped gently on the drone’s shell. “It’s going to make all the difference in the next few months. Don’t think of it as stealing, think of it as… recovery!”

“I wasn’t-” Astrophel wheezed a little, an odd sound, coming from a turian. “I wasn’t thinking of it as stealing. Soli, are we stealing?”

“Of course not!” Solimar said all too quickly. “I wouldn’t—psh! No!”

“But-”

“Recovery, Astrophel. Recovery.” Solimar smiled at him. “Then we can get back to the shuttle, alright? What do you say?”

Astrophel regarded them for a moment, then sighed.

And so the two turned their attention to the dented little scrap of a drone, salvaging what they could.

.

“Well, shit.”

Astrophel looked up at the words, watching as Sol scanned the drone’s contents. They had both downloaded the information to their omnitools, and now perused the files individually.

“I was hoping for something like supply routes or Alliance secrets. This just looks like some kind of… computer program.” Closing out of the files, they sat back on their heels and sighed. “Waste of time.”

“Maybe.” Astrophel’s eyes scanned the lines of code thoughtfully. The work had calmed him down considerably; moved him from fretting about the possibilities, to wondering about them. “Maybe. Maybe not…”

Solimar rose to their feet, glancing upwards at the sound of ships passing by. “We won’t be alone much longer,” they said. “Cerberus and the Alliance have been scrambling over these ruins for months. With the reapers down something’s bound to give, and I don’t wanna be around when it does. I’m doing one more run before heading back. You coming?”

“In a bit,” Astrophel hummed. “Gonna spend a bit more time on this one,” he added, subharmonics already taking on a dreamy tone, the kind which indicated that he’d fully absorbed himself in his work, and would not be moved until he finished.

Solimar rolled their eyes. “Sure, now you want to focus on the drone,” they muttered. “Suit yourself. Comm me when you’re finished.”

.

It figured that Astrophel only cared about something when it proved to be incomprehensibly dull and pointless. Still, Sol wasn’t complaining. They moved faster alone anyway.

Already, the asari had returned to the shuttle twice, each time carrying a load of supplies. They searched for more drones, or perhaps a data terminal, but found none. Food, however, had been easy to locate.

The cities of Benning had boasted automated agricultural centers since their founding, but the war had decimated the population. Following that, evacuations and Cerberus raids took care of the rest. What this would mean after the war remained to be seen; there’d never been a war quite like this, after all, and the planet’s fate seemed precarious.

The crumbling granaries made an enticing and easy target for Solimar. It was a shame that they wouldn’t be able to share with Astrophel. This had been a human colony, after all. No turian food.

“All for Solimar, none for Astrophel,” they hummed cheerfully as they worked.

An unfamiliar stillness had descended on the planet, punctuated by the sound of distant ships passing by. Setting down the knapsack they’d been carrying, Solimar opened up their omnitool once more, only to realize, with a jolt of uneasiness, that it was still offline.

It was literally unheard of. In all their years, the extranet had been a steady and reliable presence. Outages, though rare, usually lasted mere minutes. Not hours. Not this.

Had local communications been altered? Following that hunch, Solimar made an adjustment to their omnitool, in order to pick up internet as well as low frequency radio waves. The screen immediately lit up with transmissions from the planet’s surface.

“There we go…” they whispered, tapping at volume controls and listening. “Sounds like a party.”

News reports from local agencies, maps, and most importantly, radio messages: a look into what was currently going on in the area. Solimar grinned, suddenly feeling less alone. These transmissions were coming from someone. Most of them were encrypted, but an exchange of information was happening in real time. Decoding the transmissions seemed worthwhile.

As they worked, events were being set into motion that would impact all their lives for years to come.

The effort to rebuild was already underway, and while many knew of the Crucible, of the thousands of hours of labor that went into winning the war, and of the implications in the destruction of every mass relay in the galaxy, most people on the ground still weren’t sure if the war had been won at all.

This information would ultimately impact who lived and who died.

As the first transmissions began to clear up, Solimar leaned in and listened closely to the choppy voices coming through the comm.

“… Hostile vessels incoming … … all stations, impose radio silence …”

A military transmission, by the sounds of it. Solimar raised a brow, sensing, once more, that intuition that had guided them onto the planet’s surface. Only now it was telling them to go.

And they would have gone, immediately, had it not been for the transmission that followed.

“Mayday! … coordinates as follows … … medical officer of the Tonitrus requesti…”

“… impose radio silence …”

“Mayday…”

“… hostile vessels incoming …”

“Requesting immediate assistance… please!”

“This automated message will repeat.”

.

With his companion gone, Astrophel was content to sink into the lines of code for a while, pondering over their meaning. Something in them felt vital, like there was a revelation waiting to be stumbled on… but then again, they were in a war zone, and maybe he was just paranoid.

Glancing up nervously, he looked to the horizon where a reaper had fallen. He felt fairly confident that this particular one was no longer a threat, but then again, there had been a hell of a lot of reapers. After nearly a year living in constant fear, he was not prepared to drop his defenses after a few hours of quiet. Unlike Solimar, who seemed to just shrug and carry on regardless.

More ships passed overhead, adding to a din that was getting closer, not farther. What was that Solimar had said? That they wouldn’t be alone for long? Perhaps they should head back to the shuttle after all.

It clicked then, suddenly. The idea that had been percolating the entire time he’d been working on the code.

Astrophel scanned the information a few more times and yanked himself to his feet, stunned by his realization. It was a hell of a lot of data. In retrospect, he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it sooner.

“It’s for a ship… a ship’s navigating program,” he said out loud.

This could prove to be useful after all.

.

Evenings on Benning were odorous, not poetic. Agricultural waste and warfare made for pretty sunsets, though, and Solimar wished they had time to appreciate the view.

Sprinting in a streak of glowing blue across the ruins, they caught up with Astrophel right where they’d left him, still analyzing data and mining information from his screen like a mad scientist.

“Cut the nerd shit for a moment and listen to this!” Solimar said. Ignoring Astrophel’s protests, they played the transmissions they’d recovered.

‘Attention. Hostile vessels incoming. All stations impose radio silence until further notice. Instructions from Alliance Command will be forthcoming. This automated message will repeat.’

“Radio silence…” Astrophel repeated carefully, listening. “These are all on local frequencies? Is there anything from outside the system?”

“No. Everything’s local, and hella encrypted,” Solimar said simply. “Comm buoys must’ve taken a beating during the last attack because there are no off-planet communications coming through at all. We’re cut off.”

Astrophel suppressed a shiver at the thought.

“Go back to that first transmission,” he said after a moment.

“The mayday? What for? There’s nothing we can do without the coordinates.”

“But you have it saved, right? You don’t have the right encryption key, but I could probably get the coordinates if you pass me the file.”

“Come again?” Solimar scoffed.

“The Tonitrus is a Turian frigate. It should be the same codes the Havincaw, which I served on.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, simply yanking Solimar closer so as to patch into their omnitool. Solimar meanwhile had taken on a rather deflated look, sinking to a crouch as Astrophel worked.

“Huh? Sorry? What’s happening?” they asked. “Since when do you know anything about military encryption keys? You can’t say shit like that and just-”

“Got it!”

Astrophel clapped his claws together, letting out a celebratory shout. “I have the transmission, the coordinates, and best of all...” At this point his grin turned towards positively revolting, all needled teeth and gaping jaws. Solimar winced a little.

“... Best of all, I have the ship’s missing navigation program. Let’s go! We have to hurry!”

Turians shouldn’t grin, Solimar mused as they followed them back to the shuttle, still baffled. Looks like a thresher maw with a Glasgow smile…

But they ran after him all the same. A profiteer and a war deserter, racing against nightfall, and whatever followed.

[cjsinkythoughts]

Rocks, Shoulders, and Ears

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 3501

Warnings: !FATWS SPOILERS!, Cursing, Major Angst in this one, guys, Loads of Feels (sorry not sorry), John Walker being a douche (I really don’t like the guy)

A/N: I’m SO SORRY! I promise I was planning on it being shorter, but I went a little overkill with the angst! There’s just so many feelings and not enough space in my heart and soul, so I had to pour them out here! You get to see more of Reader and Sam’s relationship in this one and there’s major Bucky Feels towards the end (in my defense, this is based on the Couples Therapy half of the episode).

I’m really hoping we get to see Bucky go to Louisiana next episode! I’m holding out for it! I have a few ideas that include Sarah, but I need the episode! Ugh! Now we have to wait a whole ‘nother week! I really shouldn’t write three chapters on one episode in one day. I just couldn’t help myself!

Anyways! Please enjoy this part and thank you so much for all your support! Seriously, it’s meant so much to me, especially after the week I’ve had! If you haven’t checked out the previous parts, my FATWS Series Masterlist is HERE, so please go read those first. Like always, this isn’t beta’d so please excuse any mistakes! Enjoy, babes!

!SPOILERS UNDER CUT!

The last thing you remembered was falling asleep in Bucky’s arms after walking a few miles. And a hospital in DC wasn’t exactly what you preferred waking up to, but it’s what happened. Turned out, not only was your shoulder dislocated and your thigh was strained, but you had a mild concussion. Your arm was in a sling and your palm, which you had completely forgotten about after you wrapped it while on Bucky’s back, was wrapped properly. Luckily, your thigh wasn’t too bad, but they wanted to put you on crutches, which you refused immediately.

You had to get out of that building. You had no idea where the guys went, which was weird because you were sure they’d never leave you alone. Especially in a hospital.

You quickly snuck your way through the halls after grabbing your bag which - thank God - was left on the seat besides your bed and changing into an extra pair of clothes. 

You tried calling Bucky’s phone, the one he had specifically for you, which he always always answered. He even made an excuse to go to the bathroom once when you accidentally called in the middle of a therapy session. Nothing. You called the number four times before trying Sam’s phone.

It clicked on the first try.

“Hey. Listen, sorry for leaving-”

“Where the hell are you?”

You heard him sigh. “I was just about to explain, so hang on a second there. You weren’t waking up, probably because that concussion you forgot to mention to us-”

“In my defense, I didn’t know.”

“Sure you didn’t.” You rolled your eyes, throwing your free hand up, exasperated. “Anyways, Bucky wanted me to meet someone, we’ll talk about that when you inevitably get here, put we had a bit of trouble and Bucky was arrested-”

“What?!”

“Chill your pants, Y/L/N. Just listen. We’re in Baltimore. I’ll text you the address. Get here soon and I’ll explain the whole thing. We’ve been here for a couple hours, but there’s people on their way and we’re getting everything situated right now.”

“Okay. Fine. But you’re in trouble.”

“Don’t I know it, babe. Now hurry your cute little ass here. We’ve got stuff to talk about.”

*****************

The ride from DC to Baltimore is usually an hour or so, but you’ve got resources, especially in the nation’s capital, and riding the bike you got, being able to go way over the speed limit? You got there in half the time. Being an Avenger really does have its perks.

The moment you got there, you hopped off the bike, not even bothering to turn it off, and stormed into the precinct. You headed straight over to the desk, but a pair of hands caught you by your uninjured arm before you could make a scene.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Sam spoke softly, squeezing your bicep gently. “He’s okay, alright?”

“Why is he-”

“He missed his court-mandated therapy session.” Sam informed you, pulling you over to where he had been sitting previously. “There was a warrant out for his arrest. They had to bring him in, but it’s fine. His therapist’s been contacted. She should be here any minute to get him out.”

Your head fell back at his words. His therapy. How could you forget? You let Bucky complain to you about it and played along sometimes, but you really did think it was good for him and you tried supporting him. Yet you made him miss it and now he’s in trouble.

“Hey. Y/N. Look at me.” You found Sam’s worried eyes, his hand coming up to hold the side of your neck. “He’s okay. He’ll be out in just a bit. It’s fine.”

“It’s my fault, Sam.”

“No. It’s not. He’s a grown ass man who made the decision to skip.”

You shook your head, holding his wrist for something to anchor you down. “No, Sammy. I brought him along. I should’ve been more responsible-”

“I know we’ve joked around about you being in charge and stuff, but…you know it’s not all on your shoulders, right?” Sam tilted his head slightly, eyebrow pinched in confusion making his eyes narrow. 

You turned your head, not wanting to look at him. You didn’t need another set of deep eyes to fall into. “Sammy…I promised him I’d look after you.”

“I know. And that’s fine. But looking after us - looking after him - doesn’t mean you have to be there to hold his hand and take the fall for him. He’s not a child. Hell, he’s a hundred years old. Tell me you understand that.”

Licking your lips, you closed your eyes and shook your head again. “I-I can’t-”

“Is that why you’re obsessed with finding Wanda?”

You frowned at his question, eyes snapping to his. “I’m worried about her, Sam.”

“I am too, but she can handle herself. And if she doesn’t want to be found, you have to let her be. I know the Avengers were your only family. I know how much Steve meant to you-”

“No.” You pulled away rather harshly, digging your nails into your palms, trying not to cry, ignoring the wound you were irritating. “No, you don’t. How could you understand my feelings for Steve when I don’t understand them myself?”

Sam always had this ability to make anyone feel important, just by looking them in the eye. It was something you always admired about him; the way his smile could light up a room, those warm eyes making everyone’s fears go away. They reminded you of hot chocolate. Something that could soothe your worries, comfort you, warm your very soul from the ice tragedy and heartache tend to big on.

You promised yourself you wouldn’t cry in front of people, but with the way he was looking at you, it was hard to keep the tears from slipping.

“You loved him, Y/N. Why is it so hard for you to see that?”

“I didn’t - I wasn’t in love with him, Sam.” You argued, wiping your cheeks aggressively and turning, crossing your arms defensively.

“What do you call it then?”

It was a rhetorical question, Sam copying your movements and sitting straight to watch for Bucky coming out. A rhetorical question that you didn’t know the answer to. Because you weren’t in love with Steve. No. Maybe you had been, but somewhere along the way he passed your heart to Bucky. So why did it hurt so bad?

You refused to dwell on it anymore, clearing your throat and dabbing at your eyes one more time before changing the topic. “Why are we in Baltimore?”

“Bucky wanted me to meet someone. Isaiah. You know him?” Sam turned back to you, his warm eyes shifting into something else. Suspicion? A bit of anger? Annoyance? You couldn’t tell.

“Isaiah? I don’t think I know any Isaiahs. And definitely not here. Why? Who is he?”

Sam shook his head, eyes darting around the lobby. “We’ll talk about it later.”

You nodded, although now your curiosity had peaked and you wondered who this guy was that made Sam so agitated. While you waited, you felt your eyes drooping and you let your head fall onto Sam’s shoulder, who chuckled.

“You’re still tired? You know you slept for, like, twelve hours, right?”

“I haven’t been sleeping much.”

Sam turned his head to kiss yours. “Y/N, I know you want to care for everyone, but you’ve gotta take care of yourself too.”

“I know.”

“Okay.” And with that, the subject dropped, Sam pulling out his phone while you rested your eyes.

It was another ten minutes or so before Sam’s name was called and the both of you stood up to greet the speaker. A woman, Dr. Raynor. Bucky’s infamous therapist.

And speaking of infamous. The moment you heard his voice, you squeezed your eyes shut, hoping it was just your brain malfunctioning. And then he was walking towards you, calling Bucky ‘Bucky’ like they were old pals and he was saving him from something terrible.

Your face scrunched up as Walker talked about stopping Bucky’s regular therapy sessions. “He’s too valuable of an asset to have him tied up-”

“Don’t call him an asset.” You snapped. “He’s a human being with needs, and therapy-”

“He’s a super soldier with skills that we need.” Walker cut in, making you scowl as he turned back to Raynor.

You scoffed in disbelief at his words, turning on your heel and walking away before he did, heading straight for Bucky, who lifted his right arm, wrapping it around your shoulders once you were close enough.

“Are you okay?” You whispered, closing your eyes and trying to relax in his hold, breathing him in.

“Are you? Should you be walking? What did-”

You shook your head. “I’m fine.”

“Really?”

“Promise.” You sighed out with a nod, squeezing him once more before pulling back as Raynor stepped forwards, ordering Bucky and Sam to do a session with her. You almost laughed when Sam tried refusing, a little chuckle actually leaving your lips when Bucky slumped, dragging his feet like a kid going to the principal’s office.

You followed, Bucky holding the door open for you. “Thanks, Buck.”

“Of course, doll.” He gave a small smile, before walking in after you, Sam letting out a, “hey!” when Bucky shut the door on him, making you roll your eyes. You let the corners of your mouth tick up slightly in amusement. Yes, they annoyed the hell out of you, but you had to admit it was pretty funny sometimes.

“I believe I asked for James and Sam, Ms. Y/L/N.”

“It’s Agent, actually, and I think I’m gonna sit in.”

Raynor narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think-”

“That wasn’t a request.” You threw her words to Sam back at her, making Sam smirk. You shot him a wink as she relented with a sigh. 

“Fine. Just as a spectator. Don't interrupt.”

You raise your hands in surrender, slipping around the table to stand in the corner as your fellas sank down into the seats across the table from her.

A small puff of laughter came from you at the lack of response when she asked one of them to start. She shot you a warning look over her shoulder, but you shrugged. You couldn’t help it; it was like all those times back in grade school when a teacher asked for a volunteer to read in a classroom full of rowdy kids and crickets followed.

Once she mentioned the next exercise was used for couples, you had to laugh, making both men shoot you begging pouts.

“Y/N.” Raynor glared at you, so you controlled yourself, gesturing for her to continue.

Her miracle question did work so well, neither of them cooperating well.

She didn’t even bother with you when you started cackling after she mentioned the “soul-gazing exercise” and Bucky thanked her, Sam commenting that he would like this one. You gave a teasing wolf-whistle when they got close, one of Bucky’s thighs between Sam’s and vice versa.

“Doll.” Bucky whined at you.

“Listen here, smartass-”

Raynor cleared her throat, cutting Sam off from finishing his statement towards you. You leaned back against the wall, crossing your arms with a smirk. After all the bickering and side taking they’ve put her through, letting you enjoy this was the least they could do, and they knew it.

Of course, this exercise didn’t work out either. A staring contest. Children. She was best friends with literal children.

But then something happened. Something you never thought would happen. Raynor asked Bucky why Sam aggravated him, and Bucky looked over to you, his eye growing sad in a way they only did when Steve was involved.

“Steve believed in you.” Bucky told him earnestly. “He trusted you. He gave you that shield for a reason. That shield? That is…that is everything he stood for. That is his legacy. He gave you that shield, and you threw it away like it was nothing.  So maybe he was wrong about you. And if he was wrong about you, he was wrong about me.”

You heard his voice crack a little at the end as he slumped down in his seat, you jaw dropping slightly. You listened to the rest of the conversation, catching the way Sam grew irritated again, something that you didn’t previously think was possible, but was happening more and more now.

Why wasn’t Sam talking to you? Why was he holding all this in suddenly? And why…Bucky…he didn’t tell you that. Why didn’t he say anything? How could he ever feel…

But you knew how he could feel like that. Yes, Steve believed in him so much that he tore the Avengers apart for him…but he was the only one willing to do that for him. Yeah, you and Sam and Wanda and Clint, you all joined their side but, being honest, it wasn’t because you believed in Bucky. It was because you believed in Steve. Of course, it was different now. You believed in Bucky with your entire being, and you believed in Sam with your heart and soul, but…did either of them know that? Did they believe you when you told them? Or did you not tell them enough? This whole time you thought you were doing right by Steve - trying you damn hardest to watch out for them. But it obviously wasn’t enough. And that was on you, no matter what Sam said.

You read people. That’s what you’ve always done, that’s what you’d always do. It was the reason you earned your spot on the team. You read people and situations and could figure your way into their heads in a second. Years and years of undercover work taught you how to do that and how to protect yourself while doing so.

So why? How? How did you miss something this big? How did you miss the way Sam was holding onto something? Why did you ignore the vexation in his tone for the last couple weeks? How did you miss that Bucky was hurting that deeply? Why didn’t you do anything more for him?

You left the room before either of the boys, but you heard Sam standing up as you walked out the door.

You should’ve known you weren’t the only one holding things in. Of course they were. The difference is, you were supposed to be their rock, the thing they could hold onto to ground themselves, the shoulder for them to cry on, and the ear lent to them whenever they needed someone to listen. That was your job. It wasn’t their job. Not for you. Your rock - your shoulder, your ear - he left you. And you thought, after all he did for you, if you just returned the favor for his best friends, you’d…you dunno. You’d be closer to him, maybe.

But you couldn’t. Because you weren’t Steve Rogers. And you knew that from the start, but you had to try. You tried. And it wasn’t working. He made it seem so easy when he did it for you. Clearly you didn’t give him enough credit for dealing with all your shit on top of his own.

“Doll.” You didn’t stop walking, needing to get outside for some fresh air. “Doll, hold on. Wait a minute.”

He grabbed your arm as you made it outside, spinning you to face him. “You didn’t tell me.” You spoke quietly, your voice fragile as you stared at him, confusion and hurt in your eyes. Were you really that bad at doing your job? Did you really already fail him? He asked you to do one thing…

“I didn’t…I didn’t want you to deal with my problems.” You opened your mouth, but he shook his head, holding your face between his hands. “I’m not stupid, Y/N. I know something’s going on with you. You’re good at hiding your nightmares at night, but I’m better. You’re jumpier than usual. Quieter. Every time Wanda’s brought up, you turn away. And the other day? On the truck? You froze. I was watching, doll. It was just a second, but you froze. You never freeze.”

“It’s not your job to worry about me, Buck-”

He frowned, tilting his head. “Not my job? Aren’t we friends? Isn’t that what friends do? Or am I just a job to you? I know you promised him to look after me. Is that all I am to you? A responsibility?”

You shook your head vigorously, holding onto his wrists. “No. No, Bucky, I just-”

“Do you think he was wrong about me?”

Salty diamonds ran down your cheeks as you clenched your eyes shut and shook your head. “No.”

“Did you ever believe in me? Did you ever care or was it all just because Steve? Is Steve the only reason you tolerate me?”

“Don’t say that. God, please don’t say that.” You begged quietly, meeting his gaze again. Every beautiful detail was laced with devastation, eyes imploring her to make him feel better. “Of course I believe in you. I have since Wakanda, you know that. Yes, okay, maybe Steve is why I helped you at first, but-but…I care about you, James. So much so that it hurts sometimes. He wasn’t wrong about you. Or Sammy. You both mean so much to me. Okay?”

You watched his Adam’s Apple bob as he swallowed thickly, nodding slightly. You both simultaneously moved to get closer, him pulling you while you stepped into his chest, arms around his waist. His arms were tight around your shoulder, holding you just as firm as the kiss he planted on your forehead.

Sam came out, planting himself besides you as you pulled away, Bucky wiping your eyes. “I feel better.” He huffed out sarcastically, making you smack him in the arm. “Ow! Yeesh. Women these days.”

The sudden siren of one of the parked police cars made the three of you look over, spotting Walker and Hoskins. You groaned. “Did he see that?”

“Hey,” Bucky caught your jaw between his fingers, shaking his head. “Who cares? It’s between us and us only. Right?” You nodded, making him kiss your forehead again, a whisper of “attagirl” against your skin. You hadn’t heard that from him in a while.

“Gentlemen!” Walker waved them over, nodding at you. “And lady.” The three of you reluctantly walked over, Bucky going to lean on the police car Walker and Hoskins were near and you hopped up to sit on the hood of the police car across from them, Sam besides you.

You got information from Walker, who was once again trying to get you to work with him, but Sam summed it up nicely, explaining that the three of you didn’t have to follow the rules he did. You started to leave, Bucky tucking you under his arms once you slid off the car, when Walker stopped you once more.

“A word of advice, then. Stay the hell out of my way.”

You grumbled under your breath as the faker and his lapdog walked off. “I’m gonna kill him.” You vowed as the three of you started in the other direction. “I swear to God, I’m gonna rip that shield off his back and use it to beat him in that stupid face of his-”

“Down, girl.” Sam jested, flicking your ear. “We need a game plan. What’re we thinking?”

Your eyes narrowed as Bucky piped up, talking about the Isaiah character - who you still didn’t know - before HYDRA entered the equation.

“Absolutely not.” You shook your head, tugging his arm to make him stop once he mentioned Siberia. “Do you remember Siberia? Because if you’re actually suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, we remember Siberia very differently.”

“He’s our best bet-”

“So you’re just going to go sit in a room with this guy?”

Bucky scrunched up his nose. “Ye-yes…”

A beat of silence passed before Sam gave his stamp of approval, but you still disagreed. “There’s no way this’ll end well and I refuse to let you-”

You found your face between Bucky’s hands again. You really wished he’d stop doing that and just ask for your attention. You didn’t mean that, of course. You’d be held by him every second of every day if you could. “Don’t you trust me, doll?”

You licked your lips, looking around the darkened street. This was not a good idea. A bad plan - a terrible plan, really - but, unfortunately, it was the only one you had. “Dammit. I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.” You finally sighed, running a hand through your hair after Bucky let go of you, his eyebrow quirking.

“Is that a yes?”

Sam nodded. “We’re gonna go see Zemo.”

You tugged Bucky’s hand when he nodded back and went to walk after Sam, who started walking around the corner, making him stop. “And yes. I do trust you. With everything I have, Buckaroo.”

[carriagelamp]

I haven't done one of these in ages... mostly because I've been kept way too busy to read much or even think about compiling what I did get around to reading orz But I have had a chance to read at least a few fun things this year so far and decided to round up some of my favourites!

Asterix and the Griffin

I finally read the newest Asterix comic. My main takeaway: it wasn't one of my favourite Asterix stories, but none of the new ones have been, but I do think it's one of the best by this new team so far. The finale was beautiful! Also, I hate Papercutz and would fistfight them in an alley.

The Complete Brambly Hedge

I read this back in January and it was so soft and sweet. I love these sorts of children stories, and the art was stunning. Honestly, I kind of feel like I need to buy this one. Any story about tiny little guys living in a big world is a set up for me to fall in love, and this one came complete with cute little mouse house cutaway diagrams!

Carry On

I was super skeptical about this one to start with, the Harry Potter satire just felt... way to heavy-handed, but when it finally clicked... boy did it ever click. I think this ended up being my favourite book that I've read this year so far, I am completely smitten with Simon and Baz, they were excellent protagonists and the audiobook I listened to did excellent work.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Caleb Widogast

I listened to a few episodes of Critical Role and enjoyed it, but never managed to stick with it, instead I mostly absorbed this series through dashboard osmosis. Still, I knew enough that reading the comic was a real treat. The art was beautiful, and poor Caleb really had a rough go...

Failed Princesses v5

The latest volume of Failed Princesses. Me and my brother are hooked, though as he put it you could cut the drama with a knife. In a good way. Bless these useless lesbians.

Heartstopper v1-3

I started watching the Netflix show, so obviously I had to go back and reread the first three books! And finally get my shit together and order the fourth in... Continues to just be cute as anything. Would recommend both the graphic novels and the show, they're both acting as a balm for my soul.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Did you know the Ghibli film was based off a children's novel?? Because I sure didn't! I bought this on a whim when I saw it in the local bookshop, and it's adorable. It fits that common 20th century kidlit genre where you have a main character going through little mini adventures/experiences in each chapter. The first book is almost a one to one with the movie, though it diverges at the end. Still, for a kid's novel, it was a delightful, quick little read.

Modelland

This is an actual nightmare that me and my girlfriend were reading outloud to each other for a few months. We finished it in January, but at what cost. I have never read anything so absolutely off the wall fucking weird. I have no idea what Tyra Banks was thinking and I'm not convinced she knew either. Way more fun than it should have been, it was captivating in the same way as a car crash.

Mr Popper's Penguins

A classic kidlit novel I had always meant to read and just had never gotten around to. Finally knocked it out in a day, and found it very charming. I can see why it's stuck around in our collective conscious.

The Outbursts of Everett True

I had seen comics of this floating around on tumblr for a while and finally decided to pick up a copy and read it. Despite how old the comics are, it really does tap into a timeless secret desire to just kick the shit out of people who mildly inconvenience us. Is it serious, or take itself seriously? Absolutely not. Have all the jokes aged well? HECK NO! But there was enough that felt VERY relatable and satisfying that I definitely though it was a worthwhile read!

The Purple Smurfs (and two other stories)

I had never read any actual Smurf comics, which feels odd given how big it was a few decades back. It was an enjoyable comic with very pretty art, though it reinforces, once again, my desire to feed Papercutz to rapid ladybugs. Why are they the only game in town for Smurfs comics?? These are classics, I'd thought they'd be everywhere!

Spiderwick v1-3

I've been working my way through the Spiderwick books this week, since I hadn't read them since I was a kid. They really are superbly written little novels. They never try to tackle too much in one book, and ensure what they do is imaginative, slightly horrifying, and accompanied by the most gorgeous art you can imagine. I'll never forgive the movie they'd attempted, because this series was a work of art.

[yelena-bellova]

Safe Haven: tfatws!Bucky Barnes x fem!reader - Chapter Two

chapter one -Chapter Two: According To Plan - chapter three

Series Masterlist

Plot: Y/n and Sam leave for Munich, gaining the surprise addition of Bucky Barnes to their team. 

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x fem!reader, Sam Wilson x platonic!reader

Warnings: spoilers for ep.2, language, violence, squint for fluff in between all the chaos, Y/n and Bucky ain’t feeling each other yet, protective big brother Sam, nobody likes Walker

Word Count: 7.5k (ya’ll, we had to split episode 2 into two chapters because I use too many words lol)

A/N: OKAY, thank you to everybody for supporting the first chapter. I didn’t really think anything would come of it but I was clearly wrong. Hopefully you enjoy this one just as much, each episode will probably be divided into two chapters if the rest of the season continues on like it is. 

----

The government hadn’t just failed Sam, they were rubbing his face in the fact that they thought their knockoff Captain America was a better candidate than him.

I followed my brother down the halls of the New Orleans air force base, trying to ignore the paraphernalia that hung on the walls. John Walker was everywhere you looked; the internet, televisions, posters were plastered all over the city announcing his new appointment. Each time I had to read the words ‘Cap Is Back’ I became a little sick to my stomach. Sam stopped in front of me once we’d reached the hanger to stare at one of the posters. Though he tried to keep his face neutral, the sadness bled through in his eyes.

“Seems like a good guy. You met him?” a man who I assumed was Sam’s military contact asked.

“No,” Sam answered before changing the topic, “Thanks for doing this on such short notice.” “Yeah, no sweat. I’m just finishing up the checklist, you two’ll be all good to go once you land in Munich,” he looked to me and reached a hand for me to shake, “Joaquin Torres.” “Y/n Y/l/n. Thanks for not making any noise about me coming along for the ride.”

“Hey, I trust an Avenger’s judgement on who to bring to a fight,” he smiled, stopping at the top of the steps to allow me to go before himself.

I elbowed Sam as we descended the stairs side by side, “Hear that? You’ve got good judge- why’re you making that face?” Before he could answer, a foreign voice announced its presence. “Shouldn’t have given up the shield.”

My eyes fell to the floor below us and climbed the looming figure waiting at the end of the staircase. I didn’t need to have any history lessons on who he was or why he’d come to talk to Sam about such a subject. James Bucky Barnes, the second 100+ year old man to walk the earth without a single wrinkle. The tragic tale of HYDRA’s bloodthirsty history. The man Sam had fought to protect and been sent to prison for.

“Good to see you too, Buck,” Sam passively greeted the man, swerving around his body to continue on our path to the jet. The hint wasn’t taken. 

“This is wrong.”

“Hey, hey, look, I’m working, alright? So all this outrage is gonna have to wait.” Bucky fell into step on the other side of Sam, pointing towards yet another poster of John Walker, “You didn’t know that was gonna happen?”

“No, of course I didn’t know that was gonna happen,” Sam’s tone became more emotional, “You think it didn’t break my heart to see them march him out there and call him the new Captain America?” “This isn’t what Steve wanted,” Bucky pushed. Sam was growing tired of the questioning, “What do you want me to do? Call America and tell ‘em I changed my mind? Huh? Yeah, right. It’s a great reunion, buddy, be well.” “You had no right to give up that shield, Sam.” I could no longer stay silent and let him try and make a good man feel guilty. “Okay, you’re out of line with that one, Barnes.” Bucky finally took a second to register my being there before looking back to Sam, “Who the hell is this?” “She’s none of your concern, but let me tell you what you’re not gonna do,” Sam stood in front of Bucky, “You’re not gonna come here in your overextended life and tell me about my rights. It’s over, Bucky. Besides, I have bigger things to deal with now.” Emotions I couldn’t fully understand took over Bucky’s face, “What could be bigger than this?”

Sam fished his phone out of his back pocket and held it up to the Super Soldier, “This guy. His connections with rebel organizations all over Eastern and Central Europe and he’s strong. Too strong.” “And?” Bucky asked, unimpressed.

“Well, he’s been connected to this online group called the Flag Smashers. Now, Redwing traced them to a building somewhere outside of Munich so that’s where I’m going,” Sam turned to me to signal we were walking again.

“Well, I don’t trust Redwing,” Bucky continued his pursuit, “Hold on a minute.” “You don’t have to trust Redwing,” Sam said firmly as we paused again, “But I’mma go see if he’s right. ‘Cause I have a feeling they might be a part of the Big Three.”

Bucky’s eyebrows lowered in confusion, “What ‘Big Three?’”

“The Big Three.”

“What Big Three?” “Androids, aliens and wizards,” I answered before Sam could. “That’s not a thing,” Bucky shook his head. “That’s definitely a thing,” Sam nodded. “No, it’s not.” “It really is,” I set my bag down on the ground and crossed my arms, there was no indication we’d be leaving any time soon.

“Every time we fight, we fight one of the three,” Sam insisted.

“So who are you fighting now, Gandalf?”

Sam inhaled to continue arguing before snapping his head back in surprise, “How do you know about Gandalf?” “I read The Hobbit,” Bucky answered confidently, “In 1937 when it first came out.”

“So you see my point?” “No, I don’t. There are no wizards.” I pointed to Bucky and tilted my head towards Sam, “Now there, I agree with him.” Sam looked offended that I didn’t automatically back him up, “You both are wrong…Doctor Strange.” “Is a sorcerer,” Bucky finished.

“Aah!” Sam laughed and poked Bucky’s firm chest, “A sorcerer is a wizard without a hat. Think about it, right? I’m right. I just came up with that, it’s crazy.” Bucky’s face read that he was thousand shades of done with Sam’s childish argument, even if he’d fought just as immaturely. I was beginning to see why Sam didn’t recount his brief time spent with the ex-Winter Soldier that fondly but I’d also forgotten how easy it was to push Sam’s buttons sometimes. There was some unwitting dynamic between them that I didn’t want to be in the middle of. “So glad we’re wasting valuable time on arguing over whether or not Harry Potter’s real,” I spoke up, tapping my foot out of impatience.

Sam was the first to snap back to reality, “That’s not the point. These guys aren’t magical, alright? They use brute force just like you, the incredibly annoying guy in front of me with the staring problem,” he reached down to grab my bag and hand it to me, “Let’s move.” “I’m coming with you,” Bucky called, the sound of his combat boots hitting the hanger floor behind us. “No, you’re not,” Sam answered harshly. “Oh my gosh,” I groaned before dropping my duffle bag again on the tarmac and spinning around to face the two men, “I don’t know how you two could have possibly saved the day as much as people say you have if you’re always like this! You,” I pointed to Sam, “Stop trying to do this on your own. You,” I moved my finger towards Bucky, “No more talking about the shield. If anybody needs me,” I wiggled my fingers and let the blue energy lift my bag into the air, “I’ll be waiting in the jet.” ——

Bucky and Sam stood speechless as they watched Y/n march across the tarmac, her bag magically floating behind her. “Who is she?” “My sister, Y/n,” Sam answered, “I didn’t know she could do that till today. She twisted my arm until I agreed to let her come.” Bucky’s eyes hadn’t left Y/n since she took control and ended Sam and his bickering. There weren’t many people who met him for the first time and didn’t give him a second glance. If she was Sam’s sister then she sure as hell knew about his past. Yet here she was daring to order him around and advocate for him to join Sam and her on their mission. It also went without saying that she was gorgeous. But she had proven that she didn’t understand the seriousness in which the situation with the new Captain America needed to be treated with, and that irked him. Still, his feet automatically wanted to carry him to the jet once she’d headed up the ramp and he’d lost his view of her. “Can’t decide whether I like her or not.”

——

Not having a suit to wear, I had changed on the jet from my sweater, capris and sneakers to a black shirt, jeans, booties and my favorite blue leather jacket that matched the blue that flowed from my fingertips.

When I stepped out of the jet’s bathroom, I expected to find Sam and Bucky fighting again. The whole flight so far has been filled with the same tension that had begun in the hanger and we’d been sitting in uncomfortable silence ever since. I was sure that the second I left, they’d be going at it again like children when a parent disappeared. Instead, they were quietly sitting on opposite sides of the jet with their eyes trained on one another.

“Can you guys quiet down for a second?” I sarcastically remarked as I walked across the room, “I can’t hear myself think.”

I deposited my bag in the corner of the jet near where Torres was climbing down the ladder, “One minute to drop off, Sam.”

I expected to turn around and see both Sam and Bucky up and preparing themselves, but the two men were still embroiled in a stare down. Sam and I had always cheesed each other off in a typical sibling fashion, but Bucky and his relationship seemingly consisted of nothing but that. 

Sam finally rose from his seat and Bucky quickly did the same, I brushed past him to stand on the other side of Sam. “So what’s the plan?” Sam ignored the question and handed me a small black device, “This is your comm, don’t lose it.” I nodded and placed the small ear piece in my ear, the faint hums of the jet coming through it.

With no direction from Sam, Bucky sat back down unhappily. “Great. So no plan?”

“Thirty seconds,” Torres shouted over the wind coming in from the open hatch.

“Enjoy your ride, Buck,” Sam remarked from beside me. “No, you can’t call me that.” “Why not? That’s what Steve called you.” “Steve knew me longer and Steve,” Bucky tilted his head to Sam, “Had a plan.”

I shook my head to shake off the ridiculousness of arguing nicknames at the moment. “I’m sorry, are we really playing the name game when we’re literally about to jump out of a plane? I get this is my first mission and all but- Bucky’s eyebrows shot up his forehead as he looked to Sam, “This is her first mission? What the hell were you thinking, bringing her?” “She,” I took a step towards Bucky, “Is more than capable of handling herself. First mission or 100th, I know what I’m doing, Barnes.”

“Fifteen seconds to drop!” Torres’ announcement ended any further arguing between me and Bucky.

“Listen to the woman,” Sam smirked as he put on his goggles, probably thinking back to a few hours ago when I’d body slammed him into the roof, “And I have a plan.”

“Really?” Bucky spread his arms out as we watched Sam walk away from us, “What is it?” Sam had already told me that he’d drop in first and I was to follow once he’d cleared the area. Bucky had not been privy to hearing that discussion and Sam had made no effort to fill him in. Without giving Bucky a second look, but winking at me, he dove headfirst out of the hatch and activated his wings, flying gracefully downwards towards the forest. I had never gotten to see him fly and felt a sense of pride as I looked out to see him glide above the trees.

“Where’s the chute?” Bucky called out.

“We’re at 200 feet, it’s too low for a chute,” Torres stated.

Bucky stalked towards the door, “I don’t need it anyway.”

“Neither will I,” I said, taking a step forward to see just how high we really were. I was confidant in my ability to keep up with Sam and wanted to prove my capability, but I was human. It went against every natural instinct to step out into the air and catch myself. Bucky moved to stand next to me, the two of us turning to face each other. This was the first time we’d actually made more than fleeting eye contact and I was finally able to get a good look at him. His features were sharp, his cheekbones and jaw were extremely prominent. Something more than scruff and less than a beard covered the bottom half of his face. His eyes were cerulean blue, just nearly matching the shade of my energy. Complete with a short, scruffy haircut, I wasn’t sure if handsome was a strong enough word for just how good looking James Barnes was. 

“Ladies first,” Bucky nodded towards our exit, never breaking eye contact, “Sure you know what you’re doing?” I smiled smugly, matching the amount of sass radiating from his words, “Do you?”

Not wanting to give him the opportunity to think up a come back, I turned away from him and threw myself out of the plane. An unavoidable scream flew from my lips as I free fell, somehow managing in the chaos to threw my arms out at my sides and expel my energy to control my descent. Once I got a hold on maneuvering the winds, the act actually became almost enjoyable. I found myself laughing as I weaved between the trees, until my laughter was accompanied by a fast approaching scream above me. A shower of branches began to rain down around me forcing me to swerve to the side just in time for Bucky’s figure to come crashing through. He landed harshly on his back, limbs spread out and a pained groan escaping his lips.

I floated directly above him, “I stand corrected, you definitely know what you’re doing.” “I have all of that on camera. You know that, right?” Sam’s voice came through our comms. Redwing flew up from behind us and zoomed in on Bucky’s face. 

“Get out of my face, Sam, or I’ll break it,” Bucky uttered, exhaustion filling his voice.

“Okay, head north. Come on.” I snickered at the exchange and lowered myself to the ground close enough to Bucky to extend him a hand. He accepted it and I helped pull him to an upright sitting position, trying to hide the fact that I struggled with his weight. “Thanks.” “Well, my mom taught me to always help my elders,” I said with a smirk, earning myself a scowl in response. “You’re as bad as Sam, aren’t you?” he moaned as he rose to his full height.

“Okay, okay,” I ceased my soft laughter, “I’m sorry. Seriously, are you okay? I know you’re a super soldier but still-” “I’m fine,” Bucky confirmed quickly, brushing the dirt from his jacket and turning north, “Let’s go.”

The two of us fell into a silence that wasn’t necessarily uneasy but certainly not relaxed. We weren’t enemies, we weren’t coworkers and we definitely weren’t friends. We’d spoken all of about five sentences to each other since meeting and none of them had been particularly chummy. “Sam only mentioned one sister,” Bucky broke the non-verbal spell.

“Sarah,” I stated, “We’re not technically related but they’re family. Sam told me he reached out to you and never got anything back. I think he was wondering how you were doing.” “Yeah, well…” he mumbled, stepping over a particularly large boulder and avoiding my gaze. 

I decided not to push the subject, not only were we nearing the warehouse, Sam could hear us through the comms and Redwing. But I made a note of the lightning quick wave of emotion that crossed Bucky’s eyes. Sam was definitely a trigger for him, but I had a feeling this was something much more complicated. Something I didn’t have time to get too curious over.

We made it out of the forest and Redwing led us to the back entrance to the warehouse. The graffiti and wrecked roofing made me want to believe that nobody had been there in ages, but Sam’s intel contradicted the setting. My brother, the esteemed military man, was also contradicting his age as he maneuvered Redwing just above us to provoke Bucky into taking a swing at him. “Oh-ho-ho, don’t hurt him,” he teased as Redwing quickly avoided the assault.

Sam stood in the next room staring down at the screen on his wrist, scanning the building through Redwing’s camera. He took a quick look at me to assess that I hadn’t been injured in the fall before turning back.

“You’re doing the staring thing again,” he commented without looking up. That one I’d give him, Bucky’s smoldering stare game was intimidating especially when he wasn’t saying anything. “They’re in there,” Sam tilted his head towards the nearest open doorway and stretching his arm out so Bucky and I could see what Redwing was seeing. There was a truck with two people loading in containers of something.

“Where’s the guy?” Bucky asked.

“I don’t know. I think they’re smuggling weapons though.” “Well, I think you could be right,” Bucky’s voice lowered. “Hmm,” Sam nodded.

“But there’s only one way to find out,” Bucky turned towards the doorway, “I see a clear path, I say we take it.”

As soon as his boot hit the ground in its first step, Sam reached for his arm. “We’re not assassins.” “Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, observe from a distance rather than attack straight away?” I offered.

Bucky’s eyes flicked to me when I spoke and promptly back to Sam, throwing away my suggestion. He probably thought me naive. “I’ll see you inside or not.”

He pulled his arm out of Sam’s grip and went ahead, leaving Sam chuckling to himself. “Hey, come on, man. I’m just messing with you, come back,” he called softly. “‘I’m just messing with you,’ the Avengers’ official slogan,” I dryly jested, “Here I was thinking we were doing serious work. Is Redwing still surveying?” “Yeah,” Sam was still smiling to himself as he turned to watch Bucky stalk down the hallway, “Look at you. All stealthy. A little time in Wakanda and you come out White Panther.” 

“It’s actually White Wolf,” Bucky responded in our ears.

“Huh?”

When we lost visual on Bucky, Sam snapped his fingers and nodded towards the hallway. We made our way through the various openings until we’d caught up, Sam held up a finger to his lips as we caught sight of Bucky and our steps became even softer.

“All right, I’m inside. Therefore way ahead of you,” Bucky bragged, turning back to where he thought we waited, “It’s not great but very doable.” His peripherals must have caught the red and white of Sam’s suit, he turned to see the two of us at his side. “Hello. How are you?” “Good. What did we miss? Nothing,” Sam replied.

“All right, let’s go,” Bucky moved to step forward again.

“No, wait,” Sam protested.

Bucky held up his prosthetic vibranium arm I had heard so much about. “I got a vibranium arm, I can take them.” “And I can fly, she can make things float, who gives a shit? Wait. I want to see where they’re going.” Bucky pointed towards the truck that was still being loaded, “There’s two people.”

“You only see two?” Sam started. “That’s what I saw,” Bucky confirmed.

“Let me see what Redwing sees.” “All right…” “Let’s see what Redwing sees…”

I held two fingers to my temple and rubbed, “My gosh, it’s like working with children.”

Sam fiddled with a few controls on the screen and activated the x-ray feature on his beloved drone, “Oh, look at that. How many people you see now? One, two…Oh, here it comes again.” Bucky sighed, unhappy to admit he was wrong, “Four. Five.” “Yeah, five.” “So they’re strong, whatever,” Bucky brushed off not only the math but our group’s capabilities. “Let’s go.”

“Barnes, wait,” I hissed as Sam reached out and took hold of his arm, his elbow hitting the metal shelves we were hiding behind and rattling something.

“Shit!” Sam whispered, he pulled me to his side to block me while Bucky ducked down. The group turned to investigate the noise but disregarded it at the lack of visible culprits. The trucks started and their doors were closed, each person getting into their designated vehicle. Sam started tapping on Redwing’s controller again, “There’s an eighth person. I think they have a hostage.”

With one look from Bucky, the three of us snapped into action. I raised myself into the air ahead of Sam who took off slightly behind me, looking down to see Bucky running impossibly fast. “Y/n, with me,” Sam called through the comms, I listened and hung back until he’d caught up. Bucky continued on his way until he’d climbed onto the back of the truck. I followed Sam’s lead as we flew to the side of the road.

“Shouldn’t we be helping him?” I asked as the two of us landed.

“They’re stealing medicine, vaccines,”  Bucky’s voice filled my comm.

“He’s got it, we’re staying here and waiting for him to come back with the hostage. Then you and I are gonna keep following the trucks and see where they’re heading,” he explained, “I’m trying to keep you out of as much of the fight as I can.” “That’s the whole reason I came, Sam,” I argued, gesturing towards the road, “To help, to fight.”

“Bucky, talk to me,” Sam favored to ignore my desire to do dirty work, “What’s goin’ on?” 

“Found the hostage,” he reported, followed only seconds later by a loud exclaim of “Shit!”

Adrenaline set every nerve alight in my body, something had gone wrong. Without asking for Sam’s permission I took off running down the road. I used my energy to lift towards the sky and flew the same way the truck’s had gone. Distantly, I heard Sam yell my name but made no effort to stop. “Barnes, talk to me,” I yelled over the winds I was flying against. As I spotted the trucks I saw the small silhouettes of figures standing atop one of them. Once I got closer, I could see that the one being aggressively pinned by two of them was Bucky. I landed on the vehicle’s roof just in time to see someone leap into the air, grab Redwing and break him with their knee. Between my want to help Bucky and my second hand protectiveness over Sam’s gear, I was pissed. The masked figure looked up at me, two brown eyes peeking out of eyeholes and marched forward, making me their next target. I created a ball of blue energy and aimed it at her, knocking her down but only for a second. She leapt towards me and landed a punch across my cheek, I went down with a groan and cradling my cheek. Now I was really pissed…

I opened an eye to see the shadow of Sam’s Falcon suit above me, he touched down on the truck and landed a kick to my assaulter’s abdomen. He quickly helped me to my feet as our enemy rose again and took a fight stance. 

“Good of you to join the fight, Sam,” Bucky yelled before kicking one of his captors in the leg. 

The person who had given me the shiner threw Sam aside to the second truck like he was weightless. She was far too small to be that strong, it was inhuman. I decided to hold back a little less and raised my hands toward her, extending waves of the blue energy and raising her up into the air. She struggled to try and escape my hold, grunting and groaning as she flopped around in the air. I was about to throw her into the trees when I was tackled from behind. We skidded towards the front of the truck till the boot of one of the thugs holding Bucky down hit me in the shoulder. Another masked figure, this one I suspected to be a man, had his arms wrapped tightly around my abdomen. He flipped me over and raised his head to slam into mine. Luckily he hadn’t thought to pin my arms down and his mistake allowed me to throw them in front of my face and create a force field that even the thickest of skulls couldn’t penetrate. I looked briefly to see Sam being pinned down as well on the second truck but couldn’t free myself to go help him. 

And then, in a conflicting twist of events, a red white and blue shield came flying through the air.

As I struggled to keep the force field up and my arms locked, I made out an equally patriotic suited man throw the shield at the one who had punched me earlier. A second figure swung in from a helicopter and kicked her off the truck, leaving her clinging to the edge of the roof. The shield flew in the direction of the people holding Bucky down and hit one square in the back before bouncing back to its wielder. The guy holding me down was struck next and rolled right off of me, I sent a significantly bigger blast towards his chest that sent him flying off the back of the truck. Bucky reached down and helped me stand up, he pulled me out of the way when the shield came flying by our faces to hit his other attackers.

“You gotta be kidding me,” I panted.

John Walker stopped briefly to introduce himself to Sam, like he hadn’t been living rent free in our minds since that damned tv broadcast before sending the shield flying past Bucky and I again. As it bounced off our enemies and back towards Walker, Bucky’s metal hand snapped up to grab it only for Walker to retake it. The time for anger or sadness wasn’t now, though the forlorn expression on Bucky’s face said otherwise. I broke from him and launched myself across the gap between trucks to land near where Sam was being attacked. Bucky followed suit and we began taking out each person one by one till Sam stood and turned too fast, hitting and sending Bucky plus one of the masked thugs over the side of the truck. Sam and I turned to face our last attacker who was stalking toward us, Sam glanced over his shoulder quickly before looking back ahead. “When I say ‘now,’ you shoot up,” he ordered, “Now!” I blasted upwards and over the overhead road sign he’d known would hit our attacker. I was too high to drop down suddenly but watched as Sam touched back down on the truck to be punched off the truck, activating his wings and catching himself in the wind. I flew downwards and lined up with the side of the truck, searching frantically for Bucky while trying to dodge the cars to my left. Bucky was clinging for dear life to the underside of the truck. His attacker stomped his metal arm with his boot till Bucky lost his grip with it and it dragged along the road creating a flurry of sparks. 

“Sam, what do we do?” I yelled into my comm. “Now when I say ‘drop,’ you drop.” “Are you insane?!” I screeched, looking down at the asphalt and trying to calculate how fast I may be going. “DROP!”

Putting the most trust I ever had in Sam, I stopped the energy flow and was tackled mid-air by him. I twisted in his arms to wrap my legs around one of his and my arms around his back. Without warning, he flew us under the nearest truck before letting go of me with one arm and tackling Bucky. I readjusted my grip to have one arm around both of them. We dropped out of the air and crash-landed, rolling like a grunting and groaning wheel through a field of yellow flowers. Eventually we ceased our tumbling with Bucky on top of Sam and me to the side still clinging to both of them.

“Could have used that shield,” Bucky ground out tauntingly in Sam’s face.

“Get off of me,” Sam strained, shoving Bucky off with another loud grunt. I rolled to his other side and coughed loudly, having had the wind knocked out of me during the crash. The three of us lay on our backs trying to regain our breath, Sam and I more than Bucky but I chalked that up to the fact that he was just as strong as the people we’d just gotten our asses handed to us by. “Those were all Super Soldiers, Sam,” he stated in awe. 

“I know,” Sam confirmed, “You’re welcome, by the way.” He pushed himself up painfully on an elbow to lean over me, “Are you okay?”

I was finally starting to feel like I could get some semblance of a normal breath in. I’d have wished it was running around with AJ and Cass that would have showed me I was out of shape and not losing a fight to Super Soldiers. “‘Big Three’ my ass, Wilson,” I wheezed, making no effort to sit up yet.

“I said ‘might be’,” Sam weakly fought, “‘Might be.’ Clearly I was wrong.” 

“Will wonders never cease?” Bucky winced as he sat up, “We need to get to the airport and reformulate.” “Oh, do we now? Do we need to reformulate?” Sam mocked from the ground, “I hadn’t thought of that yet, Bucky, what an incredible-“ I groaned loudly and forced my torso up, “Dear God above, if you two don’t stop acting like twelve year olds, I’ll catch a Delta flight home.” “Good, that’s where I wanted you,” Sam reprimanded as he rose to join me, “I told you if you took some stupid risk, you were going back home and what did you do? You took off on your own towards those trucks!” “I was trying to help him,” I threw my hand out towards Bucky, “One way or another I would have gotten hurt, Sam, whether I’d have waited for you or not. And now that I’ve actually seen what we’re dealing with? No way am I going home.” I rolled onto my knees and got to my feet, my muscles aching with each movement I made to stand in front of the two men. “When you two decide to start acting like adults, I’ll meet you back at the jet.”

Holding in each groan that wanted to escape my mouth, I started my trek back towards the road, not making it very far until I heard two pairs of footsteps behind me.

We walked that way for most of the way, Sam and Bucky muttering something every once in a while to each other and me ahead of them trying to wrap my head around the situation. I had gotten myself tangled in the world of super soldiers, ones who weren’t using their advanced capabilities to save the world from one of the actual Big Three. Not only that but we’d had the displeasure of being rescued by the person the three of us had wanted to see least in the world. I had started the day out having coffee with Sarah on our back porch and by eastern standard time zone’s definition was ending it in Germany mid-afternoon with a killer bruise developing on my cheek. Whatever I had expected to come from joining Sam, it sure as hell wasn’t this.

A car honk summoned me out of my thoughts, an open roofed vehicle came up beside me and I was quick to identify the passengers. John Walker and the helicopter soldier. 

“So that didn’t go as planned, huh?” Walker attempted to make friendly conversation, specifically with Sam and Bucky but I could sense I was also welcome to answer. I didn’t cease my movements and neither did Sam and Bucky which only caused Walker to instruct the driver to get ahead of us again. “Look, at least we know what we’re up against now, huh? And we’re pretty sure it’s one of the Big Three, so…” “Aliens, androids, or wizards?” the unnamed soldier double checked with Walker, who responded that he was still almost certain.

“There’s no such thing as wizards,” Bucky grumbled from behind me, sounding like the old man he biologically was.

“Then it’s aliens, or androids,” Walker shrugged. “Or Super Soldiers,” Sam corrected.

“Shit, Super Soldiers, for real?” Walker’s sidekick asked before turning in his seat to face, “Do you believe that?” “I believe that you two don’t know how to take a hint,” I frustratedly smiled at him, “But yes, I do.”

“Wow. All right, well, then we gotta work together,” Walker said. Bucky scoffed, “That’s not happening.”

“I think we stand a much better chance if we all just-“ Bucky finally lost his patience and said the thing we all were thinking, “Just ‘cause you carry that shield, it doesn’t mean you’re Captain America.”

Walker was quick to defend himself, “Look, I’ve done the work, okay?” 

Bucky was equally as quick to prove him wrong, “You ever jump on top of a grenade?” “Yeah. Actually, I have. Four times,” Walker explained, “It’s a thing I do with my helmet. It’s a reinforced helmet. It’s a long story, but, look…It’s 20 miles to the airport, you guys need a ride.” A sudden cramp tore through my shin causing me to sharply inhale and grab the leg. Through the pain I managed to exhale and begin limping back along the path, “We’re good, thanks.”

“At least let us take her, she’s injured,” I heard Walker attempt to convince Sam and Bucky, knowing that I was probably a means to an end to get them in the car. 

I didn’t get very far before I felt Sam’s arm wrap around my waist, “C’mon…” As much as I wanted to fight him on it, I knew I wouldn’t make it more than a few steps before I was bent over again in pain. The adrenaline had worn off and my whole body was starting to ache deeply in a way that made even breathing hurt where it shouldn’t. I dropped my head in frustration and nodded, putting my arm around Sam’s shoulder to let him brace me. He helped me limp back to the car where Bucky gently handled my other side, the two of them lifted me into the vehicle where Walker and his friend tried to help me sit down. I shrugged off their unwelcome hands and used the roof’s poles to lower myself into a seat. Sam jumped in and sat on one side of me, gently lifting the leg that was really bothering me onto his lap to try and massaging my shin. Bucky climbed in on my other side and gave me a once over, trying to assess if I was in any further pain that I wasn’t letting on to.

“Okay,” Walker began as the car rocked to life again, “So we’ve got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?” “They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during The Blip,” Sam explained, “Maybe they’re just trying to help.” “They had a funny way of showing it,” Bucky commented.

“That serum doesn’t exactly have a great track record,” Walker quickly looked to Bucky, “No offense.” I tried not to judge people too harshly upon first meeting them, but I had no problem deciding right away that Walker was an asshole.

“We need to figure out where they’re going,” Sam spoke up before an argument could break out, “How’d you track ‘em here? The Flag Smashers?”

“Uh, no, we didn’t track them. We tracked you, uh, through Redwing,” Walker’s friend answered, dipping his head down to avoid Sam’s stony gaze.

“You hacked my tech?” “Sorry,” Walker laughed, “It’s not exactly hacking. It’s government property,” he gestured to himself, “Kind of the government.” My lips parted and I tilted my head, ”Are you kidding me?”

“I’m sorry,” Walker extended his hand out to me, “John Walker, Captain America. And you are?” I glanced between his hand and him, “Not impressed.” He awkwardly retracted it and turned away from me to Bucky, “Does he always just stare like that?” “You get used to it,” Sam replied, suddenly he had no problem with Bucky’s habit.

“Okay, look,” Walker cleared his throat, “You know things have gotten kind of, uh…” “Chaotic,” his friend finished for him.

“Yeah. The GRC, they’re doing the best they can to get things up and running smoothly, post Blip.” “Reactivating citizenship, social security, healthcare. Basically just managing resources for the refugees who were displaced by the return.”

“The Global Repatriation Council does all that, I get that,” Sam said impatiently, “So why exactly are you two here?”

“Well, they provide the resources and we keep things stable,” the soldier answered.

“Yeah, violent revolutionaries aren’t usually good for anyone’s cause,” Walker said. “Usually said by the people with the resources,” Sam looked up from the work he was doing on my leg to look dead at Walker.

“We got a lot of resources,” he stated confidantly, “If you guys, if you joined up with us, we could-“ “No,” Bucky and I said in unison, now having agreed on two things. Walker was a phony and wizards weren’t real.

“I got mad respect for both of ya’ll,” Walker’s friend complimented, “You too, ma’am. But you were kinda getting your asses kicked till we showed up.” Bucky finally dragged his stare off of Walker, “Who are you?” “Lemar Hoskins.” “Look, I see a guy hanging out of a helicopter in tactical gear, I need a lot more than Lemar Hoskins,” Sam commented.

“I’m Battlestar,” Lemar reintroduced himself, “John’s partner.” “‘Battlestar?’” Bucky echoed the ridiculous nickname, snapping his head suddenly toward the driver, “Stop the car!”

The driver obeyed and quickly halted in the middle of the road, giving Bucky the opportunity to jump out of the car. He raised his eyebrows expectantly, waiting for me to join him but I wasn’t about to leave Sam’s side. I held a hand up to him to which he responded by closing the back door and starting down the path that veered off the main road. 

“Look, I…I get it, okay? I get the attitude, I do,” Walker started, he couldn’t come close to understanding how insulted all three of us were for one uniting reason, “You don’t think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky,” even the call of his name wasn’t enough to make him stop, “And I’m…I’m not trying to be Steve. I’m not trying to replace Steve.” “Could’ve fooled me,” I snorted, removing my leg from Sam’s lap as he’d stopped rubbing it long ago. “I’m just trying to be the best Captain America I can be, that’s it,” Walker focused his eyes on my brother, “It’d be a whole lot easier if I had Cap’s wingmen on my side.” Sam scoffed and looked out of the corner of his eyes at me as if to make sure he hadn’t heard incorrectly. He hadn’t, and I was about two seconds away from putting my powers to good use and beating Walker with his own shield that he could never truly hold ownership of. “It’s always that last line…”

Sam climbed over me and hopped out first before helping to lower me to the ground. A defeated Walker ordered the driver to leave and we watched to make sure they actually left for good. “Torres said he’s nice?” I asked sarcastically as we resumed our familiar posture of Sam helping me walk. “Torres is young, impressionable and follows every order he’s given. Guys like Walker have a problem with anyone who doesn’t take their every word as gospel.”

“Well, your mom made us attend enough church when we were kids for me to know that right there,” I pointed back to the car that was now a dot in the distance, “Is a false prophet.” 

I trained my eyes ahead of us, Bucky hadn’t gotten too far and it looked like he had actually slowed his pace for us to catch up easier. While I was angry with the government for appointing Walker and the man himself, I knew that the pain Sam and Bucky were feeling was exponentially heavier to deal with. They’d already lost their friend and Walker was the salt being rubbed in the wound.

When we did eventually make it to the plane an hour later, I was biting back tears at how much pain I was in. Sam took notice of how I was trying to conceal them as we approached the tarmac and carried me the rest of the way. 

“I gotta check for any internal bleeding,” he said as he set me down gently on the seats of the jet, “And you’re going home.” “No, I’m not,” I moaned. “Yes, you are,” he scolded as he lifted up my shirt to the bottom of my bra so that he could get a clear view of my abdomen, “Sarah’s gonna pound my ass into the ground as it is for bringing you back bruised.” My eyes could no longer stay opened, further fluttering shut as I didn’t hear Sam state that he saw anything concerning. “Get some sleep,” he ordered, “I’ll take care of anything I find.” Just before I drifted off, I heard a second body kneel down next to Sam. “She okay?” “Yeah, she’ll be fine,” he answered Bucky, “I just should have never brought her.” 

————

When I did wake up, the plane was dark except for the minimal lighting towards the cockpit. I attempted to sit up, biting back a groan as I did. There was a blanket draped over my bottom half and my jacket was now folded underneath my head as a makeshift pillow. Sam was sleeping upright near my feet, arms crossed and snoring quietly.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” a quiet voice startled me, I turned to see it was Bucky. “A little out of my depth,” I remarked, rubbing one of my eyes, “But yeah, okay.” 

Bucky nodded and looked back down at his folded hands, for some reason the contrast of the gold and black metal meeting the pale flesh fascinated me. He must’ve sensed I was staring because he peered up at me through his lashes. I quickly looked away, “I’m guessing we’re on our way back to New Orleans.” “Baltimore, actually,” he replied.

“What’s in Baltimore?” I whispered, trying not to wake Sam. “Someone that Sam needs to meet.” “Okay,” I slowly swung my legs off the seats to properly face him, “Who’s in Baltimore?” Bucky gave me a tired look, “Just someone, you’ll meet him too.” I bristled slightly at his answer, shooting him a half smile. “You don’t trust people, do you, Barnes?”

I wouldn’t call what his lips did was a smile, but maybe a sarcastic knock off of one. “You ask a lot of questions, you know?”

“Only when people don’t give me any answers,” I fired back in a contradictorily easy tone, “Look, you don’t have to trust me. That’s fine, I’m going home after whatever surprise you have for us anyway so you won’t have to deal with me slowing you guys down anymore.” “Sam was endangering you by bringing a civilian to an Avengers level fight,” he quickly said, “That’s on him, not you. And none of us were exactly at our best today.” A supercut of the three of us each getting slapped around silly on top of the trucks played in my mind. He was definitely right, nobody could have predicted that we’d be thrown for such a loop. Not even the man pretending to be Captain America. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about Walker,” I offered as softly as I could, “I’ve watched him parade that shield around on tv for days and I’ve gotten angrier each time. Not saying it’s the same as what you’re feeling but…I’m just sorry.” Bucky didn’t respond, he actually looked away from me and back down at his hands. “You should get some more sleep, we’re still a ways out.” It was clear I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him, not that I felt any burning desire to try to get him to open up. I’d only tried out of politeness and the slight glimmer of curiosity I held when it came to what lay beneath his hardened surface. “Goodnight, Barnes,” I said, laying back down and rolling over so I didn’t have to look at him any longer.

----

A/N: Let me know what you thought and/or if you’d like to be tagged! There’s still a lot of surprises that are coming...

Safe Haven taglist: @tanyaherondale​ @wanniiieeee​ @asoftie4bucky​ @edencherries​ @i-reblog-fics-i-like​ @ttalisa​ @gcfty @withyoutilltheendofthismess​ @rinaispunk​ @weirdowithnobeardo​ @felicityofbakerstreet​ @godlypotterwhodiaries​ @eternalharry​ @voguesir​ @mizz-kraziii​ @okayline​ @smellmymisunderstoodfluff @wanderin-stories​ @nicklet94 @intricate-melody​ @aesthethickks​ @stumbleonmywords​ @simplybarnes​ @21bruhs​ @lostinwonderland314​ @superbookishhufflepuff​ @themaddies-obx

[disneytva]

Disney Publishing Worldwide Sets Placeholder Covers For Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

Super Nova..........here I am world, did I drop a sound? 🦖 🌙 ✨ 🌕

Disney Publishing Worldwide and Marvel Publishing Worldwide are starting to list books based on Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur all of them set to release on October 4th 2022.

It’s unknow if these are adaptations of episodes like The Owl House, The Ghost And Molly McGee and Big City Greens books or something more original with the exception of Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow being a original book illustrated by  Britney Jackson

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow 4/10 

October 4th 2022

Illustrated by New York Times best-selling artist Britney Jackson, this poignant story speaks to Lunella Lafayette's insecurities about her hair as School Picture Day approaches. Sure, Lunella may be a genius super-hero (Moon Girl), but when someone makes unkind comments about her hair, she questions whether she needs to change it for School Picture Day. She is, after all, still a 13-year-old girl. Ultimately, Lunella figures out the hairstyle that makes her feel like her best self for her school picture, but not before struggling with what that means for her.

40 Pages

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur One Girl Can Make a Difference 4/10

October 4th 2022

Perfect for chapter book readers who are fans of the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur series, this novelization helps readers understand how Moon Girl manages her life: junior high school student by day; crime-fighting super hero by night--not to mention the guardian of a 50-ton red dinosaur who lives in her secret lab. This hardcover novelization follows the 13-year-old Marvel super hero around her Lower East Side of Manhattan neighborhood, where her family owns and runs a roller-skating rink. As Moon Girl explores the cause of so many unexplained neighborhood power blackouts lately, readers will learn how Moon Girl came to be, meet her sidekick, a giant red T-Rex, and follow them on their first adventure fighting against the evil villain who is bringing darkness to her beloved community.

192 Pages

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur This is Moon Girl 4/10

October 4th 2022

Introducing Moon Girl! When her Lower East Side, New York, neighborhood needs saving, a 13-year- old Black, super-genius transforms into her Marvel super hero alter-ego: Moon Girl! Her best friend Casey is there to manage her social media, and her giant red T-Rex, Devil Dinosaur, is by her side for muscle. Moon Girl is confident, determined, and ready for action in her turbo-powered roller skates. The World of Reading This is... series is designed to offer reluctant readers books they will want to read by featuring the origin stories of characters they love. Learn how a tween girl from the Lower East Side becomes Moon Girl in this 32-page origin story.

32 Pages

[creativeskullcreations]

WIP Wednesday: Return to Chalkzone

Welcome to the first of hopefully many WIP Wednesdays, where I’ll post either an old or recent WIP to gauge reactions/just to talk about it.

Today, we’re talking about Return to Chalkzone, a sequel/future fic I thought up for Chalkzone. It was planned/plotted in late 2016/early 2017, and has around four chapters written out.

This fic would take place ten years after the show, when Rudy is getting ready for college, and Penny’s planning on going on a hike through Europe. Sophie, Rudy’s cousin, steals his magic chalk after getting mad at him and falls into Chalkzone, where she meets Skrawl and becomes easy prey to his manipulations. When he’s beaten, Rudy passes on the magic chalk, and title of Great Protector, to her.

Had I finished it, I also had plans for a short series of “episodes”(similar to Happy Times) about Sophie’s adventures in the ‘Zone, which would’ve also been Skrawl’s redemption arc.

Below is the outline/plot summary I wrote out. If there’s enough interest, I may also post the chapters to AO3.

Story Summary Sophie heads over to Rudy's house as he'd promised to do chalk drawings with her that day. However he's over at Penny's house and so she's left waiting for over an hour before he gets back. She gets mad at him, but he says they can draw tomorrow. Sophie yells at him because that's what he always says, but Rudy is distracted by his mom and heads downstairs to talk to her. Sophie steals his bag of Magic Chalk and heads home while he's distracted.

Once at home Sophie tries to use it all up. She opens a portal and falls through. She manages to save herself by accident, and gazes in wonder at the world, and at what she can do with the Chalk.

Skrawl sees Sophie playing with the Magic Chalk and makes a plan. He pretends to be in trouble and calls for help so Sophie can hear. Sophie helps him, and Skrawl thanks her profusely. He lies and tells her that Chalkzone used to be a great place to be, and was filled with fun. But then a mean boy and his friends came along and starting making a mess of things. He brainwashed the Zoners into liking him and his friend, and makes messes only to fix them later to get praise. He even brainwashed Skrawl's best friend Snap into hating him. Skrawl then tells her that he's leading a rebellion, but that they can't do anything against his Magic Chalk. He then pleads for her help in taking down the Great Creator. Sophie is then called back to the Real World by her mom, but promises to come back tomorrow to help. Skrawl warns her not to tell anybody about Chalkzone, then laughs to himself when she's gone.

Sophie spends the night thinking over what Skrawl told her. She thinks about asking Rudy for help, but remembers Skrawl's warning. She then resolves to solve this herself, and hopes she can do it.

The next day Sophie heads into Chalkzone again, this time with a packed lunch in her backpack. Skrawl is there to meet her, and suggests the fly to his secret base. Sophie asks how and Skrawl tells her to draw something. Sophie draws a car with plane wings, and the drive that to the base while Skrawl navigates. Once at the base, Skrawl tells Sophie his plan to attract the Great Creator's attention by vandalising his favorite places. Once they've gotten him distracted, they will kidnap his favorite Zoner, Snap. Then they can use Snap to lure the Creator to Skrawl's base and kick him out of Chalkzone for good.

Sophie isn't sure she likes this plan, and makes Skrawl promise that what they do won't hurt anybody. Skrawl agrees, when Sophie spills her water bottle. It melts through the table, and Skrawl wanrs her of the dangers of Real liquids in Chalkzone. Sophie promises to be careful, and they put their plan into action.

First they drop several Super Sponges into the Wait 'n' Sea. They soak up all the water, but are moved and squeezed so the water is returned.

Second, Sophie unleashes a hoard of rats on Chalk City. They eat everything, but are lured away by a large wheel of cheese.

Third and final: they set loose a dragon in the Mumboe Jumbo Jungle. It sets everything on fire, but is contained and moved somewhere else. While it's being dealt with, however, Snap is captured by a noose in a tree and knocked out.

Snap wakes up to Sophie sitting outside his cell in a pretty pink dress. He asks who she is, and she tells him her name. She then tells him that although she doesn't know how to draw an brainwashing reversal machine, but that's she's making parts so Skrawl can build it instead. Snap asks what she means  by brainwash and she explains. They argue for a bit, and Snap tries to explain that he was drawn by the Great Creator when Sophie tries to leave. He mentions Rudy's name, but she's called by Skrawl to help set up the trap for Rudy so she can't ask who he means. She is very confused now thanks to Snap.

Sophie draws up the trap, which is a small cage and a lazer beam to shoot the chalk out of Rudy's hand. Rudy and Penny are caught in it, and Skrawl reveals himself. When Rudy asks how he was able to do all this, Skrawl reveals Sophie, who is now very confused but still staying by what Skrawl told her. While she shackles Penny and Rudy together, nearby Snap who was the bait, they plead with her to reconsider. When she has them all tied up, she lets Skrawl talk to them. He then reveals that what he's been working on is not meant to reverse brainwashin, but is instead a deathray. He aims it at them, when Sophie yells at him that he lied to her. Skrawl explains that of course he lied, he's evil. He then attempts to comfort Sophie, and reminds her of what he promised to give her when she first arrived in Chalkzone. Sophie runs off, crying. Skrawl then tells Rudy and his friends to say goodbye, and presses the button to fire the ray.

Sophie shoots the death ray with a squirt bottle, causing it to melt. She then turns the bottle on Skrawl, Skrawl tries to call her off, but she tells him to leave, and never return to this part of Chalkzone. She then warns him that if she sees him again, she will squirt him and squirts the floor at his feet. Skrawl gets the message and leaves with the Beanie Boys. Sophie then uses the water to free Rudy and Penny. Penny then frees Snap while Rudy and Sophie hug it out and she apologizes, explaining that she just wanted someone to be friends with for once. Rudy forgives her.

Everyone gets on Sophie's car plane and flies back to Chalkzone Central. Rudy explains they took care of Skrawl, and introduces Sophie as the one who beat Skrawl. There's a large party in honor of Rudy and Penny leaving. Near the end Rudy, Penny, and Snap take Sophie off to the side and ask if she'd like to take Rudy's place as Great Creator. Sophie accepts, and they announce it to everyone at the party.

Soon enough Sophie waves goodbye to Rudy as her, her mom, and Rudy's parents leave him at his college. Once home Sophie runs upstairs to head into Chalkzone. She meets up with Snap, who asks what they're going to be doing. She epxplains that she wants to try and find Chalklantis, since it's not on the map yet. Snap says that's a great idea, and they head off in a random direction, but not before Sophie erases the portal with one last wink at the camera.

[mollybecameanengineer]

The Gilded Cage

Summary: After being kidnapped by the Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder and Scully have to plan their escape. However, a daring course of action is much more complicated with a two week old.

word count: 6,973 | Teen | MSR | @today-in-fic

Read on AO3 or check out the first chapter below the break

This is part of an episodic series called A Second Chance. All the episodes are collected, in order, using AO3’s series feature. The concept of the series is to rewrite seasons 8 and 9. It deals with Mulder’s return from the dead, the birth of William, and Mulder and Scully trying to juggle family life with impending doom.

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, but want to read this story, here is what you need to know…

Previously on A Second Chance: After Mulder returned from the dead, he moved in with Scully. (Reentry). Scully, while pregnant, was infected with the black oil and somehow neutralized it (Immunidad). The Cigarette Smoking Man (and a new syndicate) learned of this, and became interested in Scully’s baby. After William was born, Mulder and Scully were determined to keep him safe (Sinister). However, after they learned that not only can William neutralize the black oil if infected, but he was also immune to the Super Soldier virus, Mulder planned to go on the run with William, leaving Scully behind due to the chip in her neck (and therefore her ability to be tracked). However, the Smoking Man got to them first. Mulder and Scully agreed to go with the Cigarette Smoking Man because he promised that he would keep them together and protect them from the alien colonists (who want to kill Mulder, Scully, and William) in exchange for letting him make a vaccine from William’s blood. (In the Space of a Day) When Maggie discovers that her daughter and family are missing, Skinner and the rest of the crew start a search, only to find planted evidence that Mulder and Scully ran, but died in a car accident. Meanwhile, Mulder, Scully, and William leave with the Smoking Man. (Loss)

While I don’t normally suggest that you read the other stories, this one could be considered a three parter with In the Space of a Day and Loss.

I don’t think one would be totally lost if they just read the recap above… but it would probably be better if you read them first.

“Well, should I carry you across the threshold?” 

Scully glanced over at Mulder, who was laden with their luggage. Before them stood a nondescript house, in a row of nondescript houses. 

It reminded Scully of every Navy base she’d ever lived on. 

Ignoring Mulder’s joke, Scully headed for the front door, shifting William to one arm so she could open it. 

Mulder followed, dropping the luggage in the entryway. Scully looked around. Based on the style, she guessed the house was built in the 50s, as the kitchen and living rooms were separate. The entryway had three doors: to the left was a hall leading to the bedrooms. Ahead was the living room. And to the right was the kitchen, which was covered in ugly rose colored tile. The house had clearly seen better days, but it was clean and the furnishings looked new. 

“Hey, look Scully,” Mulder said, peering into the living room, “One of those new flat screen TVs. If they sprang for HBO, then we’ll know we’re really VIPs.”

Scully sighed, and handed William to Mulder. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

The handoff caused William to squawk in displeasure, and Scully heard Mulder trying to sooth him as she disappeared down the hall. She immediately found the bathroom, but before she entered, she glanced through the other two doors. Both were bedrooms, on the small side. One was set up as a nursery, and the other had a single large bed and a dresser. 

Scully returned to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. It too was a small room, the toilet crammed next to the vanity to make room for a shower over tub. 

She was going to miss her large clawfoot tub. 

Her elbows perched on her knees, Scully held her head as she peed. It still stung (she’d had moderate tearing while giving birth), but she lacked the energy to dig out the peri bottle.

After finishing up, she headed for the bedroom and flopped down. She hadn't slept on the plane — the idea of being unconscious with Spender sitting right there had been nauseating. The last time she’d fallen asleep in his presence she’d woken up in a new location and a different set of clothes. She didn’t like to dwell on what that meant, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

However, that meant the last time she’d slept had been at the Gunmen’s, about twenty hours ago. And before that she hadn’t slept for more than two hours at a time since William was born. She would just rest a moment, then go help Mulder. 

However, despite her intentions, despite the danger and the worry, Scully was asleep within a minute of her head hitting the pillow. 

***

Mulder hated that he liked this house. 

It was small, but much larger than the apartment they’d all been sharing. They had their own backyard, with a stretch of grass where he could imagine playing catch or maybe kicking around a soccer ball. There was a garage and a driveway where he could put a portable basketball hoop. It was outdated – the kitchen needed a facelift and the paneling in the living room screamed 1965, but it had a nice layout. If he and Scully were house hunting, rather than being kidnapped by a global cabal, he’d try to convince her to put a lowball offer in, so they could use the rest of their money to spruce the place up. 

He swayed with William as he looked out the plate glass window to the backyard. How he wished he was house hunting right now. Instead they were at a military base that reminded him far too much of the one that had been Samantha’s final home. 

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, kissing his son’s head. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you.” He knew William didn’t know — all he cared about was that Scully was nearby. But Mulder couldn’t help but feel tremendous guilt over this whole situation. His involvement with the X-Files had caused Scully so much pain: her abduction, Melissa’s death, Emily. And now they were being held, because he hadn't fucking looked before he opened the door of the apartment. He’d been so caught up in his sorrow over leaving Scully that he had just assumed it was the Gunmen at the door. He hadn’t looked through the peephole. Maybe if he had, they wouldn’t be here right now.

Mulder heard the toilet flush, and when Scully didn’t reappear, he headed for the back of the house. He found her, laying on top of the covers, passed out. “Oh Scully,” he murmured. Balancing William with one hand, he stretched the blanket at the foot of the bed over her. He’d let her sleep as long as she could. He still had the cooler of frozen breast milk that Scully had prepared when she thought he was leaving with their son. He would thaw some and let her sleep. 

Mulder headed back to the living room and sat on the couch. He clicked on the TV and the channel guide said it was 5:45 PM. Glancing at his watch, Mulder noted that put them in the Pacific time zone. That matched with what Mulder had observed: the flight had taken about six hours and he was pretty sure they’d flown over the Rockies. 

Flipping through the guide, he saw that the A’s were playing on one local channel, while the Mariners were on another. If Mulder remembered his MLB broadcast map correctly, that would put them in Oregon.

Where this had all started, and where it had nearly ended.

They were back in the very plausible state of Oregon.

Keep reading on AO3

[hamliet]

So, I ended up getting into Bungou Stray Dogs because of you.

The only thing I heard about BSD when the anime first came out in 2016 from the anime community was that it was a "Gangster version of My Hero Academia with pretty boys" and since I was never super into BHNA I never really gave it a chance.

...But I got curious from your icons of Atsushi and Aktugawa and metas about Bungou Stray Dogs and ended up watching all of the anime (and movie) because of you. And I'm so mad at my 16 year old self (or like, the anime community I guess) because it's REALLY GOOD and I almost feel cheated in a way for missing out on it for so long.

The whole concept of the characters being named after famous authours and their super powers based on their books? And the quotes from their books featured in the episodes and their meanings and themes being explored by the characters within their own struggles and arcs? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. (I was a little embarrassed I didn't properly pick up on this until S2 with the introduction of the Guild characters, because the only Japanese author I knew of was Osamu Dazai) I love the duality with Atsushi and Aktugawa and their relationship with Dazai. And Kyouka has to be my favourite character, her story always had me tearing up.

I really liked the movie Dead Apple too and was pleasantly surprised by the fact it actively tied into the stories' canon, especially with Atsushi's development/backstory? I don't see that often with anime series when they do movies.

...But now I've finished the anime I'm wondering where I should go from here? I've seen there's a manga and also light novels, but I'm not sure which I should read or where to start, or if reading the manga/LN is better or fills in more than the anime?

AHHHHHHHH *flails* I'm so glad you liked it!!! Yes haha, I had a similar impression of BSD and then was shocked by how damn good it was (once I gave it a chance).

So, I would encourage reading the manga for a few reasons: even though season 4 has just been announced (like two days ago), the manga goes way beyond where the anime left off (almost 50 chapters beyond). The art is really great, and while I do think the anime is generally excellent, there are a few points where it changed the pacing and two particular episodes in season 1 that they didn't do super awesomely.

After the manga, I would recommend the light novels. Again, like with Dead Apple actually being relevant and entertaining to the anime without it being necessary to understand what's going on, the light novels are similarly really integral to the manga without being 100% necessary. But if you like the story, I think you'd enjoy them. The novels are absolutely beautifully written (the flashback episodes of the anime are adaptations of the novels, actually!) and deeply thematic.

[insomniacowl]

Neon Genesis Evangelion analysis chapter 22: Katsuragi Misato Part 1 The cross in her hand

Kaji's final gift

The three characters representing the "Second impact generation" are Kaji, Masato, and Ritsuko. They are respectively entwined with Asuka, Shinji, and Rei throughout the characters' developments. Both Kaji and Misato self-reflect on their own pain and suffering while observing Shinji's growth and passes on their "Will" to Shinji. This "Will," shared by Kaji and Misato, refers to the desire to understand the "Truth" and the motivation to overcome any adversities standing in the way. Misato climbed up the ranks to become a high-ranked official of Nerv. Kaji became a spy acting for multiple agencies and organizations.

Due to having chosen the more dangerous route, Kaji lost his life much earlier than Misato. Knowing his impending death, Kaji passed on the pieces of information to his unanswered questions to Misato through 'Physical intimacy.' In this chapter and next, we shall discuss Misato as a character and as a person who Kaji trusted solely and lovingly.

"Until the very end, Service, Service."

Katsuragi Misato

29 years old

Blood type: AB

Height: 163cm

Weight: 47Kg

Three Size: 33-23-32

Considering her diet and drinking habits, it is a wonder how she manages to maintain such weight and proportions. As the Nerv operations bureau's leader, she was a Captain at the start of the series and was later promoted to a Major. From her rank insignia and the information from Evangelion development documents, we can see that she is from the "Japanese self-defense force." As a young girl, she was caught in the Second Impact, and this incident left a large scar under her right breast; she seems to associate the scar with painful memories. She is the daughter of Dr. Katsuragi, who lost his life in the same second impact while saving her life. This act of sacrifice indirectly provided the reason for Misato's eventual employment at Nerv; the need to find the "Truth" and revenge against those that caused her father's death.

She moved into the third Tokyo city shortly before Sakiel's advance against the city. She became the Ikari Shinji's guardian after the battle. To her, it could have been a fulfillment of a desire to build an ideal family life, one she never had as a child. For the same reason, she takes in Asuka and, along with Penpen, forms a happy cohabitating unit of 3 human 1 bird family.

The house that she lives in was provided for her by Nerv and is large enough for three people to live together without much contestation for space. To touch on Penpen for a moment, he is an animal mascot sketched out by Sadamoto following Anno's request for an animal character to brighten up the show's atmosphere. The concept of a "Hot spring Penguin" is fictional. He eats human foods and drinks beer. Inferring from his human-like diet and ability to view TV or read the newspaper, we can guess that he was born from a mutation or a lab experiment. The backpack he wears on his bag is theorized by some to be a miniaturized fridge to keep him cooled. Due to security reason, he is sent off to live with Hikari (Shinji and Asuka's classmate) and makes his final appearance in the "Omedeto" Scene,

Katsuragi Misato in the development phase.

Misato is one of the rare characters whose design has not changed from the planning phase of the series, and on a side note, Anno was a big fan of the sailor moon series. Rei's name was inspired by Hino Rei (Sailor Mars). The design of Misato was based on the image Anno had of Usagi (Sailor Moon) as an adult. Adding to this point is the employment of the same voice actress (Mitsuishi Kotono) and Sadamoto designing their hairstyles to be identical. Furthermore, according to Sadamoto, Misato is a car enthusiast, and her room is full of related magazines and newsletters.

Returning to the topic, just like Shinji, Misato is a character who was designed with careful detail. According to Anno's production declaration (What is it that we are trying to make?) Similar in vain to Shinji being the child at the center of the Third impact, Misato was conceptualized to be the adult who was once at the center of the Second impact. Furthermore, both are inept at creating meaningful social bonds and are afraid of being hurt by the other. Lastly, they are both not used to communicating their needs to the people in their lives.

The difference between the two is that while Shinji feared interaction and ran away from the other, Misato made surface-level interaction with the largest number of people while hiding her true self under a mask. While Shinji's actions are understandable as he is only fourteen and made to shoulder an adult's responsibility, Misato is presented as a juxtaposition. Misato is presented as a child putting up an adult's veneer, showing her immaturity even as she is nearing her thirties. Asuka, who was acquainted with Misato during her service in Germany, described her lifestyle as 'Hypocritical.'

As we have discussed in the previous chapter, Kaji wore an irresponsible adult's mask to hide his serious side in pursuit of the Truth. In contrast, Misato wears a serious and bright adult mask to hide her cowardice and weakness. This would have worked against those that interacted with her on a surface level. However, it would have had to come off eventually, making it impossible to hide from people she lived with. This gave Shinji the perception of Misato as a 'hypocrite,' making it easy for him to reject her kindness and run away from her house.

Furthermore, when she lost Kaji and lost all willpower to put up that front, she could not care for the children physically nor care for their mental wellbeing. Concerning this, Asuka began closing herself up from Misato due to her jealousy for Kaji. Asuka also loved Kaji to the point she attempted sex appeal but was rejected for being "too young."

In episode 15, Asuka learns of Kaji's true feelings and begins feeling defeated, resulting in her bearing fangs against Misato. When her synchronization levels dipped below Shinji's in the following episode, her confidence in herself began to bottom, and Misato was in no position to offer help.

When Kaji began a more intimate relationship with Misato, whom Asuka perceived as mentally immature, Asuka was lost and began to distance her feelings from Kaji. Asuka's heart was broken, and there was no adult she could rely on. This point about Asuka will be covered more in later chapters.

Dr. Katsuragi

Before diving deeper into the character analysis of Misato, we need to understand her father, Dr. Katsuragi, more. He was a member of the Gehrin and the first person to theorize the working of the fruit of life; the S2 engine. The 'Super Solenoid theory (S2 theory)' first theorized in 1999 attempts to explain the mysterious energy source: the 'infinite spiral energy.' This being a fictitious theory, we can not go in-depth here. Still, for the sake of explanation, it is explained as a potential source of infinite energy that Dr. Katsuragi desired to use for humanity's good. Ironically and unfortunately, it was this theory that resulted in the tragedy of the second impact.

In the year 2000, the Doctor receives Seele's funding to form the Katsuragi expedition team. He leaves for Antarctica to prove his theory and perform the 'contact experiment' with Adam. While his theory was proven to be accurate, he losses his life from the 'eventual second impact. Our dear old Keel described the Doctor demeaningly, to quote, "The type of man who was blinded by his passion and unable to see reality," this statement is accurate, according to Misato. This makes him a figure similar in character to Gendou, someone whose work always came before all else, even his family. Causing Misato's mother to always cry tears of loneliness.

Misato understood the impact her father's absence had on the household. This resulting in the pressure to be a good child to please her mother. This leads her to refute others' descriptions of him as 'Kind and sensitive,' calling him 'weak and childish'; as someone who was irresponsible to his family and ran away from responsibilities. Misato's mother eventually divorces him, and she welcomed this separation. It seems that Dr. Katsuragi was shocked by this incident; Misato described it as getting his 'just desert.'

The cross: Dr Katsuragi’s memento

But of course, we have to answer one question regarding Dr. Katsuragi's affection towards his daughter; why did he bring Misato along to Antarctica in 2000? Since there is no mention of her mother in the series, we can infer that he gained custody of Misato after the divorce, thus being her only guardian. Yet to bring a young child to Antarctica was nothing more than putting her in danger. While he did not know of his impending death, bringing his daughter to such a place was downright irresponsible. While there is not enough detail about this, bringing Misato for the expedition might have been his way of showing affection. An imperfect way to express his love for her.

Here, we can draw a parallel with Ikari Yui's actions during her contact experiment. Perhaps the reason why the Doctor wanted to show Misato the contact experiment was the same as the answer Yui gave to Fuyutsuki; "To show this child the possibility for a bright future." And like the Ikaris, Katsuragis also separated in a tragedy. A tragedy for everyone involved.

Looking at the second impact scene, we can observe the Doctor covered in more injuries than Misato. This is likely due to him shielding her from harm using his own body.

With all of his remaining strength, he hoists Misato into an evacuation capsule. His face is covered in blood, and tears roll down his cheeks as he put his cross necklace around her neck. He draws his last breath. This necklace symbolizes the Doctor's love. The love for his family. And the love for humanity. He instills it in the cross and passes on all that he held dear to Misato. She now has to protect herself. But with the cross, the Doctor's desire to protect humanity also gets passed onto her. A burden too big for a little girl to bear.

Even though she claims to dislike her father, Misato is to be confused about what to feel about him; he risked his life to protect her after all. The biggest reason she is at Nerv and fighting the angels is likely to remember him and continue his legacy. Thus, the necklace is a protection charm and emotional support for Misato. We can see this when she desperately grasps the cross as Zeruel is about to shoot its laser.

The cross in her hand

To Misato, the reason for her battle against the angels has less to do with the desire to protect humanity. She fights, as Ritsuko points out in episode 12, as a form of revenge. She admits to this fact in episode 15 during her conversation with Kaji. This is the reason why she takes on near-improbable strategies based on her 'gut feelings.' Especially in episode 12's battle against Sahaquel, the likelihood of success was 0.00001%. The subtitle for this episode is 'Don't make others suffer for your personal hatred.' This perhaps was something Ritsuko (or even Misato herself) was thinking deep down.

Yet to chalk all of this up to a simple desire for revenge is reductionistic at best. The cross in her hand was concurrently the unfulfilled love Dr. Katsuragi had for his family and also the hope for a brighter future for mankind. It was also a Cross, the symbol of the weight of responsibility, and it was what she stood for.

Various iconographies of crosses in Evangelion

The beginning of the universe?

Touching on the cross as we conclude this chapter, we are bombarded with its iconographies across the series. The most notable being the flash of light produced when the angels die. Seeing that this is observable during the third impact, it perhaps symbolizes the soul exiting the body. Another memorable cross is the one we see flashing during the opening sequence.

In the production commentary, the blue dot at the very start of the opening, which expends out in a circle and into a "red gas," is revealed to represent the big bang and the start of the universe. This is followed by the crosses that make up the transition into the title screen, the same kind of visual directions used for the in-episode eye-catch.

Beyond the surface-level representations listed, there are many more hidden references to this iconography. In episode 21, after Yui's absorption into Unit – 01's core, Gendou's shadow carries a gigantic cross. The object casting this shadow is not shown as it is only a symbolic representation. It represents the responsibility that he will carry, One that Yui used to carry and Gendou perverts. The responsibility to forgive humankind's original sin. In episode 4, when Shinji runs away from NERV, he walks down a long path shaped like a cross. This symbolizes the heavy responsibility that he is Fated to carry. That he is destined to be burdened with.

As Anno has put it, Evangelion is like a puzzle to be pieced together. There are many more such scenes, but I will leave it as it is for your enjoyment of discovery.

TBC Chapter 23 Katsuragi Misato Part 2 Dear Shinji, this is my Truth.

[roo-sketch]

Since people have asked about the Ducktales Bushroot idea I’ve been cooking up, I figured I’d gush the entire thing here. And look! It comes with pictures! Blame the lateness of this on my two jobs, they run me ragged I tell you what

So seeing as how Darkwing Duck is technically a tv show in the Ducktales universe, that’d mean the villains would end up with vastly different backstories too (as did Drake Mallard and Jim Starling in “The Duck Knight Returns”).

So for Bushroot, or in this case Tino Moss, why not make him the only child to the part time actor/script writer Pete Moss - who played the Bushroot character on the TV show.

Ever since he could remember, Tino would tag along with his dad to the studio (since Peter was a single father and had no one else to look after his son while he worked). It’s here he got to meet the cast and crew to the show, all of which, save for one, were super nice to a shy little boy always hiding behind his fathers legs. Because of this, Tino grew to love watching the finished episodes and even began to idolize the main character a little, saying how he’d one day grow up to be a super hero too! But upon meeting Jim, and being rudely brushed aside, he soon realized it’s best not to meet your idols (I imagine Jim was just as self absorbed like in the Duck Knight Returns and wouldn’t pay a small fan any mind during the height of his popularity).

After being coldly rebuffed, it was then Tino turned his sights on being a super hero in a completely different way, deciding to become a doctor instead. Pete would often joke he should become a botonist like the Bushroot character (that he’d low-key based on his sons personality), but Tino shrugged it off with a laugh and aimed to be a traditional one instead, preferring to become a family physician.

Years passed and in his final stages of his clinical’s, it’s then he received the devastating news that his father had fallen terminally ill. It was a heavy blow to see the once exuberant duck he loved so much slowly fade into a shell of his former self. At this point Tino took time off from his career to tend to his father, despite the loans and bills quickly piling up, the two spent a majority of their time watching old episodes of Darkwing Duck and reminiscing about a time when things were happier.

Eventually the inevitable day came when his father passed, destroying Tino emotionally. He’d been the only remaining family he had left, and after his death he was left with no one. The time spent tending to his father had become his whole life, and any other relationships outside of that he’d sadly neglected to the point his friends had moved on or away.

It took him a while to get back into the medical field, having to retake his clinical’s all over again and even though the work was fulfilling in a way (distracting him enough not to think about the loss) he still wasn’t entirely happy with his life, struggling with the mounting bills and loneliness that’d started to creep in. It’s then Jim Starling practically materialized out of the clear blue, having had tracked down his address and wondered if he would like to meet and catch up.

Tino is hesitant at first, remembering the blowhard from his childhood and didn’t know if he wanted to revisit that chapter of his life again, but when Jim makes mention of his dad, of all the good times they had on and off camera, the former star eventually brings the other duck around enough the two sit down for a good, long chat.

They reminisce about the show, the actors, where everyone is at the moment. Jim mentions on several occasions how he’d been trying to reboot the Darkwing Duck series and asks if he’d be interested in reprising his fathers role as the mutated plant monster.

Tino laughs it off, admitting he isn’t much of an actor, or a writer for that matter, but if he ever wanted some pointers for the episodes he still had his dads old scripts archived in the attic.

After that Jim comes and goes infrequently, usually to ask scientific mumbo jumbo about the whole “mutating a Duck into a plant” thing, which Tino does some research between work and sleep just to appease what he considers a friend at this point (going so far as to getting ahold of a scientist in the Saint Canard University’s agricultural department for some additional insight). He passes the information off to Jim and thinks nothing else of it until the former star makes a surprise visit one day.

He tells him he has it all set up for the big shoot, inviting Tino down to see the studio for himself. Curiosity gets the better of him, and despite needing to get some rest for work tomorrow, he joins the other duck on the long car ride, a bit unnerved to see it’s in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city.

Any questions he poses regarding safety - or why anyone in their right mind would want to set up a shoot here - is quickly brushed aside, Jim telling him he was aiming for a darker, grittier Darkwing Duck, hence the change in scenery. They head inside to find what appears to be a fully functioning lab, Tino excitedly looking over all the instruments, commenting about how realistic it was. As he stands beside the operating table, it’s then he is suddenly whacked upside the head, knocked out cold for who knows how long.

By the time he comes to, he’s strapped down, wires running over and through him. He pleads to know what’s going on, gasping to see Jim in an off color version of the Darkwing costume leering over him. The former actor explains that after he saw the news of what went down in Saint Canard, the ram rod incident and the other dimensions villains running amuck on the streets, he realized he needed his own Fearsome Five by his side if he ever planned to rule the city.

Seeing as how Pete had passed away and the other actors were far to old or out of reach to reprise their “roles”, he’d set out to replace them with newer, younger versions, starting with Tino.

Panicking, and realizing what exactly he planned to do to him as the liquids start to pump into his body, Tino breaks free before Negaduck can fully flip the conversion switch.

He manages to run a good distance from the factory, picking his way through the unfamiliar streets of Saint Canard as his body begins to grow more and more sluggish the further he walks. It almost feels like he’s going through every stage of sickness all at once. Chills, hot flashes, nausea, dehydration. He asks for help several times to passerby’s only to have people take one look at his green complexion and lurch away in fright. Some even out right flee, especially when near by trees or other plants spring to life around them. They, along with Tino, run in fear, he finally stopping long enough to catch his breath and get a good, hard look at his reflection through a shop window. Horror spreads across his face. A face that is his own but not in so many ways. It almost resembles the make-up his father used to wear during shoots but oh so different, oh so wrong! Deep in the pit of his stomach he knows this isn’t fake, this isn't a dream, it’s real. The mutation is real, and with people gasping, crying and running, this will be his new reality if he can’t find a way to reverse it!

Through several more mishaps and misunderstandings, dodging both panicking citizens and Darkwing Duck, he eventually finds himself cornered in a building by the Saint Canard police force (who mistakenly believe he’s just as dangerous as the other dimensions Bushroot).

It’s here Tino is once again confronted by Negaduck, and though he yells at the one behind all this, for forcibly mutating him into a monster and how he won’t get away with it, his words are cut short when Negaduck laughs, pointing out he shouldn’t be angry at the only person willing to embrace him now. He offers one last time for Tino to join the Fearsome Five, sneering that if he refused, he’d never be a normal duck again.

When Tino asks what he means, Negaduck explains that he’d kept all the notes, all the formulas, everything he did to turn him into a mutant plant duck was written in a journal, stashed away for safe keeping. If he ever planned on reverse engineering a formula to turn himself back, he’d need that journal. But if he refused to cooperate, than he’d have no problem destroying it and leaving Tino as he was.

A monster.

With no other choice, Tino finally agrees, reluctantly starting down the path of villainy.

And that’s how I figured you could have a sympathetic Bushroot character that stayed in line with the “he’s not technically a villain per say,” category while having him justified as to WHY he’s a villain at all.

[chernobog13]

MOONLIGHT MASK

Starman, aka Super Giant, was Japan’s answer to Superman, appearing in theaters in a 9 films between 1957 and 1959.  He was also Japan’s first superhero on film.

During that time, Japan’s answer to Batman or The Shadow appeared on Japanese television.  Gekko Kamen, aka Moonlight Mask in English (also Moon Mask Rider), was the very first tokusatsu, live-action superhero on Japanese television.

Moonlight Mask fought crime, carried two snub-nosed .38 revolvers, rode around on a motorcycle, and usually could be heard singing his theme song (I ain’t making this up!) before he appeared out of the darkness.  He had no super-powers except the ability to never run out of bullets, and never get his cape caught in his motorcycle’s spokes.

As for his choice of weapons, he couldn’t have picked worse.  .38 caliber revolvers were standard issue for many police forces at the time.  However, the .38s were notorious for terrible penetrating and stopping power; there have been documented instances of the bullets bouncing off someone just wearing a nylon windbreaker!  And generally, the longer a handgun barrel is the more accurate it will be.  The only reason anyone wore snub-nosed.38s was because they were easily concealable underneath jackets or other clothes.  But for 99% of users they were only effective at point-blank range.

Japanese DVD cover for episodes 47-58 of the television series, part of the Skull Mask storyline.

Moonlight Mask was always coming to the aid of Police Inspector Matsuda, usually when some bizarre, diabolical villain was involved.  No one knew who Moonlight Mask was, and his secret identity was never revealed.  In the cast credits Moonlight Mask was always played by a question mark (”?”).  However, even the dullest of audience members could figure that Moonlight Mask was very probably private detective Juro Iwai, played by actor Ose Koichi, because the two characters are never, ever seen at the same time.

Cover to the Japanese DVD for the film Moonlight Mask - The Monster Kong.  Gotta say, this Kong isn’t as impressive as the television version.

Moonlight Mask debuted on Japanese television in February 1958 and ran for a total of 131 episodes, ending in July 1959.  The episodes were run serial-style, with each episode picking up right where the previous one ended (usually with a cliff hanger of sorts).

The episodes were organized into 5 stories.  The first story, Skull Mask, ran the first 72 episodes.  The second story, The Secret of the Paradai Kingdom, ran 21 episodes.  Mammoth Kong, the third story, was 11 episodes long, and featured the first television kaiju.  Story number four, The Ghost Party Strikes Back, was 13 episodes long.  And the final story of the series, Don’t Turn Your Hand to Revenge, ran for 14 episodes.

Mammoth Kong as he appears in the television series.  He’s a fearsome looking brute!

 I was only able to find available for sale in the USA the first four chapters of Mammoth Kong.  Above is the cover of the DVD that I purchased from Amazon.  The episodes are subtitled in English, but appear to have been lifted from Youtube. 

Despite being an early television show, with a very limited budget, I was very entertained by these episodes.  Mammoth Kong is a mutant giant ape, approximately 45-50 feet tall.  The scale model building for the Mammoth Kong scenes, while not up to Eiji Tsuburaya’s standards, were convincing enough.  And instead of using an expensive optical process to put humans in the same scene as the Mammoth Kong, they used marionettes instead.  It sounds goofy, but it was actually pretty effective.

In addition to the television series, Toei Films produced six Moonlight Mask films during the same time period.  There films were released in 1958, and the second three films were released in 1959.

That’s the diabolical Skull Mask and his gang of eyeball minions threatening Moonlight Mask.

The films were Moonlight Mask, Moonlight Mask - Duel to the Death in Dangerous Waters, Moonlight Mask - The Claws of Satan, Moonlight Mask - The Monster Kong, Moonlight Mask - The Ghost Party Strikes Back, and Moonlight Mask - The Last of the Devil.

The films were adaptations of the stories from the television series. with Skull Mask - the longest story - getting divided into two films.    They were filmed in 2.35:1 aspect (”Toei Scope”) and had slightly better production value.  Also, Moonlight Mask and Detective Juro Iwai (if they really are the same person) is played by actor Fumitake Omura.

Japanese DVD cover for the film Moonlight Mask - The Claws of Satan.

Think about how neat it was to be kid in Japan back then: not only could you see Moonlight Mask on TV every week, but you could go to the movie theatre and see him at the same time!  The equivalent today would be watching Superman and Lois on TV at home, and having a new Superman film showing up at your local multiplex (anybody remember those?) every 4 months.

The television series and films were quite popular and doing well.  Unfortunately, a young Japanese boy died imitating one of Moonlight Mask’s stunts.  This led to the cancellation of the television series and the films coming to an end.

(A similar incident led to director Teruo Ishii, who directed several of the early Starman/Super Giant films, to leave the series after a young boy had been hurt imitating Starman.)

An early soft vinyl (sofubi) Moonlight Mask figure. 

A manga of Moonlight Mask made the scene a few months after the television series started.  Much of the artwork in the manga was by Jiro Kuwata, the creator of 8 Man.  He is better known in the West as the artist of the Batman manga from the 1960s, which were collected and released by DC Comics a few years ago.

The Marmit 1:6-scale Moonlight Mask action figure.  He has automatics here, which he never used in the television series, so thes may be based on the film version. (Yeah, I know he needs to be touched-up with a Tide Pen.  You try keeping your white costume clean when you’re tussling with bad guys!)

Moonlight Mask would return in 1972 for a 39-episode anime series.  He had an updated costume, with a motorcycle helmet instead of a turban.  He was also sporting two .357 Magnum revolvers, which in real life would be only slightly more accurate than his old snub-nosed .38s, but with a heck of a lot more stopping power.

The Medicom Real Action Heroes (RAH) 1:6-scale action figure of the anime version of Moonlight Mask.

The anime series was apparently very popular in Latin America, where it is known as Centella.

The anime was broken into three 13-part story arcs: The Claw of Satan, The Mammoth Kong, and The Dragon’s Fang.  I’ve never seen the anime, but based on the titles alone I’m assuming the fist two stories are based on the original series.

There was also a gag anime, We know You, Moonlight Mask-kun, which had 25 episodes broadcast between October 1999 and March 2000.  I know next-to-nothing about this series.

That brings us to 1981, and the most embarrassing point on Moonlight Mask’s career:

The Moonlight Mask movie, known in English as Moon Mask Rider.

This movie was an attempt to update Moonlight Mask for the 1980s, complete with giving him a suped-up motorcycle.  I’ve only seen clips from this film, and I was not impressed.  The kindest review of the film of several I’ve read describes it as dull; not bad, but not good.

None of the original series’ characters return, and Moonlight Mask even has a new secret identity!  The actor who played Moonlight Mask, Daisuke Kuwahara, was never seen in films again after this movie bombed big time at the box office.

The 1981 movie version of the Moonlight Mask costume, which seems to incorporate elements from both the television and anime versions.

Sadly, that was the last time Moonlight Mask was attempted in live action, and he hasn’t been seen in anime in over 20 years. Unfortunately, only Japanese versions of the Toei films, and a few chapters from the television series, are available for sale in the USA.  The DVD covers shown above are all from Amazon’s site.

Some random episodes of the television and first anime series are available on YouTube, but I couldn’t find any subtitled in English.

One of the Toei films - I think it’s Moonlight Mask - The Claws of Satan - is available in its entirety on YouTube, but it is not subtitled either.

I’m hoping one day someone will subtitle the original television series and films and distribute them to the USA.  I’m dying to see how Moonlight Mask manages to defeat Mammoth Kong and the evil gang controlling him.