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#and after my final readthrough
n0brainjustvibes · 8 months
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We've all heard of "the secret good version of characters in your head" but let me tell you, the secret good Chris Elman in my head was SO good.
Like, he wasn't my favourite Ward character (that honour goes jointly to Kenzie and Ashley, with the Major Malfunctions getting a background blorbo honourable mention), but man was I invested. This package combo of, basically, my little brother if he witnessed the Horrors on a daily basis, and the world's youngest + edgiest mom friend? Plus power-fuckery so intriguing I made a red-string spreadsheet about it? That was a Character of all time!!
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kirtlandswarbler · 11 months
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corvo/outsider D/s fic part two is finally done, final wordcount is 23,773
*lies down on the floor*
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thetomorrowshow · 1 year
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hyped for the trust au update!!!! take ur time i will be waitinf \o/
it should just be a couple of hours! i usually try to post at like 5-6pm est <3
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fanaticsnail · 6 months
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You Kissed the Clown? Part 4
Ok, this chapter got out of hand. I had been dwelling on it for a little while before I did a final few readthroughs. There might be still some grammatical errors and formatting issues, but here it is!
Word count: 4,675 (I am so, so sorry!)
Part 3 is here.
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 After marinating in the deep warm liquid of the large porcelain tub for what you deemed to be an appropriate amount of time, you stepped out of the soapy liquid and dried yourself with a large, fluffy towel. Placing a robe from within the bathroom around yourself and gathering your pile of dirty clothes, you made your way back down the hall to find the guest quarters containing your friends.
Your hair was wrapped up in the fluffy towel in an attempt to dry the strands with more haste than simply air drying it. Your bare feet being the only sounds omitting from the long hallway, you strained your ear to hear light conversation coming from the guest quarters. You reached for the door handle, let out a deep breath and made to face your mismatched crew of straw-hat pirates.
“Oh my dear, how was your bath?” Nami asked you once she saw your form entering the space.
“It was relaxing, thank you,” you responded with a sweet smile. You raked your eyes over her and studied the fine clothes she was wearing.
“Wow, red is absolutely your colour!” you exclaimed at her, gesturing to the dress she had chosen to wear for the evening.
“Where were you when I needed you, tinkerer?” she smiled before turning to Zoro and Luffy, “this is what I was talking about. You guys didn’t give me anything to work with!”
Zoro scoffed and craned his head back to stare at the ceiling while Luffy craned his head to the side in confusion.
“I said you still looked like Nami,” he shrugged, “and you do! What was I meant to say?”
You rolled your eyes and laced your arm in Namis, leading her to the vanity and sitting her on the stool in front of it.
“I’m thinking hair up?” you suggested with a downturned smile, quirking your eyebrow in suggestion. She shrugged and looked over her features.
“Definitely an updo,” you said, gesturing to her short locks. You used your eyes to ask permission to touch her hair, to which she nodded in response, “maybe a few face-framing pieces down. Lower to the nape of your neck I think. With some feathers?”
Her eyes seemed to brighten just a little as she nodded at your suggestion. You picked up the brush on the counter of the vanity and began to draw her hair into the palms of your hands and twirl pieces around your fingers. You heard Zoro move to the place behind the changing shield and begin removing his bathrobe and sorting through the clothes he had chosen.
“What are you wearing, Captain?” you called over your shoulder while holding your gaze on the locks of the orange-haired woman sat in front of you.
“Nami picked out these for me,” he said with a broad smile, “classy, no?”
You brought your eyes up to view your captain in the silver lined mirror in front of you, looking over the dark vest and pant combination held in front of him.
“Very you, love,” you nodded, returning your eyes to the hair in front of you as you began pinning some of the pieces in place. You smiled slightly, catching Nami fawning slightly over herself as you fashioned her hair to suit your vision.
“How did you get so good at this?” she asked you, meeting your eyes in the vanity, “this girly stuff.”
“My mother,” you responded with a smile, “she used to wear her hair showcasing several of our handmade pieces to demonstrate our craft to the customers in the shop.”
You placed a few white-tipped feathers in Nami’s lower bun, securing them with several small brass pieces. Nami nodded slightly for you to continue talking.
“And when she deemed me ready,” you said, focussing on one brass piece and slotting it within her hair, “that task fell to me.”
You smiled at your work, placing your hands on her shoulders and bringing your face down to her level and looked at her in the vanity.
“You’re really good,” she commented, turning her head slightly to gaze at the back. You picked up a smaller mirror and held it to the back of her hair and angled it in a way she could see the rear of her updo.
“Thank you,” you responded warmly. She offered you a sincere smile and you placed your hand once more on her shoulder.
You heard Zoro cough, prompting you to turn to view his attire. You let out a low whistle and Nami nodded in approval at the dark suit he chose with a tanned shirt beneath it.
“Nice ensemble, swordsman,” you complimented him with an arched brow, which he in turn smiled at the ground in response to your words, almost bashfully.
“Now,” Nami said, interrupting your train of thought slightly while rising from her seat at the vanity, “lets sort you out. Can’t have you attending dinner in a bath robe with your hair in a damp towel.”
You laughed at her comment and followed her lead to the many racks containing a vast collection of tinted silks, satins, chiffon, cotton and feathers. Several items drew you in, but one in particular had you buzzing slightly. A deep, blue dress held you in a trance as you pictured the colour matching the irises of your newly infatuation’s eyes. You reached for the material and smoothed your hands over the frock. Several layers of tulle, fine satin and chiffon fell over the gown with a corset-style back. You held the fabric as you imagined yourself being twirled before being held in the arms of the clown captain. Your eyes began to glaze over as you leant in to your fantasy, imagining the music playing as he held your body against his and whispered his loving desires into your hairline.
“That one?” you heard Zoro ask over your shoulder, noticing how close he truly was to you. This immediately broke the spell you felt over encumbered by. You shook your head before presenting the material to him.
“Oh, I’m sorry Zoro. Did you want to wear it?” you taunted him while removing the hanger from the rack and holding it up to his torso and furrowed your brows in playfulness, “not really your colour.”
You heard Nami laugh as she continued to sift through the racks for something more appropriate than a ballgown for you to wear to dinner. You laughed and turned to put the dress back onto the hanger, only to have your movements halted by Zoro grasping your wrist lightly.
“You’re thinking about the clown again, aren’t you,” he murmured in your ear, in a low enough tone that only you (to your current knowledge) would be exposed to. You inhaled sharply before shaking your head and putting the gown back onto the rack and turning to face him. While training with him and discussing the prior battle he engaged with against Buggy, he noticed how your expression changed. Your posture would stand slightly less alert, eyes glazed over slightly as you pictured the shared kiss in your mind again.
You challenged him with your eyes, opting to not speak to give yourself away. The way his eyes searched yours left an unsettling feeling in your chest.
“You know he’s murdered potentially millions, destroyed towns and nearly killed us, right?” he asked you, holding his hard gaze. You felt a small wave of sadness come over you at the thought of the violent crimes he had committed in his acts of piracy.
“You can’t change a person that far gone,” he uttered to you, breaking his gaze from you to look at your captain, “and if you leave, it’ll break him.”
You followed Zoro’s gaze to look at your captain, now freshly adorning his vest and pants. He reached up to readjust his straw hat and smiled broadly at you both.
“What do you think?” Luffy asked, and without missing a beat; Nami responded.
“You look like Luffy,” she yelled over her shoulder. You saw the captain smile and nod his head in response.
“You’re right. I do look like Luffy,” he confirmed, sitting down on the plush stool in the centre of the room again.
You felt Zoro remove his hand from your wrist and place it on your shoulder as he leant in closer to you and whispered into your ear.
“You can do better than some psychotic clown,” he said before releasing your shoulder from his grasp and turning to take up his swords and fix them on his hip. You furrowed your brows and pursed your lips, shaking your head slightly at the words and continuing to sort through the materials.
“This is the one,” you heard the voice of Nami call from a rack several isles over.
You turned your head to look at the dress she was cradling in her arms. The way you could describe the outfit she was holding out to you would be whimsical. Something from within the pages of the novels you would read while attending the shop back home.
You smiled broadly and took the dress from her arms with a wide smile.
“This is beautiful,” you commented, immediately taking the dress behind the changing screen and pooling the robe at your feet. You stepped into the dress and brought it over your hips first, before placing your arms in the sleeves and pulling it over your torso. You stepped out from behind the screen to reveal the dress. Nami smiled at you as you presented your back to her.
“Would you mind doing me up?” you asked her, pulling the strands of your drying hair over your shoulder to aid her with her task.
“This looks so good on you!” she commented, placing her hand on your zipper and pulling it to the hilt. You walked over to the vanity and looked yourself over, nodding in affirming her words.
“You’re right, it suits me,” you declared while running your fingers through your hair and beginning to fashion it in a style you were accustomed to wearing in your family’s shop. You placed several sentimental pieces of jewellery in your hair, interlacing them between several braids you managed to weave in a few minutes.
A knock appeared at the door, indicating it was time to commence the birthday meal of Miss Kaya, you walked to the side of your captain with a smile.
“Well,” he said, “let’s go eat!”
He offered his arm to you, which you took with a laugh and allowed him to escort you to the foyer where several variety of hors d’ouevres were being offered on silver platters by the staff. You accepted a class of sparkling wine from the tray while retracting your arm from Luffy’s elbow.
Luffy sprung to commence his dining experience, opting to skip the beverages and go straight to the source of the delicious smell he had been craving. You were left alone slightly, as Zoro was speaking with Klahadore, Nami was conversing with Usopp and Kaya while the other members of staff would offer trays of food and beverages to your crew and another man who was introduced to you as ‘Merry’.
You continued to have the uneasy feeling of being watched by someone, often peaking from the corners of your eyes to catch the source in the act – only to find nothing awaiting your gaze. You sighed and raised the champagne flute to your lips and took a small sip of the tart, bubbling liquid.
“Something the matter?” you heard a voice purr to you, pulling you from your trance to meet the gaze of Klahadore. You felt yourself jump a little at his introduction, bringing your attention fully onto him. You sighed before smiling at him, hoping he did not sense your uneasiness at his presence.
“I’ve not had a good pampering for some while, Mister Klahadore,” you said with a warm smile, “I’ve been at sea for longer than I ought to have been, I think.”
He hummed in response, offering you a fresh glass of champagne; which you accepted graciously. He took the empty glass from your hand and replacing it with the full one, “you seem to be one affiliated with the finer things in life.”
“I have been educated, yes,” you responded, narrowing your eyes slightly at his accusation.
“I mean no disrespect,” he said, using the palm of his hand to adjust his glasses closer to his eyes, “you just do not seem like one suited for piracy.”
You maintained your narrowed eye contact, scepticism displayed in questioning his unintentionality of the subtle jab.
“Yet here you are,” he continued, pausing between each word.
“Here I am,” you confirmed with a smile, raising your glass to your lips and sipping at the wine while looking over to make eye contact with the swordsman of the crew. You widened your eyes at him, hoping for him to catch on to your subtle cry for help at being left alone with this unsettling figure. As unaware as one could be in this type of situation, Zoro pointed to the butler with his chin and shook his head in question. You mentally screamed at him, hoping for some unnatural telepathic ability to inflict great harm on the clueless swordsman before attempting to calm yourself and returning your gaze to the butler at your side.
“You’ll be escorted to the workshop after supper,” he said with a twinge in the corner of his mouth before continuing with a small list, “there will be a work bench, some oil, some better tweezers, screws, nuts, bolts, a red hot poker, soldering metal, a blackened glass visor, magnifying glass, and to rehash your words; how did you put it?”
You widened your eyes as Klahadore leant in ever so slightly to your ear and purred into it like one would taunt a helpless, flightless infantile bird.
“A bloody stiff drink,” he uttered with a small chuckle in your ear. You sharply inhaled a breath at this comment and stepped slightly away from the butler, prompting him to teeter his laughter slightly and readjust his glasses before adding, “I’ll escort you myself after I lay Miss Kaya to rest in her chambers.”
You nodded your head to him with an uneasy smile, confirming your attendance before walking over to the place Zoro was standing.
“What the hell was that,” you whispered in a berating manner at him.
“What the hell was that,” he said in the same hushed tone, gesturing to the place you were once standing in with the butler, “when I said you could do better than the clown, I didn’t mean moving on from one unhinged weirdo to the next.”
“What the hell, Zoro,” you hissed at him through clenched teeth, “I was giving you the signal.”
“That you wanted to kiss him? Yeah, I saw,” he whispered back.
You groaned at the comment, using all of your willpower to not smack the swordsman upside the head. Breaking you out of your thoughts, you were alerted to the beginning of the dinner by Klahadore as he escorted Miss Kaya to the head of the table.
“I’ll give you a lesson on what the signal is later, swordsman,” you hissed at him, brushing past him and plastering a fake smile on your features as you entered the dining room.
Unlike your companions, you had been trained in debutant-like manners in your education for formal negotiations with upper-classed individuals. You waited for Klahadore to ensure Miss Kaya was comfortably sat in her chair before reaching for your own to take a seat, unlike Zoro, Luffy, Usopp and Nami who sat down as soon as they found their designated chairs. You mentally sighed at their inappropriate table manners before nodding to Miss Kaya and taking a seat at the table.
You commenced your meal after Miss Kaya took her fist bite, enjoying the meal so dutifully prepared for you; choosing to keep yourself away from engaging in conversation with the troop. You were feeling so unlike yourself, completely thrown by the act you had committed days prior. Usually, you displayed your bubbly, semi-flirtatious and intelligent personality with an organic ease. You furrowed your brows at the thought that the clown had a fierce hold on your very soul, a pull urging you to bring yourself over to him and give in to your unbridled emotions.
And at this thought, you finally snapped. You refused to dwell on the improbable circumstances of ever seeing Captain Buggy again, and especially foster a romantic relationship with the; as Zoro so eloquently put it: some psychotic clown. You had come too far in your crafting skills, education and ability to challenge a persons apprehensions with your charisma to throw it all away to be some love-struck puppy for a powerful sea-captain on an insane rampage. You shook your head from your thoughts and plastered a smile on your face and began to make conversation with Merry who was seated beside you.
You were shocked when Luffy decided to stand up on the table and walk over to the woman who had so openly invited to host you within her halls that your words halted in your throat, causing you to do nothing but to gawk at the scene presented before you.
“Everyone, out of this house at once!” Klahadore demanded, to which Kaya responded.
“No,” she said with a gentle cough, “it’s late. Let them stay the night.”
Klahadore reached for Kaya, bringing her to her feet and beginning to escort her to her bedchambers.
“As you wish, Miss Kaya,” he relented, “but they are to be out first thing in the morning.”
He led her up the stairs, causing you to rise to your feet and bid Kaya goodnight.
“Well, that went pretty well,” exclaimed Luffy with a playful smile, “don’t you think?”
Silence engulfed the dinner guests seated around the table as they all contemplated the sheer ignorance of their young captain. You rolled your head back with closed eyes, hearing a slight click front your left side as you groaned at the knowledge you were about to undertake handling a potentially dangerous item for the cat-like butler.
“I’m retiring to the guest quarters,” you exclaimed, turning with a smile to the ram-looking Merry and giving him a polite bow.
“Sleep well,” he said with a wide smile. You gestured with your eyes to your remaining comrades and suggested with a subtle crane of your neck to exit from the dining room. Nami sprung to her feet after pushing her chair back in response to your gaze. Zoro creased his brows and shook his head in question, prompting you to roll your eyes.
“At least someone understands what ‘the signal’ is,” you said under your breath, linking your arms with Nami and escorting one another up the stairs towards the suite you were all sharing.
You both walked in silence towards the room, enjoying being in the comfort of just the two of you. She seemed to pay close attention to several of the more shiny pieces littering the many benches throughout the hall as you walked.
“Did you live in a place like this?” she asked you, continuing to fix her gaze on a gold-dipped light fixture.
“Absolutely not,” you replied with a small smile, “I grew up with my siblings in an apartment above the shop.”
She hummed in response, continuing the slow pace you kept on your way to the suite.
“You would work with stuff like this, though?” she unlaced your arms and picked up a pristine silver box and weighed it in her palm, “rich people, stuff.”
You sighed and took the box from her hands, “yes, I worked with this stuff.” You placed the item back on the bench before turning to smile at her.
“What do you want me to say?” you asked her with a shrug, “that we were well off? That I was exposed to the finer things in life?”
She creased her brows and crossed her arms at your comments. You sighed and took a step towards her.
“Look, Nami,” you said, placing your hands on her shoulders, “I did overhear parts of your conversation with Zoro. Eat the rich and all that.”
She unlaced her arms and widened her eyes a little at your statement.
“Wealth doesn’t equate to happiness,” you said, searching your gaze into hers, “and every penny I earnt was spent running the shop, and caring for my fourteen younger siblings when my mother passed.”
She let out a small gasp at your declaration and gave you a look of slight sympathy.
“Now,” you said, releasing her shoulders from your gentle grasp with a smile, “let’s agree to not judge one another for our histories and move on. I won’t pity you or pry your past from you, and we don’t question one another’s life choices, yeah?”
She nodded slightly at your words and you both continued on to your chambers.
BONUS BELOW
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Holding a hand up to his missing ear, the famed clown captain sat atop his stage chair and hanging on to every word he managed to hear you disclose from its place among he assumed was the bottom of a skirt? His feet were both dangling over the left arm of the chair as he rested his head on the right arm, laying completely down on his back on the firm, wooden base.
He recalled letting out an insane amount of laughter at the fact that he had manage to unintentionally woo you with a simple kiss exchanged between you. He did not restrain his chuckles as he eaves-dropped the private conversation you seemed to be engaging with yourself about in the showers.
“How could this particular woman be so desperate for me,” he maliciously spat with an air of smug confidence surrounding him, “all I did was threaten her and in response, she kissed me.”
He laughed again, kicking his feet slightly at how utterly ridiculous the whole situation was. He pressed the blank space his right ear was no longer attached to and continued to listen to you argue with yourself.
“It wasn’t even that good of a kiss anyhow,” he heard you mutter to yourself in an echoing room.
“Not that good of a kiss, my right ass-cheek,” he growled, sitting up from his reclining position and planting his feat on the ground, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees, “it blew your absolute mind, baby. You’re crazy about me!”
He smirked at his own comment, before an uneasy feeling in the pit of his chest began to grow slightly.
“I didn’t even enjoy it that much,” he heard you say, also listening to the sound of a tap filling something large.
“Didn’t enjoy it that much?!” He yelled in a slight fit of rage, bringing the attention of Cabaji as he entered the tent. Buggy’s frown deepened at your words as he felt his chest bubble slightly at the feeling of inadequacy.
“Who are you talking to, Captain?” he asked.
“Shut-up!” he barked at him, “get out, I’m busy!”
Cabaji held his hands out defensively in front of himself and backed away slowly to return to the green room, leaving Buggy alone with his thoughts.
Buggy had a deep frown plastered on his face as he continued to hang onto every word he heard escape your lips.
“He could’ve been faking,” he heard you whisper to yourself, “it could’ve all been an act, a trick to lull me into a false sense of security, only to kill me after he was done with whatever he was doing with Luffy.”
“No,” he felt himself whimper slightly at your comment, dropping his frown and widening his eyes. The pit in his chest appeared to be growing and overcoming him slightly. He brought his other hand up to his lips and traced them with his fingertips lightly, attempting to bring the memory of the taste of you back to his skin.
His memory was flooded with your tender touch. His immediate reaction to push you away and inflict harm on you for daring to pull his body into yourself completely dissipated as you gently brought his body flush against your own and placed your lips against his. He remembered his sinister frown falling away from his brows as they turned upward in shock as he whimpered like some touch-starved stray animal against your embrace. Against his better judgement, he wanted nothing more than to hold you there for as long as you were willing to freely give him. He remembered lacing his gloved hand into your hair and pulling you gently into his embrace, squeezing the soft flesh of your back.
He had never felt a touch like yours before. This was his first encounter with another person so willing to freely express this amount of affection to him, he never wanted to part from your embrace – even ignoring the fact he felt you reach into his pocket to claim one of his throwing knives. He didn’t care if you were going to attempt to stab him in that moment, he would survive and you would look completely and utterly stupid. He was enjoying your touch and didn’t want to tear himself away from your clutches to brace himself for something as small as a dagger in his side.
While bracing himself in expectation of feeling the sharp object to be pried into the flesh you were exposing beneath his jacket, he felt your hands begin to explore his flesh, prompting a unrestrained moan to escape his lips. He wanted more. He wanted all of you, to be with you completely. If you were not holding him so firmly against yourself, he felt as if he would’ve become a puddle of broken pieces below your feet. Your touch brought him to his knees, in a hypothetical sense.
He cradled the empty space his right ear was missing from and felt overcome with the need to be in your presence. He was brought from his concentration on your words as he shook his head to bring him back into the present.
“What the hell?” he asked himself, looking at the position he was sitting in while cradling his ear, “why am I so focussed on you? I don’t even know your name!”
He gasped as he heard the final words escape from between your lips in a tone just above a whisper.
“I think I’m in love with Buggy the Clown.”
His jaw grew slack as he opened it in shock, the feeling in his chest warming his torso with an uncomfortable new emotion. His body slumped back into the broad backboard of his chair as he shook his head slightly, mouth continuing to hang agape in shock.
He felt his eyes begin to glaze over slightly, replaying your final words over and over again within his mind like a well-lit merry go round.
“That’s-,” he uttered in a voice below a soft murmur, “that’s all I ever wanted.”
He felt the well within his chest overflow and shoot tingles throughout his body. He closed his jaw and gulped back the saliva collected in his mouth as he continued to focus on your confession. He dropped his hand down from the empty space beside his head and hung it beside his shocked body. He looked down at his chest as the warmth continued to spread over his form as he came to understand the emotion he was feeling.
“Oh fuck,” he whispered with a wide grin forming on his face, a subtle bashfulness arising alongside a large warmth to his cheeks, “I love you too, baby.”
He let out a teetering giggle with a twinkle in his eyes as he came to terms with the adoration he had developed for you. He couldn’t wait to see you again, to tease you before pulling you into his arms. His love, his queen. His.
Part 5
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stashoflostsouls · 6 months
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Vergil haunts all of dmc4! Literally!
Now what the hell do I mean by that? I assure you, I've got a reason for saying this.
It's all because during my readthrough of the dmc4 novel, I became aware of a peculiar detail. Or better said, several peculiar details, so many that I could not help but get a certain feeling.
Namely, that Vergil haunts the entirety of the novel. And that more than just figuratively like he usually already does.
Let's just start at the beginning.
The first time I got the feeling of Vergil being very present in the narrative, was during Nero's first meeting with Dante. Specifically the part where Nero goes ham on Dante.
I think we're all familiar with this scene. But here's what the novel has to say about this moment:
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"...but every time my fist connected with the man's face felt right.", "...like an old enemy."
Nero, you've known Dante for only a handful of minutes, most of which you were actively trying to fight him. Why are you saying he feels like an adversary you've known for a long time? And why did you have to snap out of that state of mind so strongly?
I mean, yeah, could be Nero's burgeoning demonic instincts acting up. And sure, Dante does know how to be supremely annoying at times... But still, it feels strange.
Continuing on, this strangeness crystallizes fully when we reach the moment of Nero's awakening. During it he remembers:
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Question, how likely is it to get a random in-character dream of a father you've never met, helping you realize what you want/unlock what you didn't know you had? As well as remembering that instance clearly once you finally have his sword in hand?
Yeah, no, something fishy is going on and it's all because of Vergil again. Somehow he's managing to haunt Nero, influencing him, even though he's not even there (or is he?...). And if you still don't think something is going on, here's what else I found.
This is the moment where Nero, absorbed by the Savior, senses Dante nearby who's about to save him:
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...
Nero, again, you've know Dante for less than a day. And you've had the Yamato for even less than that. So why is it suddenly your birthright? A part of you?
That fits way better with someone else's estimates of the Yamato... And if we go from that guy's perspective, the part that could be safe in Dante's hands might even be the other half of his soul. Twins, after all... Would also explain the nostalgic feeling.
The mixing of perspectives doesn't even end there! It gets even more confusing when Nero gets free:
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"...part of me, my most beloved possession..."
And:
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Nero, you don't know how to use Yamato yet? And still you use it naturally? Feels like a part of you?
To be fair, it could be Nero establishing a bond with the Yamato like how one usually does with a Devil Arm, naturally knowing how to use it best. And the part where he instinctively knows where to go could also be him getting used to it all, getting better at using his demonic senses.
Still, it reads to me like he's in a bit of a trance though, like he's confused and still piecing himself together after quite literally reforming. And his body goes on an autopilot he's not completely used to...
He does get more coherent, the longer he walks through the Savior. So whatever's going on, he's slowly snapping out of it.
And then finally for the cherry on top! Here's what Nero says once he finally defeats Sanctus!
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Why that catchphrase?!
Nero, you should have absolutely no clue about it and you've never used it before as far as I know! So why?!
Why and how and what in general?!
To that, I have three possible answers prepared.
One, the book was written with the idea of Nero as the future main protagonist of all coming dmc titles in mind, so he accordingly got propped up a bit more. I mean, what better way to make people appreciate a new character than by establishing connections and parallels with another character the audience already loves? And that maybe a bit further than a normal father-son connection would do. If it doesn't make total immediate sense, it's devil may cry. And we know how dmc loves to keep it's worldbuilding vague sometimes.
Two. During the time this was written, Vergil was still kinda seen as dead by Capcom. There were no plans to bring him back, his death on Mallet Island was still seen as final, so that means his spirit could absolutely bugger around and haunt the shit out of his only son. Helping/interfering a bit here and there, maybe with a smidge of possession trickled in. We know ghosts are a thing in dmc thanks to that one anime episode after all.
Does beg the question of if Dante ever had something like that then...
And finally, for number three, my favorite! This is the one I kinda use in my own worldbuilding, since it's definitely the tastiest and it fits with the current timeline. Or I made it fit with the timeline, cause if Capcom gives me something, you know I'm gonna run with it!
Though we need some background info to properly explain it all.
The first of which is that for demons things like emotions and nightmares have more of a tangibility to them, at least in a magical sense. There are mentions in the novels of demons feeding on emotions instead of on blood, and there's also the case of Vergil's nightmares being brought to life in V's familiars. Also, there is absolutely mental magic in dmc, with the poker episode of the anime proving that without a shadow of a doubt.
Furthermore, there's also the case of Dante feeling Nero's distress when he first awakened in the lab. Yes, similar to the screaming souls bit, there's apparently also a chance of related demons sharing their feelings with one another. And maybe this is also possible for something more concrete like thoughts as well.
Or maybe dreams...
Anywho, those of you who have followed my writing or read my dmc timeline will know that I'm a firm supporter of the 'Vergil is stuck in Fortuna after dmc1'- theory. Or the 'Vergil in a jar' situation as I like to call it.
And as we know from dmc5 he isn't in too great shape during that time. I mean, the crumbling body he has at the beginning of dmc5 was the best he could do after... 13 or so years of healing?!
Yeah, he ain't looking to hot even during the time dmc4 takes place. So it wouldn't be too far fetched to say that he did not have a lot of active consciousness, that maybe even his soul was a bit loosened from his corrupted/damaged body and he instinctively latched onto what was around him in proximity. That being the Yamato, and of course Nero! Nero who slowly but surely grows into his power until it is enough to spark a connection. The Yamato maybe even stabilizes Vergil's reaching attempts, since Nero got his weird dream a month before dmc4, and the Yamato washed ashore about a year before that. And not to forget Nero finally remembers that dream once he gets his hands on the Yamato.
Also, since Vergil was already a sample in Agnus' lab, there's a very high likelihood a piece of him was used to construct the Savior, since it's a mashup of any demon the Order could catch. That would further explain why Nero kinda has a possession type of situation while stuck in the Savior, the border between father and son blending because Nero was similarly loosened and needed a bit to fully get back on his feet.
Does make his thoughts about Dante being there to rescue him... A bit painful.
But yeah, all in all, think the haunting didn't just stop after the Savior incident. If anything, I would say that Nero had even more weird dreams or influenced instances, since he now carried the Yamato around in his arm and that sword might quite literally contain a piece of Vergil himself thanks to all his past use of it.
However, it would be unnoticeable with how much their experiences overlap (family died thanks to demons, orphan, lost a brother, lost their autonomy/body once, have a need for power...) and Nero would if anything just chalk it up to all he's been through. In the novel itself he also doesn't see those moments as anything too weird, shrugging them off without a second thought often.
I mean, yeah, thinking you're being possessed/contacted/influenced by your father's wandering spirit now and then seems a bit far fetched, least of all cause Nero has almost no idea about Vergil. Or what being closely related to someone with demon blood all could mean. Great work on that front, Dante!
Anyway, the moment the haunting finally stops is probably when Nero visits the lab again with Nico in tow, a year before dmc5. Vergil has healed enough by then to snap fully back into himself, focusing on the Yamato as a goal to get to as soon as he has enough power to break free on his own.
And the rest is history.
So yeah, hope you enjoyed this longer ramble about one of the headcanons I've got. Was quite some fun piecing it all to together, let's see if it makes as much sense to me as it does to others.
Thanks for reading and wish you a good one!
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alastairstom · 1 month
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The more times I read Chain of Thorns, the more deeply I am affirmed in my belief that it is actually as much of a masterpiece as Clockwork Princess is, albeit in a different way. It's extremely character-driven and everyone's arc feels very realistic. The writing style and prose are on point. The depictions of grief are actually really good despite my initial criticisms because they're so complex, which becomes increasingly evident with every readthrough. The final battle is a fun read and the ending is open, hopeful, and satisfyingly character-oriented. I have hope that one day other people will see it too - after all, as Cassie said, people hate third books until they don't.
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awarriorqueen · 2 months
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hi, it's been a long break for me in between my X-Men comic reviews, but now that things are sort of calmed down, let's get on with my readthrough of Gambit and Rogue finally getting hitched! 💒👰🤵😘
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I thought it was really cute they were just so flirty and lovey dovey ever since they got back from their fake couples' therapy vaction and omg at this line 'all you're thinking about are honeymoons' alskdfhaskdghs
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cute wedding flirting 💕 remember how iconic they were at Scott and Jean's wedding? I think they're always destined to steal the show at weddings lol
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This was just utterly romantic and I saw it coming a mile away, ever since we saw Rogue & Gambit at the pre-wedding party, but it was no less satisfying and so like Remy to do ❤❤❤
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I'm combining a bit of Mr. & Mrs. X content here because the first issue actually does go back in time to expand on their wedding, and I really loved how cute it was that they were all scrambling to get Rogue all the typical bridal tradition things, and also laura and storm helping out gambit is sweet :')
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also LOL at kurt being like "I'M BLUE" and yeah like. mystique is all kinds of fucked up, but I guess it was nice she showed up???
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and i'll probably get in trouble for sharing all these panels...but they're all so good 🥺 I actually went and peeked at this wedding very early on in my comics readthrough, but I didn't have the context behind who was beside them at the altar and why those connections mean so much :')
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Storm is there--because she's Stormy and Gambit's best friend, and one of Rogue's best friends as well--and of course, Laura! As Remy's surrogate daughter--and I had zero knowledge of their relationship at the beginning of my comics readthrough, so now I'm like AWWWWWW 😭 and then you have Kurt and Bobby on Rogue's side, and...tbh Rogue never really interacted as much with Kurt after the X-Men got split up when half the group 'died' like she did back in the 80's 😅 despite him being her sort of brother--and obviously I love Kurt so I'm happy he's there--I have always wanted way more interactions between Rogue and Kurt since like the 90's but they just never get put together that much? (although I guess she was there when kurt was murdered, and she was pretty broken up about it after...even though the relationship doesn't really get on the page that much). And I guess Bobby is Rogue's best friend? not really sure how it happened in the 90s but he was the one to take her on her 'let's forget about Gambit while he's in the coma I put him in' roadtrip so askldfhsadg he's a real one
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Anyway, I love both Gambit and Rogue's vows, and they hit even deeper once you really know EVERYTHING they've been through ❤ The decision for them to get married makes a lot of sense even with the spontaneity, especially after we got to see them have the most important conversations they'll probably ever have with each other in Rogue & Gambit vol. 1. So yeah, after committing to be together, after realizing they only want to be with each other after everything else they went through apart, why not get married? ❤
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and now we can officially move on to Mr. & Mrs. X 😘
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bethanydelleman · 6 months
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Northanger Abbey Readthrough Ch 13
Isabella's true character is revealed Catherine, "Isabella appeared to her ungenerous and selfish, regardless of everything but her own gratification." and James Morland, smitten with Isabella, has his worst moment:
“I did not think you had been so obstinate, Catherine,” said James; “you were not used to be so hard to persuade; you once were the kindest, best-tempered of my sisters.”
And then when Isabella and John Thorpe PHYSICALLY HOLD CATHERINE IN PLACE, James continues to do... nothing. He only finally tells John to stop after Catherine breaks away herself.
#downwithJamesMorland
It's unfortunate because James Morland is one of the few unmarried Austen men by the end of his novel and you'd like to use him for fan fiction but his sister defence score is so low... (nothing is sexier than a man who treats his sister right!) James ends up reminding me a lot of Edmund Bertram. There is nothing wrong with having a crush on a girl, but you should not be willing to sacrifice your principles for her!
Catherine stands resolute. Her big defining moment of moral backbone is resisting peer pressure, which might not seem like much but it's hard! Especially with the opposition of her older brother. And I want to point out, it's not just to avoid another horrible carriage ride with Thorpe, she does offer to go with them the next day. As she contemplates herself, it was not only for her own pleasure that she refused, she believed herself in the right not to lie.
I love this quote:
If I could not be persuaded into doing what I thought wrong, I never will be tricked into it.
Also Jane Austen playing cheeky with our imaginations:
“She is as obstinate as—” Thorpe never finished the simile, for it could hardly have been a proper one.
My mind automatically goes to "ass" (donkey) by the way.
This type of sentence, that immediately contradicts itself, is used a lot in Jane Austen's juvenilia:
Her explanation, defective only in being—from her irritation of nerves and shortness of breath—no explanation at all, was instantly given.
Here is an example from Frederic & Elfrida:
They were exceedingly handsome and so much alike, that it was not every one who knew them apart. Nay, even their most intimate freinds had nothing to distinguish them by, but the shape of the face, the colour of the Eye, the length of the Nose, & the difference of the complexion.
We also have our first hint here of the General's true character:
To such anxious attention was the General’s civility carried, that not aware of her extraordinary swiftness in entering the house, he was quite angry with the servant whose neglect had reduced her to open the door of the apartment herself. “What did William mean by it? He should make a point of inquiring into the matter.” And if Catherine had not most warmly asserted his innocence, it seemed likely that William would lose the favour of his master forever, if not his place, by her rapidity.
He definitely has a temper and very exacting standards, for both his staff and his children. However, he is very polite with Catherine, which makes her think favourably of Thorpe, "made her think with pleasure that he might be sometimes depended on." If only she knew!
Catherine then learns that Mr. Allen doesn't think that the trip would have been entirely prudent, Mrs. Allen agrees but only from a fashion perspective. Catherine is mortified to learn she has done something wrong, but Mrs. Allen doesn't seem very concerned:
Young people will be young people, as your good mother says herself. You know I wanted you, when we first came, not to buy that sprigged muslin, but you would. Young people do not like to be always thwarted.
This is actually a pretty wise statement, though I'm not sure Mrs. Allen has really been doing her job as a chaperone properly. It also speaks to those grey lines around propriety. We don't see women in Jane Austen's novels ruined by a single act of impropriety in the way that contemporary Historical fiction/romance is always imagining. It is usually a pattern of behaviour. And people clearly understand that young adults/teenagers will be a bit wild at times, because you know, people are people and have always been people.
Now we get to one of Catherine's flaws (which will come up again) she doesn't understand when her actions will be taken as officious or meddling. Her desire to warn Isabella comes from a good place, but as Mr. Allen points out, it's only going to make people dislike her. Elizabeth Bennet has a much more delicate and prudent approach when it comes to Lydia going to Brighton, even though that doesn't end up changing the result. She knows that direct opposition to the scheme would only make her younger sister hate her, which would solve nothing and only create more problems. As Mr. Allen points out, if Mrs. Thorpe is allowing it, let it go.
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thedemonscrawler · 6 months
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gonna procrastinate on writing by talking about writing woo
So, fun fact! Permission Slip is usually being written on two different documents at once, which should be but are not actually identical? And neither of them match the actual AO3 version you guys read?
1st Draft
The first draft is written with a combination of OpenOffice and Google Docs.
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(I'll get to why that says Mobile Copy in a sec)
The OpenOffice document is meant to be the Master Draft of the fic. It's the entire story so far-- outline, notes, all the chapters written and the bits of chapters we haven't gotten to yet.
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Yeah, it's lengthy. The reason it says 'Active Version' is starting around Chapter 5, I began saving a copy of the document up to the most recent chapter finished.
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This is because of how I write scenes out of order, and having an older draft lets me go back for things that got rewritten. It's also really neat to see how various ideas evolved over the story, or how old some of the scenes are.
OpenOffice has the Master Draft, not just because it can handle it, but so I can put my laptop into airplane mode and write offline if I really need to focus. But the story doesn't stay there!
If you've seen the snippets I've shared, you know that sometimes they're highlighted in grey, like this:
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(yeah you enjoy that snippet from Chapter 15)
The grey highlights are a system to tell myself 'this is a section that needs to be copied over to the other document', almost always a section I have just written that session. Feels good to have a whole page in grey.
So from OpenOffice, the grey sections are copied over to GoogleDocs, and become the 2nd Draft.
2nd Draft
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..okay, so there are actually TWO GoogleDoc copies of Permission Slip. One of them is a 'master' version, just like the Open Office file. The other is the Mobile version. The master version has all of the chapters and outline and stuff, while the Mobile copy only goes back one or two chapters prior to the current one. Why?
Cos it turns out that when a document gets to be around 110 pages long, Docs starts being a little bitch and lags real bad on mobile, or starts crashing. So the mobile version was made so I could type on my phone. Same deal, new sections are highlighted in grey and copied back to the OpenOffice version when I'm on the laptop again.
Since the GoogleDocs version can be worked on from multiple locations, it's the one that gets the most edits. If there are substantial changes made they'll be copied back to the OpenOffice document, but minor edits aren't as crucial, and there are some sections that are pretty different between the two now.
From the GoogleDocs version on to the final(ish) version:
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3rd Draft
The AO3 version should match the GoogleDocs version, and for the most part it does-- but not always. That last minute readthrough to catch all the spaces added after italics is also a time for minor edits. Missing words, dialogue rewrites, etc. There's one chapter that had a chunk written in the editor, but unfortunately I can't remember which one it is now 8'D only that it's between chapters 9 and 12. Naturally the AO3 version is the one you guys get to see.
Uuuuh yeah so. Overcomplicated system, go!
Also if you want a word processor for free, I recommend LibreOffice! Its based on the same open source software as OpenOffice, only it's actually still being updated and stuff (I still use OO just cos it's what I have 8'D).
Unfortunately I have yet to find a word processing app with cloud-based storage that can be edited from multiple devices, so I can't replace GoogleDocs with something better.
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classpectpokerap · 7 months
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1, 49, 84, 95, 99? (ps this is grimdykes !)
When did you first get into Homestuck?
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Not even joking, I cracked open Problem Sleuth the day after the Epilogues dropped. I had been reading a crossover between Homestuck and Worm (and Naruto and Mother of Learning), and then I finally took the plunge on 4/13/19.
49. One character you didn’t like at first, but like now?
From that same readthrough:
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I thought dave SUCKED.
LMAO.
(In my defense he was mostly made up of direct quotes from Hussie's IRL chatlogs at this early in the story)
84. Favorite Homestuck flash?
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95. What would your planet be?
idk : sob: its late and brain hurt
99. One unpopular HS opinion you have?
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bfjasdfdsgfdgsffagsdfhdfsadgsjfkgfsadgsjfkdgfsadgsfsdafkdsgf
hi grimdykes :)
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decepti-thots · 2 years
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an absolutely shocking number of people wanted me to talk about my thoughts on this post after i made it, lmao, so HERE WE GO, i'm gonna ramble in a very unstructured way about my dumbass theories regarding the development of… well actually a couple separate-but-linked subplots in MTMTE/LL. not about how they ended up, but about my theories as to what changed in the course of writing the comic and why.
specifically, what i have guessed might have changed in the development of rewind's subplot regarding finding agent 113 (dominus ambus in the final comic- we'll get to that below) and its overlap with the chromedome-prowl and DJD subplots.
big disclaimer: nothing i say here unless explicitly stated has been confirmed in any way by roberts, it's almost ALL wild theorising. i could easily be wrong about literally everything here, lmao, in fact i probably am! but ever since my second readthrough of the comic where my brain went 'wait, what was the motivation behind making rewind's dead husband minimus' brother when that connection never pays off??? roberts what???', combined with finding out that the cd-rw-prowl plot is one of the only ones confirmed to have dramatically changed from roberts' original plans, i have been. bizarrely obsessed with the whole mess of it. apologies in advance. but here we go.
first of all, the things that are confirmed, from jro directly:
the original plan for the chromedome-rewind-prowl stuff was that chromedome and prowl had been working together when chromedome met rewind; in this concept, prowl sent agent 113 to infiltrate the DJD and used chromedome as a plant at the relinquishment clinic to first shadowplay rewind into forgetting anything that could lead him to the truth, and then later to be a kind of 'minder' who followed rewind around and stop him finding out the truth. this is what prowl is referring to in the flashback scene prior to Overlord escaping where chromedome shadowplays him. the blackmail he was intended to be threatening to tell rewind there is that chromedome became his friend under prowl's orders, and false pretenses. the other major hint to this plan is the mention chromedome makes in issue #12 of rewind's supposed UV light allergy- this was originally chromedome making sure none of the marks were seen by medics. this plot is by word of god and the text of the comic itself a hundred percent gone in the final product. but it was not something roberts had committed to changing until AFTER the overlord arc, hence that infamous dangling thread that now has no clear explanation re: prowl's blackmail material.
relatedly, the original plan was for chromedome and rewind to just be friends for quite some time into roberts planning out the series' trajectory. even when actually writing the early issues, roberts was not sure if they would be romantic for a while, so he hedged his bets. (in the event hasbro said 'no' to his request to confirm cd/rw as married, he had a whole backup plan for tailgate and cyclonus.) in turn, it's generally assumed, though technically not confirmed, that e.g. this is also true of prowl and chromedome as partners, rewind and 113 as married, etc. it just logically follows. but yeah. all these original relationships were platonic or possibly, in one case, familial.
prior to writing the series, the first plan for agent 113/the person rewind was looking for was for him to be eject. it's not confirmed this was going to be eject as rewind's spark brother, but contextually, it seems pretty likely, since a) roberts has revisited the concept a few times, including with 113 once he's dominus, and b) the whole rewind/eject being near identitcal thing makes it an obvious approach- they're referred to in fan circles as 'twins' a lot the same as rumble and frenzy. at some point, late enough the notebooks covering "pre-production" outlines for MTMTE's first season do not mention him, Dominus Ambus becomes 113 instead.
so my big takeaway from thinking about this whole thing, to start off, is that the original plan probably involved agent 113 being vos. not the previous vos as we ended up with, but the vos we were introduced to as part of the DJD, the guy who turns into a sniper rifle and speaks in old cybertronian. there's some stuff early on when he's introduced that points to the idea that at the very least, the audience is supposed to consider this idea as plausible, namely:
agent 113 isn't first brought up in mtmte. he's first brought up as a mole the autobots have in the DJD in 'bullets', the prose story accompanying Last Stand of the Wreckers. first aid keeps an eye out for autobot badges on patients that have been shot because springer has told him that due to increasing paranoia about being caught as a spy, agent 113 insists on sending messages hidden in bullets shot at autobot soldiers, identifiable as his because they go very specifically through the right "eye" of his targets' autobrands. so 113 is a sniper/sharpshooter. and vos turns into a sniper rifle. one of the first times we see him is in a large spread where megatron is wielding him, in fact. this is then a significant plot point in mtmte later. (swerve and all that.)
vos has the quirk of only speaking "old cybertronian" that is unintelligble to many characters and the audience. the comic goes out of its way to make rewind knowing old cybertronian in mtmte a running gag early on (with the joke part being that he always gets the translation slightly wrong). not only is that a really specific link, but it feels totally plausible that the expected payoff is that only rewind recognises 113 when he speaks in old cybertronian, because he's heard it spoken before. (if 113 is originally eject, this makes a lot of sense; it relates to both of them being older than most of the cast, perhaps.)
dominus ambus is just. clearly not meant to be the pet as of when the pet and him are first designed in mtmte. lmao. and for that matter, minimus is clearly not designed to turn into a turbofox in his irreducible form. when we get the teeny tiny minimus reveal in RiL, it's really clear the idea is he looks very similar in both "forms"- same face, same colours, etc, but his irreducible form doesn't turn into anything. he has exposed ball joints like the internal 'skeletons' of TFs/toys and no kibble. the idea of 'he can't turn into anything, but he can wear armour to become whatever' is a pretty clear inference, right? (and was the dominant interpretation prior to the reveal dominus becomes a turbofox, ftr!) but to make dominus the pet, they have to design his internal form to look nothing like either his own armour OR minimus' internal form. that's… a pretty blatant retcon, imo! why is he a weird green colour when his armour is yellow? why does he have a fuckton of kibble and minimus is Nothing when in his irreducible form? retcon, baby.
so i really think that an early concept was that 113 was still an active spy in the DJD, and that this changed at some point, probably fairly early on but late enough the original seeds had been sown, with roberts doing a neat patch job to take the concept in another direction that still worked with his set up… but the question becomes WHY it changed. after all, none of the confirmed changes actually require altering that concept, so if i'm right, then why the hell would you change it?
my theory about why you'd have to change it relates to something else that has always confused me, which is where the really fun but kind of objectively batshit concept of 'rewind is making his new husband look for his dead husband he's still in love with, apparently has no idea why chromedome would be insecure about this' comes from. (it's great, i love it, but it doesn't strike me as an obvious storytelling beat to go for! it creates great storytelling opportunities because it's very… unintuitive for a love story, imo.)
which is that… they weren't originally married, which is kind of obvious in retrospect and ESPECIALLY now we know that 113 was originally eject! 'rewind doesn't realise chromedome might be insecure about his best friend looking for a guy from before they met he also cares for' is a way more obvious emotional beat when you think on it, imo! (plus it turning out to ACTUALLY be about chromedome's guilt because he knows where 113 is, ofc- there's the twist for the audience.) like. rewind thinking that is an ok thing to do with a friend is clearly the more intuitive plotline beat, versus 'rewind does this to his current husband who he is letting think he will replace'.
chromedome/rewind then winds up being romantic, and to match this, 113/rewind ALSO has to become romantic. right? otherwise, the then-still-a-misdirect of chromedome's jealousy makes no sense. why would chromedome be worried about a platonic friend replacing him as rewind's husband? so now, 113 is rewind's dead husband all of a sudden. (sidenote: this also makes the very bizarre backstory re: the wild power imbalance between dominus and rewind a lot more… understandable? if it was not envisioned as them getting married on the part of the author.)
maybe eject has already been replaced when this idea slots into place, or maybe dominus is conceived in part to allow for this element in a way that makes sense. you can't really tell in this theory. (in a similar way, puzzling out whether he's related to minimus because the idea was there for minimus to be a loadbearer and it created a way to make him 113 came first, or if it was the reverse, is hard to tell. ftr, when the magnus armour is referenced in the notebooks, it does NOT contain reference to minimus; magnus is just a small person who has been given augmented armour in those drafts.) (this has also always bugged me. WHY is rewind's dead husband also minimus' brother when the narrative doesn't do anything with that connection!!! wellll. that's one possibility. lmao.)
the original plan for chromedome to be in on it with prowl and 113- to have manipulated and lied to rewind, and for all of them to, essentially, have screwed him around- was changed by roberts because chromedome/rewind became romantic. he decided, imo completely rightly, that the subtext there with a romantic pairing was just wrong tonally and way too uncomfortable. you're getting into straight up gaslighting abuse, and for the first romantic couple of the series, and one of the first ever m/m pairings in TF, i mean… yeeeeah.
but this creates kind of a discrepency. because 113 is still fucking rewind over in this scenario. suddenly it goes from 'multiple friends of rewind turn out to have collectively been deceiving him' to 'both rewind's husbands have been deceiving him' to 'well rewind's NEW husband is completely innocent, he had nothing to worry about all along cause if they ever find dominus, he's the one who is a dick now' which like. that is not a satisfying conclusion to the conflicts set up wherein rewind proves that he is not so stuck in the past he won't choose chromedome over dominus if he has to, or where chromedome has to learn rewind really does unconditionally love him and he's not replaceable. right? it's a cheap get out of jail free card there.
and THAT'S why i would guess that if 113 was gonna be vos, it got changed. people have noted that dominus is easy to read as implicitly a bit of dick in mtmte when you think about it- he ran off without telling rewind, after all. but only when you think about it. this makes sense in the original concept. it doesn't really have a good option of payoff once chromedome is not nearly as bad himself. and in this theory, dominus doesn't so much get changed so he wasn't at all a dick about it, he just… gets moved out of focus with the "domestication" explanation. suddenly, instead of a potential confrontation between rewind, chromedome and 113 in dying of the light, to name one possible example, you have the revelation that dominus has been out of action this whole time, and now he can instead be a catalyst for a conclusion between chromedome and rewind. it's a little bit of sleight of hand. it means the audience isn't thinking about that in DotL. they're thinking about cd/rw, not dominus, even when he's right there. (a macguffin of a character til the end…)
and now you know the insane and completely unverifiable theory that has percolated in my brain to explain some of that whole plot's weirdness the past, oooh, 3 years or so. very good chance none of it's true but it's the best i have and it just drove me INSANE because i've reread everything relating to cdrw and minimus in mtmte SO much that the weird gaps nagged me constantly. this is what it's like being me. yes, it's annoying for me too. but for those who were wondering: here you go. 2200 words of this:
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gumnut-logic · 11 months
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Belongs
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This isn’t my best, but at least it is something and finished.
Thank you to @gaviiadastra​ for the readthrough and for being her usual amazing self.
We have a conversation and a pile of FishTank that may or may not make any sense, but since it is past midnight and I have a 9am - 8pm day tomorrow, I’m dumping it here and running away.
I hope you enjoy it in any case ::hugs the lot of you::
-o-o-o-
“I want to do it.”
Gordon sighed. This was the fifth time his heavy lifting brother had asked and apparently he didn’t want to hear a no.
“You don’t need to do it, Virgil.” The breeze caught in the caldera cooled off his wet hair.
“Yes, I do. You can do it. I should be able to, as well.” He slapped his helmet on as if to end the argument.
Gordon sighed again and, shoving on his own helmet, pushed off the rock they had been using as a starting point for the afternoon.
They were supposed to be doing recertification diving drills…and they had. All the required ones. But apparently Virgil had a bee in his helmet and wanted to attempt some seriously deep diving.
Chances were the big softy had heard or seen something that could get a younger water-borne brother into trouble in some random situation.
Ah, for goodness sake.
He surfaced, swam back to Virgil, and switched to comms. “C’mon, fess up. Why do you need to know? It’s way beyond what you will need in the field.”
Virgil glared at him through his visor, lips thin with annoying determination. “But you can do it, can’t you?”
“Well, yeah. Aquanaut, you know.”
“Then I want to be able to do it.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I don’t care. I want to do it anyway.” He pushed off the rock and looked ready to dive into the centre of the caldera and damn the depth.
Gordon followed him, determined not to let him out of his sight. “I just don’t understand.”
Virgil’s green-striped aqua-suit helmet turned to him. “What’s to understand? I thought you’d enjoy showing me this.”
“It can be dangerous.”
“Which is why I want to make sure I can do it.”
“Because you don’t trust that I can do it?”
“What?”
“I know it sucks having to sit up in Two and just watch, but you know I know what I’m doing, don’t you?”
“Of course!”
“Then why? I’m the only one who needs to know how to dive that deep. You don’t, and I don’t want to risk you.”
“Now who isn’t trusting.” Virgil turned away.
“No, that’s bullshit, Virgil and you know it. I trust you with everything. It’s just…” His voice ran out of words.
Virgil turned back to him, the water rippling with his movement. “Just what?”
“It’s not safe for you.”
“But it’s safe for you?
“Of course, it’s safe for me! I have the training and experience. It’s not something that just happens, Virgil, it takes years of physical training…training that you do not have!”
Finally, it appeared to hit home, Virgil frowning in a way that screamed acknowledgement of facts.
“I’m sorry, Virg, this is beyond your current physical capability.” Gordon drew in a breath. “You are a good diver. As good as any, and I’m proud of your achievements. I love that you can swim with me, but there are things that you just can’t do.” He let the breath out. “I’m sorry.”
Virgil looked across the surface of the water, away, towards the villa, high on its cliff. He muttered something that didn’t quite make it over comms.
“Virg?”
“’S nothing.”  He slipped beneath the water and his blue-green yellow shadow swam off towards the beach on the far side of the caldera.
Yet another sigh. Great. Now his brother was pissed.
And still Gordon didn’t know Virgil’s motivation for wanting to push the limits. He had his certification, enough for rescues, enough to accompany Gordon pretty much everywhere except the deep sea.
There was no way Gordon was letting any of his brothers down there. Certainly not without a Thunderbird.
Gritting his teeth, he swam after his stubborn brother.
-o-o-o-
Virgil got his feet under him and strode through the water and up onto the beach. The breeze chilled his hair as he took off his helmet and, with a sigh, clipped it to his belt.
The yellow of his underwater baldric was a glare broken by two green lines either side of the silicon leather and he randomly missed the familiarity of his green engineering and logistics baldric.
Because he wasn’t an aquanaut.
Just not aquanaut enough.
Behind him he heard Gordon surface like the fish he was, fast and as fluid as the liquid he lived in.
There were going to be more questions, Virgil could see them coming.
Sure enough. “Virg? You okay?”
“I’m fine, Gordon. Don’t worry about it.”
There was silence for a moment.
Just a moment.
“What’s got you so worked up?”
“I’m not worked up, Gordon.” He retracted his flippers and headed towards the track that led to the villa.
“Virgil!”
“What?!”
“Talk to me.”
His shoulders dropped as he turned back to his brother. “What do you want me to say? That I would like to be able to reach you at all times? That, yes, it is hard to sit up there and watch? That you need back up and I’m it? Well, you’ve made it very clear it isn’t possible, so it doesn’t matter. I’m fine. I’m going home.”  He turned away. Coffee would be great. A visit to Two in her hangar might be a lovely distraction as well.
“Virgil!”
Oh, for the love of-
“You do know that for all intents and purposes I am rarely that far out of reach. We do deep so rarely, the chances-“
“Have proven to be enough. Once is far too many times.”
“And what exactly do you think you could do?”
“Go with you.”
Gordon stared at him. The caldera washed up ankle high wavelets as if to beat off the time his brother was emphasising with his eyes. “And do what? Put both of us at risk? Force Scott to drag you off the ocean floor as well as me?” Gordon rocked back on his feet, one hand pointing at the sand in emphasis. “No. I won’t put him through that. Just no. You stay where you belong. Where you are most effective.”
“And where is that, Gordon? Where do you think I belong?”
Gordon opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. He stared at Virgil, his eyebrows slowly creasing his forehead down the middle.
“You’re a pilot.”
“Yes, I am.”
“And an astronaut. Fully certified.”
“Yes, we all are. Your point?”
“You don’t belong in space anymore than you belong in the water. And you’re only a pilot because of Dad and Scott.”
“What?!”
“That’s it, isn’t it.” Gordon took a step towards him, his expression one of revelation. “Scott was born to fly. John and Allie were made for space. But you…and I thought I was the odd one out.”
“What the hell are you on about?”
“You’ve gone out of your way to follow all of us, haven’t you.”
“We’ve all cross-trained, Gordon, its part of the job.” Virgil waved a dismissive hand, swallowed the lump in his throat, and turned back towards the path. And here he’d thought volunteering to learn a little more might have been appreciated.
So much for that.
The sand stuck to his aqua shoes as he stepped onto the gravel path, climbing up back to the villa.
He could feel Gordon’s eyes boring into his back.
He grit his teeth. Sure, he had shown interest in what his brothers were doing. They all found so much joy in what they loved, Virgil had wanted to support them any way he could.
Gordon was right in that Scott was born to fly. The moment he had been old enough, Virgil had vowed to follow him into the blue.
And yes, John being so far away, demanded that Virgil reach even higher when he needed to.
Same went for Gordon and his obsession with the ocean. He needed to understand and be there for his little brother, both to keep him safe and to show him how much…
And Allie. Virgil had to keep up.
He had to.
“Hey.”
Virgil startled out of his thoughts, jumping as Gordon grabbed an arm, suddenly right…there.
Brown eyes, much like his own, but surrounded by soggy blond hair stared up at him, before pulling him into a hug, a very tight hug.
Virgil wheezed. “Gor-don.”
But his brother didn’t let go.
Asphyxiation by aquanaut was a thing, apparently.
He was just considering an application of heavy lifting muscles when Gordon finally let him go.
Virgil staggered back a step. “Are you okay?”
But Gordon was looking up the path, one hand still on Virgil’s arm. “C’mon, race you back. I’ll whip you up an iced mocha, just like you like it.” And Gordon was moving, tugging Virgil along behind him.
Okay.
But he couldn’t help but smile, just a little, despite his concern for his brother’s mental state.
Because really, Gordon had answered his own question.
Virgil knew exactly where he belonged.
With his family.
-o-o-o-
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quartings · 5 months
Text
Finally reading the full XY volumes!
For context, XY is my least favorite Pokespe arc, so I decided to give it a second chance hoping that the extra chapters and better art in the full volumes would help me like it more. But did it?
What I liked:
I will say that the extra “filler” chapters really helped pace out the story much better and warmed me up to the characters! The Pokemon-Amie and Super Training chapters in particular. It felt weird not having an explanation in the originals for Y’s Sylveon, let alone an Eevee. This is why I disagree with people nowadays hating filler content. Done right, it helps with character and worldbuilding in small subconscious ways that can help an audience enjoy a story more!
I do enjoy how bold the arc starts, having Vaniville be decimated by the legendaries in the first chapter!
Reading the XY arc chapter-to-chapter and mini volume to mini volume, it felt like X took much longer to even help his friends. Now reading the arc all at once, he feels much less stubborn and selfish, which is good!
Minor thing- removing Y’s nudity is the only instance of censorship in Pokemon Adventures that I actually appreciate. It doesn’t disrupt the plot or make no sense like censoring Green’s Pokeball booby trap, Emerald’s pee joke, or especially Norman and Mirei’s abuse.
Apparently, a lot of the Gurkinn stuff was added in the full volumes? My memory on it’s a bit foggy but that’s wild to me if true- it just feels so plot-important. No wonder I felt the arc was badly-paced on my first readthrough!
Speaking of which, I love that we get chapters dedicated to non-dexholders again! It feels like we last got stuff like that with Keldeo in BW or the Hoenn Gym Leaders!
A lot of the other things I like about XY have been said by most other people already and apply to Pokespe as a whole. Battles are fun and creative, making great use of Pokemon trivia from their dex entries, the leads are unique and well-written compared to the rest of the franchise, there’s a good mix of dark and light themes, and the returning characters are fun and meaningful cameos!
What I disliked still:
It’s still really hard for me to suspend my disbelief that Team Flare managed to silence or arrest everyone who saw the Xerneas-Yveltal battle or its aftermath, especially in the age of the internet.
The gang learning most of the important plot stuff from Team Flare constantly spilling their plans kind of killed some of the tension for me, to be honest. Also them letting all the grunts go instead of capturing them for info or just to turn them over to the authorities.
Sycamore not realizing Lysandre is evil is stupid in any version of XY’s story, I’m sorry.
Team Flare’s brainwashed victims having the “same personalities” felt a bit lazy still. Brainwashing is one of my least favourite tropes though, so I might be biased there.
I think the manga over-corrected with Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno. Instead of all being overly positive and aimless like in the games, being put in constant danger in the manga means they’re all similar levels of scared and stressed, so their personalities don’t stand out all that much either. Shauna especially just being a similar aggressive and serious type like Y, just with less of a backstory. That one weird sexist quip Shauna had in the Sylveon chapter also rubbed me the wrong way, too.
Minor- I still don’t get why Kusaka aged the main cast down from 17/18 to 12 in this arc. It just makes X and Y look like they got hydraulic pressed proportions-wise, and makes the aforementioned scene with Y feel gross.
Speaking of which, why is Clemont drawn SO short in this arc?! He’s normal-sized in the official art and the anime, so that’s another baffling change to me.
Minor- Malva gets her Pyroar back from Aliana after the Diancie chapter where she already has Pyroar- is there something I’m missing here?
While the pacing has vastly improved compared to the mini volumes, it still feels off in the final two volumes. Suddenly taking an intermission from the Ultimate Weapon to introduce Zygarde practically out of nowhere just feels clunky. Compared to the anime where they had both Zygarde and the Megalith planned months in advance with proper foreshadowing. Or a better comparison would be the RS manga, where both evil teams planned on using Groudon and Kyogre from the start, and that’s what we end the series on.
TLDR: Overall I’ve really warmed up on this arc! I had way less confusion reading through it thanks to the extra chapters, and I’ve grown to understand X a bit more as a protagonist. I still have some problems with the arc, namely how the rivals are handled, and how Team Flare is presented as an omnipresent all-controlling shadow government when their members at all levels constantly spill their secrets. If you have any other thoughts, facts, or even disagreements, I’d love to hear them!
I’d say this reread has put XY above B2W2 and maybe SwSh in my ranking of all the arcs, which is still something! Now we all have to wait and see how ORAS’ full volume release changes its place on the rankings, hehe…
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makima-s-most-smile · 8 months
Text
Trigun Maximum 6.2
Okay, okay... I shall take a tumblr-break until I finally catch up to the bookclub and finish the other two pieces for it. Mmmmmaybe... We'll see how strong my determination is
04: Death Omen
*looks at the frontpage, sees Knives* I mean, the title of the chapter is not untrue.
Auditory overstimulation… I feel you, Knives. (Never thought I would write that) But it gives you the feeling that Knives is so close to lashing out. When was the last time he was in such a mass of people? July? And current Knives is so much more unhinged than July-Knives, and even that dude was already off the handle.
Conrad, Conny. YOU have no right to be that stressed out. Knives being alive is YOUR fault. You gave him a new body. Hell, you are the reason that Vash unleashed the angel arm in the first place. 
Elendira… just there for the slaughter. Girl, I wanna dissect you. (affectionately)
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Comparing to the other towns we have seen, this one looks really big! *looks how the chapter progresses* Oh… Oh NO! NIGHTOW!
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Me, when I get to talk to someone about Trigun. I am the opposite of hinged.
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And explanation why Vash was especially wanted for the murder of Vasquez. As a plant engineer he was pretty important for the continuation of the human race. At least this Conrad does not seem like… well… *stares at Stampede* *stares harder* Someday I'll make an OC that is German and kicks him in the nuts and asks him if he didn't learn anything from the past... Someday... *whispers*
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*looks back to Trigun Ultimate 1* Yeah, 50 plants still seems a bit steep, but not that steep anymore. Also, ewewewewewew, that looks like they produce big pieces of chicken breast. Just imagine a fucking raw chicken breast plopping out of this cloaca-like apparatus
Does Knives reach out to hurt plants like Vash does? He seems to be in the city for his dying sister. That shows at least some kind of care for his kind, more than he has spared to Vash. Then again, Vash has the ability to say no. Knives cares for his sisters. I overread it in my first readthrough. They don’t have a voice and they don’t have a choice, but he cares for their physical wellbeing. That is more than I assumed. 
Well, at least Knives is okay with Conrad experimenting on him. Yay for Conrad having consent from ONE of the twins he experimented on? Weeee?
What is the timeline here? When did Conrad join Knives? He still looks like in his 30-40s. So he has to be 190 years old now? How? Knives got to Conrad before July and after parting from Vash. Why does Conrad realise that Knives is beyond sanity just now? Knives was a big player for the July-catastrophe. Conrad was there. If Conrad didn’t… make a new body for Knives, Knives would be gone. All of what happened since Jeneora Rock is partly Conrad’s fault and it starts to dawn on him just NOW?!
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Whatever happened, the researcher holds the plants in high regard. He is grateful for her service. And he is right with pointing out that humanity’s situation forces them to exploit the plants. But they are also just delaying the inevitable. Less plants means more stress on the living plants, which leads to more plants dying. The only resource for anything is plants. Humanity is on their last legs. Then again, could the plants even survive without the humans? It is a symbiosis that has lost its balance.
How has Knives never heard of last runs before? Like, dude, you feel when your sister is in bad shape. WTF?!
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Does Conrad know that Knives caused the Great Fall? Knives is one of the main reasons WHY his sisters are exploited. He is one of the main reasons that humanity lost so much knowledge and technology that they do not know how to care for his sisters. There is nothing to forgive. Knives has to eat the bitter consequences of his actions. Not that he is able to.
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YOU COULD HAVE JUST NOT GIVEN HIM A NEW BODY?! With that in mind, this whole betrayal just falls so flat for me. 
But like Rem, Conrad is dealing with regrets. That’s why he wants Knives to have a normal life. That’s why he offers to stay with him, in a way sacrificing himself to Knives. This Conrad here is a much softer man than the Stampede Conrad ever was. This does not absolve him from anything. But this man at least tries to take some responsibility for his actions and how they affect others. Something, something, repentance/atonement. Well, except for Vash. Conrad says “Fuck Vash”
Knives cares about Vash. It is twisted love. He doesn’t care for Vash as a person, but there is some care in him. He doesn’t want his brother to die. He wants his brother to shut up and run after him like a mindless drone, praising Knives and thus erasing his insecurities.
Yeah, not gonna lie, this chapter really was death omen like...
05: Colourless Expression
And the frontpage shows Vash smiling. Man…
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Milly is so good with kids! So cute!
But the content is also important. Too much colours causes everything to become grey, too many things happening, cause even the strongest person to break.
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I love the page. Vash does his best to keep up his facade, but he is starting to crack. His companions start to realise this. They see his depression.
I kinda wanted Wolfwood to preach in the church. Gimme more priestwood. q-q For having faith, hope and guilt such an important part of his character, we do not get much of it.
Going to church to receive some kind of forgiveness. But christianity is more about guilt and sin than true forgiveness, at least how it is preached. The only person who can forgive Vash is Vash himself. But he has been a martyr his whole life, he will never forgive himself. Loss, guilt and punishment makes him. The scars on his body are there for that very reason. Vash even tries to atone for things he didn’t cause, like losing Rem. And now one important detail was ripped from him, the detail that made him different from Knives. Having killed in anger, be it by pointing the gun towards Knives while losing control or actively shooting Knives and losing the whole of July as consequence.
And the next page counters Vash’ true face with the face on the wanted poster, the face he uses for people around him. That’s harsh.
Is that Ozzy Osbourne?!
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And ruined meal Nr.4. Let WooWoo eat in peace! Though, his annoyed faces bring me life. I giggled like a little girl at this. This is one of my favourite scenes. Let this guy have some peace, please. (I will come to regret this sentence.)
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Thank you! I am terrified. This is sinister.
Alcohol! 
Vash is pretty dependent on alcohol and this scene drives it home. Vash is seen sleeping drunkenly more than once. We see him eat alone with a full bottle of high percentage alcohol next to him. Heck I went through the volumes, even in the first chapter at his introduction he ate with a full bottle of high percentage alcohol next to him. And there are more than a few panels of those meals. There is one scene in the first town, where Vash fakes being drunk. So it is open to interpretation if he reaches his breaking point in this volume and his coping habit becomes dangerous or if he has been dependent on alcohol before remembering July. But Vash can become drunk and he has not the ability to sober up by plant biology. He becomes sloppy. If not his senses/reaction time, then at least his control over his plant powers. Like we see soon.
Wolfwood… We don’t see him drink as much as Vash. Or *I just went through the volumes* We don’t see him drink over excess at all. *stares at ‘98 Wolfwood* You are the reason why I think he drinks overly excessive, too! There is one scene where he has a beer can at his side when eating. Then the second nightmare scene, where he did not even open the bottle, though the shot glass was filled. And he does not open it even after leaving the pub. Begs the question, why? Does he use alcohol purely to socialise with others? Or is he too aware of him having less control over his body/himself when he is drunk and is scared of losing that control?
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Everything becomes grey. Vash is unable to see anything good right now. He only sees his pain and how nothing makes it better. The old granny has no reason to forgive him. But he doesn’t need her forgiveness either. But Vash is not there, he may never be there.
But Vash, honey, you look like this to others, because you constantly mask like this. Even your friends aren't wiser than the common folk. If you bottle everything up and swallow everything, no one knows what you really look like, no one will see your pain or help you address it. Meryl wants to help you, but you blocked her off, as you did with Wolfwood and surely did with Milly. This is a hell of your own making (not considering the random people but Vash' personal relationships)
And then the loudspeakers bring all back down to Knives. Knives is the reason for Vash’ pain. And Vash is less and less able to avoid him. He has to confront him soon. But all is grey.
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I don’t get that scene. That can’t be Vash that shoots. Is it Wolfwood? Is that why he is angry? Because he has to jump in for Vash again?
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And there it is. Maximum grey, Vash at a lowpoint. (Don’t worry, that’s not the lowest :3) Sloppy due to being drunk and being unable to control his power. Though it saves his life.
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As much as Vash is latently suicidal, I do not think he only shudders because of the uncontrolled outburst of power.
He is also scared of himself. Meryl, too. Not only Vash reaches his low point, Meryl reaches her breaking point, too. And I can totally feel with her. Wolfwood tried to talk to her, but it was about saving her hide not about what she lived through. Milly is there for her, but I did not see them talking or reflect upon what happened. And Vash? As if. Meryl is alone with her pain like Vash. She is rightfully afraid and now her body forces her to start and take her own mental health seriously. And rightfully so, til this point she was about Vash and his pain. But her pain is right there and rightfully so!
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That’s how group mentality works. No one is interested in the truth. No one cares about Vash. He is just othered.
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Just ouch. At least Wolfwood tries to comfort Vash? In his very... Wolfwood-way?
06: Seeds voyaging to the stars, a world inside a pot
Oh, it is flashback time. I hope we get something to smile about.
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Yeah, Elendira is right. Now Knives is a rat in a corner. Those are dangerous.
Just, damn, girl. Elendira is the kind of nihilist that is like: The world burns and I make smores. She has no real care for others, she is not affected by the end of humanity, this is a game for her to watch. If humanity survives or not, she doesn't care, she just wants it to be interesting.
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I didn’t get that it was such a clean cut that it reflects like a mirror the first time reading this.
There are so many bulbs of plants left, just sitting there. Considering their importance, why is no one recovering them? Eh, most likely Vash and Wolfwood were there too quickly for the scavengers to have made their presence known.
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Former street kid Wolfwood knows grifters and has no patience for their money grabbing nonsense.
Does Vash realise that the echo represents Conrad? Or is it just a random dude that his brother angrily kills in front of him? But Vash immediately connects their sisters death to Tesla.
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Is that Rem talking or one of the twins? But anyway. “Mood”, says the formerly autistic child that learned facial expression due to Sailor Moon.
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I… dunno. Vash is so very aware that he is not Rem’s kid, that he is different. He is distanced even from Rem. This is not a mother-child relationship at all. More like weird roommates that you try to teach being responsible people at the same time. 
Vash is thankful for Rem’s care, but his thanks reads so much like he assumes she will reject them every second, like he is that different. (So accidentally autism coded.)
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Rem did so much in that year. She was truly thrown into a situation that no one could prepare her for and the twins… She was not ready for this.
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Vash is so aware of their differences to humans. He is so distanced from everyone. And here is Knives, cute, naive and hopeful. Makes me sad
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And that’s why you need parental advisory. No kid should watch these kind of things! The little fears and doubts Knives has get just blown out of prorpotion like this. He is left alone, thinking, and that never ends well with someone anxious.
Oh, hindsight is 20/20. Knives looks sus, but only if you know.
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squids-comics · 7 months
Note
Hello! I saw you're doing 'a complete readthru of all things spider-punk,' and as someone who wants to do the same, would you mind sharing your list? I've been trying to find what all he's in but the internet has not been all that helpful 😅
Thank you for any help in advance :]
I can actually help!!! I'm going to make this public just in case anyone else out there is trying to get caught up on all Hobie's adventures!
Hobie was first introduced in the 2014 event "Spider-Verse". This is a great event that sees every Spider Totem in the Spider-Verse face down the Inheritors, a group of immortal, Spider eating vampires. Although it's a good read, Hobie doesn't do a whole lot. I still recommend reading it because it's a good event, and Hobie does still have a few good moments in it.
I used this as my Spider-Verse reading list. https://comicbookreadingorders.com/marvel/events/spider-verse-reading-order/
I use this sight for most of my readthroughs of events and storylines, but they do occasionally have errors. For example, this list tells you to read Spider-Verse (2015) #1 and 2. Don't do that when it says. That is a different Spider-Verse event that happens after the main Spider-Verse event (it's really confusing, but basically just follow the reading order ignoring those two, then go back and read those two and the three others in that comic run).
After you read through both Spider-Verses, you reach Web Warriors! Web Warriors was a neat little 11 issue run about a team of spider people teaming up to defend the multiverse, kind of like the spider society in Across the Spider-Verse. The team is made of fan favorites like Gwen, Ham, Noir, and Pavitr! All the panels I'm currently posting are from Web Warriors. Half way through the series Hobie joins the team, and they even go to his dimension for a little while. It's not as ambitious as the Spider-Verse events, but it was a fun read and it's not too long so I highly recommend checking it out.
After that you reach Spider-Geddon, where the Inheritors come back! It's basically just Spider-Verse 2. It doesn't feel as grand as the first Spider-Verse, but it was still definitely worth reading. I just finished it this afternoon, panels will be coming soon. You can use the same website as the one I linked above for Spider-Verse, with their Spider-Geddon reading order being linked here!
Finally, you reach the easiest and most Hobie centric part of the journey, the five issue comic run Spider-Punk. It's a series about Hobie, battling villains in his universe. I haven't read it yet so I can't say if I recommend it or not yet, but if you're getting all things Hobie, this is a must read. And it's short!
Good luck out there! And fun reading Spider-Man!!!
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clay-cuttlefish · 6 months
Text
I'm finally done. 738 issues in mainline canon, and they're all sorted. My great burden is off my chest.
Except for the roughly 150 issues outside mainline canon, fiftysomething episodes of TV, handful of youtube videos and animated shorts, six movies, and two podcast seasons.
Then I'll be free.
Send help.
Batman: Urban Legends #14
This is, imo, the best take on conspiracy theorist Vic. He's goofy and overdramatic, but he's doing it to get a reaction out of Bruce.
It's short and silly enough that it doesn't get grating.
Choosing to believe that he found out Bruce's identity because Ollie forgot that he can't firstname Bruce in Checkmate meetings.
I Am Batman #11-14
It's really fucked up that Renee's both a cop and the Question, actually! That's not any better than her being a cop! I do not get why this story doesn't see that!
It keeps laying out the reasons that policing is fundamentally broken but then walking it back to go "oh but Renee's a good cop" when she's not! She's not even the mythical Good Cop! The entire reason she's the Question is because she was not a good person on the GCPD and she wasn't able to fix the system!
Renee using her understanding of how the police protect themselves to push back against them is a good idea, and then nope never mind the anarchists are the murderers actually. Cannot believe Lonnie died for this shit.
This handoff sucks so much. Vic and Renee got an entire series to explore what Renee and Hadiyah do in two pages, and while I actually quite like the idea that Hadiyah's a closely guarded enigma with connections to people she really shouldn't know, two pages? Really? The event tie-in is more important? Couldn't have spread this out even a little bit more? Also Renee's motivation sucks but what else is new.
GCPD: The Blue Wall
This wants to be Gotham Central. It's not.
I'm being unfair. There's worse copaganda on the list, and Gotham Central is absolutely copaganda that fails to meaningfully engage with a lot of these elements, but it just keeps circling back to Gotham Central while dodging that Renee knows how she handled policing making her a worse person: she quit, and she started looking for the truth.
Look I have a lot of very complicated feelings about this, but the commentary on a spreadsheet assembly readthrough is not the place to do it.
From a strictly Renee perspective: it hauls her development all the way back to where it was right after Half a Life, has a police officer who's realized he's a bastard working for a corrupt system go evil and kill her brother, and has her acknowledge the futility of reform from the inside but doesn't actually have her quit.
Batman: Urban Legends: #21
I don't know how the hell you can write a comic about Renee's guilt over the lives she ruined while a police officer and the way the police system makes people worse and prevents reform from the inside, then end it by having her decide to become the commissioner. The argument for why that doesn't work is on the page.
I Am Batman #15
What did Dark Crisis even do? I thought the multiverse was already back? If not, the fuck was going on in Lois Lane???
I Am Batman #16-18
NOBODY!!!
I really love Nobody as a name. Extremely in the spirit of the Question for her to see one opportunity for a quip and latch onto it forever.
Yes it makes talking about her prone to devolving into a shitty Who's on First bit but so does Question and I think that's funny.
I like that Hadiyah's out there doing her own mysterious Question-flavored thing. Sure, I wish Renee didn't push the mask onto her, but reinvention after rough origins is kind of the Question's thing. Maybe she'll turn it around, or fade into obscurity until a different author picks her up, or become a recurring side character, or DC'll implode again and she'll get caught in the canon reshuffle. Who knows! Nobody does!
She's got a cool design and a few solid hooks - I'm interested to see if she sticks the landing in the next couple years.
Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn
I still don't like her being the Question and a cop, but it's less bad when she's using her Question skills to chase a horrifying magic apocalypse monster.
It's solid. Not a fantastic characterization, but this is recognizably Renee as the Question.
Detective Comics #1069
Ram V. Please. Make this pay off. I beg you.
Aside from Renee looking at her Question mask, there's a blonde guy in a blue suit jacket who punches a soldier and then gets his shit wrecked, so maybe that upcoming Tec Question story is actually about how Vic's full of demons.
Detective Comics #1072-1074
Nocturne is worth reading for its own sake, it fucking rules, and this is so promising. Cmon, Renee! You can do it! Get out of the character reversion black hole!
DC's Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun
A good little Halloween-themed Question adventure. She solves a mystery, gets a cape, it's cute and charming. Sort of kiddy but in a good way.
I'd call the art adorable but I think that's the wrong impression. There are some very cute panels, but also some excellent detail work and a great sense of movement. I really like it.
I love that her internal monologue is marked with a hat.
You know what? Things are looking up. It's easy to get depressed about the state of Renee, but it's only actually been about two and a half years in the Bad Zone, and that's... not that bad by DC standards? Sucks to live through, but as far as I can tell there was only one author actively invested in regressing her characterization, everyone else was just going along with that. With Ram V writing for Tec, I'm not enough of a fool to be confident, but I think the odds are decent that the worst has passed.
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