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praphit · 3 years

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F9: What does Absurdity even mean anymore?

Due to COVID, I thought that my last movie theater experience was going to be "Bad Boys For Life". I'm happy to say that if I died today, I would be telling souls in Heaven that "F9" was the last movie I saw on the big screen (I'm sure that films are big talking points in the after life).

There weren't too many people there:

There was a woman coughing in the corner; I barely looked at her. I imagined that COVID was mugging her, and I didn't want to be a witness, and so have COVID come after me next. I'm vaxxed, but still I was thinking of ways to distract COVID, so I could enjoy the film. There was an old couple sitting up front (like REALLY OLD... sitting UP FRONT... Ha! that's awesome). Awesome or not, I was going to point them out if COVID came after me. There were two obese kids sitting a few rows behind me that I could also point out, as well as my friend that I was sitting next to... what?? Look, they would ALL want me to escape, so I could bring my "F9" review to the people!

WHAT??!

Let's not talk about my survival skills, let's talk some Vin & the Fam - that's why we're here!

It took a while for me to remember what was going on:

Dom (Vin), Letty (M. Rod), and their... kid? Oh, right, they have a kid, and they moved on to start a new life together.

Didn't the real mom die or something?? Idk. You've got the British lady from "GOT" still hanging out with Luda and Tyrese.

(they so crazy)

"Hobbs and Shaw" are still gone

(making their own money, cuz bleep family!).

Brian (Paul Walker's character - rip) is apparently, now everyone's babysitter. So, if anyone in this gang, who could die on any of these missions, ever have kids, they can just send them off to Nanny Brian's.

There's a dude named Mr. Nobody who sometimes sends the gang on secret spy missions.

Oh, and people in the gang keep coming back from the dead. Boom! We're caught up with this absurdity. That's actually what I asked for when I got to the movies

"Give me one ticket for Absurdity please."

In this batch of the absurd, we find out that Dom has a brother, and he's John Cena (Jakob).

Charlize Theron is back! That must have been the worst bet that she has ever lost. I consider her to be one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors we've got, but movies like these ain't helping that case.

And who's idea was it to give her that haircut? - part of the bet she lost, I suppose.

It was reported that the gang goes into space (at least two of them do).

Annnnd the X-Men Jet is back!

(it really does look like that - Wolverine included)

Seriously, after the X-Men's last two movies (which were turrrible), I was expecting them to crossover for a fresh start. Why not?? They're a spy team now, that goes to space! - nothing should be off the table.

They're looking for two halves of some... war sphere?? If put back together with some key... idk... John Cena rules the world.

Remember when Vin and the gang were all about street racing, money, survival, and brown booty? - those were simpler times!

But, why discuss the plot? Seriously, why? None of it makes any sense. From Dom and Letty living like Amish people (which is an ending worse than death for action heroes)

to their convoluted explanation for bringing the latest person back from the dead (which reminds me of a married couple, when the husband or wife get caught watching porn, and try to explain that it was just a pop-up that came out of nowhere. The other spouse gulps their glass of wine and plows forward - that was me with this - gulping my soda (with a lil Henny) saying "whatever guys, let's please just move on".

and what's going on with the two brother's is a thin thread at best. AND the villain's motivation...

But, it's foolish to get into that., and take points off. I LOVE THESE MOVIES, but it ain't for the story. Let's grade "F9" by its own standards:

Racing, Action, and Family (they graduated from booty to family):

Racing

They've done the racing in a small city thing before, but this time it's with magnets! - SUPER MAGNETS!

YES!

I loved this! Cars are getting sucked into magnets. They're using them to make people fly away and explode. Which btw, they did my man Francis Ngannou wrong (an mma fighter). There's a fight scene with a giant white dude on top of a speeding vehicle. That giant white dude could have and should have been the role for Francis, instead he's just here to say high, and then blow up. As much as I loved these scenes, they were too quick in some areas. I think if they had slowed some of the magnet stuff down a bit, we could appreciate more what's happening.

Action

M.Rod is legit.

She needs her own franchise. The only action star I enjoyed more than her was Vin, and that's really due to the absurdity of one scene. Do y'all remember the "Civil War" scene when Captain America has one hand on a building and another pulling back a helicopter??

It's the same level of strength needed for what Vin does in some underground chambers. You can see a bit of it in the trailer. He pulls the whole place down, and then, just like in "Civil War", he ends up in the water (but unconscious). Oh, and he does this after beating up like 50 people at once. Ha! I love it! Then, how he is rescued (cuz c'mon, he can't die) is splendidly preposterous, and I mean that is a complimentary way. That scene is perfection.

The only action that bothers me comes from Dom's sister (mia).

She just doesn't sell being a fighter, but whatever. No disrespect... she’s beautiful, but... her hair might weigh more than the rest of her body.

Apparently, the highest trained fighters (agents) in the world (who have GUNS) never trained for a unskilled, unprepared, 110 lb woman in her 40's with a frying pan.

Family & Corona

Tyrese and Luda are always funny, but their act is growing a bit thin. It actually felt like an act this time around. I think it's time to add another black man in the mix; perhaps one who's older than they are... TRACY MORGAN?

Throw an OG in there and it'll freshen things up again. I do like though how Tyrese is starting to suspect that they might be immortals. I think they should test that theory out in the next movie; maybe have Tyrese break the fourth wall, kinda like Deadpool, as he realizes this is just a dumbass movie.

Dom and Letty's kid... terrible. I'm sorry! This is a bias of mine, but kids normally suck at acting. This one is no exception. Just get an older actor to play the young kid. I'm thinking Ryan Reynolds would have been a good choice.

You may be saying "that's absurd!" - I'm glad that y'all can still tell what that word means, cuz I can't.

The rest of the chemistry family magic is great!

Oh, and Cardi is here, but... barely (for like 30 seconds, if that).

No rapping, no wapping, no cursing... kind of a waste of Cardi B, if you ask me.

John Cena aka Jakob with a K!

Meh. JC def has charisma, just not in this movie. He doesn't stand out at all. You know?? - The Rock, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, etc all have a presence about them in this franchise. Cena?! what happened, buddy?

There are certain music artists whom you'd think would have a great personality based off their music and how they dress. But, then you meet them, and you realize that they're just normal bozos like you and I (only rich and famous). And normal bozos like you and I, AT TIMES can be boring. You gotta have some flair if you're not going to have personality. Give my man some pink glittery highlights, a face tat, some vampire teeth, and maybe a chainsaw for his left arm or something.

Grade: Good action. The absurdities were funny. I was entertained! Production was great! BUT it's getting tired, my friends. It's the same formula that I've mentioned and then, like always, they're grilling and drinking Corona's in the sun. After nine movies (with at least two more on the way)... I never thought I'd say this, but it's actually not absurd enough. Wait... I seriously can't believe I just said that.

I need to say that again to know it's real.

This movie wasn't absurd.. enough? ENOUGH. IT WASN'T! They're going to need to step it up for the next two.

They were in space, but not for long. They raced for the most part in regular cars (regular for them). . You only brought ONE person back from the dead??! C'mon! We can do better.

I'm giving it an entertaining C+

I like that we saw different younger Dom's (during flashbacks) through time. I think that the next type of vehicle they bust out should be a DeLorean.

Y'all feel me?? TIME TRAVEL, baby!

Vin and the gang race through time! They can have Tracy Morgan. They'll each have a younger version (or older) of themselves join the group. Cardi B will actually do something this time - maybe turn into a car!

And maybe Cable shows up as they tie it to Marvel.

Think bigger, Vin!

#f9 #john praphit #praphitproductions.com #action movies #movie reviews #marvel #praphit #vin diesel #michelle rodriguez #racing #fast and furious #cardi b

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black-dragon1998 · 4 years

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Kryptonian in the mcu(chapter 1)

What would happen if a Kryptonian would land in the MCU instead of the DC universe. Pairing: Natasha x fem Kryptonian, all the rest is canon kinda.

preview

MCU 2008

The ringing of a phone is what wakes you form your peaceful slumber. It causes you to cuddle closer to the warm body that is buried against your front.

“make it stop! Before I smash it.” Your voice is hoarse from sleep and makes the woman in your arms chuckle. She always found it sounded like home when she heard it.

“pleas refrain from doing that. You already broke two this year alone.” She teases, but you are too lazy to reply with your usual sassy answer. Natasha figured at mush and lets you grumble and turn around to bask in the light of the morning sun that seeps into the room. The image you present is that of a goddess, at least that is what she thinks.

She untangles herself from the sheets that had been kicked off during the night, your body heat more than enough to keep the both of you warm.

When she picked up the phone, she knew you would eavesdrop the conversation, with your super hearing it wasn’t that hard.

“Romanoff! Took you long enough.” Maria hill’ voice rings to the phone, clearly annoyed for having to wait.

“Hello to you too Maria.” Natasha replied drily. Maria decided to not pick up the usual banter and cut straight to the case.

“you and Danvers are requested at HQ. Fury wants to talk to the two of you immediately.” Maria ends the call before Natasha can react.

Natasha gets out of bed to get ready, but you stay put and bask in the morning sun. you didn’t want to go on another mission. You had just come back from one, it had left you drained.

It almost caused you to Solar flare, hens why you wanted to stay in the sun as long as possible.

“come on! We don’t want to be late.” Nat says shaking your shoulder, you don’t budge and only open one eye to look at her. Natasha catches this and smiles sweetly, a rare emotion for the master spy/Ex-assassin. It was only you who could invoke such emotions from her.

“if your quick enough we can get a cup of coffee on the way.” She knew just the thing to get you motivated.

A gust of wind blows in her face as you use your superspeed to get ready and back to her side, looking like an excited puppy. You grin at her, towering over her with a few inches.

“ready?” you step toward the door taking the keys. You hear her mumble something that sounds like a showoff, but don’t comment as her arm quickly winds around your waist. Plucking the keys out of your hands.

“I drive, I would like to get there in one piece.” You gave her your best pout, she only chuckles and kisses your cheek before walking out the door.

Quickly following you jump into the passenger seat.

“You want Natasha to do what!” you slammed your hands down on the table in front of you, denting it in the middle. The anger you felled almost made you lose control and fry the person sitting at the head of the conference table.

“I want Romanoff to shadow Stark as Stark’s new assistant. He has recently promoted Pepper Potts to CEO and head shareholder and is looking for a new assistant. This is the perfect opportunity to see if Stark is fitted to be an Avenger.” Fury stated plainly, like always no singe of emotion whatsoever. He was also far too used to seeing your rage outbursts, most of them were directed to him.

“you want her to shadow that arrogant, childish son of a bitch?” if he wasn’t the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. you would have roasted him with your heat vision long ago.

“yes.” Nat turns you around to calm you down before you do something you regret. Like always she was calm and collected.

“(Y/N) it’s okay. I can handle Stark.” She gives you a sincere smile and you couldn’t help but smile back. Taking a deep breath, you turn to Fury again.

“What are you expecting from me, if you are sending Natasha undercover?”

“We want you to be her back-up. Stark is known to attract attention and I doubt he is going to stop anytime soon.” You give him a pointed look, but nod.

“fine, I do it. But step in whenever I see it as necessary, even if this least to me revealing my powers.” Fury stares you down, but you don’t budge so he reluctantly agrees.

After the meeting Natasha steers you toward her office at S.H.I.E.L.D., to prepare for the mission and to calm you down. Once inside she turns to you and razes an eyebrow

“care to tell me what that was?” figures nothing would get passed the famous Black Widow. She knew this wasn’t about her getting hurt. She had done far more dangerous missions, with far less information. So, she knew it wasn’t that. You turn so you are facing her, cupping her face and admiring her beautiful face. Her flawless skin, her beautiful long red hair.

“you know my species is territorial in nature and bonds for life. You know I would kill anybody who would even think of taking you away from me.” She nods, knowing this from when you first confessed your love to her. She presses further into your palm, giving it a small kiss.

“I remember. Nothing has changed I still love you, and only you.” You smile at her response. Both of you show each other enough how much you love the other but saying it is rare.

“I know you know, but just the thought of you having to seduce and extract intel form that arrogant man has my blood boiling.” You confess your insecurity. Instead of laughing like you expected her to do, she came closer and reached up to kiss you.

“you know I will do whatever it takes to complete a mission, but I will always come back to you.”

“I know that too. I just get jalouse sometimes.” She chuckles and gives you another kiss. It’s this kind of gestures that you feel at home.

Until you met Natasha home was a lost memory of flames and dead. The loses of your family haunted you every moment of the day. When you were with Natasha it was almost like you were back on Krypton and you be damned if you let that go. You don’t think you would be able to survive that.

At this very moment, you were not impressed with Tony Stark. You were watching his boxing with his driver. Like he had to pay people to be around him. From your viewpoint, floating in mid-air you could see the whole mansion. Using your X-Ray vision to see every nook and carnie.

You did not see what Fury saw in him, he was as shallow as the tabloids made him out to be. The security in and around his house was also crap. No armed guards, no security cameras. I guess his personal A.I. would alert him if anything was off, but still, you were sure you could bust inside before anybody would be able to stop you.

A car stopped in front of the mansion and out stepped Pepper Pots and Natasha following the other woman. Natasha was going to make the first contact by presenting as a candidate for being Starks personal assistant

She got this if anybody were able to convince Stark they were the best it was Natasha. Thoughts consumed you when she walks in. actually, Stark’s attention was also on Natasha the moment she walked in.

You couldn’t help but laugh when he asked her to step into the boxing ring. He was a goner the moment they had prolonged eye contact. You knew the look all too well, she used it on you numerous times, mostly when she needed something from you.

Stark left her alone in the ring with his driver wanting her to have a little box match with Happy. He sat down next to Pepper, who looked unamused. She even warned him that Nat could a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit.

He would be dead before he could even try. You would make sure of it. On the other side, it did confirm that he wanted Nat as his assistant. While Stark and Pepper were having their discussion Natasha floored Happy with famous Black Widow move and as nothing happened she makes Stark sign some paperwork. Reeling him in again with lingering eye contact. And like every man before him, he took the bait.

Natasha meets you back at your shared apartment. Her heels were off before she was even at the living room and launched herself on you, who was sitting on the couch.

“That was exhausting,” she grumbles into your neck. On instinct, you wrap your arms around her.

“I could tell. I like the skirt though.” Nat smirked down at you. She razed herself so she was sitting on your lap looking down at you while intertwining her fingers behind your neck.

“were you ogling me?” Nat teased.

“you know I can’t resist you. You are the most beautiful woman on the planet to me.” Her eyes soften before she kisses you. You deepen the kiss while pulling her closer. Your hand sneak under her dress shirt.

“you look like something sweet to eat in that skirt. I think your little seduction act didn’t only work with Stark.” You whisper in her ear trailing kisses down her neck, goosebumps following your trail.

You quickly aren’t able to talk anymore because Natasha crashed her lips on yours and pulling on your shirt to get it off. Without breaking the kiss you pick her up and walk toward the bedroom.

There were too many people packed in this joint. Why did Stark have to come to Monaco for a freaking racecar, also to many people were excited about this thing. Justin hammer was also trying to impress a journalist, the poor women did look quite bored. He was giving you a headache and you wanted to punch him.

“Why are we here again?” Natasha almost giggled at your whiny voice. You hate being in crowded paces. It tended to overload your already keen senses.

“Because Stark is sponsoring one of the race teams. It is also Pepper’s first event as CEO.” She tells you without acknowledging you. Being undercover kind of prevents you from standing next to her and having a normal conversation.

Before you could start whining again you saw Pepper and Tony walk in followed with the flashed of the press. Their flashes were so bright it was giving you an even worse headache than Hammer did.

Natasha immediately walks toward them and leads them toward their table. Following the conversation with your hearing. He even had the nerve to demand another table.

While Nat made this happen Tony and Pepper went to the bar. Stopping right next to you. Being stuck next to Hammer meant having to witness the uncomfortable conversation. When the press starts to follow you discreetly start to make your way elsewhere. Ended up in the crowed between Nat and Stark. A feeling came over you that something was going to go wrong in the near future.

Your feeling was confirmed when Stark Jumps into his racecar, making his driver quite. For the first lap, everything goes good when suddenly a man steps on the tracks. He starts cutting cars into two out of nowhere with. He is cutting them with something that looks like whips powered by a power reactor.

Well, there goes Stark’s statement that nobody but him can build them.

Not hesitating to help, you use your super speed to get onto the tracks. Immediately starting helping people of the track. Lifting a couple of cars to help trapped drivers. Luckily all eyes are on Stark and the current bad guy, big surprise. Staying in the shadows after helping the last driver of the track you see a car come crash down on the bad guy. Ramming him into the side of the track.

“though motherfucker.” You think to yourself when after several hit he just walks it off. After allot of screaming Stark finally got into his suit. Than Nat started telling you to back down into your earpiece. Saying it wasn’t worth it.

“oh come on sweetheart. Where is the fun in that.” You reply smirking, but you did what she asked off you. Angering Natasha was not something you liked to do on a regular basis.

You almost jump back into action when saw Stark being strangled with one of the reactor whips. Chocked wasn’t a good look on him. But you didn’t need to intervene, because he quickly blows up the power soars. Rendering the whips useless.

The police arrive and you take that as your cue to blend in with the crowd as they put the guy in cuffs. Crisis averted I guess, and you didn’t even have to go all Kryptonian on them.

You do keep trailing Stark, just to make sure nothing ells attacks him. Imagine your surprise when you see him walk into the police station to talk to the guy who just tried to kill him and is twice Tony’s size.

You can’t follow the whole conversation because you are unable to follow them inside the building and because of the incident the who place in on high alert. What you can make out of the conversation is that the bad guy’s father used to work with Howard Stark and that Howard somehow wronged Vanko. He also knows about Tony’s palladium poisoning. For a man without a name, he sure knows a lot.

The media storm that comes down on Iron man is massive. After his statement that nobody was able to make tech as advanced as his, the media is having a field day with this. Luckily for you, nobody seemed to recall a woman lifting cars or pulling people out of fires.

Nat is swooped up in the madness, trying to contain the story as Stark’s personal assistant. You yourself are stuck watching it all go down while keeping an eye on Tony.

While Pepper is trying to safe the company from more bad press, he is searching for everything that as much relates to Anton Vanko. You try to follow his madness but with your X-ray vision, its hard to see the 3D projections but you manage.

For now, all you can do is wait, it’s like drama show unfolding before your eyes. It is kind of amusing.

part 2

#marvel mcu #Black Widow #black widow x reader #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #Kryptonian reader #Kryptonian #Krypton is still gone #Iron Man 2 #Iron Man #tony stark #pepper potts #nick fury #maria hill

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retphienix · 3 years

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youtube

I Have A Lot To Say So I'll Read More This.

The short of it?

I'm glad I played Joker- I played it because I wanted to know how DQM evolved when it reached the DS and I got my answer.

It's mediocre. Not bad exactly, I enjoyed playing it, it adds some REALLY appreciated features to the DQM series and if you were playing it at release it had online play which plays well with the post game content which I haven't touched by the time I wrote this:

-but there are some engine/console specific things that made it a drag and there are some parts of the game that are just weaker than the previous games which is amusing since the previous games were simple GBC titles.

And finally, I don't really recommend playing through Joker 1. Can't speak on the sequels, but Joker 1 was a pretty middling experience for me so I'm the wrong person to get a positive recommendation from.

And since the opportunity presents itself: If you like monster RPGs and haven't tried it- go emulate Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 for the GBC, it's really good and also if you emulate you can fast forward the GBC era grind if that's your taste- really a win all around.

On to my rambling:

I debated on writing, rewriting, rewriting, and better presenting my thoughts on this game and the series as a whole but nah, Joker ain't getting that, I'm ramblin'- lol

I will split it slightly between "The ending" and "The game as a whole" though.

Ending:

1:07 - This is slightly a 'game a a whole' thing but honestly it's funny to me that you unlock a permanent repel in this game by doing the main quest. I entered this dungeon feeling strong enough to beat the game, so I just avoided 90% of encounters entirely.

5:00 - I genuinely got a laugh out of Sparkpug's whole deal in this finale. Not story wise, that's fine, no complaints- I mean that Sparkpug is clearly built to be a monster that can carry an ineffective team. He's clearly meant to be bred a few times and a god tier member of a potentially inexperienced player's team- but I literally never used him after the intro.

So during this scene it's supposed to be like "I'm a demi-god monster, you can't possibly beat me" and I'm thinking "Dude, you're like level 10 and shit tier, you can't win, this is hilarious."

Obviously it's a real boss fight and not 'face the monster you once had' but I was having fun roasting him behind the scenes of this recording.

45:00 - What an entirely unexpected change of pace.

Like, I had it spoiled for me by a screenshot that Dr. Snap becomes a monster or something- but I thought maybe he was always a monster or something, and also I got a bad look at him.

HE TURNS INTO A BODY HORROR BEAST, THAT'S NUTS.

Genuinely a highlight of the game.

52:00 - I fucking laughed what a meaningless exchange where the payoff is saying "He was stupid!", it's honestly just silly and dumb but not necessarily bad just dumb lol

55:00 - Not a great 'you won' victory lap. Like at all. Kinda feels like they should have just made this all a cutscene where I appear back at town and see that Solitaire is the leader now etc etc.

I kinda don't understand why it's a victory lap at all? Because all anyone says is "They picked a weird successor to Snap >:(" or "Snap went to the island? I bet he was stopping the calamity :)"

If you have 2 lines of dialogue prepared, maybe don't make a victory lap???

1:00:00 - What a fucking stupid payoff lol

Like sincerely, Solitaire does NOTHING the entire game! She's meaningless from start to finish! And the 'surprise' is that she's the new commish??? And she got the position because she's a rich spoiled brat??? Like LITERALLY that's why????????

What a stupid fucking ending lol

Now her proposed evolution of the contest is fair enough, I mean it's childish as hell, but to be fair- more contests is a fine idea especially since prior games and this game demonstrated the public's interest in watching monster fights. And the goal being to fight her as the final fight is fucking egotistical and stupid- BUT- it does play into the fact that the player didn't get to fight her the whole game so it's whatever?

1:03:00 - This is both the best and worst lol.

This game has no story, like at all, it's fucking empty front to back, and only explodes with like- 1 event at the very end.

This moment is a montage of memorable moments with your 'best friend' Sparkpug. It's cinematically very nice to be honest! Even includes a moment I don't remember at the arena which probably didn't happen lol.

So visually it's cool- I dig seeing the camera zoom out as we run across the beach, and the flashback moments intersplice over us making our way to the scout memorial- that's very well done.

The content is empty lol

As I said there's no story, these moments are nothing lol

And that's that.

All said the ending was a very nice challenge to face with my team- I had to abuse items like mad but I MADE IT! It was a GOOD fight.

The rest I've already said.

On to the game as a whole:

I have issues with this game, but there's good too. It's really like 4 steps forward 6-7 steps back it's weird, it's really weird.

Positives are neat!

> First and foremost- TRAITS!

Monsters in Dragon Quest Monsters have always had a problem with keeping their identity for long. The way I'd explain it to an outsider to the series is that Monsters DO have special stat variance and intended movesets and all that jazz- but the breeding system completely and entirely destroys that relatively early into the game.

While a monster might normally have really high defense and low other stats while knowing buffing magic- breeding, EVEN UNINTENTIONALLY, will have that same monster come out with 9 billion attack and all ice magic.

Monsters in DQM have a habit of becoming canvases for the breeding effects rather than their own mons- and this is undeniably a downside. It makes the game feel unique, it doesn't 'hurt' it, but when by mid-game monsters are more easily identified as sprites rather than strengths and weaknesses or even types (family) it's a slight downer on the series.

Traits fix this a lot by making every specific monster have unchangeable traits which offer things like "immunity to x type of damage" or "higher crit chance"- it's small, but it gives each monster more identity.

> Second and secondmost- SKILLS!

The older games didn't use trees, it used each individual spell as a potential pass on during breeding.

Each monster could have 8 spells, and when you breed two monsters you pass on all 16 spells to the offspring (they don't learn them all at once, they learn them as they level up) as well as the natural spells the monster would learn by level up.

So in the older games it is really easy to end up with a refined and overpowered list of 8 spells on each of your monsters.

Now spells are tied to Skill trees and your monsters can have 3 skill trees total (which are passed on as OPTIONS when breeding).

All to say skills do a lot for removing the "Master of all, weakness of none" spell lists that the older games made trivial to make, now you have to limit your builds and be more specialized- also they added skills like "Attack up" to add more variance to a build- instead of having spells you might just have high stat buffs as skill trees.

Overall I think Skills are an improvement because coupled with Traits it makes each monster feel much more specialized and unique and less like a sprite with no identity.

> Breeding is improved.

This is very much because of skills and traits- again- but also the system is just improved in general. Instead of being told "That's a monster you haven't had before!" and judging your decisions based on the name of the offspring breed, now you get to see a small sprite of the resulting monster to help you decide- ALSO instead of getting 1 result for every combo (to the point where you have to back out and choose Monster A + Monster B and Monster B + Monster A as separate options), you now get up to 3 results to pick between for every breeding opportunity.

It's just better.

> The engine is impressive.

At least to me. This is a DS title using (from what I read) a rework of the DQ8 PS2 game's engine- it certainly looks like it.

Combat models are nice, using moves looks nice, overworld exploration looks nice- it looks nice.

Now for some negative and general nonsense- all of which is more often than not 'weird'.

> I gotta be unfair and say "The Story" first and foremost.

DQM 1 and 2 are not intense story games. They aren't.

But they both knew how to handle their story well for what they wanted to tell, I can and will praise both for their narratives because they know what they are and do it well.

DQM:J does not. It's fucking bad.

Basically: The overall story doesn't exist- you're told to be a spy, but that comes up 1 time towards the end of the game and LITERALLY doesn't matter at any other moment INCLUDING the one time it comes up.

You have NO meaningful objective from the start up until near the end of the game. You show up and have no goal- so you get told to get some crystals with no meaning behind it (not even a lie because they are clearly evil- not even a lie to motivate you! NO MEANING IS PRESENTED! JUST DO IT! TO DO THE CONTEST I GUESS! WHY? SHUT UP!)

So 90% of the game time you're not doing anything meaningful. So what about the islands? Any small narratives to keep things moving?

NO!

NOT AT ALL!

So you go 90% of the game having no real objective, just kinda wandering forward mindlessly- and then the game suddenly goes "Oh! Guy who seemed sus! He's evil! He's gonna unleash the calamity that you were 'kinda but not directly' working towards with your dog! You know, that plot point that's kept vague and paid 0% attention to the entire game? Yeah it's happening! Aaaaand you're done! GG!"

Basically there's just nothing going on in this game, it's all background noise until the last 10% of the game. And that's lame.

DQM1 had a light story- but from the very intro cutscene you have a clear objective which makes every action you do seem relevant as you are working towards that goal.

From the start of the game you know "My sister is gone! The king says a magic wish can get her back! I'll go do that!" and then you do!

DQM2 has a much better story!

You have a goal from the start (The kingdom is physically dying and you have to save it by getting a new plug!) AND it has stories for each world you visit!

THAT'S MILES BETTER! THIS GAME COULD HAVE DONE THAT FOR THE ISLANDS!

Anywho. Story is lacking and empty and lame especially when DQM2 has a similar format but does every part better- you have a clear objective you're working towards AND side stories to keep the light narrative moving!

WTH!

The spy plotline doesn't matter! It could have been used to build suspicion on who's the good guy!

The islands are so empty of story!

DQM2 has a fun mix on how a rival character works which makes every world interesting to see how they get involved!

This game has a rival that does NOTHING!!!!!!!!!

It's just such a step back from the previous games, it's weird to see DQM 1 land a solid simple story and DQM 2 build a great format to expand the story going forward- and then DQM:J just slams its head into the dirt and wipes out.

> Game's slow.

The engine switch is a good thing overall, but it makes combat slower (a lot), adds loading screens to combat (primarily), and they didn't bother speeding up the grind from previous games.

Because of the grind still existing which isn't a problem in and of itself- the game becomes SLOW AS HELL because the engine makes that grind take longer.

Also world exploration is slow which is to be expected when moving from 2d to 3d, but this is countered by adding things to the world to find or do- and Joker tries but it's still noticeable. The world exploration isn't a problem, it just stands out alongside the combat being slow as hell.

The engine change was a great thing- but it feels like they should have put more work into speeding up combat to counter the slowdown of load times and flashy animations.

A GOOD WAY TO FIX THAT MIGHT BE XP!

> Music ain't great in my opinion.

DQ has amazing music. This game has some weak renditions in my opinion. The CELL HQ theme song is a pretty good poster child for the worst there is, but just in general even the better music is lacking compared to the chiptunes of the GBC or the better mixes of the main series.

Maybe it's unfair, it's a DS game, I don't know, I just know I ended up just muting most of the game because it didn't sound great. I played the GBC games OSTs instead for a large portion of my playthrough. I listened to videos instead for the bulk of the game.

It's just not pleasant to me, sorry to say.

> XP!!!!!!!

I'm being a spoiled ass on this but yeah!

XP SUCKS IN THIS!

There aren't good placed to grind until you beat the game! (apparently)

The first level blatantly has too low xp which makes you grind before you can tackle the boss of the island- and the late game has you mindlessly grinding low xp rewards in order to be ready to face the final boss.

It's WEIRD!

Why is it so low!

> Tech is weird!

I could ramble on this alone but here's the short version:

DQ has a unique fantasy world aesthetic that each game has explored in its own way. It's basically "swords, magic, monsters, and charm- things feel light but aren't afraid to get scary sometimes :)"

This game... doesn't.

This game has fuckin' tech watches, jet skis, TOWER PCS????

This ISN'T dragon quest on a world building level.

It's like, contemporary modern world but with slimes.

And that could be good I guess, but it feels so fucking weird to see PCs right alongside swords and axes and a dracky.

Like... why?

It's a poor aesthetic according to my tastes. Maybe I'm an ass for that. The tech is weird.

All to say, in a poor rambling "I gotta get this out of me" kinda way, is Joker was fine.

I enjoyed breeding. I enjoyed seeing the engine. I enjoyed the unique additions like a 'hero monster'.

But I also had to grind mindlessly on a slower game.

I had to endure a story that forgot to show up until the very end.

I sat there thinking about replaying the older ones the whole time.

It was fine.

It's mediocre.

I'm glad I played it.

I'm done now :)

#RetPlays #Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker #Dragon Quest #Dragon Quest Monsters #Dragon Warrior Monsters #DQM #DWM #DQM:J #DS #Nintendo

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ellana-ravenwood · 5 years

Text

NEW PART : “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” 2/3 - Batfam x Fem!Reader (Marvel crossover)

Well, almost two months of not writing as I really lacked the motivation to do...anything, here I am. Back, with the part two of my little Batfam/Marvel crossover ! This is a transition chapter just to settle a few things before the big final chapter where the all action will take place ;). I hope you will still like it :

If you wanna catch up, here’s PART 1 And here’s my masterlist : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

“Wow, this looks a LOT like Wayne Manor !”

Damian exclaimed as he looked down from the jet and spotted a gigantic house in the middle of the trees. Even the grounds looked like his home, with the forrest surrounding it, and it’s remote location a bit out of a big town.

The basketball court opened, and the “X-jet” slowly lowered down into it.

The guy called Wolverine absolutely refused to take one of the Avengers’ planes, saying that the S.H.I.E.L.D tracked those down, had all kind of surveillance on them, and didn’t want one of them inside the school. Too many valuable informations could be stolen and used against them.

When “Iron Man” assured him he checked those planes daily to make sure they weren’t rigged, Wolverine just raised his eyebrows, smiled and said : “Sure bub, sure. Nick Fury would totally let that happen, and your technology is definitely superior to the S.H.I.E.L.D. They most definitely do not steal and copy everything you do, and know how it works”...And they ended up taking the X-Jet.

According to your youngest sons, it looked and was much cooler anyway. Kinda reminded them of the Batplane...It made Bruce smile, that they liked the X-Men’s plane better just because it kinda looked like his.

You were landing inside a bunker like place, when Wolverine said :

“Welcome to Xavier school for gifted youngsters.”

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

A few hours before :

Shortly after Wolverine announced you needed to go see a certain “Charles Xavier”, and after a quick introduction, most of you got ready to leave.

It was decided that not all of the Avengers would go to the school because searches and investigations were always more effective when multiple groups would work in multiple places. And there were a LOT of those dudes, so they could most definitely cover more grounds by scattering all around, and asking questions.

You absolutely refused to be separated from your family again, and even if Bruce thought it would’ve been better to split up and each go with a search team, he didn’t push it too much.

Obviously, none of the kids wanted to be separated either, and when you had an idea in your head, it was very difficult to change your mind. You’ve always been a very stubborn woman.

So Bruce relented and it was decided you’d all go to the Xavier school, as you were the one that knew Klarion the most, and could help Charles to narrow his search down a bit.

With you came Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Storm of course, the Xavier school was their home after all. Along also came that Captain America guy, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor.

Hawkeye, Black Widow, the big green guy and a few other Avengers you could not remember the name of for the life of you (there were so many new people ! Even with your “charity” practice, where you often faked remembering people’s name, you just couldn’t keep up...it didn’t help that they obviously all had code names rather than simple easy to remember ones like... “Kevin”, for example. Or John. John was good, short and easy to remember) left for other places where the trail was still warm.

And so multiple “teams” were formed to cover multiple grounds.

Your family and a few others were going to the school in the hope that Charles Xavier could find Klarion thanks to his mental powers, while other teams would go investigate the Brooklyn Bridge where Klarion was last seen, and yet another team was going to find a certain “Dr Strange” since he was apparently able to travel through dimensions or something ?

You weren’t too sure, honestly, after hearing so many new infos and names you kinda zoned out and expected Bruce to remember everything for you (as often, really, more than once he was the one to help you remember the name of a politician or actress, whispering it in your ear as they walked towards you).

As you were in an elevator that would lead you all to the roof’s airport so you could go and try to find Klarion, Dick bended to whisper in your ear :

“Do you remember any of their names ?”

You turned to him and, as discreetly as you could, answered :

“Absolutely not. Except for that Spider kid, because he’s adorable and Damian seems to like him. And the one that got Jason and I here, Deadpool. Though he’s not even here anymore. I can’t recall any of them...I think one is like, Odin or something ? The one who brought Tim, I forgot which one but I know he’s a viking god or something.”

Your son let out a little snort, trying to suppress his chuckle so none of the people can hear you, but...

“I wouldn’t blame ya if you can’t remember many of us. After all, travelin’ in another dimension and seeing all those new things is a lot to take in, I know what I’m talkin’ about. So rememberin’ our names ? Tough.”

The short man who made you blush earlier said. He had a sort of gentle smile on his face that you’re pretty sure was rarely there, but it seemed yours and your son’s inability to remember much of anyone’s name made him genuinely smile. He adds, his voice lowering a few octave in an intimate way :

“I can help you rememberin’ in the plane if you want to.”

“I’ll help her, thank you very much.”

Your husband says, interposing himself between you and that...Badger guy ? Was that his name ?

“Logan.”

He answers the question you didn’t ask, and you’re genuinely surprised. With a charming smirk that you thought only Bruce could have, “Logan” adds :

“It was written all over your face you didn’t remember my name. And hey, I’d like for you to call me Logan more than Wolverine y’know.”

Bruce gives an outraged look to “Logan”, as you try your best not to blush (that guy had a strange kind of aura...he was essentially a hairy midget who was totally not your style and yet he seemed to have a strange effect on you).

Wolverine answered your husband’s glare with an infuriating knowing smile, and you could almost feel Bruce’s blood boiling.

It’s only Tim and Damian laughing quietly that eased the atmosphere. But their laughter most definitely finish to vex your Broosh, who threw an arm around your shoulder and looked proudly high in front of him.

Jealous Bruce always made you smile, and here, doing some PDA while on a mission ? Yup, definitely jelly.

The elevator quickly brought you to the top floor, where you discovered a rather big “airport” for such a building. Quite the fancy place. Even Bruce never even though about putting an airport on his roof. A heliport was amply sufficient.

The man called Tony Stark, who had a rather advanced armor around his body, casually walked towards one of the plane stamped with a big “A” on.

“Seriously, those people don’t know the meaning of the word “discreet””.

Your husband said as he saw the planes. You roll your eyes, but don’t say anything. You don’t think any less though, because those words were coming from a guy who had a “bat” aesthetic in everything he did, including flying vehicles so...Not particularly discreet either.

But Logan grabbed Iron Man’s shoulder before he could reach one of the “A” plane, and said :

“Ah where are you going Stark ? We’re not taking one of yours.”

Tony rolled his eyes the hardest he could, as he shooed away Logan’s hand and said, beyond exasperated :

“I’m telling you for the thousands time Logan, our Avengers planes aren’t tracked !”

“Says you. We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“But there’s more space on our planes.”

“We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“They’re faster !”

“We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“I promise you they’re safe, they won’t spy on your precious little school, the S.H.I.E.L.D has no hold over our planes !”

Short silence.

“We’re still taking the X-Jet.”

“Be reasonable Wolverine please, this is getting ridiculous.”

“Bub, do I look like someone who’s reasonable ? We’re taking the X-Jet.”

“But-”

But the short hairy man known as “Wolverine” was already leaving, clearly not about to listen to more of that Stark guy’s plea.

Well apparently...you were taking the X-Jet.

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

It must’ve been less than ten minutes since your family, a few of the X-Men and a few of the Avengers climbed into the jet flying in the direction of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, when Logan jumped on his feet, put the plane on auto-pilot and rushed at the back of the vehicle.

“The hell is wrong with that guy ?”

Jason asks as you all turn to look at him run across the plane. Your husband looks insistently at you as if to say : “see, I’m better” (like you needed a proof of that). Clearly not quite over the fact the clawed mutant managed to make you blush. Twice.

For the past fifteen years, he was the only one that ever managed to do that !

Dick says :

“Maybe the toilets are over there ? I mean, when you gotta go, you gotta go.”

But then Logan comes back with Deadpool, dragging him by the collar.

“What are you doing here Wade, I thought we told you to leave and never come back !”

“Wow alright Scar, tell your hyenas to lower their guard please I’m not here to cause trouble; honest !”

Deadpool says, his hands up as he faces the Avengers taking a fighting stance in front of him.

The man who brought you to the Avengers’ Tower was immediately kicked off of the building as soon as you all started to make plans to run after Klarion and Loki. Somehow though, and oddly enough it didn’t really surprise you, he managed to get onto the X-Jet.

“Wade, whenever you’re around trouble just comes by itself. We told you not to tag along already. Three times at the watch tower until we forcefully throw you out. So now, time to leave.”

Wolverine was opening the jet’s hatch, but before he could get a hold of “Wade”, Deadpool jumped on his feet and went to hide behind your husband.

“He’s clearly a mad man, he’s trying to kill me ! Hey, you’re very against killing right ? I read it somewhere in a comic once...”

“What ?”

“Nevermind, I’m crazy. But I deserve to live, just like everyone ! Just stop him from trying to kill me ! PLEASE GOD OH GOOOOOOOD, I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE !! I STILL HAVEN’T SEEN ALL THE FANTASTIC BEASTS MOVIES AND I’M...TOTALLY A VIRGIN !! I’VE BEEN A FAN OF J.K ROWLING FOR DECADES, I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEEEEEEEEEEEN !! I DESERVE TO KNOW REAL LOOOOOOOOOOoooOooooOoooVE !!”

Deadpool was yelling dramatically, latching his arms around your husband’s leg.

And you had to admit, there was something comical about seeing a grown ass man holding the big scary Bat like that. Bonus point for the face Bruce was making, clearly unsure as to how to react to all of this. It was rare to see an unsure Batman.

Ah, but in the short time you’ve known that Wade Wilson, you already realized that he was probably the only person that could destabilized anyone with his behavior. You kinda liked that.

Logan was rolling his eyes now, and with a sigh walked resolutely towards Deadpool and Bruce.

But your husband stopped him by putting a hand on his chest. And though Logan was at least an entire foot smaller than Bruce, he still looked impressive as his eyes narrowed at your husband and his muscles tightened, fists slowly closing. You had a bad feeling about all this...

“Listen, bub. You have no idea what this guy is capable of. And believe me, if I throw him out of the plain he won’t-”

“I can’t let you do that. He might be clinically insane, but we can’t just kill him like that !”

“But he can’t die and-”

“YES ! YES I CAN, I’ll die a horrible death if he throws me out.”

“Wade you-”

“Please mister Batman, don’t let him throw me out ! Show that you have a heart and ignore all the bad writing you’ve been a victim of lately !”

Once again, there’s a small silence following Wade’s apparent words of madness...But you have to say, you’re not a big fan of throwing people out of planes either. So before everything turns sour, as you can see both Wolverine and Bruce getting wayyyy too tense, you interpose yourself in-between all of them.

You know that Bruce already having prejudice against Logan because he flirted a little with you is not any good news, and Wolverine himself ? Well it seemed like he also could suddenly snap if pushed too much.

“Wow wow wow wow. Let’s be reasonable about it. Yeah yeah I know, you’re not a reasonable guy. Well you’re going to be right now.”

Your words surprise the Wolverine so much, that his fists unlock and his eyebrows raise. Your husband gives him a sneaky look that most definitely means : “haha, she got you didn’t she ?”. But he’s immediately put back in his place as you glare at him too, and he relaxes as well. Forcibly.

“Ok. I must admit I don’t know Deadpool since very long, but he’s the one that lead us to the Avengers. You guys are the one that instantly attacked him without giving him any chance ! Now maybe you gave him lots of chances before -at those words, all the Avengers and X-Men nods- but just give him one last one ok ? I have a good feeling about him.”

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

You were sitting next to Deadpool...Who was literally taped to the wall. You guessed in this world, the black electric tape was very strong. According to Logan, this was the only way to make sure he wouldn’t do anything stupid. Dangerous for everyone, or for himself.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t convince them to let you join and all.”

“Ah well no worries, at least they didn’t throw me off the plane ! I hate when that happened. Regenerating from being as flat as a pizza is very painful.”

“You can..regenerate ?”

“Yup ! Haven’t you noticed, the tear your kid made with that knife looking like a bat in my awesome costume I definitely clean often...is still there. But the wound isn’t.”

“Oh right. Neat.”

“Not really. Healing powers mean I can’t die, and I really want to die...”

“...That’s awful. Are you ok ?”

“Does someone that tell you they want to die sound ok ?”

“Well if they say out loud they want to die it’s like a cry for help, so a sort of step to recovery you know ?”

“I-Wh-...What ? I never saw it like that. I mostly just talk about it out loud because I hope someone will hear me and finish me off somehow.”

“Oh.”

After that, it seemed like Wade did not want to talk anymore as he turned away from you, and somehow managed to put on a pair of knock-off air pods in his ears, and blasted the main theme from the movie “The Godfather” so loud that you could hear it as you were sitting next to him.

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

There was a long silence that installed itself in the plane, as no one talked and thought of the task ahead, completely focused on...

“So, I have no idea what you guys’ names are. I zoned out half-way through the little man’s explanation, as I already listened to it when I found him and my friend Hulk was holding him upside down.”

Thor said casually, shattering this all impression of seriousness. It makes you chuckle, even more so when Dick exclaimed :

“OH THANKS GOD (literally) ! I was so afraid to ask ! I’m so glad you started. Because except for Logan, Ororo and Kurt who literally saved my life, I cannot remember who any of you are !”

You full on laughed, as the idea that none of you really knew how the others were called and yet still managed to trust each others was very funny to you. Quickly, your communicative laughter reached the rest of the team (well, almost, Bruce and Logan only exhaled a little bit of air, like a millisecond chuckle).

It takes you all a little while to calm down, but as you all stop to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, Thor continues :

“So, should we introduce ourselves again ? This time there’s much less of us, it should be fine. Guests must start, it is the norm. Go ahead now, little Red Robin’s sidekicks. Introduce yourselves.”

“...Red Robin’s sidekicks ?”

Your entire family turns to Tim, who turns very pale all of a sudden. He smiles awkwardly at you all and says :

“Um. To my defense, I was hung upside down by a green goliath who was threatening to “smash” me and the subject of family seemed a little iffy with Thor here. I said the first thing that came to my mind.”

This makes you and your husband smile, and your two oldest son to roll their eyes. Your youngest however, jumps on his feet and says :

“I’m Robin ! And most definitely not his sidekick ! I’m...”

There’s a pause where Damian looks at his brother almost sadly, and oh you know exactly what he’s about to do.

“I’m his brother. His equal. Or so I thought...”

Oh. Smart little Damian. Guilt tripping your Tim, so that in a near future he will do something for him. Tim reddens even more in embarrassment and adds :

“It really was just to save myself ! I don’t think of any of you as my sidekicks ! Of course you’re my equal Dam-Robin ! And um, I’m Red Robin by the way. Like the restaurants. Um.”

Thor shakes his head, lost in thoughts, and then says :

“Robin and Red Robin. Very smart. I see how much research you put in your aliases.”

You weren’t sure if the man was serious or being sarcastic...But the way he was nodding thoughtfully made you think he was actually more serious than anything else. The blond bearded man continued :

“Well my turn now ! I am...Thor ! GOD OF THUNDER ! Son of Odin, God of all. We’re going after my brother, Loki. Who befriended that Klarion of yours. Your turn again now.”

Thor points at your oldest son, who doesn’t hesitate to jump in and say :

“Nightwing ! Son of Batman, the Black Knight of Gotham ! I’m the oldest of our ass beating organization. Criminals. I mean, we’re not criminals...Well, depends of your definition I guess. But what I was saying is, we beat the asses of criminals. Um. Yes. Have I said I’m the oldest of the family ? Well technically my dad is the oldest, but I mean-”

“I’m Jason. Perpetually helping my older brother here to avoid embarrassment by cutting him off rudely and fulfilling my little brother’s duty at the same time. Two birds with one stone. I like guns. Unlike my dad...”

Bruce just gives an exasperated look to Jason, and your son rolls his eyes :

“I just gave you the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself ! Amazing transition ! But I guess you weren’t ready, so um...Discout Bruce Wayne, go.”

You slap the back of your son’s head at his disrespect towards your new friend, and give an apologetic look to the one you think is called “Iron Man”. But clearly, your son’s jab doesn’t bother the man (probably because he has no idea who Bruce Wayne is) and with a hint (a big big hint) of arrogance and pride, he says :

“Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Also Iron man, I saved this planet multiple times.”

“...And very modest. Not over the top at all. Mm. Reminds me of someone, before I met him, and with less charisma.”

You say, giving a look at your husband. He smiles and winks at you, while Tony Stark frowns, pretty sure you just insulted him. But you don’t leave him the time to say anything as you continue :

“(Y/N). I don’t have a superhero name because technically I’m not one. It was kind of...unlucky for me to be there. At the same time lucky, I would be dying of being worried sick right now if I wasn’t there and knowing where my family was. And...That’s all.”

“Wolverine. But y’all can call me Logan.”

Ah. Short (like him). To the point. You liked it.

“Batman.”

Even shorter (unlike him), you liked it even more.

Turning to your husband you smile and forgetting for a second you were surrounded by a bunch of strangers, you cuddled a little closer to him.

“I’m Storm. Or Ororo. As you wish. I control the weather, and I teach at the Xavier school, I help young mutants to understand their power more. As I wish I had that kind of help as a child.”

Wow. Majestic. You were quite impressed, and clearly, so were your sons. You had to close Jason’s mouth. And Dick’s. Tim and Damian got the message.

“Spider-Man ! I um...Can do whatever a spider does. According to that song at least. Sorry. I’m not good at introductions, my teachers always said so. ”

You smile encouragingly at him. He was one of the only one you remembered the name of, only because he brought your youngest son and seeing how Damian talked about him, he seemed quite fond of him already. And it was rare, that your kiddo was fond of someone that fast, so that Spider kid must be quite something. You got it though, he did have a relaxed, nice vibe about him, if not a bit awkward.

“I am Captain America, please to meet you all, I am very glad we’re on this mission together. Let’s hope for a peaceful coalition until this is all over. Now that the introductions are done, I think we should-”

“Oh, typical American to forget the German guy ! I’m Kurt, an X-Men since many years. But a lot of people in the circus called me Nightcrawler and it stuck. You can call me whatever you want.”

“In the circus ! No way I used to be in a circus ! I was an acrobat !”

“Oh me too !”

Dick excitedly jumped on his feet, so did Kurt, while the one called “Captain America” was clearly feeling very uneasy.

“I um, am sorry, Nightcrawler. I did not pay attention. I would never-”

“Relax Kapitän, I was only teasing. I know you would never forget me on purpose ! It was my fault. I was standing in the shadow. I disappear, in the shadow.”

Damian’s eyes widen as he witnessed Kurt slowly becoming invisible as he retrieved to the shadows.

“WOW ! So cool !”

Nightcrawler came into the light again, and smiled brightly at your son :

“Thank you very much young man, it is rare people think of my ability as rare. Usually, they’re frightened.”

Damian looked curiously at Kurt, and asked :

“...Why ?”

You could clearly see the shock on the mutant’s face, at the candid and innocent question Damian asked. It was probably the first time in a very long time he met someone that did not judge his appearance at all...You were very proud of your son, in that moment.

“Wow is that really what you’re all going for ? What a joke ! And you say I’m the dishonest one ? Well let me re-introduce all of you.”

The cute and sweet moment is shattered by Deadpool sly laughter, the shift in the mood is brutal and you wonder how it happened. He continues :

“I can’t say anything about you all...Batfamily, I don’t know you, only through a few terribly written comics. I’m sure you’re much more than the cliches in there...Proof is that little Tim here hasn’t had a drop of coffee in hours ! And Jason didn’t shoot anyone, also that Damian kid totally accepted Nightcrawler seconds ago and wasn’t a brat !”

Silence. What ? Comics ? What was he even on about...

“You’re such hypocrites though, all of you -he points at the Avengers and X-Men- Stark for example, he’s an ex-arms dealer. He likes to think of himself as a philantropist but he really never did something for someone else that didn’t benefit him in some ways, so he really isn’t like your husband. I don’t know why people in the real world always compare the two...”

“What ?”

“Nevermind. Wolverine. He killed more people in his life than me, and my job for a long time was literally to kill people. Granted his life is long, but the man can get crazily out of control and kill anything that moves ! It happens a scary amount of time. Storm, thought she was a goddess back home but really was just a pickpocket that gullible villagers put on a pedestal ! Kurt ? Act all nice and religious, but did some pretty terrible thing in moments he had to survive ? Isn’t that right Kurt ? Oh and Cap ? A literal war criminal. Well, I mean in some stories, but like he fought during World War II and was most definitely not always nice and did questionable things...As for Spidey here ! ...Well he never did anything wrong. I refuse to hear about all those times he supposedly was an asshole. Spider-Man is amazing. That’s all.”

There’s a big silence, as your family looks at the Avengers and X-men suspiciously. But then Deadpool adds :

“Oh, and by the way, I’m Wade. Completely crazy, and highly unreliable. I hear voices. A lot of them. Well not a lot of them. Just two. But it’s two more than most people do.”

And then he laughs like a mad man, and the sudden tension falls just as fast as it rose. Wether Deadpool was telling the truth or not, you couldn’t know. But there was something sure about this all thing : he was most definitely not all there in the head.

Plus, you had a gut feeling that you could trust those guys, after all, they did look like a lot of people you knew back in your own world. Like if they were their counterpart in this universe. Plus it seemed you all had the same goal...Stopping Klarion, and whoever that Loki was.

It was vital, to avoid chaos across the multiverses.

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

The introductions made, you started to all talk about your respective world. How it was where you were from, and how it was here.

“Registering mutants ? It sounds very...Germany nineteen forties.”

“Ah yes, some of our mutant compatriots think the same. But us, X-Men, still hope for a peaceful and nice way to resolve everything.”

(...)

“But what are you really avenging ?”

“I’m telling you it’s just a name !”

“...It makes no sense. Like, the X-men are called like that because of the X genes, if I understood. Back home, our League of Justice is called like that because...Well, pretty self-explanatory, but you, why “Avengers” ?”

“It just sounded cool ok ?!”

(...)

“And so we did that trick in the circus, where I would jump and teleport to the other side and in the dim light people would just think I did an impossible jump !”

“That is wayyy cool !”

(...)

“Are you a mutant too ?”

Damian asked Spider-man, and Peter answered :

“No, I was bit by a radioactive spider.”

“Oh ! Were can I acquire such a spider ?!”

“Damian ! Stop trying to get superpowers , you’re perfect as you are !”

You scold your son, and Damian continues, looking dad :

"I used to have superpowers...When my father resurected me with a crystal from Apokolips.”

“You died ?”

“Yeah. We all died once. Or faked our death.”

After those words your youngest son glares at your oldest, who yells :

“OH YOU’RE NEVER GONNA LEAVE THAT DOWN ARE YOU ?!”

(...)

Conversations were happening a bit everywhere, as you were steadily flying towards The Xavier school for gifted youngsters, slowly discovering each others, and the worlds you were coming from.

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

“Wow this looks a lot like Wayne Manor !”

“Wayne Manor ?”

“Our house, back in our World.”

Damian exclaimed, and his father cleared his throat in a scolding way (a talent, really).

“What ? Do you seriously expect them to come to our dimension and tell everyone who we really are ? The chances are thin father. They’re the good guys of this world as well. Plus look at them, none of them really hide their identity. Except for Spidey.”

“Well they’re wrong. I already told you keeping your true identity secret is crucial. This is why we keep our aliases, even here.”

“AH ! Couldn’t agree more dude !”

Spider-man says, turning to your husband. Bruce continues :

“Very poor choice of them. If any of their enemies truly know who they are, their home will be targeted.”

“RIGHT ?! They all parade around with everyone knowing their real names like what’s their problems right ?”

“I have to agree young man.”

“You know the X-Men ? Their school was blown up like, thirty times because everyone knows where they live, and because they dox themselves all the time !”

“Irresponsible.”

“RIGHT ?! I’m so glad you agree !”

Ignoring the current conversation about secret identities, Wolverine, or rather “Logan” as he himself told you to call him (most definitely have a problem with the concept of code names and secret identities, in this universe) lands and says :

“Welcome to the Xavier school for gifted youngsters.”

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

“So, how dangerous exactly is this Klarion boy ?”

Charles Xavier asked, sitting in one of the salon in the school.

“He’s already extremely dangerous, but if paired with someone like Loki, he’d be even worst. At least according to what Thor told us about his brother.”

Your husband answers, all stoic and serious, and then Thor awkwardly says, as if ashamed :

“He’s adopted.”

“Adopted brothers are still brothers !”

Damian fiercely said, narrowing his eyes at the god of Thunder. It made your heart warm, to think how such a long way he came. A few years ago, when he first entered your life, he would’ve never defended adopted sibling with such convictions.

Tim ruffles Damian’s hair, and winks at him before saying :

“Look at him Dam-Robin, he clearly didn’t think before he spoke ! And I think it was a joke, right Thor ?”

Thor nods, even though he wasn’t sure he was really joking. He most definitely loved his brother, but it was true he was adopted ? The God of Thunder was a bit confused as to why the little man took it so personally. Ah, but they were raised in very much different ways...

In any case, the focus of the conversation went back to Professor Xavier.

“So, do you think you can find Klarion ?”

Your husband asks, his seriousness back (he might have been a little on the softer side when he witnessed Damian defending his “adopted” brothers as being really his brothers, but now he was all back to business).

“Well, we won’t know if I do not try, right ?”

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

You, Bruce, Tim, Jason, Dick, Damian, Storm and Charles Xavier went to the school’s underground, while Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the Avengers stayed in the upper levels.

Logan didn’t seem to trust them much, especially not Tony Stark. And if he stopped Tony Stark from going down to Cerebro, then in all fairness he had to stop all the other Avengers too.

You and your family ? It was different. He had a good feeling about you, and his guts never lied. Plus Charles needed you to guide him to find Klarion, the infos you had on the boy being crucial in his search.

And so Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Nightcrawler stayed up there, discussing any plan of action possible once they’ll find Klarion. If, they find Klarion.

Deadpool was there too, now taped to the wall in the salon, as no one was quite ready to give him his freedom yet. He was softly whistling an unknown song, all the while carefully listening to his “friends”.

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

Cerebro was an impressive room with a single helmet in the middle. Was this huge size really necessary ?

“The size of the room is indeed necessary. It permits for a lot of components to be added, and for it all to function. All the walls are made of very complicated circuits without which the all machine wouldn’t work.

Wow ! It was as if he-

“Read your thoughts ? I am sorry, I tend to indeed do so with people I just meet. It’s a...defense mechanism if you will, to make sure they’re not ill intentioned. But in your thoughts, I perceived no malice, which is why I’m allowing all of you here, in my Cerebro. Plus, your common knowledge of that Klarion boy is crucial to finding him.”

Ah. So this is why the X-men left you alone with their leaders so easily. He was a telepath, not just able to find people with his mind. He could read them, and know if someone was thinking something bad or not...Well, at least, it was easy to build trust.

At least on his side, because thinking about someone always reading whatever you thought were made you uncomfortable. What if you suddenly thought about a wild night you spend with Bruce ? Oh my God, here you were, thinking exactly about that !

“Ah, do not worry, I read into the minds of those I do not know up until I trust them. And I trust you know, so you can...Think of whatever you want. I’ll just add that you most definitely find each others well.”

What Professor X implied as he smiled at you and Bruce made you both blush, and you quickly looked away, trying to think only about Klarion. Thankfully your son had been completely oblivious to it all, or...Well, those poor souls.

“Stay perfectly still, please.”

Before you could ask why, the machine started and WOW, it was overwhelming ! Millions and millions of voices all talked at the same time, and silhouettes of people started to appear everywhere.

How the hell did that Xavier did...whatever he was doing ?

Slowly but surely, less and less people floated into the air, until eventually, only one person remained...

“It’s Klarion !”

Tim exclaimed, and sure enough, in front of you, was Klarion. He was sitting on something, and saying unintelligible things.

“Where is he ?”

Bruce asked avidly. But Professor Xavier’s forehead had more and more creases, and sweat slowly pearled at the corner of his temples.

“Hey, hey what are you doing you sneaky little rat ?!”

Klarion. That was most definitely Klarion. Looking straight at you all. Did he just sense Charles ?

“I’ll have you know I’ve been train about mind invasion, it’s witch school 101 ! Now, get...OUT !!”

And suddenly, the entire machine shut down and with a groan of pain, Xavier took his helmet off. You rushed to him, worried, but in his calming voice he said :

“I am alright my dear, but this Klarion boy is much stronger than I thought. I wasn’t quite able to get his exact location, but I think we can work with what I have...”

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

Charles managed to have an area where Klarion could possibly be, but it was very vague. However he projected the 3D image he found of him as he searched with Cerebro, and showed it to everyone in one of the X-Men’s many briefing room.

“This is what he looks like. I can actually manage to print a decent quality picture of him, based on the mental image I have in my mind. If we go to the area I spotted him, we could...”

“Heyyyyyy ! I know that little Wolverine haired guy !”

Cutting the professor off, Deadpool, who, from his spot handcuffed to a heater (it was still an improvement from being taped to the wall) said. He had managed to catch a glimpse of Klarion, and clearly...recognized him ?

“You’ve seen him before ?”

Bruce asks, suspicious. After all, Deadpool had proven so far to not be the most reliable guy indeed. Yet he still somehow tried to help nonetheless.

“Yeah I did ! You should’ve told me what he looked like, would’ve saved us a lot of work ! I kinda thought he was just yet another one of Logan’s kid, I mean, the dude NEVER uses protection ! Anyway I saw him on my way to get you two from the subway station, and I saw him go in a very special place, from which I was coming out. He’s at my ex-wife’s Shikla’s place...And I mean “ex” as in we’re no longer married, not like, she’s part of the X-men; They’d never accept her, she’s a total psycho ! She kinda rules over the world of monsters and often plans for the end of the Human race. Should we go visit her ?��

And that’s how you embarked for a new adventure down under...Literally.

To be continued...

__________________________________________________

Well after months of not writing...I tried :/. I hope you still like this little transition chapter. You probably noticed a lot of characters had almost no “screen time” even though they were present (and how Deadpool has a lot of said screen time...i needed him to find the witch boy), I’ll do better in the next chapter ! It’s just I needed a little sort of transition to go from searching Klarion to finding him, if that makes sense ? I hope you’re not disappointed and think things are moving too fast, or things aren’t making sense/are a mess, with this more lighthearted chapter, real action coming next chapter, and thanks for reading !

If you did like it, as always : feedbacks and reblogs are more than welcomed <3. Thanks in advance !

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tfw-no-tennis · 4 years

Text

hxh RESUME

back at it again w/the hxh, heres my recap of the last few eps

ok so i totally forgot to recap that one ep at the end of the hunter exam arc lets see what i remember from like 3 wks ago lollll

i thiiiiink i left off in the middle of ep 21 lol. i really dont remember much tbh so im gonna skim the ep to refresh

exposition time! its so wild that if you lose ur hunter card That It like u cant get another or retake the exam hgabjdfuhasjf Ls

also the fact that you can sell it is rlly interesting

leorio & kurapika backing up gon as he confronts illumi again :’) good lil family

illumi u fool. gon is a shounen protag. he can do anything he sets his mind to

the fact that gon thanks illumi for telling him where killua is....hes literally THAT polite like...what a perfect boy

hisoka just fuckgin stepping out of the shadows....ok bitch

the fact that gon fucked up illumis arm that bad with one hand....boi is STRONK

AUGH AUGH AUGHHHH HISOKA IS SO CREEPY AUGHHH I HATE THIS BIIIITCH

ok but like is illumi implying that hisoka is a fr p*do bc uhhhhh thats so nasty oh lord. pls stay away from gon, and killua, and like everyone as a matter of fact

EWWWWWWWWWW I HATE HISOKA HES SO NASTY. PLS STOP MAKING P*RNO FACES IN RELATION TO 12 YR OLD BOYS.

no but rlly what IS hisoka gonna do now. im assuming he’ll show up p soon (tho probs not in the zoldyc arc like i thought bc its shorter than i thought)

ok the fact that they have the internet is hilariously wild to me for some reason....it just seems like this would be one of those fantasy shounen worlds with very little tech (a la one piece) but lol nope we can just google shit hvbhjdhjdfks

gon: it was fun when you beat me up for 3 hours and broke my arm! seeya dude!

i love gon he is so chill and doesnt seem to hold grudges except when it really matters (like hisoka and illumi)

hanzo has.....ninja business cards....thats amazing hvbhsdjkujfnd

dont worry pokkle, leorio was basically carried thru the hunter exam by various people and also won by default. he still deserves his license tho

an exotic game hunter sounds pretty cool! i wonder if we’ll see pokkle again. kinda doubt it? that sounds pretty firmly non-combat based, and therefore probably pretty far from any plot lol

so gons dad is a bigshot huh.....whatever hed be a bigger deal if he didnt abandon his son tbh

gon swinging his feet on the bench....sooo cute

so ging could restore a bunch of ruins but he couldnt raise his son...ok

im just gonna be bitter at this guy for abandoning the most perfect boy vhbhjfbsjhdhbfsk sorry dude but being a good hunter doesnt make up for being a shit father

gon is so precious ;_;

WHAT WAS SATOTZ GONNA SAY TO GON???

why does it look like theyre googling things on MS paint

ah yes, padokea, on the continent of Africa But Sideways

idk if i talked abt it before but the world map is WILD lmao i love how its all the continents/landmasses scrambled around.....im super curious abt that weird island in the top center of the map, thats the only thing that immediately sticks out as not having a real life equivalent

the music in this show is so charming :’) i love the main theme sm

gon is sooo precious i literally cant get over it. and his hurry to rescue killua is so sweet....and i love how naturally charming/charismatic gon is....pretty much everyone he meets likes him, especially leorio and kurapika, who basically adopted him after knowing him for like a day, and continue to be completely taken by him

ok wtf is satotz & co talking abt......do they know something abt ging that they arent allowed to tell gon???? shouldnt gon have access to the same info now that hes a hunter? i need ANSWERS

i bet this whole thing abt the hunter exam not rlly being over is a metaphor abt the hunter exam NEVER truly ending bc youre always being tested, or st

ok the ED continues to be So Much like especially the last shot where the 4 main characters look like theyre posing for a JC Penny catalog while the singer goes FULL metal-screamo

ok ruth and i just rewatched the next two eps woohoo

i love that there are tourist busses that take people to the front gates so they can like pose for pics and stuff vhbhjafdsfkj and its like ‘ah yes here are where the local assassins live!’ thats so funny yet it makes so much sense

i love that leorio passed tf out during the bus ride. big big mood

gon is so cute...hes like ok yes i understand that we’re not supposed to go in but i think they can make an exception for me bc im very polite.

those 2 dudes r so ugly and so dead god bless

that bigass buster sword....sir please

ruth and i rlly thot that the old guard guy was gonna turn out to be grandpa zoldyk or st lol

the fact that the dog managed to eat All their flesh but left some clothes....skill

also the dog is named mike but it sounds like the guy is calling him miku hvbjdfssk

this cant be the first time some morons have been killed here likeeee

i cant believe nobody has visited the zoldyk estate in 20 years damn they all rlly b havin no friends. depressing

the whole gates thing is wild. also that part where gon gets the math wrong on the weight.....BIG mood kiddo

ok the part where gons on the phone w/the butler is soooo good oh man. i love how gon just calmly dials the phone again after hes hung up on the first time and then YELLS....and leorio and kurapikas faces r so good

also the butler guy unfortunately has a point, it isnt foolproof that gon is here Legit....but he IS let him see his tiny bf :(

as ruth pointed out, the butler guy is reminiscent of kuro from one piece. same vibes

maybe if leorio was jacked like he is in the manga/1999 anime he couldve opened the gate that first time around....Ls

god i love this shows approach to Everything so far,....as ruth put it, half the time its like ‘oh wow they should do [x]/i wish theyd do [x] but ofc they wont cause its a shounen’ but then they DO do [x] and its like damn thats dope

anyways i love how gon is increasingly approaching situations with his Plucky Shounen Protag Attitude in full swing, and he pretty much gets shot down every time. BUT his general determination to see killua bc killuas his FRIEND and hes gonna RESCUE HIM is still a good and pure motivating force

like here, when hes climbing over the wall and hes like whatever i dont wanna have to deal w/being tested thats bullshit, i wanna see killua, my intentions are pure, im gonna try my luck with the dog....i was like ok yeah he’ll get over and like tame or defeat the dog and the guard will be suitably impressed bc nobodys ever done That before, and then gon will continue on to get killua

but NOPE instead the guard calls him down and explains that gon Will Die if he tries that, and then the guard will die too for letting that happen. and gon is like oh shit my actions have consequences for people other than me, wow.

and THEN the guard takes them in to meet the dog. and hot DAMN that is a scary creature. not even really a dog tbh. they did an excellent job making the dog Legit Scary and not just like, big and flashy looking....those eyes are so soulless, and the proportions are freaky

and the guard says exactly what i was thinking - that gon would use his Country Boy Woodland Creature Skills to workaround the dog....but then the subversion - this creature is NOTHING like the woodland critters gon is probably used to dealing with. theres no way gon stood a chance here. the guard just saved him from a really unfortunate death

i love all the Super Heavy Stuff in the servant house that seems so inconvenient vbhjdkfasjfld. also forgot to mention earlier but the guard guy being Absolutely Ripped was wild and kinda funny

training montage! gon continues to be so cute. and i love so much how leorio and kurapika are like no, you rest, we’ll take care of this. good parents!!!!

and then!!!! they sync up and use the power of gay love to almost open the gate. but then gon uses the power of Improbable Shounen Protag Healing Speed to toss that arm sling off and help out

i feel like leorio was side-eyeing gon like w8 a sec u broke that arm like a few days ago that aint right.....

oh man i almost forgot abt that scene with the zoldyks torturing killua :( :( this poor kid he doesnt deserve that

also mom zoldyck seems truly awful but i must say her aesthetic does fuck. the victorian-lookin outfit paired with the futuristic cyclops visor thing....excellent. also im betting this face bandages are from killua cutting her face

this family is so fucked up hvbsjdhjfbakdfn

killua telling his mom that gon is definitely gonna make it there :’) hes got such unshakable faith in his bf thats so good.....

back w/the gang, and immediately they run into more trouble in the form of the young girl butler, whose name i dont know, but i love her....her design is SO good oh man. a non-caricature black person? who also isnt sexualized? in MY anime??????

i love how gons approach to conflict is currently ‘let more powerful person beat me up for hours straight in hopes that they get tired or something idk bro’ like....i love him lol, is it in an effort to show how determined he is? he doesnt even try to dodge her blows or get around her....id be tryin to hop that fence lol

oh shit the tiny zoldyk kid from earlier is spying on them....she was w/the mom so im sure thats not good

when he punches the rock part and it breaks....strong boiiii

oh man that little flashback from when killua first came back and told her that he made a friend ;_; bruh

i love butler girl :( she wants to let gon but knows it isnt allowed....and as soon as she starts to waver BAM here comes mom zoldyck JFC that was so sudden and jarring....im assuming butler girl isnt dead cause that would be lame and anticlimactic

also IS THAT NEN??? NEN>>>??? NEN??? HM? NEN?????????

im so annoying abt nen i need to make one of those ‘is this a pigeon?’ memes w/’is this nen?’ bc thats me anytime anything remotely weird happens lmao

i do think its rlly nen this time tho

anyways shit is wild, cant wait to meet the full zoldyck family

PREDICTION CORNER:

as i said above i doubt hisoka will show up now bc this arc is a lot shorter than i anticipated. also im doubting that illumis even gonna show up honestly

i think we’re gonna have this OP for a while, as the part just at the end shows gon and hisoka fighting in what looks to be an arena, and ik the next arc is the heavens arena arc, which im assuming is the tournament arc....

also i have no idea what that weird building in the OP is but my guess is that its the building w/the heavens arena in it bc its tall and,,,,heaven

i predict there wont be much fighting in this little arc bc how tf else is it so short. at this point i rlly think gon is just gonna grab killua and go lmao. im super curious abt how thats gonna go down, considering that killua is currently strung up just bc he wont apologize...so i cant imagine his family would just let him leave w/gon. i wonder if killua will fight them, or if gons determination will impress them and then theyll let killua go (doubt it)

thats basically it....we’ll see abt the next few eps holla

#lj watches hxh #hxh #woohoo continuation

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ichigopanhpff · 7 years

Text

Ignis x Reader Fic: Next To You Pt. 6

Whoa. All the new follows. The power of the Discord App. I bow to thee.

Here’s part 6! I’m gonna get pelted with tomatoes for this. Or more followers xD;

And Happy St. Patty’s Day. Take care of your liver, folks.

(Y/N) let out a frustrated growl and absent-mindedly stared at her screen full of code. She grabbed Kwehvin Lockhart, her rubber chocochick, from her desk and tossed it between her hands.

“What’s wrong?” Salome, one of her colleagues passing by enquired. “Just… stuff I can’t sort out in my head,” (Y/N) grumbled. “Wanna talk about it?” she asked, expecting the developer to decline the offer as usual. “I know you usually hash it out with Kwehvin, but maybe an organic being can help this time.”

She suddenly slumped over and placed her forehead on her desk with a muffled thud, seemingly losing all forms of motivation to do anything.

“Talking is exactly what I need to do, but can’t confront it,” she groaned out, softly banging her head. Her coworker raised an interested yet surprised eyebrow at (Y/N)’s response. “I hate feelings. Why can’t I just numb it all away?” she whined. “That’s called being a substance abuser, love,” her coworker pointed out. “Maybe you should just sleep with ‘em,” a voice called out two desks over. “Shut up, Chris! No one asked you!” (Y/N) raised her head and barked with annoyance. She threw Kwehvin at him and the inanimate object hit the top of his head with an innocent squeak. “Ow! Hostile work environment!” he cried out as the object bounced off somewhere.

Sleeping with Ignis was the last thing on her mind! He’s not a random booty call; he’s her confidante, her person!

“I’m just sayin’...” Chris chimed in, rubbing the area the chocochick hit. “Yet he continues to talk...” (Y/N)’s coworker off-handedly commented. “Maybe some physical contact’ll help sort ya out. I mean, when was the last time you got laid?” (Y/N) turned to Salome and asked, “This counts as sexual harassment, right?” “Yeah.” “Kwehvin was a warning shot. Don’t make me take out the rubber band launcher and decimate you.” “Davin and Oz wouldn’t allow this!” Chris complained. “Or would they?” Salome chimed in with a smirk. “What HR won’t know won’t hurt ‘em.” “But you’re HR!” “I saw nothing,” Salome coolly responded. “Unless you’d like to go on record for the ‘sleeping with him’ part, then I’ll really be listening.”

Chris merely wordlessly sputtered and hunched back down into his seat in disbelief. Regardless of what she decides to do, she’d have to eventually talk with him. He’s leaving in two days!

–

Ignis irritably clicked his tongue and leaned down to pick up some paperwork that spilled onto the marble hallway. With their departure coming up, he needed to sort his mind out. What compelled him to kiss back when (Y/N) leaned in? Why was he finding himself increasingly flustered whenever she was around?

All these questions and no answers was seriously affecting his performance; he even broke his coffee bean grinder from using too much pressure this morning!

The cafe he got his caffeine fix from wasn’t any better. It did him no justice and thought they should be run out of town with the way they roasted and ground their beans. They practically desecrated the purity of the bean by blooming the grounds with scorching hot water! Scorching! No properly prepared morning coffee makes Ignis Scientia an intensely volatile man.

Noct saw his hunched figure and walked over to help.

“You alright, specs?” the prince asked. “You’re in rare form today.” “It would seem so,” the adviser replied. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.” “Worried about the trip?” “Not really. Everything’s going according to plan there.” “Then…?” “Nothing that would warrant royal attention.”

Noct hummed with a tone of interest when he noticed light bags under his adviser’s eyes behind his spectacles. They stood back up after getting his paperwork back in order and made their way down the hall.

“So, what else do we need to do before we head out?” he changed the topic. “You need to clean out and pack up your belongings in your apartment,” Ignis reminded him. “Be sure to do it properly.” “Yeees,” he lazily replied and placed his arms behind his head.

As they walked on, Noct took his phone out and there was a notification at the top of his screen. He softly exclaimed with excitement.

“What’s wrong, Noct?” “The new patch for ‘King’s Knight’ released!” he spoke with child-like joy. “And new skill sets for my character class! Whoa! Melee Assassin?! That sounds cool!” “Is that so?” “(Y/N) didn’t tell you?” “She told me she was working on it, but the project itself was kept under wraps.” “I guess there’s a lotta things she can’t say given her position at the company.” “Knowing her, she’d want it to be perfect before she sent the script to the senior engineers for a final sign off.” “Sounds like someone I know,” Noct joked. “Anyway, how’s she doing? I haven’t seen her since the party.” “She’s been occupied as of late,” he fibbed. “And we have our trip coming up too… Guess it’ll be tough to meet up.” “You wanted to see her?” “Kinda… I wanted to ask her more stuff ‘bout the game,” Noct sheepishly replied. “It was fun talking with her, even if her family were assassins.” “They only killed when necessary,” Ignis corrected and pushed his spectacles up. “They were mostly for reconnaissance and surveillance.” “But couldn’t she have changed things around for them if she joined the council?” “That’s the optimistic way of thinking, yes. Should (Y/N) have pursued a political career, her parents would’ve abused her title and used it to their advantage. That’s what she says, at least.” “You’ve never met her family?” “We’re more rivals than anything.” “How’d your parents take it when they found out you two are friends?” “They were admittedly reserved in getting to know her at first, but then realized she was… different.” “Different how?” “Unlike her older siblings, she didn’t have the darkness they have. That’s how they explained it to me, at least. They, too, were surprised to hear when she dropped out.” “She did have it tough.”

Ignis’ phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket, interrupting their chatter. He took it out to see a message notification on it.

“Speak of the devil...” “Sure she’s not spying on you?” “I do wonder sometimes...” He trailed off and locked his phone. “I’ll reply to her later.”

–

(Y/N) huffed a breath with puffed cheeks and rested on a shaded park bench. Insomnia was warmer than usual today. She decided to take the week off from work since she had so much vacation time saved up. Even though her left arm healed faster than expected with barely any scarring, the muscles were still a little sore from all the action. She made a mental note to pay more attention to her workout routine and do more strength training.

Wiping the sweat glistening her forehead with her arm, she rolled up the sleeves to her three-quarter t-shirt. Releasing a breath of minor relief, she reached into one of her grocery bags and took out a bottled juice. Fanning herself with her hand, she sipped her drink and people watched.

“Hey, (Y/N)!” someone cheerfully greeted from the side. She turned to see Prompto with his camera in hand. “Do ya want some company?” “Sure. Thirsty?”

Prompto nodded with enthusiasm as she reached into a grocery bag and handed him a bottle of Jetty’s. He thanked her and casually chugged it. He noticed some of her fingertips were bandaged up.

“Whoa! What happened there?” he asked with concern. “Hm?” She mumbled with a mouth full of juice looked down to where he was staring at. “Oh. Tips are just a bit sore from making stuff,” she answered after swallowing. “You sure you’re okay?” “I’ll live,” (Y/N) replied with a soft smile. “What brings you ‘round here?” he asked. “Decided to go buy real food. There’s only so much instant ramen a girl can take.” “Gladio would say otherwise,” he joked. “Are you sure you’ll be able to carry those bags yourself?” “I’ll manage,” she reassured.

She looked up at a clock tower in the distance.

“Ah, I gotta head back. I think I have ice cream in there.”

(Y/N) finished her drink and threw out her bottle out in the trash bin. Reaching for her bags, Prompto stood and grabbed the rest.

“I’ll help you carry these. I got nothing else to do,” he offered.

She thanked him and made their way out of the park.

“Did I interrupt your shooting schedule today?” she asked and gestured to Prompto’s camera with her eyes. “Oh, no! Not at all. I was gonna go around and take a few shots to get my mind off of some stuff,” he replied. “But nothing was really inspiring today.” “What’ve you been worrying about?” she asked and paused. “A-Ah, that is, if you wanna say.”

What was she doing, casually prying into this guy’s life? Did hanging out with Gladio for a day rub off on her already? That man’s a bad influence, she told herself. “Well, I just finished the Crownsguard training recently,” he disclosed. “And I’m kinda nervous ‘bout the results.”

Whoa. He actually opened up to her. That’s... scary, she thought. “If you’ve gotten this far, you’re a shoo-in.” “I guess, but I can’t help but think maybe they see I’m not ready and I can’t leave with everyone...”

(Y/N) stopped in her steps and turned to Prompto with a serious expression.

“They chose you to be the prince’s bodyguard alongside the King’s Shield and Adviser over everyone else in the field. So stand up and man up!”

She firmly smacked him on the arm and flinched on the painful contact. The blond boy looked up to see a wry grin on her face.

“You’re stronger than you think. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

She walked on as he stood there dumbfounded yet encouraged.

“You forget how to walk? Food’s gonna spoil!” (Y/N) called out and snapped him out of his thoughts. After a short 10-minute stroll, they reached her apartment building.

“I’m sure you’re used to luxurious condos with elevators and stuff, but my building’s a walk-up,” she revealed. “Mind climbing a few flights?” “I jog every morning. This is cakewalk.”

Prompto and (Y/N) made it up to the top floor of the building, slightly out of breath with the extra weight.

“Really need to build up my stamina,” she panted out and set her bag of groceries on the floor. “Maybe I should run with you some time.” “I welcome a jogging partner,” he beamed a smile at (Y/N).

After regaining some of her strength back, she took her keys out and let Prompto in. Her loft apartment was surprisingly masculine in design with exposed brick and metal beams. The main features seemed to be the large windows letting natural light in. It was hardly decorated except for a charcoal grey love seat and ottoman set with a dark wooden coffee table and a small dining table set. Her kitchen seemed to be a tight squeeze and looked dated, but was still functional in flow. The only thing close to personal effects were her laptop computer with three rubber chocochicks lined up on the desk at the far end of the living area.

“What’s with the rubber chicks on your desk?” Prompto wondered. “Oh, that’s Warkster, Kwehstina and Mel,” she introduced. “Their sibling, Kwehvin, is at my office. I talk to them every now and then.” “Er, talk?” “Whenever I’m troubleshooting, it helps to talk through the problem to inanimate objects so you’re physically hearing it,” she elaborated while unpacking. “Basically thinking out loud.” “And you named them yourself?” “Well, Ig named ‘Warkster’, ‘Kwehstina’ and ‘Kwehvin’ when he gave ‘em to me as a birthday gift few years ago. I thought it was lame, but it grew on me.” “Sounds like something he’d do,” he chuckled. “You guys are pretty close, aren’t you?” “Not as much as you two; I’m closer with Noct. We’ve been friends since high school.”

The blond boy turned around and realized he was just standing around admiring her place.

“Ah, sorry!” he quickly blurted out. “Where’s my manners? Do you need help with anything?” “You can help wash these vegetables,” she requested with a small smile and wiggled her fingers at him with her palms up. “Can’t get the bandages wet. I can at least cook you dinner to show my thanks for helping.” “Whoo hoo! Home cooked meal!” he cheered with his arms raised up.

While Prompto busied himself with washing duty, (Y/N) checked on the marinating meat in her refrigerator. He nervously glanced over at her.

“You feel like you have something to say,” she blurted out while taking out a pack of bamboo skewers from the drawer. “Hm? What makes you say that?” he feigned innocence. “You’re biting your lower lip and your hands stopped rubbing the pepper you’re holding,” she remarked. “I’m just not sure how to ask the question...” Prompto hesitantly began and placed the clean vegetable in the designated colander bowl. “You ask how you normally do: By spitting it out,” she stated and handed him the skewers to wash. “You don’t mince words, do ya?” he chuckled nervously and sucked in a breath. “When you hacked into the Niflheim database a few years ago… Did you find anything interesting?” “In regards to...?” “Military test subjects...” he softly answered and looked away.

(Y/N) lifted her head up to see Prompto’s form slightly slumped over the sink, his face almost in pain.

“I saw a few things here and there...” she began and heard his breath audibly hitch in his throat. “But nothing specific caught my eye.” “R-Really?” “Was I supposed to?” she enquired with an arched eyebrow of interest. “N-No, no. I was just… wonderin’, that’s all,” the freckled boy finished with an uneasy chuckle. “If there’s one thing I learned from my family, it’s that secrets eventually get found out,” she advised. “If you cherish your friends, they have a right to know.”

Her words seemed to hit him where it hurts as he frowned and looked like he was about to cry.

“And if I do… What if they reject me?” his voice quivered out in fear and tightly gripped the skewers. “What if Noct ends up hating me?” “They won’t.” “And how would you know?” “They let you stick around for this long. What makes you think they’re gonna back down now?”

Prompto looked up to finally meet (Y/N) with a small smile, finding solace in her words.

“Yeah, I guess,” he finally spoke and breathed a sigh of relief. “Sorry I got so serious there.” “It’s fine,” she dismissed with a light shake of her head. “I get how you feel… When you have someone that matters in your life, who validates your existence, you’d do anything for them. Even if you have to keep some things in the dark...” she trailed off.

He felt her shoulders slump down as her hands rested on the countertop.

“Trust in them… Trust they’ll support you no matter what,” (Y/N) firmly finished.

Prompto felt she said that not only for him, but for her own self-assurance for some reason. Before he could pry, their conversation was abruptly interrupted with a knock on the door. She quickly wiped her hands clean before answering it with a mix of confusion and caution.

“Tiny?!” she exclaimed after opening the door. The guard casually greeted (Y/N) with two six packs in hand and let himself into her apartment. “I brought drinks.” “No, please. Come on in. I’m totally up for having guests tonight,” she deadpanned with slumped shoulders and closed the door. “Three questions: What are you doing here? How did you know where I live? You lookin’ to get smashed tonight or somethin’?” “Came to check up to see how you��re doing. I found your address in the Insomnia Residential Archives and maybe,” he answered in order. “Yo, Prompto.” “Oh. Hey, Gladio,” he turned his head and greeted. “Knew I should’ve gone with a monkier,” she muttered to herself.

(Y/N) sighed and knew there was no chance in hell she could kick the Shield and chocobo butt hair out: it was a 2-on-1 match.

“If you’re gonna crash and mooch a meal, I have a rule in my house: you don’t work, you don’t eat. So make yourself useful by washing your hands and cutting up those veggies,” she ordered in an Ignis-esque fashion. “We’re makin’ meat skewers tonight.” “Man, (Y/N). You’re a gal after my heart,” Gladio swooned with a content grin. “Heel, Ubu.” “I don’t do well with cutting, but I can skewer,” Prompto chimed in.

While the two boys busied themselves with prep work, (Y/N) grabbed the packs of beer and placed them into the refrigerator to chill.

“What the hell happened to your fingers?” Gladio asked. “Arts and crafts is what happened.” “From making our stuff?” “Making what now?” Prompto’s ears perked up. (Y/N) groaned followed with a small glare. “Way to keep it quiet.” “Hey, you didn’t say not to say anythin’,” he defended.

She rolled her eyes and shoved the bowl of washed vegetables she picked up from the counter and into Gladio’s hands.

“Just get to cutting.”

She left the kitchen and quickly checked her phone. There was no reply from Ignis yet. Softly sighing to herself, she placed it back onto its charging station. It can’t be helped. They’re busy preparing for their trip and was sure he’s stuck at the Citadel with a ton of loose ends to tie up. At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel he was avoiding her since their accidental kiss.

(Y/N) mentally froze for a second. Was she actually pining after him like a lovesick puppy?! She scoffed.

“Y’alright there, fun size?” Gladio asked. “Yes,” she crisply replied and straightened her back. “Just had a very irritating thought about something.” She paused for a beat. “And now it’s gone.”

With the vegetables properly chopped up, Prompto and Gladio exited the kitchen with the items in hand to assemble dinner together at the dining table. (Y/N) ran back into the kitchen to grab a pair of food preparation gloves. The three skewered while making idle chatter. At one point, Gladio went into the kitchen and grabbed drinks for all of them. When coming back, he saw her glancing at her phone from the corner of her eye.

“Oh by the way, (Y/N),” Gladio spoke to distract her. “How’s your arm doin’?” “Loads better, thanks.” “Er, arm?” Prompto asked in confusion. “Oh, I hurt it the other day. Tiny patched me up,” she breezily mentioned. “Someone tried to kill her,” Gladio translated. “What?!” the perky boy exclaimed. “Assassination attempts come with the family name,” she half-heartedly joked. “But I handled it.” “She mortally wounded her attackers,” the burly man elaborated and handed her and Prompto their beers. “That’s considered a disgrace should any family have seen that,” she added. “We’re required to permanently dispose of any threats; I prefer a different method.” “And that would be?” Prompto asked, almost scared of her answer. “Psychological trauma’s more damaging. Depending on how strong they’re up here...” She pointed to her temple. “They may or may not get over it.” “I dunno, man,” Gladio brought his hands behind his head and tilted the chair he was sitting in. “I rather choose death.” “Then you’re the smart one.” “I’ll drink to that,” the blond agreed.

The three toasted their beers and took a sip of the carbonated liquid.

“Ah, Double IPA… Thought you were that kinda guy...” (Y/N) grimaced at the super hoppy aftertaste, feeling the squeakiness on the insides of her cheeks. “I’m more of a Belgian white and saison drinker.” “I’ll keep that in mind if I want a girly beer,” he teased. “I’m sorry I have better taste in alcohol than you do. Anyone can drink a broewski,” she retorted. “’Cept for you.”

She stuck her tongue out at Gladio like a child, only to be replied with a hearty chuckle. With the skewers completed, she preheated the oven. Taking a fresh piece of aluminum foil, she placed it on top of the baking sheet, laid the skewers on, drizzled some olive oil on top and popped them in the oven. For starch, she washed and started cooking some Saxham Rice in a pot. After 30 minutes, the food was done and served. The three chatted over dinner. After everything was polished off, (Y/N) went into her room and came back out with two wrapped items in hand.

“What’s this?” Prompto asked, looking at the small gift bag in his palm. “Partial reason for my bandaged fingers. I finished them a lot quicker than I thought. Open it.”

The two did as requested and their eyes lit up with joy. Gladio’s was a dark brown beaded necklace with two hand carved and polished skulls at the end paired with an X-shaped pendant; Prompto’s was a black leather wraparound bracelet with studs and the same skulls but in black. The blond freckled boy quickly jumped out of his chair and launched himself at (Y/N) into a tackle hug. She exclaimed and fell down with his momentum.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he shouted and continue to embrace her tightly. “Ah, (Y/N)! You’ve made me the happiest man alive!”

All he could make out were muffled shouts of protest with beating sounds on his back with her flailing, protruding limbs.

“Oy, Prompto. You’re gonna kill her,” Gladio warned.

Suddenly realizing he was on top with his full weight, he quickly jumped off with pink cheeks from all the movement. He saw (Y/N) slowly crawl back up and rested on the back of her sofa on the floor, gasping for air, her hair a complete mess.

“Glad to hear you’d be alive,” she said between breaths. “I’d haunt the shit outta you if I wasn’t.”

The boy profusely apologized while the muscular man helped her back up on her feet. He then handed the necklace to (Y/N). She looked at him questionably.

“It’s only fitting you put this on for us,” Gladio stated. “To complete the blessing.” “Blessing?” “She made this to protect us from our own stupidity, apparently.” “We won’t be that–” Prompto started arguing and stopped himself mid-sentence by biting his lower lip. “… If you may do the honors, (Y/N),” he sheepishly finished and handed his bracelet to her.

Sighing with exasperation, she first took the necklace from Gladio and ducked down for her to put it on him like a medal. She then took Prompto’s bracelet and put it on his right wrist. From a brief glance, she could’ve sworn she saw a tattoo shaped like a bar code peeking out from one of his wristbands. They thanked her again and examined her handiwork.

“We’ll make sure this doesn’t break in battle,” Prompto swore. “It better not or I’ll break you,” she threatened.

Having realized it was late into the night, Gladio called Jared to pick him up since public transportation’s stopped running for the evening and offered to drop Prompto home as well. Once their ride came, the blond boy headed down first after saying his good night.

“(Y/N),” Gladio called. “You got somethin’ on your face.” “Eh? Where?” “Here.” He pointed to a spot on his own. She lightly rubbed it with the back of her hand and asked, “Did I get it?” “Almost. Here, let me.”

He walked up, tilted her face up to him and gave her a light peck on the cheek. For such a rumble and tumble guy, his lips were surprisingly soft on her skin. (Y/N) froze as she stared directly into Gladio’s warm amber eyes, her breath stuck in her chest. She felt her face getting as warm as the sun under his focus.

“Thanks for the necklace and dinner,” he spoke gently. “Good night.”

He made his way out and closed the door behind him. As she heard his fading footsteps down the stairs, (Y/N)’s legs lost all its strength and fell straight down onto the wooden floor with a muffled thud. Within moments, she remembered how to breathe again. What. In the name of Bahamut’s Fifteen Swords just happened?!

#ignis scientia #ffxv #ffxv fanfiction #ffxv fanfic #ff15 fanfiction #gladiolus amicitia #prompto argentum #ignis scentia #noctis lucis caelum #next to you #ignis x reader?

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knightsparrow · 4 years

Text

Strays (working titel)

Tbh I don’t like writing down or drawing characters in such an early stage of a project. because I will change so much about them and writing it down feels so final?

but I like them a lot for the month they exist and I know it will take me a couple of years until mi make an actual story/comic out of this and I kinda want to keep record of the changes I make

so here we go:

Story

The story is set in an alternative superhero universe very similar to the dc one because that’s my biggest influence right now. So basically I’m taking the universe rules and bend them how much I want (sorry not sorry). The story will take place in europe in a big city and it’s surrounding cities. So we have skyscrapers, old buildings, lots of parks, small suburb areas and good old industrialized apartment blocks.

The whole story kinda came to life through the thought of “why are there so few european superheroes” and “who is taking care of the rest of the world if all big heroes chill in America?” Also going into the whole idea of not so big heroes working for the people instead of battling world threatening situations.

Which makes me come to the next point all of the characters in this story aren’t that freaking powerful. They are either too young to be big heroes yet or they simply have very basic abilities that make them not really op.

The whole story is set to be rather funny and light in comparison to all the dark shit I’m usually writing ( I needed a soft story to work on for once). There will still be epic battles and dramatic plot twists and the likes but overall it’s supposed to be rather uplifting and funny (think marvel movie like, which will be hard because I’m bad at coming up with funny jokes)

Format

I was thinking about cutting the story into multiple short arcs each around 100 pages. The idea behind that is to be able to release them as individual volumes you can pick up in the middle like a good comic series. And I wanted to do this as a side project while working on my bigger stuff as some kind of break… Who knows when I’ll actually start to draw this

Characters

this stuff will change a loooooot

especially names. Names are usually the last thing I decide when creating new ocs so yeah there might be a lot of things that will change in the future

Superboy clone

(who still needs a proper name)

He is in his early 20′s and currently studying law. His hometown is a small village so he lives in the big city in a tiny way too expensive flat and has to work a lot besides studying to pay for his living expenses. His family is very conservative and religious so he’s more than happy to live in the big city where he can be his real self (yeah very generic so far).

Powers: He is extremely strong and will later learn to fly (you could say he is a quarter kryptonian or something)

Dragon Boy

(Who also needs a new name but than again the name is dumb enough to pass as an actual super hero name)

Grew up in the city under harsh circumstances. So your typical low class guy who gets into trouble just for the way he looks and where his family is from. He still lives with his family and makes money through being a pizza courier and being an errand boy for his big brothers.

Powers: He is a demon vessel which so far just makes him hear voices. But thanks to dia he learns to control his powers and he eventually will learn how to turn himself into a beast that looks like a dragon. So yeah again he can fly, is super strong and can breath fire

Dia Mond

(Dia Mond Is her human name. I still need to come up with a demon one)

A demon summoned into the dead body of a prostitute who’s work alias she adapts. She helps dragon boy with his demon voice problems but decides to stay with the group after her job is done. She has her own motives and her overtaking the body of a supposed to be dead person will make a lot of trouble for the group later on

Powers: well basically all kind of demon powers. She can speak and understand every language, can easily manipulate people and can fight as well as her earthly body allows her to. If she wants she can even summon lower demons or hell beings. But most times she just watches the others and makes snarky comments. So technically she is the most powerful of the group but she hardly ever uses her powers

Witch

(she needs a proper name)

A well known witch that lends her dark powers to everyone who pays her. She helps the others because she feels pitiful for dragon boy (and they pay her) by summoning dia. She thoroughly regrets that later ‘cause dia takes a liking to her and she is kinda stuck with her. Her hideout becomes the first base of the group.

Powers: all sorts of dark magic. She owns several books filled with powerful spells but every spell has it’s price

Pigeon

(yep that is her superhero name)

A french girl who is obsessed with cute and pastel things. She is always in a good mood and lifts everyone up. She also hates conflicts and wants everyone to get along.

Power: she has a special connection to pigeons and can see whatever they see. Which sounds very useless is actually very powerful: pigeons are everywhere in the city and so common nobody really cares about them which makes her the perfect spy.

Shikari/Falcon | Anzu

(not sure which name I should pick for her, but I really wanna go down the road of the Hawk/Dove vs Falcon/Pigeon pun)

Anzu is very quiet and shy. She let’s her girlfriend pigeon do most of the talking.

Powers: Anzu has a pet falcon which she is able to share a mind with. So her ability is very similar to Pigeons which made them close in the first place. Compared to pigeon her ability is limited to this one bird and it’s more of a mind controlling ability while pigeon can only see and hear what the birds let her see and hear.

Lancer

He is a huge nerd studying economy because his parents want him to inherit their business (he hates his study through and would rather spend 24/7 with his 2D waifus). He lives in a huge house in the country side and spends most of his money on his “becoming a superhero”-project. Because of his rich upbringing and him being a “know-everything” type of person he comes off as very arrogant.

The rest of the group find out about his family and that he’s rich waaaaay later into the story ‘cause he never tells them. He provides their second hideout eventually

Power:

Uhmm he is rich and has too much pocket money to spent on high-tech toys and body armor. When he was younger his parents gifted him a horse to teach him responsibilities. That horse is his best (and only) friend and he is a pretty good rider who also won a couple of tournaments

Archer

She works for an animal rescue and through her work meets a parasitic alien that lives inside a horses body. The horse and the alien are getting along pretty well and so she adopts “them” to keep their secret. (I have no clue how to introduce this mess of a character into the story but oh well here they are)

Powers: Archer is a great well yeah archer combined with her alien-horse buddy they are unbeatable

Bellerophon

(yeah not sure if I keep that name because no one will remember that one)

Her father was a famous engineer who created a ai horse for her. So of course, Bell follows into his footsteps by becoming an programmer and engineer herself. Over the years she optimized her robot horse Pegasus into an actual winged horse that can fly.

Powers: She is pretty much the brain of the group. Bell doesn’t has any special superpowers besides being extremely smart and good at crafting and creating technical and non-technical things in minutes

Titania

(an old x-men oc that deserves to see the light of day again)

Titania is a superhero apprentice. When she comes back to her hometown, she has to realize that a group of smalltime heroes are running wild in her city. She finds their hideout quickly and confronts them with how stupid and dangerous what they are doing is. The others pretty much ignore her and at some point, she has to realize the only way to stop them from doing dumb things is by joining them and spending her home vacation training a group of wannabe heroes.

Powers: Titania can manipulate any type of metal. She is still young and learning with actual heroes how to use her powers. She is the only one of the group besides superboy clone with actual superpowers. And also the only one with affiliations to actual superheroes.

#very early wip #maybe new series #brain pls stop #working title strays #my universes

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