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Screen time in teenagers: How to manage it? 5 Tips For You
Screen time in teenagers. Without adult guidance, most teenagers would spend almost all their waking hours behind a screen. Whether they’re texting on their smartphones or they are watching videos on their laptops, their electronic use can easily get out of control. Screen time and digital technology use can be a part of a healthy lifestyle when it’s balanced with other activities that are good…
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#digital technology latest news#how to manage screen time news#Screen time excess social media#Screen time how to manage it#Screen time teenagers#Screen time teenagers impact news#Screen-time#teenagers social media use news#tips to handle screen time news
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The thing about Ice Adolescence being cancelled isn't that it was unexpected. It's the finality of it. There's no hope of a new season, no faint hope that maybe a movie will come out one day, maybe, just maybe. The cancellation of the movie means that this is the end of Yuri on Ice.
At least for me, YOI was one of those shows that you watched an episode or two of and it felt both comfortable and compelling, and then it grabs you by the chin and turns your head towards the screen and doesn't let you go away, and a little voice in your head just goes, "Oh." You hear the theme song and your heart swells. The sounds of skates on the ice ground you in the sport. You look at these two men falling in love and you feel it.
I had a background in figure skating. I was never particularly good, but I spent most of my childhood on the rink every Friday. Watching the series, seeing the movement of their routines and hearing the sounds of the skates and seeing the rinks that looked just like the one I grew up on felt like coming home.
I watched the show at age sixteen on my tiny smart phone in the back of the school library, on an anime pirating website that was somehow not blocked by their wifi. I'd refresh the website over and over, because the episodes were always uploaded during the lunch break, and then me and my little group of queer friends would all huddle together to watch the newest episode. We would cheer and cry and get excited over every development. They kissed and we lost our minds. A few times, the one friend who could drive would take us to the only skating rink half an hour away and I would teach them, helping them size rented skates and go from holding onto to wall to gliding across the rink. I met my current girlfriend for the first time during one of those skating sessions. Viktor and Yuri fell in love thanks to the sport, and I met the woman who's currently napping in the bed next to me thanks to them.
Yuri on Ice was such a formative piece of media for me. It felt like something specifically designed for me, the queer, anime-loving teenager with a background in figure skating, with representation that meant the world to me and such a meaningful depiction of the sport I loved. And with this cancellation, that piece of media comes to an end.
Thank you for everything, Yuri on Ice. Ice Adolescence or not, you'll live on through me, and I'll never forget the impact you had on my life. Goodbye, and know that you really did make history.
#i mostly wrote this to process the finality of it all#i feel like i'm grieving#i can't understate how much this show felt like home to me#yuri on ice#ice adolescence
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i know it's a silly harhar joke and i find it funny too but characters like alex and buck not realizing they're bisexual for a long time isn't because they're stupid. it's not because they necessarily dislike being attracted to men. it's because of bisexual erasure within both heterosexual and queer space being rampant for a long time and is only starting to get better now. bisexuals make up around 60% of the lgbt+ community, (in the us) but look how long the wikipedia page for bisexual erasure is.
not only do more women/afab people identify as bisexual, but keep in mind that bisexual people overall are much less likely to identify as bisexual to others or be out than gay and lesbian people because part of the bisexual experience is feeling like you're not allowed to even sit at the table, so to speak. most bisexual+ men may have queer feelings and experiences, but they may not examine those things as much as a bisexual women might because biphobia and the patriarchy tie together in a way that is unique to bisexual men.
characters like alex and buck are so impactful because they're new. most bisexual representation in tv and film has been women until recently, and even that is still rare. a character like callie torres on grey's in 2009 — when i was 14! — helped me see myself as a bisexual, but men have not had characters like that until nearly ten years later. and it's not until i even read rwrb in 2020 that i saw any bisexual character not receive some degree of biphobia from their love interest.
representation is important because when we see someone experience what we experience it helps us name something we may not have fully understood about ourselves before and put a name to it because they're on that same journey on screen. alex and buck were always bi, they just didn't know they were allowed to be so. they're not stupid, they were failed by society and had to unlearn their own internalized biphobia and bisexual erasure because so many of us, even subconsciously, think we're not allowed to exist and/or to take up space in a community that we are literally in the acronym of. no one really talks about us except us.
you're not stupid if you didn't know you were bi the whole time, you're not stupid for not knowing when you were a teenager or in your twenties either.
(*i am genderfluid/nb but am mostly using m/f here for the sake of this specific conversation. bisexual nb people exist too.)
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joseph quinn catches reader watching an eddie munson edit
lowkey feel like he'd be so cocky about it
(just gotta say before you read that this is no hate to people who earn money on tiktok to support themselves financially!)
it happened by accident.
tiktok's got you brainrot when you open the stupid app. watching endless videos of comical skits or podcast made by men who've got nothing better to do or drama about people you didn't know existed until then. you hate it, the app and it's content, but you can't find yourself stopping from pressing the icon on your home screen to fill the space of free time.
you'd been on the couch, joseph somewhere in the flat doing something he told you he'd do but you had been too distracted. your thumb flips on different videos — animals, babies falling off, those annoying teenagers who make a mess watching the new minions movie — everything a bored human being would make.
the volume was low, as to not disrupt the ever longing silence in your shared home that has been there since earlier this morning. you scroll and you scroll and you scroll until—
oh, look at that.
joseph's face fills your screen, or rather, eddie munson. the one who's taken over your feed on every app, though you don't mind. you enjoy seeing his face everytime.
it's an edit to one of the childish gambino's song that oyou've heard in every other video that's like this one. eddie's velocity slowed before it goes fast on every beat, the clip from the one he's first shown in the trailer.
you've gotten too distracted watching the video on repeat, looking at the tattoos in his arm that doesn't match his real one on his bicep, his hair that's incredibly long and frizzy, his face clean and shaved and young. there's a nail to your lip as you watch it repeatedly, unbeknownst that the one who's portrayed him was standing behind you.
"hi."
you slam your phone on the culprit behind you in defense, screaming and turning around to see joseph with a hand on his nose. you gasp, jumping over the couch to place your hands over his and remove it to take a better look of your unintentional assault.
"jo!" you tut at the redness on the bridge of his nose. "oh my god, i'm so sorry."
"it's okay," he chuckles, like the forming bruise on his nose isn't starting to swell and darken from the impact of your phone. you pull him to the kitchen by his wrist, urging him to rest against the counter as you pull out an ice pack. "really, baby, it's okay. i'm sorry i scared you—"
"no, no. i'm sorry," you press the pack on his nose, wincing when he hisses. even then joseph's smiling at you, a hand around yours as you dab the cold pack on his swelling skin. "does it hurt?"
he wrinkles his nose. "a bit. i've been hit with worse."
"god, i'm sorry—"
"it's alright, lovie," he smiles. "you were just watching me being all hot and sexy like, ten times. shouldn't have disturbed you in the first place and let you indulge."
your face falls, nudging your knee to his. "it wasn't ten times."
"right. it was fifteen."
joseph laughs when you roll your eyes, placing his hands on your waist as you continue to dab the pack on his nose. "such a narcissist, jo."
"hey, if my baby thinks i'm very hot and can't stop watching a video of myself while biting a nail, i would be a narcissist forever."
"eugh."
"come on," he moans, puckering his lips at you. "let me in to your heart."
reblogs and feedback are appreciated <3
#joseph quinn blurb#joseph quinn x reader#joseph quinn x you#joseph quinn x y/n#joseph quinn fluff#joseph quinn fic#joseph quinn fanfiction#joseph quinn#blurb#eddie munson#eddie munson blurb#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson x you#eddie munson x y/n#eddie munson fic#eddie munson fanfiction
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My personal list of criticisms for the series because if I don't put these somewhere I will actually go crazy in my room within the panopticon. I thankfully saw some other people share their lists and here comes mine.
Here I'm looking back at the episodes with the perspective of the viewer who knows what has and has not been properly used.
I rewatched the whole thing so this is EP1 through EP8.
🔱 Episode 1:
The ADHD & dyslexia rep stops episode one like it was forgotten about. It will become a pattern.
I am very, very bitter about the introduction of the "not everyone who looks like a monster/hero is actually one" through Perseus' story because in the context of Percy's life, he is - at least in PJO - a hero. Don't make the boy doubt himself more.
If they did introduce the "looks are deceptive" idea, I fail to see why this was not alluded to later with Luke.
I feel like neither Nancy nor Mrs. Dodds are really given screen time enough to actually showcase how much of an impact both have on Percy's life.
I still hate everything they did to Gabe's character. RIP Sally's Jackson empowerment story.
Blue food. They never really explain why it's significant.
They had budget to showcase Percy's dreams but instead of obvious enough dreams with animals it's Exposition.
Sally knows too much. They messed up her role as a character by taking away her book archetype. She's going from The Guardian to The Knowledge Keeper to The Victim back and forth.
Percy figures out too much too quickly. It has been discussed back and forth, so just putting it down here.
They mention the Minotaur smelling Percy but they never use it to explain Sally's unnecessary marriage? Potential lost.
Looking back at the Big Bull fight, they really don't let Percy act. The luring trick is his thinking, not Sally's. RIP the horn getting stuck and torn away. I can't exactly believe a young teenager had the power to break off a giant horn, in the rain, in the dark. Bad execution, the tree trick is a way to showcase Percy's wits.
🏺 Episode 2:
I wish they let Percy be dark-haired desperately. Hair color swap is bad design-wise because there's already one recognizable curly-haired blond in the series (Will). It's just a disservice to the actor.
RIP blonde 'Beth. Annabeth being wrongly seen as a "dumb blonde" is half of her character's thing. If they thought it no longer worked for her, they needed to play off another "perceived stupidity" stereotype.
Ugh I wish they let Percy be alarmed around Dionysus because in the book his gambling & "familiarity with alcohol" trigger Percy's PTSD.
Percy's PTSD is not a thing.
So, after the entire season: They had no reason to hide Sally's survival from Percy. Them doing it never got mentioned again. Traumatize the boy some more why don't you.
Luke's speech about the importance of glory doesn't work because his failed quest is never mentioned.
I think Clarisse is a miscast. She's pretty whereas in the books it's sort of the whole thing that she's "big, ugly, and mean-looking". She's one of the examples of deceiving looks as we learn in SoM and later on. Making her pretty just makes her lose purpose.
RIP showing friendly interactions or any true bonding with Luke.
All of that talk about Annabeth's wits and strategies in EP2 only to have it never play a major role in the rest of the season. Told you it's a pattern.
🐍 Episode 3:
Annabeth's story keeps getting decimated. There's so much talk about her closeness to Luke, but there's no showing it.
Ugh, I dislike how they keep making Mrs. Dodds so neutral - enough to just tell Annabeth everything? This is a whole new character.
The Medusa reveal still sucks so much, the tension & suspense are just non-existent.
Upon rewatching, I'd say Medusa overall was a decent monster because she barely did anything but it felt like the entire story was offered up on a silver platter and got resolved too quickly.
"You can't ship the head off" makes no sense, none of Athena's arc makes sense in this show. They established that heroes earn glory through mighty deeds (such as killing monsters) and established that Athena cursed Medusa. Percy is for once right.
Overall, this is the episode where Percy's starting to take up the Exposition Character role and I really don't like that.
🌊 Episode 4:
RIP book Sally Jackson I loved you. Sally's starting to go down the "showing visual frustration towards her neurodivergent child" which is a) utterly out of character b) breaks down her arc even more.
The Furies, the Minotaur, and Medusa are not children of Echidna. The monster's great despite looking extremely boring, but her motivation being personal doesn't work in their specific case; they didn't kill any of her kids.
Small complaint but "a temple is a temple" isn't exactly making much sense. We just established Athena-Poseidon rivalry, we just announced that Athena's place is safe for everyone and protected from Poseidon's earthquakes. The idea to call upon a rival God sounds stupid.
Athena's portrayal is just horrible. She was written badly in the books, like most women, but the show's literally saying: Yeah she would gravely endanger her kid for the "mistake" that wasn't even hers. And... it is never brought up again.
Making Athena such a bad mother while Poseidon goes out of his way to save his child from death seems a bit eh.
I. Am. Tired. Of others. Telling Percy. How and what to feel! Please let the guy discover things on his own.
🏛️ Episode 5:
I will die on the hill of "Annabeth is not supposed to be the one to see the Fates and no, her closeness to Luke does not matter" especially when her and Luke's connection has been buried!
It's Percy's quest, it's his prophecy to handle, it's for him to witness the yarn being cut. It's for him to put things together. I do not get why they keep switching Annabeth and Percy's places in the plot.
So, the fugitive twist is abandoned and never handled again. This is a pattern.
It makes absolutely no sense for Annabeth to be talking back to Ares when she knows who he is and how powerful he is. They keep making her play Percy's part and him - play hers.
I mourn Annabeth's geekiness over architecture. The sole time she seems entranced by something that distracts her is Hephaestus' mechanical wonders which is engineering but not exactly book Annabeth's focus.
I am pretty sure Ares doesn't hate his children in the book, he's just a hard-to-impress dad that lets his children fight their own fights. Making him "hate his kids" added zero weight to his character.
Why is Percy mansplaining mythology to Annabeth.
"Seaweed brain" doesn't work when he just explained a myth to her while she stood there listening as if she has never heard it before.
Ares doesn't really have an impact on the three that he had in the books. This was supposed to be the moment Percy first learns his mom's alive. Since Ares was messed up later on too, I call it lost potential.
🎲 Episode 6:
There's no real reason to suspect Ares or Clarisse in the theft, that scene/realization are lazy cop-outs. They do not begin to suspect Ares unless they literally find the bolt.
Lotus Casino my detested. Worst case of "they already know it" that I've seen in this show. The Casino is meant to be a trap, they are not supposed to know where they are going.
Suspense is nonexistent. They literally figure out the lotus-eaters the moment they step into the place, this is boring!
"Wise Girl" doesn't work when they spent less time letting Annabeth talk the smart talk than Percy.
It has been said a multitude of times but the Casino is boring.
"If you don't know what chances do I have" pretty high ones because they've been writing you off as the wise boy, Percy.
Personal pet peeve: I heavily dislike Hermes' casting.
Hermes' scene is far, far too early in.
Arcades are not too old to put into a 2023 series, VR is lame.
Why is the "is it because of me?" scene so awkward, why are they making Grover feel guilty/implying he's guilty. It was literally not his fault.
Hermes' involvement is so messy, there's absolutely no reason for him to hold them back in any way.
THE SOLSTICE PASSING MAKES NO SENSE, IT DIMINISHES ALL STAKES, AND IT DOESN'T EVEN CHANGE ANYTHING
💀 Episode 7:
It has been discussed deeply but everything about Procrustes' scene was done with utmost laziness and letting him live when he was just proclaimed a murderer makes absolutely zero sense.
RIP Sally Jackson's entire character. Show Sally is not above stressing her 9 year old out, getting visibly annoyed by his "outbursts" (they are really tame), putting the blame on him instead of explaining things to him in a calm manner, and raising her voice at him. Not only is this directly polar to her book self, but it also finalizes the show's destruction of her character.
The Underworld: ugly, incomparable with the book's version, boring. All that CGI and they could only pull up a LOTR movie Isengard.
RIP court of Kings, RIP Fields of Punishment, RIP actual Asphodel Meadows, RIP Elysium. The Underworld is done lazily.
Sally Jackson would never let her child think she's getting rid of him. It baffles me that she's not explaining anything to Percy.
This is not Hades and you cannot at a gunpoint make me accept that this is the terrifying, glorious, intimidating God of the Dead that puts awe into Percy Jackson and terrifies his own child. This goofy mf is not Hades, this is clownery. Another utterly decimated character, entirely off-point.
"These grudges go on forever" is hilarious (/neg) to hear from a God whose children are canonically stated to hold grudges as a fatal flaw. They really can't get the single clearly depicted person right.
Percy single-handedly figuring out it's Kronos with no clues is undoubtedly the worst part of the whole season. Go home kids, there's no tension anymore.
I hate how little Annabeth matters in this show. Her tie to Luke is severed, Percy does her job retelling the myths, she's not obsessive about her interests, and she's not even there with them when the biggest revelations are made. Her sole function is carrying the invisibility cap around (and apparently her friends can't even explain that to Hades). The show has killed Annabeth as a character and it's sad.
⚔️ Episode 8:
Sword lessons are far too late in the season, they would do much more impact building Percy and Luke up if they happened earlier.
I know that in the book Ares' curse is largely forgotten about, but they could have easily included it into the fight.
I feel like Percy has never been explained that monsters don't exactly "die" because not once does he seem surprised that Dodds is back.
Olympus is ugly!
The whole Luke reveal is a mess. Percy jumps to the conclusion far too fast, his sole direct argument it is Luke is the shoes, but he realistically has no other reason to assume Luke's the traitor. He has just given Percy the reason why he kept quiet about Clarisse. Percy and his Super Knowledge I guess.
Luke having a portal-opening tool at hand ruins the whole purpose of Thalia as a character and narrative function.
RIP Annabeth's arc.
Oh, Gabe's story line is horrible. We know they purposefully made him non-abusive (c), meaning turning him into stone doesn't really do anything. Like, you just killed a guy; an annoying but non-threatening guy. Lame.
My overall impression was more negative than positive.
My main complaints regard Richard himself for his shameless misleading promotion and poor writing, the casting directors for missing the "vibe" with too many characters (actors have certain types of charisma and this show is hit or miss with them), the producers for slacking off with prioritizing CGI where it doesn't need to be, and for costume designers. Whoever worked on the Camp sets did a decent job, but the Underworld and Olympus suck so much it's unbelievable.
Doesn't work as an adaptation for me. I wouldn't give it more than 2/10 - only for some set designs.
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10 (Mostly) Spoiler-Free Reasons to Watch Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 2003 Live Action
A countdown to the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!
Reason 5: The captivating story!
Ultimately, I would say the live-action stayed true to the essence and intention of the original source material when concerning the Dark Kingdom arc.
I’m choosing to use the word “essence” though, because it is also factual that in multiple aspects, the story does diverge from its source material, but with the intention of further amping up the stakes and angst for drama, and possibly even pulling in elements from story arcs beyond the manga’s Dark Kingdom arc into the one season we (sadly) only have.
Sometimes those differences could be due to limitations of CGI and execution methods in real-life filming, while others could be due to updating the content to appeal to the newer generations of viewers in the early 2000s.
Regardless of what's faithful or not faithful to original source material, I think PGSM did really well striking a balance of making it a kid’s show, and also adding some complexities to appeal to viewers who were kids or teenagers that grew up reading the manga or watching the '90s anime, who would be in their late teens or adulthood or even parenthood by the time the live-action aired.
Warning: Going forward these series of posts will contain minor spoilers to introduce some live-action only elements. It will only be at the introductory level though!
Staying true and delving deeper into source materials
Personally, I can’t speak much to the ’90s anime, but I can confirm the live-action pulls many elements from the manga source material where possible. Here are just a few:
Introducing the Sailor Senshi!
The story of how Usagi and Ami discovered their Senshi power largely follows the same story, while Rei and Makoto's intro episodes heavily reference the original manga chapter and use the same theme behind the attacks that lead to them accessing their transformation. There's no magic bus to whisk victims away in Rei's case, and there's no wedding dress ghost story in Makoto's, probably due to the feasibility of recreating those scenes.
The Forbidden Love & the Past Life lore
The live-action definitely deep-dived into the 'forbidden love' concept when it came to Usagi and Mamoru, and further created a whole complexity of the storyline to justify WHY it's forbidden. In the manga/anime, it felt like the idea of their forbidden love was purely political and mostly glossed over since the past life kingdoms were dead, but in the live-action, there were actual stakes and consequences to consider even for the present.
And the ABSOLUTE MOST AMAZING THING and by far my favourite twist to the live-action storyline is they actually ventured into exploring the impact of making teenagers soldiers of war! There is actually ample screen time and dialogues AND monologues dedicated for us to see individual Senshi AND the team together grappling with the pros and cons and exploring both extreme sides of the need to follow the past life mission to avert tragedy regardless of the sacrifices made, versus the necessity of making one's choice and finding ways to live in the present in spite of the past life lore! Do they support Usagi's and Mamoru's love for each other or not???? Do they know for sure whether their love WILL cause misfortune again or not or can they trust Usagi to know what she's doing????? FASCINATING AND ANGSTY STUFF RIGHT THERE!
Rei’s Personality
More as an FYI, but Rei’s personality is much more similar to the manga Rei’s personality, instead of ‘90s anime Rei. More cool beauty and calm, less aggressively hotheaded and abrasive. And very importantly, NOT boy-crazy.
New, original dramatic elements
On the other hand, here are some live-action exclusive dramatic elements that I'd like to highlight:
Aino Minako the idol
Even many who haven't watched the series would have heard about how Minako's character is drastically changed in the live-action. Indeed, Minako is an acclaimed teenage idol and singer with best-selling songs in the show!
It's basically as if the live-action screenwriter pulled in the Outer Senshi elements from the Mugen arc into Minako's character: she's famous, experienced, and serious. Minako has full access to past life knowledge and is ultimately mission-driven like Haruka and Michiru are in the Mugen arc, which causes some of her decisions to maybe not be as morally white as we'd expect her to be (I think her costume style of white and black is a nice nod to the idea of her double life and her sense of moral).
Now, that's not to say live-action Minako is completely a new character, you can certainly see manga/anime Minako's character traits here and there if you pay attention - pun-loving, prank-loving, mischievous. For god's sake, the girl named her album Venus, and one of her most iconic songs is called C'est La Vie, which sounds exactly like "Sailor V" pronounced in Japanese. Just imagine this girl playing a vigilante life, and having a chuckle every time she sings her best-selling song that basically announces her identity to the world and no one realizes. lmao
Basically, Minako's character embodies the extreme result of what happens if a teenager is burdened with all the knowledge of the Past Life war and has the weight on her shoulders while working alone.
If you can get past Minako's changed character setting in the live-action, you'll find there are still plenty of Dark Kingdom arc manga/anime Minako elements in there, just some more exaggerated while others are more subtle. (Coz to be fair, Minako didn't start becoming Usagi's twin until after the Dark Kingdom arc.) And her relationship with Artemis is absolutely heartwarming to see in the live-action.
Who's in the wrong? Who's an ally, and who's not?
While our Senshi team is clearly the heroine, and the Dark Kingdom the villains, the live-action takes a more interesting take on what's considered "good" versus "evil", and more importantly, who's in the wrong on how things ended badly in the past life. Who is actually the person the Senshi needs to protect the world from? And that drives the story into a direction that is more complex than what you'll ever find in manga or anime, and certain characters react accordingly and act more grey than black or white - from both the heroine side and the villain side!
Shitennou & Endymion
Something we didn't really get to see as much in the manga and anime, while we know who the Shitennou are, we don't really see the Shitennou and Mamoru interacting until after they... became their name-sake rocks (okay, technically, GEMS). And we don't get many hints on what their past live relationships were, so for many years fans have taken to pen/paper/tablets/keyboard and filled the gaps with their amazing imagination and creative work instead.
In the live-action, we get a much more expansive and interesting take in seeing the Shitennou - technically still under the Dark Kingdom's influence, interact with Mamoru as they all grapple with what happened in the past life.
How would the prince's ex-guardians act seeing their master again? How would Mamoru react? Choosing to accept his responsibility for his past life or not? After all, they had such fond memories of arm-wrestling each other! (Spoiler alert: Nephrite won.) :P
I must once again emphasize that I love what they did with the Shitennou's characters and gave each of them a different story trajectory. They are written so well they pull at your heartstrings!
If you want some canon-material for writing the Shitennou in the age of Elysion Kingdom, definitely give the live-action a go!
Power up! The Senshi Needs Training
Because the live-action only gets one arc, there's no room for us to see the Senshi team (conveniently) get upgraded transformation like they do in each arc in manga or anime. Instead, the live-action takes a different, and I dare say, a more realistic approach, where the Senshi learns that their initial access to their transformation isn't the full access to their powers as they expected. They are put through some legit, and some questionable training of the body, mind and spirit, and each of them has to overcome something within themselves across the series to access their power!
This approach highlights and solidifies each Senshi's strengths AND ties in really well into the girls' character development throughout the series. As well, it makes it feel like the Senshi did have to put in work to get strong and gain access to their power, instead of relying on the plot to get them new powers at the right opportune time, seemingly out of the blue.
Remember: THEY ARE IN SCHOOL!
Yep, sometimes in the manga and in the anime, it's so easy for us to forget that the Senshi are kids in school when they are in the thick of a crisis or fighting evil. Somehow, it always seems quite clean and convenient that the Senshi could separate their school life and their heroine life, doesn't it? How the responsible adults in the world may wonder... "Gosh, where did that kid go in the middle of [insert context]????" Or for a fellow peer in school to wonder - "How the hell did this random group of girls come together like an odd band?"
The live-action takes time to make room for some reality checks in their episodic storylines to explore all the different repercussions our heroine's double (or triple) life has on their normal life, and with that ties in personable and relevant topics and themes into their episodic plots:
Family relationship
Peer relationship
Romantic relationships
Moments that remind everyone how awkward and tough it is to be a teenager.
The toll of lying through your teeth to keep a secret, etc
I cannot emphasize enough that the screenwriting is superb in the series! Not one thing is referenced only once and left out the window, everything that happened builds up into a moment of learning or lasting impact for our characters!
To people who've not watched the live-action, PLEASE GIVE IT A CHANCE! At least give it 6 episodes, and you'll probably be hooked!
You can watch the subbed versions of the series at:
Miss Dream Fansubs
Sea of Serenity Fansubs
The series is also on other online streaming sites, but be cautious to only visit them with good adware and firewall installed.
6 days till the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!
Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
#pgsm#pretty guardian sailor moon#bssm#bishoujo senshi sailor moon#sailor moon live action#pgsm appreciation#shitennou#reasons to watch pgsm#pgsm 20th anniversary countdown#khmyh's gif
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I don't know if you remember, but a long time ago, when I was just airing the show Tangled, there was a blog here on Tumblr, it was pretty new and had almost no followers, but she claimed to be the sister of a worker on the show. From the writers section.
I remember very well that person saying that the character of Varian had been created to attract the attention of young teenagers. But in early drafts of his personality, they wanted to add that Varian had a crush on Rapunzel, but that would make his relationship with Eugene awkward, and they didn't want to give him SO much screen time that the audience wouldn't feel too attached to him just when Varian becomes a villain.
I think she said something like, "My sister says they didn't want the audience to see Varian pining for Rapunzel, but half a season later he'd be huffing and puffing at her... They didn't want to make a drama of this, you know? They have already "that" arc for that.
I also remember that she said the first and only idea discarded, they wanted to show us that, when Varian revealed his feelings for Rapunzel, she would reject him. But seeing that she hurt his feelings, she would try to cheer him up, but everyone would stop her, since Varian wanted to be alone. That would teach Rapunzel that she can't be everyone's savior.
Which would allow Rapunzel to empathize with Cassandra and understand that she wants to "fix Cass", but Rapunzel would understand that "fixing her" is not her problem... Cassandra chose "her own destiny", Rapunzel had nothing to do with her decision because Cass is an adult now.
I remember that this information had a great impact on me... So much so, that I thought they would pick up the idea at some point in the series... But she said that, if Varian had been deeply in love with Rapunzel, then it would have made her relationship with Eugene awkward on screen, but she also said that the idea of the two "being competing for the Princess's affections" as comic relief was being considered, but we all know that Rapunzel and Eugene get married at the end of the film.
There was a little update where she said she'd like them to include a musical number in prison, singing quite sad and melancholy, saying he'd give anything for a second chance to make things right.
In that regard, I drew a picture of Varian singing the song from Alexander Rybak's Abandoned.
About a week passed and she closed her account. It's not that hard to believe that this is all false, but if for a second we believe it's true, then it gives us a pretty interesting AU...
In which Varian is in love with Rapunzel and is forced to bury his feelings for the sake of his revenge, even though deep down it hurts him to fight her...
That would also explain the level of hatred he came to have for Rapunzel because of the girl he loves, his father is trapped, maybe forever.
If that's the case, then Varian would feel extremely guilty, and that would explain why Varian despite everything, he regretted everything he did to Rapunzel and planned to erase their memories just so they could both be friends again.
I think it's quite an interesting idea...
Tell me, what do you think??
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Dawn of the Dead… in 3D!
This has been one of my favourite movies since I was sixteen years old, and formative in my love of the horror genre, so it was very nice to be able to see it with @thedrillerkiller on the big screen, and in 3D. That’s 1.5 times as much movie, if you do the math. So obviously I had a good time. I won’t have any great new insights about a movie I’ve seen a billion times and that much smarter people than myself have discussed to death, so let me rattle off a few thoughts about the 3D conversion.
I used to be a purist for this stuff, but I think this is a really interesting choice for the format. A lot of the movie has characters looking down the barrels of their guns either towards or away from the camera, so this visual strategy lends itself pretty naturally to the depth offered by the format. Think of the part where H. Scott Reiniger kicks and shoots a zombie, or when Ken Foree looks through the scope of a rifle in the gun shop.
So as a result the gore pops as well, as Romero often frames it for obvious emphasis or will sometimes have viscera pop out at the camera. At least one headshot results in a zombie’s brains erupting towards the viewer. If someone near the front had tossed their ketchup-covered fries behind them, this could have been a 4D viewing, but luckily this was not the case.
But there are moments when the 3D accentuates other effects, varied in tone. There’s montage of the trophy heads in the gun shop or the different products on sale though out the mall, Romero’s satirical jabs getting just a little more punch from the extra dimension. Or, in contrast, the scene where Foree comforts a deteriorating Reiniger from the other room, the 3D almost adding a visual echo to the shot where Foree is framed through a doorway. It feels just a little more poignant.
And while one of the complaints about 3D conversions has been their dimness, I think the extra pop of the candy coloured blood against the extra brown, Carter-era sheen works really well. Has any movie used the period’s visual drabness to such deadening effect? This truly is a zombie epic for the Malaise era.
And speaking as someone who had a huge crush on Gaylen Ross when I first saw this as a teenager, I was not immune to the power of her performance on the big screen with the extra dimension.
And as for the movie, I think Ebert put it best:
“If you can see beyond the immediate impact of Romero's imagery, if you can experience the film as being more than just its violent extremes, a most unsettling thought may occur to you: The zombies in ‘Dawn of the Dead’ are not the ones who are depraved. They are only acting according to their natures, and, gore dripping from their jaws, are blameless.
“The depravity is in the healthy survivors, and the true immorality comes as two bands of human survivors fight each other for the shopping center: Now look who's fighting over the bones! But ‘Dawn’ is even more complicated than that, because the survivors have courage, too, and a certain nobility at times, and a sense of humor, and loneliness and dread, and are not altogether unlike ourselves. A-ha.”
Listen, you can whine about some of the times he’s been wrong or whatever, but when he’s right, he’s right.
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TDI Justin x fem reader
On the island of Wawanakwa, a group of teenagers gathered to compete in a reality TV show called Total Drama Island. Among them was a charming and handsome contestant named Justin, who had captured the hearts of many with his good looks and charisma.
However, there was one contestant who caught Justin's attention like no other. Her name was Y/N, a strong and independent girl who had joined the show to prove herself and have an adventure. Y/N had always been captivated by Justin's charm, but she never thought he would notice her.
As the competition progressed, Y/N found herself forming a bond with Justin. They would often have deep conversations late at night, sharing their dreams, fears, and aspirations. Justin was drawn to Y/N's intelligence, wit, and genuine personality, while Y/N admired Justin's kindness and ability to make everyone feel special.
Their connection grew stronger with each passing day, and soon, they found themselves falling in love. However, being on Total Drama Island meant facing numerous challenges and obstacles that tested their relationship.
During one particularly grueling challenge, Y/N injured herself, leaving her unable to participate. Justin, who had always been focused on his success, surprised everyone by sacrificing his chances of winning to take care of Y/N. He stayed by her side, nursing her back to health and reminding her that she was more important than any competition.
Their love story became the talk of the island, with other contestants cheering them on and even helping them in secret. Despite the drama and chaos surrounding them, Justin and Y/N remained steadfast in their love for each other.
As the finale approached, Justin and Y/N found themselves as the last two contestants standing. They faced off in a grueling challenge that tested their physical and mental strength. In the end, Y/N emerged victorious, but instead of celebrating her win, she rushed to Justin's side, embracing him tightly.
Total Drama Island had brought them together, but it was their love and support for each other that made their journey worthwhile. They realized that winning the competition was not as important as the bond they had formed.
After the show ended, Justin and Y/N continued their relationship outside the island. They traveled the world together, experiencing new adventures and creating memories that would last a lifetime. Their love story became an inspiration for others, proving that sometimes, the most unexpected connections can lead to the most beautiful relationships.
And so, Justin and Y/N lived happily ever after, their love story forever etched in the incredible journey on Total Drama Island, Justin and Y/N returned to their normal lives. They couldn't deny the strong bond they had formed during the competition, and their love for each other only grew stronger with time.
Justin, with his newfound humility, decided to pursue a career in acting. He realized that his good looks were just a small part of who he was, and he wanted to showcase his talent and versatility on the big screen. Y/N, always supportive of his dreams, encouraged him every step of the way.
Meanwhile, Y/N pursued her passion for environmental conservation. She had always been passionate about protecting the planet and wanted to make a difference. With Justin by her side, she started an organization dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues and implementing sustainable practices.
Their lives were filled with adventure and love. They traveled to exotic locations, working on various film sets and volunteering for environmental projects. Justin and Y/N became a power couple, using their influence and resources to make a positive impact on the world.
However, their journey wasn't without challenges. The media constantly scrutinized their relationship, trying to find flaws and create drama. But Justin and Y/N remained strong, knowing that their love was genuine and unbreakable.
One day, while on a romantic getaway, Justin surprised Y/N with a heartfelt proposal. With tears of joy streaming down her face, Y/N said yes, and they began planning their dream wedding.
Their wedding day was nothing short of magical. Surrounded by their Total Drama Island friends and loved ones, Justin and Y/N exchanged vows, promising to support and love each other for the rest of their lives. It was a celebration of their journey, their love, and the incredible bond they had formed.
As the years went by, Justin and Y/N continued to thrive in their respective careers. Justin became a renowned actor, known not only for his looks but also for his talent and dedication. Y/N's organization grew, making a significant impact on environmental conservation.
But amidst their busy lives, they always made time for each other. They cherished the simple moments, like cuddling on the couch, cooking together, and taking long walks on the beach. Their love remained the foundation of their lives, grounding them during their success.
Justin and Y/N's story became an inspiration to many, showing that true love can withstand any challenge. They proved that it's possible to find love in unexpected places and that a strong relationship.
Ask me any characters x any gender reader that you are free to question
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Wednesday is here again, we all know what it means…
Absolute Zero Day!
Last week left us with Suansoon realizing how big of an impact him being in his own past might have on his future, while teen Ongsa was diving head first into his crush on Soon.
- Those tickets are dated March 5th, which means there are only 9 days between Suansoon and Ongsa’s first meeting and Soon’s birthday/Ongsa asking him out.
- Immediately feeling crushed by Suansoon's breakdown looking at that picture of him and Ongsa.
- I really like Ongsa’s little friend group. They are adorable, supportive, they feel like teens. The little documentary of the show said they were new characters created for the show (if I’m not mistaken), and I think it’s a good addition. It’s good to see him interact with peers and it emphasizes the contrast with Suansoon’s grief-fueled loneliness.
- I, too, would preen in delight if Sine complimented me, I feel you Soon. So she was just kindly housing him while he found his footing? Incredibly generous … but at least we now know where the money for Suansoon’s rent is going to come from.
- Soon saying that Ongsa’s doesn’t like coffee that much right after we see Ongsa discuss the fact that he doesn’t know anything about Soon? Loved it. Very efficient way to remind us where they both stand in their respective timeline.
- Oooh our first real big slip about time travel! Also it does something to me that he mentions the last movie he watched with adult!Ongsa ngl.
- I checked what the “My girl” (แฟนฉัน) movie was about and … well. Fitting, it seems. It follows themes of memories and nostalgia that blend perfectly with the show.
- AH YES!! I loved how, in episode 1, every time we see them watching a movie, Suansoon looks at the screen and Ongsa looks at Suansoon so you BET I noticed how this time, Suansoon is the one looking at teen!Ongsa watching the screen. I live for parallels.
- Oh, the way Soon panics and rushes away to hide when Ongsa’s parents come visit broke my heart a little. And the “we will meet eventually”?? he gained a full family when he got with Ongsa, uh...
- Okay that cut from teen!Ongsa laughing as he leans into his mother to her asleep at his hospital bed? Brutal, painful, sad. Please don’t do this to me again (I say knowing full well that’s what I signed up for)
- “You’re missing someone and that person isn’t me.” Oh boy… I like how forward Ongsa is. Like, couldn’t be me but he knows what he wants and he will reach for it. I am quietly impressed by that.
- I also liked the little ring scene, I may read too much into it but… the ring didn’t fit just like the way teen!Ongsa liking him does not fit adult!Suansoon. Still, it finds its place with Soon's bracelet, with that memory of their teenage love. Because that's what all of it is for adult!Soon, in the end. An extended sort of memory, and he finds comfort in it, of course, there is a lot to cherish here, but ultimately that's not what he really wants.
- Unsurprisingly loved the shoot with Ongsa’s hands holding the two tickets as evidence of Soon’s rejection, calling back directly to last week ending shot. Did I say I like parallels?
- “I won’t apologize, because I did it on purpose.” I was taken by surprise ngl. Tho i felt for Soon because like... Ongsa is kissing him, except it's not the Ongsa he loves right now, not like this, but it's still him. Also, that tear when he doesn't push him away for the second kiss? b y e
- That final scene had me googling smartphone apparition and distribution because I can't for the life of me date their widespread distribution - so as comparison point, the iPhone came out late June 2007 in the US (about 8 months before the show) so I do assume that specific kind of smartphone is unusual enough to justify their reactions.
Unsure of where we're being taken next week but I will be there.
I still really like Suansoon. Do I think he should have removed himself sooner/more seriously to protect what he had? Yeah, sure. But I'm not the one working through time traveling, and the grief he is carrying. I can understand that it's hard to refuse the obvious comfort he gets from spending time with teen!Ongsa, and that he gets touched and nostalgic when the boy gets all cute with him. Also I said it last week but I am just delighted by Teng Kanist and the melancholic softness he plays. Just works for me, hooks my heart and I'd forgive everything.
I still don’t think the video shop grandpa is aware of what is happening with Soon and time travel, but I do like that in the preview we see Soon still seeking him for help because it seems like it’s something he did for a long time (in ep.1 already he was saying the man had been here for all his important moments).
That said, at this point I brought my ticket for the “teen!Ongsa knew who teen!Suansoon was/would become when he meets him at the cinema” train. That would explain the tears at the lake, why he would keep going to the movies hoping to see him, and how deep the feeling seems to run when he tells him that he misses him when they meet in the video shop. Now my question is, in that case, how would that fit into their present life? Does it mean that adult!Ongsa has always been aware of his lover traveling back in time? How much is Suansoon going to tell him, is he going to be aware that he’ll get caught in a life threatening accident?? (Is that why he looked SO sad when they watched the movie the day before the accident??)
Now to be patient until next Wednesday ...
#Absolute Zero#Absolute Zero the series#องศาสูญ#Absolute Zero spoilers#i am still so pleased with this show#I miss Mix a little bit#especially given how good he was in the first episode like give me more of him please!#but I'll bid my time 😔#(i feel like i get wordier and wordier with each episodes lol)#mine#words
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The Owl House had an issue with introducing characters that had minimal impact on the storyline. Boscha, Kikimora, Vee, Hunter, and The Collector could’ve all been removed from the story with little change, and their screen time could’ve been used toward other characters that needed it more than them.
So we talk a lot about story necessity I want to start this with the fact that filler and side characters often help add flavor to a story. It's something frankly I struggle with because my stories focus on progressing forward which helps me get a lot done with a small word count. Most of the characters listed here though... Actually are fine. At least until S3 for Boscha and Kikimora and that brings up the fact that different roles require less time to matter, though I want to mention that this addition of flavor and the like is exactly why no one will ever question why Viney was a part of the show. She's fun and she's the ONE time we get ANYONE actually struggling with the desire to be multi-covened but the system won't allow it, even if it's not done particularly well in that episode.
So, what are the roles of each character versus how much time do they have on screen? Well:
Boscha: Basic teenage antagonist for school things. Requires only as much time as is dedicated to teenage drama. Mostly disappears after S1 because of this except for two funny moments at her expense... Except in S3 when the show states she's actually more than what was portrayed before.
Kikimora: Basic, irredeemable, comedy villain general to allow fighting Belos without fighting Belos. Requires only as much time as is required to confront Belos AND OTHER, BETTER GENERALS AREN'T AROUND. Then in S3 is there as a standalone, one off antagonist despite her BOSS having been defeated and her not being anything new.
Vee: One off foil to Luz for character conflict for an episode. Takes up one episode and that's... it. She's fine.
Hunter: Complex, Redeemed Villain General. Requires as much time as is required for a satisfying redemption. Is actually cut short because he is not actually a villain for any time, cutting his point at the knees. Also connects to Belos but *looks at Lilith and Kikimora, both from season 1* that's redundant. Kikimora LITERALLY goes through the same fucking shit as Hunter and only once Belos has left her for dead/tried to kill her, much like Hunter, she forsakes him. She just becomes a bad guy instead of a good guy but even the breakdowns Hunter has or the depression about losing their purpose are both shared. They're almost the same character and nothing is done with that foiling frankly.
Collector: Complex, Redeemed Final Villain. Requires the time for his machinations and desires to be unraveled and challenged in a way that is thematically coherent because if you're going to redeem your big bad, it becomes about a battle of ideologies. Instead, we get one conversation with him before him being released and like... Two afterwards. That isn't enough time for him to have a machination or big bad moments. That's barely enough time for a one off villain.
That's the bigger issue with TOH. It has no idea what its priorities are... Nor does it feel like it cares. Like Kikimora is Belos' main general, effectively his biggest expression onto the show before S3... And she sucks. Meanwhile, his coven heads go unused and underutilized, staying as one off villains instead. Then their more complex characters and concepts aren't actually given the time needed because that would mean not getting the payoff of redemption or reformation of these characters. It is also just lacking ideas so it doesn't know what to do with any of these characters the longer it goes on and so keeps scraping the bottom of a well. Hence why Kikimora and Boscha return in S3 despite one effectively not being in S2 (if Boscha was important, she'd have at least cameod in Labyrinth Runners) and the other being a complete joke by the end who's boss was reduced to a puddle once already.
And that's frankly the bigger issue. These characters feel redundant and like they don't even add flavor because... They are and they don't. The show has VERY few concepts in general besides social statements. That's why most of their villains or dilemmas are them miming at a social issue and why it had to carve up more and more angst as it ran out of ideas it could just copy from the modern world. Or reused ideas even in the same season just with other basic fantasy things.
And more complex ideas REQUIRE creativity and skill. They require the elements that seem to be most lacking in the show. That's why the fandom can create a billion ideas because they're unrestrained and actually see the potential in these concepts while the show runners feel blind to the gold they are writing themselves. Again: You could have spent an entire SEASON dealing with just all of Amity's baggage towards redemption and reformation, twenty episodes, and probably still had material on the table and instead, it frankly boils down to at best a handful of episodes, at most two, before she is fully redeemed and telling her potential to go fuck off because she has the job of a bland love interest to do.
As it is now? The show is lucky that it didn't have time to make literally everything redundant, no matter how hard it tried to anyways.
==========
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead,
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
And finally a Twitter you can follow too!
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a rose by any other name part xiii
11k. druig x reincarnating reader.
prev. /// next.
London 2024
Nathan frowns as Sprite takes on an adult form. “Seriously?”
“I’m trying to get laid.”
“Oh yeah,” he rolls his eyes, “because that’ll work.” She kicks his shin.
Your brother filled out during the past year, no longer lanky limbs. He has your dad’s high cheekbones though he’s pasty from having spent all of last year in New Asgard and his long hair proves he went native.
You check your messages for the millionth time.
“Happy birthday Dane,” Nathan gives Sersi’s long time boyfriend a loaf of gross healthy Norwegian bread that the Asgardians also like making. His obsession with alien archeology paid off.
“Thank you! How was your trip?”
After the snap, a car swerved into your parents' honda civic. A freak accident. You were all Nathan had even as you spent days sitting under the showerhead remembering so many lives. You scratched at your skin, trying to peel away the layers and get back to you. You. Whoever that even was. What were you?
At least Sersi and Sprite had the excuse of being aliens. You were just a freak. You weren’t Thor.
“Great. The salmon up there really gives Hawai’i a run for its money.”
“No way.”
Sprite doesn’t even flirt with anyone, just holds her glass and watches Dane and Nathan and you can see her getting angrier by the second.
You make your way to her as Sersi does the rounds with Dane’s friends. She was always careful to not get too close.
You were like two thousand years old. It was just your body that wasn’t. Fuck. Trying to rationalize your past always gives you a migraine.
Sersi has a black and white photograph, the ones people had to stay still for minutes for it to work right, of you and her in Paris during the 70s. The 1870s. Nathan had it as his lock screen.
“You wanna go get nando’s instead?” Your brother had told you he wanted to go when he was back in the UK. Everyone here thought it was adorable that Sersi brought her kid sister everywhere. But when it was just the four of you, Sprite didn’t have to pretend she was a teenager when she was older than the English language.
“Naw,” she shakes her head, the movement odd when carried out by the illusion she was wearing, “I kinda wanna see Dane’s stupid face when she shoots him down again.”
“We can kick Sersi out and give her no choice?”
Sprite snorts. “You’d never.”
“Maybe I’m not as nice as I look.” You brush imaginary dirt from your shoulder.
One of Dane’s friends from uni, also your alma mater, hits on Nathan and you gag. It was so weird to think of anyone finding your brother who you’d seen eating his own boogers when he was five as attractive, let alone flirting with him.
Sprite frowns. “Obviously or you’d have told Druig.”
You wince.
She had you there.
There was a letter in your sock drawer. You’d written out a lot. Then crossed it all out and instead wrote something much more to the point, then thrown that away. Finally, you’d settled on a picture of you and Sersi on a river cruise for new years. Sprite had photobombed. Nathan’s finger was in the bottom corner. But you had struggled for the words so you never sent it.
It was a lot.
Reuniting with Druig would force you to confront the reality of your situation, the big M question you’ve been avoiding. How would the use of your magic this go-a-round impact your ability to reincarnate? You didn’t want to tell Druig. You didn’t want him to think that you didn’t want this, you and him in whatever space you were able to carve out for yourselves. You didn’t want to burden him with the knowledge of some freak spell, but you knew you would have to talk about it.
“Drink,” Nathan offers Sprite his cocktail. Your brother loved a good margarita.
“I can get my own drink,” she snaps. “I’m not five.” Then stalks away before Nathan can reply.
She was always touchy about her unchanging appearance.
You check your messages again. Lizzy still hadn’t responded. She was living in a mental health residential clinic Nathan was paying for. Tracking down alien relics paid the big bucks.
The transition from being ash to being alive, the world having moved on for five long years, had been rough for your sister.
You were the same age as her.
Her things had been thrown out in the chaos.
It was weird.
You didn’t know how to make her understand you were just happy to have her back. You’d outlived everyone, always.
Somewhere you probably had descendants.
“Have you ever heard about the golden apples,” Nathan asks you.
“Like from Percy Jackson?”
Nathan grins, and you know he’s about to make fun of you, “didn’t you live through the trojan war.”
“Fuck off.”
“And you have magic! If anyone should know this stuff it’s you.”
You grumble, “say that a little louder I don’t think they heard you in Tokyo.”
***
You glared jealousy at Sprite and Nathan sharing headphones to watch some in-flight movie while you were suffering sitting between Sersi and Ikaris. You couldn’t even watch a Mission Impossible movie because your headphones were bluetooth and the plane only had the aux plug in. So there you were, while Ikaris kept stealing looks at Sersi like he was a Youtuber about to launch into a ten minute apology video and Sersi scrolled through her eBooks. Her seatbelt was already on.
Why couldn’t your seat be with Sprite and your brother?
“Should’ve flown there and saved us these last minute flight prices,” you try to joke, looking at Ikaris who had never warmed up to you in nearly two thousand years.
Sersi blushes. “It wasn’t too bad. Nothing I can’t afford,” glancing at Ikaris before adding. “I had a lot of time off saved up.”
“Maybe if you’d gone with us to Spain,” you point out, “Barcelona was great. Ate way too much ice cream.”
“The V&A-”
You snort. Classic Sersi, turning down a vacation to spend a week going through a new exhibition. What a nerd. “So,” you address Ikaris, “what have you been up to in the last five hundred years?”
“Um.” He swallows, clearly not expecting the question though given the circumstances, he really fucking should. Maybe he doesn’t owe you an explanation but he does owe Sersi one.
Fuck, you should’ve sent this in to The Cut. Ask Polly.
“I’ll go first,” you start, “Travelled around Europe with Sersi. Surprisingly didn’t die from all the lead around then but apparently missed out on the Radium craze. Stayed with Thena and Gilgamesh for a bit. Was a nurse in World War 2, not that anyone ever remember’s India’s part or that front. What about you?”
Ikaris rolls his eyes. “I have continued my mission.” His gaze flickers to Sersi, “our mission.”
“How many thousand years and you haven’t changed, haven’t grown.”
Sersi puts her hand on your arm. Let it go.
“There are deviants. I have a duty to Arishem.”
“But not to humanity?” You scoff, “call the Avengers. Let Antman or the Wasp handle it.”
Ikaris scowls.
Sersi sighs.
“Miss,” the flight attendant asks Sprite, “I need you to have your seat upright at the moment.”
Sprite glances at Nathan with a pointed look, “I’m eight thousand years old.”
“All the same,” the woman doesn’t even blink, “your seat needs to be upright.”
“Told you,” Nathan snipes back.
Sersi rests her head in her hands.
It was only a nine hour plane ride, a two hour connection, followed by a three hour drive, until you reached Ajak. Fuck.
***
Ikaris digs the grave by himself. Twin rivers of tears run down his cheeks.
Sprite and Sersi sit on the steps of Ajak’s house, comforting each other. You feel like an outsider. You didn’t know Eternals could die. For so long she has been a constant. No matter how much the face of the world changed, the Eternals remained the same.
Only they haven’t. So many cracks have shown behind their alien facade since they split. Thena had become ill. Ikaris had all but disappeared, and inside of everything Sersi had grown.
They could change just like humans did, just like you did. And they could die.
You bite your lip, thinking of Ajak.
It had been in Mexico when you had last seen her, lived with her. Her dark eyes reflected the awful human sacrifices that the Aztecs had carried out like many other cultures throughout history. Ajak’s unblinking gaze: you wondered how such a sweet woman could be so cold to an entire planet.
And here you were.
You look up at the scenery. It was peaceful here in rural Montana, far from any city.
Your eyes were wet with tears for a woman who’d let you die before.
“Did you know here,” Nathan asks, shadowing you, giving the others space to mourn.
“Not very well,” you chuckle, “I mean, we lived together, but no, I didn’t really know her.” It sounded shitty.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” your brother looks at the horizon, “I’m going to move Lizzy to New Asgard.”
Oh.
You feel blindsided.
Your sister wouldn’t even talk to you.
“Is that a good idea?” She was not the only person to live in a residential facility for those affected by the Snap. It was traumatic enough for you, and you didn’t even get Snapped.
People had collected the ashes and taken them to doctors, hoping. . .
“Her therapist thinks so. And Lizzy doesn’t want to stag in Canada.” Nathan rubs the back of his neck.
“Are you okay with that,” you have to ask. “You're young. It doesn’t have to be your responsibility. You should be able to date and move in and not have to look after Lizzy-”
“I want to. . .and I’m not,” Nathan does air quotes, “building a family.”
“You never know.”
“I do know,” he tells you, meeting your gaze. “I’m not interested in the nuclear family thing.”
You blink.
“I’m ace. Look it’s not a big deal but I wanted to let you know, and that you can always move to New Asgard with us.”
You swallow. The idea of your siblings living in New Asgard, would they be in the path of would-be Thanos’? There seemed to be a new catastrophe everyday and now Deviants too. Maybe you should call the Government. They could get in touch with Captain Marvel, right?
“I have a job.” It sounds weak even to your ears.
“I know. No pressure. Seriously. Just, visit, call, zoom?”
“Yeah. I will.” You remember all the voicemails you’ve left Lizzy.
Did she even want to see you?
Before you leave, you run your fingers over the freshly dug grave, soil upturned, and watch as flowers bloom over Ajak’s grave. Blue and yellow wildflowers.
****
You say goodbye to Nathan at the airport, dreading the three separate flights you need to take to reach Kingo. It’s Sprite that hugs him the hardest, punching his arm, and grinning, “two for flinching,” like a particularly annoying aunt to her favorite nephew.
You hadn’t told him about the possibility of the world ending, again. What good would that do? Everyone on the planet lived with existential PTSD, Spiderman destroying the London Eye didn’t help.
You sit next to Ikaris in business class and spring for purchasing headphones. Best ten pounds you’ve ever spent. Sersi hadn’t thought twice about sitting with Sprite.
Neither Ikaris nor you make another attempt at small talk.
It’s not until your layover in Doha that you stretch your legs.
“You didn’t tell him about the whole new Celestial did you,” Sprite asks you while you wait for a McDonald’s meal. Your internal clock is messed up. It could be breakfast or dinner.
“No,” you sigh. “I feel like-okay telling someone would freak them out but maybe telling New Asgard? They have ships? People could be saved, they could call in backup. We, you don’t have to do this alone.”
Sprite sighs. “I-I thought one day we’d finish and I could, maybe back on Olympia there might be a way for me to change. . .and now-we can’t just,” she looks down at her shoes, “I spent nearly ten thousand years protecting this planet and now we’re just supposed to let it die. That’s not what I signed up for.” She laughs darkly, “not that I signed up for anything apparently.”
You wrap an arm around her shoulder, “You’ll have time to talk this through with a therapist after.”
She looks up at you, “someone’s counting their chickens before they hatched.”
“Very punny.”
“Thanks.” Sprite adds, “I told my D&D group I’d be gone. They were worried.”
“That's what friends do.”
“I’ve never been able to stick around in one place for long,” she muses, “not after. . .I’d tried and people got really burn the witch quick.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. You didn’t make me like this.”
You grab food for Sersi and Ikaris too.
***
Kingo introduces yet another Auntie he’s older than. You’ve lost track, looking through your messages: trying to get work off your back, replying to your brother, seeing your sister still hasn’t responded. The world’s going to end in days. You should be with them? What were you even going to do to stop this?
Not for the first time you want to call the Wakandan Embassy. Maybe their technology could help?
But even Sersi was on board with bearing the responsibility on her own.
And Kingo-
He’s supposed to be saying goodbye, but that involves introducing everyone in Karun’s family. They keep spawning. You think they must’ve called people over. One of the old men is definitely the neighbor. Karun’s wife quickly gets food going: wanting to send her husband and Kingo off with snacks. It’s a lot.
You doubt Arishem had this in mind when he created Kingo.
“Ah and that is Kush,” Karun excitedly gabs, “he is studying for his entrance exams. We are very proud of him!”
“I miss when you could just make things up and people believed them,” Kingo sighs, “now you need accreditation.”
Sersi frowns, “well, yes-otherwise you get quack doctors and pseudoscience. There’s enough of that within academia to start with.”
“We can’t all inherit our father’s media company,” you point out. Karun had signed pictures with Kingo Sr. It was a photograph of the entire cast for some folk tale musical.
“Hit me up for a job. Make nepotism work for you,” Kingo grabs you by the hand. “What’ve you been up to? Wait-do you know,” he narrows his eyes, scrutinizing you.
“Too late for that,” Sprite says bitterly. Being around Kingo was putting her in a mood.
“Oh. Thank god. Keeping secrets, smh. Am I right?”
“Well you obviously told Karun,” Sersi says.
“And apparently the whole family,” Ikaris adds, holding up a photograph of a teenage Karun and Kingo. “Do they all know?”
“Eh. It’s not a big deal. Once we got over the vampire and evil jinn theories we really bonded. You should watch 30 hours in Mumbai. A real tear jerker. Almost as good as Dangal,” Kingo explains, before calling out to someone in Marathi.
You barely retained any Hindi.
Some memories, some lives, were clearer than others. You could still picture the waterways of Tenochtitlan, but India was a blur.
“So they know,” Sprite finishes.
Karun’s wife, Seema, comes out with lunch boxes, all filled with freshly made food. They’re all labeled. There’s more than enough to get you all through the plane ride to Australia: to Thena and Gilgamesh.
And then there’s more goodbyes all over again as she fixes Karun’s lapels.
Kingo puts the food in the car.
“I don’t think we can all fit,” Sprite frowns.
“We can split a cab,” you offer.
“We fit, don’t worry,” Kingo says before squishing four people into the back of his car. It was an absurdly tight fit. Sprite sat on the edge of the seat, your knees jammed against Sersi.
“We should’ve split a cab,” Sprite grumbles.
***
Sersi breaks the news again. And again.
No Olympia.
Their entire life was a lie.
You wonder how this kind of world altering news will impact Thena’s mental health. Her grasp on reality was fucked. This couldn’t help.
You understood, looking up at the night sky.
Time had stood still at Thena and Gilgamesh’s homestead. There were stars you had not seen since Airdrie. The London smog was not nearly as bad as it had been at the turn of the last century, the tail end of the Victorian era. But here even the Milky way was visible to the naked eye like it had been centuries past.
Learning the truth of Arishem’s mission was watching Tony Stark fall out of the wormhole all over again. It was learning about aliens, that there were empires grander and more powerful with their eyes on Earth. The Hulk, Thor: it had never stopped after New York. The attacks, the threats had kept coming from people and the stars.
Nothing had ever been the same.
There was Alien insurance that could be added to houses like Volcano Insurance.
Mutants went viral on Tiktok.
But everytime a Thanos level event happened, you and the rest of humanity remembered how vulnerable the little blue dot called Earth really was.
This was their wormhole.
“Can I join you,” Sprite asks, sitting down on the packed earth with you.
“Yeah.”
“It’s nice out here.”
“Relaxing.”
Sprite laughs, “we should’ve taken a quiet country vacation instead.” She inhales deeply. “There’s dolphin’s off Scotland.”
“Next time,” you lay your head on her shoulder.
“You sound so sure,” your old friend mutters, “a celestial. A fucking Celestial.”
“They can’t be that bad-”
“What did Druig tell you about Arishem?”
“Honestly,” you offer, pulling away, “not much.”
“To call them gods isn’t an exaggeration. It’s not like with us, people worshiping something they don’t understand. They’re gods. The whole life, death and universe shabang.” Sprite closes her eyes, the tired expression on her pixie features at odds with her age. The trepidation in her eyes reminded you of the British Indian soldiers on leave. Eyes that contained all the horrors of war; Sprite who had seen more horrors than had ever been put to historical record.
You’d been sacrificed once.
“I should’ve-I should have tried more, built-I could’ve had what Kingo does! Family. Real family. Not a bunch of losers Arishem stuck on the same ship.”
You try to comfort her. “Family, are people you love not necessarily always get along with. Or even like all the time.”
Sprite intertwines her fingers with you. “I’m glad you shot an arrow at me.”
“I was shooting a deer.”
“Way to ruin the moment,” she snipes, both of you bursting into laughter.
***
Kingo’s private plane was a game changer.
“Please tell me this is some green lofty Stark tech so I don’t have to feel bad about the CO2 emissions,” you ask the Southeast Asian in appearance Eternal.
“Yeah! Nothing but the best for Kingo Jr. or Is it Kingo the fourth now?”
Sprite rolls her eyes.
“Guys,” Kingo points out, jumping from topic to topic, “should Thena have a knife on the plane?”
“It’s fine,” Thena doesn’t look up from her wood whittling.
“She said it’s fine,” Gilgamesh echoes, sitting down next to you and leaning his seat back.
You trust Gilgamesh’s judgement on this.
“Um,” Kingo continues to look worried.
Karun hands him a drink.
You were used to Kingo being surrounded by friends. He’d always known merchants and butchers, haggling with a smile and actually managing to get fresher produce. Haggling is an art. Karun and his kin were just the latest in a long line of people that Kingo had built friendships with.
It was Kingo more than any of them that had taken to being human like a fish to water.
“You mentioned the deviants could speak now,” Gilgamesh asks Sersi, looking pensive.
“What does it matter,” Ikaris cuts in, “They’re deviants. We have a job to do.”
“Oh right,” Sprite says sourly, “our mission. Because that’s going well.”
“Sprite,” Ikaris chidded as if he had any authority.
You busied yourself with the contents of Kingo’s mini fridge. There were masala lays and bottles of beer. You play with the inflight tv, wondering if Kingo had anything other than his own movies.
“Sersi,” Gilgamesh recenters the conversation.
“Yes, um,” she nods, “He-they,” cleary she wasn’t sure what pronouns to use and only Sersi would be worrying about pronouns when dealing with deviants for the first time in milena, “tried to speak before attacking.” She purses her lips, “about Arishem. I don’t know.”
“Then they have the capacity for higher thought,” Gilgamesh ponders, “are more than predators following their nature.”
“What are you saying,” Kingo asks carefully.
You frown, “that still means they chose to attack us in London. They could’ve remained in hiding.”
“Do you think,” Sersi says slowly, “that they sense Tiamut’s birth?”
“If we are all children of Arishem,” Thena trails off, her pencil stilling. What must she feel now, learning that the illness in her mind wasn’t delusional hallucinations but memories of other worlds? She was holding herself together admirably. You thought this must be hardest for her.
Learning the truth did not stop her flashbacks from occuring like a glitch in the matrix.
“Does it matter.” Ikaris clicks his jaw.
“Yes,” Gilgamesh argues, “if they are sentient beings then we should try to. . .we shoukd hear them out. Everything we thought we knew was wrong. What if we are wrong about them. Clearly, they evolved.”
Sprite stands, “did you forget they killed Ajak!” Tears shine in her eyes. The wound still fresh.
You wonder what Ajak woukd have done if she lived. Would she have told them about Tiamut? Would the Eternal leader have let the Earth die? You hoped not. But you had never been close, you could not guess at her feelings for humanity, her loyalty to the mission might have won out.
It didn’t matter.
Ajak was gone.
You’d never know what she would have done if she had lived:
“Sersi,” Gilgamesh says, “perhaps they can be reasoned with. From their point of view, we have hunted them to near extinction. Should we not try to do things differently-better than we have? We can’t afford to fight the deviants and stop Tiamut at the same time.” His arguement was well put.
You’d never faced deviants before.
“Arishem created the deviants for a reason,” Ikaris states, “just as we have a purpose.”
“Oh and I suppose that makes it right,” you point out, “and if Arishem told you to let Thanos kill half the universe that makes it alright!”
“You’re human. I don’t expect you to understand.”
Kingo defends you, “hey! It’s her planet we’re talking about here.”
“And billions of people,” Sersi collapses into the seat, her expression that of a deep rooted depression.
Thena places her hand over Karun’s camera lens.
“They. Killed. Ajak.” Sprite slams a steak knife into the coffee table you were all gathered around.
“Ajak knew,” Thena adds quietly.
The woman had left behind so many questions.
You think of the iridescent alien creatures that had smacked Ikaris aside with ease. Sersi’s abilites had only bought seconds. They had made you feel so small. What were a few magic tricks against alien creatures that could take on an Eternal?
The images of the Battle of New York fill your thoughts again. Everything had changed after that.
“And she knew it was the right path,” Ikaris again argues, “that’s why she was the leader.”
“You’re talking about the destruction of an entire planet,” Sersi points out, hurt in her eyes as she regards her former lover.
“And billions of new worlds.”
“He has a point,” Kingo points out, “I don’t like it, but who are we to decide which lives matter more?”
You roll your eyes, “um, the lives currently existing obviously! Those new worlds are theoretical, they don’t even exist yet. If Tiamut has waited 5 billions years already, can’t they wait another 5 billion for the sun to die? You can have planet earth then.”
“It’s the way of things,” Ikaris once again argues, “destruction so that new life may begin.”
Kingo shakes his head, but says nothing, looking tormented at having to bear the responsability of Earth, of Tiamut.
“You haven’t seen worlds die,” Thena notes, her gaze lost to her memories.
Gilgamesh squeezes her shoulder in sympathy.
It was the same arguement, recycled, as time ran out for your planet.
***
Mexico was both exactly how you remembered it and incredibly changed.
Kingo’s plane landed in Mexico City, the sprawling metropolis was akin to most cities in the world. But once you left the city behind, you saw traces of what life had been like at the turn of the century. People still hung their laundry up to dry and the closer you got to the mountains Druig had made his home in, the less development there was. You wondered how much was Druig’s doing and how much of it was just a result of how remote this cerro still was with its dirt road.
“You two have been here before,” Kingo asks you and Sersi. “Right?” You’ve made a stop at an Oxxo to grab snacks and refuel.
“In the 1800s,” Sersi answers. You split some pecan pies with her.
You look up at the mountains surrounding you. It was hot and humid in the worst of ways. “I was buried here last time, no,” you scrunch your nose, “the time before that with Sersi.” You were pretty sure it had been in the 1800s. “I died somewhere in Bangladesh I think?” There was so much to remember.
Humans lacked the capacity to live as long as you have. You didn’t have space to remember everything.
“That’s ghoulish,” Kingo frowns in that humorous way of his. He’s always been charismatic.
“I don’t really think about it. . .” It was rare for you to come across your grave. Different places, centuries later, this was the only one you knew the location of. Now you weren’t sure how to feel about your bones rotting in the earth. Was there even anything left?
Sersi squeezes your hand.
“Why haven’t you talked to Druig,” Sprite asks, nosy as always as she nicks your drink without thought. You were used to Sprite and Sersi. You’d missed Kingo in your past lives.
You shrug, biting into the thin pastry. It was always fun to try snacks in different countries. You just wish all this travel wasn’t done under the cloud of another impending apocalypse.
Sprite jabs her elbow into your side, “Come on. Spit it out.”
“Fuck, that hurt,” you complain, covering your mouth with your hand.
“So?”
Kingo also leans in.
You roll your eyes, “seriously?”
“Well now I wanna know,” Kingo nods.
“Eh,” you look down at your shoes. It was a bit weird where you did want to vent but also didn’t want to tell them because it would get back to Druig in the form of Kingo saying shit. They were your family. “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to finish Uni and then there was the whole Snap and. . .it honestly seems a little fake even though I can remember everything.” You couldn’t have dragged your baby brother to your husband’s commune.
Kingo pats your shoulder, “that’s. . .”
Karun shoves the camera in your face.
“Really,” you take a step back.
“It makes for good drama.”
“Karun worked on Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.”
“So why are you working for this one,” you ask Karun. There was no way being a valet was this man’s dream.
“There is so many places and things to learn when working with Kingo,” Karun smiles kindly, “like all of you! What do you see when you die?”
You cringe.
“Don’t answer that,” Sprite pulls you away.
Back to the car.
“Give me my soda back,” you tell her even as you grab it. It was hot and already sweat ran down your back.
“You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah,” you nod. It had never been that you didn’t want to see Druig. . .you just wanted to take care of some other stuff first. Sort the mess of memories in your head as much as you could. Time, you had wanted time to figure yourself out first.
It wasn’t fair.
To either of you.
It never had been.
Shakespeare couldn’t have imagined a better tragedy.
***
You’d honestly forgotten how creepy this place could be. You didn’t want to sound judgemental, or dimish each villagers life and their autonomy, only you couldn’t let go of the idea that they couldn’t consent to Druig’s whole mind control as a deus ex machina when it was all they had ever known. Over two hundred years later, and you still hadn’t come around on this.
Neither had anyone else.
“Can I film you sir,” Karun asks someone.
You search the man’s face for familiar features. You’d likely known this man’s ancestors. He might even be Cualtzin’s great something.
You swallow, suddenly wishing you had talked to Druig before. You wanted to do this in private, to have a change to see him before everyone by yourself, and maybe guilt also wormed its way into your thoughts. Would he be hurt you didn’t seek him out? You’d known for years.
You wanted a proper reunion without the impending birth of a celestial hanging over everything.
Sersi intertwines her finger with yours.
You only hoped your sister would come around. You needed to talk to her before-
Sprite asks a man, “Hey, estamos buscando a Druig. Donde esta?”
“De que conoces a Druig?”
“Somos,” Sprite thinks on it, “amigos de la universidad.”
Their eyes grow gold.
Definitely creepy.
Druig steps out of the community center. Though the way this place ran, everything was communal. That was one thing you’d liked about this place, how close knot everyone was. And the food.
Your heart lurches in your chest when you see him, the same dark hair, cheeky smile with those mischievous eyes. Any doubt of the validity of your feelings, of your memories, faded away because this was real, he was here in the flesh. Like learning to ride a bike, you slipped back into the habit of being in love.
“I miss you all,” are Druig’s first words to the Eternals after centuries in a warm tone that was a complete turn from his schism from the rest of his companions.
Your fingers tighten around Sersi’s hand.
It’s obvious when he spots you.
Caught off guard as his eyes widen, whatever he was about to say is forgotten. “My lady-” Druig always has the brightest smile.
“Druig,” you rush forward.
It’s without throught. You just need him at that moment.
And he needs you.
Druig cups your face in his hand, resting his forehead against yours.
You stare into his eyes, feeling amazed that you were able to spend another lifetime with the man you loved. The only man for you. In his gaze, the history and love shared between you echoed back.
“You’re getting this? Please tell me you're getting this,” Kingo’s terrible stage whisper breaks your trance.
“I am Sir. Do not worry.”
And you remember why you were here with the rest of the Eternals.
“What’s wrong,” Druig frowns.
You didn’t want to tell him any of it. You wish you could shield him from the news of Ajak and Tiamut, from learning that his entire existence was a farce, but you couldn’t. The Eternals needed him. Earth needed him.
Pepper Potts would understand how you felt at this moment.
“You should sit down.”
***
Sersi explains the finer details, filling in the truth with the astral projects she’s had with Arishem shince Ajak died.
You observe how he takes the news, sitting next to him. The muscles of his arm shift under your hand. There’s no easy way to break the news of the Emergence.
Nothing would matter if the Earth was destroyed.
You knew he’d help.
But it was easy for you to read the vitriol in his face. You could practically hear him think back on every event they had watched impassively as innocents died, trusting Ajak’s judgement that they were doing the right thing to ensure humanity entered an age of enlightenment, only to learn it had been a lie.
Druig had a temper.
When he’d finally snapped, the Eternals had disbanded, because of him they’d gone their separate ways.
“You’ve given me a lot of bad news in one go, Sersi,” he finally states, bitterness lacing his light tone.
This was not going to go well.
“Will you help us,” Sersi asks, barely finishing before her phone rings.
Druig clenches his jaw.
You squeeze his arm in support. You were here for him, for however long that was. Again, you think of your siblings; of Sarah who sent you something off your amazon wishlist on your birthday even though you guys barely talked anymore; the Indian place that gave you two orders of rice for your curry order for free. All these people. . .
Druig stands. “Do you all remember Tenochtitlan? Beautiful. The canals. Tlatelolco.” He pauses in front of Gilgamesh and Thena, looking genuinely happy to see them again, “It was the last place we all lived together.” For them alone he had left this place for a decade.
“I protected these people for twenty generations now. From the outside world and from themselves,” he saunters over to Kingo and Karun, bitter in his gloating. “Your kind my friend, you will be responsible for your own extinction one day. Don’t you think.”
You sigh when Karun earnestly answers Druig’s rhetorical question.
This was not going to end well.
Druig possess Karun.
Kingo immediately surges to protect his friend, “Oh no you didn’t.”
Covering your face with your hand, you sigh, letting your head fall as they talk about streaming views when the world is about to end.
It gets worse when Ikaris tries to leave.
“Druig this is serious,” Sersi tries.
“I’ll tell you what’s serious. I’ve just been told I’ve been sent on a suicide mission for the past 7,000 years and that my entire existance was a lie. So excuse me for not giving a shit about your plan right now.”
Yeah, he was not taking this well.
You knew from the moments of travel where no one could do anything but stew in the truth that everyone was feeling torn, but Sersi and the rest were trudging through to fix the situation before they had their existential crisis.
Druig slams the door when he leaves.
Thena gives you a long look.
You’d never been able to read her.
“I’ll. . .go talk to him,” you tell them, feeling incredibly awkward.
Spite, being her usual self, asks you like she had hundreds of years ago, “him? Really?”
You roll your eyes and chase after him.
“How long have you known,” Druig says coldly.
He stands on the edge of the treeline. You know where this pathway leads. The graveyard.
Kingo was right, it was strange to think you were both here and buried here.
“Not long after Thanos,” you answer honestly. You didn’t want to do this now. Not about the magic, not about the time, or Thanos or any of it. Not when-
You’d seen people turn to ash.
Running into the flat corridor and people just. . .gone.
He turns to you. “You didn’t come,” his voice was small.
You reach for his hands, “I had to take care of my brother,” you explain, “and then. . .my head was a mess. I remembered bits and pieces but not in the right order.”
“I’m not mad. . “ he says softly, looking up through his fringe at you.
“I didn’t think you would be. . .I just needed time and was psyching myself out and now this-”
Druig’s fingers tighten around yours, “The Emergence.”
“You have to try,” you plead with him, “isn’t it what you’ve always wanted. To do something instead of sitting by?” Here you were, begging for the future of humanity. You’d never felt that difference between you and your husband more.
“My love,” he sighs, “even if I could. . .this is not just any mind I would have to control.”
“So you won’t,” you frown, voice wavering. Your eyes burn with unshed tears.
Ikaris you’d expect.
Even Kingo and Sprite’s hesitance made sense.
But Druig-
“That’s not what I said,” Druig says slowly. “We could take the Domo-”
“You once told me,” you say as you gaze into his eyes, “that you wanted to be buried here. On Earth. That you were as much of this Earth as I am.” Your lips tremble, your words hanging in the air.
“And I do,” he utters with a turbulent sea of emotions on his face, “But I am a selfish man, my lady. I want more time. For us.”
Tears fall from your eyes. “There might be more,” your smile is small, “we might pull this off. And if not, I wouldn’t change a thing. How lucky are we to have had lifetimes?”
Druig smiles, looking as handsome as he had in Australia, before leaning in to kiss you.
You meet him halfway.
There’s no rush.
A steady passion that never wavered, Druig kissed you like he had a thousand times before, like he might a thousand times more.
You wouldn’t give into the anxiety.
This was not the last time: they’d pull it off. You trusted that your patchwork family would save the world.
Just look at what the Avengers had managed to do.
You wrap your hands around his neck, placing a kiss against his cheek, “I missed you.”
Druig hugs you against his chest, “Sure, as if Sersi hasn’t replaced me,” he jokes and you know it’ll be okay.
You hope.
“Speaking of Sersi,” you say, “I should go let her know to get going, while you take care of things here.”
“One last thing,” he tells you.
“Yeah?”
Druig kisses you again.
You laugh against his plush lips.
“Sersi,” you spot her and Ikaris talking. Like any best friend, you immediately want to plant yourself as a shield between her and her ex.
They look alright, for the moment.
But you saw first hand how lonely she was when you found each other.
And you’d never liked Ikaris.
“Hey,” she waves you over.
Ikaris sulks, and you know he’s going to say something annoying once more.
A metallic screech fills the air.
You look up, instinctively trying to find the source. In the blink of an eye, a deviant snatches Ikaris into the air.
Sersi screams. “IKARIS!”
Fuck.
You look around wildly. There was nothing sturdy to hide in. Just huts and trees that they could rip to shreds. Your heart pounds in your ears.
For once you wish you knew fancy spells like Doctor Strange.
“Señora, esta bien,” a voice calls from the fog as you hover around Sersi.
What were you supposed to do?
“Watch out! Clear the camp!” Sersi yells.
It’s chaos as more deviants appear. Their bodies are exposed muscle, vines wrapped around to form animalistic creatures. In one you saw sabertooth tigers.
Fuck.
You clench your fists.
“Sersi,” you scream when a deviant lunges at her.
It’s too late.
A deviant comes barreling towards her.
“Get back,” Kingo yells, shooting fireballs at the thing, “it’s an ambush.”
Sprite grabs you, “come on!”
It’s chaos as people run into the forest. You’re not even sure it’s safe with these deviants popping up everywhere.
“Sprite, get Karun to safety!”
You don’t even see what happens, running with Sersi, running amongst the crowd.
Your eyes scan but there’s nowhere to hide.
“This way,”’she takes over, showing the streak of leadership Ajak must have seen in her, “quickly,” her first priority was ensuring the safety of these people.
It’s world war 2 all over again.
People running, attacks coming randomly. All you could do was hope your luck held out. (You hadn’t been snaped.)
“Get inside,” Sersi urges you.
“I’m not leaving you.”
She wants to argue but she also knows there’s no time. Her hands press against the wood, transforming it into metal.
She doesn't finish.
“Sersi!” The scream dies in your throat when the deviant tosses her body aside like she’s a paper doll.
You don’t have time to see if she’s okay. Your scream attracts the deviant’s attention. Blue and green and awful you hold up your hands, praying for something to happen. You didn’t understand magic.
Maybe you didn’t have to.
Without knowing, you’d made yourself reincarnate.
You act, raising your hands, aiming at the deviant and knowing something would happen. It would.
It does.
Light flares out of your hands. You feel the pull of magic from you, your teeth aching like you’ve got a brain freeze. The light blinds the deviant for seconds, sending it reeling back.
It shakes its head, disoriented.
You don’t know what else to do.
Sersi clambers out of the remains of a hut.
There’s nothing around you to use as a weapon, not really.
You scramble back, wanting to put distance between the creature and you. They certainly didn’t seem sentient. You cannot blame a predator for its nature.
Shots ring out.
You flinch.
The villagers line up, controlled, aiming their guns at the deviant. Buckshots ring out as they surround the deviant.
Your eyes widen in concert.
While the bullets ripped into the deviant’s iridescent hide, the alien creature grew annoyed. They weren’t putting it down.
It’s tail throws people aside.
You inhale sharply.
Unlike Sersi, they didn’t get back up.
Druig runs in, engaging the creature, weaving around and shooting it at close range.
It rears, angered.
Sersi spurs into action. She weaponizes a tree, her ability slowly turning a ring of bark into water, as Druig and his villagers keep the creature in place.
The magic is there, at your fingertips, it just needed a form to take, a spell to wield it properly. You flex your fingers.
Your breaths were sharp and shallow, adrenaline racing.
The tree, frozen into ice, traps the creature, and in a classical dysfunctional family way, Sersi and Druig argue as the deviant begins to shake the tree off himself.
Fuck.
You act, planting your foot forward, knees bent. Muscle memory took over, hundreds of years of experience, you see the ice. While Sersi and Druig argue about the villagers, your hands once more glow softly, a color between sunset and rust.
The ice moves with your will. The motion is fluid even as the weight of the branch slams into you. You grit your teeth. Your knees bend with the effort, more weight lifting than wand waving.
A branch breaks off and spears the deviant through the eye.
It happens in seconds.
You pant with exertion.
“How did you-”
The shock breaks Druig’s hold over their minds.
“Is that really important right now,” you run over to Sersi, looking her over.
“I’m okay,” she says quickly. “The others-” She looks further into the village where Kingo’s ability blasts through trees and the deviant: she doesn’t hesitate to run over.
“Head to the river,” Druig commands the villagers. They listen, trusting the man who had led them peacefully for generations. In some ways, they were better off than Wakanda, the front of Thanos’ war on earth, better off than London when Spiderman decided to go rogue.
You take a deep breath, concentrating.
“Right,” you run after her, stumbling after a step.
Druig catches you. “Careful,” he says, sounding grave.
Maybe it had taken more out of you than you’d thought. You think back to what Hoa had told you. What effect would using magic in this cycle have? Would you even reincarnate? Did it matter if they couldn’t stop the Emergence?
“I need to,” your legs shake.
“You’ve done enough,” Druig says gently.
It’s lucky timing. Ikaris flies in, slamming into the final deviant attacking the village.
This one proves its sentient intelligence, cleverly pinning Ikris face down.
Sersi runs at it with a spear.
Your husband tries to take aim but it’s too close to Sersi. It’s the same problem Kingo runs into.
You watch as Sersi and the deviant both fall into the well, disappearing beneath the surface.
“Sersi!” Ikaris runs, ready to play the white knight, tortured by duty.
The surface explodes.
An ungly mangled tree grows, the bark merged with the deviant in a disturbing form of mummification. You’d seen this on an episode of Hannibal.
But Sersi is alright.
“Sersi,” Ikaris hugs the stunned woman.
“Where’s Thena,” you look around. Gilgamesh was missing too.
Ikaris pulls away from Sersi, looking into the treeline.
You have a bad feeling.
***
You watch the pyre burn.
For hundreds of years you believed them to be invincible. Now you sat watching as Gilgamesh’s body burned to ashes. You hadn’t wiped the tears away. They’d dried on your cheeks long ago.
Exhaustion clung to your body. The magic trick had taken so much out of you. It was like running a marathon with no training, you were surprised to be awake. How could you sleep when Gilgamesh was-
Sprite rests her head against your shoulder.
You sit with her in the dirt.
Thena cuts a lonely figure, stark white in the dark of the night. A pale ghost. It had always been Thena and Gilgamesh.
In a small voice, Sprite mutters, “what if Arishem kills us all for trying to. . .”
You have no answers for her.
***
A Ramada Inn was the closest place near Phastos.
Sprite lays on your bed as you call your brother, “she said she doesn’t want to talk to you,” Nathan sighs.
You close your eyes, swallowing back the tide of emotion. Gilgamesh was dead. It still felt surreal. How could he die? How could any of them die? “Tell her I love her.”
Nathan pauses, static crackling over the phone call. “How serious is it? Tell me the truth?”
He’d been alone in Canada to identify your parents' bodies. An unlucky casualty of the snap. A car’s driver blew away into ashes and veered into their car.
“Just,” you clench your jaw. What was the point in telling them when they couldn’t stop this? Should you tell them? Try and save a little of humanity so that even if Sersi’s plan failed someone would survive. “tell her I love her, and to call me. Please.”
“So it’s bad.”
“Yeah.”
Sprite leans next to you, “don’t worry kid, we got this.”
Your brother replies, “tell her I’m taller.”
“Tell him-”
You laugh, “yeah. Sure,” they were such siblings. The way Sprite looked at him. . .having family outside the Eternals for once. It was good for her. Being accepted as the unaging crotchety old woman she really was. “I love you too.”
“Me too,” Spite adds, wrapping her arms around your shoulders. She hadn’t left your side since the funeral. Which was annoying because you could see Druig and Sersi discussing whatever plan she’d hatched and didn’t even know. . .you wanted more time with him, to settle back into being Druig&You.
On the plant things had been. . .it was the shittiest of reunions. Terrible timing.
You lean into her, “did you hear her?”
“Yeah. I heard,” your brother chuckles. “You two should stop by. It’s nice out here.”
“We will.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.” You wait for him to hang up. How much time was left?
You’d never wanted to be a superhero. The Earth came too close to the brink of destruction: so many close calls, one of these days it wouldn't be saved. Right?
“Hello Sprite,” Druig walks in still clad in linen, “goodbye Sprite.”
“Have you ever tried not being a dickhead.” She’d been pricklier than usual since Ajak’s death.
“That’s childish,” he replies, sinking down to her level.
You roll your eyes, laying back on the bed. All you could do was sit and wait around for Sersi to convince Phastos. You didn’t think sending Ikaris was the right idea.
“At least I don’t have to possess people to have friends!” She storms off.
“Really,” you ask him pointedly.
“She started it,” he shrugs, dumping out a bag on the bed.
You turn onto your stomach: looking the clothes over. Denim, a black shirt, a worn leather jacket, and boots that were not handmade. He’d gone thrifting. You found the thought amusing.
“How are you?” Druig takes a seat on the bed, looking you over.
“Fine. I was fine by the time we took off. A bottle of coke does wonders.” The sugar had helped. And so had the nap while Kingo drove back to Mexico City.
“You’re using magic?”
“Before I remembered. . .it just came to me. Not that I know anything,” you close your eyes, trying to remember what exactly you’d told him. “It’s not like-I’m not trying to be the Scarlet Witch here, I just wanted to help.”
“I know.” He rubs your back gently.
You bite your lip. “I don’t know what this means for,” you gesture at yourself, “but can we just handle one thing at a time?”
“Do you want to know magic?”
You sit up. “Technically I have been using magic,” you wink at him, wishing things could be lighter. Gilgamesh was dead. You’d never run into the kitchen and see him covered in flour again.
He chuckles, blue eyes sparkling.
You take his hands. “I don’t hate it. But I’d rather see you again.” They’d save the world. You were manifesting it.
“You shouldn’t have to choose.”
“Don’t be stupid,” you tell him, running your thumb over his knuckles. He had changed. 7,000 years on earth had affected him. How could it not. Druig had lived through so much. You’d changed too. You were greater than the sum of your parts, no longer the simple slave girl in Athens, or the textile worker from Ghana. You’d grown. “I love you. The rest is just stuff to figure out.”
He smiles, “my beautiful lady, you have a way with words.”
You blush. “Shut up. I’ve been a lot of things but never a poet.”
Druig laughs, toppling you over into the bed. He presses his body against yours. Hand on your side, he kisses your mouth with his soft lips. “Is this okay?”
You dig your fingers into his shoulder blades. This wonderful man. You’d missed this. Missed him. You could not have imagined him in all your youthful fantasies. Druig was so much more. Hard headed with an empathetic soul: how could you not want him? Love was waking up everyday and choosing him, always and forever.
“Come here,” you kiss his jaw tenderly.
There was nothing sweeter than reuniting with your lover.
***
“So this is The Domo,” you gaze around, trying to take everything in. Makkari has become an even worse horder in the past few centuries. Living as long as they did meant a lot of keepsakes. And Makkari is of a sentimental nature, attaching past memories to emerald tablets and gold incan figurines.
Her collection in The Domo is priceless, a complete record of the last 7,000 years of humanity’s history. Her love letter to humanity.
Karun is having a similar wow moment, as he films the interior of the ship.
Druig nudges your shoulder with his own, “my beautiful, beautiful lady,” he offers you a simple beaded necklace. Each bead is hand carved and strung on a gold cord.
It takes a second for the memory to come, but you remember. Thebes.
He’s never asked your age in any life. You’ve only now noticed his simple joy at being able to spend however many years you could together.
You’d freeze yourself in this moment if you could and spare Druig another death, another cycle.
“You kept it,” you say in amazement.
“There’s more around here,” amusement in his features. Who could find anything in Makkari’s clutter?
“Druig.” You melt. More than two thousand years later and he could still surprise you in the ways he loved you.
He slips his hand into the back pocket of your jeans, squeezing your ass.
Heat rises to your cheeks as you fumble to wrap the necklace around your neck, the ancient clasp easier to work than modern ones. It was only hours ago that Druig had squeezed your bare ass, urging you to ride him harder.
“Really,” Phastos groans, “in my lab?”
“Yeah,” Kingo piles on, “was the plane not enough?”
Considering the world might end, you don’t really care. Neither does Druig.
Shamelessly, he ignores their comments. “Phastos, I need to be able to control the mind of a celestial.”
“Okay. Get ready for it.” Phastos turns on his lab, holographic blueprints detailing the mechanics of the plan to stop the Emergence.
“Bracelets? You made us bracelets?”
You take in the image of a celestial for the first time. There was always more to the universe. Why couldn’t it be something good? Like the Asgardians.
Druig presses a kiss to your shoulder.
You push away the negative thoughts.
Manifesting. Right. You could do that. Think positively. Manifest a million more days. Had Druig tried Greggs? The world would be saved and you’d take him to Ireland again. He’d meet your siblings. You’d fix things with Lizzy.
“So here’s a little Celestial 101,” Phastos says, and proceeds to speak absolute gibberish. It flies right over your head.
Druig shifts. He rests an arm around your shoulders as Phastos finishes with his bracelet machine energy thing. The Unimind.
Ignoring Kingo’s late capitalist desire to turn everything into a profitable brand, she asks, So suppose Druig can, say put Tiamut to sleep-then what? Her hand remains in the air, asking her question, curious as to what the next part of the plan was. Tiamut wouldn’t sleep forever. Druig was going to buy time.
“We find humans a new home on another planet,” Sersi says cryptically. Which yeah. Was not a solution.
Your people had only built a long distance spacecraft once, for five people.
“Are we building them a big ship too? Take a pair of each animal,” Sprite pokes holes into her non plan.
“You know what’s never saved the world,” Phastos says annoyed, “your sarcasm.”
“Space colonization could take decades.”
“It could happen quickly with our help.”
“Do we have that time,” you point out. “How long would Tiamut remain asleep for?”
“I don’t-” Phastos looks at Druig for an answer which your lover doesn’t have. It wasn’t like he’d put a celestial to sleep before.
“What if we accidentally end up killing Tiamut,” Kingo brings up. “We could be responsible for billions of lives not being created across the universe. Not to mention the death of a Celestial. All bad.”
You shake your head in disbelief, “how could you value potential lives over people alive right now! Who’d die. Remember. We have to take that chance.” Tiamut’s life was worth the billions of people, the billions of lifeforms on your planet.
“Who are we to decide that!” Kingo rubs his forehead in agitation, “what if by stopping the natural cycle of the universe we cause something worse? Throwing nature out of balance always ends badly. Global warming anyone?”
You frown.
“Can we not work with nature sir,” Karun asks, camera rolling, “ask Mr. Tiamut to wait until we can live somewhere else?”
“Both of you are too close to the situation to think objectively,” Sprite cuts in, “we have to do what's right for the universe.”
You arch a brow, “seriously? This is all any of you know! That makes you biased too.”
“How would we even know what’s right,” Phastos says dejectedly. “We barely found out what we are? Not a great track record here.”
“Ajak chose Sersi to be the leader. Sersi should decide,” Ikaris puts in his two cents.
You look at your old friend, heart lodged in your throat. You already knew Druig would risk it. It was just a matter of getting everyone on board.
Phastos' plan requires everyone to wear a bracelet.
There’s an anime friendship joke there somewhere.
“I-”
“So even you’re having doubts,” Sprite throws her hands up in the air. “This wouldn’t happen if Ajak was here.” She stalks off.
“Sprite,” Ikaris calls after her. When she doesn’t come back, he follows.
“Let her blow off some steam,” Kingo follows Ikaris out of The Domo.
“Great,” Phastos utters, powering down the holograms, “glad to see we can still work together.”
“Make the bracelets,” Sersi nods. “Just in case.”
“How many,” Druig pauses, “of us would we need to power your,” he gestures at Phastos futuristic printer.
“I don’t know.” Phastos admits. “A lot of this is guesswork and approximation. I don’t know the limits of your ability, or how that translates to a Celestial. There’s no time to measure averages of built up cosmic energy.”
You swallow, pulling away to let them talk it out while Sersi chases after the others. Whatever was decided, it would be together.
It would be okay.
You knew them well.
Karun asks you shyly, “Kingo tells me you reincarnate.”
“It’s a party trick.” You felt as stressed as everyone else.
“So karma and-”
“Magic.” You answer the question he was about to ask. “I don’t, it’s not the Hindu gods. It’s some spell I accidentally cast and now,” you shrug.
“Oh.” He nods. “Well, the answer lies not in aliens or magic.” Karun smiles kindly. “That is why we aim for moksha. Though I think this could only be my second or third life at most.”
You can’t help but smile. “How is your family?”
“Good. They know I do important work with Kingo. Cinema, movies, it is now how we pass things on. I remember the first time I saw Kuch Lich Hota Hai!”
“I’ll have to watch it some time.”
It was easy to see why someone as easy going as Kingo had hit it off with Karun.
“I’m close to figuring it out,” Phastos calls out.
You look up just in time to see Ikaris shoot lasers at the inventor.
Everyone stands in stunned silence.
“Ikaris,” Kingo calls out, “what are you doing?” He looks at Phastos’ prone body.
“I’ve let this go on long enough,” Ikaris stalks further into the room. He reminds you of a sleek predator, of facing the deviant back in Mexico. And now you’re stuck in close quarters with him.
You weren’t stupid.
You couldn’t hold out against Ikaris.
You were all going to die.
“Don’t hurt him,” Sersi rushes to Phastos’ side, helping him up.
His shoulder smokes where the lasers made contact. The fabric is blacked. But Ikaris hadn’t hit him for long enough to truly hurt him. It was lucky they were built so durably.
“He lied to us,” Sersi stares Ikaris down, tears in her eyes. “He already knew about the emergence.” She’d made her peace with being abandoned, but to be betrayed by someone she once loved, someone who remained as dear as family to her-
“No he didn’t,” Kingo denies.
“Ajak told me everything when we left Babylon.”
“What?”
You suck in a breath. “That long.”
They’d all changed, grown to love humanity because they’d thought they were here to protect the Earth. But Ikaris, your heart hurts for him. He’d always been distant and remote. No wonder.
He’d purposely kept his distance. It would be easier to carry out his mission, Arishem’s mission, that way, without attachment.
“You were never going to let her stop the Emergence.”
“No.” Ikaris looks around at his team, “I only wanted to protect you from the deviants.”
“If Ajak wanted you to take her place, why did she choose me?” There’s a hard edge to Sersi’s voice. “
Ikaris says nothing.
Druig puts it together first. “He killed her.”
Spite turns away from Ikaris, unable to stand the sight of him.
You can’t believe it. Ajak and Ikaris. He’d trusted her above all others. For so long, Ikaris was the faithful follower. The Eternal Ajak relied on.
For him to kill her-
He’d always been a good soldier.
“I had to.”
“She loved you.”
Ikaris flinches. “Did she?” His eyes fill with tears. “Do you think it was easy to know the truth? To know that one day all this would end.” He glances at you. Meets everyone's eyes, searching, beseeching. He was so far gone. “To keep on lying to you.”
“If we gave humanity the choice, how many of them would be willing to die so that billions more could be born?”
“I suppose that’s easy to say when you’re not the one dying,” you retort coldly.
You’d never wished Ajak dead.
“Is this why you’re willing to kill,” Phastos asks furiously, “You are so pathetic.”
“I’m an Eternal Phastos. I exist for Arishem. As do you. That’s who you are.”
Phastos steps forward, unafraid to confront Ikaris. “I wouldn’t change a single thing about who I am, born or made. But I do not exist for Arishem. I exist for my family.”
“You are making the same mistake Ajak did.”
Makkarish wooshes in, rapidly motioning while she beamed with pride, I found Tiamut. The fastest Eternal was apparently the last one to find things out.
Ikaris’ eyes glow.
“No,” Kingo knocks the speedster out of the way. Blood seeps out of his shoulder, more viscous than human blood. He clutches his shoulder, “get out of here.”
Makkaris flees.
Ikaris stalks forward.
Kingo powers up. “You. Do. Not. Turn. Against. Your. Family.” His fireball grows, “Gilgamesh died because of you.”
“You will not succeed against me. And I will kill every one of you if I have to.” Having made his threat clear, he leaves.
Spite wails, collapsing onto her knees.
“What is this,” Thena glances around the wreckage of their family. Of your family.
Ikaris had once saved your life.
You didn’t understand the man. You never would.
“I-” Sprite looks at everyone. “I can’t. I know he killed,” she sobs then, “Ajak, but I can’t hurt-I can’t hurt my family.” A sheen passes over her fingers and she disappears.
“Sprite-” Sersi reaches out to the spot where she had been just seconds before.
Makkari runs in. She holds her hands up, before turning her palms down into fists. What happened? Where did Sprite go?
“I don’t know,” Kingo shakes his head. “Away. I-we’re no match for Ikaris.”
“Don’t say that Sir.”
“He really fooled us didn’t he,” he says sadly. Kingo looks over at Karun, “you should go be with your family.”
“Sir.”
“They need you. Whatever happens.”
“Kingo,” Sersi says carefully.
He shakes his head, “even with my help. . .we need a plan B.” He looks over at you. “I love the people of this planet, and even if I can’t save everyone, I can still save a few.”
New Asgard.
The Avengers.
This was bigger than you.
You nod, understanding him. “Okay.”
“We need you,” Sersi pleads.
“And fight my brother,” Kingo recoils.
“My lady,” Druig says carefully.
“Don’t-” you shake your head. No goodbyes. This wasn’t a goodbye. “It doesn’t matter because you’ll stop the Emergence.” You’ve never been more scared.
Serving as an army nurse had been a cakewalk compared to the end of everything.
He lifts his chin playfully, “anything for you my lady.”
You stifle tears. Instead you smile.
And leave with Kingo and Karun.
***
You cry saying goodbye to Karun.
“It has been an honor Sir,” he bows to Kingo.
Tears wet the Eternal’s cheeks. “No, it has been my honor. Not everyone would try to kill a vampire. Twice.”
They share a laugh.
In 3 hours he would be home. In 3 hours, there might not even be a planet left.
You call your brother from the plane, unable to stop crying. Ajak. Ikaris. Everything was falling apart and you could only hope the rest of them made it, that they could put Tiamut to sleep.
You wonder where Sprite is.
He doesn’t answer.
You call again.
And again.
You feel time slipping through your fingers. “How long do you think we have,” you ask Kingo. It was such a nice day outside. The skies were clear as you flew over Eurasia.
You wipe tears from your eyes, dialling your sister instead.
Please pick up, you begged the universe.
“I don’t know,” Kingo sighs, resting his head against the seat. “Really wish I’d kept in touch with Thor now. . .” He cracks a smile. “Maybe I should’ve gone with Karun too.”
“You don’t think-” Lizzy picks up. Her voice changed from the last time you had properly talked to her, a uni student, your older sister, full of life and bad advice.
“Hello,” her voice is groggy, “is that? Why are you calling?” Your sister sounds exhausted and monotone. The Snap had taken its toll on her. She’d missed out on years.
“Lizzy,” your voice is fragile. She’d actually answered you. She never did. You didn’t know why. Maybe there wasn’t a reason. But she’d pulled away so much. “How are you?”
“It’s four in the morning.”
“Oh. Did I wake you?”
“No.”
“Rough night?”
“No,” she sighs. “Can’t sleep.”
“Have you tried melatonin gummies?”
“Yes. They don’t help.”
“I’m sorry,” you apologize. For everything, that the world was ending, for whatever you’d done to her. You were tremendously sorry it had been her and not you. You should’ve been Snapped away.
“You didn’t do anything.”
“How’s New Asgard,” you ask instead.
“Cold.”
“Colder than Canada?”
“About the same,” her voice drifts. “Not that it matters.” Your childhood house had long ago been sold.
“Do you like it there at least?”
“Does it matter?”
You bite your lip, “of course it does.”
Lizzy doesn’t respond.
Kingo motions with his hand to get on with it, but you can’t. You can’t tell your sister who turned to ashes that the world is about to crack open, killing everyone. You can’t force her to live through another doomsday. You won’t be the one to put that on her shoulders.
It’s static.
Neither of you speak.
“Hey,” Lizzy says worriedly, “do you know if Norway gets earthquakes?”
“Why,” your heart sinks.
“Because the earth won’t stop shaking.”
“What!” Oh no.
“I have to go.”
“Lizzy, wait-”
“B-”
“Iloveyou,” you manage before the line goes dead. The world was ending and you were on a private plane.
Kingo takes your hand. “They never really leave you, do they?”
“No.”
“I’ve been lucky to meet so many cool and amazing people. I think of them, from time to time.”
You look over at Kingo, “you love this planet.”
“It’s my home.” He smiles, thinking back fondly of the milena he’d spent here, eyes wet.
“We’re lucky to have you-and all your bollywood dance scenes.”
He laughs as the plane shakes with turbulence and you don’t know if it’s the wind or the Emergence. It wasn’t a terrible way to die, here with a friend.
Squeezing your hand, Kingo adds, “you think you’ll be reincarnated as a Lumia?”
You roll your eyes as the plane shakes.
“Or Kree? Can’t forget about-”
“Not helping.” You frown. "Do you think there's more out there? More wolrds with Eternals and deviants?" More eternals who didn't know the truth?
Space had become so much more tangible since The Avengers. Since the Guardians. You looked up at the stars and wondered.
"Probably," Kingo nods, unconcerned.
But you were concerned. You'd had choice taken from you before due to societal norms, due to your position as a slave, as a woman. Didn't those worlds deserve the truth too? Didn't the Eternals deserve more than to carry out Arishem's wishes for millions of years, their minds wiped away like they were nothing better than a phone defaulted to factory settings? Wasn't Thena proof that more lingered inspite of Arishem's meddling?
"Let's survive this first."
You nod, "can't exactly weather this storm in a bunker." There had been no safe place from Thanos' Snap.
Kingo chuckles. “Thank you.”
“Yeah well,” you smile softly, “it’s not so bad, being your friend.”
**
notes: there will be an epilogue bc this chapter got SO long. sprite is so jealous of nathan growing up its insane but also its like the first time shes had humans who know what she is and accept her. reader going w kingo was really an excuse to bow out of the fight ngl. it might've gone the same was as the movie, mb not.
#a rose by any other name#druig x y/n#druig x reader#druig x you#me trying to finish all my wips challenge#rewatched the movie and ah i love eternals sm
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waking up today, opening up discord to see the leaks, the first thing i saw was Gojo's death panel. there was no explaining the absolute shock and dismay i felt. then, as the full chapter went on to get leaked, i ended up confused and saddened, and genuinely thought i must have somehow missed last week's chapter. then went back and double checked, and no, i didn’t miss a chapter. instead the new chapter did a mini time jump with a cold open. so, uh, ultimately, whilst i do feel shocked and miserable, i also still feel confused, which undermines the impact of such an incredibly pivotal moment. if Gojo was going to die, I wish it had just played out in real time like it had with Nanami and seemingly what also happened with Nobara. those moments are so incredibly memorable and devastating because of it. another excellent moment is Gojo being sealed in the Prison Realm, and the unnerving dread in the lead up to it. if a chapter had suddenly cut to Gojo being sealed within the Prison Realm, the buildup in the moments before it wouldn’t have had the same impact.
i still feel the use of Gojo’s character has been messy post-Shibuya, as he was kept off-screen for so long only to die so soon after coming back. i recognize it's a difficult balance when you've got such an absurdly strong character, but as i write this, i still don’t feel like it was well handled. maybe that will change. Gege could have probably nerfed Gojo for a little while if he wanted to with Gojo needing to recover after the Prison Realm, but as Gege seems very focused on streamlining and finishing JJK, it looks like that was never going to be an option. i presume this isn't the last we've seen of Gojo, though, as we've still got that unaccounted for month where he made plans off-screen.
regardless, in this moment it seems like Gojo is dead. it’s funny, i never thought he would actually die. it seemed like to me he was a deconstruction of the "mentor-must-die" trope, because he was JJK's third protagonist after Yuuji and Yuuta after all and he'd already had a figurative death when he got sealed in Shibuya. when i read JJK vol 0 the first time in 2017, i initially thought he was a slapstick Kakashi! then JJK got serialized in 2018 and all of it, all of him — the duality of both humor and tragedy of his character, and fascinating deconstruction of what it means for a character to be "the strongest" — the more i read about him, the more i fell in love with him. somehow, it feels all the more poignant losing Gojo after the Hidden Inventory arc recently aired, and getting to explore his character arc all over again: from an overly confident teenager to a person who wants to wants to protect and pass on the world to the next generation. i’ll miss you forever, Gojo Satoru. goodbye.
#excuse me for any mistakes bc im crying as i type this#jjk 236#jjk leaks#jjk spoilers#gojo#jjk#bakma bana
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𝗢𝗟𝗗 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥 !
── 𝙀𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙩 𝙌. 𝙎𝙬𝙖𝙣, lustrous ebony skin, soft plump lips, and the loveliest droopy midnight eyes. A physiognomy and energy so compelling that like moths, women and men alike, are captivated by his presence as if he was the only flame carrying the night into morning.
𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 !
In his early teenage years, Elliot was determined to take care of his widowed mother and help her live more comfortably. He kept his head in his studies and filtered out trouble in and out of school.
After her husband's death, Mrs. Swan, Elliott's mother, took up work as a prostitute since her job as a nanny wasn't paying her enough to get by for both her and her little boy. Elliot was always dropped off at the house of his mother's friend, Mrs. Cardinale, before one of Mrs. Swans' clients visited.
Mrs. Cardinale was a sweet and stout Italian woman who migrated to America with her husband and mother for a better future, only to live in the ghetto. Her heart was not hardened by this as she didn't mind helping her best friend by taking care of a young Elliot, who was always praised by Mrs. Cardinale for being a sweet, quiet, and hard-working young man.
On the rare occasions when Mrs. Cardinale couldn't look after Elliot, he was looked after by Mrs. Cardinale's mother who was always resting in bed, but always told him beautiful stories of her youth in Italy.
Due to the fact that he spent a significant amount of his childhood being cared for by Italian women, Elliot adopted a unique accent that was a charming blend of southern and Italian.
After graduating highschool, Elliot planned to attend City College to become a lawyer, which would pay him good money to take care of his mother. However, Mrs. Swan disapproved, she wanted him to pursue his dream of acting instead of trying to be her caretaker. This caused a lukewarm feud between the two with each side making valid points. In the end, Mrs. Swan shut him up by telling him "Mother Knows Best." and reassured him that nothing would make her happier than to see her son truly be happy.
Elliot dropped his previous intention to be a lawyer and instead pursued acting while attending college. He executed such astounding passion and talent, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts granted him a scholarship. Elliot soon began work in the industry, with his new name, Elliot Q. Swan. A year later, at the ripe age of 22, he debuted on Broadway in a film called "Is Love A Tool?" A romance comedy where he played a minor role as a charming bellboy and became a heartthrob amongst teenage girls.
A few years later, after appearing on Broadway stages and television productions, a movie producer screen-tested Elliot and casted him in a lead role in "Melancholy Affairs at Sea" an erotic mystery film. Elliot was unaware of the revolutionary impact this movie would have on his life.
𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 !
On rare occasions, when Elliot is having a slow day. He escapes from the cameras, the lust, and the predatory film industry to visit his family, Mrs. Swan and The Cardinales. While he is passionate about living his dream, a small part of him wishes he had disobeyed his mother's wishes and become a lawyer.
His love language is entirely devoted to acts of service, particularly cooking. Elliot's passion for cooking delicious cuisines stems from Ms. Cardinale's influence. He doesn't shy away from experimenting in the kitchen and is very open-minded to different cultures' food, one of the main reasons why he adores traveling overseas. He always enjoyed watching the blissful expressions of his past lovers while savoring his food. Even the ladies who tried to act hard to please had a difficult time maintaining their facade.
Speaking of which...
Not once has Elliot's old flames left him feeling whole. The intensity of Elliot's desire could be replicated by no other. Two hearts merging into one. A harmonious ecstasy is created by the synchronization of groans and moans. His touch, both fervid and conscious. The glint in his eyes, arcane yet vulnerable as if he was sharing a silent testimony that they could almost understand, but never did.
In truth, Elliot yearns for true love and an everlasting wild romance. He was always well aware that nothing long-lasting would come into fruition with any of his past lovers, most of them were just for media coverage anyway. A tactic to stay relevant in the industry and give people something to take about over dinner. He regrets not pursuing after love in his youth, especially since love seems like a pipe dream in his field of work. A thought that depresses him greatly.
Although it makes him feel silly, he occasionally wishes upon a star to meet the one who will understand the mysterious glint in his eyes that yearn's to be fathomed.
𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘 ! thank you for your time, folks ! I hope y'all enjoyed reading about Elliot as much as I enjoyed writing and fleshing out his character to my satisfaction. the inspiration behind Elliott's design and story is my admiration for black folks in old hollywood media.
love, soireebarbie ♡
#໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ྀི꒱ა soiréebarbie#oc x reader#my ocs#oc x you#oc x y/n#original character#original character x reader#elliot q. swan#old hollywood#x reader#oc drabbles#character x reader#drabbles#oc imagines#old hollywod glamour#oc hcs#oc headcanons#oc oneshot#one shot#fluff#soft love#fantasy#oc fic#oc fiction#black man
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HI SAV!!! HAPPY SLASHERVERSARY MWAH. legitimately so deeply excited to read the new fic 💖 ALSO wanted to throw ask at you bc I am sure you have many thoughts and I wanna hear them all, so! do you have a favorite line you've written, across all of slasherverse so far, or one that you think is like, a core line/core component? and what scene in 'verse so far has been the most fun to write?
HIII JADE MWAAHHH MWAAH MWAH THANK U SORRY FOR BELATED RESPONSE XOXO
ooooohh aaaaaaa okay. in answering these it got really long bc I added some snip cuts from some of the fics so. click thru the read more xoxo
do you have a favorite line you've written, across all of slasherverse so far, or one that you think is like, a core line/core component?
ummmm. this is so hard. I think the ending line/lines of the original slasherverse fic are sooo crazy and like impactful to me personally at least ??
But in the moment before the officer reaches them, light breaks through the dense tree line, the first clear beam of sunshine that morning. It lands squarely on Fig’s face. Blinding, but warm. She grimaces, half smile.
“Fucking day break,” she mutters under her breath.
like. yeah. I feel really good about that being the final ending beat and I think the first/original slasherfic is soooo concise and effective and is forever one of my favorite things i've ever written- I also think the line
He told them that so many times- there’s no one around for miles, kids, did you know that?
There's no one to hear you scream.
that Jamie @gilears used in his first collage (and the cover of the bound fic she made of slasher for me !!!!!) (and my phone lock screen for nearly the last two years) is just. mwaaahhh and maybe that's bc its in the collage. and yet <3
what scene in 'verse so far has been the most fun to write?
i really really loved the imagery in the gorgug pov fic, windows down, scream along at the end when he and fig are driving in the middle of the night scream-singing along to teenagers by mcr. I just love that moment so much.
i also really really enjoyed two different bits in the most recent slasherverse installment, the two year anniversary fic, one where fig and gorgug have a conversation in the middle of the night and the scene is almost entirely dialogue- I really wanted to push myself and try to pare down the descriptions and internal monologue as much as possible bc I think sometimes my writing and dialogue specifically can get bogged down too much, and I really really like how clean and quick the scene came out (also the you and me bit at the end of this snip was a reference to something Jamie and I say to each other all the time bc I'm a SAP <3)
“Nightmare. Uh. It was- it wasn’t- yeah. I was awake until like four last night I think though. Staring at the ceiling.”
“Hello preacher, it’s me, the choir.”
Gorgug huffed out a quiet laugh. It filled the room.
“Hello, choir. Can I join you in the… church?”
“Yikes, I dunno, maybe too soon with the church-and-religion jokes, dude. I had to go to four funerals. In churches.”
Another pause stretched thin.
“Only two of them were even in churches, Fig-”
“Yeah, okay, I know-”
“Also it was a year and a half ago-”
“Yeah, fine! Okay, sue me for trying to make a terrible-”
“And if you’d tried to say that to anyone else-”
“-Unfunny joke about our dead friends, dude-”
“-They’d probably have you, like, committed, or whatever-”
“-I’m sleep deprived as shit, you know I get punchy and stupid when I’m exhausted-”
“-and-”
“Wait.”
“Huh?”
“You’re gonna have me committed?”
Gorgug sighed. Quiet and affectionate. “Only if I can come with.”
“Deal.”
“You and me?”
and then similarly, there's a bit at the end that's basically just a monologue from fig about her feelings for and relationship to gorgug and a single brief response where the context is finally given that she's talking to a therapist. and I just. really enjoyed getting to fall down the rabbit hole of how people. and fig (hello projection) would talk? about that? and I really enjoy how it came out.
“It feels selfish. To- to- we’re trying to be better, right? Like, that’s what we’re doing here, uh, you and me. But I also mean me and him. We’re- fucking- we’re trying to get better. To not be, like, codependent and insanely traumatized and agoraphobic or whatever the fuck and- and- god. I don’t know. I don’t want to lose him. And I feel like- I feel like we’re both trying so hard and going through so much insane shit that no one else can even fucking understand, and- and- if I mess it up, if I want something more then I’m threatening all of that. The- the understanding and the safety and the comfort and like, like, he’s told me that sometimes it’s like I’m the only string keeping him together or the only, like, balloon keeping him afloat- god. Not in those words, actually- whatever, I’m editorializing, but the point, the point is that like. He’s my, like, touchstone to reality. And I’m his. And I get that that’s probably not the most healthy or well adjusted, or anything, but that’s what I’m in therapy to fix? And it’s taking a really fucking long time to fix my fucked up trauma PTSD brain which I get is like, normal and expected or whatever, but until we’re both like, normal and not traumatized codependent ducklings who’ve imprinted on each other for safety in a world that tried to kill us I’m- I’m like- it should stay the same. Us. Me and Gorgug. ‘Cause if I change something and it makes him worse or us worse or undoes any of the progress we’ve fucking made to recover then like- like- it’s just selfish, you know? I don’t wanna be selfish about that. About him.”
Her therapist’s blurry image on her computer blinked, head tilted, considering.
“Okay. I hear you.”
finally there's a bit I wrote ages ago and haven't had a place where it fits in a fic yet but really enjoy it so here a gift for anyone who actually read thru this whole post lmao:
“I don’t really know how to pray,” Fig said, kicking slightly at the water. Droplets flicked up and landed with tiny ripples on the surface of the lake. “But I feel like we should. Because they are, back there, all the people that loved them but didn’t know them- not like we did. Who don’t know what it was like. Like, we should do something to like, counteract their prayer or something. Correct it.”
“Spell check?”
“Yeah,” Fig said, smiling faintly. “But I don’t really know how to do it ‘cept the whole, like, are you there, god, it’s me Fig; thing.”
“Dear God.”
“Yeah, exactly, Dear God. Do you think that does anything? Do you think he’s listening? If he cares if we say it like a letter or know all the right words? Amen, love Fig, that whole thing.”
“Dunno. Do you think it matters? Maybe it’s just for us. To say what needs saying and remember them the way we knew them. And if God’s there and he listens then. I don’t know. It’s a bonus.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right.”
XOXOXOXOXOOXXOOXOX JADE LOVE U HOPE U ENJOYED NEW SLASHERVERSE THANK UUU FOR THE ASK XOXOX MWAAH
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Do you prefer physical books or e-books? Why?
What quote from a book resonated with you deeply?
Hello!!
I definitely prefer physical books. In life in general I prefer actual objects to digital stuff, I don't like taking notes on digital devices, I don't like digital planningl, my brain needs physical objects to function or it won't perceve them as real. I find physical books easier to annotate and to refer back to, and most importantly my eyes despise digital screens. I am very sensible to blue light even when wearing glasses, so digital books are way more tiring for me than physical books. Also for some reason I feel like I get distracted more easily with digital books, but that might be related to the eye thing.
I should sit down and quote half of the stuff the creature says in Frankenstein. Because as I mentioned this is the book that probably had the biggest emotional impact on me, as I was going through a lot emotionally when I first read it and the creature spoke to my heart. When the creature talks to Victor there's so many passages that just make me feel so much (I am about to go back to my angsty teenage self bare with me but this book does stuff to my brain). "Life although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it" words perfectly the contrasting feelings I had when I was at my lowest point with depression. Or when the creature learns more about humanit and has this existential crisis of questions on how can humans can be so awful and great at the same time "was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magificent, yet so vicious and base" and "i cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me: i tried to dispel gthem but sorrow only increased with knowledge". These thoughts were going through my mind in an unwords form and reading them on paper made me feel understoon and it helped me reflect on them with new words and a better formed base that I was laxking before picking this book up. Further in the book the creature also speaks of his relationship with books and how they helped him the way this book was helping me as i was reading " i can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sank me into the lowest dejection". I could go on. You should see the state of my copy. This book was an emotional hit after another, and it still shakes me to this day. I have no idea if I was somewhat coherent in this answer because *feelings*, but I trust you will understand or at least will find some amusement with how my brain and feelings are still fucked up by a book I read for the first time many years ago now.
Send me a bookish ask!!
#there might be typos cause typing this on my phone was an experience#but who cares is the feeling that matters right?#ask#asked#asks#bookish ask#ask game#cris speaks#frankenstein#the---hermit
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