#villain found friend/family tournament round one | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xxpadfootxx · 4 years

Text

Fanning the Flames of Heroic Turmoil - Part 1 (Word Hurt More Than Spikes)

Summary: [THIS IS A PART 2 OF NIGHT TERRORS & NEW BEGINNINGS]

Despite Izuku’s hero training interfering with with their progress, Izuku & Dakota have slowly grown closer over time, their bond strengthening and their friendship developing into more than just a boy and his pet. Izuku and Dakota are ready for anything. They have each other and that’s all that matters... but will it be enough? Or will some revealed secrets about Dakota’s past and her connection to some of the world’s most dangerous villains tear their bond up from the seams?

A/N: As it says in the summary, this is a part 2 to Night Terrors & New Beginnings. This multi-chapter fic was just getting really long so I decided to make it into a series. So if you haven’t read the first part then you are in the wrong place! Sorry it’s so long, I hope you enjoy this series anyway!

Izuku laid back and crossed his arms underneath his head, closing his eyes as the sun warmed his face and the grass brushed against his arms. He sighed, finally allowing his body to relax after the grueling past few weeks he had put himself through in order to perform his best at the Sports Festival. Although he loved being around Dakota, he had forced himself to stay away from her during the Sports Festival, not wanting to either overwork himself nor be distracted while he prepared to display his talents to any pro-heros who were willing to take him on as an intern.

Dakota told him she understood completely and had left him alone, remaining in the dragon sanctuary but he had felt her slightly melancholy mood when he saw her for the last time before the festival. Now that the festival was over, Izuku had taken the first train to the sanctuary, his heart desperate to see his best friend again. Almost immediately upon walking into the sanctuary and seeing all of the dragons living peacefully behind Fumihiros’ cottage, Izuku had felt himself relax, the calming aura of the place allowing the tension to melt from his muscles. Izuku peeked one eye open when he felt a movement beside him.

“Gods, I feel like I’ve broken every bone in my body,” Ochako said with a groan, laying down on the soft grass beside Izuku.

“I agree with you on that one,” Izuku said with a chuckle.

“Oh! Deku, I’m sorry I totally forgot!” Ochako said, turning to him with her face red with embarrassment. She had forgotten that Izuku really had broken his bones in the tournament.

“Don’t worry about it,” Izuku said with a warm smile. He had only been teasing her.

“Are we not going to go find our dragons?” Ochako asked after a short moment of silence.

Izuku smiled when she said ‘our’ dragons. He had been so afraid in the beginning that Ochako would reject him as a friend when she found out about Dakota. When he had knocked on her door all those weeks ago to recruit her for her help in rescuing the captured dragons, he had expected her to never speak to him again, even if she did decide to help him. The exact opposite had ensued, Ochako becoming closer to him than anyone ever had been before, aside from his own family. She came with him every time he went to the dragon sanctuary, her smile bright and her eyes wide if not a little cautious, eager to learn.

“I just told Dakota we were here,” Izuku said, glancing back up at the sky. “She didn’t respond but I know she heard me so we can just relax here until they show up.”

When Ochako didn’t say anything in response, Izuku glanced over to find her watching him, her eyes glimmering in wonder.

“What?” Izuku asked nervously, his face turning red under her stare and his eyes darting away from her gaze.

“Oh sorry!” Ochako said, snapping out of her haze. “I just still think it's so cool how you’re able to communicate with her. I have to admit, when you first did it, it kind of freaked me out a little. But now that I’ve seen you do it more often, I find it so cool!”

“Oh, yeah,” Izuku said warmly, his face getting somehow even more red from her praise. “I’m still getting used to it even though it's been so long since we first bonded. I’m starting to get the hang of it now though! It helps to know that Dakota is just as new to this as I am.”

“Damn right, half of the time I have no idea what to do or how to respond,” a voice suddenly said through the bond, making Izuku jolt in place.

“Deku, are you okay?”

“Yeah, Dakota just talked to me and I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Dakota spoke to you? Where is she?”

“Right above you,” Dakota said through the bond, making Izuku smile and look up. There, sitting in the branches of the tree right above the pair was both Dakota and Legoshi, their wings still spread slightly, signaling they had just landed.

Ochako followed Izuku’s eyes and smiled brightly when she saw her winged friends, moving to rest on her elbows to get a better look at them. With roars of joy above them, Dakota and Legoshi raised their wings and leaped from the branches, gliding down to their respective riders. Ochako stood and met Legoshi once he landed on the ground, her arms out to encompass his neck in a hug. Legoshi purred and reached his neck around her back to nuzzle her affectionately, her whole body surrounded by him.

Izuku leaped up and met with Dakota before she even landed completely on the ground, her wings still beating a little when he jumped up to wrap his arms around her. As soon as he saw her his heart had jumped into his throat like a rabbit, beating steadily and filling him with an overwhelming sense of love he hadn’t expected.

“I missed you too,” Dakota chuckled down the bond as she landed on her back legs but kept her front legs reared into the air to encompass Izuku in a hug of her own. Izuku squeezed her harder in response. When they finally parted, they turned to see Ochako had already made herself at home curled up against Legoshi’s body, his tail coiled around her protectively. Assuming the same position, Dakota laid down on the soft grass and curled her tail around Izuku as he settled down against her side with a sigh.

“Gods, I missed this,” Ochako whispered.

“Me too,” Izuku said, leaning back even further into Dakota’s warm scales.

“You two seem tired,” Dakota growled down the bond, her striking blue eyes revealing her concern and her tail tightening its hold across Izuku’s lap.

“Yeah,” Izuku said. “We are pretty tired, but even with the hard work and the stress, the festival was really fun.”

“It was really fun,” Ochako agreed, using context clues to figure out what Dakota had said. “Well, the last round with the one on one fights was hard, I was up against Bakugo which kind of put a damper on the fun part of the festival, but I learned a lot and I was happy he didn’t go easy on me.”

“Oh yeah, Ochako was amazing, you should’ve seen her!” Izuku said, not noticing the blush that immediately bloomed on Ochako’s face at his words. “I offered to help her but she didn’t need it, she had this fantastic plan where she used the power of Kacchan’s blasts against him, floating the debris around her to create this amazing meteor shower! She would’ve won if it weren’t for the fact that Kacchan had at least one more giant blast in him. She was so fantastic though, I wish you could’ve seen her!” Izuku suddenly stopped when he realized he was rambling and placed his hands over his mouth, glancing at Ochako apologetically. She shook her head at his apology, her bangs swinging in front of her face.

“Thanks Deku, you were amazing too! He had a difficult opponent as well. He actually made it through two rounds before losing. The first round was against a kid with a mind control quirk, but he managed to break free of it and send the kid out of bounds! He didn’t lose until he was put up against Todoroki, but that was only because instead of taking over Todoroki’s weak spot like he was supposed to, he helped him through some tough issues he had with himself and brought out his full potential.”

Now it was Deku’s turn to blush as she boasted about him, her eyes sparkling as she recounted both fateful battles.

“Yeah, he tends to see the best in those who may not always deserve it,” Dakota said down the bond, shifting her wings uncomfortably. “That’s what makes him so deserving of the title ‘hero’, though.”

Izuku glanced up at his dragon in shock not only at the blatant compliment in her words, but also at the sly jab she had aimed at herself, but her head was turned away, her eyes purposely looking elsewhere.

“What did she say?” Ochako asked.

“She just said that she thought I was worthy of being a hero because of my faith in people,” Izuku said, his heart warming as he mulled the compliment over in his mind.

“Well she is damn right,” Ochako said, the words slipping out of her mouth before she could stop them. Slapping a palm over her mouth she looked to see Izuku looking at her with a surprised, warm look on his face. She smiled at him, still flustered she had let that slip. Grasping for a change in subject that could dissipate the tension in the air, her mind landed on their friend Iida.

“Hey Deku, did something seem off about Iida after his phone call with his family after the Sports Festival? I feel like he received some bad news but he wasn’t saying anything.”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about Iida ever since he came out of the locker room that day. And did you see what he put down for his internship choice? He picked one in Hosu, where all of the attacks from the Hero Killer have been happening.”

“Hero Killer?” Dakota asked.

“Yeah, the Hero Killer, also known as Stain, is a villain who believes that the heroing system is corrupt and full of fake heroes. He tried to protest and spread his beliefs through rallies and riots but when he got shut down he turned to crime, murdering heroes he believed to be unworthy of their title,” Izuku explained. “Dakota asked,” He said, in response to Ochako’s questioning stare.

“The most recent attack was in Hosu,” Ochako said, picking up where Izuku left off in his explanation. “He killed a few heroes down there and then disappeared, but the authorities are guessing he will be back in Hosu soon, should he follow the pattern he has almost always followed in his past killing sprees.”

Dakota grunted and looked out over the sanctuary, her eyes roving over the relaxing dragons. She watched as Jack walked out of the small cottage and made his way over to Sasori, his handsome Triple Strike, holding out some fish for his best friend.

“Izuku?” Dakota asked in a soft whisper down the bond.

“Yes?” Izuku also responded down the bond, taking her soft tone as a hint that she wanted to talk to him in private.

“Please keep each other safe and don’t die. You and Uraraka are both very strong individuals but when you are together, you make a formidable team. Even so, watch each other's backs. I never want to feel the agony of seeing Haruka or Fumihiro walk through those doors with nothing but tears and regret.”

Izuku looked up at his dragon in shock for the second time during their interaction but was met with Dakota’s genuine, striking gaze rather than the back of her head. Her eyes were swimming with suppressed emotion and her tail fins were flicking anxiously against Izuku’s legs. Tears bubbled up under Izuku’s eyelids and overflowed onto his cheeks, leaving clear steaks on his soft skin.

“Deku? Is something wrong?”

Izuku rubbed his face with the sleeve of his shirt. He was so grateful for all of his friends but right now, Ochako and Dakota seemed to be the two individuals in the world who understood him the most. Dakota was direct and bold but kind and sensitive thanks to her troubling past. Ochako was patient and never seemed frustrated or jealous over Izuku’s bond with Dakota, always waiting patiently for him to fill her in and respecting his decisions when he decided not to share the information with her.

“No, I’m alright Ochako,” Izuku said calmly, the tears finally drying from his eyes. “Dakota just told me that we need to take care of each other. She knows we are going to help Iida but she cares about us and wants us to use our strength as a team to keep each other safe.”

Ochako stared at Dakota for a moment, her determined chocolate brown eyes meeting Dakota’s searing blue gaze without fear.

“I can do that,” Ochako said, reaching up with a soft palm to pat Dakota’s nose. Dakota purred and nuzzled Ochako affectionately.

“I can do that too,” Izuku said, his eyes coming to rest on Ochako as he made his promise, his heart hardening against the idea of her getting hurt.

“Good,” Dakota said down the bond, which Izuku repeated to Ochako, before laying her head down on the soft grass beside Izuku, allowing sleep to overtake her in the warm afternoon sun. Legoshi soon followed suit, his tail curling even more around Ochako, the electric dragon really having grown affectionate towards Ochako after the dragon rescue, her warm heart and kind, patient words bringing the stubborn dragon closer and closer to her until he was wrapped around her finger like a small puppy. Ochako smiled at her dragon before curling into his side even more with a sigh and closing her eyes.

“Just gonna relax for a while…” Ochako mumbled.

Izuku knew they would have to be home before dark but he let all of them sleep, his own eyes having to fight to keep from drooping closed now that the initial excitement of seeing their dragons again had faded off. Izuku busied himself with keeping watch over his friends. He knew there was no danger within the dragon sanctuary, but it gave him something to do and it calmed his heart to know they were safe.

He knew he still had a long road ahead with Dakota, the pair only just starting to get the hang of flying together despite their successful attempt during the dragon trap rescue, but he couldn’t wait to trek that journey with her, their bond strengthening every day. Leaning back into Dakota’s warm side, Izuku gazed down at Ochako, watching as the brilliantly gold rays of the dying sunlight splayed out across her face and set her hair on fire, the chocolatey brown meshing with the gold into a fiery orange that was bursting with color and energy. He listened to her soft breathing and felt his heart start to beat erratically as his eyes roved over her plush lips, the flesh puckered slightly in her sleep.

Finally tearing his gaze away from his sleeping friend, Izuku gazed out over the peaceful sanctuary. Jack had gone back inside the cottage but Sasori was attempting to get more fish from the large lake towards the middle of the sanctuary. He watched as the dragons fluttered their wings and nuzzled their eggs, their bodies relaxed and calm, finally free from the stresses of worrying about hunters and trappers. Dakota sighed and shifted behind him, making Izuku glance back at her. He made up his mind then, curled up within Dakota’s scales and surrounded by these wondrous creatures that no matter what happened, he was going to be here to protect them. To change the minds of the people around him and give these creatures the amazing life they deserved.

_____________________________

“Anyone want to meet up for dinner after school today?” Kirishima asked the group sitting at his lunch table, his eyes bright and his fork waving in the air excitedly.

“Sorry, we already have plans,” Izuku said, motioning towards Ochako and himself without really thinking.

“Oooooh!!! Something special planned tonight Midoriya? You both have been pretty busy after school ever since the festival ended, anything we don’t know about that we should?” Kaminari asked from beside Kirishima, his eyebrows raising and his teasing smile widening as Izuku choked on his curry.

“W-what!? N-no we just-” Izuku was scrambling for an explanation when Ochako piped up beside him, her composure a lot more solid despite her burning cheeks.

“Deku has been helping me study for the upcoming final exams,” Ochako said. “I really struggle with logarithms and he is really good at them so we’ve been meeting for study sessions almost every day to help me prepare.”

Kaminari stuck his tongue out at her in response. “You two are boring.”

Izuku glanced at her gratefully when Kaminari dropped the subject and continued to shovel food in his mouth, trying to get the flames in his cheeks to die down.

“Alright, I understand why you two can’t come, anyone else though?” Kirishima asked, glancing around the table. “Bakugo?”

“Fuck off, Shitty Hair.”

“Great! So, Bakugo is coming, who else?” Kirishima asked again, ignoring the glare Bakugo threw at him.

“Jirou? Yaoyorozu? Kaminari? Ashido?”

The students he called out to eventually agreed to come even if it took a little convincing, eventually forming a small dinner group for the evening.

“Anyone else? Final call! How about you Iida? Wanna come?”

Izuku and Ochako both discreetly glanced at their friend. They had found out shortly after the Sports Festival that his older brother, Ingenium had gotten attacked by the Hero Killer in Hosu. Both of them were trying to keep a close eye on their friend but Iida was making it hard for them, only responding to questions with curt, one word answers and mostly avoiding as much human contact as possible. It had taken Izuku and Ochako almost twenty minutes to convince him to eat lunch with them.

“Iida?”

Iida remained silent, his eyes glassy, his mind obviously preoccupied in his own world.

“IIDA!”

Iida finally snapped out of it, blinking rapidly and glancing over, he found everyone at the table to be staring at him.

“Oh sorry, I was busy thinking, what did you guys want?” Iida asked in a tired, monotone voice that sounded so unlike him it made Izuku’s stomach clench.

“It’s fine man, I was just wondering if you wanted to come eat out for dinner tonight with us, you know, get your mind off of things for a little while,” Kirishima said, his voice softening at the look and sound of their normally energetic class representative.

“Oh, thanks Kirishima but I think I’ll pass on this one.”

Izuku and Ochako looked at each other. They both wanted to breach the subject and desperately wanted to help their friend but they both felt helpless. They had spent endless hours talking it over while trying to study. They had even brought the issue to their dragons for advice but even that hadn’t cracked Iida’s hardened shell. After a few more minutes of staring off into space, Iida stood abruptly and left without a word, dumping his mostly full tray of food into the trash and heading off on his own, his shoulders slightly slumped and his back tensed like an iron rod.

Izuku stood up to follow him but stopped when he felt Ochako lightly grip his wrist, her head shaking to tell him to give Iida some space. She knew it hurt Izuku to sit still, and she wanted to help him too, but with the way he was now, he just needed some space and time to get used to the new tragedy in his life. Izuku slowly sat back in his seat and hung out with his friends for the rest of the lunch period, but his mind was never far from the suffering of one of his closest friends.

____________________________

All throughout the day, Izuku had given Iida his space but never stopped trying to think of solutions. He was still mulling it over as he walked down the hall to his last class, his thumb pressed against his chin and his mouth moving as he mumbled a series of plans to himself.

“Something got you thinking, Midoriya m’boy?” The strong voice of All Might said suddenly from Izuku’s right. Izuku jumped a little in surprise and turned to see his idol and mentor standing in a small alcove of the hallway, his large muscled form covered by a snappy yellow suit that complimented his gold hair.

“Oh! Hello All Might! Sorry, I was just thinking, what can I do for you?” Izuku said, bowing quickly.

All Might waved off his bow and beckoned for Izuku to follow him, a small piece of paper clutched between his first two fingers on his left hand.

“Have you found where you want to intern, young Midoriya?” All Might asked.

“Oh, I have some ideas but as I didn’t get any offers, I’ve been trying to narrow them down based on different aspects such as where they are located and how well I could use my quirk and-”

All Might cut him off with a chuckle.

“No need to get into much detail, Midoriya, I was just asking because this morning you got an offer.”

“Really!?” Izuku asked incredulously, his eyes as wide as saucers as he looked up at his mentor.

“Yep,” All Might said, lifting the slip of paper and waving it in the air. “He’s an old friend of mine and he watched the festival. I told him about you and you captured his interest.”

Excitement flooded Izuku’s system but something about the way All Might said it made his eyes glance over at him in concern.

“But…?”

All Might sighed and pulled Izuku down a deserted hall, away from a group of oncoming students.

“There are two things about this man you should know if you decide to intern with him. One, he is terrifying.”

“Huh!?” Izuku gasped.

“Yeah,” All Might chuckled. “He will push you to the brink to make you the best of the best. Don’t let his age fool you, he is the toughest person I’ve ever met.”

“Okay, what’s the second thing I need to know?” Izuku asked.

All Might’s gaze darkened and Izuku felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He may look up to All Might but he had to admit, when his idol had that look on his face, it sent a cold shiver down his spine. All Might leaned forward then and placed his strong, large hands on Izuku’s shoulders, his eyes boring into Izuku’s frightened gaze.

“I respect and look up to my mentor but there was something he did many years ago that I still do not understand. We are on speaking terms but things are a little uneasy between us because of this incident that happened.” All Might said.

Izuku waited patiently as his mentor took a deep breath and steadied himself, almost as if he were about to tell Izuku about some horrible tragedy. He wanted to hear what All Might had to say but he was worried and scared. He was already worried about Iida, it might not be worth it to associate himself with this internship opportunity if it was going to be so stressful.

“Midoriya, my mentor… he… well he…” All Might gulped. “He bonded to a dragon.”

Izuku froze at All Might’s words, his eyes wide with shock but what All Might mistook as fear.

“I know, it’s terrifying and awful, to be forcibly connected with such a vicious, bloodthirsty beast. I tried for years to convince him to get rid of it, there are hospitals who perform bond-breaking operations, but he refused. He was corrupted by the beast, telling me that the dragon wouldn’t hurt anyone and that he loved it,” All Might’s nose scrunched up in disgust as he talked, the horror within Izuku growing by the second, but for reasons entirely different than what All Might thought.

“He still keeps the filthy creature with him, had a friend of his turn it into a cat as a disguise. There were several times where I considered turning him over to the authorities, getting him some help, but he seemed normal most of the time and I respected him too much to do that,” All Might sighed as he looked at Izuku’s horror-stricken face. “I promise, kid, I’m not telling you all of this to make you feel scared or dissuade you from taking this opportunity, but I felt you should know before you make your decision so that you know what you are comfortable with. I know you got attacked by a dragon earlier in the year, and I don’t want to force you to face anything you aren’t ready for yet.”

Izuku forced himself to stay calm, his fingers instinctively curling over his right palm behind his back to hide his bond mark. He swallowed thickly and smiled at All Might, telling himself over and over again that All Might had no idea, that Dakota and Legoshi were safe at the sanctuary and that he wasn’t going to be taken away. Bowing and slapping his arms to his sides, Izuku paid careful attention to keep his mark hidden, a newfound determination flowing through his limbs.

“Thank you All Might, sir! I greatly appreciate the information but I will go forward with this internship opportunity. If I can’t face my fear of dragons now, then I never will, and I may need that courage in the future, dragon attacks are a common thing people call heroes for and I want to be able to help everyone involved no matter what.”

Izuku stood up and held his left hand out, allowing All Might to gently place the paper in his palm. His mentor then did something he didn’t expect, he leaned down and gave Izuku a hug, his strong arms encasing him warmly.

“You’re a good kid, young Midoriya, and you will make an amazing hero. I have no doubt you will make me proud.”

Izuku beamed at the praise but his stomach still churned at All Might’s words, his mind conjuring up images of All Might staring at him in shock and utter disappointment, a gun or a sword held to Dakota’s head as she struggled and roared in pain.

“Thank you, sir.”

All Might eventually released Izuku and moved past the boy, rolling his shoulders and standing up straight, preparing to show his face to the high-achieving staff and students of U.A. once more.

“Wait! All Might,” Izuku said just before his idol could walk out into the bustling hallway. “What kind of dragon is it?”

All Might glanced back at him.

“You know dragon types?”

Izuku forced himself to keep from flinching at All Might’s questioning tone.

“Yeah, after I was attacked, I was curious. I was obsessed with finding out what type of dragon attacked me and why it let me live. I studied a bunch of dragon books so I could be better prepared in the future and force myself to work through my new reality of having to deal with this initially crippling fear.”

All Might turned around to face the boy, and Izuku was shocked to see a small tear slip from All Might’s eye.

“I understand, Midoriya. His dragon is a Deadly Nadder. Do whatever you need to do to prepare for your eventual confrontation with the beast. Luckily, with my mentor, you won’t be attacked, but as you know, dragons are evil, vile, nasty creatures, and they are as smart as a whip. Never turn your back on it.”

With that, All Might fell into step with a few oncoming teachers, greeting them warmly as if he had not just rocked Izuku’s world. Izuku fought to control his breathing. He wasn’t worried about the dragon at all, he actually tended to like Deadly Nadders thanks to their playful personalities and gentle mannerisms. He was worried about All Might and his mindset about dragons, thoughts about All Might’s words on the bond-breaking operations making Izuku’s blood run cold. Clenching his fists, he looked down at the card he held in his hand.

“Gran Torino…” Izuku muttered to himself as he read the paper with his address and phone number.

Resituating his face into a neutral expression, Izuku flowed into the crowd just like All Might did, making a mental note to tell Dakota and Ochako about this new development as soon as he could.

5 notes · View notes

captainkirkk · 5 years

Text

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

A collection of fics I’ve read (/reread) and thoroughly enjoyed in the past week-ish from all kinds of fandoms and genres.

BNHA

survival instinct by carolinaa

Izuku's always had the vague feeling that trusting people is more trouble than it's worth.

A villain's quirk makes him realize how painful trust can be, too.

Aizawa Doesn't Deserve This by polytropic

Class 1-A may be turning Aizawa's hair gray, but at least his coworkers are getting entertainment out of it.

xi. stitches by rexcorvidae

Izuku could sew fairly well. He’d asked his mother to teach him when he was young, and she was constantly having to repair rips in the All Might plush he’d carried around for ages. He’d only gotten better as he got older – Kacchan and his friends weren’t very concerned about the state of his uniform, and they couldn’t afford to get it replaced every week.

Giving himself stitches couldn’t be that different… could it?

paint me in trust by dinomight

The first mark Izuku gets is a slight brush of green across his temple. It’s the soft touch of a mother holding her son for the first time. Inko has one to match, the same shade of green staining the tips of her fingers. Hers is more noticeable; Izuku’s tends to blend into his hairline.

He loves it anyways. He has to. It’s the only soulmate mark he has.

(Or: how Izuku goes from just green to a rainbow, UA-style.)

Fun At Hero Con by wolfsrainrules

Midoriya Izuku is still the biggest hero nerd to walk the earth and not even being Number One is going to change that.

Now if only he could remember to tell his fans that he is Pro Hero Deku.

Fate Declared It, But I Made It So by gringle

Izuku had always seen his threads of fate, the people that were destined to be a part of his life.

(Canon rewrite with platonic threads of fate that only Izuku can see.)

Miraculous Ladybug

late night gaming by crypticgemini

Part 1 of cat emoticons

ladybug: i cant believe we stayed up till four

kitkat: i only slept for three hours after we logged off i have so many coffees in me

ladybug: i- im concerned how many coffees

kitkat: i contain multitudes

Marvel

swing on over by crypticgemini

Part 1 of you have (1) new notification

Peter and MJ text each other back and forth on the regular. These are some of their chat logs.

Harry Potter

Reparatio by astolat (+ podfic)

Draco snorted. “I’m not reduced to penury. I want something considerably beyond money, and I rather think you’re the only one can give it to me.”

“You want the Invisibility Cloak,” Harry said, flatly. He’d half expected as much; it was the only thing he had that Draco could want—

“Don’t be stupid, Potter,” Draco said. “I want my reputation back.”

Slithering by astolat (+ podfic)

Draco found the nest down in the Manor’s cellars, while he was clearing them out.

The Third Task by FloreatCastellum

Ron and his family wait in the stands, watching the third task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Avatar

ds al coda by doctrpepper

zuko dies. zuko wakes up.

All The Gentle Creatures by Haicrescendo

It’s said that you can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals. Zuko may be loud and stubborn and sharp but all the woodland creatures love him.

#my posts #weekly fic round up #fic recs #couple of chat fics and a few different fandoms #'fun at hero con' was a gift fic but fkjjkr it's so good #i reread it a few days ago and i have to rec it here #bnha recs #atla recs #hp recs #marvel recs #ml recs

310 notes · View notes

fan-clan-fun · 5 years

Text

I have zero self control

Here I am back at it again with new fanclans!!

I literally spent three hours thinking about this as I helped a friend move to a new apartment, its nice to have something to think about while hauling boxes.

Anyway! Thanks to the anon who mentioned medievalish clans, I wanted to give another go (kinda) to one of my older ideas for a medieval clan, but it’s kinda turned out different than I intended.

First I determined that I wanted to use a sort of hereditary monarchy sort of thing, although its a bit different, and I wanted these clans to be the ones to finally use my list of deities I came up with forever ago.

My thinking was definitely not linear, so I will attempt to pull a coherent train of thought out of the mess.

The Basics:

There are two clans, Dawnclan and Duskclan, named for where their territory is (Dawnclan to the east, Duskclan to the west) and the order of their formation (Dawn first and Dusk second). Duskclan was formed after a dispute of leadership caused an almost half and half split in the clan and the disgruntled party left.

The leadership of the clans is based on a specific concept, that was started back when the clan was first founded. The clans are led by a Monarch and their consort. The Monarch must be close blood (child, sibling, niece/nephew, cousin) to the previous Monarch and descended from the original line of the founding cats (Mother Misty). The Consort does not have to be their mate, nor do they have to love each other, but they serve as a team in guiding the clan. One of the pair is in charge of things outside of camp (hunting, patrolling, etc), while the other is in charge of things inside camp (maintenance, keeping kits occupied and educated, ensuring everyone has the supplies they need, etc). It does not matter which of the pair does this, either monarch or consort may choose either job, but they may not each do the same one. The only other requirement, is that the monarch must provide heirs, either through their body, or if that is not possible through other means of close family.

Part of the differences between Dawnclan and Duskclan, is that they see who is eligible for this duo differently. Dawnclan could care less if its a cis male/female pairing, or any other under the sun, such as a lesbian or gay or nontraditional pair, so long as they can find a way to have heirs. But Duskclan insists it must be a male/female (can be trans) partnership, as they see it as an issue of balance, as well as the consort must be clan born and bred. This is due to the fact that what broke the original clan in two was that the female monarch took an infertile (spayed) female consort and had no intention of producing kits, expecting their sibling to provide. The soon to be leader of Duskclan took issue with this, and left.

Dawnclan says that the reason for the split was because the leader of Duskclan was a sore loser, which to some degree he was. Because the way it is decided which of the Monarch’s relatives (with preference towards children, siblings, and nieces/nephews) will become the next monarch, is that those who wish to become monarch must submit to a challenge. Either the potential Heir or their consort (whichever plans to be in charge of outside the camp), will engage in a duel (or tournament if there are enough challengers) to determine the rightful heir. The duels are until first visible blood, a sign that the cat is willing to shed blood for their clan if necessary, and forming a pact in blood between the challengers even if they have lost. So when the leader of Duskclan lost to his sister, he refused to live under her rule, gathered supporters who agreed with him, and left.

Clan Ranks/Culture:

So as I mentioned before, I do want to use the deities I had made before, and as a result, Im fiddling a little with ranks.

Instead of just Medicine cats, there are two ranks:

Healer: These are your traditional medicine cats, but with the added duties of memorizing clan trees and bloodlines and the basic history of the clans, such as the great events and when they occurred, the wars, etc.

Clerics: These are the cats who take charge of religious teachings, of signs a prophecies, and most religious ceremonies. They are the ones who bestow favor on a new monarch, they are the ones who tell the moral stories of heroes and villains, they are the counselors and support for the cats in their clan.

Sometimes the duties of both Clerics and Healers intercept, and they have at times been at odds, but they usually resolve their differences.

There are always at least 2 of each at all times, but its not uncommon for each clan to have 3-4 Healers or Clerics. They cant risk the knowledge being lost, so they take the necessary precautions.

There is also a special rank, known as the Knights.

These are generally 3-4 cats who are known to be the absolute best at what they do. They are considered the Monarch and Consort’s Honor Guard, their personal envoys, their paws, their ears, their voices, etc. Usually each Knight has a distinct set of skills, though they are still well rounded, but their is generally the best fighter, and the other three might be the best tracker, or the most stealthy, or the best hunter, or the most eloquent and diplomatic, etc. Knights often are considered to be very desirable as mates (male or female since knights can be either), and its not uncommon for them to be chosen as consorts by potential heirs (In fact in Duskclan most consorts were Knights at one point). Knights do rotate out over time (or don’t make it to retirement due to being in a position of danger more than anyone else) based on the Monarch’s needs and desires, but they keep the title Champion even after they are no longer a Knight, in honor of their service.

How the clans were originally founded:

So this was just a thought I had, that the clans came originally from a clowder, who’s leader, Misty, accepted and allowed her mate to stay. Most clowders often either have one lead male who will chase away or kill kits or other cats he doesnt like, but Dusty was different. He was still fiercely protective of his mate and kits, but he wasn’t aggressive. Other females felt safe around him. And when his Misty’s kits were born and being raised, her daughter Rain convinced her to give other toms a chance too. So before even a clan was established, before names were being changed, the idea of mentoring and apprenticeships was there. Dusty or some of the other females would mentor kits, and if a male could make it through apprenticeship without showing dangerous aggressive tendencies he was allowed to stay. So soon the clowder had not just one male, but several, and it started to grow.

When Misty finally retired, Rain took over, and she chose her own consort to help lead with her, named Beetle. Then they gathered their group together and named themselves officially as a clan (not Dawnclan, that would come later). Together they decided on rules and regulations (the original code), so that they could begin to interact with outsiders and potentially allow them in. It was a much smaller code than canon, and its main tenants included not harming kits, not being aggressive towards one another unless in defense, and that everything in the clan was shared and that the weakest and most vulnerable should get first choice. Over time it evolved to include more, but that was the very start.

Religion came with the next generation, at Misty’s death, when the old stories of the gods took on a new light. Mothers began teaching their kits about Misty as an incarnation of Mehr, the primal mother deity, the one which most cats had heard of and acknowledged. The other god which was taught was the deity of chaos and death, which was a natural counterpoint to Mehr as the deity of birth and life. The other deities evolved over time as new roles and ranks became important. Some took on more real life energy as certain cats were considered incarnations of them, like Misty had been.

Funnily enough, Dawnclan considers the founder of Duskclan to be the incarnation of Hissao, the betrayer.

As for medicine.... well Im not sure, this is as far as I got thinking wise, and I just needed to write it down before I forgot so... yeah. If people like this I might write more about it, Im liking what I have so far, and I never could tell myself to stop.

16 notes · View notes

hey-hamlet · 5 years

Text

BNHA AU Ideas : The Bitter Three

also on AO3!

TL;DR: Three people without the Heroic quirks Japan demands, determined to help people that never helped them. --- Midoriya, Shinsou and Monoma are good friends. This changes everything.

Basically, Midoriya, Shinso and Monoma make friends in middle school and bond over their lack of heroic quirks and their fight to become heroes anyway.

they are also all petty bitter little bitches

monoma gets in to the hero course, but only just, and turns it down because hes not leaving izuku and shinsou to rot alone in gen ed. they make it together or not at all.

Izuku and Hitoshi take the entrance exam and feel their hearts sink when they see the robots.

Hitoshi gets 5 points. Izuku gets 20, 18 of which are rescue points. Their low scores hurt more than 0s, and getting into UA feels like a slap in the face.

Izuku is top 5 on the written exam, Hitoshi in the top 40. Izuku sends in supplementally analysis pages with his application because hes knows hes going to get marked down for being quirkless and he needs something special to help him stand out.

Anyway, they kick absolute a s s in the sports festival

and end up in first, second and third. the hero kids are,,, kinda pissed honestly

monoma is more valid in this au! but izuku is a little less valid? idk they are all bitter bitches

hero society sucks dick

but like,,, bitter monoma helping izuku build self confidence and izuku helping monoma stop being a such a dick

Sludge villain doesn’t quite happen. Allmight finds the villains trying to shove itself into a stray cat, its messy and a little heartbreaking. He deals with the villain, puts it in a bottle then de-powers to try to bury the poor thing because it really didn’t deserve this.

That’s when izuku comes by, he cries when the scary skinny guy explains what happened to the cat

"the poor thing got caught between a vilain and a hero."

"that,,, that’s not fair!"

"I know kid. Its not"

Izuku starts digging a little grave for the cat with his hands, placing some flowers over it and saying a quick prayer.

Yagi is talking to him (hes already given OFA to mirio, on speaking terms with nighteye again) and finds out izuku wants to be a hero. This soft hearted kid that cried for a stray cat and made his hands bleed to dig it a grave.

Yagi tells him he used to be a pro and would love to help him get into UA.

So in this au Yagi helps izuku train for the entrance exam! But without the massive focus of muscle building to hold OFA. He gets izuku to clean up the beach to build some muscle, but they run through different fighting styles, practise analysis and yagi supervises sparring between shinso, monoma and izuku.

He tells them about the gen ed “loop hole” to get into heroics and warns them about how bias the entrance exam is. There is no harm in taking it to put your face in front of the heroics teachers, but its almost impossible to pass without a destructive quirk.

So, the sports festival:

izuku wins the footrace same way as in canon, monoma is somewhere in the top 10 and hitoshi is in the bottom third

only the 3 of them make a team for the cavalry battle, monoma is the rider and izuku and hitoshi are the horses. they dont want to give away hitoshi's quirk if they can help it so they dont use it much. they come 3rd overall.

Izuku is really strong from all the heavy lifting at the beach so honestly its mostly just him hauling monoma around and hitoshi sprinting after him.

and then the tournament

they see the names come up and izuku starts to cry and the other two panic because why?? But they look at him and see hes grinning through his tears

"someone was looking out for us. we are going to c r u s h this"

hitoshi's first match is vs bakugo.

he wins because bakugo has no chance to work out his quirk

monoma is against todoroki.

he takes out his ice with a whirlwind of fire and lets him slip out of the ring on a patch of ice

izuku is vs momo.

he uses her creations against her and she losing in a hand to hand brawl

hitoshi takes out kirishima next.

another round without a punch thrown, he gets him by insulting Bakugo

monoma gets rid of shinozaki with his last few seconds todoroki's quirk

izuku trips iida over the boundary

in the semi finals izuku takes out uraraka by flipping her out of bounds. it was close and he only just made it, izuku and uraraka’s match was b r u t a l. the main reason he won is the he noticed the rock shower and pulled Uraraka under it with him. She didn’t have enough time to react and got struck on the head with some pieces of rubble which dazed her pretty badly.

monoma and shinsou joke durring their fight that they are fighting for the chance to get their ass kicked by izuku

shinsou wins

izuku wins over all, shinso comes second. midoriya has better fighting form to him and knows his quirk inside out

for the first time in UA’s history, the top 3 places on the podium are all gen ed students.

aizawa is god damned proud of these kids hes never met

yagi is crying a little because he was treated terribly for being quirkless and he heard what kids did to izuku and hes just so proud this nervy little kid was brave enough and strong enough to kick ass on live TV for all of japan to watch.

“Do us quirkless boys proud, kid.”

A little on their family lives

Shinso

foster kid with a pretty crappy family. Not physically abusive but hes without a doubt the least favourite child. Gets less money for an allowance, has to follow the rules more closely, isn’t allowed friends over etc.

They don’t really talk to him because of his quirk. They’ll ask him questions or tell him to do things but tend to point blank ignore him if he asks something.

Its not the worst foster family hes been it but its not the best. Hes not going to raise a fuss because its nice and close to UA and hes dealt with worse.

Monoma

mother was a police officer and died when Monoma was young, raised by his single father.

His father had some bad ex-girlfriends that were pretty terrible to Monoma but he believed him and they broke up every time.

Other kids didn’t like to play with him because he was a “copy cat” so he acted mean and pretended he didn’t want to play with the other kids because they were “below him”

Didn’t have friends until Izuku and Hitoshi but he wasn’t exactly bullied, just disliked. Not that he tried very hard to be likable.

Izuku

Same as canon mostly but a touch different too

His mother, while still kind, is more absent. Works night shifts and sees a lot of her husband in her son so she don’t really try to spend much time with him.

Izuku knows nothing about his father, other than the fact he demanded izuku be tested for a quirk when he was born. He assumes the guy skipped out in his mum when they found out he didn’t have one but he doesn’t know for sure.

Bakugo is Bakugo as you well know. Izuku has a history of passive suicidal ideation due to a lack of self worth and the belief the nobody cares about him at all.

How did they meet? It’s a mess really. Bakugo burn one of Izuku’s arms badly enough that he had to limp to a hospital after school, where he met Shinsou who was there for much the same reason. They talked for a bit before Monoma, Shinsou’s school friend, bursts in and starts ranting about how hes going to copy All Mights quirk and punch the girl that hurt Shinsou into next year.

They bond.

#bitter three au #bnha au #bnha #shinsou hitoshi #midoriya izuku #monoma neito #midoriya #izuku #all might #shinso #monoma #aizawa shouta #deku #mha #boku no hero

336 notes · View notes

imamessofawriter · 5 years

Text

Tododeku Week 2019

Day 1

Theme: Determination

Quote: “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” - Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore.

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse, Aged-up characters, maybe OOC.

@tododeku-week

AO3

––––––––––––––––

Take a Stand

The crowd quieted down as they settled down in the gallery and the jury entered the courtroom. Todoroki looked at his right where his mother sat next to him in front of the jury, she was fidgeting and uneasy as his father took on the opposite table on his left. Endeavor wore a frown, matched with a mean glare as he sat with his lawyers.

“All rise” someone called out, Shōto was not sure but he followed with the motions. He saw the judge enter from a door on the right and sat on the bench in front of him, followed by the jury who sat back down in their seats. He could hear Endeavor scoff as another person was talking, but he couldn’t hear any of what was being told. But he managed to catch a few words, his full name, age, occupation and hero name followed by those of his father and the case.

He looked down at the table trying to calm down and figure out which emotion he should be feeling at the moment. But he was angry, sad, happy, scared, anxious and worried. Lawyers were called up to explain the case before the judge and the jury, he could feel his mother squeeze his hands.

“I would like to call our first witness up to the stand,” his lawyer spoke, “Todoroki Rei, may you please give your testimony?”

Another squeeze and his mother stood up and went to testify, speaking about how her husband had abused her and her children, how she suffered a mental breakdown and was locked away in mental facility. It took her longer than anticipated for her to tell her whole story, giving detailed accounts about some gruesome stuff that not even her children where privy to.

The judge announced the start of a break in order for both parties to recollect themselves and prepare for the second group of witnesses. Shōto slid out of the side door after giving his mother a hug and met up with Midoriya in the hallway, avoiding his father while making the escape.

“Hey,” Midoriya called out as he saw Shōto walking hurriedly towards him. Strong muscular arms wrapping around his lean body, holding him in a warm embrace. A shaky breathe left his mouth as he reciprocated the embrace, “I didn’t know it went that far,” he spoke softly into green hair.

“It’s going to be okay, Shoucchan,” Midoriya whispered back, rubbing soothing circles on his boyfriend’s back, “there is enough evidence against Endeavor, it’s a public trial, the whole world knows what kind of person he is and even if he bribes the jury, the truth is out.”

“Zuku,” Shōto mumbled back, “what did I ever do to deserve you.”

“hmmm…” Izuku hummed as he looked up to Shōto and pressed his lips against Shōto’s. Pulling away, the shorter male intertwined his fingers with the taller’s and pulled him towards a chair around a corner, away from the crowd and media. They sat there in silence for the next half hour until they were all called back in the room.

The witness questioning continued, first with Fuyumi, then Natsuo with the lawyers asking questions focusing about their mother and Shōto, they then asked about Tōya. Asking relentlessly about the older son, about how a child thought to have been dead had become a dangerous villain, a key member of the League of Villains.

Unfortunately for them, Tōya had burned out in desperation as he tried to kill their father one last time. The older son may have lost life but his efforts were ever present, Endeavor had severe burns and scars all over his body, his left leg had been amputated and the nerves of his right arm severely damaged.

The judge ordered another half our break before the questioning resumed once again, with the last Todoroki family witness to be called upon the stand was Shōto. The young Pro Hero stood up slowly and stiffly as he walked towards the stand, he raised his right hand as he repeated the oath to tell the truth.

“Please state your name, age and occupation,” his lawyer spoke in an authoritative tone, the crease lines on his forehead making him look much older.

“My name is Todoroki Shōto, I am 23 years old and I am a Pro Hero under the name Shōto,” the dual haired man spoke, his heart beating loudly in his ears. He answered the next series of questions truthfully, not withholding any parts of the truth, he spoke about his mother and his sibling, about how that man had treated them.

“And how did your father treat you?” the lawyer asked.

Shōto looked at his father as he was about to answer the question, repeating in his mind that the man has no power over him whatsoever. However, the instance that he locked eyes with his father, the young hero suddenly found himself in their training room throwing up his lunch.

He was transported back to that house, he was a child with no power or strength to say stop. It was like his father was daring him to disobey, a promise of a harsh punishment behind his eyes. Shōto closed his eyes and took in a deep breathe, he opened them to look into emerald green eyes. Eyes that brought him comfort and peace.

He recounted his earlier memories and went from there, recalling every time his father got home angry and beat him up with the excuse of training, how he took away his mother, how he isolating a young boy from his family. He spoke about how vowed to never use his fire in training or in battle, and that his father got extremely harsh when Shōto refused to use his fire.

“Objection your honor,” Endeavor’s lawyer yelled as he stood up abruptly. The hero pitied the guy who was defending his father, the moment the case was opened, Endeavor had lost.

The judge sighed as he sustained the objection and let the attorney continue, “Your honor, the witness claims to have vowed to never use his fire, but alas Todoroki-San you are contradicting yourself, as an active pro hero and while you were in training in UA you have used your fire in both training stimulations and while on the field,”

“Someone had knocked some sense in me,” Shōto replied, “I had refused to use my left side out of pettiness, yes I admit that but it was harming me and during the sports festival in my first year at UA, a fellow student had knocked some sense into me by telling me that it was MY power and not my father’s”

“Your honor,” Endeavor’s lawyer looked at the judge once more, knowing that it was not his turn yet to question Shōto.

“To continue off,” Shōto’s lawyer brushed the unwanted interruption and continued asking more questions that would pile on as evidence against Endeavor, “in the statement earlier you said that a fellow student told you that it was your power and not Endeavor’s, what do you mean by that?”

“Ever since my quirk manifested I was lead to believe that it was Endeavor’s flames, and that it was his quirk that I am using,” Shōto answered, “every time my father would refer it as his flames, that it was his power that I have inherited, and in a way as a child I had truly believed that and never thought of my quirk as my own.”

The audience started murmuring and whispering to each other, some reporters already trying to dissect the statement and how it could impact society. Shōto’s lawyer continued questioning until he finished, it was then that Endeavor’s lawyer had started his cross examination.

He started with simple questions, which then turned into deeper questions that were meant to guilt trip him, but when that didn’t work, the lawyer resulting into gas lighting tactics, just like what he did with Rei. Shōto knew that the man was trying to do his job, but he wished that he had used other methods instead of emotional manipulation.

“Now Todoroki-San, you said that someone had knocked sense in you in your first year at UA,” the lawyer began, and at Shōto’s nod he continued, “does that mean that there is another person who is not a family member who was told of these accusations but had not acted on them?”

“Objection your Honor!” Shōto’s lawyer shouted.

“Overruled,” The judge groaned, and Shōto had to wonder if the old man was about to throw a fit and tell Endeavor to suck it.

“Let me rephrase that,” the lawyer began, “is there someone who is not a family member that was aware of the accusation while they were happening?”

Shōto gulped and looked at Midoriya, the shorter hero nodded, silently telling Shōto to continue, “I would say they are currently family, but back then we were complete strangers.”

Another fit of murmurs and whispers broke into the courtroom, and the judge had to silence everyone once again, allowing the pro hero to recall the incident of the sports festival. He could remember that day clearly, how he declared war on Midoriya Izuku, a boy with bone shattering strength. How he lost to the boy in the first event of the sports festival, and how he took the second round as a personal loss instead even though his team won the first place. He emphasized on how he refused to use his left side during the first half of the tournament and that he had accidentally and unconsciously set his left arm on fire during the cavalry battle.

Then it was that private conversation in the corridor, and then running into Endeavor and being put in a bad mood during his first one on one battle. And then Midoriya was his opponent, the boy began breaking every bone in his fingers, determined to make Shōto understand the truth about his power.

The crowd once again had broke into low whispers and the judge was almost fed up with them. It took them several seconds to quiet again and for the questioning to resume, “And what is your relationship to this Midoriya Izuku?” Endeavor’s lawyer asked, and he could see his father’s fist and jaw clenching tightly.

“Midoriya Izuku had become a friend after the sports festival,” Shōto explained, “and then we started dating halfway during our second year and I am currently living with him.”

Several members opened their mouths to start talking again before the judge knocked on his gavel, “order in the courtroom please, if anyone speaks I will ask them leave.”

“Midoriya Izuku is currently known as the pro hero Deku,” Shōto announced, “I have confided in him because I knew that he would keep it a secret and that he knew that I would not want to build my career on Endeavor’s ashes or destroy my credibility as an aspiring hero if I came forward with the truth when I was a teenager, I know that my father would bribe the media into thinking it was a lie and that I was delusional, it is the same way he acted when he found out that I was in fact gay and not straight and that I was dating All Might’s student, he tried to bury the truth.”

Shōto did not know why but his emotions were threading on anger right now, with how Endeavor’s lawyer was treating him like a delusional child and a liar at that. But it seems like Endeavor forgot how far a determined Todoroki would go, and that meant that Shōto would not care at that moment if he told the whole world every one of his little secrets and his private life with Izuku as long as he got to take Endeavor down.

The court session continued on for three more hours, with Endeavor being questioned and cross examined by both lawyers, before the jury went to decide if Endeavor was guilty or not. Shōto whispered in his mother’s ear before he turned to see Izuku standing behind the galley railing by their table.

“Hey Rei,” the green haired hero called, “you did good, all of you were amazing.”

“Zuku,” Shōto mumbled as he looked slightly downcast. Midoriya looked at Shōto in confusion, with an eyebrow raised and a hand running soothly over Shōto’s hand. The younger of the two heroes mumbled incoherent words much to Izuku’s dismay.

“Shoucchan, I honestly don’t understand a word you’re saying,” Midoriya sighed as he grabbed Shōto by the chin so that they could see eye to eye.

“Never mind,” Todoroki sighed, “I’ll tell you at home.”

“Izuku honey,” his mother spoke, “thank you for the support.”

“Why don’t you guys all come over to our place tonight?” Izuku asked, looking at Shōto with a mischievous smile.

Just as Shōto was about to answer, the jury had come back in and everyone scrambled back to their seats. Izuku took a seat in the front row, just behind the Todoroki children’s table. “The jury has reached a verdict and found the defendant, Todoroki Enji, known as the pro hero Endeavor, guilty on the following charges, quirk marriage, spousal abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect and abuse, bribery of law enforcement officers and abuse of power” a member of the jury spoke, “he is sentenced to 20 years of prison with a chance of probation after 15 years of good behaviour, also the defendant is to attend anger management classes and have a psychiatric evaluation on a yearly basis.”

All three of the Todoroki children cheered in glee as their father was no longer going to be part of their lives, “the defendant will also have to provide child support money and cover the expenses resulted from emotional damage to his wife and children,” another jury member spoke. But Shōto doesn’t care about any of that, all he knows is that he is as far away from his father as possible and that he couldn’t be any happier than that.

The following hour passed in a blur, his family spoke to the lawyer in order to process a few things and the next moment he was in a car sitting in the front seat as Izuku drove to their home. His mother, sister and brother were sitting in the back, all of them in different stages of crying.

He couldn’t believe that they won.

As he laid in the bed next to Izuku, all Shōto could think was how the other hero had helped him in many ways. “Hey Shoucchan what where you mumbling before the jury came back?” Izuku asked as he ran his fingers through red locks of hair, thumb caressing the edges of that nasty scar.

“I was saying that I’m sorry for airing out our private affairs during the trial,” Shōto began. This made Izuku let out a few giggles and press their lips together in a loving kiss.

“You can scream about our sex lives from the rooftops if it meant that you and your family would never have to deal with that trashcan ever again.”

“hmmm…” Shōto smiled, “you know that for a moment there when I was called to the stand and I looked at my father, I was suddenly that weak and helpless child”

“You are not weak.”

“I know,” Shōto began, “I was faltering there for a few seconds but then I looked into your eyes and just remembered that even though it was a shitty situation, you were there, your eyes reminded me that there is good in life.”

“Shōto,” Izuku whispered softly, tears in his eyes, “you deserve all the happiness in the world, you know that right?”

“You keep telling me everytime,” Shōto chuckled as Izuku rolled over and hovered over Shōto, pressing their lips together. “Now what will I have done without MY Hero,” Shōto smirked as pressed another kiss on Izuku’s lips, knowing full well that things were about to get hot.

––––––––––––––––

A/N: I know that in my time zone it is no longer the 9th but it still is in other time zones so hopefully it would work somehow. Also I was swamped with many projects and I wasn’t planning on participating this year, but I decided to do this on a whim and it isn’t as good as I hoped it to be.

#tododeku week 2019 #tododeku #todoroki shouto #Todoroki Shōto #midoriya izuku #deku #boku no hero academia #bnha #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #todoroki rei #todoroki enji #courtroom drama #child abuse #fluff

7 notes · View notes

stompsite · 6 years

Text

Dreaming Of Another World

It was all Narnia’s fault.

I grew up in a deeply religious family, one that eschewed ‘worldly’ media for the religious variety. I remember Dad dragging us out of a showing of the Lion King one rainy September day--I think we’d gone to one of those theatres where the tickets were cheap and they only showed movies that had been out for a long time because my family was thrifty like that--because he was furious. Some time later, he explained to me that Disney was trying to brainwash us with “New Age Philosophy,” and he was angry at the spirit that tried to do it to us. Not a great birthday memory for me.

But Narnia? It had magic and monsters and demons and werewolves, and for whatever reason, we were allowed to watch it whenever we went to Grandma’s house. My parents drove us up to Independence, Missouri every few months for something called Enzyme Potentiated Desensitization, where we would stay with grandma and watch Narnia. EPD was an experimental allergen treatment that was banned in 2001.

I remember drinking water with bismuth in it and eating an awful meal that had the consistency of literal shit. This was supposed to help us get over our allergies, but I think the treatment was far worse. We weren’t allowed to eat many things, and most of what we could eat was disgusting, so most of the time, we laid around, sick, feverish, and vomiting, and we ate reheated french fries from Wendy’s (McDonald’s wasn’t allowed due to the oil they used), and we watched all of Grandma’s old movies.

My favorite one was The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, a movie about kids who escaped the horrors of World War II by traveling to another dimension where it was always winter and a cruel, monstrous witch ruled with an iron hand. Eventually, thanks to the help of the Christ-like Aslan, they overthrew her.

It was a dark movie, a far cry from the generally happy, low-intensity religious movies Mom let us watch. Aslan died, y’know. It was, to 8 year old me, the most incredible thing in the world. Later, I read the rest of the books, and I loved them too. My favorite was The Silver Chair, the darkest and least hopeful book of all. No one book had more of an impact on my artistic sensibilities than The Silver Chair. Real stakes! Real pain! Hope! Triumph! All the good stuff.

When I was 10, I found Digimon.

I was hanging out at Hyram’s place watching The Magic School Bus, a show that we weren’t allowed to watch at my house because of the magic. Hyram’s family, being Mormon, had a more enlightened--so it seemed--outlook on the world, being okay with sci-fi and fantasy stories that my parents forbade us from seeing. So there we were, watching The Magic School Bus, and the commercials came on, and Fox Kids aired a commercial for Digimon (Adventure 01, Episode 28, in case you were wondering--the one with the ferocious Devidramon).

Digimon was even darker than Narnia. It’s villains were literally Satan and a Vampire. There’s an episode where one of the kids is told her mother doesn’t love her and as a result, she’ll never be able to help her friends. There was drama, self-doubt, pain, misery, and, in the end, the kids overcame the darkness that opposed them and triumphed.

Over the years, I found increasingly creative ways to catch my Digimon fix, going to the church next door with a cable I’d found to connect to the TV so I could just barely catch Fox 24 when it was broadcasting. When Digimon stopped airing, I desperately searched for a way to download the show online, which led me to IRC, which took me to roleplay forums, which led me to Kotaku comments, and finally Twitter, which is where I know most of you from.

I realize this may all sound very self-indulgent, and I’m sorry for that, but I feel it’s important to establish the personal context here. I love these stories about going to other worlds and experiencing things that our worlds could never give us. The stories acted as a kind of meta-transportation, a way of letting me escape the frustrations of my own life.

When I finally made the transition from cartoons and books to video games, everything seemed to snap into place. Games were the closest thing I’d ever found to actually visiting Narnia or the Digital World. My friend Robert introduced me to Halo in his trailer home. My parents gave me Microsoft Flight Simulator, and it was like being able to fly planes in real life, so much so that when I eventually attended flight training, my instructors told me I flew like someone with thousands of hours under his belt.

Games let me go places.

Games let me see new things.

So, one day, in early 2007, I found a copy of PC Gamer with Bioshock on the cover in the Wal-Mart magazine aisle. I remember furtively browsing the issue, making sure Mom didn’t suddenly round the corner and catch me reading it. The game looked incredible, but I was focused more on roleplaying forums at the time, and I forgot about it until that fall, a few weeks after it came out. CompUSA was going out of business and was selling off their games. I couldn’t game at home--our computers were old Boeing surplus and ran the Half-Life 2 Ravenholm demo like a slideshow--but with a portable hard drive I’d purchased and hid in the ceiling tiles of my bedroom, I could play them at the university I was attending.

So I did.

First person games appealed to me because they let me experience the game worlds as though they were real experiences. It was the closest thing to going to another world; third person games didn’t elicit the same response, so I didn’t play them as much. I was a big fan of the Age of Empires: Rise of Rome demo that came with my copy of Microsoft Flight Simluator, though. But it was the first person games, the ones I found on Maximum PC demo discs, that really mattered to me. I’d played hundreds of hours of Unreal Tournament 2004, Call of Duty, and even Far Cry.

When I played Bioshock, everything changed. I had to get my own computer. Had to. I moved out in late December to go learn to fly at K-State Salina. Got really sick that spring--my illness was just starting to reveal itself--and I flunked most of my classes. I was so sick most days I couldn’t leave the house. Got diagnosed with severe social anxiety disorder later. Only left the house at night unless I had classes, when I could make it to them at all. I’d earned enough money the previous fall to build myself my own computer.

I played games.

Bioshock had led me to System Shock 2. I pirated a copy of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl because I’d seen the disc at CompUSA (alongside Blacksite: Area 51) but only had the cash to buy Bioshock and The Orange Box without my parents noticing. I played FEAR and its expansions. All the Half-Life games. Crysis. Call of Duty 4. It was a great time to experience a lot of amazing first-person games.

System Shock and STALKER were the biggest influences.

When I moved back that summer, I scrounged and saved and used the last of my savings to buy STALKER: Clear Sky and Crysis Warhead. I played them while living in the unheated camping trailer my parents used to own (it was cheaper than paying for dorms whenever we attended church camps). It was cold. I could see my own breath most days. I got a job at Office Max and used it to buy a copy of Far Cry 2. A few weeks later, I picked up Fallout 3.

If you’re familiar with these games, you’ll notice a lot of them have things in common. They do interesting things with the game world. Many are heavily systems driven compared to their contemporaries. STALKER’s world especially feels completely alive. System Shock 2 does a bangin’ job of making you feel like you’re really exploring an abandoned spaceship. Far Cry 2’s systems-driven gameplay is fascinating and influences designers to this day. Fallout 3 has one of the best ecosystems in a video game, with enemies who you can wound and terrify and allied characters who will come to your aid.

Even Blacksite: Area 51 was a fascinating game. It had this cool morale system that had your soldiers responding to your commands and combat prowess in ways that, at the time, felt believable and awe-inspiring. In Crysis, if you dropped an unconscious man in a river, he would die because he drowned. Incredible. It felt real.

The games that shaped my experience took me to other worlds, shaping my perception of what games could be in a very specific direction. As someone who’d grown up reading the old Microsoft Flight Simulator tagline “As real as it gets,” I felt right at home.

I tried other games, like Nintendo’s platformers or controller-centric spectacle fighters like Devil May Cry 3, but I didn’t like them. They were too obviously games. You got points. Everything was abstract. I was playing. I wasn’t going anywhere.

As my health declined, the importance of traveling to other places increased. The mark of a good game for me became one where I could forget about the world I lived in and exist in another world. I’m reminded of Lord Foul’s Bane, a book in which a writer with leprosy is transported to another world where he is healed of his leprosy. Games provided me that escape, especially the immersive ones.

Ah.

Right.

That word.

Immersion is nothing to be afraid of. Some people say that any game can be immersive, because one of the meanings of the word is roughly analogous to “engrossed,” but the English language is weird and tricky and sometimes two words share the same meaning in the dictionary but mean very different things.

To be engrossed in something is to have your attention completely arrested by it. To be immersed in something, well… when you’re immersed in water, you are literally, physically inside of it. You are a part of the water, as much as you can be.

I was seeking out immersive qualities in games without really understanding it. I would learn that some of my favorite games in the genre were literally called “immersive sims.” Some people will argue that they are not engrossed by those games, so they cannot possibly be immersive, but I’d argue that when you’re immersed in something, it surrounds you, you’re inside it. Whether or not it grabs your attention is up to you.

When a game is immersive, it might not grab your attention, but it’s doing its best to create a living, breathing world. When you drop an unconscious man in water, he drowns because that is what would happen in real life. When you perform well in combat, your allies rally around you. When you shoot an enemy in the leg, he limps.

An immersive game is one that does its best to represent a cohesive reality.

If you don’t believe me, go listen to Paul Neurath, a founder of Looking Glass, a studio that made games like System Shock and Thief, talk about why they made the games they did. Look at the cool attempts at simulation elements in games made by LGS alumni, like Seamus Blackley’s Jurassic Park: Trespasser, or Warren Spector and Harvey Smith’s Deus Ex. Emil Pagliarulo got a job at Bethesda and has a senior role (I forget what it is, exactly, sorry) on simulation-heavy games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim.

Heck, the Sega 2K Football games were praised as having some of the most sophisticated and realistic AI in sports games before the NFL decided it wasn’t cool with yearly games being priced at a sub-premium price point. Marc LeBlanc worked on the AI for those.

The way I heard it, Looking Glass made flight simulators with realistic physics (I believe that was thanks to Blackley’s background as a physicist). At some point, the folks at Looking Glass thought it would be cool to take Dungeons and Dragons style tabletop and make a game out of it, but instead of building something like the isometric Ultima, they’d apply the flight simulator logic to it. The whole thing would be first person, and you could treat it like you were really there. Their publishing partner decided this new game should be an Ultima game, so Ultima Underworld was born.

After that, Looking Glass made a mix of flight simulators, golf games, and weird first-person games that took you to other worlds. System Shock put you on a space station. Thief let you do exactly what it said on the cover. Terra Nova was… well, read this piece on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. All of these games were fascinating and transformative, even if they had weirdly inaccessible control schemes.

Eventually, the studio died. Sony and Microsoft passed on buying them, Eidos made some poor financial decisions and couldn’t pay them. Talent moved off to other studios. Eventually, they shut down.

A few developers tried to carry the torch. Ken Levine’s Irrational games released Bioshock, which was like the bro shooter version of System Shock. Ion Storm Austin produced Thief 3 and two Deus Ex games. Bethesda’s work has become increasingly Looking Glass-influenced over the years. Clint Hocking’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Far Cry 2 clearly learned from Looking Glass’ games as well.

Over in France, a guy named Raphael Colantonio founded a studio called Arkane. They made a game heavily inspired by Ultima Underworld called Arx Fatalis. Then they made another one, called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, using a Ubisoft license.

As game tech got better, simulation elements became more pronounced. The German Yerli brothers unsuccessfully pitched a neat dinosaur game, but eventually managed to convince Ubisoft to publish Far Cry and EA to publish Crysis. Their games are mostly known for their graphics tech, but I’ve always been fond of their intriguing stabs at realism; on its highest difficulty, Crysis’ enemies speak Korean, making it difficult for most players to understand their callouts. Crysis lets players use the game’s physics to enhance its combat, collapsing buildings on enemies or leveling foliage to give them access to easier sight lines. I wrote about one of my favorite levels here.

Bioshock brought the attention back, though. Even though it wasn’t very simulation heavy, it gave players that sense of presence that so many had been craving. Some developers stumbled; Far Cry 2 is beloved by game designers but wasn’t the critical or commercial success Ubisoft hoped. STALKER was one of the buggiest commercial games I’ve ever played, capable of crashing if you so much as blinked, so it didn’t sell as well as THQ would have liked, and GSC Game World sought a new publisher for Clear Sky, then shifted to yet another publisher for Call of Pripyat.

Fallout 3 had more simulation elements than most of its contemporaries and, I’d argue, did a better job presenting a living, breathing world than any other game of its generation, but people were too busy being mad that it wasn’t a classic isometric RPG to notice.

So, this is where my head was at when I entered into the world of immersive sims. I was fascinated by simulation elements, in love with the idea of exploring other worlds, and, most importantly of all: I needed an escape from my health. Immersive games, some of them sims, some of them not, provided the escape I craved.

In 2011, I downloaded the leaked demo of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I’d been mowing the lawn and was going to take a shower before sinking my teeth into it, but it was so engrossing that, before I knew it, five hours had passed and I’d played the entire thing. As soon as I scraped the cash together, I bought myself a copy. It was the first game I’d been able to afford in years.

I loved it.

The next year, Arkane roared back to life with Dishonored, which was one of my favorite games, not just because it’s really fucking good, not just because the world is fascinating and creative, not just because Harvey Smith, the man responsible for Deus Ex and Blacksite (he deserved better treatment from his publisher on that one; if they’d had more time, I think it would have been rightly hailed as a masterpiece; as it stands, it’s a fascinating thing that I love to pieces), partnered up with Arkane to make it, but because it helped me get my first writing gig.

If you wanna read my thoughts on Dishonored, check it out here.

And yet…

Something felt off.

Not about Dishonored, but about the conversation surrounding immersive design. I’d read posts by people who talked about the importance of design, who placed a weird focus on systems-driven design, who seemed to think that immersive games were stealth games and nothing but.

Before Dishonored and Human Revolution, I recall reading one of the foremost voices in immersive design discourse proclaiming the genre was dead because Looking Glass and Ion Storm had shut down. He argued, while Fallout 3 was selling millions of copies, that immersive sims were dead because they weren’t commercially viable. Many agreed with him.

After the apparent sales failings of Prey (Arkane), Dishonored 2, and Mankind Divided, I’ve heard those conversations picking up again.

I think they’re wrong, and I’d like to try to explain why.

I think a lot of the people who talk about immersive sims, focusing on immersive design and talking about what these games should be, tend to get hung up on Very Specific Details without looking at the bigger picture. Go watch the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter pitch video, and you’ll hear Neurath talk about how important it is to solve problems logically. Go listen to a lot of the immersive sim fans talk about games, and you’ll hear them talking about… well, other things.

One thing I feel like I see a lot is an emphasis on stealth mechanics. That’s great! I love stealth games. But I’d argue that stealth is not an important part of immersive games. Some people have told me that they don’t think Bethesda games are immersive sims because the stealth in those games is nowhere near as in depth as Thief. Maybe, maybe, but here’s the thing:

I think you could make an immersive game where you’re 12 years old and you’re visiting your grandparents at their farm on an island somewhere, and the entire game is just about being a kid exploring a little seaside town and making new friends. I think you could catch fireflies and go to the library and go fishing and do all sorts of things on an island that feels just as alive as STALKER, without actually doing any stealth.

But if you go play Dishonored or Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or the Thief games, or whatever, you’re going to have the immersive sim community types talking about how important stealth is. Thief is good, but get over it. It’s just one manifestation of a broader genre. Stealth is GREAT. Dishonored so good I will buy any Dishonored game sight unseen. I would kill to get a job working for Arkane, even if it was like… as a janitor or something. I love those people and I love their games.

I think the emphasis on stealth is part of the reason a lot of these games have failed. I love stealth games for the same reason I love horror games; they’re high-intensity, high-stakes games that, when you play them well, make you feel like a real master. I’d also argue that stealth is exhausting. Maybe I’m more attuned to this than most due to the whole chronic fatigue thing, but like…

In a stealth game, success can feel like failure. You’re constantly feeling the pucker factor. If you are seen, you fail, even if the game doesn’t actually have an instant failure state. When I get seen in Dishonored, I have to fight. Fighting is really fun, but getting caught means I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to; I messed up. I’m a failure. A lot of stealth stuff ends up feeling like constantly being on edge and failing because you had to kill like 5 dudes who saw you. I played Hitman last night and every time I killed or choked out someone who saw me, I just wanted to start the whole thing over.

I’d argue that most people feel this way when playing stealth games. They don’t like the stress. A little stealth is nice, especially in a game like Far Cry 5 where you can approach a base with a sniper rifle and take out like 6 dudes without them noticing you, but getting into a firefight afterwards feels fun and purposeful too, so you get a nice mix of occasional stealth and action. I think that’s probably why Far Cry 5 is the best-selling video game of 2018 so far (Red Dead releases tomorrow).

I love that we’re making stealth games with immersive elements, but I think we’re making a mistake when we assume that immersive games must be stealthy ones. There are so many games that claim to learn from immersive games--Mark of the Ninja, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Wildfire, Quadrilateral Cowboy--and they do, but they’re also so very focused on stealth (the ones I’ve played are all among my favorite games, by the way! Please don’t think of this as a knock against them!). I can’t think of any game that claims to be influenced by immersive sims that doesn’t have stealth.

Stealth is a verb (short version: game design speak for ‘thing you can do’). It is not the genre.

Then there’s the whole “design” thing. Mario games are exceptionally designed. Each level is a unique, bespoke challenge, stacking mechanics on top of mechanics and helping you develop your mastery over the experience. This design comes at the expense of… well, I’ll get to that later. For now, I’ll just say that Mario Feels Like A Game.

That’s not a bad thing, but, like, you’ve got this for, so you know what I’m about. You can see why that might not appeal to me personally.

Buuuuuuut… a lot of the newer, like… I don’t know, it’s weird to call them “design-focused,” because all games are designed, a lot of these newer immersive sim type games seem focused on that kind of immaculate design. Walk into the bank in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and you’ll see The Person You Can Talk Your Way Past If You Have That Skill, you’ll see The Lasers You Can Sneak Past If You Can Turn Invisible, you’ll see The Vending Machine You Can Lift If You Have The Strength Ability, and you’ll see The Air Vent You Can Crawl Through To Get To The Computer You Can Hack If You’re A Hacker.

Mankind Divided will give you The Most Experience Points for playing this without being detected and without killing anyone.

Suddenly, you are incentivized to treat the game like a game because it is objectively better for you to approach all objectives in a specific way. Heck, in Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, after you’ve nonlethally subdued everyone in a room, you can hack all the computers (even if you have a password) and crawl through all the vents (though there’s no reason to) for Maximum Points. It… it makes no sense. You’re not trying to be a part of the world. The game rewards you for engaging with it on a level that must recognize the game as an illusion.

It’s not the only game. I loved Prey, but I got the sense that I was being graded as I played, which meant I started playing more to the game’s expectations of me rather than how I felt I ought to act. Look, I grew up in a family environment where people were sneaking up on me to see if I was acting righteously. I grew up in a church where I was paraded in front of two hundred kids and told that I had The Devil in me because my pottery had shattered in their shoddily-built kiln and destroyed most of the rest of the pottery. I am so fucking tired of being judged, so exhausted of having to act a specific way to avoid being treated like garbage, I don’t want games to do it to me too. I just want to act in a way that feels appropriate.

In Eidos Montreal’s immersive sim games (and most immersive games, for that matter), I felt like I was running into The Metroid School of Design, in which a player is unable to progress through a level without the right tool, with one key difference: there are multiple tools you can use to progress. Four routes into the same room, every room, all the time.

This creates a sense of artifice. When I see a bunch of chandeliers and mysterious, architecturally suspect vents that show me an obvious route through a map, I see the designer’s hand. I see that the designer has planned all these routes for me. They have planned for any eventuality. They want me to sneak my way through this room, regardless of the skills I have at my disposal.

I can play their game in just one way. I can ghost-stealth it perfectly and get The Good Ending, or I can Violence Through It and get less progress points and The Bad Ending. If I am a hacker, there will always be a door to hack. If I am a fighter, there will always be a man to fight.

Oh, sure, the best games will give you a dozen tools that can be combined in really interesting ways, but someone has figured out what all those tools are and designed each level to perfectly accommodate every. Single. tool.

Every level is a puzzle, and puzzles are designed by a human with the intent to solve them. You don’t need to be creative--heck, sometimes, being creative is actively discouraged--because all you need to do is figure out what the designer wanted you to do and do it. Ah, I have tools X, Y, and Z? I know exactly where I’m supposed to deploy them. See, there’s the path you can blink through and the door you can bypass with a specific tool or the fish you can possess to swim through.

And… I cannot stress this enough:

It’s not bad.

It’s good.

It’s very good. I fucking love these games. They mean the world to me. They do.

But can you see how that might not be what I was looking for, and how I feel that’s… quite a long way removed from what Looking Glass was trying to do? Instead of solving solutions in a natural way, these games have created very nice puzzle worlds. As someone who loves puzzles, this is wonderful, but as someone who loved what Looking Glass and STALKER were doing… I can’t help but feel my own needs and interests aren’t being met.

I mentioned I was playing Hitman. I love it. I love it to pieces. I just did a Suit Only, Silent Assassin run and it was thrilling. But, like… I knew the route the guy would take. I knew The Device that I could interact with to take him off his path. I didn’t feel like I was improvising; instead, I was looking at one of several dozen ways the designers had very carefully placed in my path.

I can see you, designer. I know you’re there.

I couldn’t see the designer in STALKER. Everything felt natural to me. I woke up in a bunk. I met Sidorovich. He asked me to run a job for him. On my way to the job, there were dead animals and a wounded Stalker. He asked me for a med kit. I gave him the med kit. He became my friend. I joined a few Stalkers and we took out a bandit camp.

This will happen in every playthrough. It has been designed. I get that. But it wasn’t like a designer came in shouting PLAY YOUR WAY, ALSO THIS IS A STEALTH GAME, right? I could take out that encampment however I wanted. The more I play, the more tools I find. Sometimes, they randomly pop out of an anomaly. Other times, I find them on the corpses of people who died in a brutal gunfight. In Clear Sky, the gun you wield in the opening cinematic can be found right where you left it. It’s broken, but you can find a man to repair it, and later, you can get ammo for it by eliminating high-level enemies.

If someone says “hey, please help me take out this facility,” that’s all the direction you have. How you take it out is up to you. Stealth it? Sure. Lead mutants to it? Absolutely. Come in under cover of night or rain? You bet. STALKER’s verbs might be limited, but the game itself is so much more flexible. Sneak in through a crack in the wall or charge the front gate.

You play your way, but “your way” doesn’t mean four skill trees, it means “here’s a real, tangible space, with no hint of the designer’s hand. This feels real, like it actually exists in the outskirts of Chernobyl. There are bad men inside. Go get them, using whatever tools you have available to you.”

STALKER feels natural.

In fact, if there was one word I’d use to describe my ideal immersive game, “natural.” Would be that word. When I play Far Cry 2, I am playing a Designed Game. This is the Friendly NPC Zone. There are no friendly NPCs outside it. You can safely kill everyone because they’re bad. Everyone hits hard, so it’s best to snipe them. Make sure to go to the safe house, which looks exactly like all the other safe houses (and has the exact same supplies plus one unique bonus gun) to engage The Buddy System™, recharging your Buddy Meter® so your Buddy® will come to your aid when you go down One Time. If you go down a second time, he will die. This is how it always happens. It will never deviate.

In STALKER, I was caught finding bandits when a man named Edik Dinosaur passed by. He and I had met on occasion on the road. Edik Dinosaur fought valiantly alongside me, because he hated bandits and he liked me. I accidentally shot him during the encounter. He died because of me. That was way more impactful than Far Cry 2’s Super Obvious Buddy System, you know?

It was like I was there. I had to grapple with a sense of guilt at shooting blindly into the brush after a fleeing bandit.

I remember a story of someone playing an old Zelda game, I think it was Ocarina of Time, when their mom walked in and asked them what they were doing. They explained that, to cross a bridge, they had to get some item to unlock it. “Why don’t you just chop down a tree to cross the river?” came the reply. The storyteller said they rolled their eyes at this and thought their mom was crazy, but later, they were like “actually, yeah, why can’t I do that?”

Breath of the Wild let players do just that. It was hailed as a brilliant new Zelda game and seems more beloved than… basically every Zelda game in decades? This is a game where you can shoot a fire arrow, watch the grass catch fire, and use the updrafts to fling yourself into the sky, which lets you drop down on top of your foes for a powerful melee attack.

I have my complaints with the game, which you can read here, but I’m fascinated by the way its overworld avoids just outright telling you how to play and letting you figure out how to solve the problems it presents to you. Instead of being A Puzzle Game, Breath of the Wild’s overworld feels like a stylized yet real space. Its people are alive. Its spaces are not clearly designed to be exploited by specific mechanics. The Designer’s Hand is invisible.

This brings me to Bethesda.

Yes, sure, if you’re an RPG fan, Bethesda probably isn’t going to make you a happy camper. The writing can be stupid at times. They let you do anything, even though the narrative acts as though you’re on an urgent mission. The modular system design makes the world feel super artificial, and you can exploit the game’s systems in dumb, unrealistic ways, like putting a bucket on a person’s head (the AI has no sense of personal space and doesn’t mind) so he can’t see you steal things, or you can craft a million daggers so you can be The Best At Blacksmithing or whatever.

But… the thing is, when I hop into a Bethesda world, it feels relatively real. While you have a lot of skills that make you better at playing specific ways, like Unarmed or Melee or Rifles or Handguns or whatever, you’re never walking into a fight and seeing Five Specific Tool-Driven Routes and deciding which tool is The Best One For The Job.

I feel like too many immersive sims are specifically stealth-driven games with immaculate designer-driven puzzles that give you a dozen different tools to use How You Want (but, hint hint, there are a few very clear routes).

Bethesda games give you a billion tools and let you loose in the world, much like STALKER does. You can shoot someone so much they become afraid of you and run away, but some people are less afraid than others and will fight you to the death. Take out a guy with a good gun, and his buddy will run over, pick it up, and use it against you unless you can get to him first. Approach this fort aggressively, sneak in, talk your way in, do whatever. It’s going to depend as much on who’s in the fort as it is on you. Heck, I think in Skyrim, if you’re wearing Imperial gear, you can walk into an Imperial fort without anyone realizing you’re not an Imperial.

Bethesda games let you play how you want in the moment.

They let you formulate a plan based on what you feel like doing, and sometimes, you’re going to find places you can’t take on because nobody bothered to design a way for a specific character build to attack. Come back later or get creative. It feels more natural than most immersive sims because it’s trying to be a real place, rather than an artfully designed one. Yeah, Bethesda games have rough edges. They do!

And yet… they are immensely successful, and I think it’s because they’re actually trying to send their players to other worlds. They’re not demanding you play stealthily, they’re not giving you the same routes so that every player can play One Specific Play Style. They’re bringing a world to life and letting you live in it. In Skyrim, I can go save the world and become the boss of the Magic College, or I can be a simple elk hunter, peddling my wares.

I guess where I’m at is… we saw one studio trying incredible things in games, and they went under through little fault of their own. Their successors didn’t find the smashing success that the enthusiasts think they deserve, but I think that’s because… well… a lot of the enthusiasts are just looking at one or two games on the spectrum and refusing to make anything else. I think so many of the genre’s fans have a very limited, very specific view of what the genre can be, which is why none of them have managed to recapture the glory of Looking Glass; they’re not making the kind of games Looking Glass was, no matter how much they claim that they are.

There’s too much artifice in the inheritors.

Bethesda’s out there making billions of dollars because their games live up to the Looking Glass ideal more than anything else out there. These other games, this other design philosophy, it’s great. I love it. It’s wonderful and beautiful and fascinating, but when I see people arguing that “nobody wants immersive games,” because those games didn’t break sales records, I want to scream “how would you know? You’ve made something else!”

STALKER sold like 6 million copies. Skyrim’s up at like… what, 20 million now? Breath of the Wild has sold a bajillion copies. Red Dead Redemption 2 is poised to be the second best-selling game of 2018 after Black Ops IIII. Grand Theft Auto V made a billion billion dollars and it’s got some of the most sophisticated immersion elements in video games. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is one of the “could this realistically work?” games out there and it made a ton of cash. When you make a game that’s really about existing in a living, breathing world, you can make a shitload of cash.

When you make a stealth game with a lot of Specific Tools and Obvious Routes, you’re making a great video game, but you aren’t making an immersive one. That’s okay, but please don’t argue that we should stop making immersive games because your model didn’t work. The immersive model is thriving. You just made something else.

I just want to escape to other worlds.

3 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 4 years

Text

ESSAY: God of High School's Yu Mira and the Power of No

The God of High School's Yu Mira is the last of her kind. A student of the Moon Light Sword Style, Mira is fiercely protective of her family’s fighting style, of which she is responsible for carrying on after her father’s untimely death. A contestant participating in a global fighting tournament must be prepared for anything — even if it means sacrificing a normal teenage life. Anime fans are no stranger to fighting arcs and The God of High School only expands on this fascination with blatant displays of competitiveness. Although Mira is only one of dozens of competitors, her unique circumstances take our expectations of the typical tournament arc narrative in unexplored territory. She enters The God of High School without hesitation and with only two goals: to survive the Moon Light Sword Style and find a suitable husband.

Easy, right? After years of saying “yes” to family obligations, the tournament arc narratives turn everything on its head for Mira. How far has she pushed herself — and what does it mean to finally say “no” when it seems like everything has gone according to plan?

Mira reminiscences on her father's words while examining her reflection

All Is Fair In Love And War

Admittedly, I was a little skeptical when I first watched GoHS. I've often found tournament arcs tedious because there are only so many ways to watch a guy get punched. Sure, it's typical to pepper tragic flashbacks and backstory between rounds, but what's the point of not knowing all that information beforehand? In fact, I was shocked by how quickly God of High School's main trio accepted their offers to compete in the first episode. It didn't just feel like they were excited. They were obligated, needed to fulfill a higher calling. In fact, it seems as though saying “no” was never an option. Where was the tension? Were they ever scared? What really drives them?

Mira meets a group of cool buff dudes on her way to the tournament

Mira isn't fighting for herself. In fact, hardly anyone is — Daewi enters to help cure his hospitalized friend and care-free Jin ultimately wants to see his grandfather again. The appeal of tournament arcs is that they are, on the surface, a bubble away from reality and the rest of the plot interfering. At their best, they showcase exciting new characters and powers. At their worst, they needlessly drag on while you drown in flashy attack animations and screaming. But what happens when that bubble pops? What if, under the supposed glamor, a tournament arc is really nothing more than a crucible, a pressure-cooker to really discover what people are made of outside the fighting stage?

Mira on her wedding day

Like a perfectly timed soap opera plot twist, Mira announces she is getting married right before her big match-up against Daewi. But of course, I thought. Why not? Might as well cross one item off your list while you’re ahead. Or so it seemed. Powerful and handsome super businessman Oh Seongjin is so infatuated with Mira’s fighting he offers her his hand in marriage in exchange for her precious heirloom sword. But there’s another condition: drop out of the God of High School tournament. From Mira’s perspective, if there was any time to climb up the social ladder and preserve her precious family sword style, this was it. In fact, she says “yes” so quickly it's hard for Mori and Daewi to comprehend why in the world someone would throw it all away for matrimony.

The family dojo and Mira's father's blade

A Woman’s Fight

If it wasn’t obvious, Mira’s experience in this tournament is an especially gendered one. Rather than have Mira refuse the offer under the flimsy assumption that that's what a stereotypical “strong female character” would do, she accepts wholeheartedly. It’s subversion insofar as Mira isn’t tragically kidnapped or being mind-controlled or forced — she’s still calling all the shots. Because if she did it for love (as if she even had the time to entertain the thought!) that’d be too selfish. Earlier in the series, Mira is shown repeatedly refusing offers from her classmates to go shopping and visit a new nail salon. Instead, she feverishly practices at her family’s dojo, perfecting her skills, even doing the drudgery of cleaning. On one hand, she’s undoubtedly diligent and capable to carry on her family legacy. But on the other, she’s depicted as too invested to say “no” or push back against tradition. If there’s a happy medium possible, we can’t see it.

"I roared. And I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction."

This is normally where you’d feel bad for her. Oh, how terrible, she threw her whole life away for her family. But for the most part, Mira is well-adjusted, if maybe just a tad bit obsessed with her blade and beefy guys. She has great capacity for getting along with Jin and Daewi. However, their differences only become more apparent when Jin plays a prank on Mira and ends up throwing her precious sword over a bridge. Mira doesn’t hesitate to go search for it and it’s obvious this creates a rift in their friendship. Everything is easy-going until this is addressed — it is both her purpose in life and, unfairly, an extremely heavy burden.

Jin confronts Mira with Daewi

Mira’s obsession with fighting is “quirky” in the same flavor of ambitious-but-still-clueless we see in other male battle protagonists. Her depth of character goes a little further than these surface-level traits, though. Compared to Daewi and Jin, Mari’s conflict is more internal than external — otherwise wouldn’t it be just enough to carry on the sword style without the question of marriage? She isn’t just obligated by societal expectation of competitive performance, but of being the “right” type of woman who will always say yes to what is asked of her.

The first punch is thrown

The True Battle

If God of High School has one prevailing theme, it’s that of discovering what your motives really are. Like so many tournament arcs in anime have taught us, we anticipate our plucky protagonist’s competitors to have one motive and one motive only. But this series interrogates that stereotypical assumption — Mira ultimately works up the strength to say “no” to marriage after a flashy, action-packed intervention from Daewi and Jin. A few episodes later, Daewi’s hospitalized friend passes away and he must also reorient his relationship with the tournament. If the real mettle of tournament arcs is to dramatically draw out character motives, God of High School throws it all for a loop and makes sure we’re on our toes. Unlike the bubble of self-contained tournament arcs, the Seoul of God of High School is fully-realized and so is all the baggage its contestants bring into the arena.

Mira searches for her father's sword in the lake

In the climactic scene of Episode 4, Jin confronts Mira with these words at her wedding: “A dream means nothing if you don’t grab it with your own hands!” He doesn’t just mean figuratively — with her sword in Oh Seongjin’s hands, she has nothing but her fists to say “no” with. Mira throws a punch at him, unintentionally hitting her uncle as he jumps in to intervene. As cheesy as it may seem, it’s a welcome twist on what would otherwise be a typical villain-of-the-week episode. But before the blows land, Mira's uncle reminds her that giving up on her dreams wouldn't be what her father wanted. Having unintentionally struck him, Mira is forced to make a choice, ultimately deciding to forego the wedding. It’s as symbolic as it is cathartic — Mira is breaking through her familial expectations and entering a brave new dog-eat-dog world. As difficult as it may be, she is finally capable of owning her “no” and living up to it with the support of her family and friends — everything she will need to see the God of High School tournament through.

Is Mira your favorite Za Godo obu Hai Sukuru competitor? Let us know in the comments!

Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. He still thinks the Dark Tournament Saga is good. His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

0 notes

evilfoundfamilytournament · 2 years

Text

Evil found family/friends Tournament retrospective. Part two.

now lets look at the more mid losers with average vote counts.

The bottom of the middle losers with 15 votes are:

Team Magma from Pokémon ruby, sapphire, emerald, omega ruby and alpha sapphire. Them and team Aqua got 11 votes to get in and 0 votes against them. There was a good amount of time where they were tied with or ahead of Torna, at the end of the day Torna won that round. I was always hesitant to put them and team aqua in because I was worried that they had more of a business vibe than family.

The third of the middle losers with 18 votes are:

Team Aqua from Pokémon sapphire, ruby, emerald, alpha sapphire and omega ruby. I had the same qualms with this team as I had with Team Magma, I assumed they’d be slightly more popular due to them being characterized as more casual most of the time but I expected them to be around as popular as team Magma and you can attribute the 3 extra votes to Team Aqua to the poll they were in being generally more popular.

The second of the middle losers with 22 votes are:

Deep Cut from Splatoon 3. Deep Cut got 47 votes for them getting into this tournament which is more than double the number of votes for them than any other person voted in. I genuinely thought that they’d destroy Team Skull, but they didn’t, they only got 22 votes and I am surprised.

The first of the middle losers with 34 votes are:

Torna from Xenoblade 2. honestly kind of surprised they got this far, Xenoblade isn’t nearly as popular Pokémon and they still managed to beat Team Magma by 8 votes and go up against Team Rocket, unfortunately team rocket is very popular and likely why they lost the second round. also why didn’t you tell me their name was Torna no one told me I was referring to them as Xenoblade 2 villains for far too long.

2 notes · View notes

fandomanimatic-tournament · 8 months

Text

Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 1 Side B Round 3

Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos

"There will come a soldier Who carries a mighty sword He will tear your city down Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord"

Saint Bernard - Lincoln

"Hung pictures of patron saints up on my wall To remind me that I am a fool Tell me where I came from, what I will always be Just a spoiled little kid who went to Catholic school"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos

Propaganda:

Everyone was doing animatics of this. The meme was that you’d choose one of your blorbos to represent the “soldier,” one for the “poet”, and one for the “king.” The original point of the song is that “soldier poet and king” are all one person, and that person is Jesus, but literally no one cares about that. Who needs Jesus when you have Warrior Cats?

What's that?...it's supposed to be about Jesus? NOT ANYMORE, BABEY!! It's about my BLORBOS

It's a really nice song and can highlight different characters and their talents/abilities

If your fandom is fantasy, has a fantasy au, or characters that fit the roles, this can works. Can probably fit any fandom.

you look this song up on yt and youre going to find an animatic with it for every fandom in existence i stg man

Animatics with the song:

Song of Achilles

DSMP Sleepy Bois Animatic

Genshin Impact

The Owl House

The Adventure Zone

Saint Bernard - Lincoln

Propaganda:

Its got that sick clapping for smooth frame changes, and it's got all the applications babeyy. Low self esteem hero? Sure! Sympathetic villain? You got it! Morally grey character? Come on in. "Make me love myself so that i might love you" can be about god, friends, a partner, a found family, you name it. "Dont make me a liar cause i swear to god when i said it i thought it was true" can be about anything. Your best friend is evil now? A betrayal?? A disillusioned hero??? "Neither of us will be missed" girlies i am peeing from how good this song is for angst.

"the st. bernard sits at the TOP OF THE DRIVE WAY" makes for a very cool and sexy shot transition. you seen the beau lionett animatic set to this?

tik tok picked up the audio a bit cause the drop into distortion is great, but also the vocals and imagery as they stand are excellent. there's at least four ace attorney ones alone and they all focus on different characters (Blackquill/Sahdmadhi, Klavier, van Zieks, and Edgeworth) and the van Zieks one was posted shortly before the official localization was released. also idk if it's on youtube but there's also one for bass.exe on tumblr which is also excellent

Animatics with the song:

Omori

Five Nights at Freddy's Michael Afton Animatic

3rd Life Impulse Animatic

DSMP Revivebur Animatic

The Owl House

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

#fandom animatic tournament #tumblr poll #tumblr tournament #tumblr tourney

11 notes · View notes

tigerlover16-uk · 7 years

Note

How would you handle a sequel to Dragon ball super?

Hmm. Here’s an interesting one. Well, I don’t have a plan for a full series, but I do have a bunch of scattered ideas for one.

* It would be an EoZ follow up, taking place about 7 years after Goku left with Uub. During this time Goku resumed living at home at some point due to Chichi becoming pregnant with a now 3 or 4 year old daughter, but Uub is now capable of instant transmission so they’re still able to train together regularly regardless, and he’s more or less integrated himself into the Z fighters.

In this show, Uub and Pan would share the role of main protagonist, both striving to become as strong as Goku to protect the earth in his place someday (and so Goku can challenge them both once they’ve hit their peaks. Because Goku. Hey, don’t look at me like that, at the end of the series it’s pretty explicit that’s part of why Goku wants to train Uub).

Meanwhile, Bulla, Marron, Trunks and Goten would also be major supporting characters training alongside Uub and Pan to help defend the earth, while having their own character development and subplots going on. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and etc would all be firmly in the role of mentors for most of the series, occasionally helping out in the case of a big threat to the universe. The rest of the Z fighters would still be around to various degrees of relevance, several of them also helping to train the next gen characters and teach them their techniques at various points, but Uub, Pan and the next gen characters are the main focus throughout.

* Majin Buu would basically follow his storyline from the Dragon ball Online/Xenoverse lore, creating himself a wife through some kind of weird magic and beginning to create a whole race of Majin’s. At the time the show starts, they would have one son who’s about 4 or 5 years old and is about the size of Kid Goku, and would be one of the next gen Z fighters, while Buu and his wife also have several dozen baby Majin’s to take care of, with help from dear uncle Satan of course.

* Pan and Bulla would become a couple at some point. Because the franchise could use some gay characters that aren’t minor one offs like Kakunsa and Vikal so far, or offensive stereotypes like General Blue. Also, because Vegeta’s reaction to his daughter dating Kakarot’s granddaughter would be HILARIOUS.

* Tien would still be teaching students at his dojo, many of whom are expert Ki users by now, while Krillin has taken over the reigns to the Turtle School of Martial Arts from Master Roshi, who left a while back on some sort of “spiritual journey” (Meaning he’s on a road trip around the world with Oolong trying to pick up chicks). He wouldn’t appear again until much later into the series, so for now Krillin is trying his hand at being a martial arts instructor, Marron being his prized student.

* Yamcha would have found a loving girlfriend and is living a happy life like he deserves already.

* Optional, but I might have Piccolo have become a father by this point with a child who has the potential to be as strong as he is, but is surprisingly meek and tranquil, to Piccolo’s awkward bemusement.

* In addition to being her personal trainer, Whis would have basically taken on the role of Bulla’s surrogate Uncle, having a surprisingly close relationship with her as they hang out on Beerus’s world all the time and Whis talks to Bulla about her personal life and helps her work through personal issues. Beerus would also have a soft spot for her, but tries very hard to hide it and pretend Bulla is a burden.

* Pan’s personality is basically a lot closer to her adorable EoZ self than her GT self. She would learn how to go super saiyan fairly early into the show, and ascend to super saiyan 2 either at the end of the first or second saga. She and Uub share a sibling like relationship, despite initially having a rocky start prior to the start of the show due to Pan being a tad jealous that Goku ran off so suddenly to train with Uub, but we get some flashback episodes at some point showing how they worked it out.

* Marron would basically be characterised as a cool big sis figure to Pan, Bulla, and other young characters like Goku and Chichi’s new daughter, Buu’s kid and Vegeta and Bulma’s new son (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that?). She’s warm, expressive and friendly in similar ways to her father, but can be as intimidating as her mother when in a fight or when she’s in “Babysitter mode”. She starts the series off training under Krillin and 18, and has aspirations to be the first human member of the Galactic patrol, a role she acquires half way through the show after apprenticing under Jaco for a while.

* Launch by this point would be a minor recurring character married to Tien. The two of them have a young son who shares Launch’s split personality quirk.

* Uub’s family would be recurring minor characters in the show, and his village is thriving due to funding from Mr Satan.

* Gohan by this point is a successful scholar, and is also once again serving part time as the Great Saiyaman. Pan is the new Saiyagirl, and is just as much of a lovable dork as her dad when in character.

* The series would start with a number of episodes introducing and fleshing out each of the next gen cast and the current status quos of the old Z fighters and their allies, before moving into a saga that’s basically a dragon ball hunt. As a test, Goku tasks Uub, Pan and their friends (Sans Goten and Trunks, who had done a similar exercise before) with finding the Dragon Balls during summer break from school, without the use of their flying abilities so they have to hike around the world to find them by a certain date.

What they don’t know Is that Goku has set up a number of challenges along the way for the group to overcome. Nothing especially dangerous, but stuff that would give each of the new Z fighters their own difficult obstacles and opponents to overcome (part of which would involve calling in favours from some of his allies from other universes). Beerus however, who’s in on Goku’s test, decides by the end of it that his final challenge is a bit too tame (Read: Not guaranteed to get the kids brutally killed if they’re not careful enough), so basically goes behind Goku’s back and has Whis round up a group of the universes most dangerous super powered criminals to attack the young Z fighters, after making sure that Goku and the other high-tier Z fighters are off world at the time so they can’t find out quickly to deal with the situation themselves. Things work out after a huge struggle though.

This saga would mostly be a fun adventure story in the spirit of the original Dragon Ball and chock full of character building moments and interaction. Maybe some fun fanservice with the young Z fighters encountering some of the characters from the original Dragon Ball, like Suno and Android 8 (Heck, maybe throw in a Dr Slump crossover while we’re at it).

*Each saga would have a number of breather episodes between them, much like what Dragon Ball Super does, to further focus on supporting characters that don’t get as much limelight in the main sagas and also to just further flesh out our primary cast.

* The second saga would be a tournament arc, featuring another multiversal tournament. This scenario assumes all the universes that participated in the tournament of Power were revived, and that Goku convinced the Zen-oh’s to hold annual multiversal tournaments WITHOUT blinking anyone out of existence for stupid reasons.

However, the main thing to note is that there are actually TWO tournaments held annually, a Tournament of Power every two years featuring the absolute strongest fighters from each universe (Goku and friends, Toppo, Jiren and the Elite Pride Troopers, the Kamikaze Fireballs). And every year after it, there’s now another tournament meant for less experienced fighters from the various universes (Young Pride Trooper recruits and a young magical sidekick to Ribrianne in the vain of Chibiusa from Sailor Moon, for some examples).

Uub and the other next gen fighters compete as a team in this tournament, which is structured a bit more similarly to the World Tournaments from the original Dragon Ball except with whole teams competing together. This tournament would basically be a chance to introduce a bunch of new characters that’ll be more important later in the show, as well as re-introducing and catching up with established other universe characters from Super like the Universe 6 saiyans and Hit, Toppo, and the various Gods of the multiverse. It would also establish that there seems to be a feeling of discontent between the Gods of Destruction of the other universe, especially in regards to a newly appointed God for one of the universes that seems shady.

* A potential third arc would involve an invasion from the Demon Realm Dabura ruled over, possibly lead by his widowed wife who has a grudge against the Z fighters because she believes them and the Supreme Kai at least partially responsible for her husband’s death.

A notable thing that would happen during this saga is that the villain would use a special kind of dark magic to effectively nerf most of the strongest Z fighters. Goku, Vegeta and Gohan would lose their ability to assess their super saiyan transformations and Gohan’s ultimate form for example. I suggest this mostly as a way to make sure there’s tension for later sagas so that when bigger threats start popping up, Uub, Pan and the other next gen characters can still be the main heroes of the story and Goku can’t just use his God forms to easily end all the conflicts himself.

The first half would basically be the main villain and a group of elite mooks scheming to find a way to break the barriers between realms so that an entire army of demons could invade universe 7, while the Z fighters try to stop her. But because Dabura’s wife is a chessmaster and a scheming genius, she basically plays them all to help her succeed in her goal, and the second half of the saga deals with the next gen characters and the weakened Z fighters all trying to repel the invasion and minimize damage. This saga would also feature cameos of various ally characters like Android 8, Upa and Bora, Korin and Yajirobe, Baba and her monster fighters, Jaco and the galactic patrol, namekian warriors and even minor villains like Master Shen and Tao Pai Pai fighting demons attacking various places around the earth and other parts of the universe.

The explanation for why Beerus isn’t around to deal with this situation is that he was in universe 6 challenging Champa to poker, and at some point the two ended up having a drinking contest that got them both so drunk they passed out for a month. Whis decided to hang out in universe 6 for the time being and catch up with Vados in the meantime, being unaware of what was going on in universe 7.

*At least one or more sagas would take place almost entirely in the other universes

And, that’s all I got for the time being. Might go back and add to this later for the fun of it. I just hope we get another EoZ sequel at some point for real, there’s SO MUCH potential for that era and the characters beyond that point, and I would HATE for GT to be the only show ever made taking place following this era because of how badly it screwed that all up.

#dragon ball super #dragon ball #dragon ball z #uub #dbs #dbz #end of z

27 notes · View notes

fly-pow-bye · 5 years

Text

What’s Airing On Cartoon Network? (September 2019)

I am so sorry for forgetting about this. This news comes from Animation Magazine. Along with the Steven Universe movie and the final episodes of OK K.O., there’s new episodes of Bakugan, Ben 10, Mao Mao, Transformers, and a brand new show called Power Players! Oh, and DC Super Hero Girls gets an episode, too. Details after the break.

Bakugan Battle Planet:

Sundays at 7 AM.

September 8th:

Seek and Hide/Family First - Sent to investigate a Japanese island by Benton Dusk, the AO discover a hidden facility conducting experiments that affect The Hide. Then, trapped by his father, Shun is forced to battle his own friends. (7 AM)

September 15th:

A Door Closes, A Door Opens/Kazami’s Gambit - Shun must stand up to his father and protect his friends before Masato destroys everyone. Then, when Magnus looks to steal the Dimensional Doorway, Shun and Ichiro must make peace with the AO stop the Doorway from destroying them all. (7 AM)

September 22nd:

A Devil on Your Shoulder/Vestral Visions - Near giving up, Magnus gains new strength and insight on the AO’s mission to find Core Cells that will eventually lead him down a dark hole. Then, Drago’s sickness leads Dan to a revelation that there is an ailing Core Cell. (7 AM)

Septmember 29th:

Bakuzoned!/The Golden Secret - Strata’s return is much more than a simple rematch when he’s been infected by a strange ooze. Then, using Strata’s gauntlet, the AO think they’ve found a way through the labyrinth, but soon discover trusting the enemy is not always best. (7 AM)

Ben 10 (2016):

Ben 10 2016 seems to be alive and well.

September 21st:

Roundabout - Forever Knight finally assembles his Round Table of young but super-powerful Knights, including Ben?! Forever Knight and a group of super-baddies by his side are close to conquering all of history. (12 PM)

September 28th:

Cirque-Us - Ben is the guest of honor at an upcoming Gala, but when the cirque entertainment turns out to be Zombozo, in disguise, Ben must not only defeat the evil clown but his mysterious new sidekick, Pirouette! (12 PM)

Forever Road - During a drag race, Ben hopes to stay neck and neck with Vin Ethanol and La Grange as XLR8, but when his watch keeps shorting out, our hero must get creative if he is to keep up with his fast and furious foes! (12:30 PM)

DC Super Hero Girls:

Only one episode.

September 7th:

#DCSuperHeroBoys - What begins as a simple vandalism investigation becomes an all-out turf war when the team encounters a powerful trio of Kryptonians bent on world domination, and, perhaps even worse, a rival team of SUPER HERO BOYS! (7:30 PM)

Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart:

Four episodes on the 7th, two episodes on the other Saturdays.

September 7th:

Small - Mao Mao’s legendary, gigantic and critical father visits his son at his new job as sheriff. (10:00 AM)

Legend of Torbaclaun - When the Sweetypies think the mythical Torbaclaun has come to Pure Heart Valley, Mao Mao tries to prove to them that it isn’t real. (10:15 AM)

Meet Tanya Keys - When bounty hunter Tanya Keys comes to town for Badgerclops, it’s up to Mao Mao and Adorabat to save their friend – even if he’s been on the wrong side of the law. (10:30 AM)

Weapon of Choice - Worried that his sword is a glorified consolation prize, Mao Mao sets out to prove the worth of his weapon. (10:45 AM)

September 14th:

The Truth Stinks - Badgerclops smells, but Mao Mao and Adorabat don’t know how to tell him. (10:00 AM)

Trading Day - When they think each others’ lives are easier, the heroes switch roles. (10:15 AM)

September 21st:

Head Chef - Mao Mao faces off with Badgerclops in a competition to determine whether cooking (and being a hero) is an art or a science. (10:00 AM)

Orangusnake Begins - Mao Mao goads Orangusnake and the Sky Pirates into becoming truly terrible villains worthy of a legendary hero such as himself. (10:15 AM)

September 28th:

Sugar Berry Fever - Mao Mao tries to hide his love of cobbler. (10:00 AM)

Captured Clops - Badgerclops is tired of his responsibilities at Sheriff’s HQ, so he joins the Sky Pirates. (10:15 AM)

OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes:

It’s the end, beautiful friends. The same week as Steven Universe: The Movie, we get the end of OK K.O.!

September 6th:

Dendy’s Video Channel - Dendy tries to update KO’s Video Channel for him, but has trouble finding something to post. (7:00 PM)

Let’s Fight to the End - When a fighting tournament is announced at the Plaza, there is more at stake than meets the eye. (7:15 PM, half-hour)

Thank You for Watching the Show - When KO finds moments of his life slipping by, he begins to suspect something weird is going on. (7:45 PM)

Power Players:

Brand new show!

September 21st:

Unboxing - Axel, a 9 year old boy, discovers for the first time the incredible “Power Bandz” that give him the power to transform into a living toy. This is also the first time Axel meets the Power Players and…Madcap! (12:30 PM)

September 28th:

Attack of Thermometron 9000 - Axel must wrangle Galileo and Bobbie to shut down a rogue thermostat – improperly upgraded by Slobot – as it plunges the house into extreme hot and cold zones. (12:30 PM)

Steven Universe:

I’m sure everyone knows about this one already, but the big movie will be here with no commercial interruptions.

September 2nd:

Steven Universe: The Movie - After so many harrowing adventures, Steven and the Gems are ready to celebrate how far they’ve come with a movie musical! Little do they know they’re about to face their worst enemy yet. (6 PM)

Transformers Cyberverse:

It’s back, still at a death-slot at 6:30 AM.

September 7th:

Sea of Tranquility - To save the Earth from destruction, the Autobots must defeat the Decepticons on the Moon. (6:30 AM)

September 14th:

Bad Moon Rising - Starscream makes a power play for control of the Decepticons as the Moon hurtles toward the Earth. (6:30 AM)

September 21st:

The Visitor - As one of Wheeljack’s inventions wreaks havoc on The Ark, Bee tries to figure out what he saw on the Moon. (6:30 AM)

September 28th:

Bring Me the Spark of Optimus Prime - The Decepticons are thrown into chaos by an unexpected Autobot visitor in their midst. (6:30 AM)

#fpb news #transformers cyberverse #mao mao heroes of pure heart #steven universe #dc super hero girls #ben 10 2016 #power players #bakugan battle planet

0 notes

sueboohscorner · 7 years

Text

A 'Villain' is Born! #Gotham S3 Ep15 "How the Riddler Got His Name" Spoilers, Recap, & Review

Great, green garment, Batman! Gotham has returned after a long, long hiatus, much to the delight of fans of the show. Even the title alone is sure to catch anyone’s attention: ‘How the Riddler Got His Name’. Along with the title of the spring premiere of season 3, you might catch something else: The original tagline for the first part of season 3 was Mad City, aptly named after the Mad Hatter himself, Jervis Tetch, played with a somewhat perverted view of childlike innocence that the villain is mostly known for by the Australian actor Benedict Samuel. However, the tagline has changed into Heroes Rise. Now, it’s no secret that I myself tend to lean towards the villains, but we have seen many badass bad guys grow and thrive in the city of Gotham, but now it’s time to see just what our heroes will do to combat said villainy. Remember: a good villain inspires change. A villain acts. Heroes react.

Well, to use a cheesy line, the episode started out (literally) with a BANG! We first see a professor in his laboratory. Now, why should we care about this guy? Because Edward Nygma does, that’s why! (Played by Corey Michael Smith) He manages to tie up the professor and what does Ed do? Ask the poor egghead riddle after riddle. Unfortunately, the professor was not smart enough to match I.Q.’s with Edward. Nygma becomes enraged and almost saddened by each wrong answer to his riddles, until Edward basically smart shames the professor and then, well…… BOOM! You may be asking “Why would he do that? What’s his plan?” Calm down, and I’m going to get to that; I’m just giving you a spoiler recap for starters.

Speaking of villainy, we also see our favorite group that works in the shadows, the Court of Owls. You remember Bruce Wayne’s clone? (Played by David Mazouz) Well, guess what? The Court has been training him to become the perfect imposter of our hero Bruce. We see that Kathryn (played by Leslie Hendrix) declare that the clone’s training is complete. We also see a new character, Frank (played by James Remar), who turns out to be Jim Gordon’s uncle. Yeesh. Talk about a family history; Jim’s father was a decorated veteran and cop, and now we see that Jim’s uncle has been a member of the Court for who knows how long? Apparently, Kathryn wants Frank to reach out to Jim and ask him to join the Court. But if he can’t convince him….. use your imagination.

Back to Edward, still living in Dahl Manor, we see that he has been losing sleep and he has been taking pills. What kind of pills? My best guess is some form of the hallucinogenic drug. Why? The audience has seen, throughout the seasons that Edward does tend to see hallucinations, much to Ed’s chagrin. This time he’s taking pills to see visions whenever he needs to. And who he might be seeing in his head? Why, his ex-best friend, Oswald Cobblepot. (Played by Robin Lord Taylor) Yeah, it turns out that Edward is still in need of guidance to become more of who he is; more of a villain (his words, not mine). In Edward’s mind, Oswald is soaking wet, has a crab or two crawling on him, and is covered in scum. That would make sense, because the last time those two saw each other, Edward shot Oswald point-blank and pushed him into the cold waters by the docks. Literally, most things in Gotham go down at the docks. So Edward imagines his dead partner and summons him whenever he needs someone to talk to or some guidance. It would be more heartfelt if Edward’s mentality weren't deteriorating before our eyes. What Edward wants now in his life is to feel whole, complete, to figure out just who he really is. Nygma’s conclusion to that answer is to find the brightest minds in Gotham and see who can match his own intellect. To each their own, and all that. Mirage Oswald keeps fighting him on every step, saying that the way he’s going about this in a completely stupid way. Then Edward gets an idea for another contestant: Jim Gordon (Played by Ben McKenzie). Now, I like Jim, I really do, but come on. He is intelligent and strong in his own right, but I don’t think he would last a few rounds with Edward Nygma.

Edward sends a singing telegram to the GCPD, where Captain Harvey Bullock (Played by Donal Logue) is still cleaning up from the big hoopla that was left in Jerome Valeska’s wake. Lucius Fox (Played by Chris Chalk) informs Bullock about recent killings that have been going on in the city as of late. He takes note that each victim is either artistic or very intellectual. Fox is interrupted by the singing mentioned above telegram, telling them about the next possible victim. The card, of course, has a puzzle on it. The puzzle turns out to be a location: a chess tournament. Of course, Lucius Fox figures it out in less than a minute, and he, Harvey, and other cops from the precinct are on the move.

If you’re wondering about Jim, don’t worry. He’s just taking some time off to go on a hunting trip with his estranged uncle Frank. What could go wrong?

At the chess tournament, we notice that Edward Hazen overlooking view of the event. Again, he summons Oswald. Edward’s attitude towards his hallucination of Oswald is not necessarily bitter. That may seem strange, give in their last encounter, but we see that Edward does not hold much malice towards Oswald. In fact he still regards him as his best friend. Of course there is tension, but Edward does not really care for that at the moment. However the hallucination of Oswald is still fighting Edward at every step in turn that he makes. Edward even thanks Oswald for coming, to which Oswald replied that he did not have much of a choice. Edward is not too surprised when he sees the GCPD come in, but he is surprised to see Lucius Fox. You could consider it a delightful surprise. Ed activates an electrical device that is rigged to every chessboard in the building. No one is safe for the then move or not. But that does not matter, Edward has found his intellectual match. Lucius Fox. And he is already solved another riddle, a phone number leading to the person responsible. Edward Nygma. The phone call consisted of another riddle. Which leads Lucius to a grim answer: the belly of the beast. Which literally means that he had to cut into the belly of one of Edward’s victims for his next clue…..ew.

We take a minute to focus on Bruce and Alfred (played by Sean Pertwee) as they continue their training. Knife throwing training, which is freaking awesome in my book. But Bruce is clearly distracted in it interferes with his training. Alfred calls him on it, and what is on his mind is Selina Kyle (played by Camren Bicondova). Long story short: Selina’s mom turned out to be a garbage human and Bruce kind of knew about it, but did not tell her. They had kind of a messy breakup. Bruce tells Alfred that he received a note in the mail recently from Selina asking him to meet up with her. Bruce knows that his training is really important, especially after what happened with Jerome, but he can’t get her out of his head. So Alfred suggests that he takes her up on her note.

While Bruce is wandering the city, he comes across Sonny Gilzean and a bunch of his thugs. They start messing with him until Selina arrives. As it turns out, she did not send that note to Bruce. And then she storms away. Sonny and his guys start beating up Bruce at first, but the rejection from Selina seemed to take its toll on him and he fought back, and kicked major ass, I might say. As he turns to go back home, he encounters his clone, who drugs him unconscious as he plans to take his place.

We go back to Bullock, who is speaking at the police officer’s graduation ceremony. Until, uh-oh, Edward shows up and knocks him out. All the while, Mirage Oswald insists that there is no Edward without him. Edward admits some truth about that statement, but he will find something new in something better to replace Oswald with in his heart.

We see Lucius and Lee (played by Morena Baccarin) examining a dead body, cutting open his stomach, to reveal a police badge. That match belongs to Harvey. Lucius knows where Harvey is and he immediately leaves for the ceremony. To the young cadet’s remorse, Edward replaces Harvey as speaker. He throws a grenade into the crowd, but not before giving a riddle.

Lucius finally meets up with Edward who has Harvey tide up in a chair which is suspended over a stairway. Edward gives Lucius three chances, three riddles, to save Harvey. Fox gets the first two riddles wrong, but the last one he got absolutely right. Lucius also finds out that Edward killed Oswald Cobblepot, their mayor. But, we get a thumbs up from Edward while still making Harvey fall to his death. Lucius manages to catch him in time, only to find that the green suited man was gone.

On Jim Gordon’s end, he and his uncle have a long talk. Franks says that he came back to Gotham to patch things up. Then he comes clean about the Court of Owls, and how they are a secret organization that really pull the strings in Gotham. He reveals that he and Jim’s father were members of the Court and that that originally wanted him to join as well. But Jim’s father saw how much of a threat they were to the city and try to fight back. Frank reveals that the Court had set up a car accident that would cause Jim’s father his death. French had to prove his loyalty, so the Court sent in a way for years to an unknown location. Jim is of course, outraged by this and is unsure whether or not to believe his uncle.

After saving Harvey, he, and some GCPD members go out and try to find Edward in the Dahl Manor. The only thing that they find is a portrait of the mayor with a big, bright, green question mark on its face.

After a long day, we see Lucius get into his car. Edward was waiting for him in the back seat with a gun. Instead of completely submitting to the threat, to Lucius psychoanalyzes Edward. He sees that everything that Edward has done is some sort of act and he questions him about it. Nygma states that he feels like there’s someone inside of him, someone that could be feared, and someone that could replace Oswald. Lucius turns to Edward with a concern to look on his face and tells him that if there’s any part of him, that is still sane, he needs to get help. Edward seemed shocked at first. But he shakes it off and says…

“I am the Riddler!”

And he knocks Lucius unconscious.

We cut to inside a house filled with plants. We see a bed with someone in it. Hey, guys too, Oswald is ALIVE!!!!!! To and apparently he was rescued by Ivy Pepper. He wakes up and says one thing:

“I just remembered, there is someone I have to kill.”

The final moment that we see in the episode is Edward at the docks where he shot Oswald. He has one final conversation with his hallucination. To Oswald says that no one will ever be afraid of anyone called the ‘Riddler.' Edwards says that he did a value their friendship, but now he will pull it Oswald behind him. He dumps his pills into the water. He stands up straight placing a bowler hat on his head. The last thing that we see is a green suited man, Edward Nygma, no, the Riddler walk away.

Overall I did love the episode. It was really nice to welcome Gotham to back on Monday nights. It was so great seeing the characters come back and it was so great to see their next step or their journey in a pre-Batman Gotham. It does my heart good to see the actors bring more and more to the characters that we to all know and love to the table.

Things I liked:

Every single scene that Corey Michael Smith was in, he is now the Riddler, to and he loves every single minute of it. The Riddler is someone that a lot of us know even if we don’t read the comics. He is flashy, showy, intelligent, incredibly vain, and absolutely arrogant. Smith has already begun to take on to the Riddler, and already he is showing much potential, and he will certainly make his mark as the third person to ever be a live actor for the Riddler, and I can’t wait.

I always love me some Harvey Bullock. That should go without saying.

The relationship between Edward and Oswald as it continued seemingly after death. The illusion of Oswald said to Edward that he really isn’t talking to the real person. That he just imagined something that is already in his mind, but he just won’t face it. It shows that Edward really did respect Oswald and that he did see him as a teacher for him. Edward knew that he couldn’t just turn away from Oswald after he shot him. He needed to figure out who he was without Oswald. And the conclusions that Edward reached as he trudged through his epiphany was really enjoyable to see.

LUCIUS FOX, BABY!!!!!!!! A lot of people know only about Alfred taking care of Bruce. But Lucius Fox has just an important a role in Bruce’s life. Sometimes I see Alfred as the bright side of Bruce’s brain, and Lucius is definitely the left side. As a singular person, Lucius Fox is absolutely not one to be trifled with, especially when it comes to intelligence.

Poison Ivy saving the Penguin? AWESOME!!!

Bruce Wayne KICKING ASS!!!!

Alfred’s Shepard’s pie

Things I didn’t like:

Lee Thompkins. Don’t like her. Never did from the beginning.

8 out of to10!

Well done, Gotham. Well, freaking done!

Until next time, stay weird, Gotham

#Gotham

1 note · View note