#we find it generally helps to get more insufferable and start becoming a worse person instead of worrying about if youre inherently good

[mantisgodiveblog]

Idk why everyone is saying you're a loop kin. you remind me more of a siffrin

Excuse you, we're way hotter than that guy. We've aged out of being a socially anxious nerd in a cloak. Now we're a hot nerd in a trench coat and/or several different layers of jewelry and/or an outfit that has people say to us phrases like "you look like a time traveller who figured that the 1980s are basically the 2020s in the grand scheme of things and is only now realizing that the time periods are very different however you are indeed very hot" or the perhaps more descriptive "you look like harry dubois".

Actually, was nerd the one that originated from the guys biting chicken's heads off with their teeth? We should use that one. We're the guy doing that but hotter and also more likely to torment fictional characters for fun.

[mjvnivsbrvtvs]

2000 words of (checks notes) hbo rome, but Antony captures Brutus alive and no one is quite sure what to do with that. mostly unedited, sort of heading in a direction for sure.

Cassius is dead.

And,  

well.

Brutus is alive.

For whatever reason, Antony had decided to drag him back to his camp, and he sits in Antony’s tent like a child waiting to find out what punishment is going to get doled out while listening to Antony and Octavian shout at each other from some other place in the encampment.

Cassius is dead, and Brutus feels like he was cheated out of being able to take the honorable way out. Instead, he was ignobly marched back across a never-ending field of bodies, a prisoner, maybe something worse. To step between bodies of the men he commanded to their deaths felt like the worst kind of cowardice.

Cassius is dead, Brutus has the blood of his brother-in-law under his nails, and he feels inexplicably jealous.

The yelling stops, and after a moment, Antony steps back inside.

‘Great news!’ he says cheerfully. ‘You won’t be dying today!’

Brutus stares at him. Antony looks back expectantly.

In the back of his throat, the decorum that dictates social niceties threatens to claw its way out of his mouth, to show the appropriate gratefulness.  

Cassius is dead, and Brutus wishes that was his fate as well, so he swallows hard and says nothing.

When it becomes clear that Brutus won’t say anything, Antony pulls a seat over and sits across from Brutus, uncharacteristically serious. ‘I know that this isn’t really ideal for anyone,’ he says, looking Brutus in the eye. ‘But it is better to survive. Think of your mother, how much better it will be for her to get a letter from you than to receive one from me announcing your death.’

It feels like Antony is attempting something like reassurance, like he’s worried Brutus might take the stylus off the desk and shove it through his own neck (he had thought about it, and immediately discarded the idea) but all Brutus can concentrate on is how much he doesn’t want to think of his mother.  

Every personal betrayal, every manipulation at the hands of his own mother comes to the forefront of his mind and he can feel his expression twist into something bitter. ‘I’d consider it a personal favor if you would tell her that anyway,’ Brutus finds himself saying, and Antony laughs, sharp and surprised.

‘I didn’t think you had it in you to be cruel,’ he says, leaning forward.

‘You know, I never really wanted this?’ Brutus says, because now the words won’t stop spilling out of his mouth, ‘but she used my name, and Caesar couldn’t trust me after that.’

There is some emotion that Brutus can’t identify in Antony’s gaze, something quiet and calculating, not unlike a predator considering how to cast judgement.

‘You helped kill him,’ says Antony, tone neutral.

Brutus looks away, and back own at his hands. They aren’t shaking anymore, but on that day, he wasn’t sure they would ever stop. Cassius might have put the blade back into his hands, but he was the one who grasped it and drove it into the body of a man he had once considered to be like a father.  

Abruptly, he wonders if Octavian is somewhere on the other side of the material of the tent, eavesdropping on them like some kind of ghost.

‘I did,’ agrees Brutus, because there’s no sense in denying it or trying to claim some kind of innocence to the act. It runs in the family, even if he tried to deny that legacy before. He won’t try to pass blame for the action now. ‘You should let Octavian do whatever it is he wants to do.’ He sits up a little straighter and narrows his eyes. ‘What do you gain from this anyway? What benefit am I to you?’

Antony leans back, posture open and lazy. It’s not sincere, Brutus knows. It’s the false nonchalance that Antony presents the world when he wants people to look a little less closely, to take him a little less seriously, all the while planning out a series of strategies in the back of his mind.

‘Do I have to have an ulterior motive?’ asks Antony. ‘Maybe I just want to ruin Octavian’s day for a bit.’

He stands up before Brutus can reply, and begins to walk back towards the tent flap. ‘You’ll be staying here,’ Antony informs Brutus. ‘There are soldiers on guard duty, so don’t think about trying to escape.’ He looks at his desk, to the stylus, and after a brief pause of consideration, crosses the space in two easy steps to grab it. ‘Remember!’ he says, grinning. ‘Tomorrow’s a new day!’

Then he’s gone.

And Brutus is once again left with his hands, and Cassius’s blood.

•

At some point in the night, Brutus falls asleep.

When he wakes up, he is in Antony’s bed, with absolutely no recollection of how he got there. His hands, Brutus notices as he sits upright and pushes the blankets off of him, are clean.

‘And he lives!’ says Antony. He’s sitting behind his desk, watching Brutus from over top the paper in his hand. His tone is jovial, but it doesn’t meet his eyes. ‘If you wanted to go back to sleep for another hour, I won’t tell: it might be the last time you’ll get the chance to sleep in.’

The entire exchange is baffling.

The expression on Brutus’ face must convey as much, because Antony laughs. ‘Just because you are my prisoner doesn’t mean it has to be painful for us both.’

Brutus arches an eyebrow at the use of the possessive and makes a note to eventually find out the specifics of what Antony and Octavian had been fighting about. ‘I think you'll find that sentiment goes against almost every expectation someone might have if they found themselves held captive by a political rival,’ points out Brutus.

‘I like to think of us as people who could have been political allies under different circumstances,’ counters Antony. ‘We did work together for some time.’

‘I think’ says Brutus slowly, ‘that you have some ulterior motive you’ve been angling towards for some time.’

Silence, except for the general ambience of a military encampment the day after a resounding victory. Conversation, men looking forward to returning home, the sharp crackle of an early morning fire. Life goes on. When the sun comes up in full, the bodies left on the battlefield will begin to stink and decay under the full force of the heat.

The fight in Brutus, the revulsion that he will be used for another person’s end goals again, fades out of him, replaced with a quiet grief at the thought of the men he led to their death.

Antony snaps his fingers.

‘You look like you’re thinking unhappy thoughts,’ says Antony. ‘Do not. It’s always better to live. If you must spiral into melancholia, wait until I’m gone.’

‘Besides!’ continues Antony. ‘Soon we will be back in Rome!’

Brutus can’t think of anything he’s looking forward to less.

•

Brutus wishes more than anything that Antony had just given him a sword so he could fall on it.

Currently, the feeling is driven less by a sense of duty (what kind of man begs for mercy? comes the voice of his mother. I didn’t beg this time, mother, he would say in reply) or the open wound of loss, but instead by an intense awareness that he does not belong in this place anymore but more importantly 

annoyance.

If he thought he would have to wait around to see what Octavian and Antony were arguing about back in Philippi, he was wrong. The second Antony had set foot in Rome, with Brutus half a step behind him, Octavian immediately launched into an impassioned speech that started with, ‘You should be grateful to Antony, if it were up to me, I would have taken your head displayed it for all to see,’ (poetic in a grim sort of way, thinks Brutus) and ended with:

‘Don’t get too comfortable. You belong to Antony now, and he’ll do with you whatever he wants.’

It’s clearly meant to be some threat, but it’s laughable because Brutus knows this, everyone who’s heard about the outcome at Philippi knows this, there’s probably creative graffiti about it already going up on the walls of the city, and Octavian says it like Brutus hasn’t spent the last week trying to puzzle together why Antony wanted him alive so badly.

The facts of the world are as follow: the sun rises in the east, it sets in the west, Octavian has only become more insufferable over the years, and Brutus belongs to Antony now.

The only person who doesn’t seem to be aware of this is Antony, who continues to act as though Brutus is more of a peer that he had a minor disagreement and has subsequently forgiven.

‘It’s been nice catching up with you, Octavian,’ says Antony with a smile that conveys that the entire exchange has been anything but nice. ‘But I have things to do, matters to attend to.’  

Brutus says nothing.

Octavian levels him with one last bitter look before turning around and leaving the room.

‘Well!’ says Antony after a moment. ‘That went as well as to be expected. I have a feeling he thought I’d have you executed somewhere along the way back.’

‘He’s not the only one,’ comments Brutus dryly, and Antony punches him in the shoulder good naturedly.

‘I love that grim sense of humor you have,’ he says. ‘Come on, let us go home. I’m fucking exhausted.’  

•

Home, it turns out, is Pompey’s villa.

Or more accurately: it’s Antony’s now.

Brutus can see it on the walls, in the décor, in the choices of fabrics and design. It’s alive, it’s vibrant, it’s a complete antithesis of everything Pompey stood for.  

He likes it.

‘So-’ Antony starts to say, at the exact moment Brutus says:

‘What’s your endgame here, Antony?’

It’s a recreation of the morning in Philippi: the open, if somewhat confusing, amicability that doesn’t quite meet the eyes. The sense that Antony is thinking of things in stratagem, planning for some kind of outcome no one has even thought to imagine, much less prepare for.

The villa is nice. Brutus likes what Antony’s done with the place.

He also feels very much like he’s walked into the open mouth of something with very sharp teeth, and if he must be assigned a role in whatever Antony is gearing up for, he would at least like an idea of what’s to come.

Whatever Antony is searching for in Brutus’ eyes, he must have found, because the tension in his jaw disappears.

‘Some other time,’ he says finally. ‘Not today.’

There’s a promise in between the words.

Brutus tries to feel grateful for that, at least. It’s hard, because once, before all of this, he used to be--

•

--a person.

Antony shows him to one of the rooms, makes some remark about not leaving the villa, with a side glance at Posca, who does his best not to meet Brutus’ eyes, which is understandable. Antony takes off, and in the absence of anything else to do, Brutus decides to try and reinvent himself.

He can no longer be Brutus, descendant of a king killers. He is no longer a reluctant, albeit talented, politician, following in the footsteps of all the other politicians that came before him. He’s not even entirely sure what his status as a citizen of Rome is. In lieu of death, Octavian might push for exile.

The only concrete fact about himself now is that Antony wanted him alive, and so he belongs to Antony.

The lack of solid ground to stand on makes exile a tempting thought.

At some point in the afternoon (no further along in the process of reinvention than when he started) a young woman stops by: Cynthia, if Brutus recalls correctly. One of Antony’s slaves. She asks if he’s hungry, if he’d like an apple and--

--for a moment, Brutus feels like he’s returned to Philippi, standing defeated, surrounded by bodies. The dead don’t eat, they need coins for the afterlife, not food, the dead don’t eat, and he’s not a person anymore--

--Brutus says yes and follows her.

•

Antony is exhausted.

Octavian, he knows, is planning something. There is something ugly and spiteful inside of that youth, Antony can’t stand to be around him, no matter how much Atia dotes on him.  

When Antony returns back home late in the evening, he’s greeted with the sight of Brutus sitting on one of the couches, peeling an apple, while Cynthia stands nearby, slicing up a pear. He pulls the heavy fabric of the toga off his body and casts it across a chair, making his way towards the two.

Draping himself along the couch next to Brutus, he leans over and says, ‘Slice off a piece for me.’

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Posca watching the scene unfold from the quiet shadows of the evening.

Brutus cuts off a part of the apple so that the slice is stuck on the side of the blade, and holds it out to Antony, like this is an everyday occurrence, like Brutus isn’t pointing a knife at the person who owns his life.

He realizes it, a moment later, and freezes, but before he can course correct, pull back, apologize, Antony leans forward and bites the apple slice right off the sharp edge of the knife.

Brutus stares at him.

Or, more specifically, Antony is delighted to note, he stares at the line of Antony’s throat, his gaze lingering for just a second too long.

[phoebehalliwell]

Prue gets together with Mitch (reincarnated Micah) and lives. How does their relationship evolve over the rest of the series?

okay so fr because like i've been thinking about this I've Been Thinking About This. WHY give us that connection if we're not gonna do anything with it??? WHY make it worse my literally giving us the guy THE EXACT SAME GUY and then never mention him again What is the motive?????? okay okay okay so here's what i'd do: 2.6 undercut lmao

because prue has really only had two boyfriends in the series so far: andy & jack (bane doesn't count as he was more of a tryst and also he's in jail :'( could have been fun tho! he could have sacrificed himself for somebody else and become a whitelighter he already knows the ins and outs of the underworld like. could have been something there. but as they were only together twice, once when prue was posing as a hitwoman and then again when he kidnapped her, he, tragically, does not him boyfriend status.) so here me out andy is a cop he represents protection and familial ties / ties to the past (prue's childhood best friend, already friends with the sisters, he's also a third generation cop so like there's that too). he represents prue's early stage, where she feels like she has to be the protector of the whole family, of which she is basically the matriarch. she doesn't get to have fun, she has to protect her sisters and now the whole world, and her past is having some very real effects on her life right now. that's her andy era.

jack era is at buckland's, it's her breadwinning era. we even saw in morality bites (which, i am once again bringing up, is fake) that she goes on to be superbillionaire whatever. so jack kind represents professional ambitions, amplified by the fact that the fonet also served as a blatant metaphor for their relationship (prue, the world is made up of almost perfect. it's nothing but near misses and necessary compromises. in this case, i think we got a little bit of both. that's okay, i know how you feel. i'm just asking you not to look so close. nothing bears up under that kind of scrutiny. are you talking about the monet? yeah, that too.) and that their relationship ends when she decided to leave bucklands to pursue a career in photography.

so now we enter season three, which is prue's artist era, her passionate like zeal for life era she finally seems to have a weight lifted off her shoulder for the first time in a long time like you can tell she like. trusts her sisters more than she ever has before she sees them in a new light and knows that they are strong and smart and independent and she doesn't need to protect them every waking hour. this era's for prue. so i'm pitching that micah mirrors this by being an artist, too. i wouldn't say the same medium (photography) as prue because like. prue's definitely someone who would compare herself to him just like subconsciously constantly that's the type of woman she is, but maybe like a painter. not a writer because they're all insufferable. lmao 🤙🤙. but someone who lives in a hella nice studio type loft filled with art and just like life. passion. something prue hasn't really allowed herself in like. a hot minute. and i would make micah (mitch??) a witch. haha it rhymes. scratch that i'd make him a warlock. or a darklighter i'm cashing in my half-darklighter character. it's mitch now. idk how this would fit into phole narrative foils maybe or we scrap phole but they're really coming from two different perspectives where cole is entering the joint like i am evil and here to murder and then he catches feelings whereas mitch would be like yes i have some dark past but i'm not letting it define me bonus points is prue is able to piece together the clues of his origin just by looking at his paintings. this also adds to the rift between prue and phoebe on prue's cole stance like oh your evil boyfriend is fine but mine, for some reason, is still evil? yes. oh you know what we keep the source's heir in this au let me continue.

instead of introducing mitch in p3 because like WHAT WAS THAT, we instead, parallel their first meeting. mitch's origin story is

his mom was a future whitelighter knocked up by a darklighter this was not intentional on anyone's part mom wasn't trying to become mom dad wasn't trying to become dad Nor did dad know mom was a future whitelighter. because well he's not great at being a darklighter in spite of maybe being like the. head darklighter's son he's like the fucked up son who doesn't wanna run things. he doesn't know he has a kid!! until something something an oracle or something tells him he has a son But he can't find mom because she's cloaked by her whitelighter. mom dies doing something heroic idk (maybe mom was a firefighter??) and then cloaking on mitch is lifted when he's in his late teens his dad finds him his dad is now like proper leader of the darklighter clan and is trying to bring mitch into the fold which initially he is game for because mitch has all these powers black orbing touch of death that he doesn't understand and finally a community to explain that to him! he gets a crossbow (which is lit) but um. quickly catches on to how blatantly evil the whole thing is. he's secretly teamed up with some whitelighters (not his mom tho. friends of his mom, but he's not allowed to see her :'/ ) to help get other halflings like him out and cloaked.

leo's been taken hostage by the darklighter something something something a plot a plot a plot we do some solid pleo angst we maybe have cole drop some thinly veiled advice about the underworld without coming out as a demon, something that will help the sisters later. but what's really important here is they're sneaking through the underworld maybe they've been split up and they need to find leo so either they're looking for him Or they're looking for a darklighter to interrogate. and prue hears shifting behind a rock and goes over to look and it's mitch and some kid and the kid immediately summons his crossbow but mitch knocks it away just like prue did with piper in the past and piper's like prue u see anything and she's like no nothing here and then mitch and the kid blackorb away which just leaves prue with this sinking feeling like what the fuck?? because. what the fuck??? a) that was the same guy from puritan times and b) she still feels the same she felt back then and c) it's clear he does do but d) --and this is the crucial one-- D) he's fucking evil????? so blah blah blah we save leo but now prue is left with one crucial question what the fuck is going on?

so what she's gonna do is research the town the colony whatever that melinda warren was born in she astral projects to salem or whatever and steals. maybe the mask mitch wore at the party she recognizes it from all hallows eve. and she brings that home and scrys with it. and she finds him!! and um bonus points looking at his place she sees he's an alum of the college she went to because backstory!! when prue was in college back when she was still pursuing photography before grams got sick, they had met before! once before, at a party, and it was this instant spark, this instant connection, but then something pulled them apart be it one of them was already in a relationship or their ride was leaving something but like. again! this connection has always been there. so like blah blah blah prue has broken into mitch's place she sees their college connection she sees his art and starts to pull together a life story he sees maybe some paperwork that just says like in bold letters like saving kids: good person activities something real obvious you know and that's Right Next To his crossbow. ~juxtaposition~ so like. what the fuck is this. but whatever that'll be dealt with later she has to get to work! but!! at the magazine her boss is like hey prue some guy came by here earlier asking for you you know [description of mitch], [description of mitch], [description of mitch], you know him? and prue's like ummmmmmmm. no. ?. and her boss is like ?? i don't really care. photography! but now she knows that while she's been digging up on him, he's been doing the same with her. so that night at p3 prue's like okay i've got to come clean with u guys remember micah and phoebe's like oh yeah that hottie from the past who was like . spiritually in love with you? and prue's like yeah i found him. and piper and phoebe are like 🤗🥳😃 and prue's like. and he's a darklighter. and piper and phoebe are like 😳😶👎 and prue's like yeah remember when like we were trying to save leo and you asked me if i saw something? well i did. it was him and and this kid and i think he was trying to save him and phoebe's like wait you think? and prue's like well i mean yeah phoebe like. it was like the same thing when he saved us in the 1700s. and phoebe's like well no because we're good witches and he saved us you saved a darklighter? and prue's like he's more than that phoebe and phoebe's like but how can you know (flash forward to her sparing cole in about three episodes and being like hmm 😐 those words are gonna bite me in the ass).

the point is they're hashing it out phoebe's devil on the left and piper's trying to be angel on the right But he is in the clan that kidnapped her husband so like..... but prue is explaining the good person papers she found on his desk, the fact that she went to college with him, she's like. she thinks he's only half darklighter and he's helping others like him and piper phoebe are like ....................do you just want him to be half darklighter and helping others like him but prue's not even listening but look who's coming down the stairs!! so she beelines over and phoebe's about to follow but piper holds her back bc wait let this play out they'll watch from afar and piper will freeze the room if she has to.

and something something something blah blah blah they tal and there's this tense like. what now. because like. What Now? you're evil and i'm a charmed one but this invisible string pulling me here whether i want it too or not. and i think prue kinda shifts back into her earlier seasons self where. it's family above all else. like i need you to steer clear because if i see you again i will vanquish you. and mitch knows she's bluffing. because he know that if he tried, even if he really wanted to, he couldn't harm a hair on her head. and it's clear she's like. suffering from the same ailment so to speak.

something something something maybe they have a couple quick brushes but not actual meetings And Then we get another time travel/past life episode where!! as it turns out. prue and mitch r soulmates cursed by a spurned lover to always be on opposite sides. meanwhile we just got cole demon reveal/cole's still alive reveal so prue's like hi mitch you're. evil. evil-adjacent. what do you know about belthazor/cole turner. and mitch does his due diligence and like. the stuff on belthazor is appalling. genuinely terrifying. but then there's some stuff on cole turner that's like kinda okay. this is were mitch does is big tragic backstory reveal, kids born of dark magic falling in with the wrong crowd blah blah blah and this kind of. supports our theory moving forward it's not really a theory. our endgame moving forward of healthy!cole. also prue and mitch still have not gotten together through all of this in spite of the cosmic pull and the past evidence of like. soulmatism. because they're both a bit too pragmatic they both think it's kind of a lost cause. blah blah blah pining we give prue a mini love interest here someone to keep her mind off mitch and we do make him good. kind, attentive, caring, smart, hot, but like. it's so painfully obvious she's not all in. so he calls it off. heart to heart with piper because piper's like hi you're in love. and prue's like yeah with a doomed relationship i think i'd rather not and piper's like hello you're talking to the queen of doomed relationships you wanna know the secret? and prue's like yes :( and piper's like just go for it. the time you have together is. it's better than anything else you'll ever have. there's gonna be heartbreak, but hell there's always gonna be heartbreak in the halliwell family. wouldn't you rather spend your time with someone you love?

something something something leo/mitch/cole buddy episode b plot. leo/mitch/cole/DARRYL buddy episode b plot. :D. prue and micah get their big first kiss in a very tv show build up way my heart is saying new years and all the fireworks go off around them.

we're bringing in paige because i love her she's first introduced by some seer oracle whatever as your other sister and the girls are like respectfully, bullshit. but micah's like hey......... she's half whitelighter. because he can sense those kind of things, being a darklighter. and piper and leo are like patty's affair....................... and all the pieces are falling together and in this one. paige either gets a witch love interest a cupid love interest or we keep henry because fwiw i do really like mortal love interests. if we do do the witch love interest it won't be richard i love him to piece i do but he sucks <3. source!cole time.

oh we introduce paige thru mitch trying to help one of his kids and that lands him at social services.

source!cole. idk what happens here but like. using our nifty-difty tool box the squad has been assembling over the years helping all of these wayward souls born from evil, things mostly work out fine. source's heir is born, a girl, but since prue isn't dead her name is either colette or victoria. depends if cole died or not.

prue moved out at some point and lives in a hella nice studio apartment with mitch they r both artists (who the fuck is paying for that?) phoebe moves back in the manor post-source fiasco paige moves in the manor but spends a lot of time with her sister prue and soon to be brother in law (??) mitch. (paige is like fr dude when are you gonna pop the question and mitch is like woahhhh pump the break because paige is new here and when she saw them she's like oh. married couple. but then they're not married. engaged? nope. no just loosely dating? okay. lame. bad idea. but as it turns out one of them always dies so they're just trying to avoid that for as long as possible) but paige spends a lot of time at pritch's place because not only is it The Art Zone it's also the rehabilitating kids zone, of which paige is a grand help. prue jokes about how much paige reminds her of phoebe as a kid, and since we're already muddying the timeline, we're having paige enter and solid advice columnist, married phoebe and paige is like haha what the fuck??

source's heir born twice blessed born magic school located under the charmed & co squad becomes integrated with children born of all magic and like our season 8 wrap up saccharine finale is like how magic has reached a new era of peace n understanding. <3

[themonstrousarchives]

Hunt: Party Pack

Description: A motley crew of fellow monster hunters, but with a twist about them. They're just a little too monstrous. A quartet of roadtripping werewolves* seized by the Hunt, given an insatiable desire to track down and destroy other avatars primarily. They hunger for the PC that has done the most collateral damage, ready for revenge. 

Hook, Session goals: Time for the most dangerous game, as we risk NPCs that the players have come across, along with any other monsters in the world- Bigfoot, an avatar of the Stranger, others capitalizing on the fears

Monster Type: Executioner (motivation: to punish the guilty) Powers: All of them have supernatural speed and strength, and can shapeshift into humanoid lycanthrope-esque beings for more effective predation. One of them is adept at using “magic,” mostly in a supportive way like a bard- helping to direct the others and prime their attacks. They try to lure monsters out, one of them faking weakness or taking on some aspect that the target might find appealing, then the bait leads them into an ambush. When hunting a group, they try to split everyone up so that they can gang up on whoever gets left behind. Attacks: Detailed below Weaknesses: The Dark, The Stranger, and the Spiral can either blind or misdirect the wolves, though actually killing them will be difficult- they have to be made into quarry to make them “vulnerable.” It’s a farfetched pull, but calling upon the owner of Lobos Ltd. (See the Deer Man adventure) and acquiring some of his cages would be effective in removing them as threats. 

The Wolves: (Attacks ordered by preference)

Greg (Armor: 1) [][][][][][][] (Shapeshifts quickly)

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Claw- 2-harm ignore armor hand

9mm- 2-harm close loud

Johnny Hobo (Armor: 2) [][][][][][][] (Bait)

Claw- 2-harm close ignore armor

Bite- 3-harm intimate 

Baseball bat- 1-harm hand 

Elsa  (Armor: 0) [][][][][][][] (Stays hidden/protected)

Magic Snare- 0-harm close restraining

Enchant- adds 1-harm to damage dealt

Shotgun- 3-harm close messy

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Pat  (Armor 1) [][][][][][][] (Fastest chaser)

Knife- 2-harm hand 

Claw- 2-harm ignore armor hand

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Greg (Hotheaded and rash. Eager to feel powerful.)

Johnny Hobo (Patient. Durable. The methodical pursuit, often tempering Greg or supporting the others.)

Elsa (The brains of the operation. Puts on a cool air.)

Pat (Jumpy, a pure manifestation of id. The fastest, but also the easiest to fool.)

Countdown:

Burgers on the Coast gets accosted by a brash customer. After they finish eating, they will leave and the table can be investigated.

The Pack arrives in town, a PC sees Johnny outside their window (if they doubletake, or run to get equipment, he will be gone).

If the PCs have convinced any “monsters” to only hunt “bad guys” or otherwise change their ways, the reformed monster gets ambushed. Depending on the monster, the Pack might kill them.

Shiro violently cuts back a mass of vines, which fight back, whipping around his arm and leg. As he pulls to get away, thorns tear into him, and the vines start to dig into him. 

The Pack tracks down Bigfoot, and kills her after she menaces some campers. 

The Pack finds Shiro restrained, spider lilies growing out of his mouth and stomach. They kill him. 

They will start the next hunt, if not found, or if not given the primary focus during the hunt. They are essentially competition for the PCs.

Bystanders:

Susan- (Gossip, Victim) Burgers on the Coast waitress. She’s worked at this same restaurant for 30 years and as a result knows all the regulars. Greg will accost her, then Johnny Hobo will smack him upside the head. Only these two are at the diner.

Anuset- (Victim, Gossip) The mask is out pursuing someone it has targeted in the past week. As it falls upon this person and begin to unpeel, Johnny Hobo will appear behind it with a baseball bat. The morning after, a hunter will see a destroyed clay mask left discarded. Further inspection will discern that a couple fragments were taken.

Shiro- (Helper, Victim) Shiro has been plagued by vines overgrowing his orange tree. While he cuts them back, the vines fight back and restrain him, as impossible amounts of blood issue from his person. Where blood spills, spider lilies start to grow... after a few days he is still restrained, but the Party Pack finds him, and will kill him.

Bigfoot (Victim) (Stranger Avatar)- aka Isadora Vila Quintana, a hiker who got too lost in the woods and now menaces other hikers. She doesn’t quite need to kill the hikers, but often puts them into precarious positions after she is finished with them.

Francesca Lopez (Victim) (Stranger Monster) sells secondhand items. She has ties to Charlotte and her trade market, wherein Frannie goes around flea markets and digital marketplaces. Having recently finished a transaction, or at least would have if she hadn’t gotten caught by the Pack. 

Minnie Taylor (Witness, Innocent) a resident who had gotten lost trying to find her own home. The Pack has promised to help her once the danger is cleared, and if they don’t return for her she will try to free herself from the place they sealed her into, inevitably getting lost and becoming a spiral avatar. She trusts the Pack to help her, and if the Players come across her, will not trust them if they don’t seem to have a good reason to kill them.

Isadora, the Lonely avatar Bigfoot

Shiro Kamada, the Slaughter avatar

Minnie Taylor, a woman about 29 years of age, who recently moved into the Strange Suburb (before it was strange)

Locations:

Burgers on the Coast (and Parking Lot)- the diner that the PCs have taken a liking to, their repeated presence dooms it to become a hub of Interesting Persons. 

The table that Greg and Johnny sat at will have some traces that can be discovered- some gum under the table, a deep cut into the particle board table, a dropped receipt (Ammo- 9mm and shells). 

Camping Grounds

In the forest, far from the sounds of the city, a hiking trail opens up to a small clearing where hikers can put down tents and keep a campfire. This is Isadora’s favorite haunt, because of it’s isolation and the sheer ability to disorient people in these woods. She can be tracked, sometimes.

RV

Parked by the beach, one of many RVs. Once the right one is sussed out, it can be broken into. It is likely that at least one of the Pack is there, keeping watch. As soon as the PCs head there, the other members of the Pack will be notified, and they will circle the party, trying to make sure that they don’t leave with anything important.

Inside the RV is a mess. Clothes in one or two piles strewn over one of the seats or in a receptacle. Projects lay unfinished- Someone’s trying to patch their jacket, someone else is growing seed starters. Plastic dishes lay in the mini sink. One bed looks like it’s been used as an operating table on more than one occasion, a big antique chest sits in the corner undisturbed, and some hefty power tools poke out of a footlocker pushed out of the way. Treat this as a Haven for the Pack, with an Infirmary, an Armory, and a Workshop. 

They also have many “trophies” from previous kills in an upper cabinet- everything sealed with an eye sigil. Some Tallow. A mushroom. A long, preserved beak. A lock of inky black hair. These hunters have been traveling the US, fighting monsters and leaving a wake of supernatural power vacuum. 

Shiro’s home

Vines stretch, having grown a strong base on the telephone pole near Shiro’s home. Runners stretch from the pole to the lines and then to the houses. They have sprouted purple flowers, and are now growing green fruit- not yet ripened, though that may change quickly.

The vines are attempting to peel under the shingles of Shiro’s home to anchor themselves, though he has managed to beat back the majority. It’s harder for him to keep up with the vines currently suffocating the orange tree, though.

Him using his ultraviolent powers to destroy the vines has attracted the attention of the Party Pack.

The Strange Suburb

An entire suburb has fallen into unreality and is distorting- building extensions without rime or reason, warping through various decades and shapes. Think McMansions but worse and more terrible and insufferably generic. Very easy to get lost in, very easy to separate people and confine them in terrible, bland, almost claustrophobic (make sure everyone is okay about this if you use it) spaces. There is no real branding on anything, and looking through the house will find very little personal effects if any.

One house is holding Minnie Taylor. Elsa had set up wards which will keep the spiralizing at bay (The door containing her room is unlocked, but there are multiple and they shift around. A golden seal distinguishes this door if the players look for it with supernatural means).

The largest, most cancerous McMansion house is wavering in the most volatile sense. The house goes through waves of eras- wallpapered walls, then painted, then cheap drywall, then wood paneling. The rooms are labyrinthine, measurements all feel wrong- hallways too narrow, rooms too big or small. Pat is the scout of the group, and will be ready for anyone entering the house conventionally, sprinting away as soon as they come in.  As the Players follow him (if they do), the rooms stretch and expand, making pursuit difficult. At the top of the house is a large, undefinable room with elements of any kind of room in the house. A little bit of a kitchen, a showerhead, photo frames on the walls and ceiling. In the center of the room lies Francesca, with Johnny Hobo holding her down as Elsa prepares Greg to execute her. Behind them all hangs a painting on the wall, from which a malevolent energy exudes.

Artefact: A Francis Bacon painting which is the source of the reality warping in the first place. Disrupting Elsa’s preparations will make the manifestation worse. The Players are able to either try to finish the Ritual Elsa was performing (containment, some reversal of the manifestation, at the cost of Francesca’s life), or find their own solution to destroy it.

Cold Open:  A beat up RV speeds up Highway 101 under the light of a waxing moon. A folkpunk song plays through the speakers as a rowdy quartet sings along. Street lights illuminate a messy dashboard with all sorts of little tchotchkes- batteries, flashlights, pocketknives, that kinda stuff. The song ends and the next one opens with a death growl, and as they roar along, their voices get loud, feral, deeper. The RV hits a bump and the knick knacks on the dashboard shift, the riders laughing with the chaos. The next time the streetlights flicker to the dash, a mugshot of [PC] has made it to the top.

[childofhelios]

“flower blooms and falls scars cure and buds shoot”

ship: Hades!Doyoung x Persephone!Taeyong

characters: Doyoung, Taeyong, with appearances by Jeno and mention of Zeus!Johnny and Poseidon!Ten 

rating: general/teen for slight injury and mentions of blood, also slight possessiveness from Doyoung but he regrets it very soon after

genre: fluff with angst for like .5 seconds

word count: 2.8k

title was taken from seventeen’s fallin’ flower, which is really good to listen to while reading! also, tell me if there are any mistakes bc i did convert a piece of my other writing into this fic. but anywho enjoy and feel free to send a message/ask about what you think about it :DDDD

“Taeyong, please just come out.” I lean my forehead against the black, walnut door where I can hear him franticly running around her room.  “We can talk about this like civilized people.” I hear him begin to mutter under his breath and I catch him saying my name and a few unpleasant phrases that I wish weren't associated with my name, but alas. “Taeyong, don’t you think you’re being a little immature? You’re acting like a child!” 

I almost fall forward as the door opens suddenly. Taeyong’s eyes were ablaze with fury as he stares at me in front of his door.  

“Oh, my sincerest apologies, Doyoung. I just didn’t expect to get kidnapped by someone that I’ve never met, starved for six months, accidentally eat a pomegranate, and then be stuck in this terrible, dreary place with no other company other than the dead and you. And I would rather spend time with the dead!”  

“Believe me, the dead are worse company than I am.” 

“THAT’S NOT THE POINT!” I jolt at his loud voice echoing through the manor. I’ve had his presence for over six months, and I’m still not used to having people around me. To having an actual living, breathing person in my company. He sweeps a hand through bubblegum pink bangs and takes a deep sigh. “Doyoung, I beg of you. The humans need me. Without me, they’ll die. I need to go back on the surface to assist my mother.” 

I roll my eyes. “Humans are made to die. It’s how they're made to be. Plus, She’s is a goddess that has been around for centuries. She was able to assist humans without you there. Besides,” I take a hold of his hands, his beautiful tan contrasting against the blueish pallor of mine, “didn’t you say you loved me?” 

Yanking his hand out of mine, he says, “I said I loved you a little. And if I knew that it would go straight to your head and you would try to use against me, I wouldn’t have said it. If you had given me the chance, maybe it could have grown. Maybe I would have been able to become your bride.” 

“Taeyong, you can’t leave. I finally got used to having someone with me. You can still become my husband.” 

“Doyoung. You can’t just keep me here because you’re lonely.” 

I sigh and rise to my full height, towering over him slightly. “You’ve misunderstood me. You can’t leave. I forbid it.” 

He scoffs and pushes past me. “Haven’t you heard of free will? I’m leaving and you can’t stop me.” Before he rounds the corner, something whizzes by his face. He whips around, furious with a small cut on his cheek beginning to spill golden ichor. I stride up to him and yank the sharpened ruby out of the wall.  

“It seems that you've forgotten who I am. I am Doyoung, the god of the underworld and riches. I am one of the oldest gods to exist and I’ll be one of the last to disappear. Did you think you’ll be able to leave that easily? This is my domain and I decide what comes in and out of it. And you,” I crush the ruby and let the powder run through my fingers like sand, “aren’t going anywhere, my little lotus. Now, you can walk to your room on your own, or I can have Cerberus escort you back there. Your choice, my dear.” 

If looks could kill, I would already be six feet under as Taeyong stares up at me. Slowly, he steps away and walks in the direction of his door. I watch as he leads a trail of ichor and shuts his door with a forceful SLAM! 

 I begin walking towards my quarters. As soon as I close my door, my knees give out. “Gods, why did I do that? You know that he’s right. We can’t force him here; he’s going to be unhappy and what’s the point of having him here if he’s upset the entire time?” I stare down at my hands as they tremble slightly. “I injured him. On purpose, I made him bleed.” It’s a weird feeling to be shaken by blood when that’s what I deal with every day. I see the most gruesome of murders and war causalities but injuring a minor god has me shaking in my boots. I wobble over to my sink and submerge my face underwater. I came up gasping for air and catch my reflection in the mirror. At the rate I’m paling, I’ll look more like a ghost than the people outside the manor. My eyes resemble the darkest of obsidian and have deep eye bags underneath them, my face is sunken in as if I’m a beggar from the streets, and my hair is matted in every which way. The longer I stare at myself, the more I can see the monster Taeyong must see.  

“JENO!” My voice booms and seconds later, a pile of bones bursts through the door. No, quite literally, a disassembled skeleton falls through my door and onto the ground before me. The skull, sporting a flat cap, turns towards me and grins widely.  

“Master Doyoung! What can I do to help you today?” 

“Please tend to Mr. Taeyong from now own. First, make sure his wound is taken care of. Second, make sure he eats, sleeps, and does whatever else he needs and wants to do. Do you understand?” 

“Absolutely, Master. He’s in the right hands. Or, um, bones.” 

“No tricks, Jeno. I don’t think our guest would appreciate that. And neither would I.”  

Jeno’s voice takes on a mischievous tone. “Guest? Don’t you mean groom, Master? Unless you’re having second thoughts?” 

“I’m not sure what you mean. But I do know this.” I pick up the skull and stare fiercely where the eyes would have been. “If you do anything to upset her, I will crush your bones into powder and use it as incense for the next 30 years. Do you understand?” 

“Would my bones even last that long?” 

“Do you really test me right now?” 

“Fine. I understand. Now, can you please put me back together again?” I roll my eyes, but I set down the skull in the middle of the bones. My eyes glow a bright gold and with a wave of my hand, the skeleton assembles once more. He fidgets with his cap.  

“Now, that’s much better!” 

“What happened to you?”  

“Cerberus tried to use me as a chew toy. Again.” 

“I knew there was a reason he’s my favorite.”  

“I would take personal offense to that but, he’s my favorite too.”  

“Go to Taeyong. Make sure she’s alright.”  

“Your wish is my command, Master.” As he walks out the door, his bones clatter and then I’m left in silence. I fall back into my bed, wondering if I should just apologize to him directly. I did act unreasonably, and I shouldn’t have let my anger explode like that, but I don’t want him to leave. As I lay there, I slowly drift off.  

 The next month is difficult for multiple reasons. First, immediately after I send Jeno to take care of Taeyong, he throws a fit and makes flowers grow out of every hole in his skeletal body. Then, he refuses to eat with me or even look at me. I would walk down the hall and he’d sprint into a side room just to avoid me. And let’s not even get started with the escape attempts. You would think after about 10, he would give up. But no. He has tried to escape more than 50 times. Fifty. I swear to the gods, he’s making me grow gray hairs just from stress. Then we have Johnny, Ten, and practically the entirety of the Pantheon breathing down my neck trying to bring her back. And I’ve explained to them multiple times that it’s the law of the underworld and I can’t change it simply because one young goddess is down here. But now, Thunder Thighs and Kelp-for-Brains can’t grasp it for some reason.  

I sit behind my desk, grasping my head as I glare at the piles of scrolls in front of me. You would think death was pretty cut and dry, but no. I have to deal with making sure bodies end up with families, people don’t act on stupid grudges and become monsters to kill people, or something else entirely stupid. I pick up one scroll when the door cracks open.  

“Jeno, I thought I told you if you disturbed me, I would- “  

“Let Cerberus year me apart and keep me as his chew-toy, I know, I know. But it’s urgent.”  

I drop the scroll in my hand. “If it means I can get out of my work, I’m all ears.”  

“Mr. Taeyong…. He’s disappeared again, Master.”  

The pounding in my head worsens. “Oh.” 

“Shall I go after him? Or maybe send some people after him?” 

“No, just leave him. If he’s this persistent to leave, then we should just let him go.” 

“But, Master!” 

“Enough, Jeno. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a rest before I break the law of my land.” I stand and stagger my way to my bedroom, ignoring Jeno’s shouts and how my head worsens with each step I take. Ugh, this whole affair is such a mess. I shouldn’t have gotten myself involved with him in the first place. I close my eyes and the next time they open; the sky had faded from the morning’s light dusk to the afternoon’s midnight blue. I rise with my robes wrinkled and sleep in my eyes. I find my way to the kitchen and snag an apple before heading to the endless pile of scrolls I left. On my way there, I see Taeyong’s door slightly ajar.  

“Jeno, I thought I told you about going through other people’s things? You never-” Instead of seeing that insufferable skeleton with a guilty grin, I find Taeyong unpacking a bag. “You’re back.” 

“Not by choice, unfortunately.”  

“Oh? I thought you had left. Did Jeno stop you? I told him not to and not to send anybody either.” 

“No, my mother stopped me. Talked about how if I came back before my time here was finished, you would kill any human that even breathed wrongly. So, now I’m back here. I’m sure you’re ecstatic about it.” 

“No!” He looks at me suspiciously, setting down the robes he took out of his bag. “I knew you didn’t want to be here, so I thought not going after you once you had left would finally let you be happy. But it appears to be untrue.” He shakes his head and turns back to his clothes. “If there’s anything I can do that would make it easier for the next five months, please tell me.” 

“I don’t know. Not being here would be pretty great.” 

I wince. “Other than that?” 

“Answer this for me. You say you want me here, but you act like a shriveled prune every time I’m near. Why?”  

“I’m not entirely sure what you mean.” 

“I mean this! This is both the most you’ve ever spoken to me and the nicest you’ve been to me. It’s been a month and we’ve barely talked.” 

“So, what should I do?” 

He walks past me to the door and looks back at me from the doorframe. “Show me. Be sincere and I’ll see if I’ll want to stay.” He walks off and I’m just left stupefied in her room. I all but sprint to my office and start scrawling out two letters.  

I summon Jeno and give him a message. “Give this to Ten and Johnny. Tell them to respond to me immediately.” 

If immediately means 6 days later, I fear for their subjects. As I skim through both of their letters, I see the same pattern of making fun of me, attempting to help, and then making fun of me again. I should have expected it from Airhead, but I thought Ten would be at least somewhat helpful. I throw both of their scrolls in the fire because there was no use in keeping those around. I slam my head into my desk a couple of times, wallowing.  

Over several days, I tried every trick known to man and god. But it either ends with me making a fool of myself or just making Taeyong even angrier. I squat in the garden and hang my head in defeat. The artificial sun in the sky beats down on my skin and my hands are covered in coarse dirt.  

“Master, are you sure you don’t want us to help you? We have staff for this sort of thing.”  

I look back at Jeno. “For the fifth time, Jeno, I truly don’t mind doing this. At least, this is something to distract me from my work. I think my headache is getting better too.” 

“That must be true, sir, because you haven’t stopped smiling since you started planting. “ 

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” I look towards the lavender sprigs sitting next to me. “I was just thinking of Taeyong’s reaction when he sees this. I hope this brings a little bit of happiness to his stay here.” I continue planting the lavender until there was a cluster in the section closest to the entrance. At this point, I’ve only put half of the flowers in the ground. But I feel pride swell in my chest as I look at the tiny cluster I planted.  

“What are those?” I whip around to see Taeyong standing on the steps. 

“Oh, um. I was just planting some flowers in the garden. I know you’ve missed nature so I thought I would try to bring some to you.” 

“Wouldn’t they just die?” 

“No. I’ve been trying to grow different types of flowers down here and lavender was the only one that survived.” He continues to stare at me with a mysterious look in his eye. After a couple of seconds, he speeds down the stairs and gets on his knees in front of the sprigs I just planted. “What are you doing?” 

He snaps at me. “Shut up.” If it had been anybody else, they wouldn’t have been saying another word for the rest of their lives and even after that. But I close my mouth and I study Taeyong and he studies the lavender. His hands glow a soft pink and the lavender turns vibrant, almost energized. “There. That should help it for a little while.” 

“What did you just do?” 

“Just gave it a little pick-me-up.” I nod in understanding and Taeyong moves where I had placed the other flowers. “Where were you going to put these?”  

I point at the other side of the garden and he strides over there with the flowers in hand. “Ah, Taeyong. There’s no need. I have this under control.” 

He scoffs. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for the flowers because you don’t know what you’re doing.” 

“Isn’t it just simply putting the plants into the ground and tending to their needs?” 

“Oh, gods. It’s so much more than that. You must be gentle and treat them with the utmost care. You move slowly and fluidly. Come here, I’ll show you.” I squat next to him and see him sprinkling dirt to cover the roots. “Doyoung?” 

“Yes, Taeyong?” 

“Did you know that there’s a language just for flowers?” 

“Really? Fascinating. Is it possible for me to learn? Can you understand it? Wait, has the lavender been speaking the entire time?” 

Taeyong giggles and the artificial sun shines brighter. “Not that kind of language. Each flower has its own meaning. Roses are passion, daisies are innocence, carnations are good fortune, etc.” 

“Wow, then what’s lavender?” 

He stares directly into my eyes, the mysterious look back on his face. “A lot of things but to name a few: purity, calmness, and... devotion.” 

The sun beats down harder, feeling like ants are crawling over my back. “Oh.” 

“Mhm. That’s why they’re one of my favorite flowers. They have a pure message, they’re absolutely beautiful, and they’re able to grow anywhere.”  

“Oh.” 

“Doyoung, do you understand what I’m saying?” 

“To be perfectly honest, I haven’t the faintest idea.” 

His eye twitches and throws a handful of dirt at my chest. “You’re a fool. I’m saying I return your affections. I acknowledge your feelings and feel the same way. Gods, I’m saying I love you and I’m willing to become your husband.” 

It didn’t fully register so my response was: “Oh, that’s nice.”  

“Let’s just continue planting these before it gets too dark, or at least darker. Then, we can discuss this later.”  

And so, we spent the afternoon tending to the flowers and as the day faded to night, we fell asleep with “I love you’s” littering the air like the sweetest and most intoxicating perfume.  

[bssaz97]

RWBY Ancestries Chapter 7

- Crash Site B, 5 minutes after crash -

???: ....Ruby....Ruby! Ruby can you hear me!

Ruby: Ugggghhhh, huh? Who’s-? What’s going on? What happened?

Yang: Ruby, thank gods your ok! You got hit in the head pretty hard there!

Ruby: Yang? Did...did something happen? Where are Weiss and Blake?

Yang: They’re fine. Well Weiss is pretty banged up but nothing serious.

Ruby: What about the pilots? (Struggling to get up)

Yang: Easy there sis I got you. (Wraps Ruby’s right arm over her shoulder and slowly stands her up) As for the pilots...they didn’t make it.

Ruby was shocked and saddened to fear of the fate of the people in charge of transporting them around the Wyvern. That sadness turned to determination as she tried to stand on her own two feet but fell back to Yang’s side once she feels a sharp pain in her head. She places her hand on her head and feels something wet but something rough was covering the wet spot like a....bandage. Ruby looks at Yang which her sister understood the unsaid question.

Yang: You hit the side of your head on one of the chairs over there during the crash. Your aura was able to keep you from fracturing your skull but had a mean gash on your forehead. Probably because you weren’t able to predict the impact, so your aura didn’t have time to block the hit.

Weiss: ...Mmmm you know I think that’s the most well made explanation I’ve ever heard you made.

Yang: Half conscious and she still has enough of energy to talk shit. Not sure if I should be impressed or insulted.

Weiss: Take it anyway you want. (Winces) We need to get out of here and call for backup.

Ruby: Have you all tried contacting JNPR?

Blake: Yes but with no luck, for some reason our scrolls aren’t able to reach theirs. It’s really odd because the other functions work fine.

Ruby: Ok that just means we need to get out of this airship and see if we can get a better signal outside.

Yang: Are you sure you’re good to move around in your condition?

Ruby: I’ll be fine, I’m feeling a bit better now and besides we can’t leave them all by themselves. They could be in worse condition than we are.

Blake: Well they do have Jaune with them, so I don’t think they’ll be in that bad of condition.

Weiss:(Winces) Yes as much as I don’t want to admit it....I could REALLY use his healing hands right now.

Ruby: Alright how about Blake and I go find their position, since were the fastest ones on our feet right now. As soon as we group up with them we can bring them here so we can patch you up Weiss. Sound good?

Weiss: Splendid....

Ruby goes toward the doorway and with the Blake assisting her by grabbing the sliding door, both huntresses slide the door open.....only to be met with a ton of bricks. Both of them recoiled from the pile of debris coming into the airship. The pile spread throughout the airship’s floor and almosts covered half the airship in debris.

Ruby: What the-! What the heck was that?!

Blake: Wait.(Moves her Cat ears to focus her hearing) I think we might be on the inside of...a fallen building right now?

Weiss:(Coughs) Oh you’ve got to be kidding with me right now! How are we supposed to get out of here right now!

Yang: Wait Weiss can’t you use one of your summonings right now?

Weiss:(Mock shock) ‘Gasp’ You’re right Yang. Oh why couldn’t I think of that! Here let use the aura that I barely have to keep myself from going unconscious and use it to open a way for Blake and Ruby to escape from the crumbling building to get help for us. Oh wait that means that both you and me will be stuck here and possibly die a slow excruciating death, under a pile of brick and beams!

Yang: ....Hey Ruby, mind handing me one of those bricks there, I think I can find a way to solve at least one of our problems.

Ruby: Ok, enough you two! This is serious, we need to figure out a way how to get us all out of here.

Blake: Well since we have the others location, maybe there’s a way to send ours as well.

Ruby: You’re right! Great thinking Blake! If the others are ok then they can come help us or at least call in for help. *Begins to send out a distress beacon from her scroll* Now they’ll know we’re right here!

Weiss: That still doesn’t help the predicament of us being trapped here.

Ruby: Yeah....well I guess we just need to hold on tight. It shouldn’t take too long.

*Loud Rumbling!*

Yang: Oh great now what?!

Blake: Wait. (Moves closer to a wall of the airship and listens carefully) I.... I think something is trying to move us out of the building!

Ruby: Yes! I knew they would come for us!

Yang: Dang that was quick, I guess Vomit Boy really does have a thing for you sis.

Ruby:(Blushing Madly) Huh?! No it’s not like that! We’re just very close friends.

Weiss: Ruby ‘OW!’ we’re all very close friends...but we don’t try to catch a peep of each other undressing...Well most of us anyway.

Yang: One time! It was one time! Also it was only because you were modeling in your locker’s mirror and bragging how your flat chested boobs grew a size!

Weiss: It was an achievement for me! That doesn’t mean you can cop a feel!

Yang: Oh please, you grew from a B to a C at best! It’s not that big of an achievement! Plus I was making sure you weren’t cheating by padding your bra.

Weiss: (Cough! Cough!) Oh you insufferable-!

Before Weiss could finish speaking, the airship starts to shake violently. The three standing huntresses brace themselves to the nearest wall while Weiss with all her might to fasten herself on the floor. It felt as though the airship itself was moving, the loud sounds of bricks, beams and concrete hitting the airship all around but as soon as the movement had started it ceased. The members of RWBY let go of the wall/floor they had been holding and tried to gather their bearings, just to feel the sudden rush of gravity and jolt the airship produced as though it were dropped down. A few seconds go by before Ruby, Yang and Blake are on their feet again. The same could not be said for Weiss who was groaning painfully.

Yang: Hey you alright there Weiss, you know besides the pain you’re probably feeling right now?

Weiss: ...Yes, I’m fine. But if my injuries are any worse than what they’ve already been through, I’m going to strangle the next person I see.

Blake: Well at least her enthusiasm hasn’t been damaged.

*Ccccrrrreeeeeaaaaakkkkk!*

The group becomes alert at the sound of the sliding door of the airship door opening, fully lighting up the dark space of the airship. Initially the sunlight blinds the girls for a moment but after a few seconds their eyes start adjusting to the light.

Ruby:(Rubs Eyes) Owwwww. Thanks for the save guys but you could be more......

Whatever statement Ruby was going to make died in her throat as she now could fully make out who exactly saved them. The bad thing about this is that the person was not one of their friends or Atlesian allies, in face this person wasn’t even an ally to begin with. This was someone far, far worse. Going by the silence of the remaining members of RWBY, they also distinguish who this person was. As the main features of this person was they were deathly white, had complete white hair, and had black sclera with blood red eyes. There was only one person in all of Remnant who matched those features.

Salem: .......I don’t suppose you know where-

As soon as the Grimm Queen opened her mouth their instincts kicked in, the three standing huntresses deployed their weapons gun mode and began opening fire on the being before them. However, they ceased fire immediately after seeing that all of their Dust rounds seemed to have stopped moving mid air. The source of the unnatural scene was the being in front of them. Her arm outstretched and her entire hand glowing signifying that she had used her magic to stop their joint attack. Then as if Salem had just thought it, all the Dust bullets fell to the ground fruitlessly. Salem had predicted that these girls would try to shoot first, a trend she noticed seemed to be common in all mankind nowadays.

Salem: (Smiles) I see that shooting your opponent first has become quite the staple for this new generation. It won’t be doing much I’m afraid. Now why don’t you all-

Yang: RRRRAAAAGGGGHHHH! (Charges forward, pulling back her robotic arm to land a right cross to Salem’s jaw) Take this!

Yang nearly lands her punch when suddenly she starts feeling strange. It was strange because her fist had stopped moving, in fact her entire body seemed to become immobilized. She tried to move but it seemed a greater force was keeping her still. Before could question it she was suddenly forced to stand straight and pull her arm back, it was as if her body was moving against her will.

Yang: ‘What the hell?! Why is my body moving like this?!’

Ruby: YANG NO! (Activates Crescent Rose’s scythe mode and charges to save her sister) LET HER GO!

Both Ruby and Blake move in to attack Salem and before Yang could warm the two they too suddenly stopped moving all together. Just like with Yang the two huntresses are bewildered. Unfortunately they failed to take notice that Salem had her other arm outstretched towards them.

Blake: ‘What? What is happening?! My body won’t move!’

Ruby: ‘Oh No! This is what happened to Yang wasn’t it! Oh how could I be so stupid?!’

Salem: Hmmm. It seems you children are in need of some discipline.

Salem brings both her arms back then pushes both forward, as if they were her puppets Ruby, Blake and Yang all were flung back towards the inside of the airship. Before any of them could recover from their landing, the three are forcibly pushed to the wall and levitated off the ground. Meanwhile Weiss sees her friends in danger, in an attempt to come to their aid she draws Mrytenaster to perform a summoning. What she doesn’t expect was for her weapon to fly out of her hands and flung to the other end of the airship. She turns her head to the opened door of the airship and sees the menacing eyes of Salem staring right at her. Suddenly Weiss herself is levitated off the ground and feeling all the pain of her sustained injuries coming back to her.

Weiss: Errrrrgghhh! (Winces painfully)

Salem:(Looks at Weiss’ torso and sees a large red stain) Oh you poor dear. You must be in such pain right now. Allow me alleviate some of the pain.

Weiss: ‘Alleviate? What does she-?! Wha-! Hap-pe-ning!’ Urggghh!

Weiss couldn’t explain it but suddenly she couldn’t breathe, as if she were being choked. Then the sensation continued and as desperately tried to breathe she found herself unable. She reached towards her neck and try to pry whatever it was blocking her windpipe, sadly she found nothing. She looks towards Salem and sees that right hand was directed at her while her while her left was holding the others down. She didn’t have much time to think more on it when she felt the pressure around her neck get stronger.

Ruby:(Glaring at Salem) W-wait! S-Stop it! Let her go!

Salem: Oh very well as you wish. (Releases Weiss)

Weiss lands on the ground with a thud then starts a coughing fit, after a while she remains on the floor and tries to settle her breathing.

Salem: So then. Are you all going to answer my questions now? Because I am in quite a hurry and don’t wish to spend all day avoiding explosions in my face.

Blake:(Straining) W-We know why you’re here.

Salem: Oh you do, splendid. Well then please do enlighten me, why do you think I’m here. I’ll give you three guesses. (Holds up three fingers)

Yang:(Straining) You’re...here for the Relic!

Blake:(Straining) To destroy this kingdom!

Salem: Well now you’ve just wasted two guesses, anything else come to mind?

Ruby:(Straining)....Ozpin. You’re here to get your revenge against Ozpin.

Salem looks at the Rose girl with malicious intent, which Ruby almost recoiled from at the woman’s blazing anger that seemed to come from mentioning that name. That is until she lost the glare and Salem almost smirked a tiny bit before...laughing softly. Then Salem’s laughter started to increase as it was starting to get louder and echo in the hull of the airship. It was honestly unsettling for all the girls to hear the bane of all mankind laughing as if she just heard the funniest joke in a long time.

Salem: Hahahaha...Oh! (Uses her right index finger to wipe her eyes) I commend you Miss Rose, it has been a rather long time since I’ve had a good laugh. Hmmmm. But I’m afraid that’s not the answer either. In fact, none of those answers are correct!

Ruby/Blake/Yang: What?

Salem: I will admit that on any other day all three of you answers would be my main goals. However, today is a rather special day for me, so in my good merit I’ve decided to spare all of your short existences for today. If you all can cooperate.

Ruby:(Straining) I...I don’t understand? You attacked all those places, killed all those people....What could you possibly want?!

Salem:(Frowns) There’s only one thing I want for today. Rather someone.

Yang:(Straining) The hell...are you talking a-about. Isn’t your...entire reason to live to kill Ozpin over and over again?

Salem: You will be silent! (Outstretched her left hand as red lightning comes out of her fingers)

Yang:(Getting hit by the lightning) AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Ruby/Weiss/Blake: YANG!

Yang gets electrocuted for a solid ten seconds and then Salem ceased her magic flow. By the end of it Yang is haggard and huffing on air. Slowly she raises her head and looks Salem dead in the eye.

Yang: ‘Huff! Huff! Huff!’ Th...that t-th...the...best y-you can do...ya bitch!

Salem: Do not test me child. (Her right hand produces red lightning bolts) That was only a taste of what’s to come. And I believe at your current condition you will not last at minute against me.

Yang: ‘Dammit...she’s...not....wrong.’

Blake:(Straining) If it’s not O-Him, then who are you after?

Salem: Finally, someone who is reasonable. The person I’m looking for is some you all will probably know. He’s about your age and blonde. He also happens to have a rather large Aura reservoir. He also somewhere in Mantle.

All the girls froze once hearing her description.

Blake: ...Jaune?

Salem:(Smiles earnestly) See now was that too hard to say. You all could have made this all too easy for yourselves if you had been patient and listened. Now that you all know who it is I’m looking for-

Ruby:(Straining but staring right at Salem) What do you want with him?

Salem:(Looks at Ruby) That is none of your concern right now.

Ruby:(Straining) He’s my friend! I have every right to know what the hell you’re planning to do with him! If you hurt him!

Salem: Oh on the contrary, you see it’s important to me that Jaune Arc comes with me alive and unharmed as possible. But since you seem to be know so much. (Uses her magic to levitate Ruby off the wall and towards her) Why don’t you tell me where he is?

Ruby:(Straining) N-NEVER!

Salem’s face is neutral at the Rose girl’s response. Then she eerily starts to smile, it wasn’t a menacing smile or a angry one but a motherly kind.

Salem: This doesn’t have to escalate farther than what it already has my dear. Why think of your friend and sister here, they for certain must be in so much pain right now. Just tell me what I wish to know and I promise you... I’ll make all the pain go away.

Blake: R-Ruby don’t listen to her, she’s only-! (A purple glow took hold of her right leg and making it bent unnaturally forwards) AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Weiss/Yang: BLAKE!

Salem:(Kept the same tone) This can all stop. All you have to do is just tell me what I wish to know.

Ruby:(Her face was stricten with fear, but after a moment her face harden) No. I’m not telling you where Jaune is. You think you can just intimidate us because you’re stronger than us. Because we can’t kill you. But guess what, we don’t have to kill you to stop you...and we will stop you!

Salem:(Loses her nurturing facade and regains her neutral expression)...Your mother said those words to me once.

Ruby immediately loses her determined expression from those words and almost everything became mute to her.

Ruby: ...my...mother?

Salem: She was wrong as well. Right as I took the life right out of her.

Ruby: (Shakes her head in denial) N-no...no th...that’s not...that can’t be...you’re lying! (Tears started falling nonstop from her eyes.)

Salem remained silent as most of the other members of RWBY did as well. All except Yang who was now silently shedding her own tears as well.

Salem: You poor dear...you hadn’t realized until now that what happened to your mother could have been caused by me, did you? To be young and naive is both a blessing and a curse I’m afraid. If it’s any condolence, she thought of you in her last seconds of life.

Yang: S-Shut up! You know nothing about loss!

Salem: (Closes her eyes and controls her breathing)...Child. I know more than anyone on this planet what it is like to lose someone you care about and know that there’s no hope of any of them ever coming back!

*Ping! Ping! Ping!*

Salem: (Looks at the source of the sound) What’s this?

Salem levitated Ruby’s fallen scroll and looked to see that on the scroll a responder from the other airship had received a sent distress beacon. Ruby gathered herself for a moment, she formed a frightened expression when she realized what that sound meant. Jaune had received her beacon as was following it. Right to Salem!

Salem: He’s coming here...to you.

Salem then sent Ruby back to the wall and walks out the hull of the airship. Not before turning around.

Salem: Thank you Miss Rose for making this search all the more easier.

Ruby:(Arm outstretched) NOOO!!!

*CCCCCCRRRRRREEEEEEAAAAKKKK! SLAM!*

[shinneth]

SUF as a whole just left me with an empty feeling.

I feel you there, anon. In Dreams aside, I could take or leave the rest of this series (and in most cases, leaning well towards the latter sentiment). 

But I guess that’s to be expected when 90% of SUF focused squarely on Steven’s PTSD and need for therapy and the many, many red flags shown as early on as the beginning that signaled his eventual breakdown to where he ended up in the climax.

Especially with the fanbase itself constantly screeching that Steven needs therapy, Steven has PTSD, Steven’s gonna corrupt, et cetera… like, it was all laid on far too thick. So when we got to Growing Pains, it really didn’t move me like it did so many others because it came off as such a “No shit, Sherlock” moment for me when Priyanka finally addressed the underlying issues the show itself really didn’t even bother trying to be subtle about.

Don’t get me wrong; a lot of people who have suffered (or are presently suffering) from the same problems as Steven irl have been helped a lot by these kinds of episodes, and I do appreciate that.

But from my personal standpoint, yeah… I knew from the start that Steven’s underlying issues alone were not gonna be enough to sustain a full series, and sure enough, it wasn’t. We got to see some bits here and there with the other characters, but we also had a few choice characters be really shitty people in season 5 that never got properly addressed before it concluded, and with the timeskip in SUF, all of that just got handwaved off as “dealt with offscreen”, which is the laziest BS ever. 

And worst of all, at the end, they really didn’t stick the landing well at all. I’ll at least say SUF’s resolution wasn’t the mega levels of offensively terrible as Change Your Mind - but then again, it’s hard to out-do giving totalitarian space dictators with countless lives lost under their watch a fucking FACE-TURN out of nowhere. 

Like, really, the Diamonds’ presence (White especially) in SUF actively made my viewing experience even worse towards the end. Yes, I should be glad they’re establishing that the Diamonds are at least starting to use their powers for good and rebuild some of the lives they ruined.

But, y’know… doesn’t change the fact that they’re all responsible for multiple counts of global genocide. Like, any living creatures native to their colony planets? They’re still fucking gone. And the Diamonds themselves just come off VERY unnatural as “nice” guys - and in many cases, they’re even creepier now than they were as villains. Good god, White’s blubbering in the climax was fucking insufferable, though. 

Partially I think this comes from SU being a “kids show” so there’s this pressing need to end things as cleanly as possible. I’m more miffed that in the end, Steven still got pretty much everything he wanted.

They had some admittedly good set-ups to Steven’s growth, like having him accept that people grow up, change, and move on with their lives. We see the clear evidence that Steven’s got an unhealthy clinginess towards his human friends - and Connie’s no exception. 

And considering they took the time to establish that:

Connie has friends other than Steven. She gets along with them just fine, so it’s not like she’s totally lonely or isolated without him.

Connie is ambitious with many goals and aspirations when it comes to her education and potential career paths. She’s shown to have put a lot of thought into her options and at no point comes off as feeling pressured by her parents or friends into this.

Connie knows she has to work hard and often to achieve her dreams, and despite that rigid lifestyle, it doesn’t seem to bother her in the least. That would imply she really wants to reach these goals she set for herself, whether or not Steven’s in the picture at all.

Connie and Steven’s dynamic is a far cry from how it was when they started out in the original series. You can tell Steven has no clue what Connie’s talking about when it comes to her goals and just plays along, pretending he understands anything coming out of her mouth.

Connie, despite what her speech would lead you to believe, has been every bit as insufferably dense as the gems in SUF when it comes to Steven’s issues. In Bismuth Casual, Steven’s very specifically-worded concerns were misconstrued as a fear of skating (or his inability to, whatever) - and in the end, they just became Stevonnie rather than properly talked things through. You know, something PERIDOT 100% did in the prior episode.

Connie is very firm about wanting to live her life as herself. She’s not against being Stevonnie from time to time, but like hell does she want to be Stevonnie for the long term. 

Connie knows marrying in general at her age is a stupid-stupid-stupid idea, even if it is Steven. And considering her well-established commitment to her studies and reaching her lofty goals, Connie - at least at the time - seemed to know a relationship with anyone just wasn’t in the cards for her at this point in her life. There’s no need to rush that shit, and she won’t compromise her life just to give her needy friend this thing he wants that he doesn’t even fully understand truly is. 

Or, you know… just have Connie backpedal hard on a good chunk of that and date Steven so that he won’t become a monster again. I’m mostly kidding with that - but by kissing his monstrous self and that triggering his restoration, then soon later we see that even though Steven and Connie can only have a long-distance relationship at best, she’s dating him right now anyway even though this needlessly makes her life way more complicated than it needed to be - like seriously, how can I not take that as Canon Connverse being founded on the condition of “Okay, if it’ll keep you from losing your shit, going pink, and turning into a monster, I’ll date you”?!

And in the end it yet again gives Steven more-or-less exactly what he wants, even if it isn’t something he really needs. 

I’m glad Rebecca clarified that Steven would still visit Beach City often, because I had a very hard time buying him just traveling by himself on the road. And maybe it would have worked better if he was just doing it short-term to “find himself” or something along those lines, but nope! They’re basically saying this is what Steven wants to do.

And honestly, even that is dampened with his clearly-stated intention of visiting Connie way more than he intends to visit the gems. Even though Connie’s gonna be busy. With college.

This just… wasn’t a good ending. It had plenty of good moments - his goodbye to Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot especially was very well-executed and the closest this finale came to drawing out any real emotion out of me. I loved the scene of Steven giving Greg his room; that was adorable. The last meeting with Tsundere Jasper was amusing.

But everything else… ehhh.

I mean, what can we really take from this season that I haven’t already outlined? The biggest takeaways were the plot points everyone saw coming a mile away that weren’t even executed all that well. 

In Dreams, as great at is was, might as well have not even happened - because what really carried over from that episode through to the end? Even though Peridot was the only one who got through to Steven, legitimately comforted him and addressed his fears, and the episode for once ended with Steven being happy with no underlying concerns about his problems - immediately he’s back to being awkward and depressed and frustrated by Bismuth Casual.

And I get that shit like trauma shouldn’t be resolved so easily, but for what In Dreams accomplished, I expected there to at least be a semblance of progress. Steven’s known since that episode he can hang out with Peridot and talk to her about whatever without needing a reason to do it, but he never ever takes her up on that again. 

So again, what was the point? 

You really get the impression that the quality of writing took a backseat just to emphasize the symbolism of an issue people commonly have, but SUF’s execution stretched my suspension of disbelief far beyond its limits. 

And nothing stretched that farther than Connie’s insufferable fucking speech in I Am My Monster; that pretty much completely made In Dreams feel like it never really happened in SUF’s continuity. 

In some ways, I just prefer to believe In Dreams was just a dream itself. An AU offshoot in SUF itself. Considering it’s so ridiculously good compared to the other nineteen episodes and by far the most pure and wholesome, maybe that’s the best way to see it. 

In Dreams was too good for its own series. That’s literally the only thing I personally took from SUF as a whole (at least in terms of lasting impact). 

So yeah, I guess for only one episode of twenty to really hit me in the feels, “empty” is an apt way to describe the series, anon. 

Seriously, if I didn’t have my own massive SU-AU to mess around in and do things properly, this probably would have upset me more. 

Instead, I just chuckle at Rebecca’s Monster Steven and raise her to what I’m putting my version of Steven through in my current story. Where I’m pulling all the stops to make other characters matter even though the stars are undoubtedly Peridot and Steven. 

And I’m actually making actions yield serious, lasting consequences.

(yeah, part of me wishes Jasper wasn’t revived - or alternatively, have Steven accidentally shatter White Diamond instead of Jasper since he came awfully close in canon

or even better, shatter Jasper and revive her, then accidentally shatter White and not be able to revive her since Steven used up ALL that diamond essence on Jasper…

yeah I’m kind of a monster)

Your pain is mutually felt, anon. So I’ll prescribe you endless refills of better-written and better-executed SU fanon to heal the emptiness SUF left inside you.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Fake Red Chapters 6-8

I’ve finally caught up on these!

And these chapters were a great return to form.

 I must admit throwing myself back into this series after a while made getting into the story again difficult. It was less due to the gap in time, as these chapters neatly start a new story arc.

It’s more because I finished reading through the original 1970s Spidey manga. Due to both that and this being black and white Spidey mangas with protagonists named ‘Yu’ my mind inevitably drifted to the older manga whilst reading this one.

And that’s really, really, really not helpful because in just about every way beyond some of the most superficial Spider-Man: The Manga and Fake Red are 2 totally different animals.

This is a light, fun, humerous high school drama. A true blue superhero story.

The 1970s manga was a dark, grim, incredibly violent, moody, depressing and cynical examination of a aimless teenager drifting through a harsh world with cynicism in his heart. You’d have to work hard to honestly describe Yu of Spider-Man: The Manga as a superhero and he doesn’t neatly fit into a box of a good or bad person.

I’m not saying that makes Fake Red better or worse, but it’s just a jarring experience to go from one to the other.

Not only is Fake Red distinct for it’s tone, subject matter and approach to said subject matter but it’s use of Spider-Man lore in general.

MAJOR SPOILERS

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.

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SILK shows up in this!

This shocked me because Silk is both a new character and one who is not widely known about like Spider-Gwen/Ghost-Spider might be.

She hasn’t done too much yet beyond spy on Yu and capture Screwball, but I’m very intrigued to where this is going. She’s the right kind of x-factor to introduce into the story at this point to spice things up.

We’ve already seen Yu become Spider-Man, seen him luck his way through Spidey hero work and even seen Peter in action too. Silk will hopefully change up what we’ve seen so far.

As for Screwball, she’s maybe the best interpretation of the character to yet.

I don’t know why.

Maybe it’s because she’s playing into certain archetypes of female manga/anime characters which jive better with her concept (at least within the context of a manga). Or maybe it’s because she is up against a Spider-Man who feels more like an equal. They are closer in age and she’s such a millennial character when pitted against a millennial teen version of Spider-Man who’s plugged more into social media it works better than when she goes up against a mid 20s Spider-Man who’s been around the block a few times.

I mean realistically, Peter Parker Spider-Man, especially several years into his career, should find Screwball challenging ONLY in regards to how bewildering he’d initially find the experience. She poses no real physical threat to him, which makes her more an annoyance than anything. Even here she is faking  a bomb threat, and is only dangerous as she gets overzealous.

But when pitted against Yu, who has no powers, there is actual tension and you suspension of disbelief doesn’t have to bend completely over backwards the way it would if he was fighting Doc Ock or something.

Plus the artwork makes her look kawaiiiiiiii (Is it weird I kinda ship Yu with this take on Screwball?).

Speaking of shipping Emma and Yu’s relationship is getting a bit more interesting. I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but I think Emma might be some kind of reference to Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy.

But she’s not an insufferable character.

The story briefly plays up some tension of her knowing Yu’s secret before going in a different (and less cliché) direction. She helps Yu repair his costume and study to pass remedial exam. Yu still has some insecurities regarding her.

Specifically he is concerned that once their study sessions are done they’ll go back to hanging in different circles, but the story again zigs where we expect it to zag and she actually invites him out to karaoke with her friends.

His other concern is that she likes Spidey but not him, which invokes Black Cat but in a very different way that works great here. Prompts in particular to her clearly getting jealous when she sees Screwball smooch Yu/Spidey on social media (something that grabs Mary Jane’s attention too!)

Yu is shaping up to be a delightful protagonist to follow. He knows he isn’t good enough to be Spider-Man because he lacks the powers, and he repeatedly goes over the fact that he shouldn’t be involved. But he still gets involved anyway, which in a sense makes him totally worthy of the mantle!

What is perhaps most unique/clever/compelling about this manga is the fact that the Spidey action is fundamentally different to what we’ve seen before.

Yu has no powers nor training. He is truly a normal guy thrown into this and has to pray, luck and smart his way towards a victory and the tension is huge because merely web swinging could kill him.

This turns what normally would be small scale Spidey stuff like a burning building or Screwball or a car chase into nailbiters!

Other things to note is that HORIZON labs, Iron Man and other small 616 Spidey/Marvel references show up here.

Over all the manga ropes me back in and I’m interested in seeing where it will go next!

[joeal-kaysani]

@gay-halforc and i have been talking about a “flint but with prince john’s personality au” (based on this post) for like two hours and we can’t decide which one’s worse: 

james adopting that persona to become flint, or 

james having been that way all along

so either

he was just the normal james mcgraw in the london era

the tragedy of what happened to thomas drives him to become flint, but a far more openly gay version just to spite alfred

miranda and gates are the only two people that understand it’s an act

eleanor gets a glimpse of the real james during the oar and shovel speech but it’s fleeting and she still thinks he’s annoying

“I WILL DELIVER THEM, HAL” “I AM YOUR KING” except it’s 24/7 and cranked up to full volume

as well as his ongoing feud with charles, he also has beef with jack because he believes he stole his shtick

for the first two episodes we believe he’s actually this flamboyant hilarious asshole and it isn’t until he collapses at miranda’s house that we realize it isn’t real and start to see behind the mask

and the rumor that miranda’s a witch stems from the fact that no one believes he actually has a wife/girlfriend/female significant other

then he meets silver and they connect because they both recognize that the other is performing, but neither of them trust the other because of it

so when he tells silver “in my head, you’re not welcome” he truly means it because he realizes that silver’s getting too close and seeing past his act

but silver realizes immediately that he’s gay (of course) so there’s an awkward “god, i hate this asshole but he’s so cute” tension between them immediately that’s even worse than in canon

the combination of losing miranda and finding out that silver sacrificed his leg to save the crew (something he thought a pirate wouldn’t be capable of due to selfishness) shake him up so badly that he slips even further into the role in his mental breakdown, to the point where silver in private is like “dude, this is just an act, relax”

but there’s no one left alive that remembers who he actually is and without them the lines become so blurred nearly loses himself completely 

the coming out scene over the campfire scene is hilarious but so much worse at the same time because james still acts like it’s a secret that he had a male lover and silver’s like “...... yeah” but then he shows real emotion and vulnerability for the first time and he doesn’t know how to handle it

he grows so tired of the charade that he gladly gives up that persona when he’s reunited with thomas after watching silver essentially become him and then replace him

silver!! breaks down the legend!! that is captain flint!! just to end up becoming him, not realizing that its it’s own curse and that someone will inevitably replace him too until it’s too late

thomas is the only person left who remembers james mcgraw and he helps him come back from being flint (like in canon) because in the immortal words of toby stephens, “he became himself with thomas hamilton”

basically all about eve but with fucking pirates because hell yeah

in retrospect this is very similar to the actual plot but flint shouts “DO YOU LOVE ME?” every time they take a prize

OR

james mcgraw was just Like That all along

like silver, he uses deceit and manipulation to rise from a carpenter’s son to a navy lieutenant

he and thomas instantly butt heads when they meet because james is such an asshole

“you’re more literate than any three boys i knew at eton” “shows what they teach you at eton lmao”

“he’s the absolute worst, miranda. the most obnoxious man i’ve ever met. god he’s so pretty i hate him. i can’t believe i’m going to have an affair with him.” “you don’t have to.” “no i’m gonna.”

within thirty seconds of meeting him, alfred knows james is gay and is furious with thomas like, “are you serious? HIM?”

he decides very quickly after being thrown out of his house that he’s going to destroy james whether he’s having an affair with his son or not because between the pardons act, the affair AND just being a general asshole, he’s really toasting alfred’s waffles

he decides to have james hospitalized instead but james thinks it’s hilarious

“you think no one’s ever tried that before?”

everyone in the navy thinks he’s crazy but he’s so effective despite his personality that they ignore it and the plan fails

so alfred decides to do something he knows will work and hurt james even more: have thomas committed in his place

and for the first time, we see genuine heartbreak and agony in james’ face

while their relationship had started as hate ***/reluctant but successful political partners, he realizes only after alfred has him committed that he was truly in love with thomas

which makes alfred’s murder both satisfying and terrifying as he drops the act for a second time just to go straight-up ax murderer on him

losing thomas basically destroys his empathy and compassion and his worse characteristics take over and become the Captain Flint persona

silver thinks it’s an act and tries to get closer to him to find out the truth but then realizes that he really is that overdramatic and annoying like “oh my god you actually live like this?”

the parallels between thomas and silver’s “he’s insufferable, i love him” are crystal clear and intentional

once again, miranda (and gates to a lesser extent) knew his tragic backstory and that parts of him were exaggerated to create this pirate character, but losing both of them just makes him far worse

"it's time for a dramatic haircut to prove that i'm reached a turning point in my life" "please shut up and give me the scissors"

in the end, when they’re reunited at the plantation, thomas realizes that beneath his cold exterior he really had cared all along, waited a decade for him and tried to start a war in his name

enemies to lovers to friends flintham au

they’re gay in love and live happily ever after in either version the end

[characteroulette]

Hey PQ was pretty good!

so I’m having trouble getting into PQ2 because of several factors, so I thought I’d write a half-think piece, half-essay on why I think the first PQ gets more flak than it deserves. So here’s that.

------

I genuinely don't understand why, when talking about Persona Q, people are always saying things along the lines of, "The gameplay was good, but the characters were trite and the story wasn't that great." Like, as a fan of the Persona series, I genuinely don't understand that assessment.

Not saying PQ is flawless, oh no. There are PLENTY of things in PQ that I have an axe to grind with (the small door scene with the P4 gang, for one), but the overall story? The characters? They're both fine. Good, even, dare I say. And here's my argument as to why:

The returning Persona series characters (from 3 and 4) in PQ do a good job of representing their games and their own personalities, even if a little more light-hearted than their source material,

AND

The story is genuinely in-line with the rest of the Persona/SMT series, even if it ultimately doesn't matter due to time shenanigans (and I'm okay with that).

These are my two points. Just those two. Because these are the two most contested parts of PQ, as far as I can hear, since we all agree that the gameplay is the real breadwinner here hahaha

Anyway.

First, let's talk about the returning characters, since they seem to be the ones who matter most. The P4 cast are generally less griped about (save Chie and Teddie) and I believe this is largely due to the brighter, more hopeful tone of P4 as a whole. (Aaand, in my opinion, they're done a MUCH BIGGER disservice in the Arena games, but no one ever talks about that so let's not bother with those right now.)

P4 was a game about making friends, the hijinx that come from that, and finding the truth about a string of murders and confronting the worst parts of yourself in a harsher world in the process! And it executes this with the appropriate amount of balance between serious moments and comedic relief. The theme colour for the whole game is bright yellow/gold, a happier and more friendly colour which helps remind you that this game is all in good fun.

(Side note here: I honestly think that P5 really failed in this respect, despite my liking its tone slightly more. I just personally like darker-themed games, but P5 was a little too dark and oppressive right out the gate, with hardly a friendly face, which helps make your gradually growing group of friends much more appreciated but also a harder atmosphere for jokes to really land well. Most of the 'funny' sequences felt very undeserved and really dragged because uh guys we literally just fought a rapist, an abusive father figure, and some other fucked-up shit. Can we please acknowledge that a bit more instead of pretending it never happened by laughing at the expense of Ann's autonomy of her body? Especially when she was a target of said rapist??) But that's its own discussion for later.

Really, the fact that most of the P4 gang get out of this with little criticism shows how accepted their caricatures have become. I guess? At least, except for Teddie and Chie.

Teddie being a wannabe Casanova must've been a huge hit with the Japanese audience, because it's just the hill he's going to die on for the writers. There was more to Teddie than his hitting on the girls in P4, believe it or not! (And there's a whole thing about it being brought on by him mimicking the type of behaviour he saw Yukiko's shadow exhibiting, which has a lot of really interesting undertones, but it makes him more swappable with Junpei, so whatever, I guess.) Meanwhile, Chie's not as meat-crazy, either, but I guess it's a better trait for them to roll with than her (cut in the translation) glossed-over sexism.

Both work fine, however, and aren't really too annoying enough to be that egregious. (Though they both go right up to the line sometimes. Teddie more so, but none of the girls playing along really helps show how gross his actions are. Most of the time.)

No, the real complaints I see directed at the characters being 'too cartoonish' are usually reserved for the P3 gang.

P3 is, really, such a bizarre game to go back to now when compared to its two successors. It's dark and hopeless, like P5, but formulaic and mystery, like P4. It's actually a natural progression when looking at its two/three older siblings (both P2s are bleak. As. Hell!), but, at least to me, it's the odd duck of the bunch, being the first to implement this winning formula of being caught in a time limit of a school year and managing spending time exploring this other world. It adds Social Links and social stats with this new time limit and this idea that the Persona and Shadows you fight don't just happen out on the streets in 'normal' circumstances for everyone to see. It pretty much went from an RPG to a management game with RPG elements.

And its emotional, impactful story, like P5, had a lot of tonal whiplash due to the attempts at comedy!

I feel like a lot of people forget this about P3 (and maybe I think more about it because I haven't actually beaten the whole game yet myself), but the story is actually a goddamn mess of tonal confusion. You got kids shooting themselves in the heads and a Social Link dealing with a classmate's crush on his teacher. You got wacky foreign exchange student and kids taking experimental drugs to suppress their Persona and slowly poisoning themselves to death as a side effect. The protagonist is an orphan who lost his parents in a huge, plot-relevant accident... But he's able to date every single girl at the same time and be the most wish fulfillment charming guy if the player so desires.

P3 being messy isn't a bad thing. P4, P5, and even P2 and PQ are all a little messy in their own rights, too. But because P3 was a lot of fans' first in the series, and PQ is just a spin-off, it gets way more flak for this than I feel it deserves.

(I mean, hey. Both P3 and P4 have those classic anime scenes of the boys walking in on the girls while at a hot springs. All PQ's got is an awkward group date scene and the implication that Yosuke and Kanji kissed each other while getting knocked out.) (They all. Have. Problems.)

And I know a lot of this comes down to personal preference. I'm not saying you're wrong for liking P3 or P4 more than PQ. I'm just saying I feel like PQ is often wrongly accused of being worse and less well-written when, really, they're all pretty much on par with each other. (And someone on the team really doesn't understand how to handle large casts of characters sharing the same space...)

But, personally, from everything I've seen from P3, I don't like the way most of the characters get presented to me in the source material. Junpei is way more insufferable in P3 than in PQ and Yukari is way more uninteresting in P3 than in PQ. Really, PQ helped me appreciate these characters more than P3 itself did. And, yes, they're more funny when they're trying to be, too. Because PQ is set up better for comedy than the 'remember you are mortal' tone of P3.

(Which makes dramatic moments hit all the harder when they happen) HEY check that segue! It's time to talk about the story and the two original characters of the game!

So, second point: people say the story isn't very good. To which I wanna ask... "Did you stop playing before defeating the fourth Boss?" Because it really sounds like, to me, everyone who says that didn't actually finish the game and reach all that juicy character development that happens for both sides around the fourth dungeon, where all the issues they've been building up (like Yukari's issue with Mitsuru for the P3 side and Kanji and Ken's awkwardness in the P4 side) start getting resolved in a satisfying way. And it comes with a reveal for the two characters we've been getting to know, Zen and Rei, as well.

(And, from here on in, there be spoilers. You've been warned.)

The two new characters to this game are Zen and Rei, who were in this place before the P3 or P4 gangs were called to the scene. Zen is quiet and a bit unsettlingly dense, but devoted to Rei, who is bubbly and full of life, but terrified of the dungeons you have to traverse. The two have been in this place for (what's implied to be) a very long time and enlist the help of the P3 and P4 teams in order to find a way out through defeating the bosses of each Labyrinth/dungeon. Simple enough, as it also helps the P3 and P4 team's goal of getting out. With each new dungeon, it feels more and more like something about Zen and Rei aren't quite right, but the length of the dungeon and all the team chats help you put it out of your mind each time. Rei can even get kinda annoying with her loudness and big appetite if you don't find her cute (which: how dare you. But yeah, I get it).

And then, at the end of a fiery festival fourth dungeon, you find yourself in a dark tomb at the bottom level. The boss awaiting you is Rei's shadow (a nice callback to the way P4 works) whom she still doesn't accept after you defeat it.

All the locks are gone and the P3 and P4 teams can return to their worlds if they wanted. Except Rei gets kidnapped after Zen reveals that Rei has been dead all along and it was him who trapped them here. It was he who created this place and even he who called both teams here.

And this was a plot twist that I friggin' loved.

It definitely had more impact on me because Zen and Rei easily became my favourites out of the whole cast, to the point of having them on my team for the whole game, but to find out such a fucked up twist is wild! (Seriously! Go watch the cutscene and tell me it isn't super fucked up!) You can say the P3 and P4 twists were shocking (or P5s I guess), but for my money, this is the best reversal of expectations I'd ever seen in a Persona game. In any game, really!

Zen was, in effect, the villain the whole time. His true identity as Chronos, God of time, makes sense with displacing the teams from their own times and the time here being erased once you reach the end. His own power that he sealed away growing impatient and taking matters into its own hands by drawing the teams to this haven displaced from time also makes perfect sense! And the entire climb through the last dungeon is his redemption arc and it makes for a super emotionally investing final dungeon all the way. (Which is great, because I hate every single one of the enemies that appear in this god-forsaken place.) (Even P4 and P5 can't really boast that, I felt very little investment through Izanami's dungeon and Baldabaoth's distortion.)

Of course, if you found Zen and Rei to be annoying and pointless, I can see how this would fall flat for you. The fact that they hinged such an emotional climax on these new characters, characters that don't even matter outside of this game!, was such a risky move. Especially when you consider this is just a fanservice game made basically under the promise of seeing the P3 team interact with the P4 team. But, for me, it really paid off.

And whatever complaints you had with the P3 or P4 characters, I feel like the resolutions to those character moments I mentioned earlier get explored even further during the climb through the final dungeon. From the P3 gang coming together to finally communicate with one another to the P4 gang reconfirming their bonds with one another, it's a really investing and emotional journey. I do wish the writing had been this tight and impactful through more of the game, but I believe it's worth it in the end.

Perhaps this moment comes too late in the game, though. I can definitely see others giving up before reaching this point due to the repetitive nature of the dungeons and the tidbits of character development that are meant to build up to this moment that can be too sparsely placed. (But, really, it's the same from P3 to P5, Social Links don't really add much variety when they can be just as repetitive and boring, just saying. Especially when you get caught in waiting to rank up hell, ugh.) For me, however, this really sealed the deal on this game being an incredible experience that I adored from start to finish. 7/10. Final score.

....

....

(7 outta 10?? Not perfect??) Well, it's not perfect. Japan's blatant homophobia and sexism really ruins a lot of scenes for me. I'm super salty especially about how the fake marriage scenes are handled so differently from the girl choices to the boy choices. (But you just argued in its favour for 2000 words!) Listen. ALL the Persona games wouldn't receive perfect scores for me for this aspect alone. There are a lot of other factors as well, but they vary from title to title and PQ in particular is guilty of spending too much time focusing on Teddie and Junpei being girl-crazy. And Marie is in this game more than she really should be. UGH.

But I digress.

In conclusion, this game's story and characters are better than most give it credit for. Hopefully, my argument helped you see why I believe this and why I think claiming that both aspects are just 'bad' is lazy.

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.22: Missions Reviewed, “Afterimage,” “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” and “Chrysalis.”

(Review notes: While watching these three episodes yesterday, I saw the news that Aron Eisenberg, Nog, passed away unexpectedly.  Nog has been in integral part of this story, and I know he has some very deep and dark episodes coming up in this rewatch.  The heart that shows through Nog though is certainly the product of Aron Eisenberg’s performance. He was actively involved with fandom, even liking a couple of my tweets in the past.  By all accounts he was quite a person, and this is certainly a hard loss for the community of Niners, and Star Trek fans in general.  Condolences to his family and friends.)

“Afterimage” shows Ezri Dax having a hard time adapting to life on the station, and planning instead to resume Ezri Tigen (pre-joined Ezri’s) duties on the USS Destiny. Sisko wants her to stay, Quark considers this to be the chance he lost out on with Jadzia, and slowly convinces Bashir of the same. Worf meanwhile refuses to even be in the same room with her.  When Worf sees her spending time with Bashir however, he threatens the Doctor, saying that accepting Ezri dishonors the memory of Jadzia. Garak, who has been codebreaking the Cardassians for Starfleet Intelligence starts having claustrophobic attacks even in spacious areas, and Sisko asks Ezri, a counselor, to talk to him.  

She ties his claustrophobia to the fact his father would lock him in a closet for a punishment and moves on, but his attacks get worse, causing them to have to let him spend time in a holosuite.  When she tries to treat him again, he becomes belligerent, and convinces her she should leave Starfleet. Sisko seems to support that. O’Brien goes to Worf, and talks to him about the fact that this is a tough situation, but would Jadzia want him to treat Ezri this way? Ezri is preparing to leave the station, and yet goes to say goodbye to Garak, mentioning his successes codebreaking. When he gets uncomfortable, she pushes, and Garak breaks down, and the two of them realize he is punishing himself as a traitor to Cardassia, knowing the Dominion must be stopped, but knowing also that his people will likely be destroyed in the process.  He accepts treatment, and Ezri decides she will stay if Worf can handle it.  Worf mentions it will still be hard for him, but knows he cannot punish Ezri for what has happened.  As she accepts the DS9 position and a promotion, knowing Sisko pushed her buttons earlier to motivate her, she moves through the crowd more comfortable.  Worf does not speak to her, but toasts her from across the room.

It is fascinating to watch these writers who now have more than six years working together under their belts get to develop a new character, when there is so much great material sitting around to call on. Garak’s feelings on Cardassia are a great moment for his character too, but I think the thing that I find most compelling here is the Sisko/Dax relationship.  We know Curzon Dax was Benjamin’s mentor, then Jadzia his friend and peer.  Here we see Benjamin get to step into the mentor role, and that’s a really lovely piece of character development only a Science Fiction setting can give you. Worf’s confusion over all of this is very heartfelt, as who wouldn’t want to bring their love back in some form…but particularly since he just allowed Jadzia soul to enter Sto-Vo-Kor, how does a Klingon deal with her being in this new, timid and unsure person?  All of this is well-played.

A Vulcan starship the T’Kumbra docks at DS9 and an old rival of Sisko challenges him to a baseball game in “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.” Since an Academy quarrel, Captain Solok has taken every opportunity to show his Vulcan superiority to Sisko, including citing Sisko’s Academy behavior in about a dozen papers. Now, he has trained members of his crew in baseball, and is ready to show Sisko he is superior there as well. 

 Sisko assembles his staff and starts training them to play, and asks Odo to be umpire. The crew is eager, but also untalented. Sisko begins to take this all very seriously and kicks Rom off the team for being so bad at it.  The rest threaten to quit, but Rom asks them all to stay. When the game day arrives, the Vulcans are pulling way ahead, and tensions are high. When Odo calls a strike on Worf and Sisko protests, tapping Odo on the chest, Odo ejects him.  Sisko, now in the stands watches O’Brien take over as coach and sees his crew together as a team, losing or not. He grabs Rom (who has been in the stands watching) and suits him up. O’Brien puts him on the plate with Nog on third at the top of the ninth.  They signal for Rom to bunt, and when he leans in to try and figure out what they are talking about, the ball hits his bat. Nog makes it to home and the Niners score their first run. The team goes out praising Rom and celebrating, carrying him off the field. Solok complains to the umpire that the game isn’t finished and when Odo turns, the Vulcan grabs his shoulder to pull him back.  Odo smiles and says, “YOU’RE GONE!” 

Later at Quark’s, the Niners are celebrating their non-shut out with Jake beating himself up over giving up 12 runs.  Ben reminds him Vulcans are at least three times stronger and faster than humans, and in the circumstances they all did great. Solok comes in to gloat, but finds himself heckled when he sees they Niners enjoying themselves, and they begin to point out how emotional he seems to be over that fact. The Logisticians have more points, but the Niners enjoyed the game, and the team all sign a baseball to go on Sisko’s desk.

Given the serious nature of the show, having a break like this one where you can catch your breath and enjoy some fish-out-of-water moments is pretty welcome. (Worf’s version of “hey-batter-batter” is actually “Death to the Opposition!) I had more of a problem with this episode 20 years ago feeling the Vulcans were mis-portrayed, and indeed, I think THIS is where we first see the Vulcans of “Star Trek: Enterprise” with their superiority complex. Having reconciled that watching ENT this worked much better for me. Perhaps an analysis of the Vulcans in canon and fanon should be the subject of another essay…oh lord, do I need to rewatch and review Enterprise? Interestingly,  Rom is shown here batting left handed because Max Grodénchik was an accomplished player, having actually played semi-pro.  They couldn’t get him to otherwise appear unskilled enough.  

In “Chrysalis,” Bashir is feeling a bit lonely but has the Jack Pack, the group of genetically enhanced humans who are institutionalized, come to the station because they know he is working on something to help Serina (the non-verbal woman among them) control her sensory stimuli and normalize. 

After Sisko smooths over the fact that three of them impersonated Starfleet Officers to get there, Bashir tries to design the machine he needs to work on Serina’s brain, but O’Brien tells him it can’t be done.  The Jack Pack take on the issue and manage a fine substitute.  Bashir performs the operation and indeed Serina seems fine, yet she has the benefits of her genetic engineering as well.  She seems unable to integrate back into the group of her friends though, and starts spending more time with Bashir and his friends. He develops feelings for her, asking if she wants to stay on the station. He is quite happy to have someone who can think and act as well as he can with his augmentations. 

 She seems to suffer a setback however and becomes cataleptic again. They come to realize it is only a defense mechanism as she does not want to hurt Bashir, but is not ready to make a decision to be with him either; Bashir derides himself for smothering her.  Jack, Patrick, and Lauren go back to their hospital, while Bashir finds Serina a research position where she can sort out her new life. As she leaves, he promises to never forget her, and standing alone, he watches her ship leave.

I have to wonder if intentionally or not, this episode puts Bashir’s insufferable horndog days from the early seasons into context.  He is indeed separated from everyone around him by his abilities, and though he does love his friends, he is seeking some form of deeper connection on par with his level of thinking. There’s not a lot of time left for the show to revisit Serina, and we won’t see her again before the show ends, but it would be neat if some future show could give us a hint of where a second genetically enhanced human whom it seems the Federation is going to allow out in the world, ends up.

NEXT VOYAGE: Star Trek gives me one of my dearest beliefs about the inner workings of the universe in “Treachery, Faith, and The Great River.”

[spaceagesap]

Mountains II

Whoops sorry it’s been literally forever, hope someone somewhere still gives half a shit about this thing <3

Previously on Mountains: Pt 1

- - - - -

“So this is it.” 

“This is it,” Maggie confirmed, watching Alex with equal parts apprehension and amusement. 

Alex scanned the room, nodding appreciatively. It was a small place, with room for only a few mismatched tables inside. The real selling point, Maggie had told her, was the patio.   

Two large garage doors made up one wall of the restaurant. On nice nights, they were pulled up so that the smell of pizza was all but lost to the smell of dirt and leaves. The patio was lit with a few strands of string lights strung between the building and the trees, which stood atop a narrow strip of earth that unraveled into big boulders that made up the riverbank. The river beyond rushed over the rocks and tree roots in its path with rumbling enthusiasm. 

That night, the restaurant was empty, save for Maggie, Alex, and the skeleton crew who held down the fort in the offseason.   

“Best pizza place in Aspenvale,” Maggie said as she ambled out onto the patio with her hands shoved into her pockets, picking the table closest to the river before taking a seat.   

“Only pizza place in Aspenvale, you mean.” Alex sat down across from Maggie, leveling her with a knowing smirk. 

Maggie hung her head, shaking it as she laughed lightly. 

“Who tipped you off?" 

“The phonebook,” Alex shrugged as she scanned the beer list. 

“The phonebook? Who uses phonebooks anymore, Danvers?” 

“I forgot my book. I was bored.” 

“You know there’s a TV in the room, right?” 

“Yeah, well. For what it’s worth, I saw that there are three different ice cream shops, so I have some questions about that.” 

“I’m sure we can find some answers.” Maggie paused and had the decency to look a little contrite. “Sorry. Usually I don’t look to build friendships on lies.” She picks at the label on the bottle in front of her, looking sheepish. “Had to give you a reason to call me, right?”   

“Called you anyway, didn’t I?”   

Alex arched an eyebrow and Maggie felt her heart give a little flip, but did her best to ignore it. 

- - - - - “No way.” Alex shook her head. “No. There’s no way that’s real."

Maggie leaned back in her chair, smirking. “Swear on my badge.”  

“You’re exaggerating. Again. Show-off.” 

“Maybe a little,” Maggie grinned, shrugging. "But it was definitely a bear and I definitely saved at least two rabbits.” 

“A hero the likes of which this world has never known,” Alex deadpanned, taking a generous swig of her second beer. “I’m sure they’re already making plans for a statue in the middle of the town square, Sawyer.”

“That’s Ranger Sawyer to you, Danvers.” 

“Doctor Danvers, if we’re getting formal.” 

“Right, right,” Maggie nodded. “Doctor of what, exactly?” 

“I studied bioengineering." 

“Really?” 

“Why would I lie about that?” 

“Maybe you’re trying to impress me,” Maggie shrugged. 

“Don’t have to lie to do it. That’s your wheelhouse.”

“Noted,” Maggie laughed. “So, tell me, how does a bioengineer end up with the Geological Survey?” 

Alex shrugged. “More partial to dirt than blood."  

“Of course,” Maggie nodded, smirking. "Anything else I should know about you, Doc? Going to tell me what brings you to our fine corner of the range just as the weather’s starting to turn to shit?” 

Alex eyed her carefully for a moment, considering the question.   

Because Alex Danvers was good at undercover assignments. Whether she was working or not, Alex focused on the needs of the people around her constantly — what they needed to hear, what they wanted to hear, what might put them at ease, what might make them trust her. Alex Danvers was good at undercover work because she was good at using trust to her advantage. 

But she didn’t need Maggie’s trust, didn’t need her help. She was undercover, sure, but only insofar as she couldn’t very well say that she was a part of a government organization that didn’t, strictly speaking, exist. She was on a bogus assignment looking for something that wasn’t there. There were no complex roles, no involved backstories, no need for layered lies or deceit. For the most part, she could tell the truth. Or at least, some version of it. Alex was surprised to find that it was something of a relief. 

“Chasing ghosts, mostly,” Alex said. 

“That’s a first. Ectoplasm in the soil?” 

Alex chuckled, absently running a finger over the scarred table top in front of her. “Not as such, no.” She chanced a look up at Maggie. “My boss sent me here for a few weeks. Said that I needed a break and that if I was too stubborn to take a vacation on my own, he’d mandate the next best thing.” 

“Your boss put you on an assignment a hundred miles away just to get you out of the office?”

“Something like that." 

“Right,” Maggie smirked. “Sounds like you’ve got a healthy relationship with work. So who’s up here with you?” 

Alex frowned, confused. “No one. Just me.” 

“Oh,” Maggie said. “I mean, I just thought...” she trailed off, hesitating for a moment. "You said that you had a ride coming the other day when I met you. I figured she was here with you.” 

“Right,” Alex remembered. “My sister. She wanted to see the town. But she lives in National City. She, uh, flew back.”  

"So you’re here by yourself for a few weeks of peace and quiet while you tear up my beautifully maintained trails for soil samples?” 

“Guess so.” 

“Let’s hope you find something good, then.” 

Alex laughed lightly, “I wouldn’t count on it.” 

Maggie raised an eyebrow. 

“There’s some evidence of a rare mineral here, but it’s flimsy at best,” Alex said. "I think my boss expects that I’ll spend a lot of time outside finding a whole lot of nothing."   

Maggie nodded, smirking. “So you have a sister, you like Bill Withers, you read phonebooks for fun, and you work too hard,” she said. “That about sum it up?" Alex laughed, worrying the paper label of the bottle between her fingers, “Guilty as charged.” 

“Lucky me,” Maggie tilted her head. “Can’t say that I’m not a little thrilled to have a new face in town. Things tend to get pretty slow around this time of year. Town shrinks back down to 200 and suddenly you’re hearing the same boring stories you’ve heard from the same people every year since you were 11.” “I’m sure they’re nice stories.”

“And I’m sure you’ll hear plenty of them. Reserve judgement.” Alex chuckled, and then it hit her all at once. It was one of those moments when, without meaning to, you suddenly finding yourself taking stock. You take notice of the way the light’s hitting the trees, the way the breeze carries the smell of afternoon rain and conifers, the way the music from inside the restaurant is just the right volume as it mixes with the sound of the river and they seem to have agreed on the same key.   

Alex took stock and realized that without design or intention, she felt remarkably content. Good, even. Her cheeks hurt, tired from smiling more than she was used to, and her shoulders held none of the tension that seemed permanent in National City. She wasn’t thinking about bullets or bad guys or national safety. She was just a girl, eating pizza and drinking beer with Maggie Sawyer, who was funny and smart and had dozens of stories that were vivid and thrilling, if half-true at best. 

Ostensibly, they were two people who’d met by chance, getting pizza because Maggie was hungry and was also the only person Alex had spoken to in Aspenvale, outside of Loretta. But Maggie didn’t treat her like she was just someone she’d happened to pick up, someone who was just an excuse for company.   

She listened when Alex spoke, teased her gently, talked to her like they didn’t need the grace period most require to become comfortable with another person. She was open and honest (save for exaggerated accounts of heroism) and kind, and Alex found that there was something in the way that she smiled that made Alex feel like if goodness still existed, it called Aspenvale home. It had been a long time since Alex had been close to anyone outside of Kara. She was friendly with Kara’s friends, sure, but they didn’t often spend time together unless Kara was around, too. Suddenly, the idea of Maggie as a friend, as someone who was just hers, made Alex feel — 

“You still with me, Danvers?” 

Alex turned her attention back to Maggie, shaking her head to dispel thoughts too heavy for an uneven patio table topped with a couple of empty bottles and a few remaining slices of greasy pizza. She returned to safer thoughts of rivers and trees and the Stevie Wonder record playing inside.   

“Yeah, sorry,” Alex said. “What did you say?” 

“Just wondering if you wanted to see a man about some ice cream." - - - - - “Sometimes I think about it,” Alex admitted through a spoonful of ice cream as she and Maggie walked side-by-side along the bank of the river. “I mean, I wonder where I’d be if it hadn’t been for Kara, if she'd never come to us, if we’d never adopted her.”   

Alex stopped near a large boulder, promptly climbing atop it and sitting down, elbows on her knees. Maggie joined her a second later. 

“I’d be worse off, I’m sure,” Alex said, watching the river as she ate another spoonful. “Kara’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Even when she’s insufferable.” 

“I’m jealous,” Maggie said. "I always wanted siblings.” She grabbed a nearby pebble and tossed it into the river with a satisfying plunk. “I was a pretty happy kid, but I always felt like I was missing something.” Maggie squinted up at the dark sky, considering. “You know, someone willing to back you up, no matter what.” 

“You need a lot of backup as a kid, Sawyer?” Alex said, half-joking. 

“Oh yeah,” Maggie blew out a sigh. “Don’t get me wrong, I love it here now, but that took a long time.” 

Alex quirked an eyebrow in question.   

"Aspenvale’s a small town,” Maggie explained. "People talk. As soon as you get caught kissing the Mayor’s daughter backstage after theater practice, your personal life is suddenly everyone’s business.” 

There it was. 

Alex had been pretty sure she’d read Maggie right, but the subject hadn’t really come up. And in truth, Alex was still new to this. She’d come out a little over a year ago, but in that time, she’d only been on a handful of relatively unsuccessful dates. Aside from a label to put with the sensation of turning into a blushing, stuttering mess around pretty girls, not much had changed. Alex Danvers still didn’t have much time for a love life. 

Somehow, knowing that Maggie was gay made things feel different. Not for the first time tonight, Alex wondered what it might feel like to be on a date with Maggie Sawyer. She wondered what it might be like to mean something to Maggie, to be more than what they were, which was something between acquaintances and friends. 

Perhaps it was a testament to just how few friends Alex had and just how long it’d been since she’d allowed herself to connect to anyone in any way, outside of her immediate family and friends, but Alex found herself sort of thrilled by Maggie.   

“The Mayor’s daughter, huh?” Alex smirked, fighting to keep her voice steady.   

“Yeah,” Maggie laughed. “Too bad she was dating the quarterback of the football team at the time. Big guy, lot of big friends.” 

Alex turned to look at Maggie, concern etched on her face. “Did they...?” 

“I was quick and scrappy. They usually didn’t get the opportunity.” 

“Usually?” 

“They might’ve caught up once or twice.” 

Alex tried hard to swallow the lump in her throat, tried to quell the rage building in her chest. The idea of Maggie becoming an outlet for the anger of an entitled teenage boy made her furious and nauseous in equal measure. 

“Jesus,” Alex breathed. “I’m sorry, Maggie. I can’t imagine.” 

Maggie shrugged. “It’s nothing. Ancient history now,” she said.   

It wasn’t nothing, Alex knew. “And it’s better now? People don’t give you a hard time anymore?” 

Maggie nodded. “For the most part, yeah, it’s better. It’s not perfect, but it’s good.” 

Alex took a deep breath. “I’ve wondered how things might’ve been if I’d been out when I was in school,” she said. 

Maggie turned her attention to Alex. “Where’d you grow up?” 

“Midvale." 

“Probably a little different, then,” Maggie smiled good-naturedly.

“Probably,” Alex agreed. “For what it’s worth, though, if I’d grown up here, I would’ve stuffed more than a few of those jocks into garbage cans.” 

Maggie laughed, head tilted ever so slightly as she looked carefully at Alex. “I appreciate it, Danvers. And I don’t doubt it.” - - - - - “Danvers,” Maggie Sawyer’s voice came over the speaker on Alex’s phone the next morning. "Got something you might want to see.” 

“O…kay?” 

“You free? I’ll pick you up.” 

“I-uh, yeah. Definitely.” 

“Perfect. You ready now?” 

“Sure.” 

“Great. Ten minutes." 

Alex was not, in fact, ready. She was, as it turned out, still in bed. 

It was 6 a.m. on a Thursday. And while National City Alex Danvers would’ve been awake and halfway through a run at 6 a.m., Aspenvale Alex Danvers was finding that staying in bed with a cup of coffee as the sun made its lazy debut was, at least on occasion, deeply preferable. Alex saw nothing wrong with her bed in National City, but this bed was bigger, softer, warmer, and came with the added bonus of being far, far away from national emergencies and alien crises.  

Though she’d never admit out loud, Alex could acknowledge privately, in the security of this room, that perhaps J’onn had been right. Maybe she had needed a break. 

As soon as she hung up the phone, Alex stowed her coffee on the nightstand and hopped out of bed, pulled on her black jeans and sweater, and did her best to smooth out the part of her hair that always seemed to lay funny after she slept on it. 

Eight minutes later, she was outside, coat and hiking boots on, hair laying mostly flat. Maggie pulled up a moment later, the windows of her truck rolled down. 

“Morning, Danvers,” she greeted as Alex slid into the passenger seat. “Nice glasses.” 

Alex’s hand flew to her face, touching the plastic frames of her glasses self-consciously. “Shit. I don’t usually — I just forgot to — " 

“Stop. They’re cute,” Maggie assured, turning toward Alex and tilting her head, eyes warm as she smiled. Alex felt a blush rising to her cheeks.   

“Thanks,” she said, her voice barely loud enough to be heard over the engine as Maggie put the truck in gear and pulled away from the inn. 

“Sorry, after I called I realized that not everyone here runs on Ranger time. Hope I didn’t wake you.” 

Alex waved her off. “No, I was up.” 

“Here, brought you some coffee to atone.” Maggie handed Alex a cup from the cupholder.   

Alex accepted gratefully, taking a sip. And, to her credit, she tried very hard not to grimace when she tasted it. She failed, though, and Maggie noticed. 

“Sorry. I should’ve warned you. I’ve been told I tend to make my coffee a little strong.” 

Alex thought that “a little strong” was something of an understatement for a substance that , but kept that to herself. 

“No, no it’s fine.” Alex took another sip. “It’s nice. Thanks.” 

In so many ways, Alex wasn’t used to this. Wasn’t used to having someone other than Kara or J’onn or her mother call her. She wasn’t used to spending so much time with anyone other than Kara, let alone several consecutive days -- for pizza, for coffee, for ice cream. She wasn’t used to someone thinking about her, to being on someone's mind. 

But Maggie thought about her. Alex knew she did. Maggie texted her to ask her about her day of "ghost hunting." She sent her pictures while she was out walking trails with captions like “look at this rock, doesn’t it look like J.K. Simmons?” or “you ever seen a marmot, Danvers?” or “in case you still had doubts about the axe.” Maggie had even called yesterday to warn her about another unexpected afternoon storm.   

“Are you warm enough?” Maggie asked, glancing at her as they drove down Main Street and toward the edge of town that bordered the park. “I can close the windows. I just — “ 

“Nope,” Alex shook her head. “I’m great.” She took another sip of coffee, relishing the way that the cup warmed her hands. In truth, the cab was chilly, but it was the kind of chill that can make you feel lucky to be out, to be out in the world so early in the morning. The kind that’s just this side of uncomfortable, that’s a reminder that fresh air is a powerful drug and that hot coffee in cold weather is a little something like everyday magic. 

They drove in silence for a few minutes, the town disappearing behind them as tall trees cropped up on either side of the increasingly winding road.   

“Am I allowed to ask where we’re going?” 

“You are." 

“Are you going to answer?”

“Nope.”   

Alex rolled her eyes. “Is this how it ends? Are you kidnapping me for real this time?” 

“Kidnappers don’t usually bring coffee, Danvers.” 

“Good point,” Alex nodded. “But I have to say that the amount of Dolly Parton you listen to strikes me as kind of suspicious behavior.” 

“Yeah, that tape’s been stuck in there since I was in high school,” Maggie laughed. “Given my musical preferences back then, let’s just say it could’ve been a lot worse.” 

“It’s growing on me, I’ll admit.”     

Alex almost didn’t catch it then. If her head had been turned a little bit further, if she’d just a little more focused on something outside the window instead of on the music and the coffee and Maggie, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all. But as it happened, she did notice. She noticed the way Maggie took her eyes off of the road for just a second to look over at Alex. She noticed the way Maggie smiled, the way she bit her lip, the way she drew in a deep and almost-silent breath. Alex noticed, and it made her heart feel full — so full it almost hurt.   

Because something about being there with Maggie, something about the way the mountains looked in the early morning sun and the way the trees stood tall over the road and the way the coffee was just a tad too strong but just the right temperature made Alex feel good. Really good. 

Maggie pulled the truck to a stop in a tiny dirt pull-off on the side of the road a few miles from town and stepped out, slinging a pack over her shoulder. Alex followed, coffee cup still in hand. She wanted to ask what, exactly, they were doing, but Maggie beat her to it. 

“Don’t ask, Danvers. It’s hard to explain." 

And so they made their way over fallen leaves and twisted roots and dirt that still held a hint of yesterday’s rain and a near-brush with frost overnight. They walked for a handful of minutes before Maggie stopped several feet back from the point where the ground dropped off sharply into a deep valley. Maggie stooped, waving Alex closer.   

“Here,” she said, pointing. “You ever seen anything like that?” 

Alex bit the inside of her cheek, hard. Because the truth was that she had seen something like that. It was blue and glowing, its crystalline surface catching the morning light just so. Though she hadn’t ever seen it in person, Alex knew what it was in an instant that it was Rag’norium. 

Maggie reached forward, extending her hand toward it, but Alex caught it, stopping her. 

“Don’t touch it,” Alex cautioned.   

“What is it?” 

Classified was the word on the tip of Alex’s tongue. Because it was true. Technically speaking, Rag’norium didn’t exist. It wasn’t in textbooks or on periodic tables accessible to anyone without a hefty government clearance level.   

But this was Maggie. Maggie, who brought her coffee and asked about her family. Maggie, who had only known Alex for all of five days but treated her like she meant something to Maggie, like she mattered, like they were friends. Maggie, who thought about Alex at least once a day and made sure she knew it.   

Alex couldn’t tell her what it was, but she also couldn’t just shut her down with the “classified” card.   

“It’s hard to explain,” Alex said, hoping that Maggie might be satisfied with that.  

“Try me.” 

Dammit. 

“It’s a mineral,” Alex ceded. “Really rare, really volatile.” 

“Okay, so why’s it here now?” 

Alex frowned. “What do you mean ’now’?” 

“I run this trail every morning. I’ve never seen it before.” 

Everything Alex knew about Rag’norium flew in the face of a claim like that. The deposits weren’t naturally occurring — they were, essentially, a byproduct from ships powered by super-dense Thalydian cores. It started with something like exhaust and condensation — trace amounts of concentrated Rag’norium left behind by the ships react with the nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere — and, a week or two after the ship’s departure, a Rag’norium vein was discovered. 

It’d happened exactly twice in the entire history of the D.E.O.: Once in 1968 and again in 2003, the latter occurring several miles away, the epicenter of Alex's field work thus far. 

But a Rag’norium vein here, now, meant that a ship had been here recently and that Alex wasn’t searching for decades-old deposits. It meant, of course, that all of a sudden, Alex was investigating undocumented contact, possibly with a group that meant Earth harm.   

Thalydian cores were outlawed in many parts of the galaxy. They were a notorious staple of older ships, now used almost exclusively by smugglers. Whoever they were, they likely weren’t stopping by to check out the World’s Largest Ball of Yarn. 

“You run this every morning?”   

Alex chided herself internally for sounding less than professional as a note of admiration crept into her tone. 

“We all have our vices, Danvers.” 

“And you’ve never seen this?” 

“Pretty sure I’d remember it.” 

Alex nodded. “I need to get some samples. Can you —“ 

“Way ahead of you.” Maggie opened her back to pull out a small field sample kit. It wasn’t quite D.E.O. caliber, but it would do. Alex arched an eyebrow, impressed. 

"Rangers are more than crowd control and saving pretty girls from surprise rainstorms, Danvers." 

Alex felt a blush rising to her cheeks and ducked her head as she accepted the kit from Maggie.   

"Yeah, I've heard rumors of a fair amount axe-wielding." 

"You and that axe," Maggie shook her head. "Should I be worried?" - - - - - "This mean you found your ghost?"   

Alex climbed into the passenger seat and pulled the door closed, trying and failing to find a graceful way to answer the question without really answering it.   

"I don't know," she said.   

It was true. In a way. Alex didn't know what she'd found and she had even less of an idea about what it meant.   

"Best guess?"   

Jesus she's persistent.

"Some version of it, yeah."   

Maggie nodded. "This where we run into the 'Classified' wall?" 

"Sorry." 

"S'alright," Maggie shrugged. "You'll tell me if it's something dangerous, right? If it's something that puts the town or the Park at risk?" 

If Maggie noticed Alex's hesitation, she didn't let on. 

“Of course,” said Alex. And as Maggie pulled the truck back out onto the two-lane road, she tried hard not to think about the fact that outside of the usual, unavoidable things like who she worked for and why she was in Aspenvale, this was the first time she’d lied to Maggie.   

Alex Danvers had lied plenty of times about plenty of things on plenty of occasions, but something about this lie, here, to Maggie Sawyer, settled in her heart like a stone.

[fromtheringapron]

WWF SummerSlam 1995

Date: August 27, 1995.

Location: Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Attendance: 18,062.

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler (matches 1-7). Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix (matches 8 and 9).

Results:

1. Hakushi defeated The 1-2-3 Kid. 

2. Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Bob Holly. 

3. The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart Gunn) defeated The Blu Brothers (Jacob and Eli Blu) (with Uncle Zebekiah). 

4. Barry Horowitz defeated Skip (with Sunny). 

5. WWF Women’s Championship Match: Bertha Faye (with Harvey Whippleman) defeated Alundra Blayze (champion) to win the title. 

6. Casket Match: The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated Kama (with Ted DiBiase).

7. Bret Hart defeated Issac Yankem DDS. 

8. Ladder Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Shawn Michaels (champion) defeated Razor Ramon. 

9. WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Diesel (champion) defeated King Mabel (with Sir Mo). 

My Review

SummerSlam 1995 took place during a financial and creative low point for the WWF, featuring one of the worst main events in the history of SummerSlam. It’s frequently cited as The Worst SummerSlam Ever™ by an elite club of dudes on the Internet, but I’m here to report that’s simply not true and, as you must know, my opinions are usually the correct ones. Here’s the tea: it’s actually a solid couple hours of wrestling. I’ve always found its reputation unjust. That it’s written off just because it took place during a dark period has always seemed like a blanket statement to me. Believe it or not, entertainment and good work can exist within bad years for wrestling. A shocking concept, I know.

I don’t want to mince words here, of course. The main event is bad. It’s not even like it’s a super mega embarrassing disaster that’s secretly entertaining; it’s just kinda basic and plodding and ultimately feels phoned-in. It’s only real accomplishment was likely getting Vince McMahon to wake up and realize that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t 1985 anymore and pushing Diesel like Hulk Hogan wasn’t gonna fly. It also even more likely helped him realize that he completely failed in pushing Mabel as the next big monster heel. The most interesting part of the main event involves neither Diesel or Mabel but rather Lex Luger, who makes his final WWF appearance before jumping ship to WCW in time for the first episode of Nitro.

But if we’re writing it off just for the main event, then that would be a disservice to the rest of the card, which is - wait for it - kinda decent! Perhaps realizing they had a real flop of a main event on their hands, the WWF made the wise decision to spice up the card with a WrestleMania X ladder rematch between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels. The verdict is out on whether I like it more than their Mania match, but it’s clear they realized just having a ladder in the match wouldn’t be enough this time, so they upped the ante on spots. What we get is something that may lack the iconic imagery of the Mania match but also may hold up better in the modern sense. The match is also notable for featuring one of the first instances of Michael’s on-air temper tantrums, in connection with his worsening backstage attitude. This time, it’s over how the IC belt is suspended above the ring or something. It’s pretty cringe-worthy to watch. Like, Shawn, get over it and find Jesus already.

The undercard is also full of surprises if you sleep on it. The opening contest between The 1-2-3 Kid and Hakushi is almost like a precursor to the crusierweight battles WCW would popularize the next year. There’s a bizarrely engrossing match between Bret Hart and evil dentist Issac Yankem, partly due to the historical curiosity of watching Bret wrestle the man who would go on to become Kane. One of the biggest highlights of the undercard comes from the least expected source ⏤ longtime journeyman Barry Horowitz, whose underdog storyline against Skip was one of the better ones in mid ‘90s WWF. Many will look at the decision to push Horowitz as a sign of the lack of star power at the time, but it’s a pretty decent story in its own right and the crowd clearly digs it. Oh, and this show marks the first pay-per-view match for a dude named Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.

So, yeah, the WWF definitely wasn’t in a good place by the time SummerSlam 1995 came around. I’m certainly not arguing that. But even in darkness, there was a glimmer of light in the form of a younger roster with potential untapped or just beginning to be. The show’s flaws are upfront (again, that main event) but now on its 25th anniversary, time is only just starting to be kinder to it.

My Random Notes

They literally brought in the British Bulldog just for that one shot of him walking that backstage, huh? Seriously, what was up with that?

I pretty much blacked out during every Dean Douglas segment, sorry. I feel like the Dean Douglas is basically like 65% “mean school teacher” and 35% “dude with a fetish for scratching his nails on a chalkboard, neither of which being particularly interesting.

Man, Dok Hendrix is insufferable on commentary. I genuinely forget that if he isn’t selling you a denim jacket or some shit, much of his material is downright cringe.

Speaking of forgotten on-air personalities of the New Generation era, Manny Garcia is here to fuck up ring announcements and misgender Alundra Blayze (to the point where Vince of all people corrects him, ouch). If had to choose, give me all of that Bill Dunn throatiness any day, baby. 

Maybe it’s just the lighting or something, but I just can’t process this takes the place in the same arena where Mick Foley will be thrown off the Hell in the Cell three years later.

A part of me feels bad for Mabel, mainly because he was just wheeled out as the next big monster heel without any direction on how to play the role effectively and then he got promptly spit out from the company less than six months later as if nothing ever happened. Fortunately he’d got another chance in the Attitude Era, but I’ve always found the trajectory of his main event push to be a little cruel.

Rhonda Singh looks like she hates just about everything about the Bertha Faye character, and I can’t blame her, but don’t worry! Not everyone hates Bertha, judging by this obscure, long-abandoned fan page.

People complain about the booking of the modern WWE tag division now, but at least there’s some semblance of a division. Excluding Owen Hart & Yokozuna, the latter days of 1995 whittled down the division to The Smoking Gunns and The Blu Brothers, the latter played by literal Nazis. It could be worse!

I know it’s pointless to praise Tammy Sytch for practically anything these days, but it’s amazing how much she already overshadows Skip at this point. I’ll always contend she was one of the most charismatic personalities they had on the roster at the time and don’t blame them for making her the center of the tag division. Nonetheless, it’s a point that makes me feel like I’m yelling into an empty hallway as Tammy embarks on her 800th arrest and tasteless social media post about Ashley Massaro.

[terselylove]

29 Manipulative, Toxic Behaviors That Are Disguised As ‘Caring’

1. Overprotectiveness. Not the general caring/protecting someone, but a lot of people seem to think it’s so adorable when someone is super overprotective over someone else.

2. Persistence in relationships. It’s always sold in romcoms and in relationships. But usually your persistence is a complete lack of respect for other people’s boundaries or holding onto things that aren’t working out.

3. People saying they did stuff that directly affects us without our permission because they were ‘looking after your best interests.’

4. Self-sacrifice.

Sometimes sacrificing some of your time and energy is important, but you’ve got to remember that if someone or something is important to you, it doesn’t mean you should cut pieces of yourself or burn yourself out for it. It goes double if you’re caring for someone — if that something or someone is that important to you, you need to make sure that the support you’re giving remains consistent and sustainable, and doesn’t take you out.

We often forget that in many cases, when you’re caring for someone, that that person’s well-being is also tied to your well-being, and if your well-being suffers, that person you’re caring for will suffer, too. And if they’re worth caring for, they’ll notice that you’re suffering, and that won’t be great for them, too.

5. People that do good deeds so they can brag about it or use it to their own advantage.

“Look at me, I’m such a good person! I do all these nice things, not because I wanted to be a good person or anything, nope! Just so I could tell everyone about all the good things I do! Repeatedly. Like all the time. Because I’m a good person, remember? Hey by the way, could you do me a fav-.”

6. Toxic positivity, ie: people who try to find the good in everything. There’s a lot to be said for having a positive outlook but it quickly becomes toxic when you start defending abusers (I’m sure your parents still loved you in their own way) or trivializing people’s sadness (so you got fired – it just means you get to pursue a new opportunity!). Sometimes the appropriate answer to a situation is to just acknowledge that things suck.

7. People that say they’re always 100% honest and aren’t afraid to speak their mind. It’s definitely useful when needed, but most of the time it just makes the person seem insufferable and rude.

8. Ensuring success. Don’t tell your kids that they will do great things, don’t say that you will kill it, give people reasonable expectations and realize they are human.

9. Supporting a person to a fault. In other words, being an enabler.

10. Grand “romantic” gestures. I teach high school and it’s crazy how many times you see a kid basically bully their crush into being with them. They make this huge public display and the kid is too shy to say no in front of everyone. It’s embarrassing and distressing for that poor kid.

11. “Family comes first.” I grew up thinking that I had a very close extended family until I realized just how shitty and miserable most of them were. I have cut them out and feel so much better about it.

12. When people get involved in and regulate other people’s relationships. They try to act like they’re helping but they always make it worse.

13. Being the “supportive” friend/significant other who will never say no even if it’s a really bad idea.

14. Constant self-diminishing and downplaying of your abilities as “humility.” Just accept and recognize that you’re pretty skilled / have a lot of experience in something, instead of saying that it’s easy, that anyone could do the same, and the list goes on.

15. Whataboutism. It’s a pitiful attempt to deflect or excuse your own toxic behavior on the basis that it’s either justified by someone else’s behavior, or, because of a hypothetical situation that doesn’t exist.

16. Excessive stoicism. Not sharing opinions and emotions for fear of weakness harms your relationships with others.

17. Aggressive self-care — sometimes people use this as a hard stop to get out of things that they do not want to do because you can’t argue with someone saying that they need self-care. But there’s a line between doing what you need to in order to bolster emotional and mental health and being lazy/taking advantage of people who want to support self-care more.

18. Putting people down because you feel like your chastity makes you better than them. Ex: when someone accuses a sexually active person of being trashy while their pure holy virgin ass claims that they’re a priceless treasure to the desired gender.

19. While doing gestures for significant other and ruling it as ‘I like treating others like how I would like to get treated’ and secretly hoping they would reciprocate with the same or similar gestures. Also toxic is bringing up these gestures during arguments and holding it against them.

20. Sweeping issues under the rug for the sake of “peace.” In other words, “being the bigger person.”

21. People say they care about you so then they divulge everyone else’s information and private gossip to “protect you.”

22. “Putting people in their place.” I have only ever seen insufferable drama queens and bullies use this term when referring to themselves.

23. Telling kids that they are so different than everyone else while implying that they are somehow better. The actual healthy thing to do is to stress that everyone is unique, and the kid’s natural gifts make them who you are just like other kids’ gifts make them unique.

24. The workaholic. It’s fine to work hard at something you love, but not at the expense of everything else.

25. Not being honest with people solely to make them feel good. It’s kinda 50/50 with this one, if they need the boost then maybe but overall it’s generally a bad move.

26. Being offended on behalf of another person without knowing or wanting to know their opinion.

27. Unwavering loyalty. No, sometimes people don’t deserve it, and you shouldn’t be ashamed to let them go.

28. When you tell people about how you’re feeling (to vent or when they ask how you’re doing in general) and they one-up you to make you feel like you don’t get to feel tired or sad or stressed etc. cause they’re clearly having it harder than you are.

29. People who say, ” This is just the way I am; If you can’t handle that, oh well.” Like… No. You’re wrong. I understand to an extent that if people don’t like you for being yourself, they can go fuck themselves; BUT, if you are a person who seriously does not know how to speak to people or are just rude in general and claim “that’s just how I am,” you’re wrong. People need to know it is not okay to be rude or obnoxious and that you should be able to know the difference of being yourself and just being a DICK.

[schirdotblog]

Examining Disgaea 5′s Writing

Okay I swear I write about things that aren't Disgaea sometimes. I mean, I was working on a script for a video about Super Cloudbuilt recently and I've been writing blog posts about the things I've learned by actually trying to making games over the last few weeks, and I might write a bit about some things I really like about thecatamites's philosophy on game design soon, and I've got other plans in the works too.

But no, instead today I have to write about Disgaea again. This time it's because I want to understand why it is I feel that Disgaea 5's writing is borderline insufferable while finding Disgaea 2 to be really nice and fun.

Now, to understand this feeling, I went and looked at a couple of random midgame cutscenes in Disgaea 5 and took screenshots and video of them. Then I went and re-read the dialogue with the perspective I've gotten from trying to write characters talking in my own games. With a full maybe 20 hours of dialogue writing under my belt, and a couple thousand character-talking hours from playing D&D, it's safe to say that Dunning-Krueger is in full effect here. You have been warned.

In the opening cutscene of Chapter 6, after the reveal that General Bloodis is actually Goldion, Killia reveals to the rest of the party that he used to be Goldion's apprentice. Zeroken is shocked. Killia says that he had fought his way to becoming the Overlord of Cryo Blood, and then had his first defeat at the hands of Goldion, who he then trained under. Seraphina says that Cryo Blood was ruled by Tyrant Overlord Killidia, and asks Killia if he's the same person. Killia responds in the affirmative.

Now, this is just some really rough exposition. It gets even worse in a minute, but this is just really fucking hamfisted. Setting up Killia as the former apprentice of the apparently now-turned-evil big bad is dumb. Killia's been a more-or-less willing participant in this shit without needing to have that established. It's setting up the endgame reveal that Killia and Void Dark trained together under Goldion and that Void Dark's doing this conquering nonsense to resurrect Lizerotte, who Killia liked I guess? But at the same time it doesn't really at any point feel like Killia wants to be involved in any of this. Usually I find that if I'm writing a character who has no desire to be involved in a story, it's better to just toss 'em out and write someone who does. It makes writing feel less like dragging a cat around, and usually winds up making a more likeable character who does things of their own volition, which tends to make the plot way more fun as a consequence. And how can I tell that Killia is the sort of character that has no real reason to be there? I can tell because Killia has to be forced into the plot against his will. He's kidnapped and put into Seraphina's pocket dimension at the start of the game because reasons. This is the sort of plotting I tend to run into in a GM's first tabletop game. Can't figure out how to make the party get together? Lock 'em in a cell together. Fuck it. It's lazy and, frankly, bad writing.

Now is it necessarily a bad thing to have a reluctant protagonist? No, not at all. You just have to give them a reason to be there. I think that's what the writers are trying to do in this scene, but they don't understand that 'giving someone a reason to be there' is writer speak for 'giving someone a reason to take action and do things'. They're suddenly revealing that oh, actually, the main character has a personal relationship with the villain because of his lengthy and tragic backstory. You know what'd be way easier and more effective than this weird set of interlocking personal relationships? Having the main character go "Hey, fuck that guy! We need to stop him!" That'd at least make it seem like the character has some kind of emotions, agency, volition, or investment in what's happening. As it stands though, our main character's involved because he was kidnapped and then revealed to have some kind of intertwining cosmic relationship with the events happening in the story. But again, that's a lot of things that would really help elevate the story if the protagonist, or really anyone else in Disgaea 5, had any amount of say in what things happen.

Like okay, let's rewrite the last few scenes real quick here, just at a broad level. Let's keep the plot beats too, why not. So maybe instead of having Seraphina serendipitously shoot the bad guy's one weak point to reveal that secretly he's also this other guy who secretly trained the protagonist in the past, he just fucking beats the party's collective asses and they book it the fuck outta there. Maybe a quick "shit this guy's too strong, we have to leave, now!" as we fade out.  We fade back in, with the party moping around talking about how they're too weak or some anime shit. Someone brings up needing to get stronger. Killia says that he knows a place they could train; his home world. The chapter would then be spent gradually revealing that Killia was the Overlord there and hinting at bits of backstory. Killia would show some initiative, and you could end the chapter with some Prinny saying they've heard a rumour of Bloodis's weakness and residence. The reveal is that Bloodis still lives on the old training grounds where Killia used to train, and the next chapter's spent there. Show the player cool things and don't just exposit at them. Wow! What an idea.

But no, we're leaving the fantasy land of halfway competent storytelling now. Back to the real game, what actually happens is that Usalia expresses shock and fear on hearing that Killia is Killidia, Red Magnus expresses shock and a desire to fight that immediately evaporates when Seraphina shoots him, Christo says Killia's not an ordinary demon after all with all that magic potential energy he's got, Usalia's surprised that Killidia and Killia are the same person again, and god this fucking cutscene has nothing happening and doesn't end jesus fu- oh good I guess Killia's expositing about some technique he learned and how he's betrayed his master again and fuuuuuuuuuuck this is so fucking boring I think I'm in hell.

So here's the thing that's getting my goose, alright? The story's saying these things and trying to create this tightly interwoven plot where the major players are all related in some way. But then the worlds you go to are just completely unrelated to all of that. General Bloodis's base is some random place, as are the five preceding worlds and the seven following ones, with maybe two exceptions that've been manhandled. They're video game worlds that have no story significance and do nothing besides serve as an irrelevant backdrop. Remember how the first world you went to in Disgaea 1 was the castle of a rebellious servant of the former Overlord? Remember how that showed how little of a fuck anyone gave for Laharl, while also showing how much the demons respected the previous Overlord, and how that set up things to come? Remember how Rozalin kept trying to lure Adell into deathtraps and actively tried to subvert the progression of the plot? Remember how that was the basis for the development of a trusting relationship between those two characters? Remember when the characters had clearly-defined motivations for taking action in the story, and personalities that had sensible reasons for being there?

Yeah, neither does Disgaea 5. None of these characters have any reason to be doing anything here. Their personalities are paper-thin, and all the dialogue comes across as a personality trait reacting to a plot point, rather than a person reacting to something that just happened.

So I guess to answer the question I started writing this for, I don't like Disgaea 5's story because it feels like the plot's happening at a bunch of cardboard cutouts with a single character quirk each. I dislike the story because it falls into the amateur mistake of confusing backstory with personality. It tells us about all of the things that happened to the characters in the past and says 'see? That's who they are' without showing us any of those things. The characters are apparently doing things in the story, but it never quite feels like any character's making the choice to do those things for reasons internal to them personally. It all feels bland and hollow because none of these characters seem like they have any sort of emotional investment in the things that are happening.

[thebootybitchdragon]

Here you go my pretties, here are some random Daniel Masters ideas I have.

Things I Like:

His name is Daniel, and he always refers to himself as such. He never uses any nicknames or variations of it, mostly to keep things from getting confusing since we now have Danny, Dani, Dan and Daniel.

I doubt Vlad's entire motivation for cloning Daniel is to just have a son. I think he either wanted to have him take Danny's place while Danny himself was gotten rid of, or, again, use him as a weapon against Danny. Or for some schemes. A particularly strong idea is sending Daniel, under Danny's guise, into the Fenton Family and having him cause utter havoc to rip it apart.

His human form eyes are a darker blue than Danny's, closer to Vlad's shade. His ghost form's eyes are pink, simply due to the fact that Vlad has red eyes and red eyes for evil or dark 'twin' versions of a character is so overused. Pink is close enough to red to still tie in to the opposite color scheme of Danny's green, like Vlad's red does, and it could also count as a another trait from Vlad since his ectoplasm is mostly pink. His skin is the same tone in both forms as Danny's.

He has a short ponytail. I will fight all of you on this; he needs an evil badass ponytail. The ponytail itself is completely black, bc this child has enough anime hair with his fringe. Overall, his hair is wavier than Danny's.

Daniel is able to take on an appearance identical to Danny's, with very minor differences. The main one is the faint marks where the cloning machine was attached to him. He doesn't like attention drawn to them or people asking about them, even in his true form. The second way is his glowing eye color (which is pink). He is also constantly releasing ectoenergy to maintain the illusion, so he is also able to be detected with any ghost sensor easily.

Daniel initially believes Vlad is infallible, that he is always right, and that his word is law. This is of coarse what Vlad has intentionally taught him. However, as time goes on and he has multiple encounters with Danny and the others, his views begin to get less black and white and he starts seeing problems with what Vlad tells him and does. The first time he questions Vlad, Vlad responds with anger and threats to punish him for 'disobeying'. This causes even more doubt, and starts him questioning just what, exactly, Vlad truly cares about.

He is prone to temper tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants, due to Vlad's spoiling. Danny finds this irritating and complains about it. It occasionally gets them into arguments when they try to work together, because Daniel sometimes has a hard time fallowing Danny's orders even if he realizes its the better plan.

Daniel is a smudge taller than Danny, something he tends to like to flaunt even though its not that big of a difference to warrant it. Mostly it's just because he stands up straight while Danny slumps.

Daniel's ghost half doesn't have the Phantom logo on it. It has the Vladco. logo on the back, between the shoulders.

He is most likely home-schooled, tutored, or otherwise privately educated. Possibly by ghosts. Vlad himself does train him how to use his ghost powers, and it makes a difference bc he quickly becomes a formidable opponent to Danny. Vlad has taught him how to do several select moves that Danny himself has been unable to learn, like proper duplication and ectoenergy redirection.

As a counterbalance to all of the Vlad influence, Daniel has lost the Ghost Wail. It is one of the few advantages Danny has over him.

Speaking of Danny, he never calls Daniel by his name. Ever. He cannot stand to, he is vehemently against it. Daniel is his name. He always refers to Daniel as some kind of rude nickname. As their encounters go on, it becomes a little bit like a game for Danny, to find new things to call him in an attempt to piss Daniel off.

Daniel often dresses, acts, and speaks like a rich spoiled brat because he is one. Vlad will literally get him anything he asks for, something he learned incredibly quickly. As such, he began to ask for incredibly ridiculous things just to see if he'd get them. Thus far, he owns a submarine with an entirely pink inside, a castle made of glass, a tree house palace in his own forest, his own “miniature” jet, three cruise ships, and has an island being made for him, on which he wants to build and upside down tower. Danny has criticized all of this, but Daniel's response is simply “I have an island and you don't, stop being so jealous.”

In the same vein, Daniel always refers to Vlad as “father”, except when hes angry and attempting to be scathing. Whenever he uses the term “Dad”, its a sign that a line has been crossed, and he is very livid. It is also commonly used as an accusation or in that kind of a tone.

He always wear high end fashion, often tailored suits like Vlad. When forced to wear some of Danny's clothing, he complained, “I look so pedestrian.” and “People are going to think I live in the sewer, this is so embarrassing.”

Also: “Move, peasants, your future Prince of Evil is walking here.”

Daniel tends to behave like a more sarcastic, dry-humored rude bratty version of Danny with skewed morals, however he silently suffers from a lack of self image and insecurity. He is constantly worried about his identity, because he can't figure out just who he's supposed to be. He attempts to ignore it, but at night when he can't sleep, it haunts him. He knows he's not normal, not truly human nor ghost in any sense. He sometimes feels fake, like a cheap copy, because he knows he's not his own individual. Its part of the reason he starts mimicking Vlad's over-the-top behavior, to hide his insecurity and lack of identity with fake confidence and narcissism. The more exaggerated he behaves, the worse he feels inside. This is noticed by Vlad, who doesn't notice the underlying problems, and encourages the behavior. Danny notices the change, however he only criticizes it. Jazz is the one to see the cracks in the facade, and the one to shatter it. This confrontation is the first time Danny sees Daniel as an individual like Dani instead of a copy that looks and speaks like him. Danny hadn't considered the clone truly has its own personality, and neither did Vlad.

This is loosely based on the theory presented in the game SOMA: That when you have copies made of you, you are only identical up until the split is made. You then become two different versions of yourself, each believing they're the “true” you. In the game, the people who are being scanned to have a digital copy of themselves put into a computer ark to be sent into space often killed themselves after the scan was complete so that only one of themselves—the scan—would continue to exist. By doing so, they believed they were “continuing” their true existence, when really they were just murdering the biological version of themselves. The conflict of being presented with copies of yourself and of copying yourself is prevalent in the entire game, and it constantly begs the question of “If I'm only a copy, and I still really me?” The game handles it quite intelligently and its a game I cannot recommend enough.

Speaking of insecurity and a lack of identity, Jazz is the one to help Danny cope. This takes precedence over her absolute ire towards Vlad, as she was going to go kick his ass for cloning him yet again. Later, Daniel has a few conversations with Jazz about his own thoughts and issues.

Daniel doesn't understand love. He attempts to “love” Vlad, because sons are supposed to love their fathers, but he doesn't understand it. This is due to a general lack of experience with true care and love, because for all Vlad thinks he's loving and care, it's not quite right. The lack of genuine kindness and empathy is the main issue. The first time he encounters a caring person with those qualities, it is Jazz.

He has an irrational fear of caves and dark holes.

He is a pun master. Some things are just too ingrained in someone to get rid of.

Possible Ideas I'm not sure about:

I am contemplating the loss of the Ice Core, but there are pros and cons to each side. Removing it makes Daniel too different from Danny, as he's supposed to be a clone, however changing it to something else allows for the possibility of a better dynamic; ie: if Daniel had a fire core, that would make him more difficult to fight for Danny, yet also uncomfortable for him as they'd be opposites. As of right now, I've no intentions of changing his core type. I did have an idea where Daniel has an Ice core, however its “tainted”. It's darker and a more prone to forming in jagged, broken ways with dark blues and purple discolorations like bruises. Another idea had been the Icefire core, however I felt that, combined with the already suggested things, was too much Vlad influence, especially for such a large part of his design and character.

Daniel envies those around him who had/have mothers. He finds the concept abstract and foreign, and he wants it. He over-idolizes it, due to inexperience and his own yearning, holding mothers and the concept of motherhood in an almost deity-like regard that's oddly childish. “A mother is the person who can take away any and all pain with her love, who can fix things with a few soft words.” He keeps this fascination/desire/envy a secret, entirely due to Vlad's repeated statement that he was the parental figure. This causes him to become incredibly curious about Maddie, which is exactly as awkward as you'd expect. He never reveals himself, however, and after his existence is revealed, he avoids her specifically as he doesn't know how to interact with her.

He adopted Vlad's swearing habits, however its rare and he uses household objects or small items instead of sweets. He also tends to use them more as insulting nicknames directed towards someone or something: “You absolute moronic table leg!” “Get back here, you insufferable ping pong ball!” “Wel you're a freakin wet paper towel!” -muttering under his breath- “Pens in a basket...”

A minor gripe with the concept Butch did was that he stated Vlad put on a few pounds. Which I legitimately cannot see. Vlad is a wine glass, he cannot be anything else. Even when he did get more muscled as the seasons went on, it was all in his chest, the man does not have a stomach. You can pry my big tiddy'd wine glass mile long legged Vlad from my cold dead hands. (I did like that is seemed like some of his ghost half was starting to leak over into his human form, with the hair shape. Vlad's finally got his devil horns.)