#the villain here is society these two were just out there trying to fuckin survive

[bullagit]

ftr there is also nothing that mary could have or somehow should have individually done that would have magically made their life together happy, either. it’s no more or less on her shoulders than on stede’s. 

idk i think about them a lot and just like. like they have such different wants, different needs, different approaches and coping mechanisms that sort of inherently rub against each other wrong, and were limited in how genuinely they could connect while they were both trying very hard to uphold the societal roles they’d been made to step into. 

like, i think mary and stede were both at bandwidth capacity in those terms for the vast majority of their marriage. there’s no reality where they stay together and are happy and content! there’s no scenario where they could be sincerely good satisfying life partners to each other. there’s no “well if he’d done abc” or “if she’d done xyz” that can negate that. to the best of their individual and highly incompatible ability, they were both trying and ultimately all they could really land at together was enduring. they are fully not designed to be good spouses to one another lmao

the inherent problem with their marriage/relationship is that neither of them wanted it in the first place and they were completely unable to gel in a way that could facilitate building a genuine understanding foundation. anytime i see the implication that one of them is directly at fault for that unhappiness i get kinda miffed about it tbh, they are just fully incompatible individuals on that level.

and ig thats my lead-in to how i think it’s very Neat and telling that they were only able to be honest and communicate fully and even bond/forge a kinda friendship in the post-murder attempt zone, once any remaining shreds of attempting to adhere to spousal roles had been thrown out the window.

(obvious disclaimer here re: the fact that stede leaving in the night without any warning was a Premium Fuckup, and so was him being an ass on main for a bit when he returned, and that i do slot mary’s attempted murder under Premium Fuckups as well)

#ofmd #our flag means death #stede bonnet #mary bonnet #idk man this whole relationship fascinates me so much #i get so worked up when i see it simplified or made into a weird blame game #the villain here is society these two were just out there trying to fuckin survive #they both tried but they both worked on different toolsets and like #i just imagine that that had to be exhausting in itself?? #it feels so unfair to boil any of it down to them needing to find spare capacity they didnt have to Try Harder #it wouldve been great if they couldve managed to connect and try to be more of a team but like #clearly that was not within their ability #idk man i guess im going to defend these two flawed adults w my life now #i just think they did the best they could #and ultimately their bests were things that weren't cross compatible so it kinda flopped #at least they both love their kids good for them

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

BFCD Reviews by Nesha: Final Space, Season 3

Everybody that know me know that I’m high class #Quillective trash and my main thoughts and feelings go out to Quinn Ergon and Gary Goodspeed - precious Gemini gems, and of course the BABIES: Little Cato, Ash and Fox #NeshaLuhDaKids I had some attachment to Avocato once upon a time, but that n***a got on my LAST nerves this season, so we currently at “Do you, Boo” status by the end of S3, and eventually, yes, I’ma get to why that is. 

Disclaimer for somebody who stumbled across this post because of the fandom tags - I am an independent partaker of this content, not “part of the fandom,” and my audience in particular is NOT for everybody. SO: If you may have been criticized in the past for casual racism, tone deafness to Black women’s concerns or accused of misogynoir or antiblackness, leave now. 

If you don’t like cussing, AAVE, general ratchetness and mean lesbian energy, you too might wanna go. A bitch can be eloquent, but I type like I talk, at times, so it is what it is and I don’t curate for kids, dudes, or nonblacks. That’s just what that is.

I wanna start with Ash Graven. This season is about Ash more than anybody else, despite the fact that there was a lot of emphasis on Avocato’s toxic ass man pain and growth in Quinn and Gary’s relationship, ULTIMATELY, nobody in the crew did more coming into fruition as Ash did, and I have a lot to say about her, because I have a lot of feelings.

♡ Ash Graven

1. Ash is a kid. Lol. Everybody got very confused because of the unnecessary transformation that Invictus gave her. Ash did not “grow up,” her body was altered. That’s a fuckin kid in a woman’s body. A kid who has previously been living with survivor’s guilt, parental abuse/neglect/exploitation, chronic trauma, and a disastrous superpower that most people could not be trusted to carry. She’s a child having a coming of age moment in this season that is mostly molded in manipulation. If you hate on Ash, go fuck yourself. ESPECIALLY if I’ve caught you stanning other characters who have been shit characters, in this fandom or not. Ash was dealt a shit hand and nobody had her back but her brothers, and she’s done what she could and thought was best to care for them. Anybody that missed that - just don’t have kids, K.

2. Ash has no parental guidance. As far as she knows, the only adults who have ever had her back are dead and the ones that she’s stuck with now, she GAVE a chance to try to trust them. She gave Quinn a chance to try to see some of Nightfall (the only adult that we’ve seen not exploit her) in her. She gave Gary a chance by choosing him over Clarence, when she had to make a choice. She even gave Clarence’s ass another chance - with which he responded by dying to not fail her. Now, she has Gary, who just a few days or weeks ago, idek, forced her to try to summon her powers while she was both injured and also upset over having to leave her brother behind - TO SAVE HIS GIRLFRIEND! And she got snatched away in the process and left behind with the enemy, to be mentally assaulted and returned changed, only to have them not trust her.

I love Quinn too. I love her dearly. But the facts were that she was dying and having an episode that nobody could really help with, and Gary didn’t take the time or consideration to think about the stress that he was putting on Ash by putting her in the position to make her feel like she needed to save Quinn for him. Whether or not she was the only one who could, that is a lot to put on a child, and not only did he do it, but he didn’t even seem to think that hard about it whenever he then left her ass. Sure, he was glad when she was returned, but that was a fucked up situation that yet another adult put her into, and the first thing that he should have wanted to do when seeing her was to apologize and try to make it right. It was a huge miscalculation to treat her as a potential enemy that he and Avocato needed to vet. EVEN IF that’s what she was to them, both of them should have had the sense to assess while still treating her as the kid that they supposedly knew.

3. Most of her trauma has been recent and continuous. She looked up to Nightfall, watched her die, and had a meltdown. The events from Season 2 (with Clarence almost killing Fox and leaving him to die, her leaving his side to help out, seeing that Sheryl was treacherous to her own son, losing Nightfall), and the events that are taking place in Season 3 are only in the span of a few months.

They were only stranded for a month whenever we see them surviving together. That girl has had more happen to her to hurt her than to help her and nobody around her BUT Little Cato has been sensitive to that. And they are all fucking adults.

These things being noted - changing Ash’s design was the absolute worse fucking thing. Aging a girl up to make the bad things that follow more palatable is what that seems to be. Ash is still a kid. And THEN, they allegedly made her a queer kid. I say allegedly, because that “reveal” was so poorly done and subtle and weak that I, an almost 40 year old queer, didn’t realize that that’s what they meant whenever they said that they were gonna reveal somebody as a character who is part of the LGBT community.

So... FS production just gon’ decide not only to transform her body into that of a woman, when her mind is still full on traumatized child and hormonal teenager, but also, she likes girls, and they didn’t even do it in a cohesive way that added to the story. They threw it in, like, “BTW, she likes girls, and also, she’s full grown now.” then immediately went for the “Villain” lever, and bitches just ate that shit up. Fuck y’all, forreal. 

& Fox

He didn’t deserve that shit. And, I know a lot of people felt that he was pointless and boring, but his ass was sweet and caring and searching for love and acceptance. As a background character, I liked him. But, he was literally just fodder for Ash’s downfall, which was unfair and problematic, considering that his ass is definitely Black coded. Don’t play. He was voiced by a Black man, spoke with a blaccent, and definitely would be read as Black if you wasn’t looking at him and seeing an alien. They gave him a sacrificial negro trope, the big friendly negro that can kill you but loves everybody trope, and they used his death to just push some narrative forward to set up the one verified queer character as a villain. They got they ass in a vehicle and rolled right over another Black character, and another queer character. Chile...

 ♡ Little Cato!!!

My precious have not been getting some good for too long, and I have had it. He’s not focused on so much this season as he is in the background of other people’s stories, but a very important takeaway is and will always be that Little Cato, aside from Fox, really was the only one here who consistently treated her like she mattered, so it made a lot of sense that he could be the catalyst for her finally having ENOUGH with these people.

I really wish that he could have found out the truth about his past from Avocato, because that’s really who OWED him that truth, but Ash did the thing that I’d expect and told him, to be honest with him. She even told him that Avocato wanted to tell him and that she took that right away from him, because she didn’t believe he deserved it, and I’m respecting her for that, too. I wish she could see how much it hurt Little Cato for her to try to take him away from his home. 

Little Cato has lived before, for a while, and he’s not mature enough to behave as a man, but he at least has a loving foundation to draw from, and having had that support, this is more of his home than it is Ash’s. He doesn’t know how to explain that to her, and she doesn’t know how to understand that for him. Just a tragic situation for two kids with a lot of problems.

♡ Quinn Ergon & Gary Goodspeed

Quinnary notes that might not be featured in the BFCD Reviews by Nesha:  (Quinn Ergon/Nightfall x Gary Goodspeed) rundown - 

I've had two favorite parts of this season so far and they're very mediocre things that you wouldn't think would be like my favorite part but they are. One of them was that the first thing Gary does when she wakes up is to ask her about her sister (someone obviously very important to her who he's previously promised to allow to let live through Quinn's memory and says he wants to hear about her when he's trying to keep Quinn from dying). Because... He really did care and wasn't just saying something to keep her.

Quinn's mother fucked her up in a way that is so frustrating because Black mamas really will traumatize you about their younger kids. That shit hurt. You showed your daughter dead bodies to make her think about that in the event that your other daughter might be in battle? Bitch wtf

Whenever we say that Black girls are programmed to put everybody ahead of us, that's unfortunately not just including Society, it's in households too. And Quinn comes from this place where that is her reality... Then she meets Gary and he doesn't even register for her as anything special. He doesn't appear impressive or incredible in any way... But he (admittedly) weirdly locks on to her and shares himself - thinking that he's showing himself to her, and ultimately he DOES. And he wants to see her too, beyond all this, who she is, at her most humane. He wants to know about her sister. About someone who mattered to her enough to have the helm of her trauma when she was out of touch with reality. Very soft. Very sweet.

The other was when they were talking about how they met and stuff and Gary absolutely cringed thinking about how corny he was when he approached this woman. A lot of dudes never do that. The complaint of earlier seasons that Gary was overbearing, obsessive and creepy , if you missed the fact that he has terrible abandonment issues from his father’s death and his mother’s rejection, here we have him, in his adult state, looking back at the way he was and being embarrassed about it, and that’s growth!

A close third is whenever at the beginning of the Season he says "Quinn it's been a month eventually you have to open up to me about what you've been through" and she says "I will in time" and he respects it but he reiterates that he's there whenever she needs him. I don't think that people realize how revolutionary that kind of statement is especially for a character like Quinn to hear - who has always felt like she had to take charge, had to take the lead, had to make the sacrifice.

Even when she realized that she was dying, she didn't want to burden him with the information. Not even like ‘a thing that she knew if that could help prevent it and she didn't want him to have to go after it,’ but... she didn't even want him to have to deal with knowing about it!

Maybe she thought that she would just drop, maybe she didn't realize that he was going to have to see her in that condition. And then once she realized that he was going to have to see her in that condition one of the first things she says is "I should have told you." Girl is on her deathbed wishing she had done it differently, for Gary's benefit.

I saw somebody on Twitter tried to come for her about not going to Gary after he killed Fox (you know, shortly after her surgery to save her from the very brink of death, and listen... Quinn comes to see about Gary when she can. She’s done it several times. In fact, I’ma make a whole POST about Quinn and Gary moments SPECIFICALLY to point out to haters in the main tag - where they got Quinn Ergon, and by extension, me, FUCKED UP.

Stop Playing in Quinn Face

HI! HELLO. ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE PART OF THIS SEASON IS THAT QUINN AND GARY JUST FUCKED. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANKS. OK. Back 2 bidness

See.. after Gary and Quinn got over the humps of Quinn’s Final Space poisoning... everyone got it... nobody told her until Avocato was mad and told her during a lash out, and let me say something about Avocato’s fucking audacity this season... 

♡ Avocato (Note: His name is A-V-O-C-A-T-O. Some of y’all be tryna stan and y’all can’t even spell his name.)

I done seent Avacata, Avocata... That’s not that dude name. Be writing whole ass expositions about some other Ventrexian n*gga. Hope this helps:

AVOCATO. Listen, boy. YOU decided to be a traitor to your people and your king and queen. YOU decided to dedicate your cause to the Lord Commander and lied to your son his entire life about killing his parents, raising him, and never talking to him about it.

Yet and STILL - whenever you had the chance to finally tell him, you ain’t do the shit. Lord Commander gave you the perfect ass opportunity - WHEN IT CAME UP, and even then, with that boy looking you dead in the face and being glad that now he knows everything... you ain’t Ventrexian man up.

Then, whenever you were supposed to be checking on Gary after his traumatic murder fight with Fox and Invictus, you turned it around and literally made it about you. attacking him in the process and only after a physical fight did you apologize. (And y’all still didn’t get back to what had happened to Gary, which was no real fault of his own). 

Fast forward to after you willingly agreed to stay behind and fight and y’all lost. Now, it was Quinn’s turn to be the center of your blame and you lashed out at her because everybody is dying, despite the fact that y’all agreed to stay behind and fight, nobody even told her that y’all were sick, AND you still wasn’t 100 with Little Cato. 

You just had a lot of mothafuckin audacity this season, Avocato, and I personally was not here for the shit. Even when Ash blasted yo ass, your main thought was to threaten to kill her if she took Little Cato, instead of assuring her that despite what you’ve done, Little Cato was safe with you. No, she wouldn’t have listened to you. But, the words you chose tell us about who you are and how you are. You a war mongering killer that don’t ever take responsibility for his shit, and even in those brief moments that you do, its always somebody else’s problem. 

I’da thunk that LC getting snatched away would be humbling for you, but I guess you were chosen by the writers for minimal growth. Bye, Avocato. Witcha bitch ass. We is not cool right now, but you do you. Hope you find some growth up there in ya ass, where ya head been. 😁 Can’t believe I mourned yo ass. You coulda stayed dead as hell.

FINALE NOTES:

OK BITCH OK THIS FINALE WAS HYPE!

Let me pull it up so that I can liveblog it for the shit that I need to conclude this journey. 

We start out after Ash done took Little Cato and burnt off. Gary and AVOCATO done said they finna go get they son. Chile, I cannot handle Biskit voice. I like that lil’ dude but ya voice, Mane. I can’t with it. 

OK OK OK... Whenever Quinn comes up to Gary to talk to him and say potential goodbyes, she look like she wanna say some and that makes me think about whenever she looked like she wanted to say something in season 1 and didn’t. Quinn as grown a lot in her feelings for Gary, but she still has that hard time with talking about her feelings, but I love that you can see them in her face.

Chile... these folk was kinda taking they time gettin started, huh? Knuckas, do y’all remember that everybody finna die of FS poisoning? Lol. Also... why didn’t they start hallucinating and shit? I guess its not until it covers ya face? 

NIGHTFALL. 😥 I love you, Sis. I miss you. But, “Because I’m you and WE think of everything...” YES. I HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT! EVERYBODY EXPECTS QUINN TO THINK OF EVERYTHING AND WHENEVER THEY DON’T THINK OF THE THINGS, SHE GETS BLAMED FOR MAKING THE TOUGH DECISIONS THAT NOBODY ELSE COULD EVEN MAKE. Underappreciated, really. And people still mark Nightfall as a villain, despite the fact that she not only sacrificed herself, but also came specifically to help another Gary. Sidenote - Nightfall didn’t actually pursuit Quinn’s Gary until Quinn was trapped in Final Space and she thought she got a signal from him. So, I’m still salty AF that she been labelled as a villain just because people don’t like her, when her actions have all been to try to help. Here is no difference. She thought of the things that she didn’t think a younger version of her would think of, and left it for Quinn to find. Nightfall be on RNS, and most of y’all didn’t deserve her.

Quinn’s identity crisis is so sad, but I liked that Nightfall EVEN thought about that. And Sheryl... you kinda starting to grow on me. I hate to give shitty mothers who find compassion in old chance a try, but she do seem to really be giving it a go. 

Ash is so fucked up that she rushes right into the devil’s arms. This reminds me of when trafficking victims go back to their abusers because they don’t have the resources to adjust in the system. 😪 She REALLY believes what she’s saying. She really feels like Little Cato is safer with Invictus with the Team Squad. That’s sad as fuck, bruh. 

THE. ACTING. AND. ARTWORK. IN. THIS. CONFRONTATION. SCENE.

Avocato... I’m proud of you for FINALLY taking responsibility ad opening up about it. Little Cato’s reaction is precisely how kids in the system are, as well. They wanna be at home with their parents, no matter who their parents are or what they’ve done. and Avocato meant what he said and did what I referred to earlier as “Ventraxian man up.”

“I’m sorry we failed you,” from Gary was so important. Because, they technically did fail her. Had Ash seen the same amount of love from Gary as she’s seen him give to others, she might have been more receptive to the truth and less susceptible to lies. But, as she had just said earlier, it was too late for kind words. She’s currently beyond accepting them from him. For a brief moment, it breaks through, but without that ability to know love from an adult properly, she can’t accept that apology right now.

H.U.E. with his big robot, Lord Commander...EYE. There’s so much happening right now bitch processing has left the room girl. Biskit did so damn much this episode. And it was good to see everybody on the team have a moment to help things, instead of like one person having to handle the bulk of things. 

Quinn’s begging voice... its such a contrast from whenever she sent out the SOS in season 1 and was afraid and angry. Like... the desperation here shows her softness. 

Ash’s RAGE Bitch...

Gary’s “I love you...” She looked so happy! And then she just sat with it. I feel like she definitely loves him too, but she doesn’t communicate that way. But, her FACE. She was just... did she think that he didn’t before, or was she just speechless because she didn’t expect to hear it? Because, we gotta be real... Sis probably has not ever heard those words from anybody before. And that first time, when it’s really there is a DOOZIE. She had an abusive mother, a seemingly jealous or competitive sister, and we saw how nobody in the Infinity Guard respected her ass when she was serving them the real. I think this is the first time she’s been in love or felt it and when Gary said it, she had to collect herself. The way she ran to him and jumped into his arms??? SHIPPING CRACK. And Mooncake was a part of their hug too. I have a lot of feelings about this dynamic since Quinn and Mooncake are the only characters that we’ve seen Gary have these “love at first sight” reactions to and Mooncake is the first character that I recall Quinn being nice to in S1. 

So.. my heart was very full when they ripped it from my chest moments later. Mooncake has been watching Team Squad members be self sacrificing for a little while now, and he loves his family and Gary so much that he rushes straight towards danger. (Sure, I don’t think that he estimated how powerful Ash could be at this moment), but he had to at least consider that he might be caught or left behind.

Bitch, Ash is GONE. She said, “Fuck all y’all!” Not knowing whether or not Mooncake is destroyed makes it very hard for me to know how much I can stand this, but I also want to hope that he is gonna survive. Quinn having to make the decision to lightfold is hella sad, but even though Gary is destroyed, he has to know that this is exactly how Ash must’ve felt whenever he had to make the call to leave Fox behind. She hated to do that to Gary. She even seemed more regretful about it than Gary did whenever he had to leave Fox and when he left Ash. Sure, its because she loves him more than he loved Fox and Ash, but its a terrible position to be in to have to hurt somebody you love like that. On the other hand, they gave her hella shit for them not escaping when could have the first time, so naturally, she was going to make this decision. 

It very much sucks that Invictus is free and my brain can’t eeem FATHOM what that means for everything and everybody, but the Final Space poisoning left the Team Squad’s system, so maybe there is a rejuvenation of some sort in Invictus’ power? Or does Final Space poisoning leave your system as soon as you leave Final Space? I don’t think that was clarified. 

Anyways, I still don’t hate Ash. Y’all can say whatever about it, but I see sad white boys get forgiven all day every day on this site, and I’m upset, but I’m not letting my baby go. I’m not cheering her on, but unless she dies, I’m gonna hope for the best for her, like I said here. 

DAMN this season was some shit. Ionknow if I’m emotionally capable of watching another season of Final Space in progress. If they make it back for another season, I will most likely just wait until the end to dive in and let them shock my senses all at once instead of on a weekly goddamn basis, because GODDAMN GODDAMN GODDDAMN!

@andromidagalaxie @daintyurbanprincess @shslargue @space-finally​  The Quinnary Moments Masterlist probably won’t be ready by Quinn’s birthday, since her birthday is the day before Juneteenth, but I’ve started on a little fic that I might have the first installment of posted by then. We shall see. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Here is my JOURNEY during my first watch of the first two seasons of the show. (I watched Season 3 in progress and waited until it was over to write up this review) and my probably incoherent tag of whenever I do me a lil’ liveblogging: Nesha Watches Final Space, and here is my review on Quinnary: BFCD Reviews by Nesha: (Quinn Ergon/Nightfall x Gary Goodspeed) FINAL SPACE

#Final Space #BFCD Reviews by Nesha #Nesha Watches Final Space #Nesha Watches #Quinn Ergon #Quinn Ergon commentary #Final Space season 3 #Final Space spoilers #long post

[jeanstoppable]

17th & 18th OF OCTOBER

hop, step, jump

fuck your pride

(A/N: Fun fact! This oc is based on a dream of mine AND they exist on the same universe as Yelena/Yasemin, my villain oc. Now, buckle up cause it’s time for some Cyberpunk goodness.)

Supposedly, there’s an unspoken rule that whatever background you came from, rich or piss poor or somewhere in between, as long as you end up in the streets, you’ll always be at the bottom of the system. Unless you fight your way up---that is to say, if you survive the climb.

“Hey!” A voice called out from behind.

I stopped walking and peeked over my shoulder, expecting trouble that’s usually present around these parts to have finally found me and lo and behold, a bunch of ‘thugs’ were waiting at the entrance of the alley. Four people differentiating in sizes, three men and one woman, their dark silhouettes painted by the bright neon lights behind them were nothing short of intimidating. 

My eyes darted to the walls of the two surrounding buildings, measuring the distance between each window, the extending pipes and the height of both structures. Scalable. There was also that fire exit just ahead, I reminded myself as I mulled over what will happen within the next 10 minutes. 

A fight, no doubt.

I glanced at the floating holographic numbers on my wrist, taking into account the time and---the meeting that was about to start soon.

Escaping might be the more reasonable choice but...

I hate taggers.

Blowing out a rough sigh, I turned my attention back to the group who was now leisurely cruising towards me, wearing devilish grins and haughty gazes. Some of them were even cracking their knuckles while exchanging unashamed jabs about having first dibs grated on my ears---and my nerves.

Oh boy. Things are about to get interesting.

My lips curled into a snarl as I repressed the overwhelming urge to be the one to draw first blood. Instead, I focused on scrutinising them individually from top to bottom: their gadgets, clothes, bags, shoes. Anything of importance at all that I can lift and hopefully sell.

It only took a moment to finish the assessment, if you know how to estimate things from face value. 

After gathering enough information, I spun to fully face them, smirking provokingly as I loosened the straps of my bag, letting it hang on my fingers and then swinging it.

“Alright, assholes!” I whistled cheerfully before letting the venom bleed into my tone, “Whoever’s got first dibs, you’re up.”

Each of them looked taken aback for a second but then their expressions darkened, my words finally registering as insults, as they should, and then immediately charged forward.

I halted the swinging of my bag.

It was the slightly skinny man that approached me first, I figured he was the leader or something along those lines because he was the one barking the most---however… I narrowed my eyes and observed as the man tossed his shoulder back and aimed a fist at my face. I ducked to avoid it, then I tightened my grip on the straps of my bag and swung it to his side, hitting him square in the ribs----accompanied by a distinct crack and a metal clanking noise.

The man howled in pain as his body smashed into the wall to the left.

One down. Ignoring the groans, I stepped over the crumpled man’s legs and stared down the group with a raised chin. 

I huffed and then pointedly tilted my head at the others, “Next?”

The second one didn’t hesitate to attack, taking on the challenge. There was an enraged expression on his face as he reached forward with knees bent and back lowered while his arms went wide to try and trap me in a grapple. Seeing through him, I grabbed my bag with both hands, feeling the solid weight of the robotics inside, and rushed forward to match the man’s attack. 

Right before his arms would’ve caught me, I clutched the bag close and whacked it in his face, successfully causing him to lose balance. 

Taking advantage of this, I lifted a boot and launched a strike to his thigh, swiftly bringing him to his knees. Without a second to waste, I twisted on my heels to deliver the final kick to the side of his head, waiting for the satisfying thud of his body hitting the ground---

There was a blur of shadow to my right and before I knew it, excruciating pain bloomed in my stomach. 

The third came quicker than I anticipated, it was the woman, who didn’t wait for the fight to finish as she sneaked up on me and ruthlessly swung the bat directly to my gut. I hit the ground a second later after the previous guy did, landing on my ass hard. Fucking ouch. 

I shot a glare at the woman and within her grasp was the source of my injury, which was a goddamn light-up metal baseball bat.

“Bitch, don’t get ahead of yourself.” The woman hissed.

My blood’s boiling even more now. I bit the inside of my cheek to hold in the groan that was about to escape me as I willed myself to get up, slightly making it look like I’m struggling more than I actually was and then ripped off the mask covering half my face. 

Hook, line and sinker.

Puffing proudly, she took a step forward closer and was about to pitch another hit when I hastily seized my arms around her hips and forcefully pushed, knocking the woman off her feet as she fell backwards on the asphalt. I wasted no time to straddle her, trying to wrestle off the bat from the woman’s tight grip, but what the hell, she wasn’t letting go at all.

Letting out a frustrated growl, I took a hold of her collar, pulled it towards me, and then spat the blood that I’ve been purposely pooling in my cheeks in her face. 

As expected, she shrieked in shock and disgust, momentarily forgetting about the bat and easing her hold on it---

Now! 

Jumping into action, I snatched the bat, wrapping it around my fingers and drove its hilt straight to her forehead, knocking the woman unconscious as she slumped to the ground without any further hassle.

“Fuck...Goodnight to you.” I grumbled out, panting and breathing heavily before I steeled myself to glance at the last person left. 

“Okay, one more.” One more and then I’m fucking going home.

It was another man, his frame was slightly wider and larger than the others I’d beaten so far. He stood only a few meters away and I swear he hasn’t moved an inch since the beginning. Enjoying the show? I almost wanted to say but kept it in as I studied him a bit more.

So he’s the boss.

I slowly got to my feet, not taking my eyes off the man as I flaunted the newly acquired weapon to my side, the bat’s cool metal surface feeling quite nicely in my palm.

“Ready when you are,” I said with a raised brow and a cocked hip.

He regarded me for a few seconds, his face hidden in the shadows, before bringing up a hand to his right arm and surprising me by tearing away at the sleeve, the cloth ripping into ribbons to reveal---a bionic limb.

My gaze brightened. Bingo.

While he probably saw me dead, I saw him...as a means of profit. 

A smile took over my features, “That might sell a pretty penny,” I coughed out.

The man let out a savage cry as he shot forward, his robotic arm poised to strike and or grab. I counted his heavy footsteps as I prepared the bat and gripped it with both hands, waiting for him to get closer. 

Once he got near, I noticed traces of a smile dancing on his lips---Fuck, too late---and then his forearm suddenly popped off its socket. Those metal fingers soared and latched themselves around my bicep, squeezing painfully. I grit my teeth, thinking it would bruise later if he didn’t let up soon. 

But the man wasn’t done yet. His eyes glinted dangerously and pulled on the wire connecting the detachable limb to the rest of his bionic arm.

I panicked as I got yanked roughly by my bicep, “Shit…!” Cursing my luck, I tried hitting him with the bat but it lacked enough momentum to actually do damage. So he merely stopped the attack with his other arm and smacked the weapon out of my grasp.

I was being slammed into a wall the next second, a pained gasp slipping out of me whilst black spots swam in my vision, just barely registering the man’s words.

“Where’s that bravado now, huh?” The man sneered, bringing his face real close to mine.

I cringed at the distance, wishing I hadn’t taken off my mask earlier, and clutched him by the nape---then crashed my forehead against his. I knew it would take much more than a headbutt to release me but I only intended to disorientate him.

That small moment of distraction was all I needed to snake my free arm around my back as I grabbed something from the hem of my pants and pulled it out by its handle.

“Right here, fucker.”

I brandished the weapon in front of me and clicked on the switch, the buzz of electricity split the air as the stun baton hummed with power, producing small yet lethal blue sparks.

The man paled. I grinned.

Before he could protect himself, I arched the baton and jammed it into a narrow gap in his bionic arm. The reaction was instantaneous as those metal fingers involuntarily opened and dropped uselessly, the electronics inside malfunctioning. The man himself was in shock, never getting the chance to see the punch heading straight for his nose. 

I bitterly smiled whilst hearing a satisfying crack the moment my fist landed.

I shoved against his chest, pushing him back a couple of steps as he held his bleeding nose, “Y-you...you bitch...!” 

I stared at him, my expression impassive, and shook my head.

“This’ll fuckin’ hurt,” I say to him before zipping forward, baton ready to strike once more.

. . . 

It was the memories that motivated me, helped me get up in bed every single day, the reason for me to keep going and going---because they were the only permanent things I have left in my life. 

I tucked away the stolen bionic arm inside my bag along with the rest of what I managed to collect today. My eyes shuttered as I remembered a rather specific memory: my younger self and my father having multiple discussions about our extremely flawed society, still is, and the people who run the streets, making an adamant point about never stooping to their level. 

If only I knew back then how people, including us, will react when faced with complete desperation and defeat..

It was a lesson I had to learn quite painfully.

A merciless beating and almost bleeding half to death behind some old abandoned factory. 

“Fuck your pride.” They spat and then just left, taking off with my shit. Everything I owned.

That was 3 years ago. 

“Fuck my pride, huh...” I bit back darkly, “Might as well fuck everyone else’s too.”

I did one final sweep at the bodies littering in the alley before running towards the fire exit stairs, hauling myself up and up, the wound on my stomach burning by the time I made it to the building’s rooftop and just leaned against a wall to rest a bit.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Without looking, I swiped a finger across my wrist.

It needed a few seconds for the transmission to go through and then a familiar scolding voice boomed in my ears, 

“Where the hell are you? The meeting’s about to begin.”

That damned meeting.

“...Can’t I just skip it?” I rasped, my voice sounding foreign even to me.

There was a pause and I held my breath.

“Get your ass over here,” the voice growled out and I resisted the urge to groan in defeat, “You’re not missing the meeting twice in a row.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m on my way.” 

. 

.

.

“...Is it okay if I’m a bit late?”

“Get moving.”

(A/N: AHHHH, I’M HAVING FLASHBACKS TO MY UNRELEASED TOKYO GHOUL FIC. Anyways, I kinda lowkey love writing action. I swear it’s because of the Cyberpunk theme in this. I hope ya’ll enjoyed this, I might want to expand more on this character’s lore, there’s tons to unpack, so be ready for that! ALSO IM LATE LIKE REALLY LATE SO YEAH PEACE)

#alkinktober #inktober prompt #myOC #myart #mywriting #cyberpunk oc #this spiraled out of my control i swear

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Fanon characterization of the Calypso twins between me and The Wild West Pyro: 

We both have the strong sinking feeling that the twins are slowly going to lose it as the game goes on, so here’s our collaborated analysis of the two:

I’ll be in non-cool text, while The Wild West Pyro will be in italics, for easier distinction between us. [There will be slight edits and changes for cohesion]

“It would be pretty interesting if we found out the Calypsos/the cult started out with 'good intentions'.”

“Hell, you can see the populism kicking in there.What did the writers say? Ah. "Your poor bandits! You're kicked around and nobody likes you, but we can give you a purpose in life! We can make you feel appreciated and loved!" [This is a reference to the Danny Homan interview] Something of that line.”

“oh yeah! the twins are also providing them with food and weaponry. i mean i can see why a bandit desperate for something better would follow them.”

“I'm guessing how this goes: The Twins start off by winning people over by talking about how they want Pandora to be finally at peace after endless war and giving the bandits a new life where they're treated like actual people. Then once they've got enough people, they say that the Raiders have to go, the corporations have to go, with the Vaults seized the universe will see no more war. Actually, I'm predicting rn that they have a very, very cult-like end goal in terms of IRL parallels.What if they choose to "cleanse" the universe with whatever power Tyreen possesses? And once everything standing in their way is gone, they can create this ideal utopian peaceful universe where there's no corporations and no more fighting. Meanwhile the Eridians are panicking because they know it's a doomed plan and the Vaults do not work like that.”

“[this is very much a] large scale Opportunity situation. literally reverse uno card as to what jack was attempting”

“Yep. Paradise for the common man bandit. OTL parallels to what usually sparks communist revolutions or popular revolutions in general. So yeah, Tyreen could very easily justify herself in that she genuinely wants to bring peace to the universe, with all means necessary. Of course, internally, the Twins just want to be gods and play at being them and hold onto their power as absolute rulers presiding over an eternally-grateful populace.”

“definitely sounds like two teenage cult leaders to me ngl. i could see them not being too secure in themselves (behind the vvv confident personas they put on) and constantly second guessing themselves and reassuring that they're doing this for everyone's own good even as things just keep getting worse and worse. could [have] a tie-in to whatever tragic backstory they might have”

“Yep and yep. And there's this internal fear that they don't know what being a god entails, if they'll lose sense of who they are or not... but put that aside. All for the greater good! I'm actually thinking about this. People note that the Twins are basically streamer critiques, which is a yes. But if you want to take them to serious universe-spanning villain territory, I think that they'll absorb the knowledge from Elpis at one point. And they start to become more detached and more frightening, and a lot more eloquent as they really start becoming gods in the BL sense. While still being narcissistic attention whores who actually like killing people off with their powers but pretend to act benevolent. Essentially, you have the Greek Gods except there's two Zeuses, one is a girl and they've both got all of Zeus's worst traits cranked up to eleven.”

“oh god are they gonna dick everything that moves? oh no... cover ava's eyes! joking aside, that sounds accurate. especially given the borderlands universe loves to tie in its greek mythology. also also i am glad someone else agrees the twins are going to elpis. i refuse to believe they'd destroy it/blow it up before going there for the info. that shit is valuable! especially if you want to convince people you're gods?? accurately predicting the future is insanely good for doing that! plus all the other cool shit you can do by knowing exactly what's going to happen.”

“It also makes the Twins much more dangerous if they can see every outcome...unfortunately, Lilith is very good at playing 4D Chess by now.”

“lilith, putting on her sunglasses and cracking her knuckles: it's time to show them what a real military organization can do. ellie is her hype woman with the drink and a towel. also also lilith is probably kicking herself for not being fast enough this time to punch the vault symbol into tyreen's face.”

“Honestly, I'd love Lilith to turn out to be this really crafty, really charismatic guerrilla warfare commander. Like an Innie leader but they're hypercompetent, not a terrorist and also have Keyes's sheer talent for analyzing battles and tactics and adapting accordingly. Lilith sitting up in Sanc-III being BL!Keyes except a lady and specializing in ground warfare would be sick.”

“yes. fucking. please. gearbox please give lily all the character development, your girl deserves it. im glad because it does seem like she's getting there when you crash land on Promethea. and even the way she handles herself on the bridge is very smooth and confident.”

“tfw you can see the future and, yet, the lady you robbed of her siren powers is outsmarting you 24/7, 365 days a year despite you being able to see the future. also you're trying to fight fate and desperate to change reality so that you can't lose like the future said you would. joke's on you, you cannot fight it.”

“There is no changing it. bonus points if ty only saw the very end, so she is utterly clueless on how the middle bits play out. so lilith is kicking her ass across elpis and she's like ‘this is NOT how i saw this going’.”

“I'd seriously imagine that life in BL corporate society really is like life in Rapture or Columbia. The upper class profits immensely and reaps all the best goods, but they refuse to do the dirty work themselves so they rely on this huge workforce who they constantly cheat, lie and exploit. The few achieve huge power and stuff at the expense of the many. Looking at the Twins in the parallels of how revolutions go, they'll basically go from recruiting the bandits to recruiting the huge lower class of every planet.  Looking at records from all the planets, we've got people being screwed over again and again, corruption and other nasties. The Twins claim that they want all corporations to go, to bring some form of unified government back to the galaxy. And it works- their army size quadruples overnight and goes from there. By the time we get to Promethea, the COV are already recruiting everyone dissatisfied with corporate life. If they successfully seize control of Maliwan like I predict, they'll be a force to be reckoned with. The Twins will use the masses to achieve some sort of theocratic revolution, [they] claim that it's all for everyone's good. But in reality, they want to be absolute rulers of the universe, gods worshipped and feared by all.”

“Oh yeah, the twins are definitely feeding (maybe literally) off the huge numbers of dissatisfied people across the universe- the mega corporations are evil, no doubt there are millions of people waiting for something better. tbh, if gaige wasn't booted from the main game, I could see a whole side story of her having started a revolution somewhere, and then joining up with the Crimson Raiders once her entire party just up and joined the CoV. And [I would] 100% bet the twins started a campaign against DAHL and Atlas and suddenly nearly every bandit on pandora joined up with them. (also Athena was sitting in a chair clutching at the armrests and janey was like "don't you fuckin dare, hon" and athena is like "but... Atlas...")”

[We talk more about Gaige’s anarchist revolution and trying to topple the mega corporations in a less cult-y fashion here]

“... Bonus points 2: The COV fire up the memories of Jack to rally everyone into opposing Hyperion and suddenly Athena is like "OK I'm not going, mobilize the army." And Janey is like ‘Here we go...’.”

[we joke around a little bit more about Athena and Janey here]

“I can imagine Rhys's internal conflict, knowing that he has to make the galaxy a better place but at the same time, maintain his corporate power and control because without it, he's doomed. Then again, Rhys is no stranger to doing shady stuff. I think a lot of the Twins's evil will be in how they treat their followers.There's all the smooth-talking and promises of the future. And then when you actually get there, you're brainwashed into being another unthinking, 100% loyal attack dog for them. And you follow everything they ask you to do for 100%, even if they use you for power experiments or cannon fodder. And the game will remind us that these people weren't all bandits - over the course of the story, the COV includes people like former corporate execs, entire families, people who were just trying to get by day to day. And now we as Vault Hunters have to kill all these ordinary people to save the universe. Tough choices, eh?“

“Oh geez, you know that's a really fair point. i know borderlands likes to push the 'morally gray' aspect of things, but holy shit that's dark. (not saying i don't love it though, i totally do lol) You’re probably 100% right that rhys is struggling internally. especially after being so closely tied up with hyperion and even fiona and sasha, seeing exactly what hyperion did to people not just on helios but the people trying to live their daily lives and survive on pandora. im sure he has a similar reasoning to himself as the twins: im doing this for the better of the people. i can help so many more people with this money and power. somewhat similar to handsome jack, but hopefully lorelei (if she's not evil) helps ground him and keep him from jumping into the middle-to-deep end.”

“I'm still betting that Rhys will remain on the good side, if a teensy bit unscrupulous. I mean, the whole thing about the Twins is that they're social commentary of livestreamers and influencers and the incredibly toxic influence they can have. There are countless aspects of that to explore. If streamers can mobilize their entire loyal fanbases to bully the crap outta some poor chump or buy things or let their fans believe that they know the streamer 100% as a person and not a persona, the Twins can convince people to go to war.”

“Oooh yeah, it's not hard to imagine they probably don't even need the brainwashing for a majority of their cult, just the select few who are either on the fence or against it, but are [still] 'available'. irl streamers can be seriously fuckin scary, man, im not surprised this is the route gearbox is going for. now, it would be severely fucked up if there was a scene where tyreen demands someone kill themselves on the spot and they do without hesitation. if you watch the moze gameplay there seems to be a hint of something like that going on over the radio/TVs, she mentions something about their sacrifice or something, then you hear a dude screaming/gurgling.”

“Everyone's thinking that Tyreen will be this laughable, entertaining villain. But I'm constantly seeing hints and estimating that she is going to be far, far more scarier than we give her credit for. For one, Jack was a presence largely relegated to audio. We only physically saw him in BL2 twice. The Twins run a cult, which itself is frightening already. And it looks like we'll be seeing them in person very often.”

“Oh yes, tyreen is fucking terrifying. i mean even that she can steal siren powers is already a huge "whoa what the fuck" in my book. that one line at the end of the HBC where she's like "you're my most loyal follower vault thief, you just don't know it yet"? fucking scary, how her voice drops and gets all serious for a split second and then the hologram just cuts out. i was like "wh- wait hang on-???" i definitely think she is putting up a persona and as the game goes on we're slowly going to watch her lose it. troy will probably grow a bit distant from her as well if he doesn't lose it, too. definitely think ty is going to try and kill him once he's of no use to her, because he's just been a pain in her side because she had to keep him alive as the brains of the operation. but once the operation is done... whoops. sorry pal. don't need you anymore. they're the main villains, i can't see her holding the bonds of family in high regard at all. she could totally write off his death as like ‘he sacrificed himself for the Great Vault, now we pray to him every day and sacrifice ourselves in his name’ or smth”

“She puts up this fun-loving persona as a streamer, but she then decides the Vault Hunters get to see her true self. It is not pretty. It makes Jack look like a kitten-cuddling fluffball, that's how bad the real Tyreen is. It makes Piston and Vasquez sound like friendly guys you'd take out for lunch after work. It makes Hector's goals look very reasonable and sane. Also, perhaps she kills him and we never see how she did it, which ups the scare factor. It's like Troy disappeared and we have no idea how she killed him and how long it took for him to die. We just find a lot of irreconcilable proof that Troy is dead now and we don't know how. That is the amount of horror I'm estimating.”

“Oh man I love this. That's so horrible (in a good way), I can 100% see it happening. Jack swore revenge for us killing the person he 'loved'. Tyreen herself kills the person she 'loved' and we start to realize holy shit this is the real deal. She can't even pretend to care like Jack pretended to care (he didn't actually care about Angel as a person, but he did say things to try and make Angel think he did, just putting that out there cuz I don't wanna sound like I support him lol). There's just a complete contrast between her and Jack during the final levels of the game. Jack stops joking around "you feel that, child killer?", he's dead serious and ready to kill vs Tyreen laughing or just being off the rails bubbly for her 'streamer persona' while looking utterly unhinged”

so yeah, the convo teetered off after this a bit, but the general gist is that Tyreen is going to go absolutely off-the-wall by the end of the main story. this is somewhat supported by the Danny Homan interview that states the twins are going to have their relationship warp and twist.Tyreen is going to start going crazy with all the powers she absorbs and realize once the plan is over she won’t need Troy’s expertise anymore, and Troy is going to get sick of being relegated to the side when he’s the one with the master plan. We both have the deep feelings the twins aren’t going to stay as charismatic as they are in the little bit of promo material we’ve gotten of them. which i get, because in a lot of the official trailers, Troy looks pissed. Tyreen is always super smug no matter what shot she’s in, but Troy... he looks very angry in some shots we get. even when Ty is holding his forearm in that one shot, he rips his arm out of her grip. For example: “How many IRL streamer "friends" get into ridiculous drama and feuds with each other? Answer: a lot. Could be mirroring that with the twins. A lot of people are saying that the new villains will never match up to Jack. This is our take, and we're proud of it, and very confident in Gearbox's new writing team. ”

EDIT: some edits made by The Wild West Pyro

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3 #the calypso twins

[tumblunni]

Also yeah while im on the subject

I really hate fantasy settings where magic is limited by biological sex. Because usually its used to enforce some sort of stupid gender stereotype that the writer believes is "biologically innate" rather than predjudice, by making up a world where it actually is biologically innate. Or its like "oh but women cant do those jobs" but again, a made up excuse for it to be LITERALLY TRUE. And usually they either dont even touch on the subject of trans and gay people (since it often conflates heterosexuality with gender...) or else it actually does bring it up and just creates a cavalcade of even more everything-ism...

Like i mean i love the game Jade Coccoon and considering it came out in the early 2000s i can understand it being more sexist, and its supossed to be a dark game anyway and a lot of the societal structures in Syrus Village are meant to be wrong and evil even if the characters act like its the way the world should be. The villain of the game is basically the toxic atmosphere of your shitty town and their paranoia of things they don't understand. Tho that means the player kinda has no motivation to finish it cos the main conflict is also saving those same villagers from dying and theyre all fucks. Anyway i'm going offtopic! What i mena is that i dont think it was a particularly sexist example of the inexplicable gender segregated magic trope. But just cos its a fave game of mine im gonna pick it to talk about anyway. Hope i dont sound too negative on it, cos seriously i love it loads!

Ok so to use Jade Cocoon as an example, here its a thing that only men can be cocoon masters and only women can be nagi. Tho it also gets a bit complicated because nagi is also an ethnicity as well? Its kinda like being romani, they're a race of displaced people who travel the world giving their magical services to other countries while searching for their lost homeland, which you end up finding at the end of the game. So yeah its extra weird cos male children of the nagi race are born with no powers whatsoever and cant even become cocoon masters, yet they get the ruling position in this homeland place? Like thats a better metaphor for how christian societies work, honestly!

Anyway im going offtopic again!

Basically, cocoon master = adventurer dude who catches monsters, nagi = magician who purifies those monsters so you can use them in battle. So when you catch stuff it becomes an inventory item rather than being able to use it on your team right away. And also nagi women can fuse monsters together to make super badass new ones and basically the gameplay system works really well to make you believe your wife is absolutely necessary to your quest and you would die without her, even if she cant fight. And honestly its actually kinda romantic! I just wish it wasnt presented as this weird sacred heterosexuality arranged marriage nonsense where all women are physically unable to go to a dungeon and all men are physically unable to not fight every day. Or at least thats how the powers work and if you try and step out of that role you fuckin die. Like it would be romantic to have a couple of a battle partner and a supporter magician if they actually chose it, yknow?

And whats annoying is that they actually do bring up the subject of people defying gender roles and canonically state that you not omly die but bring a curse upon everyone and are hated forever. They dont mention trans or gay people, instead the excuse is that a man loved his wife so much that he tried to learn nagi magic to lift the burden from her. Cos oh yeaj women get 'punished' by god for doing this magic?? Cursed tattoos all over their body the more they use it, and everyone hates them and eventually they turn into a fairy and forget they were ever human. And in the japanese version you can actually fight other nagi women who met this fate, theyre just another monster that you can fight and capture. They were censored in english cos they looked like really racist stereotypes of black women! Ugh! So yeah anyway nice straight husband is punished by the magic straightness enforcing rules of the universe for loving his straight wife too much. So what is the even point? If a man tries to use nagi magic it creates the "black cocoon" of cursed doomness and blah. Literal punishment for not conforming to gender. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Anyway this setting always made me wonder about all the stuff it just glosses over with this implication that every one of these relationships worked out fine. Like even before we rub lgbtq topics all over a retro videogame, there's a lot of logical holes! Like seriously how many of these arranged marriages ended up loveless or abusive? How many women just didnt want to stay confined to one room forever and not even have anyone look at them because their magic markings are shameful yet its also shameful not to want to do it?? How many men were terrified of going out on this advebture fighting literal demigods sent by heaven to punish humans? How many of them just had no ability to fight and died immediately because of shitty traditions, while perfectly qualified women had to sit there and watch it happen? What if there werent enough straight men and women of the same age and people were forced into gross pedophilic shit or other horror scenarios just cos there has to be this one magical straight couple or the village dies? Whenever theres this stupid gender magic its ALWAYS portrayed as idyllic and never failing ever, unless *gasp* people dont follow the gendrules...

And then SERIOUSLY do no queer people exist in this universe?? Man i'd be so interested in their stories! I actually had an oc idea of a self insert version of me as a travelling merchant. Because maybe what if nonbinary people could do both sides of the magic at once and thus adventure alone without being tied to a village's straight marriage system? So i'd just go around purifying monsters and then be a place you could buy new and rare mons from other villages without having to catch them. Maybe an easier way to get the super rare drop fusion materials for tiger pattern and stuff? And like seriously itd be good to have a character to talk to who agrees that your village is made of assholes. I cant say its bad writing cos it was clearly intentional, but they shoulda at least put a bit more incentive to keep playing even if you didnt care about these people. Also it would help plug the plothole of how a village even survives if it doesnt have the required people to form this magical straight marriage. Have some mysterious enby avengers who travel all across the world and save everyone regardless of country! All we ask is you buy some of our lovely souveniers! Maybe a pet patalchu for your family? Seripusly why dont they ever show anyone using the purified monsters for anything other than fighting the unpurified ones? You'd think they'd be really useful in repairing the village and guarding the walls and like..regular industrial jobs. Help the place actually advance and not have to live day to day on scraps,bickering amoungst themselves as the monsters grow ever closer to breaking through. Hell, you could even have them help spin the cocoons for other monsters! If this magic only depends on having a dick or not, then cant we just dress up some animals in the magic straight marriage outfits? XD

And like aaaa man im getting so emotional just imagining a trans woman who's constabtly told she will literally bring about the apocolypse if she tries to fill the female role in this ritual. And then one day she tries to spin the magic silk and she thinks she's committing the ultimate sin and they were all right. But the magic responds to her touch, and she makes a spell more beautiful than any other woman in the village! It would probably be harder for a trans man cos the magic doesnt have so much of an immediate proof like that. Just going out and winning a fight with a monster can be called "dumb luck", and knowing these assholes they'd probably keep calling it dumb luck even after the thousandth time you save their life!

And man, i wonder how gay relationships would work in such an annoyingly strict system of enforced heterosexuality? Would it be like the magic isnt REALLY gender locked at all, and it can just be any couple with either partner taking either role? Or would it be that it is one magic per gender but the bigoted villagers were wrong about it being impossible to do things without both? Like maybe when you're going into battle alone as a single cocoon master you cant fight without catching other monsters. But when two cocoon masters love each other their magic is amplified and they become able to like.. I dunno.. Imbue each other with elemental strength so they can fight the monsters hand to hand? Cos really the elemental system is the only reason you cant do a no monsters run of the game as it is. Maybe since they cant purify monsters but they can still catch them, they equip the monsters as sort of a power rangers transformation? Or socket them like materia on their weapons? Or just if the world was less segregated into tiny sexist racist villages they could simply buy the purification coccoons from another local nagi, and villages without a coccoon master could buy the services of travelling ones. Oh, and maybe two nagi lesbians could be even more badass! Cos if they can only purify and not fight, maybe their double purification is so strong that they can just straight up walk into the forest and monsters don't attack them. They dont even need to do the full spell, they can calm a beastie's rage just by holding out their hand and patting it on the head. So they coukd be infinately more effective and not have to just tenporarily clear single travelling routes of a few monsters, but actually work towards slowly purifying the entire forest and creating a peaceful land again. Tho i mean the game did have a unique atmosphere with the whole 'no hope of ever beating them' aspect. It was unique to see a society formed around the idea of never going into forests or you Die. But magical lesbians and their family of a million pet dragons is honestly better!

And uhhhh ive gone all offtopic now and i camt stop thinking about how much i love magical lesbians with a million pet dragons

The End

[myselfinserts]

’ If you were me, you’d be good looking. ’

Hell.

This was hell. He knew it had to be. 

Not only had Darnell been torn from his vacation early, but he forgot to get the number of that pretty girl he’d met at the bar. And now he was on a cargo plane over Belarus trying not to get knocked out of the open ramp. And to make matters worse, he’d ten calls from his grandmother. 

Worst. Assignment. Ever.

“FOCUS ON ME, ASSHOLE!”

Darnell rolled his eyes, throwing a kick and knocking a goon flat on his back.  He spun around, snapping his fingers and letting out sparks and sending fireworks flying after another. He was tired. He knew he had only about ten minutes left. And these were all death row inmates.

Dammit. What am I going to do?

The boss caught him off guard, kicking him and throwing several punches, nearly knocking his mask off. The new suit was good. It keep him from dying. But could it keep him alive if the ship crashed?

He’d probably find out soon. A few more kicks and one well placed toss, and he found himself hanging out the back of the plane. 

“If I were you, Calendar,” the boss villain snickered. “I’d give up while I still had some life left in me.”

Darnell couldn’t help but snicker. “If you were me, West End, you’d be good looking.”

West End sneered, stomping his foot onto Darnell’s fingers and making them start to slip. “You’re better suited to catching lower level punks in downtown Kiev, you overhyped buffoon.”

“That so?” Darnell smiled, letting his hands slip further. “Then I guess I better hurry and head down to earth. I have other planes to catch.”

He felt himself fall away, heat building in his hands as he threw them together in a hard clap. The fireworks flew forward, hitting the turbines and setting the plane alight in a display of bright rainbow sparks. The high pitched whistling hurt his ears as he zoomed toward the earth, his impact imminent.

But at least the West End Society wouldn’t be terrorizing Europe anymore. There was no way anyone survived that explosion. 

“Fucking English villains and their flare for the dramatic!” he screamed. He pressed a button on his belt, feeling a slight tingle going through his nerves as a thin layer of blue light covered him. He closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and allowed himself to fall into coffin position. 

And everything went black. 

When Darnell came to, his beacon had been beeping, and there were other heroes around. He was unharmed, and the remains of the plane had been located and taped off. He was laying on a cot in the medical tent, listening as everyone started gathering for water. 

“You’re awake.”

Darnell looked up, half expecting the pretty Elspie heroine to be there by his bedside. She’d mentioned she was a healer. Instead, it was a field medic from his agency; the American college graduate to be precise, with the funky pastel Mohawk. He let out a sigh of disappointment.

“Sounds like someone’s not too happy to see me,” the medic sighed. 

“Sorry,” Darnell grumbled. “Been a long day.”

“I can tell.” The medic smiled, handing him some water. “You’re completely fine though. That new suit works wonders. Any other hero might had died or gone completely comatose from that kind of fall.”

Darnell nodded. “I asked Mousier Allard if he could make it so I could possibly survive falling out of a plane or out a window on high buildings while also using my quirk. He said it should work indefinitely, but not to push it, since this is only his second best material.”

The medic looked offended. “Only his second best?!”

“We cannot afford the best, kid. But for what we got? I’d gladly take the seconds of Atelier Allard over anyone else.” He glanced at his watch, wincing as he saw the time. “May I borrow your phone? My screen got cracked before the mission.”

“Sure.”

Darnell took the phone and waited for the medic to step out. He’d memorized every important number he’d ever gotten. He could remember them well. One of the perks of Yearling. Made him feel worse about forgetting to ask for Marianne’s contact info.

There was a gentle click, a charming old voice, and Darnell’s stress melted away.

“Ahoj, babička. Ospravedlňujeme sa za chýbajúce hovory. Hej, práve som opustil Paríž. Nie, teraz nie som v lietadle. Vlastne som na malebnej ceste. Sľubujem, že sa vrátim domov včas pre vašu narodeninovú oslavu. Áno. Áno, dám vám nejaké víno z pekného rohu obchodu. Áno, babička. Tiež ťa milujem. Zbohom.”

He hung up the phone, sighing as he lay there in silence. The rest of the night flew by. Everyone asking him about what happened. Why the plain crashed. Why he couldn’t take them in alive. God, he hated not being able to bring them in. Killing them hurt so much. But he couldn’t let them get out of Europe. Not after two years of tracking. Those bastards would have gotten away and found a new place to start their crimes in. It was either kill them or lose them.

And his little pacifist heart broke with the decision. 

Dammit...god fuckin’ dammit.

Darnell kept to himself in the weeks following the crash. Smaller hero gigs as he tried to get back to his usual self. He found more and more often he’d take the train places. Tonight, it was to the next city over. He needed to get out to one of the lesser known clubs to party. Something to take his mind off the guilt. He dressed in his best, fluffed his hair, and made sure he had his good jacket before heading out. 

The club was called ‘Hidden Desire”. The owner, infamous for her ability to grant your deepest desire for a night of bliss. He didn’t think it was worth the hype. 

At least, that’s what he thought before walking through the doors. 

The music blared over speakers as well dressed patrons danced in the glittering lights. The liquor and dinner kept coming. Everyone was smiling and enjoying vibrant conversation. There were no heroes. There were no villains. Just civilians enjoying the night.

And the belle of the ball was the woman with long, curled, two-toned hair tied back with a white ribbon, dressed in a sparkling black swing dress. Her eyes shone like stars in the light of the room. And her smile. Oh, that smile. He knew it anywhere. He hurried to the dance floor, gently swept her into his arms with a cheeky grin.

“Long time no see, Marianne” he said. “You’re looking particularly beautiful this evening.”

“Are we destined to meet in bars?” she asked, a deadpan tartness to her voice. 

Darnell smiled fondly. “Maybe. If I forget to ask for your contact info this time too.”

Marianne couldn’t help but roll her eyes, taking full lead with him. “I’m here on a job. Bait for a serial killer. Turns out I’m his type.”

Darnell’s heart began to quake. “What?”

“Relax,” she cooed softly. “My friend is locating him as we speak. Once I leave here, I’ll head back to my hotel and wait for the matter to be resolved.” She leaned in close, lightly blowing on his ears. “And you’re putting that mission at risk talking to me. You’re not exactly an unknown in this part of the world.”

“True,” he whispered, trying not to blush. “But I’m not that known either.”

“Very true.”

He smiled. “After your mission...would you like to get dinner? Maybe tomorrow at six?”

“I’d like that, Dar-”

“You may call me Myko. After all-” he smirked, lightly running a finger up her spine “-we know each other pretty damn well already.”

Marianne’s cheeks went read. “Let me slap you right now and I’ll make it dinner, movie, and maybe something extra.”

“Deal.”

Marianne pushed him off and gave him a hard smack across the face, glaring at him. “Ty zvrhlík!” she screamed, before turning on her heal and walking out. 

Darnell watched her go, completely forgetting he was in public and trying hard to resist the urge to chase after her. His heart seemed all a flutter as he rested his hand where she’d smacked him. 

If this turns out well, he thought, I just might ask her to marry me.

#Just make a one off OC! #There's no way you'll get attached! #myselfinserts #mybnhaocs #the au of class #Tales of Elspie: Marianne's Romance #I said #Anonymous

[cwnerd12]

Destruction

“Destruction” David shows the video to Monique. They’re at a table with Shay, Joel, Isaiah, and Asher. Monique, “Oh, I know this place. I’ve had some truly memorable raves there.” Shay, “What’s it like inside?” Monique, “It’s a warehouse. Big and empty.” Shay, “What’s it used for? What can we expect to be in there?” Monique, “It’s used for storing shit. I don’t know what it’s used for, I just know the acoustics are good.” David, “There’s multiple points of entry, more than there were at the Cross mansion, we can get in a lot quicker.” Joel, “What if this place is rigged to explode?” David, “Amal is in there. He’s not going to kill himself.” Isaiah, “If it’s full of boxes, it’ll light up real quick.” Shay sighs heavily, “Well, we’ve raided the Amalekites before, and been at least somewhat successful. This time we’re not rescuing anyone, just trying to kill Amal.” Joel, “We can make it simple, have Isaiah make a big-assed bomb, light it off, voila, Amal is gone.” David, “We have to kill him kill him. If there’s even a remote possibility he can survive something and escape, he will. We can’t guarantee a bomb will kill him. Plus, if we only kill him, his followers could still carry on his mission. We need to take as many of them out as possible.” Shay, “We go in quick and discrete. Bring our best. Come to kill. Have snipers posted near the entrances, they take out anyone who tries to leave. Have backup further down in case the snipers miss. He won’t be able to sneak away this time. We’re going in prepared.” Asher, “The good news is, this time, we have plenty of nearby safehouses. Treating the wounded shouldn’t be a problem.” David thinks for a moment, “If Amal is there, they’re going to die to defend him. They’re going to make this as hard as they possibly can. Also, Amal likes to fuck with people’s heads. He’s gonna try to confuse us, turn us against each other.” Shay, “We’ll be ready for that.” David, “Also, I honestly have no idea how they’re going to try to fight back. The soldiers who go in first have to be ready for anything. It’s not entirely crazy that they might blow the place up.” Shay, “I know who to send.”

AFG snipers set up on rooftops near the Amalekite warehouse. Inside another warehouse, the six leaders, David, Joel, Shay, and Isaiah get ready for the raid. The leaders lead their groups out into the area outside, and approach the entrances. One by one, they say, “Ready.” Shay speaks into her headset, “Go.” The doors blast open. The teams go inside, ready to shoot at the slightest sign of movement. The warehouse is filled with maze-like stacks of boxes. Yuri talks into his headset, “I don’t see anything. This place is full of boxes, I’m not sure how to proceed.” David says to Shay, “Shit. We need to get in there.” Shay, “They aren’t fighting, they’re trying to lure us in there.” David, “We gotta go in there, no matter what.” Shay, “All right, let’s go.” David, “We all go in at a different place, come on.” They spread around the building, and go inside. David looks around at the maze of boxes spreading out in front of him. “Shit.” He eyes a nearby ladder leading up to a platform. “I’m gonna try to get a view from above.” He starts climbing. As he reaches the top, a shot rings out, and a bullet ricochets off the ladder just above his head. David jumps back down, “Shit! Okay, we know they’re in here!” The speaker system crackles, and Amal’s voice fills the warehouse, “Hello, General Shepherd! Thrilled you decided to come today! I’m not gonna waste words, I know you’re here to kill me, and you can do that, but you’ve gotta find me, first.” David looks around. Shay, “What do we do, David?” David, “I’m going in. But I’m not going in alone.” He waves to the big group of soldiers behind him, “Everyone else, go in. We’re gonna take them out. Come on.” He enters one of the pathways in between the boxes. The other groups go into other entrances. Slowly, David inches down the narrow path, his soldiers close behind him. Amal, “I see we aren’t fucking around today. I expected nothing less from this brave leader, the man who runs head-first into danger, who blows up every tank he sees, who heroically sacrifices himself for a greater good.” A shot fires from above, hitting one of David’s soldiers. David shoots in the direction the shot came from. Another shot comes from the opposite direction, and takes out another one of this soldiers. David spins and shoots in the other direction. The firing stops. David’s breath shakes, he keeps pointing up at the area above him. Nothing happens, “Come on, we can’t stop.” A box full of something heavy is pushed down onto David’s head, knocking him over. His soldiers furiously shoot where it fell from. One goes over to David and helps him get up. He touches a cut on his eyebrow, sees the blood on his fingers. Shay, “Shit, David, let’s just fuckin’ burn this place and get out of here.” David, “No! I’m not stopping until I get Amal!” Amal, “You know, I’ve always liked your determination.” David waves, “Come on. Everyone keep going.” Joel leads his group further in, and so does Shay. Amal, “It may seem strange, but I really admire what you’re doing. Not the whole freeing Gilboa part. The killing people part. You’ve got quite a body count, David. And not just the usual pile of dead soldiers. I mean, you executed one of your closest friends. I killed my old boss. I hated that bitch, so it was easy. Killing a friend? That’s hard.” David grits his teeth with anger, but keeps pressing forward. A burst of gunfire, one of Shay’s soldiers falls. Shay shoots back, and an Amalekite falls to the ground, dead. Amal, “You inspire me, David. I never would have become a terrorist if it weren’t for you. I talk a lot about trying to tear down society, and I like to think that I’ve done my part, but I still can’t hold a candle to you.” More exchange of gunfire. David goes forward, and sees motion out of the corner of his eye. He spins around, and sees another unit of AFG soldiers down another pathway, pointing their guns at him. He lowers his gun and presses on. Amal, “Look at what you’ve done. You drove King Silas to madness, led him into not one, but two wars. I couldn’t do that.” David comes to a fork in the paths, he looks down the two ways. Amal, “Every attack I make, I’m just trying to do what you’re doing. The palace, Damascus, Fistopia, the Belle Visage, the Western Mall… Damn, I’m losing track. You must have trouble keeping track of all the destruction you’ve caused, too.” Gunfire. Amal, “So, in case you’re wondering, yes, all those attacks are absolutely your fault.” David, “Shut the fuck up!” Amal laughs, “What, you don’t like the truth? I guess it’s easier to accept the deaths of a bunch of faceless strangers, but what about the people you know? Didn’t you kill one of your friends in the AFG’s first attacks?” David hurries forward. He finds another path, takes it. Amal, “Oh, I know, what about that little prince, Prince Seth? Yeah, he’d definitely still be alive if weren’t for your crusade against King Silas. I’d get into the other prince, but since he’s your boyfriend, I’m pretty sure you know full well that it’s your fault he’s a vegetable.” David searches frantically for a way towards Amal. Another box falls in front of him, but he ducks, and it misses him. He fires up at the ceiling, two Amalekites fall. Amal, “Hey, that’s another two you can add to your death tally. You know, you don’t even have to kill your friends to hurt them. You can just kill their parents, like you did to your Rabbi. Didn’t your diplomat’s dad get killed? I almost forgot about that. They tortured her brother, too, didn’t they? Nothing like good old fashioned torture.” David fires at the ceiling. Dust falls, but nothing else. Amal, “Really, you have to ask yourself, why are you even doing all this? For peace and freedom? What the fuck does that even mean? You want the crown. That’s it. You aren’t any different from Silas, or Linus, or anyone else who’s declared himself king. You’re going to lead more wars. You’re going to suppress your political opponents. You’ve fought so damn hard, you’re not gonna let someone else challenge you for that crown, are you? You won’t let anyone else touch it. You’ll kill them before that happens.” David finds another branch, he looks through it, and sees a large group of Amalekites. They all fire at him. He ducks back into the boxes. The Amalekites come through to find him, and he and his soldiers fire at them. Amal laughs, “See, I’m right!” David fights with the Amalekites. Shay and her group run towards the sound of the fighting. She sees the Amalekites and opens fire on them, taking them out. Amal, “I see you still have friends. Is that Shay Mendoza? Do you think she’s gonna die for you?” Shay and David look at each other. Amal, “How are you gonna hurt her, David? What terrible tragedy is going to befall her because of her involvement with you?” Shay, “Don’t listen to him, David!” Amal, “I see Joel Bronikov and Isaiah Clemens are both here. Which one of them is going to get killed? Do you really think none of your friends are gonna die for you?” David catches another movement out of the corner of his eye, and spins around, firing. An AFG soldier ducks at the end of another path, nearly struck by Davis’ bullets. Amal, “I admire you, David. You’re so much more of a villain than I ever could be. You make destruction look good. You make it feel good. I can’t do that. Only you can. If I am a demon, you summoned me. I wish I were you. Everything that I am, everything that I do, all because of you.” David finds one final opening, and goes through it, out into an empty space surrounded by boxes. He’s met by another group of Amalekites, and fires on them. Shay runs up behind him, firing, “We’re at the center!” Amalekites fall, and visible behind them is Amal, watching the scene with delight. David runs for him, fury in his eyes. Shay, “David!” David reaches Amal and tackles him. He begins to pummel his face in. Joel and his group reach the center, and fire at the Amalekites, taking them all out. Amalekites begin to appear at the rim top of the circle of boxes, and fire down at the AFG, who fire back. Other groups come out of the maze, and start firing. David furiously keeps beating Amal. He grabs Amal’s collar and slams his head against the concrete floor again and again. Amal spits out a mouth full of blood and teeth and laughs, “You love it, don’t you?!” David punches him again and again. Amal, his face an unrecognizable bloody mess, “You aren’t killing me, you’re making me suffer! You’re a man after my own heart!” David grabs his gun and points it at Amal’s head. Amal laughs, “Go ahead, kill me. Society is still going to fall apart. You’re leading the charge. Do you really think you’re going to help anyone, make anything better? You’re my fucking brother, David. You think you’re doing the right thing. Really, you’re doing so much more damage than you can even comprehend. All of my followers have taken an oath. If I die, they die with me. If you kill me, you will be responsible for all of their deaths. So go ahead, do the right thing. Kill me.” David pulls the trigger. Amal’s hand opens, and a deadman switch falls out. The remaining Amalekites stand, point their guns at their heads, and shoot themselves. David stands for a moment, stunned, and then kneels down and picks up the switch. Shay, “What the fuck just happened?” David, “I think we won?” Joel, “Yeah, it looks like we won.” Shay, “This was way too easy.” David, “Yeah, but, we won!” He raises his hand, but winces, “Ah!” he rubs it, “Is there a security system here? If we got all that on video, it would be pretty great.” Shay goes up to David, and sees the switch in his hand, “What the fuck is that?” David, “I dunno. Amal was holding it. Looks like some kind of button.” Shay, “That’s a fucking deadman switch. Something was supposed to go off when Amal died.” David, “Well, nothing’s here is blowing up.” The faint sound of sirens. David, “We should get out of here.”

At the safehouse, Abby watches the news, a chaotic scene in the crowded middle of Shiloh, “An unknown number of bombs have gone off, in what looks like a coordinated series of simultaneous attacks.” Abby’s phone buzzes, she answers, “David? What the fuck did you do?” Outside her window, an ambulance roars by. In the back of a truck full of other AFG soldiers, David talks on his phone, “I killed Amal? First time I’ve killed someone and felt no regret whatsoever.” Abby, “Did he have some kind of switch on him?” David, “What?” Abby, “A bunch of bombs just went off, all at the same time. It looks like an Amalekite attack.” Shay, next to David, shows him a news feed on her phone, “Holy shit.” David yells up at the truck’s driver, “Turn around! We’re going to help!” Shay, “Anyone who shows up in an AFG jacket is going to get arrested!” David, “Then take our fucking jackets off! We caused this attack-” Shay, “We didn’t!” David, “We’re going to help! Turn the truck around!” Shay, “David, stop it! What if this is another trap?” David goes quiet. He raises his hand, which is bruised and swollen, to brush his hair back. Shay leans forward, “Jesus, what did you do to your hand?” David, “I don’t know, something snapped.” Shay, “Fuck. We’re going back to the safehouse. You need to get that looked at.” David, “You and I are going back to the safehouse, everyone else is going out to help! We have to be seen helping!”

At a devastated cafe, chaos still swirls, AFG members jump out of a van. Cameron is followed by Yuri and Beth as he begins to look for wounded people to help. He goes up to a woman sitting on a curb with a wounded arm and blood on her forehead, “Hey, I’m a medic, are you getting help?” Woman, “No.” Cameron, “Lemme look at your head.” He examines the cut on her head, “Looks like just a laceration, you just need some stitches,” he turns over to Yuri, “Yuri, can you get her head bandaged?” Yuri gets a bandage out of Cameron’s kit and helps while Yuri examines the woman’s arm. Elsewhere, a police officer looks at the AFG jackets around him, and asks into his radio, “We have AFG jackets here, what am I supposed to do?”

In a situation room, Abner rages while Reinhardt and other officers listen in. Abner, “I don’t understand this! How could all of these bombs have gone off at once?” Reinhardt, “Sir, you’ve been in the army long enough, I’m sure you know how detonation signals work.” Abner, “Shut the fuck up, Reinhardt. I’m the fucking king and I deserve your respect.” Reinhardt, “My sincerest apologies, sir.” An aide comes in, “Sir, Police captains are reporting that AFG soldiers and medics are showing up at the bombing scenes as first responders. They want to know what to do.” Abner, “Arrest them!” Reinhardt, “Seriously?” Abner, “I told you to shut up!” Reinhardt, “Well, pardon me for speaking up sir, but arresting medics who are trying to help after a major attack is a stupid fucking idea. The public already hates you, do you really want to piss them off more?” Abner, “Arrest anyone in an AFG jacket!”

Cameron, Beth, and Yuri continue to help people. A police officer comes up and grabs Cameron, “You’re under arrest.” Cameron, “Let me finish wrapping this bandage!” Yuri stands up and goes over to the officer, “What the fuck?!” Officer, “I have orders to arrest anyone in an AFG jacket!” Yuri punches the officer. Beth pulls her phone out and starts recording. Yuri, “Go back to helping people, Cameron.” Other officers come up and grab Cameron, Yuri, and Beth. Yuri yells at the top of his lungs, “WE’RE JUST TRYING TO HELP AND YOU’RE ARRESTING US! ARE YOU PISSED BECAUSE WE’RE DOING YOUR FUCKING JOBS FOR YOU?! WE’RE JUST TRYING TO HELP!” A crowd stops to form. People step in between the police and their squad car. The officer who has Yuri, “Get out of the way, or you’ll be under arrest, too!” Yuri, “A bomb just went off and you’re gonna fucking arrest everyone here!” Officer, “Shut the fuck up!” One of the onlookers in front of the squad car goes up to the officer and punches him. A brawl breaks out. Cameron and Beth slip away, and go back to the people they were helping.

At a safehouse, Dr. Alves examines David’s hand, which is swollen and bruised. Abby sits next to them. The cut on his face is held together with a butterfly bandage. David winces, “Ah!” Alves, “Did you feel anything snap?” David, “I might have. I dunno. I was punching Amal pretty hard.” Alves, “Can you move your pinkie?” David tries, but grimaces, “Ah! No.” Alves, “Looks like your small metacarpal is broken. We call it a boxer’s fracture, happens when you punch shit too hard. You’re gonna be in a cast for six to eight weeks.” David, “I can’t do that, I still have to fight Abner.” Alves, “Find someone else to do it, or wait six to eight weeks, because otherwise your hand is gonna be permanently fucked.” David, “All right, fine.” Alves, “I’ll get you in a splint, then.” David, “Shit.” Alves leaves. Abby, “So what are we supposed to do, David?” David, “Do about what?” Abby, “About the fact that there’s a warehouse full of dead Amalekites that’s going to start smelling in a day or two.” David, “Fuck if I know. You’re the diplomat. How many people are dead?” Abby, “It’s too early to tell, but, at least 30 bombs went off.” David, “Are you fucking serious?” Abby, “I wish I wasn’t.” David, “It’s all my fault.” Abby, “No, it’s not. Alek Amal set those bombs off, you had nothing to do with it.” David, “I kind of did have something to do with it. We might as well make a statement and acknowledge everything. There’s no use trying to hide or deny it. Just stick to the facts of what happened, I guess.” Abby, “That makes sense. I’ll put something together.”

Abner watches video of Yuri being arrested, and the ensuing fight. Beside him, Reinhardt, “Not to be an asshole, but I told you this would happen.” Abner, “How many arrests have been made?” Reinhardt looks at his tablet, “Uh…. five, it looks like.” Abner, “What? That makes no fucking sense. Thirty bombs went off, and AFG was at every one of them. I gave a blanket arrest order. Did the entire police force ignore it?” Reinhardt, “I can’t tell you, sir. But I think in an emergency situation, a good police officer will put his focus on helping those in need rather than making arrests.” Abner gets up without saying anything. Reinhardt, “Sir, where are you going?” Abner, “Go home for the evening, Reinhardt. Get a good night’s sleep. We’ll clean up all this shit tomorrow. I need to visit someone.”

David sits with Shay, Joel, and Isaiah. Joel reads his phone, “There were some fights, but we had civilians coming to the AFG’s defense. This means people are on our side.” David, “Tomorrow, people are going to find out that the bombs went off when I killed Amal. They’re going to find out that this is my fault.” Shay, “It’s not your fault, how many times do I have to tell you that?” David, “It is my fucking fault.” Isaiah, “I’m gonna keep working on my drone. The best thing we can do right now is to just do what we’ve always done, and keep moving.” David, “Yeah, guess so.” Joel looks at David’s new cast, “Hey, can we sign that thing?” David, “No dicks.” Joel, “What’s the point of signing a cast if you don’t draw dicks on it?”

In his cell, Vesper works on his translations. Abner enters. Vesper looks up and sees him, “Good to see you again.” Abner sits down across from him, “When Silas would visit you, what did you two talk about?” Vesper, “This and that. The ordeals of being king, mostly. Perhaps a bit about theology. We played quite a few games of chess. Care for a game?” Abner, “Fine.” Vesper, “I’ll let you play white. You can make the first move.” Abner thinks for a moment, and moves a pawn. Vesper, “Are you an experienced player?” Abner, “Not especially.” Vesper, “Then I’ll go easy on you.” He moves a pawn. Abner thinks and then makes another move, “Today, I fucked up and made the AFG look good and myself look worse. I keep trying to do what I think Silas would do, but I can’t quite seem to get it right.” Vesper, “Are you asking me how Silas would take out Shepherd? Because it seems to me that he failed at that objective. Maybe that’s why you’re failing, too,” he makes a move, “Silas was an aggressive player, always brought his queen out too early. It took him a while, but, slowly, he learned the value of patience, and making a strategy. He learned when to sacrifice his pieces and when to protect them.” Abner, “Is there some sort of metaphor here?” Vesper, “In chess, you don’t win by eliminating all the other player’s pieces. You win by making their king unable to move.” Abner, “So are you saying all I have to do is trap Shepherd?” Vesper, “Chess is just a game, Linus. Never mistake a game for real life.”

Nighttime, David lies awake. He gets out of bed and puts his pants on. He leaves the bedroom and wanders out into the living room. Beth sits out on the sofa, watching the news with the sound off and closed captions on. She wears a tiny, tight t-shirt and a pair of boy-cut panties. David, “Hi.” Beth looks up, “Oh, hi. I was just watching the news. I’m kind of surprised because there’s no mention of Amal being killed. I mean, I guess that takes second place to the bombings, but, still, you think they’d at least mention it.” David, “Saving that announcement for tomorrow,” he sits down on the sofa, “I thought I’d end today celebrating the end of the Amalekites. Instead, I’ve got my hand in a cast for six to eight weeks.” He raises his case. Beth, “Can I sign it?” David, “Sure. I don’t know where the pens are…” Beth goes over to a desk and opens a drawer, “Here.” She goes over to David, and gently touches his arm. Their faces almost touch. David raises the cast. One of the signatures, “Love, Abby” has a vagina drawn next to it. Beth, “Is that a vagina?” David, “I said no dicks.” Beth laughs, “You should have said no genitalia.” She signs his cast, “There. Nothing obscene, just my name.” David, “Thanks.” Beth stays close to David, and lowers her voice, “You were really amazing today. I mean it. Alek Amal, he’s fucking terrifying, or, thanks to you, he was. If I were in the same room with him, I would have just panicked. You ran straight to him and beat the shit out of him. That’s incredible.” David, “He made me angry.” Beth breathes heavily and looks into David’s eyes, and he looks back at her. Cut to: (“Desire” Meg Myers) David and Beth passionately make out on the couch, and rip their clothes off. A condom wrapper falls to the floor. They fuck with raw intensity. Beth claws at David’s back, and he bites her lip. She moans with pleasure, and David gasps as he comes. For a moment, he lies on top of her, panting. He opens his eyes and looks at her. She smiles at him, satisfied. David gets to his feet, “This isn’t going to happen again!” He grabs his clothes and walks off, leaving Beth confused.

#Kings