#which will be very soon if anyone even THINKS 'wow this dialogue is rough'

[kingprinceleo]

desert vampires au- dont look at me im so awful at dialogue im gonna jump into a creek DHBJFJHBHSBF but uhhh idk if ill finish this but omg amy hiiii

[felassan]

Some DA trivia and dev commentary from Twitter

There’s a lot of different tweets, so I’m just pasting and linking to the source rather than screencapping them all or making several different posts or something. Post under cut for length.

User: Was dragon age 2 your favourite in the franchise?

David Gaider: DA2 was the project where my writing team was firing on all cylinders, and they wrote like the wind- because they had to! Second draft? Pfft. Plot reviews? Pfft. I was so proud of what we all accomplished in such a brief time. I didn't think it was possible. [source] DA2 is, however, also where the goal posts kept moving. Things kept getting cut, even while we worked. I had to write that dialogue where Orsino turned even if you sided with him, because his boss battle had been cut and there was no time to fix the plot. A real WTF moment. >:( [source]

Mike Rousseau: I remember bugging that! And then being told it wasn't a bug, and being so confused. Doing QA for DA2 was an experience. Trial by fire. [source]

DG: So I think it's safe to say DA2 is my favorite entry in the DA franchise and also the sort of thing I never want to live through ever again. Mixed feelings galore. [source]

User: (I personally blame whoever it was for ruining most romance arcs in other games for me; they don't live up to Fenris's romance storyline)

DG: I wrote Fenris, so uh - me, I guess? Or maybe his cinematic designer, who put in the puppy dog eyes. [source]

User: If DA2 had just been an expansion, do you think it would have been better received? There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I think my initial dislike of it was because of the zone reuse. If it hadn't needed to be a full game, would that issue not have arisen?

DG: Hard to say. It was either going to be an over-scoped expansion or an under-scoped sequel. If it had stayed an expansion, it might never have received the resources/push it DID get. [source]

User: I'd love to visit the universe where you had an extra year or so to work on it. You did a very good job as it stands, but it definitely had rough edges. Not just the writing team either. The whole game had hit and miss moments, that just a little more dev time could have fixed.

DG: On one hand, DA2 existed to fill a hole in the release schedule. More time was never in the cards. DA2 was originally planned as an expansion! On the other, if we had more time, would we have started doing that thing where we second guess/iterate ourselves into mediocrity? [shrug emoji] [source] 

Jennifer Hepler: This is what I love about DA2. Personally, I greatly prefer something that's rough and raw and sincere to something that's had all the soul polished out of it. Extra time would have helped for art and levels, but it would have lost something too. [source]

DG: Right? I think we could have used some time for peer reviews (and fewer cuts), but I think the rawness of the writing lent a certain spark that we usually polished out. [source]

JH: Definitely. I think the structure (more character-driven) and the tightness of the timeframe let each individual writer's voice really come through. Polish can be very homogenizing. [source]

DG: I should add I'm not, by any means, against iteration. Some iteration is good and necessary. The problem that BioWare often had is that we never knew when to stop. Like a goldfish, we would fill the space given to us by constantly re-iterating on things that were "good enough". [source]

Patrick Weekes: I appreciate your incredibly diplomatic use of the past tense on "had". :D [source]

User: DA2 was my gateway into the series and I’m so happy it is. I love the game the way that it is. It’s one of my favorites of all time. But I am also aware of everything that was said here. If it were remastered, do you think it would change?

DG: I'd be surprised if it was ever remastered. If it was, do you really think they'd change things? Do remasters do that? No idea. [source]

User: Both sides got undercut as I recall. Didn't that whole sequence also end with the mage leader embracing blood magic? It was very much "a plague on both your houses" moment, at least for me.

DG: Yep. Orsino was supposed to have his own version of Meredith's end battle, which only happened if you sided with the templars. That got cut, but the team still wanted to use the model we'd made for him. So... that happened. [source]

DG: I would personally say that DA2 is a fantastic game hidden under a mountain of compromises, cut corners, and tight deadlines. If you can see past all that, you'll see a fantastic game. I don't doubt, however, that it's very difficult for most to do that. [source]

PW: I love DAI with all my selfish "I worked on this" heart, but DA2's follower arcs and relationships are probably my favorite in the series. [source]

User: As I've expressed many times, I love the game, especially it's writing and characters but, for me, the most impressive aspect of it, in consideration of it's lack of time for drafts and revisions, is the 2nd act with Arishok.  What amazingly complex character and fantastic duel

User: Just played it again and I have to agree. Though he is bound by the harsher tenants of the Qun, he makes valid points about free marcher society. Though it is obvious that he and Hawke will come to blows eventually, the tension builds gradually and understandably

DG: Luke did such a fantastic job with the Arishok I found myself sometimes wishing the Qunari plot had just been THE plot. [source]

User: What do you think would have changed, story wise, if you had more time for DA2?

DG: I would have taken out that thing where Meredith gets the idol. It was forced on me because she needed to be "super-powered" with red lyrium for her final battle. Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that. [source]

User: I deeply lament that there wasn't/couldn't be some sort of DA2 equivalent of Throne of Bhaal's Ascension mod.

DG: I'd have done it, if DA2 had allowed for anything but the most rudimentary of modding. ;) [source]

User: I mean, and I think I understand where you were trying, but how much legitimacy did the Templars and her as top Templar have after they're keeping the mages locked up against their will in the old slave quarters? Feel free to not reply.

DG: I think it's the kind of discussion which requires nuance, and which discussions on the Internet are not prone to. [source]

User: Was a compromise that the quest lines don’t branch? It felt like it was supposed to be that way but then you end up in the same place later regardless of what you pick. Like I hoodwinked the templars so good to help the apostates escape but in Act II they were caught anyway.

DG: I remember us having a lot more branching in the initial planning yes. Most of this got trimmed out in the first or second wave of cuts, in an effort to not cut the plots altogether. [source]

DG: "If you could Zack Snyder DA2, what would you change?" Wow. I'm willing to bet Mark or Mike (or anyone else on the team) would give very different answers than me, but it's enough to give a sober man pause, because that was THE Project of Multiple Regrets. [source] I mean, it's the most hypothetical of hypotheticals. It's never gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised if EA considered DA2 its embarrassing red-headed stepchild. We'd also need to ignore that in many ways DA2 was as good as it was bad BECAUSE of how it was made. But that aside? [source] First, either restore the progressive changes to Kirkwall we'd planned over the passing of in-game years or reduce the time between acts to months instead of years... which, in hindsight, probably should have been done as soon as the progressive stuff was cut. [source] I'm sure you're like "get rid of repeated levels!" ...but I don't care about that. All I wanted was for Kirkwall to feel like a bigger city. Way more crowded. More alive! Fewer blood mages. [source] I'd want to restore the plot where a mage Hawke came THIS close to becoming an abomination. An entire story spent trapped in one's own head while trapped on the edge of possession. Why? Because Hawke is the only mage who apparently never struggles with this. It was a hard cut. [source]

User: I would LOVE to hear more details about this! I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a short story?

DG: I don't even remember the details of the story, sorry. There was a fight, and you caught the bad guy and then realized none of it was real and woke up idk [source]

DG: I'd want to restore all those alternate lines we cut, meaning people forget they'd met you. Or that they knew you were a mage. Or, oh god, that maybe they'd romanced you in DAO. So much carnage. [source] I'd want to restore the Act 3 plots we cut only because they were worked on too late, but which would have made the buildup to the mage/templar clash less sudden. Though I don't remember what they were, now. Some never got beyond being index cards posted on the wall. [grimace emoji] [source] As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd want to restore Orsino's end battle so he wouldn't need to turn on you even if you sided with him. And I'd want an end fight with the templars that didn't require Meredith to have red lyrium and go full Tetsuo. [source] Heck, maybe an end decision where you sided with neither the mages nor the templars. Because it certainly ended up feeling like you could brand both sides as batshit pretty legitimately, no? That was never planned, tho. No idea how to make that feel like an actual path atm. [source] Maybe an option to go "umm, Anders... what are you DOING?" 👀 [source] And, of course, a Varric romance, because Mary took that "slimy car salesman" character we'd planned and did the impossible with him. I can feel Mary glaring at me for even suggesting this, tho. [source] Lastly, the original expanded opening to the game which allowed you to spend time with Bethany and Carver BEFORE the darkspawn attacked. And, um, that's about it off the top of my head. Zack Snyder, WHAT PANDORA'S BOX HAVE YOU OPENED. [source] Shit, I remembered two more things: 1) Restore the "Varric exaggerates the heck out of the story" at the beginning of every Act, until Cassandra calls him on it. Yes, that was a thing. 2) Make DA: Exodus. Yes, I am still bitter. [source] God damn it, I meant "Make DA: Exalted March". The DA2 expansion, NOT Exodus since that was DA2's original name and makes no sense. Because the expansion ended with Varric dying, and that will always be on my "things left undone" list. [source]

User: Whaaaat?

DG: Well, you know that scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock goes into the dilithium chamber because he's a Vulcan? Well, imagine that but with Varric and red lyrium and because he's a dwarf. ;) [source]

John Epler: I distinctly remember referencing the bit from MGS4 where you crawl through the microwave corridor in the split screen, while cinematic battle rages on the other half. [source]

DG: It would have been glorious, John. Glorious. [source]

JE: I don't think I've ever been so certain what a shot should look like as I did Hawke coming in and finding Varric in the broken throne, just like when he was telling Cassandra his story. [source]

DG: It would have come full circle! Auggghh, it still kills me. [source]

User: Lord, you folks are a little too good at this.

JE: The true secret behind videogame narrative is knowing how to make yourself seem a lot more clever than you actually are. [source] 'Oh, we TOTALLY planned that.' [source]

User: Ok, this thread [the DA2 regrets thread, which is the big chunks above] but Inquisition.

DG: My regrets about Inquisition are, more or less, the normal kind. Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid. [source]

User: You can keep your Varric romance, I want a Flemeth romance goddamnit!

DG: I would allow for one flirt option, and then a recording of Kate Mulgrew laughing for three minutes straight. [source]

User: I had a hypothesis about the repetitive caves in DA2. They're repetitive because it's Varric telling the story and he didn't consider them important.  They're like sets in a play.  (Okay, I really suspect it was a time/money/resources thing but I like my fake explanation better.)

DG: Hang a lampshade on it, maybe? Cassandra: "But that's the exact cave you were in last time?" Varric: "Whatever. They all look the same, I'm not THAT kind of dwarf. Can we move on?" [source]

User: that makes sense, hypothetically to make Varric romanceable and keep his arc—that had to happen for the main plot—I imagine you would have to make double the content (or more)? which would've been a tall order given the time/budget constraints the game was under

DG: Right. When it comes to "romance arc" vs. "follower story arc", we generally only had time to do one or the other. Never both. Romancing Varric would have meant not getting the story of his that you did. [source]

Mary Kirby: The one exaggeration I really, REALLY wanted, that we never got to do was Varric narrating his own death scene with Hawke weeping over him, then cutting to Cassandra's pissed off glaring at him. [source]

DG: Haha! The one I wanted was Varric's plot where he takes on the baddies single-handedly, sliding across the floor like Jet Lee, action movie-style, until finally Cassandra gets irritated and he has to admit Hawke & the rest of the party showed up to help. [source]

MK: We did that one! (He didn't do any Jet Lee moves, though.) Jepler gave him letterboxing to get The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly showdown vibes while he shot a ton of mooks single-handed. [source]

DG: Wow. Shows how much I remember. [source]

JE: I found it! I remember seeing this sequence as my treat for doing a bunch of much more challenging work. It was fun to see how far I could push our limited library of animations. [link] [source]

DG: Heh awesome. I could have sworn it was cut, honestly. I think I was even in that meeting. [source]

User: no disrespect but that’s surprising and rich of Mary “Hard in Hightown” Kirby to think DA2 shouldn’t have had a Varric romance when she wrote an entire book of Varric’s self-insert character pining over his Hawke insert character… HIH is the reason we had VHawke Summer 2018

DG: I can't *really* speak for Mary, or how she feels about it now compared to back then. I only know how she felt about it back then, and I'm not sure it was as much the concept of the romance but that Varric's entire story would be bent to "romance arc" ...a very different thing. [source]

JH: I remember pushing to have the first DLC start with Hawke having an option to ask Varric, "Did you tell Cassandra about us?" and if you picked it, Varric would answer, "Of course not, baby. I told her you were sleeping with X..." and then proceed as if you had had a full romance. [source]

DG: I still wonder how that would have gone over. x) [source]

JE: Okay, one more DA2 thing. Putting together the cinematics for this scene was a blast. [link] [source]

MK: These lines are my greatest legacy. I want "Make sure the world knows I died... at Chateau Haine!" inscribed on my tombstone. [source]

JE: I was so glad no one said 'no' to the crane shot. [source]

MK: It needs that crane shot. It's the perfect icing on that cake made from solid cheese. [source]

DG: The designers were all "we need more combat" and I think we were all "I think you underestimate just HOW interesting we can make this dinner party". [source]

JE: And finally. I think @SherylChee wrote the one-liner. I think we had a collection of like, 20. [link] [source]

Sheryl Chee: Yeah! Something like that! I remember submitted a whole bunch and Frank said you only needed one. Wish I'd kept the other fifteen. [source]

JE: A random chooser where, each time through the scene, you get a different one-liner. [source]

JE: DA2 is the project I'm the proudest of. I also absolutely get that it didn't land for a lot of people. But I don't think it's inaccurate to say that, in a lot of ways, DA2 defined my career. [source]  Everyone spent a year working at their maximum ability. I was a fresh cinematic designer and was given all of Varric's content, as well as the Act 1 Finale mission. It was a lot for someone who had been doing the Cinematics thing for literally 6 months. [source]  There's some stuff in there I can't look at without wincing. And there's some stuff I'm genuinely proud of. Not to mention, it was my introduction to most of the writing team. Several of whom I'm still working with today! Albeit in a different capacity [source] Also, weirdly, one of my most enduring memories of Dragon Age 2 is how much Bad Company 2 we'd play at lunch. It was a LOT. [source] Every game I've worked on has a game I played attached to it. ME2 is Borderlands. DA2 is Bad Company 2. DAI is DayZ. I, hmm. There's a progression there. I don't know how I feel about it. [source]

User: Is DA4 going to be tarkov then?

JE: I've kind of churned out of Tarkov for now. Probably Hunt Showdown, at least right now. [source]

User: I think people also don't take nuance into consideration -- like I FULLY acknowledge the flaws in my favorite games and will openly criticize them, but that doesn't mean they're not my favorite games anymore??? You can like and thing and still be critical of it.

JE: A lot of my favourite shit is deeply flawed! I acknowledge it and I think it's interesting to dissect the flaws. [source]

User: I still wish Justice was an actual character in DA2 rather than a plot point.

DG: There was a moment during DAI where we *almost* put in you running into Justice with the Grey Wardens, and he's all "Kirkwall? I never went to Kirkwall" [source]

User: Does that imply that Justice was shoehorned in to DA2?

DG: Nah, it was an in-joke where we thought it'd be fun to suggest that "Justice" was simply some demon that tricked Anders in DA2. Wooo those tricky demons! We didn't do it, though. [source]

User: [about templars]  except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves [source]

User: Can you shed some light for us on how DA was able to do multiple same-sex romance options for different genders but the Mass Effect team treated them like the plague? What process existed for your team that just wasn't their for the other tentpole franchise?

DG: Different people making the decisions, almost different cultures. I don't know what it's like now, but for many years the Mass Effect team and the Dragon Age team were almost like two different studios working within the same building. [source]

User: It truly boggles the mind. Kudos for doing demonstrably better on consistent queer representation than the ME teams. Y'all never needed us to make petitions to try to get the studio's attention and ask them to do better by us. That's the fight we're once again embroiled in now.

DG: Honestly, I don't feel like tut-tutting the Mass Effect team. They did their part, and if they were a bit later to the show than the DA team they certainly did more than almost every other game out there -- and willingly. [source]

Updates begin here

User: So what was the reason for naming Dragon age 2 "Dragon age II" and not using a subtitle?

DG: As I recall, that was purely a publisher decision. I think they wanted to avoid the impression it was an expansion. [source]

User: Is there no chance of ever remaking DA2 under better circumstances? -Somehow remove the repetitiveness of gameplay by making changes and updating the tech and adding much more to the storyline. It could almost be a new very exciting game.

DG: I'd say there's zero chance of that. Let's keep our hopes up for the next DA title instead. [source]

User: I am a little confused here, help me out here please! How exactly was the cut boss battle with Orsino supposed to work out? How it would've kept him from turning against the player?

DG: It means that, if you sided with the templars, the entire boss bottle at the end would have been against Orsino and the mages. No fight against Meredith. The end decision would have been more divergent. [source]

User: I do remember that one of the reasons going around for that, was that resources were going to the transition to Frostbite. I'm still not fully sold on that having been a good choice. I felt that more time should have been given for that transition considering it was made for FPSs

DG: We didn't transition to Frostbite until DAI. Given our time frame for DA2, I don't think we *could* have transitioned to a new engine. [source]

User: Since your talking about the what could have been for DA2. Could you say what your script was for Anthem? Cause I remember reading that you wrote the plot on that game.

DG: I created a setting for Anthem and scripted out a plot - but, as I understand it, almost none of that ended up being used. So it's a bit pointless to talk about what I'd planned, as that'd be for some completely different type of game. [source]

User: [in reference to the exchange above where DG said “Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that.” re: Meredith] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves. [source]

If I missed a tweet, got the wrong source link or included a tweet twice, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct.

Edit / Update: Post update 22nd April

[carmenxjulia]

Another Duane interview transcript, coming at you! This one was from a smaller Carmen Sandiego chatroom. There were several interviewers, so that’s why the name of the question asker changes. Get the details below the break! Stay tuned, more interview transcripts coming soon.

Duane Capizzi:

HI EVERYONE! I'M IN!

Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way haha. Then got lost trying to change my PFP

Thanks for gathering! Shall we get started? Let's do some Q&A!

(as long as they are not geography questions haha)

Fuel:

What characters or plot points were cut from the final product?

Duane Capizzi:

Ooo, starting with a right hook to the jaw!

Let me think about that for a moment: I'm hesitant to give too much away because I'm really hoping we can tell more stories in this world at some point

Which is to say, we tend not to waste anything: if we don't use it when we originally planned, we usually find a way to use something later - and there's usually a "karmic" reason that we waited.

I'll also preface by saying this: I know season 3 was more of a mini-drop and some felt season 4 was rushed. But I wish EVERY season were longer. Season 1: ideally, i wanted the Pilot to be its own event and 10 more episodes after that (but we had to tell the post-Pilot story in 7. At the end of the day, that had its benefits: we got to the Shadowsan turn earlier and I think that's when a lot of viewers realized the ride they were truly in for). Season 2: we initially figured we'd need 5 episodes to have Carmen doing the ACME dance with Chief, and wound up doing it in 3 - mostly because it quickly became clear that Rio needed to be a 2 parter, and the Zack and Ivy backstory a rough 2 parter. So we squeezed 3 episodes worth of plot into 209. It was exhilarating!

So, we had hoped to have more episodes for Season 4 of course. We had a ton of ideas and had to compress things a bit. But honestly in many ways it was for the better. I know we all wanted to live in this world longer, but I think sometimes the flip side is true - when you have big ongoing storylines, it can get frustrating when some things drag out too long. But, we got all the "story" we wanted to tell in Season 4 - we just lost some "incident" if that makes sense. We would have taken longer to get there.

So, all that preface to answer the question: we wanted to do more musical numbers! We had a Bollywood dance sequence in a return to India caper with Paperstar. We wanted to do a famous Elvis suit theft in Las Vegas during an Elvis impersonator convention (Shadowsan's an early elvis guy; Brunt likes the Vegas "jumpsuit" era). We also wanted to do a thread where Gunnar gets captured by ACME so that Julia could interrogate him and he could play mind games with her a la Hannibal Lector and Clarice. CAVEAT TO ALL THIS: these were some ideas that were bouncing around, that may not have seen the light of day if we couldn't get them to work. But they were on our wish list.

re: "other stories" - I could live with these characters for another 32 episodes easily and there have of course been discussions. But alas, that is up to the powers that be. Let's keep fingers crossed - and keep the Carmen love alive online so that someone up there takes note

There is more of course, but those are some things that spring to mind.

Fuel:

Were there any scenes cut for time that were your favorite?

Duane Capizzi:

Not much springs to mind: our directors were amazing at getting everything in the scripts to fit naturally (and in fact, I was the one who was usually suggesting trims to let other things breathe, etc). We were limited to 22 minutes of episode time, NOT counting front and end credits so a little longer than the average show. We have a pretty good idea when the SCRIPT is too long, so the cutting usually happens at script stage before it gets to the board crew so that they don't waste efforts over-boarding material that won't be used.

We had hoped to build out Chase and Carmen teaming up for the first time, meeting at Carmen's hotel lobby etc for more scenes of them together; but had to reduce that to get that all to fit in the VERY packed episode 406. But again, tighter was fine considering. That's one area that leaps to mind. (note that when I say packed, I don't mean that in a bad way: we spend a lot of time pouring over details in editing to make sure everything gets its due).

If I think of anything, I'll circle back at a later point. But the simple answer is that scenes were usually trimmed or compressed at script rather than board or animatic. So nothing comes to mind. I know it's hard to believe, but "shorter is usually better."

except for my answers to fan questions of course

Fuel:

We saw that in s4 episode 6 that Julia's mother(?) is wearing a necklace remarkably similar to the one Julia wears all the time. Is this the same necklace and if so, why was it given to Julia?

Duane Capizzi:

Just when I thought I was detail oriented! Wow! You guys blow me away

I can't take credit for that: it was either the board artist or director who added that. They do slip things in! As I've said before, EVERYONE on the crew really brought their A-game and were as deep thinking and as passionate as I was/am about the show.

It's a nice detail and I would say your interpretation works!

It took me three or four reviews before noticing that the team had slipped in baby Carmen near the play set in Mom's front yard at the end of 408. When I caught it, I was like: bravo!

Fuel:

When they first met, Zack and Ivy said to Carmen that they were the only family they had, do you know what happened to the rest of Zack and Ivy's family?

Duane Capizzi:

I don't. At least, I don't yet until such a time that I might have the opportunity to explore that. It was important to their relationship with Carmen that they be orphans, so they had that common bond (aside from being "thieves who steal from bad guys" - even if it was only gonna be one time for Zack and Ivy).

I know there are writers out there who like to do entire bio's for characters up front but i'm not one of them. It could be a trap in many ways. I like to have a general idea but be open to the demands of the ongoing storyline. You discover things along the way - it's like you're taking a journey with the characters by writing them, and the longer you spend, the better you get to know them (that was not a prepared statement by the way - I just made that up but I'll have to use it again :). So in Z/I's case it wasn't important to the story or Carmen's relationship, we felt. Conversely, we STARTED with Shadowsan's family backstory with 203, but more important to me was that we use it as a platform to explain why he stays with Carmen and crew. He really has no home at that point, so it was relevant to the present ongoing story. Which is what made that especially powerful to me.

Also, there's always a push-pull between telling character back stories while balancing them with ongoing episodic plots. You have to service both. If you just tell back story, then you're writing a biography

Arden:

What was the biggest challenge when designing these characters, especially the pre-existing characters from the series in the 90's?

Duane Capizzi:

This is probably more of a question for Chromosphere, re: challenges. But from my standpoint overseeing that process, the first thing I'll say is that we weren't necessarily trying to be "true" to those characters since we reinvented nearly every one from the ground up. (with the exception of Carmen of course - her trademark red hat/coat weren't going anywhere! But mostly the update with Carmen was in the styling of her "outerwear"

ALTHOUGH: I will admit that I was pushing for Carmen to have shorter hair as Carmen. I thought it would be a cool update. Chromosphere were really passionate about giving her long full hair and I have to see that they were right. The short tomboy cut worked so well for Black Sheep anyway. We had a different hair style for each of her ages.

So about the reinventions: Gunnar is in spirit a similar character to the original (old colleague in Vile and an early mentor if I remember), but his presentation completely different. We weren't trying to be "in canon" with the original. The beauty of CSD is that every incarnation has been its own entity so that freed us to reimagine the characters. THE CLEANERS, for instance: gimme some Cleaner love! There were a pair of janitors from the original game named RICK AND NICK ICK. They were literally janitors, it was too silly for our purposes. But, it's one small step to make them "Cleaners" (in the sinister hit men sense) - and lo, our reinvention.

So to summarize the answer to your question, they weren't really challenges to me so much as FUN to creatively reinvent the original characters (many of which were from the game, so not really "characters" per se with dialogue and inner lives). Whenever we could, we tried to use character names from the originals and update their looks and personalities. Where we couldn't find an equivalent for what we needed, we created characters from whole cloth. For instance, it seemed a miss to do a heist show without a tunnel guy and a high rise climber guy. Hence, LC & ET, everyone's favorite taco truck vendors!

(yes, i've seen some short hair carmen fan art on Twitter - someone did a great one recently!)

Arden:

Are there plans to give us more of the characters in, say, novel/graphic novel form?

Duane Capizzi:

I know HMH has done a bunch and no doubt have more in works. There's currently a novelization of the Pilot with some additional material if anyone's interested. I consulted on the second one, Clue for Clue, because it falls in the timeline while Chase was still Interpol/pre-Acme so was tricky.

And depending on whether another series in this canon makes it to air, I may just approach them about writing one or two myself to get some "further adventures" our there. Anything is possible!

Arden:

If you could go back and change anything about the series, what would it be?

Duane Capizzi:

File under anecdote, but there was what I felt was an important expression on Gray that kept me awake at nights, from his graduation ceremony at Vile. When we revisited those flashbacks in the Gray arc in Season 4, I had them change his expression there (to be more evil less innocent). We had it corrected in 404 so was able to get permission to have Netflix "fix" the Pilot by adding that shot in. I am tenacious!

We really poured over everything, it's the series that I have virtually zero complaints with the end product to be honest. But the simple answer is: I would have gone back to 106 and "un-greek'd" Gray's nametag. It's sort of a rule for international that we scramble signage (which is weird for a show that takes place in many countries/languages, I know I know). It's mostly for localization/translation reasons. And I'm sure there are some countries where Gray's name might be spoken differently. But as a proper name, I think we could have made an exception and seen "Gray" on his name tag. See? Details! But that's about the worst of it

there's also like one small line from Chief in 208 where she indicates she knows Carmen is a good guy (something to that effect) which I felt was too absolute and would have tweaked the line to temper it a bit. It's tiny, but looking back it sort of bugs me and I kick myself for not catching it. But this is absolutely the series I wanted and couldn't be happier.

Carmen:

How did Carmen know she could trust Julia? As far as we know, she has not seen or heard Julia defending her, and in the Fashionista Caper, Julia even held up her gas gun to her, saying she was under arrest. Do you have any opinions on this? Was it just intuition?

Duane Capizzi:

I'm gonna go with intuition

Carmen was raised on an island with some hardened criminal types. I think she's a pretty good judge of character. Poor Julia, trying to be tough with Carmen didn't suit her.

But, great observation! I'd have to mentally step through everything to see if Carmen had any earlier indication but i think you're right there.

Yes, sometimes you just gotta follow your heart

Carmen:

Are there any characters that didn't actually interact that you think would get along well?

Duane Capizzi:

Amazing question! First, I'd have to think more about who DIDN'T meet - you're asking the hard questions haha. But "get along well" is very specific! Hmmm, care to volley anyone?

I'll also add that so many smaller moments get lost in the "binge" of it all, but I am surprised how few fans have noted the first meeting between Player and Julia. THAT was a good one IMO! Very sweet!

Before getting back to your question, I also want to add that we were originally going to find a way for Carmen to lose her earring in Stockholm so that Julia could pick it up and be communicating with Player. BUT, I cut it at treatment stage because I knew we didn't have room in that episode to service it. Circling back to questions 1 & 2, another case where it turned out better saved for later IMO (saving Player meeting Julia, not to mention the earring business in 402 with Ivy).

Oh of course, Julia and any of the other Vile members. It would have been Gunnar for my vote, as mentioned earlier. We probably would not have had Julia meet anyone else and mixed it up more. I like that Cleo sort of became J's personal nemesis.

YES, SONIA & XIFENG (and LUPE PELIGRO, if I can add). The intent was (and is, if we ever get to revisit) to see them again in Carmen's travels. We started to expand Carmen's world but when we finally learned the finite number of episodes we had to finish the story, we drilled back down into the essentials. Would love to see them some day!

I'm hesitant to share too many things I have in mind in this forum for hope that they will see the light of day one day. You know, "spoilers"

Julia:

Do you have any opinions on Zari? Just in general? Some thoughts on her backstory would be nice if possible

Duane Capizzi:

I love Zari! I really don't have any back story on her at this point. She was originally just "Agent B" but when the need arose to give story points to another agent, we chose her because she looked so awesome! And Sharon Muthu gave voice to her so wonderfully.

I love when we finally teamed her with Chase. Hopefully the anticipation was that she would give him a hard time. I love that we defied expectation (organically, of course) and had her respect him by the end of that episode (for believing that he foiled Carmen!)

Julia:

Do you have any thoughts on small facts about any character, major or minor, that you think are fun/interesting to think about, but don't necessarily add to the plot itself?

Duane Capizzi:

Bellum, like myself, likes cats. But you knew that!

I try to put everything pertinent on screen, doing double duty to service any given episode's story but also the overarching story. That "journey" thing I mentioned earlier - we had no idea Chase falling on his own car would be a thing when I first came up with it. But as other characters refer to the incident, it took on a life of its own and made the characters feel more real.

Sorta kinda related to this question and some earlier ones, I will say that I DO think there's more to learn about Shadowsan's past vis a vis Lady Dokuso: it's clear to me that they have a history together, and it's something I hope to explore someday soon (maybe in a book if not another series

Julia:

Are the Carmen Sandiego books a part of canon?

Duane Capizzi:

I only consulted on the first two or three (too busy with series!) and have not read them, so hard for me to answer in a definite way. They are definitely in the universe we've created, but not in the timeline that I know of (which would have been too hard to pull off with our script development running concurrently). But do know that the book team at HMH pays close attention to the series and world so they should be perfectly compatible. Look no further to their clever social media on the series for example.

Kenz:

We saw in season 4 that Julia and Carmen helped each other mid to long term; would there ever be a possibility that Julia would permanently or semi-permanently join team Red?

Duane Capizzi:

Of course there's a possibility. But in a sense, with ACME now finally on Carmen's side, in a sense if Carmen were back in the game Julia, Chase, Zack and Ivy would ALL be an extension of Carmen's crew. But, would J remain with ACME or literally come to Carmen's team at her HQ? As they said in an old radio show: "Only The Duane Capizzi knows ..."

Kenz:

Where do you see Carmen in her retirement (if she retires)? Do you think she would still travel the world or settle down somewhere? Similarly, do you have any thoughts on what some other characters could be doing years down the line?

Duane Capizzi:

That is a big question, and one difficult to answer without some potential future spoilers (and yes, I really want to tell more Carmen stories if you can't tell But I'll answer by giving you one "read" on our open-ended ending as seen in 408 (read no further if you haven't seen it - yeah, right haha). The ending suggests to me that Carmen settled down for a spell to forge that relationship with her mother, to make up for lost time. But, if that is indeed Carmen that we see on the rooftop, I think the ending suggests that Carmen doesn't stay still for very long. If Vile is back, there is work to be done! Carmen has a life mission - she's one determined lady.

But of course, it's deliberately ambiguous: "anyone with your heart, wisdom and courage can be Carmen Sandiego." Is it Carmen? Sonia? Someone we haven't met? I think both endings resonate: Caroline and I always said "Carmen is bigger than a person, Carmen is a movement" would be a great message to end the series on. And I think our ending resolves this chapter of Carmen's journey as a person, but also elevates her to mythic status. Which is why I love it!

And, that seems to me a pretty perfect question and answer to end our chat on. Thanks everyone! Again, I cannot tell you how moved I am to see that we have such a passionate, intelligent and talented fan base. THANK YOU.

Take care guys, thanks again for having me! 'night!

[pikapeppa]

5 Questions for Writers

First of all, @serial-chillr​ I LOVE YOUR WRITER TAG MEMES. Second of all, I looked at these questions and was immediately like, “... favourites of everything? Out of all the things?” [stares hopelessly at all the ships and fics] BUT LET’S GIVE THIS A TRY.

Tagged by @serial-chillr​ @faerieavalon​ @elveny​ @hellas-himself​ @myfeyrelady​!

1. Do you have a favourite character to write? Who and why?

Fenris. WOW EVERYONE IS SHOCKED. But the thing I most love writing about Fenris is the complexities of his relationships with the Inquisition companions in particular, which is the main focus in Lovers In A Dangerous Time (i.e. Fenris the Inquisitor fic). I LOVE writing Fenris talking to Solas, Dorian, Varric and Cole especially. And, of course, always, Fenris with Rynne. 

Solas is a very close second because he’s so multifaceted and has so many moods. I also love writing smut for him because understated dom!Solas hits all my buttons… [fans self]  

2. Do you have a favourite trope to write? Or one you want to write?

Uhhhh… I guess Fenris and Rynne are a pretty classic case of the angry character/sunshine character ship trope. Mutual pining is a favourite, exemplified with FenRynne but also with Abelas and Athera Lavellan. I’M BAD AT IDENTIFYING MY OWN TROPES, someone else needs to help me out here haha!! 

3. Share your favourite description you’ve written?

Bahaha when I first saw this question I was like “UGHHH I hate writing descriptions of places.” Then I realized that a lot of the smut I write is descriptions and I was like “YEAHHHH”. So here is some Fenris/Rynne Hawke smut (from “My Body Is A Cage”): 

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

The heat, the slick pressure of her throat and the hard pressure of her knuckles between his legs, her firm fingertips digging into his lower ribs: Hawke gave all of this to him, grounding him and holding him here in the bed they shared. Fenris was caught, helplessly and blissfully captured in this cage of his own pleasure. He was his body, living in it and relishing it and all the things that it could feel.

Pleasure and sensation, heat and tightness and the pounding of his own pulse, and even the things that had nothing to do with Hawke at all - the smooth flannel of the sheets under his sweat-dampened back and the tension in his fists as he twisted them into the pillows: all of it, every part of it was his body, and he was thankful for it, thankful for the pulsing waves of pleasure that were beating through his thighs and calves and even up into his throat. Fenris couldn’t think, couldn’t think a damned thing except that he loved Hawke, and he loved this, and he loved his own tense and pleasured body as she brought him to his peak -

And that peak, fasta vass, the fucking peak…

It surged through him like an overwhelming wave of force, washing through his straining limbs with all the sparking heat of Hawke’s lightning storms. He cried out his rapture and his praise and lifted his hips toward her mouth, and even through his mindless bliss, he could hear that his voice was rough and ragged with the strain of his own ecstasy.

4. Share your favourite dialogue you’ve written?

Fuuuuck. Dialogue/conversations are my catnip and my life. I always love writing Fenris and Rynne’s back-and-forth, which is the main reason I started my ‘ask Rynne Hawke and Fenris’ thing (which anyone can still submit to! I have a couple that I need to get to still!). But barring FenRynne convos, one of my favourite exchanges was this one between Fenris and Solas, from Lovers In A Dangerous Time. It’s long AND I’M SORRY, so you can feel free to skip it.

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

Solas tilted his head. “Fenris, you too were raised in a city, and in circumstances even more disempowering than the alienages of the south.”

Fenris grunted. “And your point is?”

“Do you ever wish you were anything other than you are?”

Fenris glanced at Sera, then at Solas. “You mean, do I wish I were a human and not an elf.”

Solas tilted his head in acknowledgement. “Unless you wished you were something else entirely.”

Fenris raised one quizzical eyebrow. That was an odd thing to say. Then he shrugged and returned his gaze to the path ahead, and to Hawke’s slender back. “No,” he said. “I never wanted to be human. I am who I am.”

“You never wished that you were different from what you are?” Solas asked.

Fenris frowned at him. “If you’re asking if I wish to be like the ancient elves of old, then no,” he said bluntly. “That is an empty wish. A wish premised on no proof. There is no point seeking to recreate times long past. Especially since we can’t confirm what those times were like.”

“That is not what precisely what I meant,” Solas said. “But it is informative all the same.”

Informative? Fenris thought. What he’d said was hardly informative. It was just his opinion. But if Solas really wanted his opinion, he supposed he could share it. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do at the moment.

“I am satisfied with being a ‘city elf’, as they call it,” he said. “I don’t wish to be other than what I am. There is something… hardening about being the underdog.”

Solas looked at him. “Do you mean ‘heartening’?”

“That as well,” Fenris said.

The corners of Solas’s mouth curved in a small smile. Fenris shrugged. ”When I first escaped Danarius, I didn’t wish I was different. I wished everything else was different.”

Solas’s smile broadened slightly and he nodded in understanding, but Fenris frowned in thought. Now that Solas had him thinking about this, it was strange to compare his thoughts in the past to the way he felt about this topic now.

“Despite that, I… I am different than I was before,” he said slowly. “When I was first freed, I was… enraged. The change I desired was little more than a Tevinter landscape rendered in blood.”

Solas’s expression grew somber. “You can hardly be blamed. No great change has ever been wrought without the spilling of blood.”

“I am well aware,” Fenris said flatly. “But…” He paused pensively before speaking again. “I no longer thirst for the blood of my enemies. The snuffing of lives is a necessary cost, but… it’s one I no longer relish.” He glanced at Solas. “That was not always the case.”

Solas bowed his head briefly. “You are wise beyond your years, then.”

Fenris raised a wry eyebrow. “And you are not?”

Solas smiled. “Ah. No. You should have seen me when I was younger. Hot-blooded and cocky, always ready to fight.”

Without quite meaning to, Fenris let out a small laugh. “I can't imagine.”

Solas’s smile grew. “I would ask you not to try. It was a very different time.”

5. Scene you haven’t written, but want to?

I’ve been powering through writing the Trespasser chapters of Lovers In A Dangerous Time because I’m dying to write some parts of it, so those are going to happen very soon. When LIADT is done, I have a Felassan/Lavellan idea fic idea that I can’t wait to jump into. And then I have some Solavellan SMUT that I’m dying to write for @elbenherzart… [sweating]

Thanks for tagging me, friends! Tagging forward to @johaeryslavellan @midnightprelude @therarefereldancatlord @lostinfantasies38 @kittimau @barbex @novamm66 @dafan7711 @mrscullensrutherford @obvidalous @galadrieljones @thevikingwoman @solas-disapproves @beckily @iarollane @aban-asaara @tryvyalsynnes @lyrium-lovesong @irlaimsaaralath and anyone else who would like to play!

[primatechnosynthpop]

Ok so the idea is in my mind now thanks to what my classmates were posting about on the myinfo discussion boards earlier, and I know that nobody here cares about this, but I need to gather my thoughts here. So here's an outline for what I think would happen in a Da Vinci Code/ Black Echo crossover

It starts with Langdon being involved in a high-profile documentary about the grail and the priory that's being filmed in Hollywood. Then a bunch of people involved in the documentary start being murdered, and Bosch is assigned to the case

They meet at the crime scene for one of the murders; Langdon is shaken up because the people working on the documentary with him were people he'd worked with before and gotten along with, and he's trying not to show how shaken he is and play himself off as cool, but Bosch sees right through him and recognizes his distraught emotional state. He's sympathetic, but he does have a job to do here... it's time to ask this guy some questions

HB: Professor Langdon, right? I'm officer Bosch. I have a few questions for you.

RL: Bosch... that's an interesting name

HB: Like the painter, yes. You wouldn't be the first to point it out, believe me.

RL: I've done many lectures on the religious symbolism in that man's paintings. Tell me, officer, how familiar with his work are you?

HB: Not very. Now, Mr. Langdon--

RL: You can call me Robert if you want.

HB: ...Mr. Langdon, what kind of relationship did you have with the victim?

...You get the picture; they don't get along very well at first. Bosch thinks Langdon is too self-obsessed and show-offy, while Langdon thinks Bosch is too grim and doesn't approve of his smoking habit

But since Bosch is a devoted and hardworking detective, he puts aside his mild annoyance with Langdon and does his best to solve the case. Problem is, Langdon clearly knows something about the case that he's refusing to tell anyone. *sonic voice* That's no good!

Bosch confronts Langdon about this in private, very angry... maybe cue a wall slam except that Bosch is shorter than Langdon so it does maybe look just a little bit silly. But more importantly a little bit homoerotic in an angry and repressed kinda way

After a bit of arguing and a very thorough check of the room they're in to make sure nobody is watching or listening in, Langdon confides to Bosch about the Grail and his experiences with it

Bosch is skeptical, but he's no stranger to tangled webs of dark secrets, so his reaction to all this is less "wow!!" and more "shit. Really? Fuck. Okay... huh. I need a drink." So Langdon pours him a drink, they agree to team up to collaborate on solving the case, and this is bonding moment #1 in which their barriers start to crack just a little bit

But of course Bosch, a decent guy at heart who cares about people's lives, isn't gonna let some random symbologist get too wrapped up in what's clearly a dangerous case. So after he and Langdon figure out together where the killer might be hiding out, Bosch goes to the location alone--armed and ready, but alone nonetheless

It goes bad!

Meanwhile, Langdon figures out by talking to some of the other cops where Bosch has taken off to. He gets there just in time to see the cloud of dust as the killer gets away, leaving a badly injured Bosch lying on the ground. Probably in some dark alleyway or dingy apartment or something idk. Very dark and very dramatic

Shifting in and out of consciousness in the backseat as Langdon drives him to a hospital, Bosch starts having a PTSD flashback nightmare. There's nothing Langdon can really do to help him out there, and he feels bad about it

Flash forward a couple days. We get bonding moment #2 as Langdon scolds a recovering Bosch for being so reckless

RL: I mean, you could have been killed!

HB: That's part of my job. Always has been.

RL: But still--

HB: I'm not like you, remember? You may have gotten involved in some dangerous situations before, but at the end of the day, you're still a civilian. It's my job to protect you.

RL: How would you dying help us get to the bottom of this case? If you want to help me, then stay alive and work with me.

HB: Fine. So, did you just come here to yell at me?

RL: Actually, that's not the only reason. I figured something out about the case... something that I think can help us

(This probably wouldn't be the exact dialogue but you get the gist)

Also Langdon sees Bosch's tattoo and if he asks about it then Bosch definitely does not answer. But when he gets home Langdon researches rat imagery and symbolism and eventually figures out, if not the connection to the war, at least that this dude has probably been through some tough times

They also each individually make the realization that Bosch having a rat tattoo + Langdon having a mickey mouse wristwatch is kind of an interesting coincidence... but when Langdon brings it up Bosch gets kinda snappy with him because, believe me, it's really not even remotely close to the same thing

So they get back to work on the case, but as soon as Bosch is back on his feet he retreats back into his shell, which disheartens Langdon somewhat for reasons that he can't pinpoint. (Hint: it's that Langdon was beginning to recognize the soft heart buried beneath Bosch's rough exterior, and guess that he must have had a pretty rough life, and on some subconscious level he was beginning to drift toward the "I can fix him!" mentality)

Still, they've got a job to do. They spend a few days, maybe a week tracking down the killer, during which we get a couple more small bonding moments during which Bosch demonstrates his kind and caring side, and Langdon starts spending maybe a little longer than necessary staring at him when he's not looking. Bosch wonders when he stopped finding Langdon's tendency for sharing information annoying and started to like the sound of his voice. But neither of them are at a stage where they're gonna be like "so basically I have ptsd and claustrophobia because of my traumatic backstory" or anything

At some point, though (maybe when he's slightly drunk) Bosch makes a gruff remark in passing about having been betrayed before, and Langdon replies that he's been betrayed too, by a close friend. They kind of raise their eyebrows at each other, an unspoken realization that they're connected by more bonds than expected, and they clink their glasses together

So the killer's hideout involves crawling through a small enclosed space and they both know this in advance and the plan they come up with is "one of us goes in while the other waits outside and stands guard" (the way the killer's lair is set up would make this a good plan. I'm not gonna come up with all the details right now, because if I could do that, then I'd become a mystery novelist) but they haven't laid out who'll be going in the small enclosed space and they're both secretly counting on the other doing it

Then they get there and it's like. Hmm. Oops! Neither of them want to go in because they both have the same psychological issues

An argument ensues, but they're less trying to convince each other to go in the small enclosed space and more frustrated at the other for keeping secrets. Eventually Langdon agrees to be the one to go in because by now he's pieced together that Bosch is a vet and that his trauma is therefore probably a lot "worse" (not that those things are really quantifiable)

Bosch is super grateful but also feels terrible, like it's his fault for being too weak, and promises Langdon to make it up for him later--"So be sure to stay alive for me, okay, Robert?"

RL: Wait, did you just call me by my first name? I think that's the first time I've heard you say it.

HB: Hey, what can I say? You've grown on me.

RL: Heh. You... you've grown on me, too, Harry.

HB: Robert..... good luck in there.

They sort of smile and nod at each other, solemn and melancholy (and repressed). And then Langdon goes in and does the thing but of course it's some kind of a trap and he gets stuck in the small enclosed space and Bosch hears him getting attacked in there and hey, Bosch can't magically overcome his severe war trauma but in that moment his brain just kinda turns off and he's able to power through it long enough to go in and get Langdon out safely

They're both very shaken from all this but now they've got the killer out in the open so it's time for the final showdown. Working together, they elaborately lure the killer into confessing to the murders of the people working on the Grail documentary... those people knew too much, they couldn't be allowed to keep living. Naturally, Bosch is wearing a wire that's picking all this up and recording it

But then the killer finishes with "and you, the symbologist who knows the true location of the Grail... you can't be allowed to live either!" and before either of them can react he shoots Langdon! This makes Bosch extremely angry and he immediately shoots the killer like five consecutive times in the chest

Turns out Langdon's alive, the bullet just missed his heart or lungs or whatever, and he's lying on the ground in shock from getting shot staring up at Bosch and is like "...you killed him...?"

HB: Oh, right, I almost forgot... you've never killed someone before, have you?

RL: No, although I've been acquainted with more murders than I would like...

HB: Well, here's one more murderer you're acquainted with, then. Come on, let's go

Hospital time redux ft. congratulating each other on solving the case and a whole lot going unsaid between them. They both agree that they ended up making a decent team in the end...

In a quiet moment when he thinks Langdon is asleep, Bosch starts reminiscing out loud about his childhood, his time in the war, all the blood he's seen spilled and spilled himself both as a veteran and a detective. Of course Langdon was actually awake to hear all that, and after a long moment of silence he starts talking quietly about falling down a well as a child, as well as some of the scarier moments in his past adventures and how those have messed him up a little

RL: Of course, what I've been through is nothing compared to you... I mean, you, you're amazing. I can't believe I ever judged you for having a cold exterior.

HB: I wouldn't call myself amazing. More like, a poor bastard doing his best to keep his head afloat.

RL: No, no, that's... that's why you're amazing. The fact that you are where you are now.

HB: What, in a hospital at the bedside of a symbology professor who's lucky to be alive after solving an elaborate murder case?

RL: Hey, it's not my first rodeo.

HB: Mine neither. (Heh...) maybe we should start a club.

At the end they say goodbye to each other and they like shake hands or something but they're still repressed so they just go their separate ways and don't see each other again

But MAYBE a few months or years down the line Bosch eventually leaves the police force (either because he wisens up and realizes that acab, or because he acts up too much and gets fired) and can no longer afford to live in LA so he moves to a different part of the country and by pure coincidence it ends up being where Langdon lives. And he finds out when he sees an ad for one of Langdon's lectures, and he attends and Langdon spots him in the crowd and he sort of visibly stiffens and then softens. You can figure out where things go from there

(I actually don't know where exactly things would go from there but maybe, someday, eventually they kiss?)

[centerofstupidity]

Varney the Vampire Chapter 3

If you enjoy the content you are reading, please like and follow the Center of Stupidity blog.

Interested in reading the previous Varney the Vampire chapter snarks? They can be found here. 

Chapter summary: Our intrepid heroes the local village idiots shoot Varney. Of course, Varney is wearing thick plot armor.

Which means we get another chapter where characters standing and talking along with more melodrama.

In the event that this gets flagged, here is another place to read the chapter snark. 

"He is human!" cried Henry;

You just saw a guy with "metallic eyes" whose mouth was "dabbled in blood" after attacking Flora.

But you are still coming to the conclusion that Varney is human...

Wow, somebody has the I.Q. of Bella Swan.

And yes...

I know that prior to this story being published, vampire lore wasn't well known and culturally speaking vampires were a rather new phenomenon in England.

But if somebody saw what Henry had seen, their first thought wouldn't be "That guy was human and not a supernatural creature."

"I have surely killed him."  

He was wearing thick plot armor.

Marchdale agrees and says that they should go outside the wall and find the body.

And here comes a long sentence.

This was at once agreed to,

Hopefully this means we won't have another chapter where characters are just standing around talking to each other.

and the whole three of them made what expedition they could towards a gate

Who knew heading towards a gate was such a strenuous task?

which let into a paddock, across which they hurried, and soon found themselves clear of the garden wall,

According to Merriam Webster, a paddock is usually enclosed area used especially for pasturing or exercising animals.

And the Collins dictionary states that a paddock is a field where horses are kept or exercised.

So why would anyone have a garden next to a paddock?

First of all, you'd be smelling animal droppings.

And the end of the day, somebody would be walking the animals through the garden in order to put them in the stable or barn.

So...

so that they could make way towards where they fully expected to find the body of him

And I bet dollars to doughnuts that they won't find a corpse.

who had worn so unearthly an aspect,

Maybe because he is....

I don't know... Not human!

but who it would be an excessive relief to find was human.

Because a blood-drinking fiend is normal.  

So hurried was the progress they made,

That they were sweating like pigs!

that it was scarcely possible to exchange many words as they went;

Unless they suddenly lost the ability to speak...

They can still talk.

a kind of breathless anxiety was upon them,

Sorry, authors.

I don't care what happens to these people.

and in the speed they disregarded every obstacle,

Because in a potential dangerous situation...

It is sensible to be unaware of one's surroundings.

which would, at any other time, have probably prevented them from taking the direct road they sought.

Is the gate obstructed by litter or debris?

If so, why?

And if not, what would have prevented them from taking the direct route?

It was difficult on the outside of the wall to say exactly which was the precise spot which it might be supposed the body had fallen on; 

Unless Henry has the attention span of a ferret high on crack...

Henry should remember where he shot Varney.

And by knowing that, he could determine where the body should be.

but, by following the wall its entire length, surely they would come upon it.

I bet that they are not going to find a body.

They did so; but, to their surprise,

Found a leprechaun.

they got from its commencement to its further extremity without finding any dead body, or even any symptoms of one having lain there.

Varney is alive!

Well... For a member of the Undead.

At some parts close to the wall there grew a kind of heath,  and, consequently, the traces of blood would be lost among it,

According to Collins Dictionary, a heath is an area of open land covered with rough grass or heather and with very few trees or bushes.

And Merriam Webster defines it as a type of plant or uncultivated land usually with poor and coarse soil.  

Which means they are referring to a type of plant.

So unless it has the magical ability to absorb blood...

The three men should be able to find blood if Varney was wounded.

And now that I'm thinking about it, a vampire plant is a cool idea.

if it so happened that at the precise spot at which the strange being had seemed to topple over, such vegetation had existed.

Ugh. Reading this made my brain hurt.

So there was some vegetation when Varney fell over...

And now it no longer exists.

Even though we were told a few seconds ago that the plants made it impossible to see any blood.

So the three guys walk around the wall twice and they can't find anything.

"It could not have been a delusion," at length said Mr. Marchdale, with a shudder.

Also, that's not how delusions work. 

Just you see something, doesn't mean that it is real. 

And sometimes the delusions are very vivid. 

"Then what terrible explanation can we give?"

This sentence sounds weird. It is because they used the word "terrible". Right now, it sounds like one of the men are asking for a bad explanation. 

I think the correct word would be "other." But as Mark Twain wisely said:

"By heavens! I know not," exclaimed Henry. 

If you knew what was going on, then you wouldn't be bewildered.

"This adventure surpasses all belief, and but for the great interest we have in it, I should regard it with a world of curiosity."

*Takes a deep breath *

That's right, gentlepersons.

A person has been brutally attacked.

But the situation is described as being an "adventure."

Fuck this book with a chainsaw!

"It is too dreadful," said George; "for God's sake, Henry, let us return to ascertain if poor Flora is killed."

You mean that it is a good idea to do an investigation before coming to a conclusion???

"My senses," said Henry, "were all so much absorbed in gazing at that horrible form, that I never once looked towards her further than to see that she was, to appearance, dead. God help her! poor -- poor, beautiful Flora. This is, indeed, a sad, sad fate for you to come to. Flora -- Flora -- "

"Do not weep, Henry," said George. "Rather let us now hasten home, where we may find that tears are premature. She may yet be living and restored to us."

They all agree and hurried back to the house.

Henry, after some trouble, got the hall door opened by a terrified servant, who was trembling so much that she could scarcely hold the light she had with her.

"Speak at once, Martha," said Henry. "Is Flora living?"

  "Yes; but -- "

  "Enough -- enough! Thank God she lives; where is she now?"

Martha says that Flora is in her bedroom and proceeds to freak out.  The three guys rush into the room.

Several lights had been now brought into that antique chamber,

But they clashed with the decor.

and, in addition to the mother of the beautiful girl who had been so fearfully visited,

Somebody placed a creepy clown doll on the nightstand.

there were two female domestics, who appeared to be

using their cell phones and are on Twitter.

in the greatest possible fright,

Because after seeing Flora's mother in a sheer nightgown...

Somethings can't be unseen.

for they could render no assistance whatever to anybody.

Translation?

They are useless.

The tears were streaming down the mother's face,

Because some asshole randomly decided to cut a lot of onions.

and the moment she saw Mr. Marchdale, she clung to his arm,

She was doing a Bella Swan impersonation.

evidently unconscious of what she was about,

Um...

She suddenly doesn't know who she is?

and exclaimed, --

Shitty dialogue mixed with an exposition dump.

"Oh, what is this that has happened -- what is this? Tell me, Marchdale! Robert Marchdale, you whom I have known even from my childhood, you will not deceive me. Tell me the meaning of all this?"

Aside from the "As you know Bob" dialogue...

The mother called Marchdale by his surname and then used his full name.

This doesn't make any sense.

In Victorian times, especially in formal settings, people would be referred to by their surnames or titles.

But if people were friends, they would be calling each other by their first name.

So the mother would be referring to Richard Marchdale as Richard.

Also, just because you know someone from childhood....

It doesn't mean that they are a honest person.

"I cannot," he said, in a tone of much emotion.

"As God is my judge, I am as much puzzled and amazed at the scene that has taken place here to-night as you can be."

And in other news, the Pope is Catholic and bears shit in the woods.

Anyway, the mother bawled her eyes out. I don't blame her.

I would too if I found out that I was a character in a penny dreadful.

"It was the storm that first awakened me," added Marchdale; "and then I heard a scream."

Let's rewind, shall we?

Marchdale asked the two brothers what's going on.

Then Flora started shrieking.

The sound caused Flora's mom to faint.

Marchdale grabs her so she doesn't hit the floor.

He tells Harry/Henry to hold his mother.

Finally, Marchdale cries “Follow me who can!” as he heads towards Flora's room.

What does all this mean?

Flora's mother and the three men heard a noise. Which means, Marchdale wasn't the only one that heard screaming.

Also, Marchdale never previously mentioned that he was awakened by the storm.

Normally, the second point wouldn't be suspicious. But considering the fact that Marchdale lied...

It sounds like he is trying to create an alibi.

In conclusion?

Anyway, the brothers are quivering as they approach the bed. Flora is sitting in bed, being propped up with pillows.

She was quite insensible,

How is this unusual?

It would be MORE surprising if Flora was in a lively mood.

and her face was fearfully pale;

All you need is some glitter, and Flora would be a perfect sparklepire.

while that she breathed

Another vampire failed in killing a damsel in distress.

at all

If Flora doesn't breathe, she would be dead.

could be but very faintly seen.

Um...

People normally don't take deep and heavy breaths.

On some of her clothing,

There was yellow stains.

about the neck, were spots of blood,

How is that possible???

When Varney bit Flora, blood was gushing. 

Which means the nightgown and the bed sheets should be soaked with blood. 

and she looked more like one who had suffered some long and grievous illness,  

You mean when someone is mauled by a vampire, they aren't going to look gorgeous??

Thanks for letting me know!

than a young girl in the prime of life and in the most robust health,

"She was so fit that she could do a triathlon!"

as she had been on the day previous

Because according to Varney the Vampire's logic...

Only healthy people are attacked by vampires.

to the strange scene we have recorded.

It isn't a normal occurrence to be attacked by a vampire.

"Does she sleep?" said Henry

Because the first words that should come out of a person's mouth after someone has been attacked...

Is to ask if they are sleeping.

as a tear fell from his eyes upon her pallid cheek.

Ah, the single tear.

How nauseating.

"No," replied Mr. Marchdale. "This is a swoon, from which we must recover her."

Quick! Somebody fetch the smelling salts!

Active measures were now adopted

Because reviving a damsel in distress is urgent!

Cue the dramatic music!

to restore the languid circulation,

Uh, "languid circulation"?

According to Merriam Webster, languid is defined as being "sluggish" or "lacking in force or quickness in movement."

Correct me if I'm wrong...

If somebody has slow circulation, it means that they have a serious health problem.

and, after persevering in them for some time, they had the satisfaction of seeing her open her eyes.

Instead of being relieved that Flora is awake...

They seem annoyed that it took so long for her to regain consciousness.

Her first act upon consciousness returning,

Was to exclaim her undying devotion to Varney.

however, was to utter a loud shriek,

A shriek is hardly quiet.

and it was not until Henry implored her

"Implored her”?

I guess only a filthy peasant would have used the word begged or pleaded.

to look around her,

To find that the hills are alive with the sound of music.

and see that she was surrounded by none but friendly faces, that she would venture again to open her eyes,

...

.......

Previously, Flora's eyes were already open.

But now, her eyes were closed but she then opened them.

'Ello contradiction!

and look timidly from one to the other.

At least she looked at them "timidly".

It would be unbecoming of a lady to act like a New Woman.

After Flora shuttered, she starts crying and says:

"Oh, Heaven, have mercy upon me -- Heaven, have mercy upon me and save me from that dreadful form."

"There is no one here, Flora," said Mr. Marchdale, 

There is:

Mr. Marchdale

Harry/Henry

George

Flora's mother

Two female servants

In total, there are six people in the room excluding Flora.

What Marchdale meant to say was there is nobody here that will harm her.

But as Mark Twain wisely said:

"but those who love you,

"If they really hated you, they would have buried you alive."

and who, in defence of you, if needs were would lay down their lives."

"Despite the fact that you have the personality of stale toast, we would die to save you."

Now that I'm thinking about it... If this was an Anita Blake book, this would result into a sex scene.

So after Mr. Marchdale's declaration, Flora starts yelling "Oh, God!"

"You have been terrified.

"Mr. Marchdale, why are you repeating the obvious?"

"It is because the authors think that the reader has the IQ of a house plant."

But tell us distinctly what has happened?

Gotta love how they must be told "distinctly".

I guess only peasants would only ask what happened.

You are quite safe now."

"Ignore the fact that while you were mauled by an unholy abomination, we bumblefucked around. But believe me when I say that everything is going to be alright."

She trembled so violently that

She resembled a chihuahua defecating on the lawn.

Mr. Marchdale recommended that some stimulant should be give to her,

Because even though the unholy creature will most likely return to try and suck Flora dry, it is best that she be high as a kite.

and she was persuaded,

Because it is like her mama taught her: when somebody offers free drugs, you accept the offer and then ask for a straw.

although not without considerable difficulty,

Because it was the first time, she stuck a needle in her vein.

to swallow a small portion of some wine from a cup.

Because drinking something is a strenuous task.

There could be no doubt but

First it was certain but now it isn't. 

In conclusion:

that the stimulating effect of the wine

Alcohol is a depressant.  

was beneficial,

Because when someone has been traumatized, the best thing to do is give them booze.

for a slight accession of colour 

According to the Cambridge dictionary, "accession" is a time when a country officially joins a group of countries or signs an agreement. It is also used when someone starts a position of authority especially a king or queen.

While Merriam-Webster defines "accession" as a process that someone rises to a position of power or something being added (such as an acquisition).

Which means that "accession" is not a synonym for "spread" or "blushed."

So in conclusion:

visited her cheeks,

At least it visited her.

A churl would have arrived unannounced.

and she spoke in a firmer tone as she said, --

Spoke is past tense word for speak and said is a past tense word for say.

Both words are used when someone is talking.

Which makes this part of this sentence redundant: . . . colour visited her cheeks, and she spoke in a firmer tone as she said, --

Personally, I would remove re-write the sentence as this:

. . . colour visited her cheeks and she spoke in a firm voice.

  "Do not leave me. Oh, do not leave me, any of you. I shall die if left alone now. Oh, save me -- save me. That horrible form! That fearful face!"

There is only so much melodrama that a person can endure, so I'll try to summarize some of it.

Henry asks Flora what happened. Flora then refuses to tell him.

Her reasoning? If she did that, then she would "ever sleep again."

Eventually, Henry convinces Flora to tell them what had transpired.

She placed her hands over her face for a moment, as if to collect her scattered thoughts,

Last time I checked...

If someone placed their hands over the face, it doesn't stop them from losing their train of thought.

and then she added, --

"By the way, I'm bi."

  "I was awakened by the storm, and I saw that terrible apparition at the window. I think I screamed, but I could not fly. Oh, God! I could not fly. It came -- it seized me by the hair. I know no more. I know no more."

Uh "could not fly"?

Humans don't have wings. Flora should know this.

Honestly, it would make more sense if Flora said that she could not flee.

After Flora runs her hand across her neck several times, Marchdale notices that she has a wound.

After he points out the obvious, Flora's mom freaks out and brings a light closer to the bed. This causes them to all see the wound but it is now only two small puncture marks.

It was from these wounds the blood had come which was observable upon her night clothing.  

Especially since the authors are hell bent on insisting that Flora's wounds are the size of paper cuts.

Since Henry has the same amount of brain cells as Bella Swan, he asks Flora how she got the wounds.

Of course, this causes Flora to reply that she doesn't know but it felt like she "almost bled to death."

 "You cannot have done so, dear Flora, for there are not above half-a-dozen spots of blood to be seen at all."

When Varney bit her, blood gushed.

That does not cause pinprick stains.  

Mr. Marchdale leaned against the carved head of the bed for support, and he uttered a deep groan. All eyes were turned upon him,

Instead of focusing on the vampire victim, we should care about this guy being so anguished.

and Henry said, in a voice of the most anxious inquiry, --

"Have you something to say, Mr. Marchdale, which will throw some light upon this affair."

Instead of a period, there should be a question mark since Henry/Harry is asking Mr. Marchdale something.

Mr. Marchdale then insists that he has nothing to say and that Flora should get some sleep.

  "No sleep -- no sleep for me," again screamed Flora. "Dare I be alone to sleep?"

Anywho… Henry assures Flora that she won't be alone because he will watch over her.

She took his hand in both hers, and while the tears chased each other down her cheeks, she said, –

  "Promise me, Henry, by all your hopes of Heaven, you will not leave me."

  "I promise."

Henry and Flora are siblings.

....

................

Somewhere Cassandra Clare is all hot and bothered.

Anywho…

Flora laid down, sighed, and then closed her eyes.  

"She is weak, and will sleep long," said Mr. Marchdale.

Two things.

Flora being weak? No shit Sherlock.

As for Flora sleeping soundly? That depends. She could have a nightmare and wake up.

  "You sigh," said Henry.

Marchdale didn't sigh. Flora did.

"Some fearful thoughts, I feel certain, oppress your heart."

It can't oppress the heart of the mailman who lives at the end of the street.

  "Hush -- hush!" said Mr. Marchdale, as he pointed to Flora. "Hush! not here -- not here."

  "I understand," said Henry.

  "Let her sleep."

Can she though?

I don’t know about you, but if people were in my bedroom talking and yelling…

It would wake me up.

It turns out that Flora is in a deep slumber. Hard to believe, I know.

The idiots are quiet for a minutes before George says something.

He tells Mr. Marchdale to look at it.

He pointed to the portrait in the frame to which we have alluded,

Translation: Wink wink! The portrait that we subtly pointed out is significant.

and the moment Marchdale looked at it

He thought: "Man, that picture is nightmare fuel."

he sunk into a chair

Because as it turns out, it was a bean bag chair.

as he exclaimed, --  "Gracious Heaven, how like!"

Aside from being redundant...

It is also cringe-worthy.

"It is -- it is," said Henry. "Those eyes -- "

"Pierce right though me."

"I wonder if he is related to my mother in law."

"And see the contour of the countenance,

According to Merriam Webster, contour is a structure of something or is an outline of a irregular figure.

Usually, contour is used to describe architecture or a shape of a car.

Which means the right word to use would be silhouette not contour.

In conclusion:

and the strange shape of the mouth."

"Who knew that someone can have a hexagon shaped mouth?"

"Exact -- exact."

Why is he saying the same word twice?

 "That picture shall be moved from here.

The correct word is portrait.

A picture can be a representation of a building, a landscape, or a person.

While a portrait is a painting or a picture of a person, especially the head and the shoulders.

In conclusion?

The sight of it is at once sufficient to awaken all her former terrors in poor Flora's brain if she should chance to awaken and cast her eyes suddenly upon it."

Too verbose.

It would be better if he just said "The sight of it will frighten Flora if she wakes up and looks at the portrait."

"And is it so like him who came here?" said the mother.

Why does everyone in the story have the same amount of brain cells as Bella Swan?

In case you are wondering, Bella has four brain cells.

Of course Marchdale confirms that yes, it is the same person.

"I have not been in this house long enough to ask any of you whose portrait that may be?"

Wait a tick...

Marchdale is a friend of Flora's mother.

So he must have been to the house multiple times.

Which means that the first part of the sentence is absolute horseshit.

As for the second part?

It makes sense that Marchdale didn't see the portrait since it is in Flora's bedroom.

A man entering a lady's bedroom that isn't a doctor would have created a scandal.

"It is," said Henry, "the portrait of Sir Runnagate Bannerworth, an ancestor of ours, who first, by his vices, gave the great blow to the family prosperity."

"Sir Runnagate Bannerworth"?

Reginald, Reynard, and Rupert are actual names.

Runnagate is not.

A quick Google search reveals that runagate is a word meaning "runaway", "vagabond", or "fugitive".

So bravo authors.

You have the subtlety of Stephenie Meyer.

"Indeed. How long ago?"

  "About ninety years."

  "Ninety years. 'Tis a long while -- ninety years."

It is really annoying when characters repeat stuff that that the reader already knows.

Aside from being redundant...

It is also treats the reader like they are an idiot who need everything to be spelled out in 72 pt Times New Roman font.

"You muse upon it."

  "No, no. I do wish, and yet I dread -- "

  "What?"

"To say something to you all. But not here -- not here. We will hold a consultation on this matter to-morrow. Not now -- not now."

Part of this chapter was dedicated to talking about Flora and the vampire.

'Ello continuity error!

Anyway... Henry tells everyone else they can go to bed because he is going to watch over Flora.

Of course, he describes it keeping "my sacred promise".  Can anyone say melodramatic?

Henry also adds that "The daylight is coming quickly on."

"I will fetch you my powder-flask and bullets," said Mr. Marchdale; "and you can, if you please, reload the pistols. In about two hours more it will be broad daylight."

First, the daylight is quickly approaching.

But now it is going to appear in two hours.

Which is it authors?

This arrangement was adopted.

It was placed with a loving family.

Henry did reload the pistols, and placed them on a table by the side of the bed, ready for immediate action,

In other words...

You only reload a gun if you are intending to use it.

  and then, as Flora was sleeping soundly,

It is still pretty impressive that she is sleeping...

Considering the fact that people are talking and moving around.

all left the room but himself. Mrs. Bannerworth was the last to do so.

She would have remained,

Because mommy dearest was busy reading the newspaper.

but for the earnest solicitation of Henry,

At least the solicitation was sincere.

Because if it wasn't, it should be refused out of principle.

that she would endeavour to get some sleep to make up for her broken night's repose,

...

..........

Why can't the authors just say that Henry pleaded with his mother go to bed?

It is much more concise than this verbose sentence.

  and she was indeed so broken down by her alarm on Flora's account,

How is this surprising?

It would be alarming if Flora's mother acted annoyed that Flora survived.

that she had not power to resist,

Before, Flora's mom wanted to stay.

Now she can't wait to leave.

Because only losers care about consistency!

but with tears flowing from her eyes,

Um...

Do tears flow anywhere else?

she sought her own chamber.

How is that unusual? People usually have their own bedroom.

Unless they are sharing a room with someone.

...

Now I can't help but wonder if Flora's mother wanted to spend the night with Marchdale.

Think that couldn't happen? Plenty of bad romance novels have a scene where a man comforts a woman and it results in sex.

And now the calmness of the night

There was inclement weather.

Hell, it was described as being the storm of the century.

resumed its sway

At least it swayed.

We don't want it standing idly by.

in that evil-fated mansion;

Because any horror writer knows, a good story always sucks the suspense out!

and although no one really slept but Flora,

Because most people would be sleeping soundly after a monster entered their home and attacked someone!

all were still.

They were practicing the pose used by many Mary Sues: wait around until life showers them with happiness.

Busy thought kept every one else wakeful.

And in other news: people will eventually die and karma is a bitch.  

It was a mockery to lie down at all,

They all must have hated Flora.

Because they are "still."

and Henry, full of strange and painful feelings as he was,

If this was a Philippa Gregory novel, these emotions would be incestuous.

preferred his present position

Because angst makes him feel alive!

to the anxiety and apprehension

That the reader is supposed to be feeling but frankly doesn't give a damn.

on Flora's account

Rather than the account of Miss Smith, a spinster who is the local librarian.

which he knew he should feel if she were not within the sphere of his own observation,

...

Because two pistols are enough to stop a member of the Undead. Logic be damned!

and she slept as soundly

All thanks to Nyquil!

as some gentle infant tired of its playmates and its sports.

Because a vampire victim should be compared to a tired infant.

*Takes a deep breath *

Thankfully, this chapter finally ends.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 198: A Pair of Chuunis

Previously on BnHA: Shinsou, Tsuyu, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Kouda (henceforth known as Team A) faced off against Shiozaki, Tsuburaba, Shishida, and Rin (Team B). Kiri, Kouda, and Tsubu were captured, making it 3 VS 3. Tsuyu covered Shinsou and Kami with her disgusting frog mucus in order to mask their scent so class B wouldn’t be able to track their movements. They then purposely allowed Kaminari to get captured as a distraction to let Shinsou get close enough to Shiozaki to ensnare here with his quirk. Realizing what had happened, Shishida stopped talking so as not to fall under Shinsou’s control himself. However this also left him unable to communicate with his remaining teammate, and Rin was shortly thereafter taken out by Tsuyu. Shishida was knocked out shortly after that, and so Team A ended up winning the match, giving class 1-A the lead as we enter the second round.

Today on BnHA: Aizawa and Vlad provide their respective students with constructive criticism following the match. Meanwhile the remaining 8 teams begin to plan out their strategies, including Monoma who is excited to have the chance to work together with Shinsou, particularly after witnessing the first match. It turns out he’s not the only one interested in what Shinsou can do, as Aizawa and Vlad reveal to All Might and Midnight that today’s exercise is doubling as Shinsou’s exam determining whether or not he should be admitted into the hero course. The second round of battles begins, with Team MomoYamaTokoKure facing off against Team KendouKuroMangaToadette. Kendou is excited to be battling Momo, as she considers the two of them to be rivals, and feels that up until now Momo has been outshining her. Meanwhile Kuroiro from class B bonds with Tokoyami over their mutual goth aesthetic before the two teams split off to get things started. Toko sends out Dark Shadow to do recon, only to have Kuroiro -- whose quirk allows him to move freely within the color black -- hitch a ride back to Team A’s location. The two prepare to clash, and Toko gets ready to show off a new technique he’s apparently learned from Hawks.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 222, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

my man Aizawa out here making sure I continue to stan him

this is school after all!

and oh my god this title

you know it’s the Momo chapter when...

goddammit Kirishima’s self-esteem issues are acting up again

does anyone know if that “staring at yourself in the mirror and psyching yourself up by reminding yourself that you’re cool and awesome” thing actually works? maybe he should try that. he’s so good at complimenting other people but he’s so damn hard on himself. why are all shounen characters like this

Kouda says he needs to get better at issuing detailed orders to insects

good god Kouda, if you improve on your quirk you’re going to be fucking terrifying aren’t you

and I know I just said all shounen characters are too hard on themselves, but then along comes Kaminari to prove me wrong!

you were great, buddy. 10/10 I stan one adaptable and clever electric boy. I would pit you and Mina up against Rat Principal all over again because I bet you two would crush it now

(ETA: not to mention that as Jirou will shortly point out, he’s skirting on the edge of falling into his usual derp mode here -- but he’s managing to retain his senses for the most part, which is extremely impressive given how much electricity he put out in that fight, first against Shishida and then later against Shiozaki. Kaminari!! you’ve become stronger!)

Tsuyu says she wanted to win without any casualties and she regrets losing two of her teammates

Shinsou, who did amazing for his first time, says it was “incredibly frustrating” and that he wasn’t able to apply even ten percent of what he’s learned

kid, take that frustration and channel it into becoming even more determined to fulfill your dreams! that’s the upside of being a shounen character who’s too harsh on himself! you learn and you keep getting stronger, okay?

see, and Aizawa’s telling him the same thing

wow so he didn’t master it until he was out of school, then? or did he start on that before he entered U.A.?

say, aren’t we due some Aizawa flashbacks soon? this is the arc the manga was on when I first started reading, so it seems to be about that time I’d say

(ETA: so what is it exactly that made people have all these headcanons about him knowing the Iida family as a kid? I know he and Tensei are both in Vigilantes, so I’m guessing now it has something to do with that. lol and here I thought we were going to get a whole backstory. instead we’ve had all of one panel’s worth of flashbacks, and that was very recent and we apparently don’t know what the deal is with that yet except that he had some sort of cloudy friend that he doesn’t want to talk about. not that I’m not loving that, mind you; it’s just not what I was expecting. I really gotta start Vigilantes don’t I. maybe this weekend)

oh my god

I’m a simple girl, I see Jirou losing her damn shit over Kaminari and I hit like and subscribe for more great content

and yes, Aoyama, they do seem to be taking this much more seriously than the others. thinking about what would have happened in a real life situation. and I mean, that’s not a bad thing per se, but it’s just... they’re still kids. and already thinking about death and other worst-case scenarios because they’ve experienced it firsthand now. and man but that’s rough

now Aizawa is giving them his own pointers

he’s such a good teacher I love him so much

meanwhile Vlad is chewing out his own students

didn’t Horikoshi describe his teaching approach as being gentler than Aizawa’s? was that just because he doesn’t expel entire classes at the drop of a hat? sure not seeming real gentle right now lol

(ETA: strut strut)

excuse me Monoma who is the teacher here

but he says that despite the loss, he’s satisfied because they showed the rest of them “something marvelous”

(ETA: strut strut)

yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. he probably can’t wait to try that quirk out for himself

man if Monoma bonds with Shinsou and then Shinsou ends up joining 1-A I am going to laaaaaaugh

(ETA: lol except for the fact that I sorta kinda ship it now oh shit)

and they have an advantage over the class A Shinsou team since they actually have some time to prepare

wow they’re all strategizing now

friendly reminder that I love all of these kids and would die for them

and yes you, Todoroki. humility is all well and good but let’s not kid ourselves. you’re a powerhouse and you need to own it

I have no doubt that Team BakuJirouSeroSatou is going to crush this and I can’t waiiiit

(ETA: THEY SO CRUSHED IT)

and who fucking asked you, C-3PO. maybe they can’t have spare parts installed, but human bodies literally heal themselves given just a bit of time and rest. we don’t need to sit here and be dragged by someone who can’t even pass a damn turing test okay

All Might is reflecting on how much everyone has grown. he sure does that a lot

I guess. and also a way to finally introduce the other 20 U.A. first years after 200 fucking chapters lol

hey what

what is it. what’s with those faces. y’all wanna throw down or what?? bring it

oh they just want to know what they thought about Shinsou

All Might is so good I love you All Might

!!

oh shit. so spoiler alert I guess he passes lol

is he aware that it’s a test? is this another one of your Logical Ruses you deceitful hobo

yessssssssss!

I honestly can’t fathom how a team with both Momo and Tokoyami could possibly lose. they’ve even got Aoyama “saving the day in the clutch” Yuuga and Hagakure “I’m the friggin’ traitor” Tooru for fuck’s sake

by the way, Hagakure’s right fist is facing out but isn’t that weird? wouldn’t it make more sense to have your fist facing toward you for this kind of “pumped and ready to go” gesture? idk why it bothers me. maybe because she’s literally only hands so you could at least get that one detail right lmao

and have I mentioned how much I love Momo’s cape. now if only they’d get her a fucking zipper good grief

that kid from class B who speaks in literal dialogue bubbles is freaking named Manga and I can’t you guys

I have no problem with calling Kuroiro by his name, but I’m pretty sure that legally I have to continue referring to Komori as Toadette. I don’t make the rules you guys

Kendou is asking Momo why she didn’t enter the beauty contest during the cultural festival

have I mentioned lately that Aizawa is the best dad? I have? well it never hurts to say it yet again. Momo had more important things to worry about than participating in the least rational annual event this school puts on

oh right, somehow I forgot that these two did their workplace experience together. actually can I just call it a fucking internship even if it wasn’t an internship internship? y’all still know what I mean anyway so come on

this is an odd thing to bring up now and I can’t help but think Kendou’s trying to get into Momo’s head somehow

(ETA: nope. just bein’ rivals)

oh, Hagakure’s bringing up that one guy at the festival who kept cheering for Momo. I had been wondering about that. so he was a fan of theirs from the commercial they did then? who the hell stans someone from just a single commercial

yes

ooh, hidden dark side from Kendou all of a sudden!

I mean, on the one hand I don’t like Kendou getting jealous because these badass ladies should be supporting one another, not harboring jealous thoughts and insecurities

but on the other hand she’s not wrong about Momo though trufax

okay good, this seems healthy enough

A WHOLESOME LADY RIVALRY, EH? BRING IT

oh my god

imagine going from drawing Shiozaki to drawing this guy. Horikoshi must be filled with relief right now

oh my god Kuroiro’s quirk is apparently amazing!?

holy shit?? WHIP OUT THAT DARK SHADOW AND TEST IT OUT! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR

lmao

if these two don’t watch it they are gonna cut themselves to ribbons on ALL THAT EDGE

so then is Hagakure gonna clash with Toadette. or Manga

so now round two is officially starting, and Sero is asking his friendly neighborhood Tetsutetsu about Kendou, Tetsu’s crush

I ship these two kids so hard. he adores her

lol he says that if she wasn’t around the whole class would have been “indoctrinated” by Monoma

he says she’s the big sister of class B

yeah, so basically the Momo

and now Todoroki is thoughtfully chiming in

you know, operation? as in scheme? as in whatever plan Momo’s thought up using the intellect that’s put her on at the very top of what is probably the most brilliant class in U.A. history?

so now we’re cutting to Team B, and Kendou is saying that they should wait and see what Team A has in store first, since even though they know their basic quirks, they don’t know what improvements they’ve made and what special moves they’ve come up with

go fuck him up Kuroiro! I know I shouldn’t be rooting for you, but I’m so fucking curious to see if you can use Tokoyami’s quirk against him omg

meanwhile we’re cutting back to Team A, and Tokoyami is reporting to the others that Dark Shadow has located Team B

oh shit

TOKOYAMI THEY GOT YO BOY

Dark Shadow’s zooming toward them now and Tokoyami’s shouting at everyone to disperse

HE LOOKS SO SAD OH NO

KUROIRO YOU ASSHOLE WHY ARE YOU MY NEW CLASS B FAVE

Hagakure is all “Kuroiro popped out from inside Dark Shadow!” as though everyone else didn’t just watch that happen right along with her

Momo’s flinging some ninja nets at Kuro but he’s dodging!

I LOVE IT

HOLY SHIT TOKOYAMI IS RIPPED. WHEN DID THAT FUCKING HAPPEN. WHERE WERE THOSE ARM MUSCLES DURING THE POOL EPISODE, JESUS

(ETA: and I’ll have you know Horikoshi even specifically described his arms as “fairly thin” when he did his little bio in chapter 101! so this is a recent fucking development. bird boy been hittin the gym)

also he sure does have a lot of natural enemies doesn’t he. his quirk is so powerful but it has a lot of weaknesses

and lmaoooooo at “a pair of chuunis” holy fucking christ

how is this chapter over already?? oh well, we’re almost at 200, let’s keep going and check out Toko’s new technique

[elite-guard-hardygal]

Dragon Treasure (Fantasy!Eijiro Kirishima/OC) - My Hero Academia gift fic

FINALLY! A super late Christmas present and birthday present for @the-lupine-sojourner! A Takara Yamada (OC)/Eijiro Kirishima fic! Yes, that’s right, I buckled down and actually wrote something at least somewhat romantic! And because I can more easily do anything I want in the Fantasy!AU, this is set in the Fantasy!AU.

A few heads up. Lupine, I know you have your own Fantasy!AU for KiriKara, buuuuuut, I set this fic in my own version of the Fantasy!AU… Hope you don’t mind >.<

Also, everyone is still fifteen/sixteen, because this is a fantasy world, and I imagine age-restriction on quests and other dangerous stuff isn’t exactly all that strict. By that age, you’re probably expected to start doing something with your life… It’s not that different from real life, really.

Double also, in terms of dialogue and speaking, I view the fantasy!MHA as being kinda like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Meaning the world has this old, traditional look with lots of fantasy elements, but people still talk like people do today, a’la “My first girlfriend turned into the moon.” / “That’s rough, buddy.”

Anyway, enough rambling, let’s get to it!

—

"Aww, that's really cool, Eijiro!"

"Really?" Eijiro looked down at the tiny collection of gems and coins inside his coin purse. "Bakugo thinks it's kind of a dumbass tradition."

Takara scoffed, pulling the drawstring on Eijiro's purse and hiding the little valuables from any potentially greedy villagers. "What does he know? He's not a dragon. And I think it's kinda cute, you having your own personal little treasure trove."

Eijiro laughed bashfully as he tied the coin purse to his belt. "I don't even know why I do it. I mean, yeah, I don't really plan on giving any of those shiny things up, but I don't think I'm gonna go full on beast mode if someone tried to take them either."

"Well, is it, like... a dragon rule to go beast mode when someone tries to take your treasure?"

"Not exactly…?" Eijiro said hesitantly. "I mean, we're pretty territorial, but I think it's all up to you what you're willing to call your 'treasure.' Like, the thing you've sworn, as a dragon, to protect."

He glanced at Takara. "Heh, sorry, still don't know nearly enough about dragon tradition as I should."

Eijiro was one of the very few dragon-people to pretty much reject dragon traditions and instead embark on a life of questing, which meant he was missing out on a lot of his people's coming-of-age teachings. He never seemed that upset about it, just a little embarrassed that his knowledge of his own people's traditions only went so far.

"Oh, it's fine…!" Takara said sympathetically. "I think it's sweet of you to keep that tradition going."

Eijiro grinned. "Well, if there's one thing I know makes a both a man and a dragon, it's protecting somethin', even if it's just a purse full'a shiny things."

Takara returned the grin. Heavens above, did she love this boy.

Takara and Eijiro's questing party had set up camp a few miles away from a rather large, well off village earlier that evening. A few people, like Ochako, had questioned why they didn't simply book a stay at the local inn, but that would have been problematic for a number of reasons.

For one, it was almost guaranteed some of them would have to share a room, and very few of them would have been happy with that. For another, a party of young quest-goers tended to attract unwanted attention - questing was a competitive line of work, and many older quest-goers did enjoy hazing younger ones, especially those coming of age. Finally, it would have just been expensive.

After their party had set up camp, Momo compiled a small group consisting of Takara, Eijiro, Izuku, and Tsuyu, and the five of them went off to the village to get some supplies. They had each split off in their own directions after they arrived, agreeing to rendezvous at the center of the village after nightfall. Takara and Eijiro, of course, remained together.

They spent a significant amount of time just enjoying the liveliness of the village before finally buying some bread. Having barely had enough between the two of them to purchase enough bread for the whole party, Takara had jokingly asked Eijiro if he had a dragon's treasure trove, like in the stories. As it turned out, he kind of did.

Some time had passed by now. The sky was dark, and the two of them were heading towards the village center, when bells started clanging in the distance. Takara and Eijiro both froze and exchanged a look. Even a child knew what those bells meant.

The village was being attacked.

The villagers were scattering about, frantic to reach the safety of their shops or homes. Eijiro and Takara stayed were they were. The former drew his knives, eyes piercing the edges of the crowd for anything that looked like an attacker, while the latter crouched down, eyes closed in concentration as her fingertips brushed the ground beneath her.

"Whadda we got?" Eijiro asked tensely.

Takara's eyes snapped open and she stood up straight. "Raiders, I think. A freakin' army, coming in from the east and fanning out."

Opponents located, the two young quest-goers sprinted against the flow of panicking villagers.

"Where're the others?" Eijiro asked, trying to be careful not to accidentally stab anyone rushing past him.

"I don't know," Takara replied as she rested one hand on her water pouch. "I didn't want to spend too much of my magic on that one earth spell."

"Guess we'll have to hope they'll find us. Or that we beat our guys fast enough to go find them."

Takara wasn't looking at Eijiro as he said that, mind much too focused on searching for the raiders, but she knew he was smiling, trying to set her at ease. It worked, of course. It always worked.

Someone screamed. A man dressed all in black had grabbed some fleeing villager, a girl not much older than Takara or Eijiro. She kicked and flailed, shrieking as the man dragged her backwards, his reflective eyes - indicating he was probably of the beast-people - alight with sick desire. Hot rage filled every muscle in Takara's body, and she yanked the stopper out of her water pouch.

Within seconds, the man was on the ground, those sick eyes rolling back dazedly as Takara called back the water whip to form a mace, which she then pointed at the man's bestial face. The girl, who Takara had pulled back the second she hit the man with that surprise attack, grasped Takara's hand.

"Thank you, thank you!" she cried, only now clearly on the verge of tears.

"It's okay, it's okay, you're welcome," Takara said calmingly, giving the poor girl a smile. "Now go, quickly! Get to safety! We'll handle this!"

The girl nodded and rushed off after her fellow villagers. Takara watched her go, just to be safe.

Suddenly, something yanked on her weapon. "You'll pay for that…"

In that one moment of absence, Takara failed to realize that the attacker had regained his senses.

Takara had not come this far as a quest-goer without having first developed some quick skills, though. She loosened her hold on the water spell, and the mace dissolved in the man's hands, Takara leapt back, calling the water back to her as a floating stream. The man snarled, but Takara gave him no time to even curse, for the second he jumped to his feet, she whipped the water around his body and swung him into a nearby house.

It looked like she and Eijiro had caught up with the raiders.

And it was chaos.

There were still plenty of hapless villagers who had not managed to hide themselves away before the raiders caught up to them. They ran around frantically, screaming, begging their neighbors to let them into whatever home or shop they happened to have barricaded themselves into. It wasn't like the homes or shops were safe either, because it was these places the raiders were mainly looking to break into, stealing supplies, valuables, or even people. Some villagers were brave enough to fight back, only to be struck down by one or two significantly more experienced raiders. Night torches were being toppled over, setting structures ablaze.

Through it all, Eijiro and Takara remained focused.

With her water magic, Takara chose to focus much of her energy on damage control, dousing out the fires that were at risk of becoming catastrophically destructive. If she didn't immediately see a fire that needed dousing, Takara turned her water spells on the raiders. Sometimes the raiders attacked her while she was focused on fighting a fire, but Takara was not so easily taken down.

And besides, Eijiro was always there to watch her back. Even as he focused mainly on fighting off the raiders or rescuing other captured, about-to-be-dead villagers, Eijiro would frequently call out to her with warnings or words of encouragement.

"Takara, watch your side!"

"Wow, nice move!"

"They're coming straight for you!"

"Still lookin' good, babe!"

It was less a way of protecting and more a way to let her know, "Hey! I'm still here!" Takara would be remiss if she didn't respond in kind, keeping one eye on her boyfriend and one eye on her surroundings, shouting words of warning or encouragement right back in between fighting fires or raiders. She did have to give herself some credit for having achieved this level of multitasking.

Soon enough, most to all of the fires were managed. Now all she had to do was fight the raiders. After using a focused stream to take out four raiders who had attempted to jump her all at once, Takara stepped back and bumped into something warm and solid.

"Hey, babe." Eijiro gave her a sideways grin. "Holding up?"

"I'm doing just fine," Takara reported, returning the grin. "Wishing more than ever that I was better at earth magic, but, y'know, whatever." She parried and countered another attack.

"I could go beast and maybe end this a little faster," Eijiro ground out, now struggling against a significantly taller raider. "But…"

Takara lashed a water whip around the ankles of Eijiro's opponent, turned, and pulled their feet out from under them. "Damage control and already frightened villagers would definitely become a problem."

"Right..."

"Hey, don't start angsting on me…!" Takara gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. "You're doing great!"

Eijiro shook himself, that optimistic demeanor returning. "Aw, you always know what t' say."

"I know." Takara smiled teasingly, and the two of them split to return to the fray.

All that said, Takara was beginning to feel the strain of the fight as it stretched on. Though she and Eijiro had been making quick work of the more cocky and less battle-smart raiders up to that point, that just left the cleverer and more experienced fighters for them to deal with. Not to mention, Takara's magic levels were steadily depleting.

As Takara just barely avoided a sword to the face after being blinded by the light magic of one of the raiders, it dawned on her that she and Eijiro were definitely outnumbered by the this point.

"I think we need back up!" Takara exclaimed.

"Sure, but where is everyone?!" Eijiro shouted, pushing back another raider.

"I don't know, but I can try looking for them…!" Takara called the water back into her pouch and retreated some feet away from the fight. "Cover me a moment!"

Without losing a beat, Eijiro planted himself firmly between the raiders and his girlfriend. At this rate, though, Takara knew she would only have a few seconds. She closed her eyes and dropped to one knee, placing her palm against the ground. The chaos ensuing throughout the entire village rattled through the earth and into her palms, showing itself as only blurred images clashing against each other. She could barely tell one person from the other, but that wasn't acceptable.

Furrowing her brow, Takara clenched the earth beneath her fingertips and concentrated all her magical energy on finding even the slightest bit of meaning in the chaos.

There!

Three people, not retreating from the chaos but going against it! She couldn't afford to look deeper and identify who was who, but they were there, scattered throughout the village and likely about to be just as overwhelmed as Takara and Eijiro.

"I–!" Something slammed into Takara's waist, pulling her off the ground and away from three separate elemental attacks.

"We gotta retreat!" Eijiro shouted. He turned and barely managed to block a massive axe with one of his knives, arm still around Takara's waist.

"Right!" Takara quickly removed herself from her boyfriend's hold - she would have to thank him for the save later - and stepped back.

"I think I found everyone!" she said, called back her water into the form of a sword. "The closest one is only some hundred metres to the north-east!"

"Awesome, let's go!"

The two of them pushed back against their descending opponents, turned, and ran.

Takara lead the way, water sword gripped tightly in her hand in preparation for any unexpected attack. It was true, their closest party member was not all that far away, but that didn't mean she and Eijiro could make a straight beeline for them. The village was full of now more experienced raiders, and with the mental image of nearly everyone's position in the village still fresh in her mind, Takara did not want to waste any energy on literally bumping into another group of raiders.

They burst into the village center, and there Takara froze as she came face to face with a tall man bearing clawed hands and a mammalian bestial face.

"Oh?" The man focused his reflective eyes on Takara, spending chills down the girl's spine. "A village wench who's run the wrong way?" Too late, Takara thought to raise her sword, only for the man to grab it by the blade and raise his other hand in preparation to strike. "How unfortunate."

'Shit, shit, shit, what do I do?!'

Takara watched the hand coming down on her as though in slow motion. In a flash of panic and inspiration, she reeled back, about to slam her heel against the ground. Then, something red and roaring caught the corner of her eye. Eijiro had launched himself at the man, knives drawn and teeth bared in a snarl.

Takara had just enough time for two words to split across her mind - 'Oh, no…' - before her heel met the earth.

The earth swelled in response to the spell that had sent through it, throwing back anyone within Takara's immediate radius. It wasn't that powerful a spell, just a simple earth tremor, but Takara felt the consequences. She collapsed in tandem with the falling dust, magical energy very nearly spent.

"Interesting…"

Takara looked up, and her blood froze. The man was on top of Eijiro, knees pinning down the dragon boy's wrists, one hand embedding its claws in Eijiro's chest while the other released Takara's sword as it dissolved into water. He looked over at Takara.

"Not just a village wench then."

Swords, axes, maces, and spells all found their way aimed in Takara's direction as some of the raiders not currently attempting to break into the village houses sought to keep her down. The man looked down at Eijiro.

"And not just a foolish village hero."

Eijiro grit his teeth, arms tensing as he attempted to move. "Get off–!"

The claws shifted in his chest, and Eijiro cried out in pain. The man simply tilted his head curiously as he observed the patch of red scales his claws were currently gored into. It looked like Eijiro's defense mechanism hadn't been activated quick enough.

"Let him go!" Takara shouted, attempting to get up, only to be pushed back down by one of the surrounding raiders.

The man ignored her, instead speaking to Eijiro as both of them were also surrounded by a few cautious raiders. "You're a long way from home, dragon-child."

"Yeah," Eijiro ground out. "I left to find and take down assholes like you."

"And yet you haven't, despite your naturally immense bestial power. The ideals of a quest-goer are so constricting." The man began to search Eijiro's belt.

"Hey–!" Eijiro once again tried to fight back, only for the claws to be pushed a little deeper, prompting another shout of pain.

"Stop it!" Despite Takara's cry, she could do nothing to enforce it as the raiders surrounding her raised their weapons and/or prepared attacks in warning.

"I find all quest-goers, especially you young ones, to be an inconvenient irritation," the man continued. "But I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed I can't truly say I fought a dragon. Surely you're a disgrace to your people, being beaten like this."

"Shut up…!" Eijiro growled through grit teeth.

"Perhaps– Ah, here we are!" The man pulled Eijiro's coin purse - the coin purse - from his belt, the valuables contained within jingling distinctly. "No dragon would be without something of value!"

"Give it back!"

The man scoffed - "Oh, please." - and stood up. Eijiro immediately attempted to attack, only for several of the surrounding raiders to beat him down.

"Eijiro!" Takara screamed. She lurched forward, only for the flat of a sword blade to smack her in the face.

As she lay on the ground, clutching her face, Takara was vaguely aware of Eijiro shouting her name in between grunts of pain.

"You couldn't protect your lady friend, you couldn't defeat me or my raiding party, and you couldn't keep me from stealing your little valuables…" The man laughed mockingly. "You are a failure as a man, a quest-goer, and a dragon."

Something awakened in Takara, a rage similar to what she had felt when she had saved that village girl earlier.

"You…"

Digging deep into her nearly depleted reserves of magical energy, Takara stretched out her hand. The puddle of water that had been her sword rushed upwards, forming into a knife.

"...shut up!"

Takara pulled her hand back sharply. The water knife immediately obeyed her call, arcing downwards and neatly slicing open the back of the man's hand. The man dropped the coin purse with a shout of surprise and pain, and Takara caught her knife, only for it to instantly dissolve in her palm.

Slamming her now wet hand against the ground, Takara screamed, "He's more than you'll ever be! What the hell do you know?! You're just a thief who can't be bothered to take the hard road!"

"Takara…" Eijiro grunted, straining against the raiders and weapons now keeping him pinned down and appearing largely uninjured despite the beating he had just taken. Patches of red dragons scales covered his body, protecting him from any real damage, but doing little for him as he fought to escape.

The man bared his sharp teeth as he examined the slice on the back of his hand, and he turned on Takara, reflective eyes glowing in the fires still smoldering throughout the village. All of a sudden, Takara was very aware of just how vulnerable she was.

"Little wench. Why the hell is she still here?" the man snapped at those who were surrounding Takara. "Kill her or take her, I don't care."

"No!" Eijiro yelled. "Takara!"

Several pairs of hands grabbed Takara by the arms, pulling her upright. Fear shot through Takara's very bones, and she frantically called on any spell she had at her disposal, only to find herself completely devoid of magical energy. Well, that said nothing of her physical energy.

As the raiders dragged her back, away from the village center and away from Eijiro, Takara kicked and thrashed and screamed. "Let go of me!!"

"Takara!" Eijiro's voice sounded strained and frantic, and Takara could see him struggling in earnest against those who were keeping him down. "You take your hands off her!"

"Ah, it looks like another pretty thing has been stolen from you." The bestial raider, having regained his composure, scooped Eijiro's coin purse off the ground with a snide chuckle.

"Let her go!"

"Eijiro!" Takara cried out, fear becoming overtaken by panic as the distance between her and her boyfriend grew.

"You couldn't even be bothered to defend your little trove with every power at your disposal," the man said mockingly, pressing the sole of his shoe against Eijiro's head. "We might as well help ourselves to everything."

The raiders weren't dragging her away to kill her, Takara knew this, so that only left the one other option, the option that came with all manner of horrifying scenarios. Her whole body felt repulsed just thinking about it, and a sob escaped Takara's throat.

"Eijiro!"

Eijiro snarled, eyes flashing yellow. "I said let! Her! GO!!"

The boy's cry of rage deepened and gutturalized, until it lengthened into a bestial roar. Takara gasped, and even the raiders dragging her away froze and looked back.

They were met with the roaring maw of a large, red scaled dragon.

The raiders instantly went on the offensive, releasing Takara in the process, but the dragon made quick work of them, batting them aside with a flick of its claws.

"Eijiro…!" Takara said breathlessly.

The dragon curled around her protectively, knocking the roofs off a few houses in the process, and roared at the remaining raiders.

"Shit!" The man who had proven himself to be the head of the raiding party scrambled to his feet. "Take him down, quickly!"

All manner of long range attacks were thrown at Eijiro, only for all of them to bounce off his leathery wings as he draped them over Takara. The instant the attacks faded, Eijiro quickly spread his wings, knocking most everyone back with a wind gust. A few raiders were stupid enough to attempt charging Eijiro next. Takara, standing at Eijiro's chest, felt the air around her grow hot.

"No, Eijiro, wait!" she cried, but it was too late.

The charging raiders were met with Eijiro's firey breath, forcing them to retreat frantically. The flames instead relit the already smoldering remains of the houses on the edge of the village square and scorched the fountain in the centre. Takara was about to sigh in relief, only for something to whizz past her ear, and Eijiro to suddenly pull back with a sharp bellow.

"I got him!" one of the raiders shouted triumphantly.

"Eijiro!" Takara shouted in alarm, seeing that an arrow had, by some miracle, found its way into Eijiro's chest.

But that didn't make sense! A dragon's scales were veritably unbreakable, even at a young age, so how…?

'Oh, no.'

The claws embedded in Eijiro's chest earlier. They had left five wounds bored through his scales, still present even in his dragon form.

Eijiro shook himself, growling as his scales flared in an effort to release the unwanted intrusion. An automatic response that only left him that much more vulnerable.

"Now!"

Takara didn't know who shouted that, but the next thing she knew, she was engulfed in darkness and heard Eijiro release a guttural roar as he was hit with every attack at their opponents' disposal. The light returned when Eijiro retreated a little, pulling Takara back with a claw that was much more gentle than one would have expected from a dragon.

"Eijiro, are– Oh my word!" Takara exclaimed as she looked up at her bestial boyfriend.

Several knives and arrows stuck out from beneath Eijiro's scales, which flared and tensed sporadically, scorched and smoking in some places or just straight bleeding in others. Eijiro huffed and shook his head, crouching down defensively, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. Takara turned back and saw an army of raiders approaching. It seemed like every raider still standing had come to this fight now.

"Stay back!" Takara screamed, voice cracking slightly, either due to exhaustion or emotional strain. "Leave him alone!"

Eijiro pulled her a little closer, jaws snapping at the approaching raiders, but neither Takara's words nor Eijiro's aggression dettered the raiders. The man at the head of the group, the leader, wiped a bit of blood from his face, eyes flashing with annoyance and hatred. He didn't even say anything before he launched himself at Eijiro, claws out and teeth gnashing.

Takara could barely process what was happening anymore. She was aware of the constant clang of metal on scales, the flashes and rumbles of many magical attacks, the various shouts of alarm, warning, and, most frighteningly, triumph. She was aware of Eijiro's every shift in movement as he hovered over her, never once exposing her to the ensuing attack even as he attempted to fight back their ruthless opponents. He was slowing down, she knew it, she could practically feel it, and she could definitely hear it as his roars lessened in power, becoming guttural with pain.

"Stop it!" Takara yelled. "Stop!"

Who she was asking to stop, Takara didn't know. But with Eijiro so focused on protecting her, she didn't know how long he would actually be able to hold up…!

Then, a wonderfully familiar voice broke through the chaos.

"Get away from them!"

Metal clashed against metal, sounding almost dissonant in Takara's ears after having heard Eijiro's scales take the brunt of every attack for the past… minute? Five minutes? How long had it been since Eijiro had gone beast-mode? Hell, how long had it been since the raid started?

"Takara…!"

The one spoken to jerked back in alarm, hands instinctively looking to cast a spell despite her depleted magical energy levels.

"Oh, Tsu…!" Relief flooded Takara's every nerve.

She had been hopeful when heard Izuku's voice, but actually seeing one of her friends standing in front of her... Takara pulled Tsuyu into a tight hug, drawing a 'ribbit' of surprise from the frog faced girl.

There was a harsh huff from above, and Takara pulled back from the hug to look up at Eijiro. He definitely looked worse, scales quivering and pupils dilating as he stumbled a litte, still hovering defensively over Takara. He began to shrink. Red scales faded into tan skin, bestial features favoring more human ones, until soon an injured boy stood in place of an injured dragon.

"Eijiro!" Takara darted forward, and she and Tsuyu caught him before he collapsed.

"H-Hey, Takara…" Eijiro lifted his head, a weak but genuine grin on his face. "I just realized…"

He winced as the two girls eased him onto the ground. Takara wrapped a gentle arm around Eijiro's shoulders, careful not to aggravate his wounds or let him fall back onto the knives and arrows still sticking out of him.

"What's wrong?" Takara asked timorously.

"I just realized…" Eijiro looked at her through the one eye that didn't currently have blood dripping over it. "You're literally a treasure."

"...What?"

Eijiro laughed a little, sounding inappropriately dopey for someone who was bleeding everywhere. "It's, like, in your name right? 'Takara.' 'Treasure.' So you're literally 'treasure.' It's crazy how much that fits, considering– Ow!"

"Ah! Eijiro, I'm sorry!" Having momentarily forgotten the situation, Takara had swatted Eijiro on the shoulder, right where a burn marked his flesh. "I'm so, so, so sorry! I–"

Takara waved her hands frantically, unsure of whether to risk touching him again even as he began to fall back due to lack of support. Fortunately, Tsu caught him with a 'ribbit', taking Takara's place in supporting Eijiro. Takara buried her face in her hands.

"You idiot…!" she groaned, voice cracking. "You nearly died! Are you seriously trying to flirt with me right now?!"

Eijiro chuckled, prompting Takara to lift her face even as she felt tears spill their way down her face.

"Sorry. But look, I'm all right…!" He gave a thumbs up, only to tense with a hiss of pain.

"I disagree," Tsu said concernedly, making him lower his arm. "You look way worse than you should for someone who's a dragon."

"Hey, I'm a dragon…!" Eijiro exclaimed in faux defensiveness. "I'm sworn to protect my treasure, right?"

He turned his good eye on Takara with a grin.

"You're flirting again, Kirishima," Tsuyu pointed out.

Takara let out some sound resembling both a laugh and a sob. She rubbed the back of her hand over her face and moved a little closer to her boyfriend.

"It's fine…" she murmured, taking his face gently in her hands a planting a soft kiss on his forehead.

"Oh, woah, Kirishima…!"

Takara looked up to see Izuku running up to them, with Momo not far behind. They both appeared a little worn and tired, but otherwise perfectly fine, especially compared to Eijiro.

"You look terrible!" Momo exclaimed, sheathing her sword as she dropped to her knees in front of them.

"That's a little harsh," Eijiro said with a tired chuckle.

Though wanting very much to continue holding her boyfriend, Takara forced herself to move aside a bit so Momo could get a good look at him.

"Did you two deal with the raiders?" Tsu directed her question at Momo and Izuku as she let Takara retake her place in supporting Eijiro.

"We managed to fight them all off," Momo confirmed as she spread Eijiro's vest a little to get a better look at the injuries to his chest.

(Takara felt an irrational spike of jealousy that she quickly stomped down).

"What, all of them?" Eijiro exclaimed in surprise.

"We probably wouldn't have been able to do it hadn't been for you, Kirishima," Izuku said, voice high with admiration and encouragement as he sheathed his own sword. "Your fight left them all too weak to really fight back against me and Yaoyorozu."

"Ah, I didn't do much, I was just tryin' to protect Takara and kinda gettin' my ass handed to me while I was at it…"

"Shut up, you were doing just fine," Takara muttered, resisting the urge to hug him and instead pressing her head against his.

"And it was worth it," Eijiro concluded, returning Takara's gesture.

"You're lucky to have those dragon powers of yours," Momo said with a bite of admonishment. "These injuries would have likely killed a normal person ten times over…!"

"I don't go down easily."

"You were just talking about how you were getting beaten by those raiders," Tsuyu said.

"Well…! Yeah, but still…!" Eijiro tried to laugh off his embarrassment, but the laugh quickly turned to coughs.

"Kirishima…!" Izuku exclaimed concernedly, stepping forward.

"He will be okay, right?" Takara asked Momo as she tried to keep Eijiro steady.

"We should get him back to camp," their party's second in command asserted with poorly hidden concern. "I just hope we have enough supplies to–"

"Is that the dragon-person?"

The question had everyone except Eijiro, who was trying to catch his breath, looking up. The villagers were emerging from their houses and shops. They approached the young quest-goers, many of their eyes on the injured boy on the ground.

"I didn't think I would ever see one all the way out here."

"He managed to fight all those raiders…!"

The murmurs of the villagers mostly seemed to revolve around Eijiro and their awe at his power as they essentially surrounded the small group.

"Um, hello," Izuku said nervously.

Eijiro finally looked up, eyes a bit cloudy. "Oh, hey, where'd all these people come from…?"

A village girl that Takara recognized as the one she had saved from that one raider at the start of the battle (wow, that seemed like forever ago), emerged from the crowd, eyes bright as she exclaimed, "Thank you so much for protecting our village, quest-goers!"

"Especially that dragon kid!" another villager shouted.

"Who, me?" Eijiro blinked.

"You did manage to fight almost the entire raiding party single-handedly, and if it hadn't been for your conspicuousness, I don't think the rest of us would have been able to regroup with you and Takara," Tsuyu said.

"How could we ever repay you?" one of the older villagers asked.

Everyone's first instinct was to say that it was no problem, that they had only been looking to help, that they didn't need a reward…

"But maybe some medical supplies…?" Takara said hesitantly.

"And some food and other supplies..." Tsuyu added.

"And something to help us carry our friend back to our camp would be nice," Momo finished, playing bashfully with the tips of her gauntlets.

Despite their embarrassment and hesitancy, they received just that and more. Takara soon found herself sitting in the back of a small horse-drawn wagon, surrounded by supplies of various sorts, watching over Eijiro as he slowly began to doze off on her shoulder

"C'mon, stay awake," Takara pleaded. "I don't want you falling asleep until we know you'll be all right."

"I'll be fine, babe," Eijiro murmured, words slurring a little. "But if you really want me to…" He blinked hard and turned a little to look up at her, some concern in his eyes. "Are you all right…? Those raiders didn't…"

"I just have a few cuts and bruises, but it's nothing I can't walk off."

'Unlike you,' she thought, though she didn't say anything more on the subject.

Instead, she squeezed one of his hands and sighed, "I'm sorry about your little treasure trove. I know it meant a lot to you."

There was a small stretch of silence.

"I guess, but I'm honestly more disappointed that leader guy bolted with the rest of his goons. And after all that big talk he was throwin' around…" Eijiro scoffed, then smiled a little. "'Sides, you're worth way more than a purse full'a shiny things."

Takara returned the smile, then hugged him as close as she could without hurting him. "That's sweet. But please don't hurt yourself like that ever again, okay…?"

"Hey, you're my treasure," Eijiro said, still a little cheeky despite his slurring words. "And I'm a dragon."

"My dragon," Takara asserted, voice both lighthearted and genuine. "I'm swearing to protect you too, y'know?"

"That's fair. Okay. Let's protect each other."

He clumsily shifted his arms to bump his fists together, and Takara couldn't help but laugh. She turned to press a kiss against the side of his head.

"...Thank you," she murmured.

There was more in those two words than she could ever hope to express.

[morphinggridwarriors]

Power Rangers: SkyForce Chapter 1

Location: Between the second and third dimensions:

Though his form flickers in and out, it’s clear that one of their own has ascended. No longer are they flat, unrealized beings. Now, thanks to this energy that flows through the universe, the ones who once were Boneless can now move into the upper planes.

Just one, then another, this one wearing white, sipping from a wine glass. She speaks. “Having a physical form is so freeing. You all should try it.”

Her statement is met by a laugh, from one that is far shorter than the others, but still bearing a significant power. “She’s right. Just find the right body, and the world above is no longer out of reach.”

A mechanical voice resounds from behind him. “And soon, all of you shall be able to take that plane and the ones above it. Oh yes, my friends, there are higher planes than the third dimension.

The first one raises a gloved hand for silence. “I can feel it. The skeins of reality are coming together in one location. We will push through the veil there, and all of you shall claim bodies of your own. And this time, no old man in a box is going to stop us!”

---

Aerie Canyon, Nevada,  November 12, 11:32 AM

They had all received a message from a higher power. It had read “Are you in possession of powers or special abilities that were once limited to Power Rangers? If so, you are the kind of person we want. Skyforce, a branch of the Terra Venture military, is looking to train people with unique gifts to become a support squadron for the Power Rangers. Meet at Aerie Canyon airfield on November 12 at noon if you are interested.”

There are a hundred people gathered on the hill overlooking this one runway airport. Most of them are milling about the coffee carafes and platters of sandwiches, trading stories about what they’ve done with their powers.

One bit of dialogue from these conversations catches the ears of a young man in a red sweatshirt. Yuri Wright turns around as a man wearing an “Angel Grove Rangers” minor league shirt says “Oh yeah, yours is cool, but mine is amazing! I can move so fast, I can catch bullets from the air.”

As soon as the man starts talking, Yuri notices his body glows red. A glow that gets brighter until it reaches a peak at the end of the sentence. The man is lying. Yuri can tell. But not only is he lying,his lie is a big one. Not that he’s going to call him on that. That guy looks like he could still take off Yuri’s head with a punch. So he heads away from that conversation.

Yuri finds himself near the parking lot as a limousine drives up. What is such a fancy car doing here? He takes a step back as the driver opens the door and a woman older than him, but still younger than most of the people here steps out in a pretty, but not overly ostentatious blue dress.

“Yes, of course, Corbin.” She tells the driver. “I will definitely call Mother when this is all over.” As opposed to the previous lie, this one has a much lower tint of red. It’s not a lie made to make her look good, but one to get an overbearing figure out of the picture sooner.

As the woman heads up towards the airfield, she stops, pulling her shades down for a moment. “Excuse me, have we met? You seem familiar.”

“I can’t be sure. I think I’d remember you.” Yuri admits. As the limousine drives off, he rubs the back of his neck. “You are very pretty, after all.”

“Nice. Very smooth, but you’re a bit too young for me.” She gives him a smile. “So, you got the message about this meeting too? What kind of power do you have, kid?”

“Yuri.” He introduces himself. “I can tell when people are lying, even if they’re not aware that they’re lying.”

“Amelia.” She responds with a bit of interest. “Man, with a power like that, you’d be a nightmare in a boardroom. Just point to some slacking coworker and say ‘You’re lying and you know it. Now give me the TPS report you promised.’”

“Hey, I know that movie!” Yuri laughs. “It’s one of my mom’s favorites. What about you? What’s your power?”

“I can heal people’s bodies.”

Yuri pauses, his jaw falling open. Could it really be? “By any chance...did you once help a woman give birth? A woman who might not have made it without you?”

Now it’s Amelia’s turn to stare. “No way...That was your mom I helped out? You’re the baby from that day?”

Yuri blushes. “Yeah, my mom calls you her ‘Guardian Angel.’ She told me if I ever met you, I should tell you…”

Meanwhile up on top of the hill, Logan Glenn pushes his way through the crowd, trying to get to one of the strawberry danishes on the plate before someone else does. He has to push as lightly as possible, since he only just discovered his power a few weeks before. On that day, he had been asked to bring in the family barbecue grill for storage. When he had placed his hand on the handle and pulled, the barbecue grill went sailing as if he had thrown a frisbee. He’s afraid to think of what would happen to a person if he applied that strength to their bodies. That’s part of the reason he came to the airfield today.

He reaches for the danish, and a woman’s hand takes it before he can get to it. A moment of dejection passes quickly as she breaks it in two. “Sorry about that. There’s supposed to be another batch coming before noon.”

“So long as I get one, I’m happy with it.” He takes in her appearance. A crisp, neatly pressed military uniform, that he recognizes from the pictures as a Terra Venture uniform. “Are you an Earth-side or Miranoi-side soldier?” He asks.

“Miranoi. I was born there. First child born there, in fact.” She answers. “I’m Captain Sally LaGuardia. Yes, like the airport in New York.” She answers, taking a bite of the danish.

“Hey, my first name’s Logan, like the airport in Boston.” But even saying the name feels wrong on his tongue. He’s always felt out of sorts with who he is. “Are you the one who called everybody here?”

“Yeah. I’m one of the founding officers of Skyforce. It’s my belief that the Power Rangers need all the support they can get, and if there’s a civilian force to back them up, we can save so many more lives.” Sally says.

“You mean like the Silver Guardians?” Logan asks. He has an uncle in that group, and they’re always helping out the Time Force rangers.

“Similar. I know the Silver Guardians started as a for-profit organization, but changed after the fact. There’s no money to be made here. It’s solely for protecting people.”

As Logan and Sally talk, another person wanders around the periphery. Orville Yeager is amazed that there are so many people like him. Do they all have useless powers like his? What he has has to be a power, right?  How else would anyone account for bouncing between minor bad luck and extreme good luck?

As he sips on the strangely good coffee, there’s a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turns to face it, and catches an eyeful of camera flash from someone’s phone. As he rubs at his eyes, Orville staggers back, his arms knocking Sally and Logan over. The hill is still a bit slippery from the rain the night before, and all three of them slide down the hill.

Orville’s shoulder hits Yuri, who toppled into Amelia, who trips over Sally’s chest and lands on top of Logan’s legs.

“Is everyone all right?” Amelia asks as soon as she catches her breath. She stands first, smoothing out her dress and reaching down to Yuri and the poor young man who is mostly face down in the mud. “Wow, you got it rough there, buddy.” She focuses her healing power into Orville’s body, patching up the scrapes and cuts he had gotten.

Next to them, Sally pops up into a sitting position and shakes loose the cobwebs. “Well, that’s one way to get out of an awkward situation.” She rises, helping Logan up. As she turns to head back up the hill, the whole scene is awash in a purple glow. Large cracks seem to form in the sky, with electricity arcing between the ground and everything around.

Screams. Sounds of a scuffle. More screams. The crack in the sky widens and the five of them look up as the people who were gathered around them are taken upwards. A few do try to make it away from the gravitational force, but only one succeeds, falling down the hill near Amelia. As she reaches towards him, the man who had previously lied about his superhuman speed is pulled back by an inexorable force, and right before their eyes, his body is turned inside out. His body vanishes into a pale black blip and flies up towards the crack in the sky. The spot where he had been standing before now has a trio of strange masked figures, in black and orange armor, which stagger like zombies towards the survivors.

The first one to get too close to Orville is blasted into silver dust as Sally lines up a shot with her sidearm. The next one catches a palm to the chin from Logan. The adrenaline of the moment coupled with his own superstrength slams his would be attacker into the hill, leaving a crater and no trace of the masked figure when the dust clears.

Sally looks to her new companions and makes a judgement call. “Run! Go to the Quonset hut!” She points to the small hangar where the machines and engines of light aircraft are stored. “Get in there and wait for me. I’ll be right back, I promise.” She fires another shot, eliminating the last of the enemies, but she can see more are coming. “Get going!”

Yuri is ready to do whatever she says. She seems capable of taking charge, so he takes off running for the hut. As he turns back, he watches Sally’s body become pure white and vanish. Now he’s worried. Has the crack in the sky taken her too?

It’s fifty yards to the Quonset hut, and they’re still running. Each one of them hopes they can find shelter and safety from whatever is going on.

Elsewhere in space, Sally’s teleportation gateway opens up inside a laboratory on Miranoi. “Professor Phenomenous!” She calls, and the white-haired mad scientist staggers from the lab.

“Captain Laguardia, what can I do for you?” He takes in a breath and leans against his cane.

“Short version: There’s some kind of dimensional incursion on Earth and I need gear to put a stop to it. You were working on prototype morphers, weren’t you?” Sally says, hoping she can get back to the others before something bad happens.

“Ah yes. The ones that Terra Venture said weren’t necessary because the Lost Galaxy Rangers were still active.” The professor punches in a combination on a safe and takes out a box. “Sadly, they are only good enough to allow the users to morph, and offer some basic combat and mobility advantages.”

“It will have to do, Professor. I promise, I’ll take care of them.” Sally takes the box. As she does, the Professor lays a shaky arm on her hand.

“Sally. Before you blink off to Earth again, I just want you to know, I’m proud of you. I know it probably doesn’t matter coming from an old crackpot like me…”

“Hey, Professor. You’re not a crackpot.” Sally smiles softly. “You were one of my family’s closest friends here on Miranoi. And I always liked hearing your stories of the Power Rangers. It just looks like I’ll get a chance to live them now.”

“And I know you’ll do fine. Now go. Go save some lives, little bird.” He uses a long-standing nickname. “Just try to blink a few feet away from me. I don’t want to get knocked over again.”

“Right. Thank you, Professor Phenomenous.” Sally takes the box, and steps away from the main lab to blink back to Earth.

As soon as she’s gone, the old scientist sets aside his cane. “She’s finally ready. As am I.” He turns in the general direction of Earth. “Farewell, everyone.”

In that moment, the Morphing Grid opens up, taking Professor Phenomenous from this mortal coil.

“Not to worry, Little Bird. I’ll still be watching over you from this side.” He says, watching the events as they’re about to unfold. “I can help lead brilliant minds to you. You will need all the help you can get.”

---

Yuri and Orville have reached the Quonset hut first, and hold the door for Amelia and Logan to enter. Once they’re inside, Logan braces himself against the door. As long as he holds it, nothing is going to get inside.

Well, nothing except Sally, appearing in a blast of white light ten feet behind him.

“All right. There’s not much time to explain.” She hands each one of them a simple wrist device. “Press down on the center of the wing device and say ‘Skyforce, Scramble!’”

She demonstrates this, and her body is quickly enveloped in a bright white skintight suit with a stylized swan’s head on the helmet and metallic wings under the arms.

“Quickly, everybody morph! Those things, whatever they are, will be here soon!”

Looking to each other, then to Sally, the other four slap the morphers onto their wrists and utter the morphing call.

---

Location: EMC command center

Captain Benjamin Blackwell looks over at his Red Ranger. “Henry. We just picked up a dimensional event. Aerie Canyon, thirty miles to the south. You’re the fastest. Get down there, and find out what’s going on.”

Henry nods and salutes the Commander. “Should I tell Caroline to wait in the wings?”

“She’s already in her Zord, waiting to hear your report. Now, Run, Henry! Run!”

[4pondsinabox]

Summer 2018 TV Binge Ranking

I use the term “Binge” lightly, since I’m not used to watching a lot of tv at once. Anyways, starting out this summer I realized the number of my active fandoms had significantly decreased, which I needed to fix asap. Luckily, not only did I have more time than usual to watch some television, but I also had access to a Netflix account for once, so I went right to work. The following shows were picked from various gifsets, edits, fanarts etc. on Tumblr and Instagram, so for those of you I follow who post occasional stuff that don’t pertain to the main fandom I follow you for, you probably had some influence on my list. Because of this, I figured it might be useful for anyone else looking for a new show to watch to have some kind of ranking, though I realize different people have different tastes. You will notice though that none of these shows are long-running, so it’ll be pretty easy to jump right on board any of them. These are ranked purely on my enjoyment of them and how much I looked forward to seeing the next episode, NOT the actual overall quality. 

1. Legends of Tomorrow

“You’ve got to be joking” Nope. No I am not. Ok, the first season is really rough. Like, extremely rough. But the show finds its footing by season 2 and becomes essentially the American version of Doctor Who (aka my favorite show of all time). Time travel? Check. Sentient Time Ship? Check. A good blend of hilarity and touching moments? Check. Badass bisexual queen (who was trained to kill people)? Check. The list goes on. It’s extremely enjoyable, particularly when you need a good laugh, I really looked forward to every episode post-series 1. I would almost recommend skipping the first season altogether but there are a few important backstories for the characters that might make some later moments confusing. You don’t really need to have watched other Arrowverse shows to understand what’s going on and, aside from 2 crossover specials, there’s hardly a connection at all. Legends is also pretty diverse, although it would be nice to add a few more women to balance out the man-heavy team. Otherwise, their “dysfunctional family” dynamic is, quite frankly, hilarious and the overflow of pop-culture references (there’s a whole episode where they have to convince George Lucas to return to the movie industry because of his films’ influence on history) made my geek heart so happy. My biggest critique is the show’s use of the “only white boys are nerds” trope because, while I love these two particular characters, I would really love to find another show where the women aren’t always “sensible and non-geeky.”

2. Black Lightning

I don’t think I can put into words how wonderfully heartwarming this show is. I have seen one too many shows with dysfunctional families, so watching the Pierces grow and work through their issues in a healthy way was just … so important to me. Literally all of them are beautiful, flawed but well rounded characters that I would fight for. Also, Lynn and Jefferson? Freaking adorable and couples goals (Also ironically the names of my aunt and uncle). Anissa was born to be a superhero. She never had a moment of calling like most do because she was already an activist and her reaction to her powers is extremely believable. So is Jennifer’s. She’s 16 and wants nothing more than an average life. I completely relate to their sibling relationship (I, too, frequently borrow my sister’s stuff). It’s a bit darker than Legends but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of light moments to go around. Needless to say, this is another wonderfully diverse show. Aside from focusing on a healthy, black family, the fact that Anissa’s a lesbian isn’t made out to be a big deal. The underlying commentary on black incarceration and other racism issues is very poignant and eye-opening, as someone who’s not a part of that community. I don’t feel like I can say much on the actual superhero aspects of it, since I generally don’t watch DC or Marvel stuff (previous mentioned show aside) because the amount of fighting overwhelms the plot and characters for me, but I thought this show had a good balance of superhero-y moments  and touching character moments. It really did feel like a break through in television.

3. Sense 8

Late to the party, I know, but I knew I’d get here eventually. First off, if you opened a dictionary to find the word “diversity,” this show should be underneath it. Every time I think they couldn’t find another way to integrate another identity into it, they proved me wrong. I particularly loved that they trick the audience into thinking they’re setting up yet another love triangle, then are like “Psyche, threesome.” They know modern audiences too well. The characters are fantastic, I have a particular soft spot for Lito Rodriguez. The concept is unique and the camera work is another level (as someone who’s thinking about heading into the film industry, I appreciated that). What threw me off was how graphic the show was. I tend to keep away from television that has copious amounts of sex and blood, largely out of discomfort, so if that stuff triggers you in any way it would be good to steer away from this particular show. I grew accustomed to it as I kept watching but early on I had to take significant breaks between each episode. Luckily, the characters and storyline was interesting enough to keep me coming back. 

5. Dark Angel

Not from Netflix and technically a two part miniseries instead of a full tv show, but I had to include it. Wow. Just wow. I enjoyed Joanne in Downton Abbey but boy I was not prepared for the stellar performance she gave off as Mary Ann Cotton, Britain’s first female serial killer. This is about as dark as television gets, there was hardly a happy moment in the whole thing and yet I was compelled to keep watching. This is quite the accomplishment for any show or film that doesn’t have at least some humor added in to balance it out. The show depicted the difficulty of Victorian women extremely well, and almost made Mary a sympathetic character. Almost. What I admired about this telling was the writing’s ability to do this without glorifying what she did. You can understand her actions without condoning them. Considering how many people Mary was suspected of killing though, there wasn’t as much death as I expected from a serial killer story. Not that I’m complaining. Probably not one I’ll re-watch anytime soon, but I’m definitely glad to have seen it.

5. A Series of Unfortunate Events

Boy, where do I start. This is the one show I started watching without prompting from social media, simply because I had read the first few books when I was younger. Watching this reminded me why I never picked up the other books in the series. It’s not technically a bad show, I did mostly enjoy the first season, it just became so dark and depressing by the second season, even with the bright and comic-y look to the show. I actually think that was a smart decision on the creators part, to include the over-the-top scenery and clothes, because I can’t imagine how much more depressing it would have been if they’d gone with dark tones. The Lemony Snicket dialogue is also amusing, and I appreciate this show for giving Tumblr more dialogue to play around with. On the downside, I wanted to punch literally every adult onscreen. Shows are a bit difficult to watch when you have that kind of reaction to them. At this point, I can’t say if I’ll watch the third season when it comes out or not, as I do generally like to stick with happier shows.

That concludes my summer show review, I tried not to go super in-depth and spoiler-y I hope these thoughts were helpful or, at the very least, an interesting read.

[ryttu3k]

Doing the bad-end Joseph route with two dates with Robert to get down the dialogue. Not all of it, but the more plot-relevant parts. For anyone who needs the dialogue for fic purposes or whatever, feel free to use!

Any route, after first meeting with Robert:

Robert: "Great place to be. Good neighbours. Well, some of them." MC: "Who's that?" Robert: "I don't kiss and tell, MC."

At the bake sale:

Mary: "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Sorry, I'll work on the whole 'pretending to be happy' thing." Mary leans in and whispers to me. Mary: "He's really good at it."

At the bar:

Mary: "I'd never accuse you of anything uncouth, MC! You're just having an innocent, very platonic time with my husband. A supportive friendship. You're a good friend, aren't you?" Option: "S...sure..." Mary: "That's funny, Joseph usually likes his friends to at least have a spine." MC: "Hey... Not everyone likes to yell at their spouse's friends for no reason." Mary: "So you're an expert on my marriage now?"

(Did all options, went with the third option in the end.)

Option 1: "It doesn't take an expert to see that you two are miserable" Mary: "Then what does that make you? We were miserable a long time before you started poking into our business, buddy boy. Don't come around thinking you're some paragon of empathy just because you got involved where you weren't welcome. You know, you're really not his type. I'm surprised."

Option 2: "I'm not trying to be an expert on your marriage" MC: "I'm just trying to be there for my friend, okay?" Mary: "Oh, you're there for him. I see how you look at him. I bet you're there for him a lot. You know, you're really not his type. I'm surprised."

Option 3:  "I'm sorry" MC: "I can tell that you're having a rough time and I just want you to know that it doesn't have to be like this. I don't want any hard feelings between us, Mary." Mary pauses. Mary: "It's all messed up." MC: "I'm sorry." Mary: "... I'm sorry for us both."

After selecting Joseph for the third time on Dadbook:

I really want to see Joseph again. But after that weird encounter with Mary... I don't know. He's my friend, right? I should be able to hang out with him and it not be weird, right? ... Right?

(Note: Joseph is the one to initiate contact and invite MC out on the yacht.)

Before leaving for the marina:

Amanda: "Hey... in all seriousness, have fun. But... make good choices, okay?"

The most depressing scene of the entire game:

???: "MC." That voice doesn't sound like Joseph. I turn around to find... MC: "Robert. Hey." What's he doing here? Robert: "So. How's Joseph?" Robert comes off cold immediately. I get the feeling he's not happy I'm here. And what's with that look? He seems... very angry. Very, very angry. MC: "He's... going through some stuff..." Robert: "Hmph." Robert blasts through a cigarette. Robert: "So I guess he's your friend now, huh? Your pal?" MC: "Oh, he's... Robert, you're my friend too." Robert: "And I suppose two friends just spent the night out on a private yacht together, being buds, chatting about friendship. Is that what two friends do?" His voice is getting louder. What has gotten into him? MC: "Robert, come on. You know I'm not like that." Robert: "MC, you might be an idiot, but I'm not." MC: "What's your problem with Joseph anyway?" Robert: "I don't like Joseph. I don't trust Joseph. Joseph is a bad guy and I don't want him around you." MC: "Robert, you committed petty larceny last week and think you've been haunted by the Dover Ghost." Robert: "It was the god damn Dover Ghost." Robert pauses to calm himself down. Robert: "Joseph's not who you think he is." MC: "...What?" Robert: "Ask him about it sometime. Bring it up. And watch your back when you do. Because a guy like that'll put a knife right in it." Robert flicks his cigarette into the front seat of a recently cleaned schooner before turning around to leave. He takes a step, hesitates, then turns back to face me. Robert: "You're both awful. You deserve each other. I'll tell Mary you said hi." With that, Robert storms off down the pier.

After boarding the yacht:

MC! Stop thinking about his hands! Pure thoughts. You're gonna be on a boat, alone, with Joseph, on the open ocean, it's a yacht, he's married, it's fine. This is fine.

On the yacht:

I stare out at the ocean. Joseph's right. It's a lot quieter out here. But... Something about that conversation with Robert still bothers me. MC: "So... I ran into Robert." Joseph: "Was he... he wasn't waiting for you at the dock, was he?" MC: "Yes, and smoking like a chimney." Joseph: "That's Robert, alright." MC: "Is everything okay between you two? He seemed... angry." Joseph: "It's... hm. How do I put this...? Did Robert ever proposition you for... erm, escapades?" MC: "Actually, he did." Joseph: "And did you take him up on that?" MC: "No." Joseph: "Ah, well. That is where we differ." MC: "Whaaaaaat?!" Joseph: "I know, I know. Father of four. Family man. Married, for Christsakes. I should never have even... but I was in a bad place, and with Mary constantly out I..." Joseph settles himself before continuing. This definitely gets under his skin. Joseph: "I made a hasty decision. One which Robert does not exactly... ah... he has a weird thing about casual... um..." Robert: "But he asked you." Joseph: "You'd have to ask Robert about the weird Robert politics of... that. He's been weird about it ever since." MC: "Huh. But it's over, right?" Joseph: "Oh, yes, absolutely. That began and ended on the same day." MC: "Well... okay then!" Joseph: "So you're not... upset?" MC: "I'm not. Things happen, Joseph. And I think you of all people deserve a little forgiveness." Joseph: "Thank you, MC. That means more than you'll ever know."

On the yacht:

What Mary said to me at the bar... I can't stop thinking about it. Is she right? But... she's terrible to him. He's unhappy. He deserves better... I don't know what to think about this, but I just feel so... drawn to Joseph. I should say something. MC: "So... uh... about Mary." Joseph continues to stare off into the distance. Joseph: "It's, um... Well, if you really want to know -" (Radio shenanigans.)

Below deck, examining the photos:

Hey! It's all the Dads! Looks like it's from a couple years ago... the gang's all here. Brian, Mat, Hugo, Craig, Damien, Robert. Wow, Robert's actually smiling. And wearing a sweater. That's... I know that sweater.

Back up on deck:

Option: This view though... Joseph: "I mean, there's something a lot prettier right in front of me. Sweet, full-bodied." Goddamn. MC: "Joseph I..." Joseph: "This wine. So good." GODDAMN. (Bit more wine talk.) Our laughter dies down. We're both silent for a moment, looking into each others' eyes. Joseph leans in closer. I feel myself doing the same. This is a bad idea. This is a bad idea. I can't help but feel like doing this will only end up hurting someone else. ... But his face is real close to my face... Joseph: "MC, I have to tell you something. ... Mary and I are done." I pull back. I think about the clothes strewn around the lounge. The undone bed... MC: "Are you... living on this boat?" Joseph: "I... I didn't want to mention it, but..." He sighs, strolling back to the controls of the boat. I lean on the console next to him. Joseph: "We had... a very long talk and... it's unsalvageable. I'm staying here until everything's sorted out." MC: "Oh... I'm so sorry... if there's anything I can do..." Joseph: "I'm fine. I'm... fine, actually. It was a long time coming. For the first time in a long time I'm seeing a path to happiness. And now I can focus on myself, and... stop trying to deny me the things that make me happy. I need someone who... will be there. Someone... kind. And honest." MC: "And you deserve that, Joseph. You really do." Joseph: "Anyway, I've been having this crazy feeling there's someone who I could get in the habit of having around. Someone very close to here." MC: "... ...is it... whales?" Joseph: "I mean you." MC: "Oh." Joseph: "I was trying to be subtle!" I think I'm picking up what Joseph's putting down. I lean forward, closing the gap between us, when... (RADIO SHENANINGANS) Well... okay. Joseph grabs me by the shirt and pulls me into a kiss. His lips are soft and sweet from the wine, and his skin is still warm from the sun. I reach for his belt and pull him even closer, running my free hand under his shirt and up his side. He pushes me against the boat's console, kissing down my neck. Joseph: "C'mon." His hands drift to my thighs and he effortlessly picks me up. Wow. Joseph carries me below deck. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't fantasized about this, but I didn't think he'd be so... aggressive. Joseph: "I've wanted this for so long." He throws me onto the bed. I let out a little yelp. Joseph: "Lots of time to kill, MC. We better get started."

Next morning:

Wait. I open my eyes to find Joseph's face a few inches from mine, an arm slung around my waist.. He's sleeping peacefully, his hair is mussed and his lips still a little red. I think this is what I was talking about when we were discussing the Margarita Zone. Finding little, perfect moments of joy, like the way the light falls across Joseph's face. Or how he's still holding me tight, even in his sleep. I'm very tempted to curl up closer to him and keep sleeping. But I know the Coast Guard will probably be here soon, and I'd like to be wearing clothes when that happens. I nudge Joseph. It takes a couple of shakes before he blearily opens his eyes. When he notices me hoving over him, he breaks into a huge grin. MC: "We should get dressed." Joseph pulls me in for a kiss. Joseph: "Do we have to?" Another kiss. MC: "Stop trying to tempt me!" Joseph: "Fine, fine."

(Final ranks before party - S and A on Robert, A, B, and C on Joseph.)

At the party:

Oh no, Mary's here. With everything that's happened between me and Joseph, I should be a good host and say hi to her. ... But I don't wannaaaaaaa... Come on, MC, you can do this. I walk up to Mary. Mary: "Hey." MC: "Hey. ... You been... good?" Mary: "Just peachy. ... I have to go over there now." That went about as well as I could've expected it to.

Robert: "Hey." MC: "Hey." Robert: "..." MC: "..." Robert gestures vaguely at the snack table. Robert: "Good stuff." MC: "Yep." Robert: "..." MC: "See ya later."

(So, apparently not affected by scene at marina?)

The sun is setting and everyone seems to have eaten their fill. As the party starts to wind down, I take a seat next to Joseph. MC: "Joseph, it's so good to see you again." Joseph: "Great party. I should have you organize the next Youth Group mixer." MC: "My dance skills are ready whenever you need them. Hey... If you aren't busy this weekend, I was thinking we could maybe catch a movie or something." Joseph: "Yeah, that would be fun. Or we could take the yacht out again..." Joseph sidles up to me and presses a kiss against my neck. Wait. This feels... weird. MC: "So... uh... I guess things are still friendly with Mary?" Joseph: "Um, yeah. We're actually... we're actually staying together." MC: "What? Why?" Joseph: "For a lot of reasons. There's the kids, for one. And the fact that we have to be a pillar for this community. So many people look up to us as the model marriage and I would hate to let my parishioners down. But that doesn't stop you and I from... you know." I pull away from Joseph. MC: "That's not what I want." Joseph: "I know it's not perfect. And god how I wish it were. If it were up to me, you and I would be sailing the seven seas in search of Margaritaville. But this is real life, and all we can do is find Margarita Zone wherever we can." I look down, too nervous to respond. I feel his hand on mine. I don't pull away. Joseph: "I'll leave you to think about it, but just know that you can reach out to me... For anything." Joseph gets up and walks away. I... I don't know what to think.

[dream-in-charming]

Just saw Newsies live and I have some feelings <3 <3

It just closed it’s last show here in Gilbert, AZ and I am dying to talk about it. I’ll add a page cut though since there will be many thoughts and I don’t want to annoy anyone with just a chunk of text who doesn’t want to see it. if it doesn't work on mobile, I'm sorry. I dont know how to fix it...

OMIGOD the show was incredible! 

I’ll be posting pictures from the show, and of the theatre in another post, so you can see what I’m talking about (sort of, I only got a few, I wasn’t going to disturb the show).

Warning. This is going to be VERY VERY long. :)

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For those of you not from AZ and whom have never been to this particular theatre, this theatre does shows in the round. Meaning the audience is on all sides of the performance. It’s a challenge but they pulled it off brilliantly! 

So lets begin with the quick things. 

The program is corny and I love it. It’s designed to look like a newspaper (the New York Sun) and the captions on it are funny. “Weather forecast: Cloudy, Clear By Evening”; “Miss Medda Larkin Dazzles.” and so on.  The set was super basic, considering that it either had to be on the sides of the theatre, or easily moved on and off since there wasn’t really any place to keep it on. Honestly, the whole stage floor is maybe… 20ish sq ft? Maybe a bit more, I can’t find the actual dimensions. Heck the whole place only seats 350. But that aside, it worked WELL. Nothing blocked sight-lines, and anyone could see what was going on from any angle, they didn’t just play to one direction.

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The who cast was INCREDIBLE! Every last one of them.

So let me talk about them now :)

The guy who played Jack was great. Insanely tall which worked well and made it easier to find him when he was the important speaker in the crowded scenes. Plus his facial expressions were the best. I loved them in “Something to Believe In”. Lily just adored him and any time he wasn’t on stage she was asking where he went, pretended to talk to him (in a super quiet whisper) when he was on stage, pointed him out in scenes, and just loved him. She wanted a picture with him after the show and he was sweet enough to oblige. 

The guy who played Davey played him meek and it WORKED. Plus it helped to show his progress from the new news boy who just wanted to help his family, to the strong supporter of the Strike and voice of reason. And his voice was so melodic. 

Medda. OH MEDDA. A STUNNING WOC and an amazing singer. Her song just made me smile the whole time. Please keep being amazing because damn. AH. Plus, she let me poke and prod at her costume after the show because I was curious about the material and the way it was made. Made to look like brocade, but wasn’t so as to save the actress from dying of heatstroke. 

Wisel, Snyder, and the Delancey Brothers. I hate you. It’s a good thing

Les had the most adorable fluffy fringe sticking out of his bowler hat. I wanted to ruffle it. He was very talented and a great fit with Davey. 

Katherine was beautiful. Though her timing for certain lines were off, and thus some of her funniest and strongest bits were lost, she still made up for it with a powerful presence and lordy what a smile. Also, the hair. Teach me!

Crutchie was tiny and adorable and everything I ever wanted for that role. Perfect. Plus, participated in quite a few dances. Done in a way where it doesn’t ignore his bum leg either like I’ve seen some shows do. They figured out a way to include him and make a point to continue to show, “he ain’t been walkin too good”. Also, Santa Fe - Prologue, “watch me run” broke me. 

Pulitzer. A great demanding presence. And when he belted his final note in “Bottom Line” I got good bumps and turned to jelly. I love a voice like that. Ugh. Though his hat in the final scene…. bro, you is a rich man, you can do so much better. hahaha. 

The guy who played Specs was a very good looking person, and when he took off his hat and exposed the mass of exceedingly curly locks, my heart stopped. Also very talented dancer!

All of them were SO talented (there were others I didn’t name here, the case was 23 people, I’d be here all day) The dancing was fantastic and the acting was amazing, the singing just floored me. I am so happy to have gone to see the show. 

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Now to talk about the scenes (skipping the filler scenes because again, time)

Santa Fe 1.0 - Crutchie. You broke me. 3 I loved it and it was a great start of the show. Just pulled me in right away. Lily too. From that moment on, she was smitten with Jack. 

Carrying the Banner - So good! They had to work things around to make them fit into the smaller space, but it still was amazing. Seeing people practically above me performing was great. 

Bottom Line - That final note. AMAZING. I got goosies! And Nunzio’s hair made me giggle. 

That’s Rich - Medda you are one great performer. Performing for not just the audience, but the fake one for your ‘show within the show’. And teasing the one guy for “it may be rough but soon enough I’ll learn to make do” was the best. You go girl. You don’t need him!

I never planned on you - Whoever did the art for this show to display on the screens was terrific. However, the slow progression shots to show it was being ‘drawn’ weren’t completely timed right and I could see the jumps. Granted that’s both the software person and artist in me that picked up on it. 

World Will Know - I WAS WITH YOU. Like, if someone really started a strike or rally or anything with those lines and the power built into that song, I would follow them 100%. Les’s lines were lost in the overlapping dialogue during the part where they were thrown out, but that didn’t take away from the whole scene. 

Watch What Happens - Her voice was great, she his the notes brilliantly, but this is where the timing bit that I mentioned above was the biggest. She seemed to have just rushed through the song. Still, a good song, she’s a wonderful singer. I would love to hear her do more. Also, the type writer broke. Made me grin. 

Seize the Day - Here arrive the Girlsies too! Also, the dancing was at it’s PEAK here. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Plus this is the scene where Specs spent the most time in front of my seat. Totally okay with that. Got hit in the face with a paper by Mush. Kept it. Lily folded it up and put it in her purse. It is themed for that time period. Perfect touch. 

Santa Fe - Felt a tad rushed, but not in a way that distracted or pulled anyone out of the show. Plus hearing Jack belt and Lily light up at him then whisper “It’s okay Jack, You’ll go to Santa Fe” was the sweetest thing ever. If she could have, she would have taken him there herself. 

King of New York - When they danced on the tabletops I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. the tables were on WHEELS. And one of the tables I could tell only had one of the two locks, locked. YOU GONNA DIE! Also, spoons.

Crutchie’s Letter - a clever way to do it without a ton of boys. Crutchie is so smol. I love him. 

WWH Reprise - “POOR GUYS HEAD IS SPINNING” Davey, you did not disappoint. Also, the way they did the painting was excellent. On the floor instead of a stand, so everyone could see it. Monopoly money? Ish?

Brooklyn’s Here - someone please turn their mics on. Please? They sounded so muffled and far away. Still good though. Watching Davey stick his tongue out at Bronx was a great growth. Also, them Brooklyn boys IS big. I’m sure Spot could take both the Delancey brothers on his own. Wow. 

Something to Believe in - their expressions just MADE this song. Their smiles glowed. Also, after the kiss, Jack leaped forward to have another kiss but Katherine turned away making him nearly fall flat on his face… that the best version of that I have ever seen. 

Once and For All - again, mics? What the heck? This is such a strong song that just builds to a HUGE ending. But seemed so quiet? The gal who played Mush whispered the words too, which I thought was odd. She danced past a number of times and I noticed she was whispering the words instead of actually singing. Not sure why this was done. Still, a good song, and the fact that they timed the printing press to turn on and start spinning right as the beat kick at the start  of the song hit, was a brilliant visual. Made my heart speed up. If it weren’t for the odd quietness of the song, I would have been SO hyped!

Finale - was a good ending. Roosevelt was great, though his hat didn’t match his suit which made my artist side hiss. He did fit that role well though. If he gave speeches like Teddy did in real life, I’d totally listen to them all. Cruchie’s return was sweet. Jack’s HUGE hug when he came down to him was the epitome of friendship. And Race practically tackled him. They’s a great group of buddies. The taunting with the Money from Jack on whether he should get more papes was funny and showed off something that people tend to forget. They are just KIDS. Loved that choice. 

Also, instead of “Newsies of New York!” they shouted “News of the Hale!” and I am living for that. My smile was huge. Thanks for adding that part, because it felt so much more personal and not just another show. Also, Roosevelt dancing with everyone at the end and his “AHHHHH GO!” face was hilarious! I was dying. 

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All in all, a fantastic show and I am so happy I got the chance to see it. I don’t think I’ve ever sat up, sat forward, and at so much attention for such a long time, in forever. I told them as I walked out to the cast (who stands out to say good bye after every show, they do that no matter what show they have) that they all did incredible because they did. I could tell it was rough on some of them, with red rimmed misty eyes, closing nights are always rough and so final. But they gave it their all and it was brilliant. I hope to see many of them in future shows. 

Lily was begging to take a pic with Jack before we left, so we did, and it was adorable. She got embarrassed and shy soon as we got near him. I told him and the gal who played Kath that stood next to him what she said and did the whole show and how she just adored him and they thought she was so sweet. They were happy I brought her and I am introducing her to theatre. Well, I’m her mother, of course! Still, thanks for taking time to talk to her. I know she’ll love you forever. 

Did I talk to Specs? No. I got way too flustered, just did a quick “incredible job” to the group of them as I passed. I am such a whimp. But then again, he’s likely taken, and/or doesn’t swing my way. Plus, how rude would it have been to just go up and (try) to flirt? Though I am bad at it, it would have been funny. Anyway, he is a person, one whom I don’t know, and I wasn’t going to be rude or creepy.  

Anyway! That’s what I thought of the show. 

Long text. Done. 

[roninhunt0987]

Suzuki’s B-day

Suzuki's Birthday

By: Roninhunt0987

:D hey guys this is RH0987 here and this is a rp based story that Nekorockstarninja and I did together... =3 this is basically in her universe combined with mine but more importantly is in her universe so lets get to it.. XD also hilarity will also ensue.. well kinda.. but yea.. XD enjoy

Characters(C)belongs to their rightful owners

-Dialogue: It was late January when it came. Suzuki’s birthday. Of course the kitty was excited but yet it soon turned to disappointment. Because it seems that the turtles forgot her birthday!!!-

Jared: -walks in with Gen’ichi because they were waiting for them to arrive and also the only ones that made it- Gen’ichi: -sits next to Suzuki- Splinter: -not gonna tell the surprise party thats gonna be in progress at the kato/prower residence- Jared: -same because thats the basic reason he was here to come pick up Suzuki with Gen’ichi and take her there- Gen’ichi: -in his mind: okay here we go- -outloud- hey Suzuki whats wrong?? Jared: -sits down as he is basically playing along on this not to mention the surprise party was Sugar’s idea and said in his mind: best better play along hehe-

Suzuki: its nothing

Gen’ichi: ya sure Jared: -gets a text from sugar and walks off for a moment and that says take her to her fave places and comes back over-  Gen’ichi: -nods to jared and looks to Suzuki- X3 well perhaps spend time with Jared and I to your fave places and such.. i mean ya 21 now that means ya legal to drink and such

Jared: mmhmm

Suzuki:…..no Thanks *gets up* if anyone needs me I will be in my room *walks to her room*

Jared: -sighs and facepalms and looks to Splinter and Gen’ichi- what now…

Gen’ichi: :? kick it up a notch… also soon as this is over with and such knowing sis she’s probably gonna scold mikey and the others out for forgeting Jared: that i am aware of so whats the plan guys.. the plan is that we take her to my home planet and give her a good time til sugar springs the signal out to my phone… so.. any ideas??

Splinter: easy you too. I will take to her. I won’t spoil anything. There’s a reason for this quiet and upset mood and I know the reason why

Gen’ichi: -nods- he’s got a point there dude i think i better let dad here handle this

Jared: alright sounds like a plan take lead master Splinter

Splinter: *enters Suzuki room

-Turtles walk in with Jared and gen are-

Mikey: hey what’s going on here?

Gen’ichi: you do realize suzuki is gonna scold ya guys right Jared: -whispers- its Suzuki’s b-day… its gonna be held at my residence go there because casey and the others are helping setting up and such sugar got me, Gen’ichi and your father to distract her til i get the message to get her over there.. understood??

Turtles: wait what!?

Mikey: it’s her birthday

Donnie: how could we forgotten our own sister’s birthday

Raph: and I yelled at her this morning oh crud

Leo: we are bad brothers

Gen’ichi: sigh no ya not guys

Jared: yea it happens a lot to people okay.. just head to mobius i already texted Sugar that ya be coming over shortly

Gen’ichi: we got this from here k

-The boys leaves for mobius. Splinter walks out of Suzuki room smiling-

Gen’ichi: -smiles- ^^ heh

Jared: =3 alright lets get going shall we… =3 Suzuki’s 21 now i know some places she may try out and such.. so shall we??

Splinter: she’s getting her coat but if she still sad and doesn’t want to do much don’t blame her she loves our Traditions what we do when it’s someone’s birthday. And since we decided to do a surprise party she thinking everyone forgot it except for you two

Gen’ichi: -nods- okay

Jared: -sees Suzuki come out finally and said in his mind: okay all we have to do is keep Suzuki distracted and when i get the message everything is ready we’ll head there- Gen’ichi: -smiles-

Suzuki: dad think it would be good to get out of the lair so I guess I will go with you guys

Jared: =3 okay

Gen’ichi: =3 alright lets get goin

-as they got to mobius on their first stop which of course Suzuki’s b-day lunch and such-

Suzuki: ok so where are we going exactly guys?

Jared: =3 a Buffet restaurant where ya pick what ya want to eat

Gen’ichi: kinda like Golden Corral and such

Jared: =3 i’ll buy hehe its gonna be from the M.E.G.A Military account hehe i usually take my family here when one of them has a b-day today and such

*they get to the restaurant were Suzuki see every kind of food there is from Chinese to Indian. With fruits veggies. And a huge desert bar*

Suzuki *eyes light up*

Jared: =3 well shall we??

Gen’ichi: ^^ hehe.. =3 b-day girl first hehe

Jared: ^~^ hehe well now guess Splinter taught ya well on the matters part

Gen’ichi: =3 mmhmm

Suzuki: if I come back with a mountain full of food don’t judge me

Jared: =3 noted

Gen’ichi: hehe i know i know

Suzuki: *goes off and begins getting food*

-as all 3 are chowing down-

Jared: -eating-

Gen’ichi: -same-

Suzuki: I am loving this place!

Jared: X3 hehe told ya

Gen’ichi: =3 mmhmm

-after everyone ate and everything paid for they arrive at another area which has arcade games and laser tag and rollerskating-

Jared: ^~^ hehe this area is also a good place to celebrate ya b-day at.. =3 it has arcade games like DDR for example and also laser tag and roller skating

Gen’ichi: O.o wow

Suzuki: Jared….your making so happy right now I could kiss you

Jared: ^^; eh heh heh

Gen’ichi: alright which one ya wanna do first??

Suzuki:…..Laser TAG!!!!

Jared: =3 alright lets do it

Gen’ichi: -gets going-

-as they are having a good time-

Jared: -against Gen’ichi and Suzuki and also onto his last life before the end of the game-

Suzuki: *ninjas her way to first place and is behind Jared* I win *shoots Jared*

Jared: XD oof okay good game

Gen’ichi: XD hehe yup

-at rollerskating rank-

Jared: -rollerskating and etc all around-

Gen’ichi: -watching-

Suzuki: *trying to stand in her skates*

Jared: -goes on over- =3 need any help??

Gen’ichi: hu?? -comes on over to provide assistance-

Suzuki: I can balance on a pole but I can’t balance in these skates *nearly falls over*

Gen’ichi: WHOA!! -catches her quickly-

Jared: ^^; heh guess we can go into the arcade games.. =3 i bet you’ll like DDR.. =3 gets the blood pumping and other things…

Suzuki: yeah let’s go Ahhhhh *falls over on her butt* Devil skates!!!!!

both: ^^; eh heh heh

-as they are at the Arcade as Suzuki is doing the DDR song Berry Happy Birthday-

Gen’ichi: -watching her dominate the song there and such-

Jared: -hears his cellphone vibrate and goes out for a moment and checks and sees thats the signal that everything is ready and said in his mind: show time- -looks to gen’ichi and signals him a lil that its time-

Gen’ichi: -nods as suzuki is finished with it and looks to Suzuki- =3 okay lets head on to the kato/prower residence we got a surprise for ya there

Jared: ^~^ mmhmm

Suzuki: alright let’s go

-at the kato/prower residence-

Jared and Gen’ichi: -in the dark room of the living room-

Gen’ichi: X3 well go on turn on the lights

Suzuki: where are the lights *feels on the wall*

Jared: i got it -turns on the lights-

Everyone: XD SURPRISE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZUKI!!!

Sugar: X3 hehehe

Jared and Gen’ichi: ^~^ hehe

Suzuki: -surprised gasp doing that surprised mouth gap-

Sugar: ^~^ happy birthday Suzuki hehe surprised ya didn’t we

Suzuki: y-yes you did I thought every9ne forgot my birthday

Sugar: to be honest four of us did

Suzuki: …what

Sugar: now the Turtle heads completely forgot until someone finally mention it to them they rushed over here and nearly wrecked everything trying to get everything just right. Hahaha funny right

Suzuki: *looks to her brothers*

Raph: sis it was our bad really we are so very-

*before raph could finish Suzuki decks him in the face*

Gen’ichi: OOOH!!!!

Jared: O_o oh crap you called it Gen… Suzuki was gonna deck Raph in the face owch..

Sugar: OwO thats gotta hurt

Sonic: Ow right in snoz

Knuckles: O_o well least she didn’t aim low

Gen’ichi: uhh knux she has be more angry for that to happen so yea

Shadow: O_o you okay there Raph?? need an ice pack or somethin

Suzuki:…if you guys were just acting that you forgot I would not have been mad….but you FOUR ACTULLY FORGOT MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! -tears of anger and sadness starts flowing-

Gen’ichi: -blinks twice-

Jared: told ya she was gonna scold ya four a new one

Gen’ichi: mmhmm

Shadow: -goes to get an ice pack for raph real quick-

Suzuki: I Can’t believe you…you….YOU F**KING @$$HOLES!!! *Storms out crying*

Gen’ichi: -worried about suzuki and looks to all four turtles- i hope ya got a plan to make it up to Suzuki… a song of some sort but yea… -goes to find suzuki-

Jared: oh dear -looks to Sugar- come on Sugar lets follow Gen’ichi -follows Gen’ichi-

Shadow: -makes it with an ice pack for raph and gives it to him- you four really messed up big time i hope ya got a plan to make it up to suzuki -goes to check into the kitchen to see if the cake is ready-

Sugar: I should not have said anything…me and my big mouth

Jared: Sugar its okay alright

-as the turtles set up a home video when Suzuki was brought in for the first time and also has Gen’ichi as a kid-

Gen’ichi: -sits down with Suzuki-

Jared: -looks to all 4 turtles and nods to them to start the home video-

Leo: well ummm the party may started rough but we have something to show everyone. Donnie kept all the kitty videos we took as kids. Sis we really hope you like it

Suzuki: *those not even look at leo*

Gen’ichi: -smiles-

TV: -shows a lot of cute videos and such and shows the first video of Suzuki and Leo as Suzuki starts to look to the videos now-

Jared: -smiles-

Leo: ok sis watch goku he is about to become a super syaian

Suzuki: Swuper swyianan

Leo: yeah that right

–

Jared: -watching this and smiles-

Gen’ichi: -smiles as it show him and Suzuki next- X3 hehe thats me as a kid Suzuki and ya actually curled up in my tails there

–

Splinter: with the camera* so she just walked over and fell a sleep on your tail son?

Kid Gen’ichi: ^~^ hehe

–

Gen’ichi: -smiles as it swaps to raph on the video-

–

*Mikey holding the camera*

Mikey: Leo and raph are fighting over the last dumpling again watch

*Leo and raph were fight over a dumpling. When raph had it in his hand.

Raph: Ha! I win- *little Suzuki who was in her high chair eats it out of his hand*

Leo: -starts laughing-

Raph: Wha?!?!?!

Mikey: Sis wins

Raph: No no no I won!

Suzuki: Rwaphie me won *sticks her tounge out*

–

Gen’ichi: ^~^ hehe

TV: -shows mikey’s portion next-

–

Mikey: I am the turtle titan!!!! *in a made up COSTUME out of trash* and my side kick *picks up baby suzuki: Miss whisckers!!!!

Suzuki:*in a baby voice* me beat up the bad guy

–

Gen’ichi: -smiles as it now shows Donnie’s portion-

TV: -shows it-

–

Donnie: *ajesting the camera* hello Science World I am here to do a significant study on a creature that we stumbled upon on our trip to Japan *picks up baby Suzuki* and here it is

Suzuki: *baby noises*

Donnie: I know strange right. Father believes it’s some sort of feline so I’m going to put this creature in a bucket of water *holds her over a bucket of water*

Splinter: *walks in* Donatello what you doing to your baby sister?!?!

Donnie: just some science

Splinter: you will not drop your new baby sister in a bucket of water!!!

–

Gen’ichi: hehehe boy donnie had a chew out of his life hehe

-shows the final portion which is Splinter’s portion of with everyone on Suzuki’s first b-day-

tv: -shows it-

Splinter: Come on sweetie *holds baby suzuki* you know what day it is?

Suzuki: *baby noises*

Splinter: yes your birthday…and you know what you get for your birthday?

Suzuki: *baby noises*

Splinter: that’s right your first toy *hands baby Suzuki a weird patched up cat stuffed toy*

Suzuki: *holds the toy and smiles big*

Splinter: well do you like it?

Suzuki…..aaabaa dada

Splinter: heheh that right-….wait what?

Suzuki: dada

Kid Gen’ichi: -smiles- awwww dad she’s saying daddy to ya

-as the home video ends-

Gen’ichi: -looks to Suzuki who of course is tearing up in joy and also a lil bit of sadness that she shouldn’t of yelled at her brothers- Suzuki??

Suzuki: you jerks *whips the happy tears away with a smile* you had to play The Home Videos card

Mikey: X3 GROUP HUG!!! -goes to hug suzuki- Raph, Donnie and Leo: -same- Gen’ichi: -same- hehe

Jared: X3 hehehe glad it worked out at the end -sees Kimiko coming in with the cake- =3 ahhh here it comes

Kimiko: ^~^ hehe -sets it in front of Suzuki- Everyone: -singing happy birthday and such-

Suzuki: ^~^ hehe thanks everyone you made this day very special

Gen’ichi: ^~^ hehe

-after present time and etc and as they head back to the lair as the final scene rolls in-

Suzuki: -smiles as she is in her pajamas and such-

Gen’ichi: ^~^ hehe did ya had a good birthday

Suzuki: =3 sure did thanks

Gen’ichi: X3 hehe of course

-later on as everyone is asleep-

Suzuki: -smiles as she is sending thank you texts to everyone who celebrated and such she turns off her phone and then lays down as she falls asleep after she turned off her lights-

Scene: -fades to black-

-end-

-happy birthday Suzuki and Nekorockstarninja-

-RH0987 PRODUCTIONS 2019 AND ALSO NEKOROCKSTARNINJA PRODUCTIONS 2019-

Bonus scene:

Sugar: alright give these a shot * holds up a mimosa and gives it too suzuki*

Suzuki: alright *takes a drink but spits it out* Ahhhhh oh my god that was horrible

Sugar: well I guess you’re not a champagne person

Suzuki: *drowns her mouth in water*

Gen’ichi: -anime sweatdrop-

Raph: o_o;;;

Leo: O_o Donnie: O_o Mikey: O_o;;;; guess thats a no go for champagne next time one of us celebrates a birthday

Raph: i would attempt it Leo: uhh raph last time ya attempted something you either got hurt, pranked or worse make a fool outta yourself

Raph: Fair point

Mikey: XD and you got a lotta hair to cover it

Raph: what are ya talking about Mikey we don’t have hair

Mikey: XD exactly

Raph: =w= i am so punching ya when we get back

Mikey: XP

Gen’ichi: Boys knock it off before i knock ya heads together knuckles: you mean like this -does so to mikey and raph-

both: OW!!!!

Knuckles: O_o whoops

Raph: WHY YOU LITTLE!!! 

knuckles: RUNNING TIME!!! -runs like hell- Raph: -chases knuckles- GET BACK HERE!!!

Everyone: -laughs-

-XD end for real this time XD-

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@nekorockstarninja   X3 here ya go i am also gonna place it at toyhouse and FA

=3 placed it here special for you hehe enjoy