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neonscandal · 3 months

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Hello, I'm new to the jujutsu fandom, I've already watched season 1 of the movie and I'm in season 2 of jujutsu, I also follow the jujutsu manga, I liked your tumblr and started following you, I like your analyzes and you make me understand more jujutsu, thank you. I have a question, don't you think Sukuna is a boring villain, sorry, but he's too annoying, even Mahito is more interesting than him and it's impressive that Mahito gave more weight to the work than Sukuna, Sukuna killed Gojo and his death It had no significance in the work, it's something terrible, I think the author got lost.

Anon(s), please still try to be mindful of spoilerssss, even if, mid sentence, you just throw one up so other readers know. I'd appreciate it since, even though I'm not a spoiler free blog, I at least tag. I am no stranger to falling behind and trying to avoid leaks and spoilers, myself and my IRL friends are anime onlys to some of the things I obsess about. All that to say: I'm glad you're here (both in the fandom and in my inbox)! Bear in mind, these are very much just the impassioned rants of a silly little person on the internet so who knows.

One thing that I've realized about JJK villains, especially in most recent chapters, is they're never quite who we assume at face value. In this battle between humans and the negative human emotions that spawn curses... each of the villains has a really striking human quality to them whether we understand it or not. In fact, it makes their whole mission of toppling the current paradigm that much more interesting when you consider their origin. I think it was Jogo who said curses were more human than humans which... when you look at the root cause of Geto's defection... he might be onto something.

To that end, Mahito wasn't really lying when he told Yuji that they were one in the same. Humans and curses are two sides of the same coin.

⚠️ Spoiler warning for chapter 248 of JJK.

If you haven't read the light novels, you'd be interested to find that in a chapter I don't overanalyze, there's a story focused around Mahito. It appears in Jujutsu Kaisen Summer of Ashes, Autumn of Dust.

In the chapter, our typical chaos gremlin who is quick to torture first and question never stumbles upon a vagrant. He finds, in the company of a man who has not and wants not, that he exists harmoniously and curiously. In his soul, he sees an unflappable peace that is not evident in other humans and behaves accordingly around him. Day after day, he causes no harm. They even converse, reasonably and academically to an extent. Uh - Mahito is like an avid reader, by the way. While you can argue this is outside of the realm of what's canon, think of Jogo's affinity to mourn Hanami. Hoping to meet Dagon in the wasteland of souls beyond. Very human hopes which are even echoed by Mahito in canon when Haruta the curse user was sneakily going to kill Hanami. Mahito stopped him with intention because even curses have camaraderie which the humans they consort with apparently lack.

Kenjaku is another villain where, even in his twisted delights and subsequent plans for the future, safely delivers Sasaki outside of the realm of the Culling Games and thanks her for befriending his son... What? This appreciation is so humble and endearing but, of course it is, it is that of a mother. Something he decisively lacks with Choso and the cursed womb paintings but still. It goes against the grain of the rest of his character, you know?

Toji, the man who can't be bothered to remember the name of the kid he sold back to the hell hole he grew up in and yet thinks of him as he breathes his last breaths. When his body was reanimated in Shibuya and was hardwired to find and fight the strongest... that recognition on his face when he realized who he was fighting? The animation did a beautiful job of clearing the black of his eyes, softening his gaze toward Megumi. Knowing that it was Megumi Fushiguro and not Zenin he took himself out, happily. Doesn't really ring true of how a lot of fans interpret him as a character.

Now, we have Sukuna. I agree, he seems to be somewhat flat in characterization so far but.. so was everyone else until we got the effective cowlick that indicated their complexity. Now, 248 chapters in, we're seeing the chip in his facade.

Gojo is no stranger to dying though he is extremely unused to comparison. He's the Strongest Sorcerer of the Modern Era, after all. But I wonder if it makes sense to call Sukuna his foil. Imagine Gojo's unchecked ego had he never met Geto. I imagine a life of isolation carrying the burden of one's own grace and strength would absolutely turn out similar to Sukuna's wherein there is no need for purpose beyond one's own whims.

Subsequently, Gojo dying at Sukuna's hands and earning his respect was the first real human connection we see Sukuna receive positively (he gave Jogo a pretty sweet send off, too). It was done with intention, even Gojo hoped to communicate with his tempered body the fact that he too knew that isolation. In universe, it seems to be a form of love (search for "Of Love and Strength" on this post), this understanding. This lapse in Sukuna's indifference is furthered in facing off against fan favorite lawyer Hiromi Higurama.

Following Gojo's demise, Gege has been comparing a lot of characters to the vacuum of power left in his wake. Yuta, I get, but Higurama is an absolute wild card. However, Sukuna sees something in him that he not only respects in this comparison to Gojo... but also stymies him. Especially as he meaningfully comes to terms with his dismissal and abhorrence of Yuji.

What we're seeing is the blossom of his character playing out amidst an all or nothing fight. Stay strapped in, anon!

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doritofalls · 1 year

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for the ask meme, herbert/ dan. tell me your re-animator blorblo thoughts -does that pose where im on my bed on my stomach with my legs in the air kicking them head in my hands like im at a sleepover and we're gossiping-

we are like that businessman does his work lying on bed like a schoolgirl meme :3c but i'm actually really excited to talk about those goobers so let's see!

What made you ship it? canon is SO good to this ship. everything about the first two movies position dan and herbert in a romantic subtext - notable in the first one but NOTABLE in the second one - and i think that's SO funny of a 80s gore flick. the way herbert is immediately positioned as the other woman to meg's presence/the seductress to meg's voice of reason trying to keep dan on the straight and narrow with his exciting new medical breakthroughs. and the fact dan is not an unwilling participant in any of the reanimator movies, because herbert's ideas and ideals resonate with him! a lot! to a degree to always be on his defense. and their on screen chemistry!! herbert's near constant physical contact on dan and dan just?? rolling with it? there is not a single thing they agree on but they both understand that they have found a connection in the other that is once in a lifetime? dan's protective instinct over herbert and herbert's (still notably rude) willingness to let dan get close to him and his research??? they are insane? and in the second part it just goes up to eleven. least heterosexual movie about two dudes making a woman from scratch (notable genre of 80s cinema).

What are your favorite things about the ship? i like that they are. extremely funny. that's definitely one, they are a bickering old married couple. i also like their strange codependency, because dan makes the impression of the normalest guy, but herbert is the only person that is left in his life and the only person who has an understanding of what he's been through - even if herbert was very much the leading cause of said trauma. and herbert is just excellent right back, because he's so bad at emotions, but it is SO clear that he would do anything for dan to stay by his side - and it is so clear that just that, continuing his research with dan, would make him happy. it does make him happy. and it makes dan completely miserable, because they have such opposing needs and herbert can't be what dan wants (approval from any woman let's be honest), but he would be, he would go to extremes to make sure dan stayed. they are both,,, grabbing at the other tearing at nerves and flesh trying to get their needs met, but what they need from the other is so incompatible and different. they're so toxic. really no children by the mountain goats. get couple's therapy. herbert's whole weird thing also really resonates with me as a (closeted) gay narrative, especially in part 2.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? hmm it's hard to think of anything. i see herbert use pet names in fanwork a lot, and i think that's. super far from him to be honest. i think he may pull out a "danny" when he's gotta puppy eyes his way into committing an atrocity with him, but that's probably it. dan would fully notice too, just fall for it regardless. i also think herbert probably. wouldn't be much sweeter in a relationship. or nicer, even. i think the side he's showing dan is already his best behavior. he's already doing his best in showing affection (almost exclusively acts of service). with other routes open ofc i imagine he'd continue to show affection in a couples context, but it wouldn't really change his catty demeanor.

#mcfreakin answered #anon

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mortalfaerie · 3 years

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STRANDED IN TIME (M. F.) 1/?

matthew fairchild x lost herondale! reader

y/n herondale seems to get her just deserts when snooping in cirenworth's attic sends her back over 100 years.

You, Y/N Rook - no, Herondale - were having a no-good, very-bad, mind-numbingly-frustrating couple of months.

Dramatic? Maybe. But what else do you call it when your dad gets killed by demons in front of you, your newly orphaned little brother and you get told your nephilim, which you've been raised all your life to scorn, your new friend gets impaled by the reanimated corpse of her ancestor, and then gets turned into a perpetual ghost by your brother and his unrequited crush via necromancy which is, by the way, VERY VERY MAGICALLY ILLEGAL.

Oh, by the way, let's throw in that you can now see ghosts just to spice things up.

Now, you were slowly adjusting to life with your little brother and two victorian not-shadowhunters (but not not shadowhunters, either. It's confusing.) in their equally victorian manor in England. It felt a little like running away when your brother, Kit, told you that he wanted to take up Tessa and Jem on their offer, but hey, running is a Rook speciality.

Tessa and Jem were as hospitable as could be, but you still had a hard time seeing where you were as permanent. Jem directed you and Kit through training every morning, and seeing that you secretly enjoyed reading, Tessa made a habit of slipping a new book under your bedroom door every monday morning. She had a lovely (and very valuable) collection in Cirenworth's library, and amidst her and Kit playing "Read that book/Saw that movie," you had been picking up the slack for your brother and reading the books in question.

This week's book was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Perhaps, it was this book that had led you to go poking around in the attic of the manor, in search of some mystical object. There wasn’t much of note so far, save boxes of clothes from decades past, some photos, and a whole lot of dust. You were planning on going back downstairs when a specific box in the corner caught your eye.

It was a steam trunk, the kind that might have been used in past centuries for travel, but something about it drew you over, reaching for the bag identification against on its side.

“Thomas Lightwood, Cirenworth Hall, Devonshire.” The tag read - odd, in that the manor was a Carstairs family holding and had been for over two hundred years, and this trunk certainly didn’t look like it predated it. Unable to fight the curiosity, you tried the lock, finding it had rusted and came off with a snap. Inside, clothes, photographs, and relics of a nephilim life were neatly arranged inside, clearly by someone who cared for their preservation. Fumbling through, your hand made contact with a metallic object at the bottom of the trunk, and you drew it out to find a crystal that sent a shiver down your spine.

You had seen a crystal like this before. It was a memory crystal.

Normally, only a magic user would have been able to activate it, but both you and Kit had been able to activate the Blackthorn one, for reasons you didn't quite understand - something about having royal faerie blood - and so you tentatively turned it over in your hand. You jumped as the room grew dark and the crystal began to glow, projecting its memory on the wall. The crystal must have been damaged, since it skipped and faltered, it's nature distorted. Flashes of scenes jostled for attention - a ball, probably in the early 1900s, and a man with rich carmel skin and blond hair - a laboratory, and a pervasive feeling of panic - demons, heinously large. You struggled to make sense of it all as the crystal grew hot in your hands, like a computer overheating and burning. You abruptly dropped it in reaction, but as it hit the ground, the room went black.

Waking up, your head ached like you'd been concussed, and the sunlight made you begin to wonder if you'd fallen asleep in the gardens and had a strange dream. As you opened your eyes, you groaned with the sting the light caused. You tried to roll over, by found you were abruptly nauseous. Your body convulsed as you vomited your breakfast onto the grass beside you, then collapsing again.

From behind you came a high voice that struck a memory. "Oh, lord. Who are you?"

You squinted at the translucent girl hovering near you. "Jessamine?" you rasped, wondering why she was here.

"Yes, I am she. But who are you, and why are you... sick in my gardens?" she replied, circling you in the air.

"I- please, get help." you moaned, as another wave of nausea hit.

"Oh! Ack!" she cried, and fizzled out.

You desperately wished for Jessamine to swallow her sensibilities and get whoever was near, as you began to shake violently on the ground, abruptly cold and dizzy. A door opened nearby, and two sets of footsteps came rapidly to your crumpled form.

"By the angel..." A man muttered, and you heard Jessamine chime in, "I told you, she knows who I am, but I haven't the faintest clue who she is."

"Nevermind that now, Jessie," he said, by your side now. "She's marked, though I have no idea who she is either."

Another voice joined them, one that caused you to open your eyes and squint at the two looking down at you with worry. "Let's get her into the infirmary. We can call for Charlotte latter and determine her identity, but she looks grievously ill."

You coughed and whined, but managed a shaky question. "Tessa? Tessa, what's happening?"

Clearly, she wasn't expecting this question, and she exchanged a bewildered glance with the man she was with. You noticed for the first time that she wasn't dressed as she normally was - rather, she was wearing a long dress of cotton lawn with her hair twisted up.

"I'll carry her." The man said, and reached for you. Tessa nodded and helped to move you to a sitting position. You whined in pain, and she touched her hand to your forehead in a very motherly gesture.

"Will, she's burning up." was all you heard before the world went black again.

#cassandra clare #the mortal instruments #the infernal devices #the last hours #the dark artifices #the shadowhuter chronicles #mathew fairchild #matthew fairchild x reader

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agentnico · 3 years

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) Review

It all started with Sonic’s teeth. Ever since fans successfully bullied a studio into reanimating their titular hedgehog character after the abomination shown in the first trailer, fans realised that rallying together (on Twitter) can make a difference. So you’d think it would mean we could all come together to restore world peace and get rid of racism, injustice, poverty, war and negativity of all kind? Nope, nope it does not. But at least we get a better version of a bad DC movie that came out in 2017. I mean, baby steps I guess.

Plot: Fuelled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes -- Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash -- it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

I recall my younger simpler self in 2017 at the early age of 20 soon to be 21, sitting down and watching the new Justice League film with zero to no expectations, as by that point the DC Extended Universe was a trainwreck and was a franchise that was literally falling apart before out unblinking red hay fever filled eyes. However, after watching Justice League I was baffled at the fact that I still managed to be disappointed after having zero expectations! With zero expectations this film took me into the minuses, and we all know I’m not great at mathematics so boy are we in the danger zone when we hit the minuses! Looking back at my review of the film back then, I used extreme yet fitting comments like “generic”, “predictable” “messy” and plain “dogsh*t”. Which is what it was. 2017′s Justice League is exactly how I’d imagine a dog’s poop would look if it was turned into an abstract film! It was truly abysmal. After that I thought I’d never have to talk about this film again. How wrong I was. But, in a rare turn of tables, I am glad that I was wrong...

A little history lesson first. Alright, settle down kids, settle down.... Rob, put the paper plane down, do not throw it, I said DON’T THROW IT! NO! Stop! Stupid child!! Headteacher’s office right now! Also, say hi to your mother for me, okay? I’m having brunch with her on Saturday and you better not be there as you should be doing your homework watching the 4 hour cut of Justice League and questioning your life choices!! Anyway, now let’s have ourselves a history lesson. The topic is - What In The Flying Fudge Happened Behind-The-Scenes Of Justice League For DUMMIES: Condensed Edition. A really condensed version as honestly none of us have the attention span to read loads and I’m probably losing the vast majority of you due to this overlong rambling session. So anyway, to the last couple of readers left, here we go! Following the success of Man of Steel, Warner Bros. gave Zack Snyder the reigns to oversee and create a DC cinematic universe to rival the success of Marvel. And so came Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which turned out to be a bit of a hodgepodge, receiving mixed to negative reviews and though was a box office success, earned diminishing results to what Warner Bros. originally anticipated. However, by the time Batman V Superman released, Zack Snyder was already hard at work on the big superhero team up film Justice League (which was meant to set up many characters and future films for the DCEU) with a lot of filming already underway, so Warner Bros. couldn’t particularly pump the breaks on it by that point, even though they evidently lost trust in the Snyder formula. To be honest, at that point I too lost trust in Snyder’s vision and the DCEU as a whole, but my opinion doesn’t class for a single dime, whilst the opinions of Warner Bros. executives make millions, so there aren’t any hard feelings on my behalf for them not enquiring on my thoughts. Anyway, midway through production Zack Snyder was hit with a family tragedy with his daughter committing suicide, so Snyder naturally had to depart the project to be with his family during this grieving time. Warner Bros. had the option to pause production and await for Snyder’s return, or progress at their own accord. Naturally they decided to do their own thing cause they are a business and want that dollar dollar bill baby!! So they hired Joss Whedon who was riding fresh off the success of two Avengers movies and obviously had experience in cinematic universes and such, to rework the Justice League movie by condensing it into a 2 hour film (from the over 4 hour material that Snyder shot) and reshoot scenes to fit the smaller runtime. So you cannot particularly blame Whedon for taking out so many great scenes as he had a contract to fulfil with Warner Bros, but then you look at the many forced jokes and unnecessary reshot scenes and you realise how self-indulgent Joss Whedon was during filming, as he basically was spitting on everything Snyder did and was trying to do his own thing. Low and behold, the mess that is the 2017 movie is created, where its the visions and creative minds of two director with evidently different styles clashing and not really mixing well at all, and as such we have a messy movie that doesn’t really make sense and is a bit of a middle finger to DC fans and honestly everyone and all. Also, there was that little aspect of Henry Cavill’s deformed upper lip due to the fact that during reshoots he had a moustache that he’d grown and was contractually obligated to have for his Mission Impossible role, so the visual effects team had to digitally remove it in post production and the result is, well, see for yourself...

Yes, they made the dashing handsome my-sexuality-questioning Henry Cavill look stupid, and that is UNFORGIVABLE. Funny, yes, very funny but unforgivable!! So for this and many other reasons the 2017 film turned out horribly. Then after that many months later, Zack Snyder and cast and crew members began teasing of this mythical version of the movie that was befit of Snyder’s original vision. You see, apparently before he left the project, Snyder actually filmed everything he wanted and it was only awaiting to be reworked with visual effects and edited properly, but then Whedon came in with his scissors and cut everything mercilessly with a cheeky grin and his ginger beard. Speaking of his ginger beard, is Joss Whedon Irish? Or has Irish roots? Honestly, I would Google it, but wait, I don’t think I really care. So anyway, Snyder still had all of his filmed scenes saved on his ridiculously oversized hard drive just waiting to be looked at again. This is where the fandom did its magic by creating a Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and began spam posting for Warner Bros. to let Zack Snyder release what he originally intended to. Honestly, who would have thunk it, but this actually worked!! Warner Bros. allowed this, and not only that, but gave Snyder an additional $70 million to finish up the visual effects as well as to film a couple of additional sequences and gave it the prestigious honour to debut it on HBO Max, so as to boost the subscriber rating on Warner Bros. new streaming service. And here we are.

Honestly, I thought seeing this Director’s Cut of sorts wouldn’t bring much to the table as I didn’t believe that a film that was so broken had originally been in any way good. After finishing this 4 hour Snyder vision I must admit though that I was pleasantly surprised. Completely baffled by the studio and Joss Whedon, but really happy for Zack Snyder. The guy was fighting for it and finally was able to accomplish and bring out his true original vision, and though Zack Snyder’s Justice League has its flaws, its so much better than what we got in 2017, and in fact is a soaring science fiction sci-fi epic that literally feels epic!! It takes time establishing the characters and every single plot point as well as building out this rich mythology of this world of the DC Extended Universe, and so as you move into the second half of the film, there’s a feeling of pay off. You actually care about the characters and understand the plot points and it doesn’t feel rushed. Its truly astounding that there are producers out there who thought it was a good idea to get rid of all of that and instead bring out whatever the heck Joss Whedon did with the 2017 version. Look, I quite enjoy Joss Whedon’s work, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to Cabin in the Woods and his work on Marvel, the guy obviously has a talent, but also he obviously does not belong to the dark and brooding style of DC. Zack Snyder on the other hand, though makes his mistakes, truly embraces the epic feel of the DC material. And it seems once you give Snyder enough time and space, he can actually bring out something like this:

The main characters are all given so much more to do, or at least those that got side-lined in the 2017 version are given more to do here. One of my complaints with the original was how pointless the League turns out to be. Basically in the theatrical version the main team all end up being useless and only once Superman shows up he saves everyone’s asses and literally does EVERYTHING. Might as well have called the film Man of Steel 2 (feat. Justice League). However in this new version, every main character serves a purpose. Well most of them do at least. Cyborg and Flash are much more compelling characters with more layers and backstory, and in fact are a prime reason to defeating the great evil in the end. You now understand why Cyborg actor Ray Fisher was pissed at Joss Whedon, as the guy literally got rid of his best stuff. Superman strikes a cool black suit and is still powerful, however as the finale shows, he isn’t all-powerful and does need the help of the rest of the team. Wonder Woman gets a lot more to do in this theatrical cut, and in fact this is probably Gal Gadot’s best performance as Wonder Woman and she really shows herself as a powerful female superhero! Aquaman’s role stays largely unchanged, however to be honest Jason Momoa’s character was one of the only ones who didn’t suffer in the theatrical cut. That’s unsurprising seeing as Jason Momoa is such a naturally cool dude! A big panda that is friendly in real life, but when necessary can turn into a roaring bear. To be honest, the only League member that ends up a bit pointless is actually Batman. He still serves a purpose in the film in that he’s the one who assembles the team, but otherwise the rest of the group is so overpowered compared to him that in the end you do kind of think that he doesn’t really belong there. Still, Ben Affleck is great in the role and it’s a shame we won’t see much of him past Flashpoint film that will be released in the next few years.

There are a lot of characters in this film and one can still say the movie is overstuffed, but also seeing as the movie was originally intended to spring board the DCEU properly, all these teases are actually welcome. There are an abundance of cameos, and to be honest so many characters are so well cast that you do end up wishing that Snyder was given the opportunity to make his entire Justice League planned trilogy, but nevertheless at least we have this. There are truly an abundance of cool appearances here, from the menacing villain Darkseid (played by Ray Porter) to Willem Dafoe doing what Dafoe does best, only in this case underwater and I’m certain that’s gonna span many comparison memes with The Lighthouse. Joe Morton as Cyborg’s dad is given a lot more to do here and in fact is pivotal towards building up Cyborg into the important character that he is. There’s also a cameo from Jared Leto’s Joker, who in some ways redeems himself after his appearance in Suicide Squad. Also, we need to talk about Steppenwolf, who’s the main baddie in this film. In the theatrical cut the guy was the most generic one-note villain who also looked like a PS2 character. It was honestly embarrassing the way he was animated. Luckily in this version he’s been put through enough Skyrim mods to looks much more intimidating and is also given a better motivation. As we find out, the reason he does what he does is because he wants to go home. He’s been banished and he simply wants to earn his place back home, so it’s actually kind of sweet. Steppenwolf is a sweetie. I mean, yeah, he wants to destroy half of the world to fulfil his dream, but hey, haven’t we all taken something extreme measures to get what we want?

The film is far from perfect though. At the end of the day, the movie is just about a guy hunting down a bunch of magical boxes. That was the premise of the theatrical cut and its the same here too. Yes, there is more substance and gravitas to the proceedings, but at the end of the day the story doesn’t really surprise much. And with the entire thing running at 4 hours, it is definitely too long and there is the element where there is simply too much in this thing. Also visually, though the movie has plenty of gorgeous shots and Zack Snyder’s signature slow motion sequences are on full display here, there are still many sequences where the CGI and green screen are super obvious and look really fake. That being said there’s still so much visual goodness in this, and also I have to mention Junkie XL’s new music score that does reiterate the epic feel of this movie, in comparison to Danny Elfman’s weak uninspiring notes in the theatrical cut.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a massive surprise and completely changes the perception of what we saw in the original 2017 theatrical cut. It’s a sprawling massive adventure that’s a dream come true for any comic book fan. It shows how vital film editing is, and how important it is to have a cohesive plan when making a movie. Gone too are the silly forced jokes, and though there is still some humour here, it feels more grounded and fit of the setting and scenario. This is Snyder’s vision through and through, and though at times it is clunky, it overall is incredible to behold, as it’s this one guy’s mind and his love for the DC lore. It’s a credible achievement, and I’m actually sentimentally happy for Snyder that he finally managed to complete this. He even during the credits dedicates this to his daughter Autumn that passed away, and I found that to be truly bittersweet. Justice has indeed been served.

Overall score: 7/10

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greatsagestonemonkey · 3 years

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Monkie Kid Dream Clips

So a bit of background for this...

The other night I had a really funny/weird dream that was based mostly off of Monkie Kid as well as some really campy horror flicks I’ve been watching in honor of the spook season. And I decided to write out the bits I could remember thanks to some people on the Discord I’m part of saying that I should do it. One of them even suggested that I post them somewhere else, so I decided... why the heck not? So here they are, enjoy!

(Just keep in mind that this is not a complete story, just a compilation of what I can remember since it WAS a dream and I don’t remember all of it...)

A scream cut through the night and practically rattled the cottage to the point where it even caused the grove of bamboo outside to tremble as though affected by an earthquake. Normally, it wasn’ something that Macaque would be concerned with… if it hadn’t made his soul nearly jump out of his body.

“Kid?!” Monkey King sprang up and bolted out of the room, his tail wrapping around a dismayed Macaque and dragging him along. The two of them barreled full on into MK as he flew through the doors at the other end of the corridor, the three now lying in a heap on the floor momentarily before Macaque wriggled his way out from under the pile.

“Thanks, now I have even more bruises to feel in the morning,” he groaned bitterly at MK as he dusted himself off.

“What’s wrong, kid?” Monkey King asked, pulling the child up to his feet only for said child to cling to him and point a shaky arm back into the room he’d just come through.

“There’s a--There are--” though MK was clearly trying to form a full sentence he could only get a few words out at a time. He was known for being over excitable, sure, but this was…

Well, Macaque thought it was hilarious, but Monkey King was obviously a concerned form of curious.

“Kid, take a deep breath!” Monkey King said, smacking MK on the back gently to snap him out of his panic just long enough for the boy to comply, shoulder sagging as he finally relaxed; albeit a little bit. “There you go… now, what’s wrong?”

“Yeah, uh… there’s a bunch of zombies behind the curtain in there!!” MK cried out, his temporary calm state gone in a flash.

Macaque raised an eyebrow. “What?” voice dripping with skepticism.

“I’m being serious! There’s like eight of them back there behind this weird curtain veil thing-y and they’ve got these sheets of paper hanging from their--”

“Kid, Kid, calm down. Relax.” Monkey King placed a hand on his shoulder, stifling a chuckle, to MK’s shock, as apparent by the look on his face.

“Relax?! Why?!”

“Here, I’ll show you…” Monkey King said, walking past Macaque and opening the doors MK had just flown through. MK instinctively hid behind his mentor, peeking out from behind him timidly until the simian entered the room and walked to the curtain, pulling it back.

MK could only watch in a mixture of terror and amazement as the Monkey King waved his hand back and forth in front of the covered face of one of the eight corpses that lined the space behind the curtain. Behind the strange piece of yellow paper, the corpse remained blank faced, almost as though sleeping with its faded eyes wide open. He took a hesitant step forward, nearly jumping when a board creaked behind him from Macaque also stepping forward.

“The guy who lives here is a Corpse Walker.” Macaque said, his tone now a bored one. “These stiffs are harmless.”

“A what now?”

“Corpse Walker.” Monkey King reiterated. “It’s an ancient practice performed by monks and priests to move bodies. They use magical charms to reanimate the dead and move them from one place to another in large groups. It was really popular after a large battle, and whatnot.”

“Like I said, they’re harmless.” Macaque said, walking forward and actually leaning on the shoulder of one of the corpses with his arm. “As long as these tags don’t get damaged they’re about as dangerous as a wood plank.”

----

“Would you stop!?”

“What? I’m not doing anything.”

“Oh, then I suppose that thumping is one of those corpses hopping about!?”

Thump… Thump… Thump...

Both froze and gave each other a concerned glance. Neither of them had moved…

“...You… don’t think…?”

“...No. Not at all. Totally just the wind… I’m totally not being sarcastic right now.”

---

The boards at the base of the floor stretched up in an almost full arch, revealing it’s hiding place, and as instructed, MK threw the basket full of rice inside, fling himself back as an unearthly, hissing shriek erupted from the space, followed by a stream of smoke and the smell of something burning. MK wasted no time and sprinted away from the spot he’d been frozen to, still clutching a handful of rice and pressed himself against the wall on the far side of the room.

“H-Ha! Take that!” he shouted before slapping a hand over his mouth… the hand that was…

Crap, he just swallowed the last of his rice.

---

“You okay there kiddo?” Macaque asked as he steadied the boy, eyes falling and widening momentarily as the boy slumped in his grasp. “...Oh well that’s… not good…”

He pulled MK’s collar back as Monkey King closed the gap between them to show off the two fresh puncture wounds as the base of MK’s neck; and Monkey King’s eyes went wide.

“Oh no…!”

---

Scrambling, he grabbed at the first thing he could feel under his hand and brought it forward to use as a shield, or at least something that would stall the Jiangshi long enough for him to be able to get clear, when he noticed that the hopping vampire had stopped, it’s dead eyes locked onto what he was holding; one of the basket’s of rice, mostly empty, but still with a few handfuls of grains contained within.

He could still see. The kid must have missed earlier!

“He can still see!” Macaque called out, hearing Monkey King close the distance between them to hit the vampire square in the ribs with a solid kick.

“Then I’ll keep him busy and you go for the eyes!”

---

It tried to hop… nothing. And again… but still nothing. It’s feet wouldn’t leave the ground!

Now blinded, it could not see that it had hopped after the two monkey’s--who were now safely on Monkey King’s somersault cloud--right into a thick blanket of pitch that had been smeared over the floor.

---

“You feeling any better, Kid?” Monkey King asked, watching as MK wallowed in the barrel of rice wine.

“Ugh… kinda…?” MK groaned in reply.

“I’ll take “kinda”.” Monkey King said with a chuckle.

“One thing’s for sure, I am never criticising those old Jiangshi movies that Mei used to me watch again…” MK said, moving his arms out enough to let them hang off the side of the barrel. “That was rough!”

“You said it. This is why I hate Jiangshi. People from other countries don’t know how lucky they are. All they have to do is wait for sunrise or hold up a cross, but do either of those things bother Jiangshi? Noooooo!” Macaque complained, slouched into his chair.

“I thought you said those charms were supposed to keep them harmless?” MK questioned.

“They are!”

“So how’d one of them come to life then?”

Macaque grumbled with a shrug, slouching further into the chair tiredly. Monkey King’s ear twitched at an odd sound coming from what should have been the usual sound of Macaque’s clothing shift, and he turned his head, eyes turning gold briefly to examine the other simian. Seconds later, he marched over to Macaque and grabbed his arm, lifting it into the air and reaching under and just behind it.

“I might have an idea about that…” he said, peeling off the now crumpled talisman that was stuck to Macaque’s clothing. “It’s called “static cling”.”

---

(Aaaaaaaaand that’s all I can remember! Sorry… but hope you enjoyed what there was!)

#monkie kid #written clips #my writing #mk #monkey king #happy halloween #macaque #lego monkie kid

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myth-lord · 3 years

Text

Why don’t you just DIE! (already)

Sometimes when you kill an enemy it isn’t exactly the end of the fight, sometimes it is just the beginning!

These are all the monsters from my list/project that can metamorphic into a new form after you seem to have beaten them.

KHALKOTAUROI

First Form:

Much like a mechanical/golem-like bull made from metal, strange red fiery spiritual fire leaks from its cracks, eyes and nostrils.

Reborn Form:

After you destroy the mechanical body an full HP Aatxe spawns, this red bull spirit was trapped inside the metal shell and is more angry than before.

ALP-LUACHRA

First Form:

Like a very pulsing big human, almost bursting and very disgusting, intelligence isn’t in its eyes, it just wants to eat, instead of a tongue however an Olm/Amphibian-like creature bursts from its mouth, seemingly controlling the human host.

Reborn Form:

After killing the human host, the small Alp-Luachra bursts from the corpse and is forced to fight for itself, it tries to enter the bodies of your playable characters, so you better kill it fast.

MANANANGGAL

First Form:

Much like a female version of the Aswang, which are demon-possessed humans in my project, much like the creatures from the movie Evil Dead.

Reborn Form:

After you do enough damage to the Manananggal it will turn into a different form, it sprouts bat-like wings from its back and its torso rips itself free from the lower body, its intestines dangle beneath it and it can use these organs to attack enemies with.

Third Form:

Doing even more damage to this flying form will morph it into the final form, which is just a head with bat-like wings instead of ears, much like a more crazy and scary looking Chon-Chon (my other flying head which is unrelated to the Manananggal), in this final head-form the Manananggal is extremely desperate and it attacks with tentacles which dangle from its neck.

AWD GOGGIE

First Form:

Like a horrifying giant green caterpillar.

Reborn Form:

After you seemingly kill it, it will turn into a cocoon, and while you may think this will turn into a butterfly monster you are wrong, the Awd Goggie is loyal to its giant Caterpillar form and will become an bigger, more colorful red spiky caterpillar, it gains very different attacks and abilities in this new form. You can destroy the cocoon before it hatches, so the second form can be stopped, if not, it is a pretty tough enemy to fight!

EINHERJAR

First Form:

Much like a bigger Berserker (wild humans bred for combat and war) with stronger armor and instead of two small axes like their Berserker brothers use, the Einherjar uses a giant axe.

Reborn Form:

Even after the death the Einherjar won’t stop fighting, it turns into a Draugr first, which is a zombie-fied version of the Einherjar, it behaves much like the Draugr-enemy, but it can’t re-spawn as a Draugr after being killed, as it has a third form as well.

Third Form:

Killing the zombie form of the Einherjar also doesn’t stop it from fighting, now it will turn into a powerful spirit and picks up his axe again to fight once more, instead of striking flesh and bones the Spiritual Einherjar targets and destroys the soul/spirit of its victims.

BINAYE AHANI

First Form:

These twin aberrations are also found as a duo, you can target each of the two twins separately.

Reborn Form:

The best way to deal with these monsters is trying to kill them both at the same time, as when you kill one of the twins first the second will go berserk and transforms into an even more abominable and powerful form, raging with anger and emotions after losing its other half, it gains some new lightning-based abilities in this new form.

BUBAK / TATTY BOGLE

First Form:

The first half of this monsters fight is mostly magical as it seems to be just a scarecrow hanging from the famous wooden crosses they are mostly found on in real life, in this form it just summons fear-magical attacks, illusions of your worst fears and supports the other enemies on the battlefield with its evil magical buffs.

Reborn Form:

After doing enough damage to a Bubak it will turn into a physical attacking enemy, it will jump from the wooden cross and now replaces the magical attacks for physical attacks, it’s attacks can still cause the fear-effects on your playable characters.

DJIEIEN / DEATH WEAVER

First Form:

While still alive, these macabre Lich-like spiders look pretty much like giant monstrous spiders, while they have undead features, they aren’t really undead, YET.

Reborn Form:

After being killed the Djieien’s own necromantic poison automatically reanimates its corpse into an undead, much like a lich, but instead of a human it is a giant spider. While alive the Djieien are already terrible horrors with abilities to create undead minions with their necromantic poison, but in their undead forms the creatures becomes even more powerful and harder to defeat, it can create mummy-like minions with its magical webs and only critical hits can fully destroy them.

FAFNIR / GREED DRAGON

First Form

: Vile but beautiful, that is the best way to describe these golden dragons of extreme greed. A Fafnir looks like wingless golden dragon surrounded by its own treasure and covered in precious jewels and legendary items of value.

Reborn Form:

Even after the death these dragons can’t part with their own treasures, their avarice-cursed spirits will possess their treasures and animate them into a living treasure heap. While not as powerful as the dragon itself, this form gives the Fafnir a second chance to defeat their foes and still being in control of their treasure.

GOBLIN / ELOKO

First Form:

At the start of the battle these green, envious, small humanoids start in a trio, standing on each other’s shoulders, the highest Goblin on top uses a ranged weapon to attack.

Reborn Form:

After some damage is done, one of the three goblins dies and they are now a duo, this changes their entire tactics and they use a new weapon together, they use a very long saw (used to saw through trees) together, they run through enemies both holding the saw on one side.

Third Form:

After receiving more damage the second Goblin also breaths out his last breath and joins the dead, leaving a single Goblin behind to fend for its pathetic existence, in this form the Goblin mostly tries to escape, leaving the players characters without the deserved exp, so you have to kill the Goblin before it escapes.

SPRIGGAN

First Form:

Spriggans are Goblins infected with fey-energy, this mostly happens to goblins that live in the fey forests or which have friendships with fey. They have blue skin instead of a green skin, but they are still pathetic like their goblin cousins, however when they become scared or angry they turn into their reborn form.

Reborn Form:

When angry or scared (in other words when their HP is almost depleted) these blue fey goblins increase in size and strength and become a giant version of their former self, pulsing with fey magic. Why the Spriggans gained this ability is unknown, though wizards think it has something to do with the goblins/and/spriggans envy for the size of bigger creatures, fey magic helped them in achieving this goal, though the progress of turning so large isn’t without pain and stress for the otherwise pathetic creatures. After their anger or stress has gone away the Spriggan will shrink in size again.

HEIKEGANI

First Form:

I’m still experimenting with this creature, but I think I have a start now: The first form of the Heikegani in my project is of a human-corpse which head is replaced with the body of these demonic crabs, the crabs replaced the victims head and ride the corpse like a rider would ride a horse. The reason the Heikegani are so obsessed with “wearing” human bodies is because the fact that humanoid hands can hold weapons, and Heikegani are addicted to fighting and weapons, mostly swords and katanas.

Reborn Form:

After you reduce all the Heikegani’s HP its mounted body will perish and the small crab-creature will have to fend for its own, it has some nasty painful attacks even in this form though, so it isn’t defenseless to say the least.

KERIT / CHEMOSIT

First Form:

While Kerits appear to be just Black Bears, the real creature is actually an alien parasite made up from only pink and purple tentacles, they thrive inside the bodies of bigger predators, in general most are found in bears, but big cats or wolves are also possible, some were even found in predatory fishes like sharks. Anyway, in my projects game-sprite the Kerit is always a Black Bear, just to make things less complicated. While they appear to be just black bears, three tentacles sprout from their maws, hungry for the brains of other creatures, as Kerit (the parasite) needs brains to stay intelligent and alive.

Reborn Form:

After enough damage is done to their bear-host the pink/purple tentacles burst from their fleshy-shell, the creature now appears like a messy undead bear with a LOT of tentacles coming out of its torn-off lower-maw and from its belly, the largest tentacles replaced the bears sluggish locomotion. In this new form the Kerit gains more psychic attacks, and it can hit multiple enemies at the same time.

LOU CARCOLH

First Form:

This giant horrifying snail still has its shell on its back during its first stage.

Reborn Form:

After doing enough damage, the shell will break and the entire slimy snail creature is visible, while it loses a lot of defense in this shell-less form, it gains speed, and its slime-like abilities become more powerful in this stage as well.

MOROI / VAMPIRE

First Form

: Much like a vampire from twilight (just kiddn), more like a vampire from Interview with the Vampire, a beautiful man/woman (my project has both these) holding some (blood) wine in a royal-looking glass, it is dressed in fine clothes and both the male and female Moroi look like noble and rich humans.

Reborn Form:

Doing enough damage to these undead however, will release their real forms, which are far less noble and pretty, more monstrous and hungry for the blood that was denied from them, you see, the Moroi needs blood on its skin regularly to stay this pretty and civilized, without blood it turns into the monstrous, bestial undead it was intended to be.

STRIGOI / NOSFERATU

First Form:

The parents of the Moroi, these look more like the Nosferatu (cool and actual-scary vampires for newbies) and they embrace their monstrous nature, they have the power to control the blood of themselves and others, this gives them their ability to control animals, mind-control and such as well.

Reborn Form:

While already monstrous and ugly in their first form, their true form is even more bestial, they sprout giant fleshy bat wings from their backs and their fangs grow even more out of proportion, their power over blood becomes also stronger in this form, as anger turns the Strigoi more powerful.

OTSO

First Form:

In this form they are just bears with a row of green hairs running along their backs, just a cool looking bear, while they don’t have any magical abilities in this form, nature seems to protect them and after every physical bear-attack the Otso makes, nature makes a move for it as well, this can be healing the Otso randomly, giving it more strength, or summoning plant-based creatures to aid it, the Otso has the intellect of a real bear, so it doesn’t even realizes it is being helped by higher spirits.

Reborn Form:

After you kill this beautiful bear creature however, nature will embrace the bear and merges its spirit and corpse with the plant matter around it, turning the Otso into a bear made from wood, plants and other natural material, now the bear doesn’t need nature anymore to fend for itself, as it became a force of nature, natures protector, natures soul warrior, it gains intellect of its own and many magical abilities involving plants and nature, while its first form is a BEAST, its new form is a PLANT.

POLONG / CARNAGE

First Form:

What seems to be just a bloody zombie is actually a horrible blood-parasite in a corpse shell. In this form the Polong is actually very weak, and its true form is far more dangerous.

Reborn Form:

After you destroy its corpse-home, the Polong bursts out as an water elemental-like creature made from blood, the blood of murderers, thieves and other criminals to be exact. A creation of the vile Strigoi, these blood parasites gather more blood to grow larger and split into multiple Polongs after they absorbed too much of it. In this form its far more dangerous, it can harden its own bloody mass into red obsidian-like spikes to do some serious damage to its victims and enemies. The worst thing is that after another enemy or playable character dies the Polong can enter the corpse again and regenerate all its lost hitpoints, be sure to first kill the Polong and then any other creature on the battlefield.

POLTERGEIST

First Form:

These psychic spirits (also called Psychic Elementals) can enter and animate almost any tiny, small and medium object they encounter, I’m not so sure what object the Poltergeist in my project is found in, but it is probably some furniture like a chair or maybe cutlery.

Reborn Form:

After you destroy their inanimate shells the psychic spirit of a child burst out, it is a very vague humanoid spirit though, more like an insane mind of a child coming to life, it loses any physical attack it had in its object form, but gains powerful psychic abilities in return, if you keep it alive for multiple battle-rounds, it sometimes finds another object and becomes a physical attacker again.

DYBBUK

First Form:

While the Poltergeist is the psychic energy and soul of a paranormal child, the Dybbuk is the psychic energy of a demon, unlike the Poltergeist which can only possess inanimate objects, the more powerful Dybbuk can possess almost any living creature weaker than itself, it is hidden in random other enemies, and gives these monsters/creatures not only more HP but also powerful psychic abilities.

Reborn Form:

After you kill this other monsters the real Dybbuk bursts free, now losing any psychical attack it had and focusing entirely on its extremely powerful psychic abilities, it can also posses other monsters now, and if not protected by spells, your own heroes/characters can also be possessed if they are unlucky. The Dybbuk’s real form is even more insane and disturbing than the Poltergeists form, much like a demonic mind gone wild.

POLUDNICA / LADY MIDDAY

First Form:

In their first form these Nymphs of Light, sunrays and heat are still pretty, hiding their burned faces underneath their golden waving hair, almost appearing like Hesperids, the gentle nymphs of the sun or even muses.

Reborn Form:

After these ladies become angry and almost perish however, their real nature becomes apparent, their hair turns into solar-like fire, and now their burned faces become visible. Their already deadly scythes become even more deadly and become double-sided and they glow like the sun, an aura of heat becomes visible and everything around them catches flames, you really shouldn’t anger these ladies!

RAIJU

First Form:

Being playful shapeshifters, the Raiju is mostly encountered as a tanuki/badger/small predator in the wilds, in their true form they aren’t as cuddly though.

Reborn Form:

After being attacked a lot the Raiju sheds its fake form and turns into the lightning elemental it was born to be, just a wild mess of lightning and electricity without any form of its own. This Raiju isn’t as playful anymore as it is now angry that you hurt it, all it wanted to do is play with you, it didn’t know nor cared for its lightning hurting its playmates in the progress… These lightning elementals are very hard to hit and magic or magic enchanted weapons are needed to dispatch them once and for all, earth magic does great against them.

RAT KING

First Form:

Rat Kings are bizarre creatures, they appear to be just larger-than-usual rats with bright red eyes that collect swarms of non-intelligent rats around them to become a living swarm of rats (not bound by the tails though, like in the real folklore, I left that bit out of my version). All the rats in the swarm are controlled by the Rat King and they are more than willing to fight and die for their “King”.

Reborn Form:

After defeat is in range, the desperate little creature rapidly starts to devour all the death rats that made up its swarm, increasing the Rat Kings own size until it rivals the size of a bear, in this form I like to compare it to the Ugjuknarpak, a giant rat from Inuit myths. The rats that were still alive swarm all over the now giant Rat King like a living coat, functioning as a living armor of suicidal rodents.

RAUDKEMBINGUR / TROLUAL

First Form:

These red-painted monstrous whales make Moby Dick seem like a wussy, their biggest hobby is destroying ships which they use their entire mass upon, one of the biggest enemies in my project, the Raudkembingur in Mythica is like all the Evil Whales (they are all found in ABookOfCreatures) into one in my project, spare for the sharp-finned Sverdhvalur which most important feature (its sharp dorsal fin) I gave to the Japanese monster shark Isonade.

Reborn Form:

Sometimes when you defeat/kill a Raudkembingur it will turn into a Bakekujira/Ghost Whale, born from vengeance these ghostly skeletal whales never stop attacking and tracking their killers. Bakekujira are also found in the seas on their own in my project, but they can also spawn from killed Raudkembingur on the spot.

GASHADOKURO / BONE LORD

First Form:

A gigantic skeleton, nothing more, nothing less. They are created from the merged combined bones from the victims of starvation, a vile creation of the Horseman of Famine (Limos in my project)

Reborn Form:

After you defeat these giant skeletons, they will fall apart into a small army (5) of lesser skeletons (called Spartoi in my project).

STELLA

First Form:

These small Crown Of Thorns starfish monsters are burning with heat, in their first form they are red with almost red-hot spikes covering their bodies, Stella can control their own temperature and turn the water around them very hot.

Reborn Form:

After they are defeated however, their temperature and abilities changes to colder climates, they now can freeze the water around them and also the blood in their enemies bodies, their color changes to a beautiful blue with almost frozen spikes covering their entire starfish bodies.

SUCCARATH / SU

First Form:

See the artwork for what it looks like.

Reborn Form:

The Succarath doesn’t really change into a different form, it just spawns its children on the battlefield, and when you kill the Succarath while there is still a child alive, the soul of the Succarath will be transformed into its psychic child, morphing it instantly into the Succarath itself, you have to kill all the children first to really defeat this creature.

BOLOTNIK

First Form:

These fat, lazy and spoiled toad-humanoids sit on a mobile-throne which is carried at all times by four lesser Vodyanoi (frog-humanoids), the Bolotnik do all their magical attacks, which involve water, mud and quicksand, from their throne, using their magical muddy staff.

Reborn Form:

After you do enough damage, the poor four Vodyanoi slaves of the Bolotnik will perish and the mobile-throne will fall apart, so now the Bolotnik has to fight without it. It can still use magical attacks but also adds physical attacks to its list.

WENDIGO / WINDIGO

First Form:

The first form of the Wendigo has it hovering in the air, wearing the skull of a stag and mostly bestowing terrible magical curses of hunger and cannibalism on its victims/enemies and allies as well, which become more dangerous during the battle as they become more hungry for your flesh, it doesn’t attack physically at all during this stage.

Reborn Form:

After you do enough damage to the Wendigo its skull-mask breaks off and its true form becomes visible, the Wendigo falls from the sky and turns into a raging, hungry ghoul-like horror, instead of influencing others to become hungry it becomes gluttony incarnate itself, attacking with powerful claws and horrid overgrown teeth. You see, you can please both fans of the Wendigo at the same time! In my version it still wears the skull of a deer, but turns into a more accurate-to-the-real-myth version in its second form.

SLUAGH / WRAITH STORM

First Form:

Like a living swarm of spirits/wraiths, hovering together in an enormous tornado of souls and evil.

Reborn Form:

After you defeat the Sluagh, it turns into three ordinary Wraiths, the last three wraiths that survive, much like a spirit-version of the Gashadokuro turning into Spartoi Skeletons.

DRAUGR

First Form:

Draugr, in my project, look like veteran zombie warriors, arrows sticking from their bodies and into their eyes, daggers and swords are stuck in their undead flesh and it doesn’t seem to bother them at all, they only make great use of all these weapons and arrows inside them in their attacks and abilities.

Reborn Form:

The Draugr doesn’t change form at all, it just has the annoying ability to not stay dead for long, it has a 50% chance of resurrecting itself during the battle, and this can go on FOREVER if luck is on the Draugrs side, of course there is the option to just escape from battles.

@rtwork of Succarath and Heikegani = Paizo/Pathfinder

#Mythology #Folklore #Monsters #Fantasy

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poptod · 4 years

Note

hi! can i request an ahk x reader fic where reader was an air force pilot for some time and they and ahk exchange war stories? not to glorify war or anything but i’m interested to see how that would play out. thanks!

notes: hey! sorry that this might be a bit late, i was spending the day with my friend and had to write the bulk of it before 11.30 and i woke up at 9. sorry I kind of strayed from the prompt, but i hope you like it anyway

WC: 1.5k

He hadn't ever considered himself a survivor of a war. Fighting and death came so natural to him, and to many of the people from his time – simply put, it was as unavoidable as death, and would live for just as long. That being said, your logic did make sense; he was still a participant in a war, no matter how small it was.

"Did you stay to fight?" You asked in your soft, low voice. Every now and then he wondered if that's what you sounded like when you were alive.

"I was fifteen at the time, so no," he said with a chuckle, earning naught but a bittersweet smile. "In later years I did, though. My brother and I had rule over our own separate battalions. When it came time for us to make our move against the Nubians, I couldn't do it. I tried to hurt someone, but it's hard when you see their face, and you think of their mothers."

"War has changed a lot since then," you hummed, nodding thoughtlessly along to his story. "I didn't see a single person's face."

"How?"

"Remember Amelia?"

"Oh, yes," he said, recalling her flying contraption.

"You drop bombs from there that explode with fire, and depending on the size, a single bomb could kill thousands," you said as your voice once more turned soft, memories playing out behind your eyes.

It was true that Ahk had trouble picturing modern warfare. The methods that lasted eons were still imprinted in his mind, and as hard as he tried to imagine it, he still had difficulty. Planes that crowded the sky. Tanks that rolled over hills and mountains. Deep trenches and gunpowder. Chemicals and bombs. You thought to show him a movie – something more modern, not from your time, where the special effects would be better and the picture clearer. The first time you suggested it he turned you down, but perhaps he'd changed his mind.

"I could show you one of those movies," you said, watching his expression carefully for any sign of distaste. He showed nothing – blank eyes staring at the floor as he pondered on the state of the world, and the state of you.

"I'd rather spend my time talking to you, honestly," he finally said, a deep sigh following his words, "but does it ever bother you? How many people you may have.. hurt..?"

"I try not to think about it," you mumbled as you stared down at your fidgeting fingers.

"I don't blame you."

You never talked much. Not about yourself, or others, or the time period you came from. While you weren't a reanimated corpse like Ahk, you retained all the memories from a life you lived a couple decades ago. In life your name was (Y/N), but in the museums, most people referred to you as Screwdriver.

Your presence in the museum of natural history was not one that was actually supposed to happen. Actually, you belonged in the aviators museum, where planes hung on hooks, and wax statues and cardboard cutouts waved empty hellos to museum-goers. Due to some error not on your behalf, you were kept in the archives far below the earth's surface. Ahk had found you there one day, looking for silence amongst the many boxes, and not realizing that carrying the tablet with him everywhere was causing everything to come to life, and thus eliminating his hopes of quiet solitude. You were the most human there, so he sat down and talked to you.

For the first couple weeks no one knew you existed, but Ahk soon introduced you to the others. Despite your reluctance you agreed, offering firm handshakes and curt introductions to those gathered, and giving nothing more than your name. He didn't really expect you to talk to many others, and you didn't – your relations with other living people remained quarantined to him, to his word, and to his stories.

The two of you talked every night but for some reason, he knew very little about you. Just that you flew a plane – that thoughts of your sins were avoided, and that you were protective of free ideas and people. What a wonderful friend you were; always listening well, always there for him. Still, he did wish you would open up a little more, but he didn't hold his breath for it. You were still quite solitary, and he doubted he'd ever learn what exactly you did during the Vietnam war.

On a late winter evening he tucked his tablet underneath his arm, unlatching the door to the basement and wandering down the steps as music pounded from above. As he moved slowly along, boxes of exhibits and statues began to come to life, a few of them beating fists against the wood keeping them in place. He paid them little mind, if any at all, and continued his search for you, in the farthest corner of the first basement floor.

Rarely did he ever come here. Most of the time he took a few steps away from the staircase and you were already there, waiting for him. This time, however, you might've gotten stuck in your box, or perhaps were facing some annoying exhibit whose nature wouldn't let you pass. Nonetheless, he made it his short mission to help you.

Once he reached the box with your name painted onto the side, he halted, the sight of a posterboard catching his eye. According to you, you were the only part of your exhibit – that's what you told him, but the image of your face was on the poster, accompanied by several paragraphs of information. He looked to your little coffin, wondering if he could afford to leave you in there long enough to read it.

Nick had been teaching Ahk how to read English for a little while now, and it came time to put those lessons to the test. Finally, he could learn about you.

(L/N) was a decorated war hero who went into hiding soon after their tour duty ended. They never told anyone why, but it is generally assumed that it had something to do with the greatest feat of power they exercised: leading the Rolling Thunder operation. It is also possible that the adverse reaction of the public towards the Vietnam War drove (L/N) into hiding, like many soldiers from the time.

The tactics and morality of the operation has been critiqued harshly, but there's no denying the effect it had on both the war and the people of Vietnam and America alike. The CIA privately estimated that damage inflicted in the north totaled $500 million in total damage. They also estimated that by April 1967, 52,000 casualties including 21,000 deaths had occurred as a result of the operation. The CIA estimated that 75 percent of casualties were involved in military or quasi military operations including civilians working on military and logistical operations.

There is only one existing interview with (L/N), occurring several months before they went into hiding.

"You don't see very much, from up there," they recounted. "All you see is the damage of property. You don't see the kids. You don't see the blood. You don't see the abandoned cribs and you can't see the shattered windows. I think that's the part that really gets me – I'm not proud of what I did. I don't think I ever will be, which is how it should be. What we did was an crime against human nature and I wish it never happened at all. If I had to do it again I'd desert."

"Ahk? Are you out there?" You asked, knocking on the wood door.

The noise brought him out of his imagination, picturing you in a cushioned chair, talking to some journalist. He left the posterboard and undid the latch, helping you out of the wooden case.

"(Y/N)," he said softly, his hand still holding yours. You looked him up and down, a confused and suspicious look in your eye. "I... I read about the, um, Rolling Thunder operation."

Your eyes widened and you stopped breathing.

"... oh."

"It doesn't make me think any less of you," he murmured, cupping your cheek to hold reluctant eye contact with you. His touch was a welcome one, warm and soft, like everything you loved about the Pharaoh.

"I wish I was more like you," you said in a broken, cracking voice, trying to swallow down the lump in your throat. "You at least had the morality to stop before it started. I didn't even stop in the middle of it."

"That's because I could afford to. I didn't face any consequences, but you would've, and I know you regret what you did," he assured you, brushing away the couple tears that made their way down your flushed cheek.

"I can't use 'following orders' as an excuse. Atrocities against humanity have been excused with that."

"You can't carry guilt with you forever," he said softly.

"I can deal with it, on my own time," you mumbled, leaning into the warmth of his hand. "Just... don't tell anyone. I'll do it when I'm ready."

"Of course."

#ahkmenrah x reader #Ahkmenrah #Night at the Museum #rami malek

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dkronpa · 4 years

Text

Chapter 3: Journey to Despair, Grave Secrets, Grave Lies ~Post-Trial~

//And the end of chapter 3 is finally upon us! I hope you all enjoy I’ll start working on chapter 4 immediately, hope you all enjoy!

“Wowee! Three for three! You got it right once again, the one who punched a bunch of holes in Toson Shinko was none other than the Ultimate Thanatologist, Tsukiko Ishikawa!” Monokuma announced.

“Please refrain from describing it in such a grotesque way.” Ishikawa-san said.

Sly-san looked at Kurosaki-san, “You were right, huh? What the hell?”

“What can I say? It’s just what happens.” Kurosaki-san shrugged nonchalantly. Whatever happened with Kurosaki-san’s plan is definitely suspicious, but for now…

“I…just can’t really believe it…Ishikawa-san’s always been such a big help during the investigations and has helped everyone by supporting them, so…I don’t understand why. Why, of all people, did you end up killing someone?” Kurohiko-san asked.

“The motive, obviously. Tsukiko-chan must have had a list of really important people in her life that she couldn’t afford to pick any of them.” Amaterasu-san said.

“…I’m afraid that’s not my reasoning at all.” She admitted.

“Huh?” Amaterasu-san cocked an eyebrow. Ishikawa-san’s shoulders slumped as she took a breath.

“I’m afraid I did not have much time left with all of you. My body was destined to give out on me soon during our imprisonment here.” She said.

“Wh…what the hell does that mean?” Okanaya-kun asked.

“I am a corpse. My body is decaying. I am slowly returning to my eternal slumber. Why, only a few days ago, I found my hair falling out in clumps during a shower. I fear that if I stepped back into water, I would waste away…”

“Now that I think about it, I suggested we all go to the pool after the motive reveal, but you seemed really against that idea…was that because…?”

“I’m sorry, Kirishima-sama. I did not mean to hurt your feelings but snapping at you back then. At this point it matters not. My body shall be thrown away no matter what happens from here on. What a dreadfully awful result I’ve ended up in.” Ishikawa-san laughed to herself.

“Why Herr Shinko…?” Kurosaki-san asked. Ishikawa-san stopped laughing almost immediately, “for all the time I sat and thought, I couldn’t come up with a reason as to why you decided he should die. I know you two didn’t get along, but was that really enough for someone like you…?”

Ishikawa-san’s expression turning thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Shinko-sama was not…respectable. Unlike the rest of our group, Shinko-sama refused to ever reveal who he was to us. I loathe ingenuine people. If it were to be anyone, it would have to have been him. Life is a sacred thing, you see. Everyone in this room values life and lives their lives as well as they can. As someone who was lucky enough to be given a second chance, anyone who has no care for life infuriates me.”

“I don’t get what you mean at all.” Kurohiko-san admitted.

“Shinko-sama had no value for his life. Or anyone else’s. It was not a thing of importance in his eyes, that is what I mean to say.” Ishikawa-san clarified.

“No, on a fundamental level I can get what you’re saying, but…I refuse to believe Shinko-kun was like that. Sure, he was abrasive and rude and a little selfish, but to suggest he had no care for his or anyone’s lives?! Isn’t that going too far?!”

“Did any of us really know him though?” Graves-san suddenly spoke, “I mean…put your hand up if you would have said you and Toson were close.” Nobody moved, “so, none of us can really say Tsukiko is wrong about him. For all we know, he could have been selfish enough to not value our lives. Maybe he was getting ready to kill while he was hiding in his room all that time.”

“There was no evidence of such a thing.” Asano-san argued.

“So? You need hard evidence? What if he was calculating enough to do it all in his head? He’s a director, after all, it could have played out in his head like a movie.”

“Graves-san…!” Asano-san’s fists balled up.

“To think…it wasn’t even Monokuma’s motive that got you to kill someone. It’s so stupid, I could cry out of pity.” Graves-san laughed a little. What the hell? I’d never seen this side of her before. “Hey, Tsukiko…I’ve got to wonder about you and your little ‘zombie’ theory.”

“I am not a zombie.” Ishikawa-san said.

“Yeah, I know. Let me ask though, what do you think will happen to you next…? I mean, you already see yourself as dead. Don’t you? So, what does an execution mean for a walking corpse?”

“Well, it means…that is…” Ishikawa-san stopped and frowned.

“I mean, if you’re a conscious dead person, does that mean even if Monokuma crushes your body into paste, you’ll still be conscious? What are the rules for someone that’s been reanimated? Tell me. Tell me, please.”

“Stop this, please.” Ishikawa-san shifted uncomfortably.

“Tell me tell me tellmetellmetellme-“

“STOP!!” Ishikawa-san suddenly shouted, “I…d-don’t you understand?! That’s why I had to get out! We…we don’t know how long we have been trapped in here, but I didn’t think much about that at the start! Th-then…my hair started falling out, it felt like my skin was becoming thin, like if I rubbed it, it would tear apart…it could only have been a matter of time before I was left as nothing, and then what would happen to my body?! I…I couldn’t waste away in here!”

“Ah…hey, Nagata. Remember what Kirishima’s first motive said? The thing about the 8 days ending today? You don’t think…?”

“It was your card, Ishikawa-san. Kirishima-san’s card was a time limit for how long you thought you had left before your body would waste away into nothing.” I concluded.

“…so, that was my first motive…? My unfinished business? I didn’t even think of it. I just…wished to see the outside world one last time before my final departure…” Ishikawa-san clasped her hands together, a tear falling from one of her eyes.

“I see, I see…well, even corpses gotta get their comeuppance, right?! Just cause you’re dead, doesn’t mean you’re exempt from consequences!” Monokuma suddenly chimed in.

“It can’t be time already?!” Ishikawa-san gasped.

“Now, let’s get to the main event! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for the Ultimate Thanatologist, Tsukiko Ishikawa!”

She took a breath to calm herself. An expression of acceptance appearing on her face. “…I do hope to pass on properly this time, I suppose. Please do not allow me to linger or revive again, I do not deserve another chance.” Ishikawa-san sighed, bringing her hands close to her chest, “I’ll offer up a final prayer. For Shinko-sama’s soul…and hopefully my own.”

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! Iiiiiit’s PUNISHMENT TIME!!!”

“…Memento Mori…”

-Game Over- -Tsukiko Ishikawa has been found Guilty!- -Commencing Execution-

The monitor turned on after Ishikawa-san had been dragged away in the same manner Kibe-san and Hachi-san had been and displayed Ishikawa-san laying down in a black coffin holding a bouquet of white flowers. A headstone sitting right behind the coffin.

-Tsukiko Ishikawa's execution: Black Thread Hell-

Monokuma appears next to the open casket with a black marker and proceeds to wildly scribble black lines across Ishikawa-san’s body, arms, and legs, along with a moustache and glasses on her face, before slamming it shut. From inside the coffin a large rumbling noise can be heard, Ishikawa-san waits until the rumbling dies down before trying to move. She wipes away the marker on her face and opens up the coffin, only to find herself in a hell-like place with huge jagged mountains and trees.

As she looks around, a huge Asura-looking creature approaches her from behind, armed with swords and axes. She climbs out and runs, with the Asura swinging at her, but always seeming to miss. She runs through black trees and thorn bushes, and jumps a jagged rock, where it looks like she's safe. However, as she takes a step forward, she realizes her leg is bleeding along one of the black lines. As she reaches down to examine it, one of her fingers fall off.

In a moment of confusion, terror and elation, Tsukiko looks down to see blood seeping out of all the lines. Her left hand drops off at the wrist, then her right arm midway down, then all of it above the elbow. As she tries to take another step forward, her lower leg drops off at the knee. She collapses into a pile of meat slices, organs, and blood.

“Uuuu….urrrgg…bleugh!” Kirishima-san collapsed in the corner; the sound of her vomiting made my stomach turn. Ishikawa-san…there’s no way she deserved to go so brutally. Kibe-san and Hachi-san weren’t exactly executed tamely, but this felt on a whole other level…

“G-good god…” Yokozawa-san covered his mouth, his face earning a green tint. It seems most of us were feeling the same way. This was too much.

“Monokuma. What the hell was that? Even for you, that seemed graphic.” Sly-san demanded.

“Hmm? I dunno what you mean. If anything, I think it’s pretty in-line with what she did to Shinko, don’t you? I mean, those other two just stabbed and bashed but this girl threw him in an iron maiden! That’s some real crazy stuff there! It’s only fitting an execution be just as horrifying as the murder, right?!”

“This really is just a joke to you, isn’t it?!” Okanaya-kun spat.

“No way. I’m taking this seriously. I’m taking this more seriously than anyone else.” Monokuma said.

“Eheheh…hahahah…” Graves-san covered her mouth trying to laugh, “geez. This really is a far cry from Maemi getting stabbed in the back- literally. Now people are getting sliced into piles of mush, piece by piece…I don’t wanna end up like that. I don’t wanna end up like that at all.”

“Graves-san…”

“Ah, Junpei, don’t worry. I won’t kill you. You and I are friends! You’re pretty much the only person I have a little trust left in at this point. Even then it’s thin. Saori showed us you can’t trust the quiet ones, Tomoe showed you can’t trust your friends, Tsukiko just showed you can’t even trust those who try to be helpful. Anyone could stab us in the back at any moment.” Graves-san smirked. “Scaaaaary.”

“This is an unexpected change in your behaviour. Is this your survival instincts kicking in, I wonder?” Kurosaki-san said.

“Ah, who know? If anything, you’re the one I trust the least. What was it Sly was saying earlier about you, huh? That you just seemed to know things…what was that all about? Are you some secret psychic?” Graves-san got closer to Kurosaki-san until they were staring at each other, faces inches apart. “I wanna learn all your secrets. Will you give me the chance?”

“Knock yourself out. But I’d rather die than let you learn anything about me.” Kurosaki-san smiled.

“Careful what you wish for~” Graves-san half-cheered, “Ah! But I’m suuuuper tired! Hey, Monokuma is it okay to leave now that the execution is done? I gotta get some serious Z’s for tomorrow! I wonder what’ll happen?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. You guys are dismissed. I gotta go find a mop and bucket.” Monokuma waved goodbye as he headed down the hall to the execution room.

“Oh, Junpei! We gotta grab breakfast tomorrow so I’ll meet with you a little after the morning announcement. Cool?”

“Y-yeah…cool.” Yokozawa-san nodded nervously. Graves-san flashed a bright, almost innocent smile and skipped to the elevator, taking the ride back up alone.

“She’s dangerous.” Amaterasu-san said almost immediately.

“Hey now…” Yokozawa-san tried.

“W-we should tie her up, just in case! I’m worried about her after she said all that. Should we even trust somebody that’s got a talent like Ultimate Secret Agent…? She’s definitely gonna be able to kill without hesitation.” Kurohiko-san said.

“You’re saying that as if the Ultimate Assassin isn’t in the room.” Yokozawa-san argued.

“You ever seen Sly genuinely threaten someone so happily like that?! That bitch is off her fuckin’ nut!” Okanaya-kun shot back.

“Shut up! You were the one that threatened everybody in the early days, and now you have the nerve to judge someone else?! None of you even know her! She’s probably just as scared as everybody else but you just wanna all focus your own fear on an easy target!” Yokozawa-san snapped.

“H-hey now…”

“You’re the worst for it, Nagata-kun. Y-you…you never do anything to help out, but as soon as a murder happens, you’re some big hero?! Don’t screw with me! Why…why do you get to be a hero when you don’t even have a talent…?”

“The fuck’re you talkin’ about?! Nagata’s the Ultimate Lucky Student!” Okanaya-kun argued.

“He doesn’t seem very lucky to me. Then again, didn’t you say your talent affects the people around you…? So, answer me this then. Why the fuck are we all stuck in here if you’re so goddamn lucky? Why have we had to watch people die over and over and over again if you’re supposed to bring us all good fortune…?” Yokozawa-san’s hands were balled up into trembling fists. “I…w-wanna go home already…! Just let me go home now…!”

“I…I don’t know…I don’t know why this keeps happening.” I admitted. He’s right. What good is my talent if we’re in this situation. How can I even call myself the Ultimate Lucky Student?

“Of course you don’t. God, if you died at least the situation would make a little more sense-“

WHAP!

We all stood stunned. Yokozawa-san stumbled back, holding onto his cheek where Kirishima-san had hit. Her eyes were welling up, her hand, the palm slightly red, was shaking so violently she had to hold it with her other hand.

“Don’t say that, please…we shouldn’t be fighting like this…not after what just happened.” She pleaded. “It’s not Nagata-kun’s fault…it’s not Graves-san’s fault. It’s nobody’s fault except Monokuma’s! So we shouldn’t be standing here trying to pin the blame on anybody.”

“R-Ram-san…”

“It’s Kirishima.” She corrected, wiping the traces of tears. “Yokozawa-kun, please keep an eye on Graves-san for us. You’re the only one she’ll trust right now. We need to get our group back together. We need teamwork.”

“She is right. The fighting and blaming will not improve our situation.” Asano-san agreed. “So…let us reconvene tomorrow, yes? There will most likely be a new building for us to search, so it will be the opportune time for us to rebuild our relationships. Even if it must be from scratch.”

“Yeah…that’s fine.” I said, glancing at Yokozawa-san. He was refusing to even look in my direction. I’ll need to try and talk to him tomorrow.

“Then…let us head back.” Asano-san said.

-Chapter 2, Post Trial, Ryuu-

I sat laid there and stared at my ceiling, going over Yokozawa-san’s words in my mind. I never thought about it now. Everyone without fail had been blessed by good luck when I was around them, so why not now…? Why was this the moment my talent was deciding to fail me? Can talents just stop?

“Is something wrong with me?” I wondered aloud, sitting up in my bed. I didn’t feel any different. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the motive card. My motive. I just figured Monokuma would come and collect them himself after the motive was over, but I guess not. I shook my head, taking the motive card and throwing it in the trash.

I never had to think of this awful motive again. I don’t have to think about what would’ve happened if Shinko-san wasn’t killed. Shinko-san was killed, so everyone on that card was safe.

“Oh god…” I internally gasped, “why am I thinking like that…?” This game has really taken its toll. Or maybe… “Am I a bad person…?”

-Chapter 2, Post Trial, Yuuki-

“Ah…this is frustrating. I figured someone would break by this point, but for it to be Mademoiselle Graves is really…problematic.” Yuuki said. Sly tapped his foot annoyedly waiting for Yuuki to finish lamenting the situation. With a defeated huff, Yuuki crossed his arms and mimicked Sly’s standing position, slightly mockingly.

“You said you would tell me the truth if I helped you out. Now, are you going to go through with that promise or not?” Sly asked.

“You’re so impatient. You have no respect for suspense, or perhaps you just really hate spending time with me.”

“Do you want me to answer that?”

“Mean!” Yuuki pointed overdramatically. “If you’re gonna be so mean, I’ll never reveal anything to you!”

“Oi…” Sly warned, a hand in his pocket.

“Oh please, I know all you have is that dog tag.”

“Then I’ll beat you up with my fists.” Sly cracked his knuckles, edging towards Yuuki.

“Fine, fine.” Yuuki lifted up his shirt and pulled out a small journal with a leather cover that was tucked away on his waistline. “…I hope you realise the risks you’re taking by getting yourself involved with this.”

“I am. You said we can end the killing game if we work together.”

“Yes, that’s still my hypothesis. If you’re completely sure, then go ahead and read this journal. Read how the rest of this killing game goes…” Yuuki presented Sly with the journal.

And Sly took it.

-Chapter 3: Journey to Despair, Grave Secrets, Grave Lies END-

-10 Students Remain-

#DKronpa #chapters #danganronpa #danganronpa fangan #fangan ronpa #fanganronpa #Dangan Ronpa

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kyarymell · 5 years

Text

[Fic] Sugar Hearts; Leon S. Kennedy x Reader

Rating: T

Summary: Even with Raccoon City going to hell, you still end up sharing chocolates with the cute Rookie cop you just met.

Just a quick one-shot for you all, Happy Valentine's Day you love-fools! My boyfriend helped me write this by proxy because I’ve been watching him play the Resident Evil 2 Remake a bunch, giving me details on the universe.

No cover art for now, I’m too tired. xD

You were at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Finally able to take a break from work, you were staying at your friend’s place in Raccoon City. It was strange seeing the military barricades everywhere, but no-one thought anything of it. Random acts of violence eventually became frequent and suddenly everyone was clamoring to the exits.

In the confusion, you were separated from your friend. Days passed holed up in their apartment and you were getting worried.

Even if looking for them spelled out your certain death, you would try. As you came to realise, the situation in the city was no regular occurrence.

Humans once populating the streets, were now mindless walking shells of flesh. It was straight out of a horror movie. Armed with a melee weapon, your first point of visit was the Raccoon City Police Department.

Thankfully, the reanimated corpses were slow, unlike those seen in movies. Running over to the historical site, you saw that the front gate was shut. Narrowly moving out of the way as a zombie lunged, you tried to find another way in.

Walking through a side alley, you find a gate with loose boards against it. Making sure you don’t get splinters, you quietly pry the nails from the boards. Slipping through the gate, you breathe a sigh of relief as you’re able to get away from the rain.

Stumbling into the main hall, miserable and wet, is when you meet Lieutenant Marvin Branagh. He’s heavily wounded, bleeding profusely from his injuries. You wish there was something you could do, but there’s no first aid kit in sight.

“Didn’t think there were any civilians left alive around here.”

“Then that means...”

“We were overrun a few days ago. I’m sorry. There were so many people coming and going- I can’t say if your friend was here.”

Downcast, you bit your lip. So that’s it then. Where would you even go now? Zombies surrounded the station as far as the eye could see. Your friend... maybe if you weren’t so scared hiding out in their apartment you’d reunite with them.

Maybe-

“You wanted to show me something, Lieutenant?”

Jumping, you were so deep in thought you didn��t even notice the newcomer. Judging by his uniform, he had to be a police officer. He looked young, hair clinging to his forehead from the rain.

This is your first introduction to Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop who was late for work and happened to miss the apocalypse. You’re in his company after Marvin fills you in on the situation- finding a way out by opening a secret passageway.

“Strength in numbers. Remember that.”

It sounds surreal, but then again, you’re in a historical building surrounded by zombies. Secret passages shouldn’t phase you by now. Before heading out of the main hall together, the pair of you make introductions and you find out it’s (technically) his first day on the job.

“Damn, that sucks.”

There’s nothing much to say- passing by what seems to be an office, there’s a banner with the words ‘Welcome Leon’ strung on the ceiling. It’s almost sad to think about his department throwing a party for a person who would never come.

“I couldn’t just abandon the other guys out here. I had to see what was going on.”

“I see…”

The way he speaks is with a hint of regret and you’re feeling it- too frightened to find your friend sooner. You wish you had that sort of confidence. The rookie noticed your faraway look and shot you a smile.

“As long as we stick together, we’ll be alright. Hopefully I’ll find some answers as to what’s going on.”

Trying to ignore how attractive he looked when he smiled, you nodded. It would be nice to know who was to blame for everything becoming fucked up like this.

A lot goes down in the next hour. You’ve been given a knife to fend off any attacks and you find it useful when a zombie grabs you from behind. Sticking your knife in it, you shove it away as Leon shoots it squarely in the head.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

You’re not sure how much help you can be in this situation, with no combat experience to speak of but you can reach and grab things that Leon is unable to. Things continue like this for a while, collecting keys and finding parts to mechanisms.

Then, Leon’s foot goes through a loose floorboard in the library.

“Shit-!”

With all the gear he was carrying, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Diving for him, you grabbed his arm before he fell completely. The zombies on the floor below were alerted to the noise, grasping for his foot. He was heavy- but was able to regain his footing before falling completely.

“Thanks. Guess we’re even now. Let’s go before they catch up to us.”

“Sure.”

If you had to be honest, it was good to have someone watching your back, after days of being alone. Leon was considerate, making small talk when he saw how nervous you were. After running from monsters of all types, you felt a little hopeful that you would make it out alive.

Coming to a dark, quiet hallway Leon motioned for you to stay behind him. Trusting his judgement, you were a few paces behind him. Something still didn’t feel right.

“Le-?!”

You were about to call out to him, until you find yourself pinned against the wall. The rookie’s hand was clamped onto your mouth, effectively silencing you. There was a moment of confusion, then you saw a mass of flesh and bone crawl slowly past.

Every time it made a movement, there was a clicking noise across the floorboards. Claws. You willed yourself to stay put, hoping you wouldn’t be shredded to pieces.

The pair of you leaned against the wall, listening for the creature’s whereabouts. Sweat beaded on your forehead as Leon held you tight, his breath hot on your ear. Trembling, you tried to focus on how warm his body was and not how terrified you were.

After a tense moment of silence, Leon released you.

“Sorry,” he whispered, “I’ve encountered one of those things before. They react to sound.”

Nodding, you slowly walked with him and winced when the floor creaked under your boot.

Thankfully, the creature didn’t come back.

It was a blur after that; unlocking the passageway out, Marvin succumbing to his wounds and reaching the parking lot. There was a race against time, reassembling the circuit board to the jail and grabbing the parking key card.

All the while, you were running from some crazed giant mutant who was hell-bent on seeing you both dead. Finally losing the creature and opening the garage door, you were the closest to death you’ve ever been. Caught off-guard, a mutated dog tackled you to the ground.

Desperately trying to get yourself free, you moved to grab your knife and shoved it straight into the creature’s throat. Staggered, you kick it away and Leon is able to shoot it cleanly.

“You alright?”

Your breath is caught in your throat. Were you bitten? Would you become one of those things? Numb, your companion led you by the arm out of the parking garage.

Feeling raindrops on your skin pulls you out of your shocked state. Oh, how you were so glad to see the night sky again.

“I…”

“C’mon.”

Exhausted from the ordeals thus far, the pair of you take a breather after barricading a small newsagency. Setting yourself down on the floor, you’re relieved to be able to rest for once. Wrapping your arms around yourself, you hugged your knees tight.

It’s been horrible from the get go- you’re not sure how much more you can take of this. All the blood, seeing those things rend and tear flesh from each other…

Leon sits next to you, taking you out of your thoughts. There’s a square-shaped box in his hands and you can feel a slight chill radiating off it. The sound of the box unwrapping brings your attention to what’s inside.

Chocolates.

“Found these in the back, I think they’re free from infection.”

There’s a theory between the two of you that the cause of zombies was due to an outbreak.

“You think they’re free from infection?”

As you’re questioning him, he’s already popped one into his mouth. Shocked, you lean over and squeeze on his chin.

“Wait! Spit it out!”

Choosing to ignore your concern, he swallows it down then offers you a piece.

“Have some, they’re pretty good.”

“Leon…”

Frowning, you really don’t have the stomach for this sort of thing but take one anyway. Chewing on the sweet confection, you found yourself yearning for the days when things were normal. Perhaps some sugar was good for you, after the shock you just experienced.

“You’re right. They are good.”

Leon nodded and the two of you sat there for a while, sharing the chocolates. Your thoughts wandered. If only something like this could happen under normal circumstances…

How much more were you to endure before getting out of here? It was frustrating being on the receiving end of the rookie’s kindness all the time.

“I’m sorry that you end up saving me a lot.”

Your companion shook his head.

“You’ve had my back more than once- remember when I got grabbed and you threw me your knife?”

Biting the inside of your cheek, you were unsure of what to say.

“-and those weird puzzles we always seem to come across, you solve them pretty quickly.”

“Well…”

“I’m glad I met you.” his words are genuine and it ignites a heat in your chest.

Would you get another chance like this?

You’re not sure if it’s the adrenaline from earlier wearing off, but you allow your eyes to shut, pressing your lips against his. Subconsciously, your tongue darts out and you taste the lingering sweetness from the chocolate.

Gasping, you pull away from him as if burned.

“I’m sorry! Uh, we just met and-“

He gives you a smile-

“Nah, it’s fine.”

-and leans in to kiss you again.

#resident evil 2 #re2 #resident evil 2 remake #re2 remake #leon s kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x reader

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thedcdunce · 5 years

Text

Blue Devil

“Killing demons has kept me plenty busy.” - Blue Devil

Real Name: Daniel Patrick Cassidy

Aliases:

Kid Devil

Gopher

Gender: Male

Height: 6�� 8″

Weight: 385 lbs (175 kg)

Eyes: Yellow

Hair: Bald

Skin: Blue

Powers:

Demonic Physiology

Abilities:

Acrobatics

Acting

Martial Arts

Mechanical Engineering/Gadgetry

Weaknesses:

Weirdness Magnet

Technological Reliability

Equipment:

Blue Devil Costume

Blue Devil Trident

Devilmobile

Trident of Lucifer

Universe:

Earth-One

New Earth

Base of Operations:

Oblivion Bar

Metropolis

Los Angeles

Malibu, California

House of Weirdness

Citizenship: American

Marital Status: Single

Occupation:

Special Effects Artist

Stuntman

First Appearance: Firestorm Vol 2 #24 (June, 1984)

Powers

Demonic Physiology: In his original superhero form, Blue Devil's abilities were largely the result of the technological devices built into his costume. Danny was reborn as a genuine demon after he was defeated by Neron in Hell.

Superhuman Strength

Superhuman Agility

Superhuman Durability

Accelerated Healing

Enhanced Senses

Enhanced Hearing

Enhanced Vision

Abilities

Acrobatics: Danny was an experienced stuntman. The Blue Devil suit then enhanced his strength and agility dramatically.

Acting: Danny worked in the film industry as an actor, stuntman, and special effects artist. He starred alongside Wayne Tarrant and Sharon Scott in the film, Blue Devil, as the title role.

Martial Arts

Boxing: Dan was an amateur boxer who retired undefeated in his last twenty fights, and was able to hold his own against Van Vanucci.

Mechanical Engineering/Gadgetry: Danny's greatest technical achievement was building the original Blue Devil suit and rocket propelled trident.

Weaknesses

Weirdness Magnet: After being fused into the Blue Devil suit, Norm theorized that Dan's fusion of science and magic made him a "weirdness magnet" that attracted abnormal activity to him. This was dismissed as a joke until until Dr. Kylburn had the statisticians at S.T.A.R. Labs substantiate the claims. They even gave him money to put his uncanny probability to the test in Las Vegas. The theory became conclusive upon meeting Cain, who confirmed the existence of such a concept, even pinpointing the positively charged force radiating from his abdomen. It's unknown if this phenomenon was caused by the magic of Nebiros or Danny's family history which has faerie blood on his uncle Seamus' side.

Technological Reliability: Although the suit was organically grafted to Danny, it was still mechanical in nature and vulnerable to being hijacked by the the correct frequency. His former friend and fellow stuntman Larry Bolatnsky managed to remotely control Blue Devil to fight Firestorm.

Equipment

Blue Devil Costume: Blue Devil's powers originally came from a highly sophisticated stunt suit Danny built for practical in-camera effects. The techno-organic exosuit disappeared when he was reborn as a true demon.

Superhuman Strength: Increased Danny's strength at least twenty times the norm.

Super-Leaping

Superhuman Durability

Accelerated Healing: After being grafted to Cassidy's body, the costume became organic and gained the ability to self-repair at an extremely fast rate.

Superhuman Agility

Enhanced Senses

Enhanced Hearing

Enhanced Vision: Infrared night vision.

Enhanced Vocals: Voice modulator.

Amphibious: The suit had "mini-gills" built into it, allowing Danny to breathe underwater.

Explosives: Exploding bubble effect from cuffs.

Blue Devil Trident: The trident had cybernetic relay connections to the suit, allowing it to be summoned and controlled remotely. In his original superhero costume, Blue Devil relied on the rocket-powered trident he had created to fly into action. It was built to support the weight of at least 20 people and traveled at approximately 60 mph.

Flight: Though mostly used enhance his super-leaping, the rockets could also provide sustained flight.

Flame Effect: The trident could be used to shoot fire.

Devilmobile: Danny's civilian vehicle was converted overnight by Jack Edison and James Jesse into a themed Devilmobile. Its gadgetry included an oil slick, a mist bomb, an anti-gravity disk, an ejector seat, booster rockets, and pyrotechnic and explosive features. It also had a reclining "make out" function.

Trident of Lucifer: Allows him to find demons on Earth and banish them to Hell.

Reluctant Hero

Dan Cassidy was a special effects wizard and stuntman whose credits had included The Battle of the Las Vegas Showgirls and Space Ninja when he was hired by his friend, film director Marla Bloom, to create and play the title character in the Verner Bros. monster movie Blue Devil. Cassidy's specialty was somewhat unusual - rather than create optical effects that would later be applied in post-production, Cassidy specialized in "in camera" mechanical and cybernetic effects. To that end, Cassidy created a full-body costume for Blue Devil, complete with a powered exoskeleton and built-in pyrotechnic devices. Cassidy also created a rocket-powered prop trident which was, among other things, capable of flying.

During location filming on the mysterious Ile Du Diable, Wayne Tarrant, the "hero" of the film, and his co-star Sharon Scott, accidentally freed a demon named Nebiros. Though Cassidy faced incredible odds and a near-death experience, he was able to effectively use the devices built into his costume to drive the demon back to its home dimension. Unfortunately, he was blasted with demonic energy in the process. After the fight, Cassidy found that the blast had permanently grafted the Blue Devil costume to his body. Cassidy, a devout Irish Catholic, was stuck in the "skin" of an unholy Blue Devil.

While trying to find ways of escaping his costume, the newly-named Blue Devil soon found himself involved in conflicts with super villains such as Metallo and The Trickster. Nebiros, who now had an affinity for his "little brother," would return time and time again to harass the Blue Devil, and just as often Cassidy would banish him to his own dimension. Cassidy's friend Norm Paxton, a cinematographer, theorized that the blast that had made Cassidy a Blue Devil had also turned him into a sort of "weirdness magnet." Though he initially insisted that he was no super hero, it took him little time to adapt to the realities of his existence. While he continued to seek a way to regain a normal life, Cassidy became more comfortable in the role of hero over time, and even gained an unwanted sidekick in the form of Kid Devil - actually Eddie Bloomberg, Marla Bloom's nephew.

Blue Devil would spend the next few years working with superheroes as diverse as The Creeper, Black Orchid, the Omega Men, and Superman. Later, he would also encounter Cain and Abel, who would go on to rent Blue Devil a room in the other-dimensional House of Weirdness, sister structure to the House of Mystery and House of Secrets. That house contained mystical doorways into a Malibu beach house, a house outside of Metropolis, and several other places.

Retirement and Comeback

After joining the rest of the heroic community in fighting the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Blue Devil found that he was attracting less and less weirdness to him and his friends, and went into semi-retirement as a hero. Though his younger sister Frankie was later revealed to have been a sleeper agent of the Manhunters, Blue Devil did not publicly participate in the Millennium affair or any of the subsequent major events during which the super-hero community banded together.

After a several-year period during which Cassidy's and Marla Bloom's careers suffered a downturn, Blue Devil resolved to help both himself and his good friend. Sensing an opportunity when the Justice League instituted an open-door membership policy, and sponsored by the mysterious organization known as the Arcana, Blue Devil came out of retirement and joined the team in order to make a "comeback" as a celebrity. Though he was only barely tolerated by some of the more serious members of the team, Cassidy's heart was in the right place, and he embarked on a quest to increase both his powers and his fortune.

Shortly after Blue Devil joined the team, the demon Neron took control of Hell and began seeking souls on Earth. Recognizing Cassidy's sense of thwarted ambition, Neron approached him with the chance to be a movie star, which the latter eagerly accepted. Cassidy had no way of knowing, however, that the true cost of his bargain would be the death of his close friend Marla Bloom. After performing the seemingly innocuous task of destroying an automatic electrical substation far in the desert, a chain of events was set in motion that would result in Bloom and her pilot dying in a helicopter accident. Blue Devil got his wish - sympathetic movie offers began to pour in - but the price was too high.

Guilt-ridden, Cassidy made the ultimate heroic sacrifice: he cheated Neron of his soul, but died in the process. Soon after, he was reincarnated as an actual demon, with an increase in power.

Demonic Existence

After the JLA disbanded and reformed again, this time with an invitation-only membership, Cassidy found himself without a team. Having long before lost the companionship of his movie-studio friends, he joined a new "Justice League of France" consisting of himself, Firestorm, the second Amazing Man, the surviving Crimson Fox, and a woman who claimed to be Icemaiden. Unfortunately, the latter was in fact the villainous Nash in disguise, and she killed nearly all of her erstwhile teammates. Again, the Blue Devil was destroyed, and again, he was restored to life, this time by the magician Faust, who used the Devil's bones to reanimate him. Facing Nebiros for the last time, Cassidy was granted the demon's Trident of Satan. Controlled by Faust, Blue Devil joined the Sentinels of Magic, where he worked alongside Ragman and Enchantress among other supernaturally powered beings. He was finally freed from his obligation to the team when Faust restored his last bone to him - however, Blue Devil soon lost his life a third time while fighting Hermes Trismegistus.

The Shadowpact

The Blue Devil did not remain dead long, however, and was soon seen roaming the Earth and banishing demons back to Hell. Cassidy began working as a bouncer at the Oblivion Bar, working for Nightmaster. There, he joined with Ragman and Enchantress once again, as well as Nightshade and Detective Chimp, in battle against the Spectre, who had declared war on all magic. He soon became the strong-man of the newly-dubbed Shadowpact, able even to wound Eclipso, and has since decided to stay with the team. He now helps his new teammates to contain the wild magic set free by the Spectre's actions.

Shortly after the Infinite Crisis, Blue Devil and his teammates were trapped inside a "blood shield" that grew over the town of Riverrock, Wyoming. While inside the town, Cassidy met a member of magic-based villain group called the Pentacle named Jack of Fire. Jack, who wore a bandana over his mouth and wielded pyrokinetic abilities, claimed that he was Cassidy's brother, and that Cassidy's deal with Neron had cursed the entire Cassidy family to Hell. In addition to becoming demonic himself, Jack claimed that Blue Devil's late parents had been pulled out of Heaven, and that his "sisters" Mary and Frances were also cursed. The veracity of these claims is questionable - though Cassidy does have a sister, Mary Frances, he had never before mentioned a brother or another sister. Oddly, Blue Devil claimed to have no recollection of having any siblings at all - a mystery that has yet to be solved.

One day, Blue Devil's former sidekick Eddie Bloomberg, now a true demon himself, came to Cassidy inquiring about his aunt Marla's death. Blue Devil admitted that he had not been honest with Eddie regarding the circumstances of her demise, and the teen responded hastily in shock. Before he could explain the truth to Eddie, Cassidy was told by his former sidekick to stay far away.

Cassidy then found himself under threat by the former Justice League member Zauriel. Because of Blue Devil's popularity as a demon, he had unknowingly given hell and demons a better image, prompting others to make their own deals with demons. As a result, Zauriel was tasked with killing Blue Devil and doing away with his bad influence on the populace. However, when Zauriel realized that Blue Devil wanted nothing more than to combat hell, Zauriel agreed to give him some time to repair his mistakes. Blue Devil is currently in hell bargaining for his soul with a lawyer. After briefly resuming his human body with a more powerful exosuit, Cassidy is given back his Trident and demonic powers by Jack of Fire, but as a "demon with a soul".

His most recent appearance was with Zatanna and the Phantom Stranger at the desecrated grave of Batman in Blackest Night. In typical fashion, he cracks that the Stranger brought them there to "hold hands and sing Kumbaya." That changes when black rings take control of Crispus Allen. While Zatanna was sent to gather the Justice League, Blue Devil and the Stranger attempt to stop the Black Lantern Spectre, failing miserably. He and the Stranger head to Nanda Parbat, where the Stranger helps Deadman remove the black ring from his body. Blue Devil is then tasked by the Stranger to protect the body, being told that it is of "singular importance".

Fun Facts

Blue Devil's body gives off the aroma of brimstone.

Danny's an Irish Catholic and therefore has prayed at times of great need or during Mass. He still burns whenever he sets foot on holy ground.

#blue devil #daniel patrick cassidy #daniel cassidy #Shadowpact #justice league of america #jla #Justice Society of America #jsa #sentinels of magic #Spirit Squad #dc #DC comics #thedcdunce

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haikyuu-imagines-and-others · 6 years

Text

The Beginning of the End

I know I already did a Zombie AU in years past… and it wasn’t super welcomed - but i’ve got new ideas, new gore, and new imaginings for this time around! With more characters being involved and more ‘scares’ and much more angst! Now if you’re not interested, that’s fine, just be sure to blacklist the tag associated with these postings which will be #ZombieAU -Admin Satori <3

Part 1 - Kuroo & Bokuto

Muffled yelling, orders being barked out to be followed completely less something go wrong; Someone could get hurt by a single misplaced step. Tumbling bodies, pushing each other in small corridors, against already locked doors, begging to be let out. The doors would open just the slightest, allowing light from the other side to spill in before the opening would come to an abrupt stop, the sound of rustling chains holding the doors closed. More bodies pushing around each other, trying to fit through the small gap being allowed.

Gunshots. Warnings of death if they tried to get out. Though they were alive, the soldiers weren’t taking any chances. They rattled at the locked doors, nurses crying out for help, doctors and able patients damning the police, the people who were supposed to protect them, for dooming them to death. Though their screams and begging only grew louder as they realized the racket they were causing wouldn’t save them in the least.

Raspy growls. Hollow hisses. They rounded the corner of the halls, reaching the livings ears, forcing their fight or flight response into overdrive. They knew first hand what this infection would cause. They had seen it before their eyes in multiple research labs. They’d read the constant updated memos of the diseases advances against a cure. Everything they could have done to prevent their own monster had been thwarted by that very same monster.

And now it was loose.

The rattling chains stopped, the doors automatically closing as the pressure behind it lessened with the running of the victims inside. Running away from the beasts locked in there with them. Solider looked upon soldier, wondering if they’d done the right thing. Contain the virus by sacrificing the doctors who’d made it. Contain the disease by keeping it all in one place.

Little did they know… It was far too late.

All across the globe, those who died.. Didn’t seem to die. Only reanimating, coming back from their dreamless slumber, glassy milky eyes staring at their loved ones, or perhaps strangers who’d once known them. Snapping jaws, sensing the life still flowing through them, hands outstretched to grab and pull close - too close - before they were inevitably bitten, eaten, disemboweled or perhaps just escaping with a new festering wound. A single scratch from the dead, their cells in the bloodstream and a days time… The victim now being a danger to those around them as they, too, slowly started becoming more ravenous - more dangerous. Something to be feared by those they loved.

Some wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure of the dying world. Much like any traumatic event, they’d take their lives with leaps of faith from their work buildings, some weren’t given the option as they were cornered on the rooftops.

Others rose to the challenge. Saving everyone they possibly could. Fighting back against the hordes of death and disease. Against those they once knew and loved and cared for. Of those, came leaders born under pressure, always making the move of safety rather than boldness. Those who were too bold, too confident in their decisions… soon found themselves joining the increasing numbers of the dead.

A war. An unprecedented war.

Inhaling suddenly, Kuroo lifted his head from his pillow, bleary eyes searching around him in the darkness. All was still. All was calm. The hollow thud of the AC unit cutting off had been what had woken him. He frowned to himself, feeling the summer heat leaking into his room with the constant cool air being snuffed out, “Cheap little….” He grunted as he pushed himself to sit up. The room felt stuffy, and soon he’d be feeling like he was suffocating.

Blinking away the sleep, it was time to wake up, he stood from his bed…. More like a cot. His work didn’t provide much when it came to comfortability. It was just long enough to hold his tall stature, but not nearly as wide to hold his extended limbs in the night. He reached out in the small room, finding the wall and flicking on the light.

Empty. Just him. His roommate, a coworker for a different company, must have gotten an early start of the day - probably getting their research papers in order for the upcoming meeting. Kuroo rubbed at his eye as he yawned, “I don’t wanna go to work…..” He muttered to himself, sighing loudly as he went about waking himself up.

The setup wasn’t horrible. A room, with an attached bathroom and closets, washer and dryer rooms were down the hall, a roommate so you didn’t go crazy. Some light reading material of human anatomy, circulatory systems as well as the worlds worse diseases and how they were stopped. Kuroo had already read through all of them, in Med school. So seeing them here in his room kind of made him smile in remembrance of those easy days.

A quick shower, a change of clothes, and Kuroo was ready to attend a meeting he’d already read the papers for.

Opening the door, Kuroo felt a chill go up his spine. Not from any blasting AC…. Because it seemed they had been shut off a while ago. Something was wrong. Maybe some coworkers had overslept. Maybe they’d gotten an early start to their day as well, but the hall was completely empty. On a usual day, they were cramped with people walking this way and that. Quiet chattering of different projects being worked on. The clicking of the rare female researcher who still wore heels to enjoy something about their day.

Yet there was none of that now.

It was silent.

Kuroo frowned as he closed his door, locking it for safe measure in case there was something more going on. Like a break in. The weirdest burglary ever. Though that seemed unlikely - this line of dorm rooms was held in a secure building, the only way of getting in with a badge and special code. Unless it was someone inside the facility who’d just had enough of the stress and had lost their mind. That seemed more likely, at least. Though, there was no one.

“What a mess….” He whispered to himself as he walked down the hall, seeing forgotten papers littering the floor, what looked like shoe scuffs from hurried feet. It brought back memories of the last day of school - in both high school and college… the excited running, the squeaking of sneakers on the floor, the forgotten papers and books and sometimes a lost backpack here and there.

Disregarding the mess, he continued down the hall, being sure to check the intersection halls so he didn’t get run over, again. He remembered the first time he’d crossed the hall without looking - a whole line of wheeled tables had almost crashed into him, ruining not only his bodily safety but also their research - their endless amounts of DNA petri dishes would have been for naught if they’d collided.

Yet there was nothing. Not even the sound of distant chatter. It was like everyone had suddenly disappeared. As if he were the only one left in the facility.

He’d always made fun of the protagonists calling out for help in scary movies… As if asking if anyone was there would cause the killer to come out of hiding and admit their doings. Yet here he was, “H-Hello?” He called down the hall. There was no answer. And he didn’t know whether to be comforted or worried over the fact. Turning to the door in front of him, he went to grab his badge, bringing it to the side panel….

A shadow fell over him from the other side, and it was only when he looked from the green light of the panel to who was being a creep did he step back in absolute horror. Hands pressing against the glass, smearing what he could only understand was dirty blood, their lab coat mostly, if not completely, soaked in the crimson life force. They pressed their face against the window, smearing the dirty blood with a fresh wave of it coming from the open wound on their cheek. It looked like someone had taken a bite from their face, nearly missing their oddly milky eye - it looked ready to pop out of its socket.

“Wha….What the hell….” Kuroo swallowed his initial fear and stepped forward, closer to the glass, watching the twitching thing in front of him continue to growl and hiss.

There was a crashing behind them, and Kuroo’s eyes followed the sudden snapping of the person’s head to see…. Someone less messy. Someone who looked like they had sense still in them. Though, with the meeting of their eyes, the coworker knew he wouldn’t make it. He rushed forward, “Help! Open the door! Open the door!” He yelled, throwing whatever he could grab at the stumbling creature.

He was frozen in place. Kuroo could’t force any part of him to move. He couldn’t even will himself to close his eyes as the creature grabbed the sleeve of the employee. He screamed out in terror, yanking his hand out of the sleeve just before the creature bit down on it - tearing it almost immediately. Kuroo’s hands shook by his sides as he watched the employee run to the door, padding himself down for his keycard only to blanch at the realization of its placement on his coats lapel.

The banging on the window had Kuroo staring directly into the employee’s eyes, “Help… You’ve gotta help me.. I’m clean, they haven’t bitten me yet… Please, for the love of God.. Open the door!” The slamming of his hand on the window had Kuroo fumbling for his keycard, glancing up around the employee for any sign of the creature to see it was still slowly making its way towards the employee. “Hurry up!! It’s coming! Please! I don’t want to die like this!” Kuroo felt his heart hammering in his chest as he swiped the keycard in its slot.

Green, Kuroo went to pull the door open - but the locks held their place. The authorization had been revoked. He wasn’t able to open the door from his side. His wide golden eyes looked up at the employee, “I can’t open the door! I can’t! Run!”

“What do you mean you can’t open the door?? Open the damn thing! Swipe your card!” The employee slammed his hands on the window, begging to be helped, begging to be saved, to be let out of this hellhole he seemed to be trapped in. But Kuroo was helpless. He couldn’t do anything from his end. “Why aren’t you helping? Why can’t you open the door….” The employee whipped his head around to see the creature getting closer, “Fuck…. Fuck! You’ve killed me… You’ve killed me!” He rushed the creature, pushing it back before jumping over its decaying body to search for another exit.

Kuroo watched the young man run, his eyes going back to the creature struggling to get up from the floor. Its movements were slow, labored, tired - as if every molecule had been replaced with molasses. “Just grab…. For fucks’ sake…” It was too late, the employee had rushed off in his fear, forgetting about his badge - which now lay forgotten on the hall floor. And the creature was now lumbering out of the room, following the panicked yelling of the employee.

He couldn’t do anything from his end. Kuroo stood by the glass for what seemed like hours, waiting for the employee to come back. But he never did. The sound of his cries and screams had died down a while ago, and Kuroo couldn’t be sure if it meant he’d found another way out… Or if he’d been killed.

Though his fight or flight now kicked in, replacing his frozen fear. He had to get out of here. Out of this death trap of a building. He broke out in a casual jog, faster than what most people who had traveled the building would be comfortable with, but slow enough for him to take in his surroundings. And give himself time to come to terms with everything he was seeing. Those scuffs he’d seen earlier… Hadn’t been scuffs at all.

Dried blood. Discarded papers from a struggle. He hadn’t checked any of the dorm rooms. Hadn’t even knocked.

Why? Had he known? Somewhere deep down, had he known something was so wrong that he didn’t want to make a lot of noise? He stopped in front of a set of doors. The doors he’d usually take to the exit. Wide open and ready for him to take his leave.

On the opposite side of the hall, another set of doors. Closed. Locked with a padlock and chain. The kanji for ‘Danger’ and ‘Death’ sprayed across the doors. Kuroo frowned, feeling an inane sense to step closer to the doors, regardless of their message. Though it was only when he was five feet from the doors did they suddenly surge forward, being stopped by the rattling chain. Kuroo practically jumped back, catching himself with a hand on the wall, seeing horrifically similar hands reaching through the crack doors - hissing and growling, pushing forward with a chorus of stench. Rotting flesh. Open wounds. Drying, dirty blood. They bashed against the locked doors, reaching for his living body, for his pumping heart and flowing blood - to satiate a thirst they’d never be rid of until death did them part.

Kuroo pulled his hand from the wall, resting it against his heart, feeling it slamming against his chest, his other hand shaking at his side as he slowly stepped back from the door. Every step away brought sense to his mind, brought clarity to what he needed to do.

He needed to go home. Now.

Turning on his heel, he broke out into a rushed run out the doors, down the halls, pushing open the double doors of the front entrance to the fresh outside world.

Only it wasn’t fresh. It was far from what he’d last seen of it. Instead of the clean concrete walkways, there were body bags - spilled bodily fluids - overturned tents and tables. Barricades? Kuroo stumbled down the steps of the building, shielding his eyes from the blinding sun, those very eyes scanning the world in front of him. How long had he slept? Just what had he slept through?

It was a wasteland, forgotten cots filled with blood - ruined petri dishes of research, papers fluttering in the dead air around him. This couldn’t be real. Walking around the yard, he spotted a pair of legs behind a table - and while his senses screamed at him to stay away, to run the opposite direction, he stepped closer. “Doctor…. Sir….” His voice was a hoarse whisper, a horrible excuse of a stage whisper - but he didn’t know what he was dealing with. He didn’t know those things hearing ranges, he didn’t know what they were capable of. Whispering, even in his loud stage whisper, seemed the best choice. “Hey…”

The second he rounded the table, he stood straight, feeling his stomach curdle at the sight of the ripped open once human being. This person had died long ago. A bullet to the head had stopped him, but Kuroo could see the glaze of his eyes - he’d become one of those monsters he’d seen. After death? Kuroo knelt by the corpse, covering his nose and mouth with one hand while peering down at the dead man below him. Ripped to shreds - stomach open wide, intestines and all for the birds to pick at… And he’d still turned into a monster. What were the chain of events here?

He didn’t have a chance to reconstruct the destruction that befell the man before him, a rustling of shuffling footsteps alerted him to anothers presence. Kuroo held his breath, still, his eyes flitting all over the upturned research area for any form of defense.

Hissing, snapping jaws, the creature lurched towards the noise that had come from Kuroo’s exiting the building. The slamming doors had taken its attention away from staring off into nothing. It’s arms curled to its chest, making the creature almost look as if it’d been cowering prior to death - though the rigor mortis had set in as it had held tightly onto its research clipboard. Its lab coat hung in tatters on its shoulders and by its sides, bloody hand prints, scuffs from falling, maybe even dirt from their struggle for life….

It pulled his muscle in the process, but Kuroo whirled around the corner with a heavy microscope in hand, slamming it down on the creatures head, feeling the skull cave in with the pressure and force of the blunt object. Though he didn’t plan out his retreating steps, and fell forward onto the creature, struggling to lift the now slick equipment to bring down on the creatures skull once more. It stopped moving after that.

Lifting his hands from the microscope, Kuroo stared down in horror at what he’d just done. It’s not murder… It’s not murder… He was already dead…. It’s not murder… Kuroo’s shaky hands reached forward to the badge that hung from the coat - feeling his stomach sink to his knees at the realization of who this had been.

A favorite professor and researcher of his… Dr. Li…. He pushed off the corpse of his friend, shuffling backwards until his back hit a barrier, his knees coming to rest against his chest. He curled in on himself and felt himself shake with emotion. “This can’t be real….” He heard himself whisper, but he couldn’t remember telling his mouth to say anything. “This has to be a nightmare…” He slammed his hands against his head, “Wake up… Wake up…. Wake u-“ He covered his mouth at the sound of more shuffling, more rustling, more hissing and groaning.

Of course Dr. Li hadn’t been the only one to be walking around. Hadn’t been the only one on the front line trying to help. Of course not. Kuroo curled himself into a tight ball, glancing around him for any other defense, but felt his heart leap into his throat at the sight of nothing within range. He’d have to risk being seen for any kind of weapon.

The shuffling grew louder, the hoarse exhales - sounding more like the screams of the damned than the broken windpipes of the dead. “Fuck…. Fuck… Fuck….” Kuroo whispered, his eyes looking around desperately for anything to save him, but there was nothing. His eyes fell on the microscope he’d used on Dr. Li… What had been Dr. Li….. but it was slick with his blood - too slick to carry - too dangerous in case it slipped from his hands and made him unable to fight back.

The clipboard. Kuroo felt his adrenaline rush through his system, knowing this was a life or death situation. He needed to save himself.

Like a spring unloaded, Kuroo pushed from the ground, struggling to get a good footing with his need for survival overriding all other human thought and movement. His legs give out a few times before he was able to grab the clipboard and whirl on the creature a few feet away from him.

Gripping the clipboard tight, Kuroo lunged for the creature, but was immediately stopped at the sight of the creature’s head exploding across the tent next to it. He dropped the clipboard, his fingers aching from holding onto such a small object so tightly. “Wha…..” The understanding of a gunshot only became evident when he looked down at the unmoving corpse.

“Kuroo?” A larger than life voice called, sounding equally as shocked. Kuroo turned his head to see just who had recognized him. Not a creature. Not a creature. They couldn’t talk. They hissed and growled.

But the sight of a bright smile had Kuroo’s shoulders relaxing from their tense hold, “Bokuto…” A breath of relief before Bokuto was hopping off the center’s security wall and pulling Kuroo into a tight hug, “Holy shit…..” He almost sobbed, hugging Bokuto back just as tightly, feeling like if he let go he’d lose himself in the madness once more. “Holy shit, Bo…”

Bokuto chuckled and pulled away from his friend, patting him on the shoulder, “Rough day…” Kuroo numbly nodded, “It’s been a few….” At Kuroo’s curious look, Bokuto glanced around at the mayhem around them, “The place is ransacked… No supplies at all… Not even all that many dead walking around…”

Kuroo only stared at Bokuto as if he’d been speaking some other language; Lost. He stood there as his friend walked towards the tent Kuroo had been cowering in not but 20 seconds ago, lifting a few lids of boxes and med crates to find them empty, devoid of any help.

When Kuroo didn’t move, Bokuto raised an eyebrow at him, “Well come on… I’m not gonna leave you behind…. Not like the rest of these assholes…” He thought better of his words, “Well, not that taking you with them would have helped you any….” The toe of his boot prodded at the broken, slick microscope on Dr. Li’s head. A brief silence settled between them, a bit awkward since the implication of Kuroo’s possible death had hung in the air at Bokuto’s backpedaling worlds. The silence remained as Bokuto made his way through the tents, around the upturned tables and lab equipment. “Hey…. Why’d you use the microscope? There’s a knife right here….” Bokuto reached under the first corpse Kuroo had found and pulled out a broken knife, still sharp - but the major portion of the blade had been left in the ribcage of the corpse itself.

Blinking to pull his thoughts out of his inevitable death in a ruined world, Kuroo’s eyes zeroed in on the broken knife, “I…” He cleared his throat before shrugging silently, not finding the words to explain how terrified he’d been. He had’t noticed it - hadn’t even searched the body, not like Bokuto was anyway.

Bokuto simply shrugged with him, his golden eyes squinting down at the body to determine if he could salvage the blade. Too dangerous, he decided. “You going to be okay, bro?”

“How are you so okay with all this?”

It was insane to even entertain the idea that something like this could have happened. Was it happening everywhere? How much of Japan, of Tokyo, or even the World had been affected by whatever this infection was? Was it all ruined? How many died? How many came back to life….

Did they even have a chance?

Rubbing the back of his head a bit sheepishly, Bokuto stood from the body adjusting his army vest. It was only that movement that Kuroo realized his best friend wasn’t wearing street clothing. No, Bokuto was much more prepared for what looked like an all out war instead of what was currently going on. A bullet proof vest. Cargo pants, each pocket filled with what Kuroo could only assume were supplies. A backpack, tattered and worn but functional enough to carry more supplies. A gun in a holster on his hip - though Kuroo was sure there were more weapons hidden on his person.

“I’ve… been on the road a while…” He smiled boyishly, though there was a haunting look in his eye, “It’s like this pretty much everywhere, Kuroo….” He looked down at his worn boots, “These things… Remember Shaun of the Dead?”

Kuroo felt as if someone had slapped him with the odd movie reference Bokuto had just thrown at him. “Uh…. Yeah… The zombie spoof movie…” Bokuto nodded, “What about it?” Kuroo prodded, not seeing what a joke movie had to do with the very real zombies that seemed to be milling around.

His friend smiled half jokingly, “The reality is not nearly as funny as that movie made it seem.”

“Well, yeah? It’s a spoof movie… If you wanted reality Walking Dead would have been closer to it….”

Bokuto nodded, “True… But yeah… it’s pretty much… that… Everywhere…” The confused look he got in return spurred him to continue explaining what he knew, “The zombies… Let’s face it, bro, they’re zombies…. I was at my base with my squad about 3 nights ago, sergeant was going to move us out the next morning to protect…. Well, this place…” Bokuto’s shoulders sagged - knowing what happened here was inevitably his fault. His and his comrades. “We didn’t even make it until morning, dude…. They came in the night… Just started tearing everyone up - and of course, we didn’t know what they were or how to kill them….”

The pause he took was filled with remorse, regret…. A heavy feeling of sorrow charged the space between them, and Kuroo could practically see Bokuto was on the brink of tears.

“I abandoned them….” He confessed, his wide golden eyes meeting Kuroo’s slightly darker honey eyes. “Straight up… I just left…. Because no one knew what was happening… and I was too scared for my own life to go back and try to help them…” The guilt was eating him alive, and Kuroo felt a crack in his heart at the sight of his broken friend before him. “I lived with these guys… You know? I lived with them.. Knew about their families… Hell… I was one of their kids Godfather…” A huff of a sigh left him, and Kuroo took that as his signal to comfort his friend.

Stepping forward, Kuroo wrapped his arms around his friend, hugging him close, “You saved my life, Bo….” He muttered, feeling Bokuto hug him tight in response, “You swooped in, kicked this zombies ass and saved my life… If you’d gone back for your squad…..” Kuroo forced himself to swallow the realization, “I’d be dead.”

There wasn’t an immediate response from Bokuto. And Kuroo didn’t continue. There was no need. The truth was evident. Bokuto had ranged weapons… Kuroo had had a weak clipboard.

The sound of flies buzzing around the corpses and rustling papers felt deafening in the calm that followed. He knew his friend wouldn’t completely forgive himself for what he’d done, for the decision he’d made, but that didn’t make Kuroo any less grateful for that very decision that haunted Bokuto. A few moments of silence passed before Kuroo released his friend from the hug, looking down at his bloody attire, feeling his skin crawl as he tossed off his Doctor coat, knowing it’d only slow him down…. Or get him killed.

“We need to get you a gun.. Or a knife.. Or something…” Bokuto noted, mostly for himself than for Kuroo’s benefit - but all he had on him was his gun and a knife. Everything else was supplies for survival. But he couldn’t leave his friend unarmed. Reaching behind him, he pulled his issued knife from its holster and handed it to his best friend, “I’ll get them before they get too close to you…. But if I’m not there, or something happens….”

The trailing of his friends words reminded Kuroo just how serious this world had gotten. He’d taken a single nap and it’d gone to shit. Looking at the knife in his friends hand, being offered to him, Kuroo felt as if his stomach had been filled with ice cold steel. The implication of Bokuto’s words made it hard for Kuroo to swallow the mere possibility being at such a high chance. His hand shook as he reached for the knife, and they shook as he took the blade in his hand - gripping the handle tight and growing used to its added weight. The weight of the steel, and his responsibility.

It was just him and Bokuto now. Him and Bokuto against the dead.

#Admin Satori #Haikyuu!!#Haikyuu!! Scenario #ZombieAU #blacklist ZombieAU if you don't wanna see anything about it #fine by me~#Kuroo Tetsurou #Bokuto Koutarou #Part 1 #The Beginning of the End #Stay Tuned for Part 2 #Stick Together or Die Trying #TWDAU #The Walking Dead AU #A lot of parallels or straight up imagery inspired by that show #It's SPOOPtober!#Tho this will probs go on until the end of the year lmao

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jeromesxreader16 · 6 years

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Such a Joker(28/?)

Masterlist

The past days have been full of drama and information being spit out of every one’s mouth. The toxic information that has caused me to do nothing but sit down and research this Pinewood Farms. My father, Alfred, and Bruce succeeded in getting Karen’s path to Blackgate turned around, but some man showed up and froze her. I didn’t believe it at first but them my father had explained the toxins that were sucked into his body to reanimate his cells and transform him to this Mr. Freeze. Poor Karen was frozen and then smashed. She did it to save them. She saved all of them, and for that I feel like I need to do something. Of course, concentrating on my studies, and having meetings with team “Free the City” (I think it’s cool) I do nothing other then sit at home and watch dumb black and white movies.

The whole gang sits in the office of Wayne Manor and we all examine the picture being passed around of the Philosopher. “I’ve seen him before I just know it!” I say grabbing my head from the nonstop pain of trying to remember. “He runs Arkham now.” My father says looking at me. The photo is passed around more, and again, and once again. When it rounds its course to me for the 5th time I stare at it for longer. “Arkham you said?” My father nods. I giggle and slam the paper down begging to type on my laptop. “What are you thinking?” Bruce asks with curiosity. “I worked as an intern with the GCPD right? I moved my way to working forensics as well. Now taking courses on phycology where else better to get a job? Huh? Say I’m a fresh graduate and need some real experience. Arkham patients could use someone like me to talk to. Plus, I could get down to the nitty gritty with Strange and- ““NO.” My father says while we all look at him. “Why? No one else is qualified to go. I could be there and on one would suspect a thing!” “Y/n I said no. we can find another way. I told you what happened to Karen! If you were to get caught with information something horrible would happen. End of discussion.” I slam my computer closed and stand to my feet. “I’m not a child. If I want to do this I will. Karen was an amazing shot to closing this book, and we lost her. She stepped in front of him willingly to save all of you! I’m not letting that go to waste. Now I’m doing this Jim! Whether you like it or not! I am not a child.”

Jim POV:

The words came out like daggers being thrown. Repeatedly it played in my head. I am not a child. I am not a child. Jim remember what happened last time. She rebelled against you and everything fell. Don’t let it happen again! You can’t lose her again!

I took a deep breath and rubbed my forehead as she exited the room. Bruce looks at me and opens his mouth but shuts in in a hurry. “Go on Bruce.” I say sitting back giving him permission to add to the situation. “I say if she is willing to go out and get this information then we let her. She is qualified and no one would suspect it. She doesn’t remember what happened right? Let this be a fresh start on the right foot for her.” “I just don’t want her to go down a path to where I lose her again. I was bad enough the first time. Being in Arkham might trigger something to remembering him, and she could fall bad into her washed state” “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. She's come this far and she’s gained trust from everyone back. He’s dead. Like you said before, Jerome was playing games with her. He made her do those things. Even if she does remember he is gone, he cannot manipulate her anymore. So please Jim I’m begging you as a friend of you and your daughter. Please let her try.” Bruce says with his hands linked together. I don't answer for minuets while sitting still. I take one deep breath and look around the room. Hopeful eyes scanning over my face. “Alright. She’s going.” I say and stand going to find y/n and tell her the news.

I make my way around the house and find her sitting in the kitchen on her phone. “Come to ground me?” She says without looking up. “No. It was wrong of me to speak to you that way. I understand you want to do all you can to help and I am just too scared to let you go off and do that, but I am putting that aside and letting you go through with this plan of yours. Just so much happened that you don’t remember. It scares me to even think of losing you again.” She sits up in her chair with ears full out never missing a word.

“What do you mean by bad things? Did I run away? Get in a fight or something?” I shake my head. I hate lying to her like this, but she can’t know the truth. “There was an issue. You got into the wrong crowd of people and they ran wild.” She sucked in a breath sharply. “Wrong people like the people we lock up?” I sit there silently and look at her as her eyes tear up and streaks wet her cheeks. “Was I a criminal dad?” I jump over to her side and hug her tightly. “No sweetheart. No. we all just get turned around sometimes. It’s nothing to worry about. I promise. You’re back. You’re back and I am never leaving you.” She laughs and wipes her tears. “Thank you, dad.” She kisses me on my cheeks as she did when she was little. The sweet little girl with curly pigtails flowing in the wind as she picked flowers and spun in her Sunday dress. She’s my little girl.

(y/n) POV:

I button my shirt and fix my bun while taking one last look in the mirror. “Now you sure you want to do this?” My dad asks as he paces around nervously. “Of course! Now would you stop? I’m ready for this. This is going to help Bruce so much. Its for the best of Gotham.” Harvey snickers as he takes another spoonful of his breakfast. “Are all you Gordons the same? Go for the best even if it means being stuffed in a loony box! Are you sure you want to do this kid?” I roll my eyes and once again look over my file. “Yes! For the hundredth time I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Now get off my back. I’m going to be late.” The men shake their heads in laughter. “See you later Doc!” “Have a wonderful first day Ms. Gordon!” They say in sing song voices. “You two are dorks.” I laugh and close the door. I go down the steps and out to the car. Turning over the engine a tiny folded piece of paper fly’s out of the air vent. I unfold the thin while sheet and examine the letters on the parchment.

‘Come by after work! Got somethings I think you should have. Xoxo Barbra.’

“What on earth would she have for me?” I crumble the paper and toss it in my purse. “She could have something interesting you know. Maybe it’s some candy! Oh, I love sugar!” an unfamiliar voice rips through the air from the back seat of my car. I turn quickly to see a little boy with red curtly hair and a freckled face. He sits in the middle with his hands twiddling. He had on an oversized grey sweat shirt and a worn pair of jeans. “Whoa! Hey kid! Where’s your mom?” The boy looks down and shrugs. “I don’t know. She went off with some man into a building. Just told me to wait here, but I got cold.” “Your mother left you on the street?” “Yeah, but I’m use to it.” She smiles sadly. “Hey, you want some candy? I heard you say you liked sugar. What do you say I hand over a candy bar and you brighten those eyes carrot?” I say making the boys eyes lighten. “Want to see a magic trick? I’ve been working on it all week!” “sure kid.” I smile at the little boy.

He pulls out a pack of cards and shuffles them. “Now! I am going to make three piles!” He sets out three stacks and waves his hands widely. “Take a card from the middle stack, and lay it face up on either side of the other decks!” I do as instruct and revile a four of clubs. “Now do the same for the other side.” I pick up another card from the middle and place it on the other deck which is the four of diamonds. “Okay. Now this card in the middle that I have not seen is yours. Pick it up. Now understand I haven’t seen it. I have no clue what it is!” He says dramatically. I look at the card from the middle claiming the Joker in my hands. “Now that you have seen your card! Put it back anywhere in the middle stack as I look away!” The boy covers his eyes with his little hand and I place it in the stack. He picks the two fours and places one on top and one on the bottom. “Now I call this trick two fours! Now I know your card is somewhere between the top and the bottom, but I don’t know where it is. I’m going to put all the cards together and shuffle them.” I watch as he shuffles with a determined look on his face. “Now! I want you to think of the card you had! Think harder than you ever have in your life!” He places his fingers on his head in concentration. “Oh! It is coming! I see it! Your card is… right here!” The boy pulls out the 3 of hearts. “Sorry buddy. Maybe with a little more practice you’ll-“ “Oh! No, I’m sorry this isn’t your card! Your card is in there!” The boy points to my sun visor. I narrow my eyes and drop the visor and hooked under the mirror I see my card. The card I had pulled from the stack!

I look back at the kid and see him smiling in pure joy. I laugh and pass over the candy. “How’d you do that?” “A great magician never reviles his secrets.” I nod and pull the card out looking at it. “What’s your name magic boy? I never got to-“ I turn back to see him, but he is gone. Only the candy bar remains in the seat. A knock on my window turns my attention to view my father. “You okay honey? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” I nod my head and make up some dumb excuse about the heat warming up. I brush off the weird episode and label it as stress. Time to get some real work done!

Tagged

@hufflepuff-and-feminist

@vividcelestia

#jerome #jerome x reader #jerome valeska imagine #jerome valeska x reader #jerome valeska #jeremiah valeska imagine #jerome valeska smut #such a joker #gotham imagine #Gotham #gotham fanfiction #gotham city #jim gordon #Harvey Bullock #barbra kean #bruce wayne #Cameron Monaghan #joker

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hgfstreamchats · 5 years

Text

100 Scariest Movie Moments

Me Evening, Jalaperilo human! Jalaperilo Evening! just us? Me At the moment. Jalaperilo cool cool. hope the usual suspects turn up. i could do with a laugh Me You too? Jalaperilo yup. must be cause its halloween. makes everyone really shitty even though its the best holiday of the year, apart from pancake day

Me There we are! Jalaperilo yey! Jalaperilo If you're interested in horror and havent seen it yet, 'A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss' is a very good series from the BBC Me I think I absolutely need to see this. Jalaperilo he has a love for hammer horror and its fascinating to watch him go in depth on early horror Me Your horror scene fascinates me. You do so much with so little. Jalaperilo urgh Me As you do. Jalaperilo i love the birds Me Frightening and plausible. Birds are loveless beings. Jalaperilo they are Jalaperilo they threw brids at tippy hendren Me Just chucked them. Jalaperilo how did this beat out 28 days later? Me Gross injustice. Me So their eyes are cortical patches, basically. Jalaperilo haha. if only shockwave had made something already creepy even fucking scarier Me Give him time. Jalaperilo please lock him up haha Me Oh, Argento films. Jalaperilo your fave Me Well, maybe you should have been a better kisser. Jalaperilo it was really her, she just got bored of pretending he was good Me Hah! Me How did *this* beat out 28 Days Later? Jalaperilo right? weird. its not scary i love the wizerd of oz Me "Those terrible little vests." Jalaperilo what is it about british children that other countries think are creepy all the kids i know are little shits Me I've always wondered about that one myself. Jalaperilo I wonder if Alien is gonna be on this list, cause that is quite horror like Me Do you want me to tell you if it is? Jalaperilo sure. i dont think im gonna last the full 3 hours lol Me It is. Jalaperilo \O/ Me I didn't expect anyone to! I intended this to be one of those things people can drop in and out of, but no one else is dropping in. Jalaperilo cowards Me I thought she was going to leave it at "Don't buy a house." Jalaperilo hahah i thought all of the USA was built on indian burial grounds? Me True! Jalaperilo i love how Bela Lugosi's accent influenced all future instances of dracula Me You just can't improve on it. Jalaperilo sings is a stupid film signs* Me It has a terrible ending. Jalaperilo it just doesnt make sense why the aliens would come to earth Me The dimmest aliens in the history of the universe. Jalaperilo lol tony todd! what a voice Me It's a *very* nice voice. Jalaperilo urg WHAT Me And this beat out Bees In the Mouth. Jalaperilo god people will say anything as a talking head Me They don't even show it, like they're properly ashamed for including it. Jalaperilo haha. i watched that film multiple times as a kid and it never scared me Me The only human horror film I've ever been frightened by is The Brave Little Toaster. Jalaperilo understandable all the cybertronians i follow or seen have expressed a dislike for that film Me It's just not necessary. Jalaperilo this is the only shyamalan film i like, but my dad did spoil it for me so i knew everything already Me And the twist is basically everything. Jalaperilo ikr? what a twat Jalaperilo reanimator! my fave of all time! Me Isn't that the one where one of the humans sounds eerily like Ratchet? Jalaperilo yes! and he messes around injecting green shit into things as well! Me Ratchet's no longer allowed to judge me. Jalaperilo i think the cat scene should have been the example. the swinging light makes it so much scarier Me I don't think that's making love. Jalaperilo it still gets me Me Although she doesn't seem to be tied down to anything. Jalaperilo also her dad's zombie corpse is also in the room its so messe up but so much fun Me Kinky? Jalaperilo im kinkshaming Me Ooh! Jalaperilo i havent seen this film looks intereszting Me I'm very tempted to stream it someday. Me I can understand why humans cringe at this one. Jalaperilo bones and teeth are awful blood and guts im fine Me That sound would bother me too if I only got one set of teeth. Me More teeth. Jalaperilo wasnt there a recent story of an old dentist office that was being redeveloped and they found thousands of teeth in the wall? Me That's even worse. Jalaperilo ikr? why keep them? its like you keeping used transistors or something Me Exactly. There's no non-horrifying reason for it. Jalaperilo whoa! r-word! Me But the corpse head was lovemaking. Seems legit. Jalaperilo but what could have been the difference! Me We'll just never know!

Me Hello there, Nickel! Minibot-Nickel Heya knocky~ Jalaperilo yo! Minibot-Nickel Heya~ Me I like how the rabbit is the line. Jalaperilo animals are where we draw the line. fuck other humans Me It's a reasonable line. Minibot-Nickel people in animal suits freak me out Jalaperilo *insert furry joke* Minibot-Nickel *shudders* Me There really isn't. Minibot-Nickel you know... hearing my tea maker brewing is probably not helping with the scary aspect of the show XD Jalaperilo haha Me Oh, I like The Vanishing. Jalaperilo mark kermode is one of our greatest film critics he's the only one i'll really listen to Me He seems like he knows his scrap. Minibot-Nickel *holds out rust sticks* want some? Me Thank you! Jalaperilo he's incredibly fair in his critiques Minibot-Nickel so THAT'S mr. del toro~ Jalaperilo one for you ko! Me Indeed! Me That seems short-sighted. Jalaperilo the oldies are the best Me No arguments here. Jalaperilo ok.im tapping out. enjoy the rest of the countdown! Me Good night, Jalaperilo human! Jalaperilo ill have to look up what number 1 is Me It's...a movie, to be sure. Jalaperilo good night knockout-cybertronian! no way! good night nickle! Minibot-Nickel Night, night, jalaperilo-firend~ Me And he just casually props them up. That won't go wrong. Minibot-Nickel This halloween, i want to give myself nightmares~ Me 'Tis the season. Minibot-Nickel if this doesn't do it, then i'm gonna watch ghost stories/adventures/hunters tomorrow~ Me And even if it does! Minibot-Nickel i'll drink to that~ Minibot-Nickel phone just rang and scared the hell out of me Me Rude of you, phone. Minibot-Nickel on the up side, mun's going swimming tomorrow Me He just toddles out the door. Minibot-Nickel i'm curious what the hell it was Me You're not the only one. Minibot-Nickel (red, white, blue, finials and a judgmental stare) Minibot-Nickel i've always wanted to see the hills have eyes Me It's a rough one. Minibot-Nickel oh? spoilers? Me This happens, for starters. Minibot-Nickel OAO Minibot-Nickel now this sounds fun Me That human has a fun job. Minibot-Nickel i wonder what would happen if a realistic zombie movie was made? Me 28 Days Later was fairly realistic. Minibot-Nickel oh~ i'll have to look into it. though i can say with confidence than zombies wouldn't last long in florida Me Florida, where no one should ever be. Minibot-Nickel the hell state Minibot-Nickel what was that one movie about the haunted big rigs who menaced the humans looking for fuel? Me That's the one! Minibot-Nickel which one? i've seen it, but can't remember the name Me Duel? Minibot-Nickel oh~ i'll haveta rewatch it Minibot-Nickel kill it with fire Me Kill it with extra fire. Me I think it's fairly obvious he wants to frag him. And also ruin his life. Me No, no. You knew exactly what their relationship was. Why are humans like this? Minibot-Nickel what did i miss? Me The Hitcher, the big gay horror road movie. Also The Fly. Minibot-Nickel the big gay horror road? Minibot-Nickel children are demons confirmed Me Human ones especially. And yes, The Hitcher's a very twisted romance. Minibot-Nickel human children.... why do they exist? Minibot-Nickel one nearly busted my audials... Me How did that happen? Minibot-Nickel teen sex SHOULD be met with carnage and i think the kid didn't get a sweet they wanted at a checkout line Me I do love that movie. Minibot-Nickel if ya wanna do a movie night one day, i'll make the sweets and some high grade drinks~ Me Sounds lovely! Minibot-Nickel it'll be so great~ Minibot-Nickel i wanna see this Me I like the title. Minibot-Nickel that guy has an unfortunate last name Me Which one? Minibot-Nickel rockoff Me Hah. Me Well, good luck, kids! Minibot-Nickel *chinhands* Me HAH! Today Me Who sleeps with a single light shining on their face? Minibot-Nickel no one sane Me Nothing of value was lost. Me HERE WE ARE! Minibot-Nickel i bet you anything, soundwave'd do that XD Me I'd believe it. Minibot-Nickel vos did that to me once and i couldn't sleep for a week after Me Oh, yes, yes, this is what I love. Best of movies, best of humans. Minibot-Nickel humans really have a wide variety of ways to kill each other Me Well, so do we. Minibot-Nickel true. very true Me Astrotrain? Minibot-Nickel astrotrain? Me "Lie down and the devil will come have sex with you." Minibot-Nickel did astro fuck unicron? Minibot-Nickel we're at jacobs ladder Me I think so? Me There we are. Apologies for that. Minibot-Nickel it's no prob~ Minibot-Nickel "torture is love" the djd's motto Me I see why you're so popular throughout the multiverse. Minibot-Nickel believe it or not, but i got the hell out of dodge Me Really! Minibot-Nickel yup. i'm a free range medic now. the others are either smeared or atomic dust now Me Worse things to be than a free range medic. Minibot-Nickel true. might open up a bakery Me Ooh! Minibot-Nickel yep~ roll out the sweets~ Me The noblest profession. Minibot-Nickel and of course, in the back room come the medicinal sweets~ Minibot-Nickel i have an uncle named damien Me It's a nice name, honestly. Minibot-Nickel scream sounds funny Me You know, I've never seen it! But it does. Me This one *technically* has eye business, heads up. Minibot-Nickel wanna wait for it to buffer for a bit? Me But no damage to the eyeball itself, if that makes a difference. Minibot-Nickel i wanna see this so bad Me It's a good one. Minibot-Nickel love the pun you made earlier Me Not the eyeballs. The area around them. Me I do my best. Minibot-Nickel oooooo top ten~ Me Starscream, hello! You're just in time for the final stretch. Minibot-Nickel hello screamy~ Starscreamapillar Excellent. I was hoping to not miss the whole stream. Me Sproing. Starscreamapillar The scariest thing in the world is the neighbours. Not inaccurate... Me Not at all. Minibot-Nickel (i was too oblivious to notice highschool hell XD) Minibot-Nickel there's nothing more frightening than an expert weilding powertools Starscreamapillar You mean a medic? Me I was about to say, I take offense. Me Look at that rowdy old man go. Starscreamapillar These descriptions, without having actually seen the movie in full, make it sound very bizarre, but not scary. Me I found it bizarre, but not all that scary. Me Why would you follow a sound? Ever? Starscreamapillar Why would you follow that sound, in particular? Me Natural selection, presumably. Starscreamapillar That is not the best way to stab someone. Me Just wave the knife around and see what happens. Starscreamapillar Also not how to correctly fall down the stairs. Me Poor marks, stairs human. Go back and do it right. Starscreamapillar Dull surprise. Me Except for that. Minibot-Nickel XDDD Me Good for the mother. She's living her best afterlife. Minibot-Nickel it's what i wanna do in the afterlife Starscreamapillar Space crackers. They contain more sodium than earth crackers. Me And more space. Minibot-Nickel OAAAAAAOOOO Starscreamapillar They really think that a fish is the scariest? Me They thought Willy Wonky's boat ride was worse than 28 Days Later. Starscreamapillar . . . This list seems highly flawed. Me Maybe that was their logic. Give the first place to something no one would agree with as the scariest. Me Oh, no! A shark is doing shark things in the only place on Earth a shark lives! Starscreamapillar The horror! Me "But statistically speaking, almost surely won't!" Me Alright! It's late, but just one more for the road. Starscreamapillar Excellent. Minibot-Nickel one more three hour movie thing? Me Yes, Nickel. One more three hour movie thing. Me Still scarier than Jaws. Starscreamapillar It truly was, David S. Pumpkins. Minibot-Nickel true Starscreamapillar Absolutely. Me Well, on THAT note, I'm off into the dark to see what made our power glitch. Where nothing can possibly go wrong. Starscreamapillar Try not to be eaten by scraplets. Minibot-Nickel i'm gonna ty to not murder the neighbors~ they have their music blaring. it's midnight Me Just make sure to dissolve the spark chambers. Good night, everyone! So glad you could make it! Starscreamapillar Good night, and thank you for the nonsense, even if I missed most of it. Minibot-Nickel *hugs the knocky and screamy* Me You caught the choicest part.

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zelgadis55 · 3 years

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Chapters: 11/? Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Family - Relationship Characters: Michelangelo (TMNT), April O'Neil, Donatello (TMNT), Leonardo (TMNT), Raphael (TMNT) Additional Tags: Literature, fan fiction, Horror, TMNT, Family, Family Drama, Family Feels, End of the World, Chibi, Accident, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse Summary:

The world as they knew it has gone to ruins. The shadows, once their greatest allies, now harbour threats so great it's safer to risk walking in daylight, and Mikey and April will do anything to keep what remains of their family safe; even if it means abandoning home and everything they knew. This story is AU and a collaboration between sampsonknight and Zelgadis55.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sekai no Owari

Ch 11

Expecting to find the lab unoccupied April entered, placing her hair in a ponytail as she walked. Suddenly, she stopped, seeing Donnie sitting there with a horrified expression on his face and staring at the monitor with those things scratching and clawing at the lair door.

Holding in her sigh, she finished her hair, then walked up quietly and leaned against the station, studying him sympathetically. She wasn't disappointed that he snuck down to the lab, more so sad he had to see the truth like this. April had wanted to give him more time before proving what she and Mikey told him earlier, that the world… had changed for the worse.

"What are you doing up, Donatello? I thought you were sleeping?"

Donnie clenched his hands tightly, his knuckles paling as the blood rushed from them. Eventually, he tore his eyes away from the monitor to look up at April, wordlessly imploring her for something, anything, to explain this rationally.

Letting out a sigh, she'd figured this was coming, “It started maybe seven or so months ago. It was far more recently that it turned to this,” she said, pointing to the screen. Knowing that Donnie wouldn’t see that as a good enough explanation, she nodded and continued, “As far any of us could tell, it began when a new, unknown drug hit the streets. At first, it was an annoyance, causing violence to break out when people taking it just lost it. No one knew the truth behind what the real effects were, though. You see, when someone took too much of that drug they became high as a kite before suddenly getting sick and well... dying. Most people just figured, 'Oh well, what do you expect when you overdose,' but as it turned out, dying wasn't the worst part. Somehow, the drug affected the brain like a virus. It switched on all primal instincts, controlling the body's motor functions without the normal functions such as the heart and organs and that is why they rot.”

Giving Donnie a moment to think, she took a breath, “When this was going on everyone, even us, thought it was just a side effect of the drug. No one realised the people that were going crazy were actually dead and hungering for fresh flesh. I mean, how could we? They moved like a normal person, responded like a normal person, only rabid. The ones out there that are slow are only slow because they are older. The longer they are like this, the more they decay and slower they become. The newer ones, which we call fresh or runners, they are fast and strong because they only recently turned.”

"People are still taking such a drug?” Donnie asked hollowly. “ Even knowing what's really happening?"

Shaking her head and wincing, she told him the part had been proven to be truth rather than mere movie night fiction. “No, after a while it wasn’t the drug causing the outbreak anymore… It was the zombies themselves. One bite infects the victim even if they survive the ordeal, making them grow sick and well... they die too. Normally within twenty-four hours or less, reanimating them to start the cycle again. That is how it got so out of hand. Before anybody could counter this, it was far too late.”

"So...” Donnie swallowed nervously, looking plaintively up at her, “if I had managed to open that door earlier today, we'd all be one of them by now or in the process of becoming like them?" he asked, horrified by what he'd almost done;

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11308482/chapters/69350085 or https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12544844/11/Sekai-no-Owari

#tmnt au #Mikey #Michelangelo #april o'neil #Donnie #Donatello #Child Leonardo #leo #Baby Raphael #Raph #zombie #merry christmas

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scotchfields · 4 years

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Missions of Possibility: Space, Virtue, and Empathy in Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Mission: Impossible - Fallout mobilizes space and character alignment to maximize the physical and moral catharsis that the action film genre seeks to provoke. In the film’s action scenes, McQuarrie imbues treacherous problem spaces with a moral conflict between Hunt’s yen to avoid the loss of innocent lives (through his strategic, harm-reduction-focused “scalpel” approach that is associated with his alienation from wife Julia) and the CIA’s demand for success through whatever means possible (through the efficient, life-endangering “hammer” approach). Action sequences, then, become virtue-driven set pieces that seek to resolve problem spaces via these conflicting models. Forward movement of the plot hinges on the success and/or failure of these methods. At times, Ethan will fail to master the problem space around him at the expense of moral success; at others, Hunt agent will resolve the problem space but fail to preserve his virtuous methods. The emotional and action arc of the film traces the alignment of spatial mastery with the upholding of virtue, culminating when Ethan can finally integrate the successes of the hammer approach into those of his scalpel. Mission: Impossible - Fallout rejuvenates the action film genre by mapping our investment in melodramatic catharsis onto our investment in the mastery of space, making us unsatisfied until the two harmonize in the film’s climax.

The forward movement of the plot tracks the competition between Ethan’s success in his mission and his own moral failings. Hunt’s relinquishing his mission’s objective for moral rectitude often accelerates the plot. For instance, the entire premise of the movie (successfully extracting Plutonium to keep out of the hands of the Apostles) could have been resolved in the. first action scene had Hunt nabbed the suitcase and let Luther perish; Ethan’s failure, instead motivates the next scene and his globe-trotting mission to track down the remaining nuclear spheres. Failure inspires forward plot movement in this way. It’s almost as if we’re waiting for his virtuous methods to actually succeed. Similarly, Ethan’s accomplishing an IMF objective is often met with a moral compromise that tugs against the story’s progress: Hunt successfully plucks Lane from an armoured convoy but has to run over Ilsa in order to do so. His success prods the narrative forward but we don’t want Hunt to begin the next leg of his mission (and indeed he doesn’t) until he makes amends with Ilsa and reassures us of his goodness. McQuarrie even takes us into a kind of The Killer-esque narrative space that vies to reinvest us in the melodramatic stakes of the film through visual romance: after reckoning with Ilsa, Ethan has a dream in which Lane and Julia stand side-by-side in a red room shimmering with golden lights and lens flares. Just as in the expressively-lit scenes of Ah Jong’s saving Jennie in an alleyway in The Killer, the lighting pyrotechnics here remind us of the splendor of Ethan’s married life and of the necessity of the “hammer approach” that enabled him to nab Lane in the police chase sequence. The narrative, in this way, must absolve Ethan of his moral failings before we can jump into the next action sequence. We cannot have spatial mastery without first having been reassured of moral goodness. This plot structure, coupled with the aesthetically-heightened melodrama beats, conditions us to crave the harmony between the successful completion of his mission (via the mastery of treacherous problem spaces) and the bulwarking of virtue.

The plutonium deal set piece further shapes our desire for spatial mastery to coalesce with the reassurance of virtue. McQuarrie’s approach to problem spaces reanimates those of Buster Keaton to strengthen our empathy for Ethan’s moral crisis in the heat of action. Both directors guide the audience to obvious possible resolutions to action set pieces only to upend our expectations through an improbable solution. In a scene like when Sherlock, Jr. jumps from the roof of a building into a car via a railroad gate, Keaton uses wide shots that both articulate the issues of the problem space posit solutions to these issues. We scan the frame as Sherlock might and deduce that he could: simply jump off the roof onto the car; clamber down one of the telephone poles; or sidle one of the telephone lines until he is directly over the car and then jump in. When he chooses an improbable stunt, we are amazed by his mastering of the space and our alignment with his plight bolsters.

In this scene from Fallout, McQuarrie pits the problem space against Ethan’s conscience and inveigles us to believe that Hunt can resolve the sequence without sacrificing his team. The director sets up a series of treacherous environments that build off each other and make us crave the mastery of physical space. Indeed, blocking, color, and editing help signal the function of certain spaces in the frame that are later upended: when the dealers aim their crosshairs at Ethan and Benji, we know that their section of the parking garage (denoted by a large golden red light) will erupt into violence if the agents fail to procure the requested payment; similarly, as Ethan and Benji look behind them when asking Luther to “bring the money,” we know that the deep background of their frame (denoted by an eerie fluorescent green light) will be where their partner comes in with the money. The edits and color essentially serve the same purpose as the long shot in the scene from Sherlock, Jr.: they clearly articulate the possible outcomes and solutions of the problem space. In Fallout, however, the string of closer range shots bring us closer to the action, the green lighting casts a grimness over the scene, and the golden red light supplies the frame with suggested violence. These artistic choices intensify the atmosphere and make us feel the danger of the situation rather than viewing the film space as a kind of equation.

In Keaton’s film, we want to resolve the problem space because of the pleasure of watching something nearly impossible unfold before our eyes; in Fallout, we want the problem space to be resolved so we can shake off the oppressive atmosphere and partake in the mastery of a dangerous space.

As the problem space evolves, our desire for spatial mastery tugs against that for Ethan’s retaining virtue. McQuarrie compounds the problem arena by having the previously established parts of the frame fulfill an unexpected function: the deep background behind Ethan and Benji, instead of serving as the assumed spot for Luthers’ delivering the money, sprays the nuclear arms dealers with bullets. Our sense of space becomes convulsed, doubly so since we expect violence from the golden-red frame not vice-versa. We then get a new slate of spatial rules and obstacles: the walls are safe areas; don’t cross the alleyway where The Apostles are raining gun volley; somehow deliver the plutonium from one side of the alley to the other. We get an easily executable but morally dubious solution when Benji summons their car, for Ethan can stow the plutonium in the truck and speed away but in the process would leave his team in the clutches of the Apostles. A point of view shot that pans from the suitcase to the car, then to the street outside spells out how simple the space could be resolved but the final rack focus aligns us with Ethan’s desire to save his team. Virtue thus complicates the problem space in Fallout. We are made to prefer the safeguarding of moral goodness over the fantasy of spatial mastery.

This sequence demonstrates that Fallout is invested in the limits of virtue and the ways in which its powers are unable to resolve problem spaces. Unlike in the Keaton space, the unexpected solution (shooting Luther’s bullet-proof vest before the Apostles can, then firing at the legion) fails. The camerawork momentarily convinces us - by concealing the Apostles’ actual theft of the plutonium - that Ethan’s scalpel approach works and we fleetingly possess the fantasy of spatial mastery and the reassurance of moral. We want virtue to resolve the problem space but it ultimately fails without a callousness to destruction.

The final action sequence, then, becomes especially satisfying because Ethan welds his tactical scalpel approach with the more destructive hammer approach and we are able to witness the marriage of spatial mastery with the reassurance of goodness. Because the stakes (a nuclear bomb incinerating a village in Kashmir) are so monumental and because the IMF agent operates alone, Hunt’s desire to save his team conflates with that of accomplishing the broader mission of saving millions of lives. As a result, in the helicopter chase set piece, Hunt’s off-the-cuff strategy-driven style merges with a more brutal approach. Long shots of the two aircrafts flying over the mountaintops succinctly underline the problem space: once he hijacks the chopper, we intuit that he must somehow bridge the gap between his aircraft and Walker’s in order to retrieve the detonator. Two possible solutions crop up that respectively embody the scalpel and hammer approaches: the dangling payload could be dropped onto Cavill’s aircraft; the constant motion of the shot also suggests that Hunt could simply, brutally ram into Walker. Since Ethan throughout the film endeavors to out-maneuver his enemies with varying degrees of success (he escapes the cops, but is unable to catch Walker after his true identity is unveiled), it becomes satisfying to witness the IMF agent total Cavill’s aircraft through brute force. Hunt is able to finally cause large-scale destruction for virtuous reasons. The moment solidifies his arc from a scalpel to a hammer that is still able to accomplish the mission at hand with morals in tact.

The editing in this scene further reinforces our empathy for Ethan’s struggle with his environment. McQuarrie takes an approach to montage that is in some ways antithetical to the intensified continuity of Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum. In the scene where Bourne lights a trash can on fire, for instance, the mobile shaky cam cuts: from a close up of his hands unbottling the hairspray; to a close up of the hairspray going into the can; to a medium long front shot of Damon speed-walking away from the can; to a medium back of Damon still fleeing; to a medium of Damon again escaping the scene as the trash can blows up; to a profile close-up of Damon fleeing as passersby wail at the sudden explosion. Greengrass ekes visual dynamism out of rapid editing (six shots in five seconds) on different angles on the same subject. This montage style jolts the viewer and emphasizes the intensity and violence of the set piece while also blurring our awareness of space.

The editing in the helicopter scene in Fallout instead highlights Cruise’s performance and the perils of the environment. As Ethan climbs the payload after falling, McQuarrie cuts between each shot in a relatively to attune the viewer to the perilous environment. A wide shot that slowly pulls back from Ethan scaling the copter signals to us the depth of his fall if he fails again. We feel the danger of the space, which is compounded by the proceeding shot, a low angle of Walker in his copter. This doubles the sense of danger, cuing us to the fact that if Ethan does manage to hijack the chopper, he will still have to deal with his foe. We cut back to a brief extreme high angle, medium close of Ethan, which re-emphasizes the depth and danger of the space while making palpable Hunt’s desperation. McQuarrie then cuts to a single long of Hunt monkeying to the top of the rope and successfully swinging to the ledge of the copter. This sequence of four shots lasts 39 seconds -- a much more patient pace than the series of six shots in Ultimatum. Greengrass would have likely cut on several angles (from medium to close, back to front, etc.) as Ethan swings to the chopper’s railing. Rather than impute movement onto the frame through rapid editing, however, McQuarrie’s static camera emphasizes the actual actors’ movement through the frame (made all the more impressive by Cruise’s performing his own stunts). Our alignment with Ethan is fortified, and we are more astonished when he pulls off the improbable feat of scaling an airborne helicopter because we are more aware of the environment’s dangers. Our physical catharsis is made much more powerful from violating the norms of intensified continuity.

This is likely what makes Mission: Impossible - Fallout an exciting action film -- rather than give the audience a total roller-coaster ride of spatially vague kinetic energy, we get action-driven puzzles that are at turns solved by brute force and strategy that either reinforce or undermine the protagonist’s capability of virtue. The narrative takes us from these methods to their coalescing in the final act, where the satisfaction of destruction reassures us of virtue in the protagonist and in the world at large -- giving us a sublime sunset peeking through purple and white mountaintops that let us know the world is a good place.

#zack brida #movies

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