#‘different galaxies? fine. we’ll make the universe bigger’

[lilmeowmeowsagelesath]

THE ONLY MAN EVER !!!!!! 💕💖💞💗💖💕

#‘different galaxies? fine. we’ll make the universe bigger’ #what the fuck!! #get yourself a man like this #if he’s not like this i don’t want him #this entire scene hurted but he made it all better i love him sm #i thought i spent 142 diamonds just for pain 😭🤧😭 #also lowkey mad lou was stuck in this fugly outfit & wrong hair for this because it wouldn’t let me into the closet </3 #ivo martin #psi #romance club #mine

[friendship-ended-with-pokespe]

Kirby and the Great Adventure of Planet Robobot! Chapter 6

Having crashed through the glass window and thrown outside, Mecha knight was lying down on the cold ground. Just then: “Lord Meta Knight!!!” Someone rushes over to him as they shout. They are his loyal men, Captain Vul and the Meta Knights.

They crowd around Meta Knight and speak all at once. “Lord Meta Knight! Sir!” “Please pull yourself together!” “It’s alright. He’s only knocked out.” Captain Vul carried Mecha Knight up and groaned. “His whole body is remodeled......even a mind controller is implanted on him......that blasted Haltmann company, how insolent could they be to him!!” “His whole body remodeled? Mind controller? What do you mean by that?” “Does that mean that our lord has become a different person!?” The Meta Knights clamors in a worried manner. Captain Vul shook his head. “No, he’s only equipped with various parts and armors. Mind controller is a frightening device that controls one’s mind, but......it’s fine, he’ll return to normal if we remove them all.” “Then let’s hurry up and take them off!” “Not here. At any rate, we should carry him to a safe location.” Captain Vul and the Meta Knights withdrew while guarding Meta Knight.

“M-Mr. Haltmann! Sir!” Susie looks at the man sitting in the chair and draws back. The man shifted his focus to Kirby and said in a mocking manner. “Hello. I must thank you for looking after my secretary.” Carrying the man, the chair floated in midair and glided over to Kirby. The man looked down at his secretary with a cold look. “Susie, dismissed. You’re done here.” “Wha......sir......erm......!” Susie tried to make an excuse, but the man told her sharply. “You may step down now.” “............Yes, sir.” Susie nodded and backed down. The man turned back to Kirby. “Ah...ahem. As the president of the Haltmann Works Company, I am President Haltmann...the chief executive who is at the top.” “I’m Kirby.” Kirby gave his name, where Haltmann gave a laugh as though looking down on him. “Your name matters not, native pink thing......take a look at this.” Haltmann clapped his hands. As if taking it as a cue, the president’s office made a noise and split in two. Kirby jumped down. What rose from below was something curious that was never seen before. It is a large white cylinder. It has ornaments resembling wings and intricate patterns stand out against its surface. A yellow stone was embedded in the upper part of the cylinder, where it seemed just like an eye. “Absolutely incredible. Indeed. It’s truly marvelous!” Murmured Haltmann in an enraptured voice and slid his chair. “We have unveiled the most advanced civilization in the known galaxy. And with it, we have reactivated this...the Mother Computer...Star Dream.”

Kirby looked at the white cylinder. The Mother Computer......Star Dream......just saying that doesn’t give a clue of what it is. Like Mecha Knight and Clone Dedede, is this also a living thing that became a pawn of the Haltmann Works Company......? Kirby scurried right before the Star Dream. “Hello......” He looked up at the yellow stone resembling an eye and greeted it, but there was no response. His eyes wide open, Haltmann slammed the armrest of his chair and burst into a laugher. “Wahahaha! Hello, eh? Good one! Hello! What a blunder!” “......?” “Pink native thing, does this great Mother Computer look like a living creature to you? What a blunder......it is a great blunder!” But it’s not that funny, thought Kirby, as he stared at Haltmann. Haltmann stopped laughing and looked at Kirby with pitying eyes. “The Mother Computer is no living creature. It is far greater, brilliant, all-powerful, and indestructive......” Haltmann went on and on with strong words, but saw how Kirby wasn’t even the slightest impressed and suddenly became cross. “It suppose there is no use explaining it to you...ah...allow me to elaborate.” Haltmann raised his eyes in an irritated manner. “In compliance with the perfect business plan drafted by Star Dream...” Something came down from the ceiling with a noise. It is an armor shining in gold-color. It was far bigger and stronger-looking than the regular Invader Armors and the executive-use armor Business Suit. “T-That’s......!” Director Kane cowers in fear and shouts. “It’s Executive Suit, the armor exclusive to the CEO! Our company’s strongest armor has been unveiled at last!” “Effective today, you are...” Scowling at Kirby, Haltmann rose up with his chair and sat on Executive Suit’s pilot seat. “Terminated!” Haltmann laughed out loud and began attacking at once. He jumps up high and tries to crush Kirby. Kirby ran away by teleporting and tried to produce an orb of light through psychokinesis. “Haaaaaa!!!” ESP ability cannot be used unless he concentrates his consciousness. But Executive Suit’s movements were swift and gave Kirby no time to concentrate. “Wahahaha!!! It’s no use, I say! Such a primitive attack would never work on my strongest armor!” He launches missiles as he laughs. It’s power is incomparable to the attacks from Invader Armor and Business Suit. “Wah,” Kirby dropped his offensive stance in a hurry and guarded in desperation. Several missiles were repelled and were rebounded to Executive Suit. “PK Insight, once again! It’s the pink native’s counterattack!” But Kirby also cannot come out unscathed. Struck by the series of missiles, the barrier broke at last. Kirby slammed against the wall, directly hit by the missiles. “Kirby!” Shrieks Waddle Dee. His Copy Ability was removed from the impact just now. NESP the Psychic tumbled out. “Hmm? Where would this be? What have I been doing......?” To NESP looking around, the missiles fired by Executive Suit were about to strike at him. “Aahh!? Watch out! I better disperse!” NESP was seized with fear and vanished by teleporting. Director Kane shouts. “Ahh, NESP disappeared! The pink native can’t use his power anymore! He’s in a huge pinch! What should he do!?” Haltmann laughs in triumph. “Be annihilated, pink native thing! This is the end for you!” Executive Suit began spinning in high speed. It charges at Kirby who is staggering. Kirby can’t use a Copy Ability now. Unable to teleport, he avoided barely by rolling. “Wahaha! It’s no use, you! Just stay still and be terminated!” Executive Suit changed its direction. Director Kane raised his voice. “The pink native has neither stamina nor a weapon! Is this the end for him!???” -At that moment: Waddle Dee shouts. “Kirby! This!” “......Huh?” “Use this!” What Waddle Dee threw was: King Dedede’s hammer. Kirby caught the large hammer. As soon as he clasped the handle, power surged through the worn-out Kirby’s whole body. As if the heart of King Dedede buried in the debris was conveyed to him. King Dedede isn’t the only one. Meta Knight whose whole body was remodeled......and the mechanized inhabitants of Popstar. Everyone’s heart and intense rage flows within Kirby through the king’s hammer. The hammer was engulfed by a bright red flame. “You are finished!!” To Executive Suit with increased number of rotation, Kirby readied the hammer clad in flame and faced him. He raises the large hammer with ease and glares at Haltmann. Executive Suit whirls and charges at him. Kirby didn’t flee. He slammed the hammer against Executive Suit’s body. The mighty killer move, Hammer Flip!

Two incredible powers collided with flying sparks. Executive Suit and Kirby both stopped moving for a moment. The next moment: Executive Suit was the one that was blown away.

Where Meta Knight opened his eyes was on a bed in a clean room surrounded by pure white walls. Seeing Meta Knight opening his eyes slowly, Javelin Knight was the first to shout out in joy. “Ah! Lord Meta Knight! He’s opened his eyes!” “Keep quiet.” Cautioned Captain Vul and looked into his mask. “How do you feel, my liege?” “......Captain Vul......where am I?” “Relax, sir. You’re in our hideout.” Captain Vul was overcome with joy and answered in tears. “My lord was captured by the lot from the Haltmann company, where your whole body has been remodeled. But we removed all the armors and parts. Now there’s nothing to worry, sir!” “I......see. I was a burden to you all. I’m glad that you all are alright.” “Wahaha! Such a trifling attack means nothing to the Battleship Halberd.” Captain Vul laughed intrepidly and threw out his chest. “We pretended that it went ka-boom and carried it to this hideout in secret. We repaired all the broken parts under my command!” “All he did was slack off. We were the ones that repaired the Halberd.” Tattled the Meta Knights, where Captain Vul got in a flap. “SHHHHHHHHHH! You’re talking too much!” “It’s the truth~.” Hearing the voice of his subordinates who haven’t been lively in a long while, Meta Knight sighed in relief and rose up with energy. “Ah, my lord. It would be better for you to rest for now......” “I don’t need no rest. Captain, can the Halberd sally out?” “Certainly, but......sir, you wouldn't mean from here right away......?” “Aye, we’ll sally forth. We must aid Kirby. What’s more......” Meta Knight’s voice became stern “I have an obligation to return the favor. I’ll have them regret making light of me.” “......Yes, sir!” Captain Vul and the Meta Knights straightened themselves and headed to their respective stations.

“He did it!” Waddle Dee hopped up and down. Director Kane jumped up as well in an enraptured manner. “H-H-Holy guacamoleee! It’s the pink native’s win! The Executive Suit has loooost!” Together with his chair, Haltmann was thrown out and fell limply. “Ugh...” A groan is heard. Kirby approached him, where Haltmann raised himself on the chair. His face is bright red from his anger. Haltmann scowled at Kirby with his light blue eyes and slammed the armrest of his chair several times. “Blasted vulgar native! Savages! Savages! Savages! Savages! You are all wild savages!” His chair rose up. It reached all the way to the ceiling and Haltmann said as though cursing him. “No more mercy!” His chair glided in the air and stopped above that strange white cylinder. “Using Star Dream, the greatest machine in this universe...” Jumping down from his chair, Haltmann positioned himself in a narrow space on the upper part of the white cylinder He pressed the buttons on the panel, and an odd device resembling a hat made of metal appeared. “I’ll have you natives be...eradicated!!” Screams Haltmann, and was about to put on the device that appeared. Then-at that moment: Jumping out from the side, a figure snatched the device from Haltmann and landed on the floor. “Whooaa!?” Yells Haltmann. Standing with the device held is-believe it or not, the Executive Assistant Susie!

“You! Susie! What did you......!?” Haltmann’s state changed. His voice quavered, and his head began jolting left and right. “I...I can’t...cont...rol...” Haltmann hung his head and lost his consciousness. Something dropped from the pocket in his suit. With clunk, it fell to the floor and rolled to Waddle Dee’s feet. No one in the area paid attention to the small object that dropped. Only Waddle Dee noticed, and he picked it up with a look of amazement. “It's a gold and pretty......watch......” It is a pocket watch. You can tell that it was cherished very dearly from the careful polishing. He wanted to give it back, but Haltmann was knocked unconscious. Waddle Dee grasped the watch tightly and took cover alongside the wall. “Yippee!” Meanwhile, holding the device in her hand, Susie looked up at Haltmann and grinned with satisfaction. “I didn’t think my opportunity would come this quickly! I’ll be taking Star Dream, Mr. President. I’ll palm it off to some other company.” “H......Holy moly......!” Director Kane collapsed down from the shock. “Are you telling me that Ms. Secretary has betrayed us!? She stole the program controller for Star Dream from the president!” “Heh, how did I look just now?” Susie made a post and looked at Kirby. “Like a cool corporate spy, don’t you think? ......You probably have no idea what I’m saying......whatever. The program controller is all I need......” Susie held the controller with both her hands and raised it high. “Well, Star Dream! Your entire database will soon be mine!” Susie put on the controller. A yellow stone embedded in the center of the controller began shining. As if in response, the same stone embedded in Star Dream glowed as well. Star Dream began operating. Its yellow stone shone strongly, where it rumbled and beams like lightning were fired. “Huh? W-What? What did it set off......” An arrow of light struck Susie in confusion. “KYAAAAA!!!” Screamed Susie and collapsed. Kirby ran up to her in surprise. “Susie? Are you alright!?” “Ma’am!? Yells Director Kane as well, but cannot move in fear of Star Dream’s power. A monotone voice resounds throughout the room. “Ah......m......y name is......” Kirby raised his face. Whose voice is that? Where is it coming from......? “The Mother......Computer......“Star Dream”......” Kirby shifted his focus to Star Dream. Haltmann was the one talking. But it felt off. His eyes are without light like when he lost consciousness just now. And yet his voice comes out. “No......am I Haltmann......? It matters little at this point......I suppose......?” Haltmann raised his one hand and clumsily and cleared his throat. “Ah......a......hem......through...this body...I have studied...all forms of life...” “M-My word......” Moans Director Kane. “The Mother Computer has taken over his consciousness......Star Dream is talking through the president’s throat!” Star Dream continued. “For the prosperity of the company...which is the “wish”...imperfect, fragile...life-forms...are deemed unnecessary...” “............?” Kirby could understand neither what was happening nor what Star Dream was talking about. He could understand just one thing. He could feel exceedingly strong, cold, and inhumane intent from the words of Star Dream. “Therefore, from this moment on...let us declare the end of history...perish...for the eternal prosperity of the company...” Finishing his word, Haltmann hung his head a second time. The ceiling began to open simultaneously with a loud noise. The floor began vibrating, where Star rose from its platform with a thunderous roar. Continuing to ascend just like that, it flies out through a hole that opened on the ceiling. It heads toward the sky twinkling with stars. Star Dream disappeared, and silence came over the office. “......How did it end up like this......” Susie was the one to mutter. “......This is nothing to laugh about.” Susie rose up and turned her head to Director Kane. “Director Kane, among the Invader Armors in Access Star, get the newest and the strongest one ready.” “Aye......aye......uhh?” “Hurry up!” “Y-Yes, ma’am!” Director Kane jumped up and darted out of the president’s office. An Invader Armor was brought in before long. Director Kane explained. “This one’s the latest model that was just developed. Compared to the older Invader Armors, it’s way, way more powerful, and has added destructive power, although......” Director Kane added, as if feeling it as a waste. “Since it’s the latest model, this is the only one for now. It’d be troublesome if it isn’t treated carefully......I would prefer it not to be sent into combat if possible......” “Quit prattling! This isn’t the time for that.” Said Susie, and stepped up to Invader Armor. “......All I wanted was to......steal Star Dream, teach that old man a lesson, and have him open his eyes. And for all that......” Susie cast her eyes down with a regretful look. “I can’t stand here and be destroyed by that crazy machine!” Susie raised her face and turned around. There was no grief on her face anymore. “There, get in, pink native. With this armor, hurry up and......” Susie tapped Invader Armor lightly. “Destroy that machine ASAP!!” “Gotcha!” Nodded Kirby and jumped on Invader Armor. Invader Armor instantly reacted to Kirby and turned pink. Director Kane yells. “Ohhh, Invader Armor has transformed into Robobot Armor! He’ll be able to change into a more powerful mode by using Ability Scan!” Kirby looked at Director Kane. Turning pale suddenly, Director Kane shook his hands and stepped back. “N-No, please don’t scan me......I understand that you would want to scan me, with how my abilities are very high and my looks are very beautiful......but, but, not me......!” “Kirby, you would need a power to fly in the sky to go after it.” Said Waddle Dee. “It’d be nice if you could scan Jet, or......” It was at that moment. A large figure traversed outside the window. Kirby and Waddle Dee yells at the same time. “It’s Halberd!” Susie ran up to the window. “The Battleship Halberd? You wouldn't say......didn’t it crash......?” A figure was in the deck of the Halberd. Kirby strained his eyes and shouted in joy. “That’s Meta Knight! He returned back to normal!” Meta Knight looked at Kirby. His eyes met Kirby’s, and Meta Knight nodded firmly. “Alrighty......!” Robobot Armor began running, where it smashed the glass window and jumped outside. “Kirby!? What are you trying to......?” Yells Waddle Dee. Robobot Armor activated its scanning system as it flew in the air. The beam emitted from the part of its stomach heads toward the Halberd. At that moment, the enormous Halberd disappeared. “DO-DO-DO-DON’T TELL ME!? HE’S TRYING TO SCAN THAT BATTLESHIP!!??” Director Kane became excited and leapt up several times. “What a fearsome bold strategy! Is that really possibleeee!?” As they watched, Robobot Armor began transforming before their eyes. Its arms and legs are folded up and its body expands rapidly to an enormous size. It turned into a pink battleship in an instant. It is equipped with beautiful wings similar to Halberd.

Waddle Dee gasped. Even the overly talkative Director Kane is trembling, unable to say anything. Susie stood by the window and stared at the battleship in an enthralled manner. Having transformed into the final weapon, Halberd Mode, Robobot Armor drifts through space with ease. By now, Kirby was unable to be seen, having fully combined with the battleship. However, a warm strong will could be felt, even when it should have turned into a cold battleship. Kirby’s strong feelings of wanting to return Popstar back to normal and save everyone seemed to be flowing out from the battleship. “Please...Kirby of the Stars.” Susie clasped both her hands together firmly. Her voice was devoid of her unusual impertinence and was earnest in a hopeful manner. “You have to...you have to stop it...!” As though her voice reached it, the battleship lowered its bow slightly and began turning slowly. Its target is the Mother Computer Star Dream. The pink enormous battleship sped up rapidly in pursuit of the enemy.

The president’s office of Access Ark fell quiet suddenly. Susie falls limp and is plops down by the window. Even the boisterous Director Kane said no more and was sitting in the corner of the room away from Susie. Waddle Dee was walking about on pins and needles, but- Heard Director Kane muttering in a low voice and drew closer to him. “Good heavens......how did this become like this......” The Director is whispering in a voice hard to make out. Waddle Dee sat next to him. Director Kane doesn’t really seem reliable, but it felt more at ease than being near Susie. Noticing Waddle Dee, Director Kane said after coughing once. “I wonder what happened to the president......will he be able to save him......” “......Beats me......” “You see, the president is......a very splendid person......he’s my aspiration......being very skilled, rich, and zealous of his work.” “......” Waddle Dee looked the other way. He may look splendid to Director Kane, but he’s a detestable enemy as far as Waddle Dee is concerned. He can’t possibly imagine a guy that would destroy Castle Dedede and turn Dream Land into a mess as splendid. Director Kane sighed deeply. “......He wasn't like that long ago......” “......” “He was fervent in his work, but wasn’t coercive like now......he was very kind.” “......” “It’s because that happened......the president changed......ahh......if only that......didn’t happen......” His meaningful remark drew Waddle Dee’s interest. Director Kane moved closer to Waddle Dee’s face. “Wanna hear? You probably do......your face tells me that you can’t help but want to hear!” “......Uhh, not really.” “It can’t be helped if you want to hear that badly......I’ll share it with you......” Director Kane lowered his voice and whispered. “Long ago, President Haltmann had a precious family......” “......A family?” “Yup. But his dear, dear daughter was dragged into an accident one day......when we were testing the Mother Computer’s boot up......” “Huh......? An accident......”” “Right. His young daughter was unfortunately blown to a different dimension and went missing. Based on the Mother Computer’s calculations, the chance of his daughter’s survival was 0.01 percent......” “So......” “It was very near to zero......simply put, hopeless. But the president couldn’t give up......he wanted to save his daughter, putting his hope on the mere 0.01 percent......” Waddle Dee was shocked. Such a thing happened to that president whose cruelty knows no limits...... “It was from then on......his work was all that the president concerned himself with......he became engrossed with the Mother Computer......and would trust every decision the Mother Computer made......” “......Why?” “Beats me......I have no clue......” Director Kane shook his head. “If it’s the Mother Computer, it might be able to grant his 0.01 percent wish......he might be able to meet his daughter once again......wouldn’t he have thought like that......the Mother Computer is almighty after all......” “......” “But it was too almighty......the president kept succeeding in his work, rose to the top......where he would listen only to what the Mother Computer says, and probably......forgot both his original goal and his daughter completely......” “......” “In the end, his consciousness is taken over by the Mother Computer......something like that......is nothing to scoff at......Ms. Secretary is right. This is no laughing matter......” Waddle Dee thought of the gold pocket watch that he picked up earlier. Could that......perhaps be in memory of his daughter? Was that why he polished it cleanly and cherished it dearly......? “I really should give it back to him.” Waddle Dee said to himself. “Hmm? You said something?” “It’s nothing.” Waddle Dee bounced to his feet and left Director Kane. He understands neither the president’s past nor about this daughter. Right now, there is just one thing he could do. It was to pray that Kirby comes back safely.

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Table of contents

#kirby novels #kirby of the stars #light novel #translation #kirby #waddle dee #meta knight #planet robobot #susanna patrya haltmann #president haltmann #star dream #meta knights #captain vul #kirby planet robobot

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Anidala Week Day 2: Canon Divergence

(Canon Divergence is pretty much all I do. So here’s a thing loosely set in the universe I play around in anyway. :) )

To save the Republic(’s approval ratings), Anakin and Padme have to get married. 

Again.

“I’m not saying you have to.” 

Padme lifts an unimpressed eyebrow at her friend, crossing her arms. “But you’re saying we should.” 

“It wouldn’t hurt,” Bail shrugs. As head of the Chancellatory committee, he’s had a lot of work to do, and not much of it makes him popular with anyone. “You can’t argue that there’s been a lot of distrust between the people and the Jedi Order...and the Senate and the Jedi Order...and the Jedi Order and the Jedi Order. It would make them seem like they could be normal people.” 

“They’re not normal people,” Padme points out, taking a seat in Bail’s office. It feels strange to be able to move around again without feeling like there are two bowling balls in her stomach. Though she misses her babies terribly when she’s not with them at home, she’s glad for the freedom that not being pregnant gives her. “They’re Jedi. That’s always been the point.” 

“A point that isn’t working anymore,” Bail tells her. “Obi-Wan being on the committee is a good start for repairing relations between the Jedi and the Senate, but a public display would make a bigger impression on the people of the Republic.” 

“Bail, Anakin and I are already married,” Padme argues. “We’ve been married for years, and now we’re parents, and Anakin is still recovering from that fight with Palpetine. Between those things and my work, we don’t have the time.” 

“So hire a wedding planner,” Bail shrugs. “Look, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from being married to the Queen of Alderaan, it’s that sometimes you do stupid, ridiculous things to make your people happy.” 

“And you think that the stupid, ridiculous thing that I should do is have a very large, very expensive, very public wedding to the man I’m already married to, to show the people of the Republic that we’re all playing nice together,” Padme surmises. 

“Exactly.” Bail sighs softly. “You’ve already had the intimate wedding you wanted to have.” 

Padme huffs to herself. It hadn’t quite been what she’d always dreamed of, but…

“And the Senate and Jedi approval ratings are quite literally circling the drain,” Bail goes on. “If we’re not careful, all of us will lose our upcoming elections, which means that all the work we’ve done here so far has the potential to be completely undone. And a vote to remove the Jedi from government oversight wouldn’t be far behind, which means they would lose government support and funding. We have to at least try to give the people some sort of hope. Some sort of positive display that will restore their faith in the idea that we can all work together to clean up this terrible mess. And yes, a wedding is hokey. It’s obvious, it’s clearly a ploy. But it will be a popular ploy. Anakin is the most successful Jedi General of the Clone Wars; he rooted out the Sith Lord in our midst, and you are one of the most popular Senators among us. The people adore you. This is a PR goldmine.” 

“It’s my life,” Padme reminds him. “One that, up until a month ago, was very private.” 

“Well, you’re our only choice,” Bail says, sympathetically. “I’d ask Obi-Wan, but Jinn is already a year old, and no one likes Satine. Hell, they don’t even like Obi-Wan anymore, now that he’s on the committee instead of leading an army.” 

“Not that he cares, which he shouldn’t,” Padme mutters. “He’s here to advise us. Not win popularity contests.” 

“We work in politics, remember? It’s all a popularity contest.” 

Padme sighs heavily. “So. I’m getting married. Again.” 

Bail smiles at her. “Congratulations.” 

***** 

Anakin is visibly confused when she gets home that night. “What was wrong with our wedding?” 

“Nothing,” Padme tells him quickly, taking his hands. “Our wedding was wonderful and beautiful. I got to wear my dream dress and you were so handsome, and sweet, and it was just for us. But…” 

Anakin waits for her, still frowning. “But?” 

“But...this...isn’t about us,” Padme goes on. “This is about restoring the faith of the people of the Republic. Of showing them that there is unity between the Senate and the Jedi.” 

“There isn’t,” Anakin points out. “In fact, all there has been is finger pointing over who missed what sign that things were terrible. Mace got angry. I’ve never seen Mace angry. I thought he was going to slice off the heads of the entire committee. Including Obi-Wan.” 

“Well, that was a bad day at work.” 

“Angel, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they’ve all been bad days at work.” 

“Which is why we need to do this.” 

Anakin sighs softly. “So you want us to get married again. In front of the entire galaxy.” 

“It’ll be fun,” Padme insists. “We’ll get dressed up, we’ll eat cake...and we only got one night of a honeymoon, maybe we could take longer this time.” 

“Between twin infants and your work schedule?” 

“Why are you making this difficult?” Padme asks, starting to lose her patience. 

Anakin pauses for a moment before speaking up. “Because our wedding, however small...however brief, was special to me. It was the most important day of my life, right along with the day the kids were born. I don’t need or want a do-over.”

Her heart melts as she sees the sincerity in his eyes. “Oh, Ani.” 

He takes a breath and grins sheepishly. “Alright. Okay. If us re-getting-married is going to be the thing that unites everyone and brings peace to the galaxy, who am I to argue?” A rush of relief washes over her as she throws her arms around him. “Thank you. I promise I will make this as painless as possible.” ***** It is not painless. It is weeks of planning. Robe and gown fittings. Of tastings and flower arrangements and guest lists. “Well, the Council has agreed to come.” Anakin blinks owlishly. Padme sighs, a touch exasperated. “Ani, the entire point of this is to show unity between the Jedi and the Senate. I spoke with the Council last week, and they’ve agreed that they, along with other key members of the order will be there.” Anakin shakes his head as he changes Luke’s diaper, playing with his son’s feet absently. “Whatever you say, Angel.” “I know your relationship with them is a little strained…” “Yes.” Padme deflates a little, knowing that it’s taken a long time for Anakin to heal from his fight with Sidious, and that the Council nearly threw him out of the order anyway, for his marriage and children. “I should have spoken to you about this first. I thought you knew.” “It’s fine,” Anakin tells her. He takes a deep breath and turns to her. “After all, this isn't for us. This is for the Galaxy, right?” She nods, pursing her lips, and staying quiet. “And as long as I get to have Rex and the 501st there, it’s fine,” he says. It’s Padme’s turn to blink owlishly. “...Oh.” Anakin narrows his eyes. “You did invite my men to our wedding, didn’t you?” “I...may have...forgotten?” Before he can get truly upset, she holds up her hands. “I will fix this, right away, I promise, Anakin.” As she rushes out the door, she hears him call back “Invite the 212th, too!” Padme closes her eyes and takes a deep, cleansing breath. Between her work schedule, and this wedding planning, and trying to fit in Anakin and their children, her life has been a mess. Her husband has been a complete saint through most of this, taking care of the children, and putting quite a few of his Jedi responsibilities on hold, it’s hard to be mad at him when he acts like a bantha brain. But she will be completely glad when this is all over. ***** The day arrives without much fanfare. Since the ceremony is at night, (Mace Windu had been adamant about “On the steps of the Temple. The Senate needs to show it’s willing to actually meet the Jedi halfway, since we’re always coming to you.”), they have time for a quiet morning together. Padme feeds the twins as Anakin makes them breakfast, and she sighs contentedly as she listens to the nuna bacon fry under Anakin’s soft humming. “I want this forever,” she says wistfully, as she cuddles Leia. Anakin turns to her, cracking a grin. “Good thing we’re already married.” ***** It goes by much quicker than Padme had thought it would. Jar Jar performs the ceremony, which is strange, but it feels fitting, since he was there when they first met as children, and before they know it, he’s saying “I’sa now pronouncin’ you, husband and wife! Kiss her, Ani!” And Anakin does, tugging her close and kissing her eagerly, as if he’s been waiting to do this in front of the Senate and the Council and the Galaxy for years. He probably has, Padme thinks as she wraps her around around his neck, smiling against his lips. ***** The reception is enormous, and loud, and busy, and Padme is being pulled in all different directions, to be congratulated and kissed on the cheek and hugged, and the longer the party goes on, the drunker everyone seems to get. She knows she should be having a good time, but mostly, she wishes that she could have gone with Dorme and the twins back to their apartment. She would love to get out of this tight gown and rock her babies to sleep and then get a little work down before curling up with Anakin in bed. Padme supposes that she can do that tomorrow night. It takes her a while to find Anakin. They keep getting separated in all of the chaotic revelry, but she eventually finds him at a corner table with Rex, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Satine and Cody, watching all the party while nursing a drink. He beams at her when he sees her and when she gets close enough, he takes her hand and gently pulls her down onto his lap. “There you are.” Padme wraps her arms around his neck and instantly relaxes, surrounded by the people she knows well, a port in a storm. “I was busy making the rounds. Which you should be doing.” “Eh. Everybody knows where I am,” he shrugs, grinning at her. “Besides, nobody cares about the groom at a wedding. It’s all about the bride.” “I’d say congratulations, but since you’ve been married for years, it feels a bit silly,” Satine teases. “You said it,” Ahsoka pipes up. “I should have been in on that particular secret, by the way.” “No one was in on it,” Obi-Wan grouses. ‘Not even I knew.” “Er,” Rex says awkwardly. “Rex knew?!” Ahsoka cries. “Rex knew and I didn’t?!” “He didn’t know we were married,” Anakin snaps. “Just that we were together. And...talking regularly over holo comm during the war. That’s all.” “That’s all,” Obi-Wan rolls his eyes. “How are you any better?” Anakin asks, bewildered. “Jinn is a year older than the twins. I had no idea you and Satine were still seeing each other. You hid your baby from me, Ahsoka, and the Council for an entire year.” “We were at war!” “Hey, no fighting,” Ahsoka cuts in. “We don’t fight at weddings.” “We were already married,” Anakin points out. “And our first wedding was better.” Padme smiles and kisses Anakin’s temple. ***** When they finally make it home, it’s incredibly late. Anakin goes to check on the twins, who are fast asleep, and Padme closes the door to the guest room that Dorme is sleeping in, so as not to disturb her. She sighs softly and turns to Anakin, taking his hands. “Thank you, Ani. I know this wasn’t really what you wanted. But I appreciate that you went through with it.” “Well, now that it’s over, we can get back to some semblance of normalcy,” he says, kissing the top of her head. “Maybe we could take the twins to the park tomorrow.” She smiles and closes her eyes, pulling him close. “Yes. Let’s do that.”

#anidalaweek2020 #fic #au #anidala #padme amidala #anaikin skywalker

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #472

Top Ten Suggestions for Future Star Wars Games

Concluding an accidental trilogy of Top Ten lists that feature the word “Star”, here we journey back to a galaxy far, far away. This is also one of those lists that’s been bubbling under for quite a while, since the announcement (feels like ages ago now) that Disney have shopped the Star Wars licence around to a number of developers, and we’ll get future games from companies other than EA. But really it goes back even further, because for me Star Wars and gaming are inexorably linked. I associate my teenage PC gaming phase very closely with Star Wars, because it occurred in the mid-nineties, when Star Wars games were truly ascendent. In a run that I would argue stretched from the release of X-Wing in 1993, right through to Knights of the Old Republic in 2003, it felt like just about every genre was getting a nod from the House of Skywalker, and generally speaking the games were excellent. This time also saw the resurgence of Star Wars as a multimedia powerhouse, with the films getting reissued on video (and in Widescreen!) before the 1997 release of the Special Editions, the subsequent DVD releases, and then in 1999, the beginnings of the Prequel Trilogy with The Phantom Menace. You could argue that that’s when the wheels fell off, because even with the “Han Shot First” controversy and mixed reaction to some of the new effects shots, the late-nineties releases had been warmly received, Star Wars felt cool and exciting all the time, and anticipation was building to fever pitch at the thought of new movies. Amidst the Jar Jar hatred there was, I think, a bit more antipathy towards stories set in the Clone Wars, and although there were still some very good games being released (the first LEGO Star Wars came out in 2005!), the spark of the Golden Age was mostly absent.

Could we be entering a new Golden Age, or at least a Silver Age? Maybe; hopefully! I really, really enjoyed Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons, even though neither are perfect and both have plenty of rough edges. Now that the Skywalker Saga is out of the way and the franchise as a whole is spreading out into new areas (check out the number of Disney+ shows on the way), perhaps we’ll see all different facets of the galaxy explored in games too. And that’s what this list is: ten possible games, set in the Star Wars universe, that I think would be cool.

For the most part I’m not trying to invent a whole game; rather, it’s “Star Wars in this genre” or “Star Wars with this hook”. There’s probably an exception or two here and there, but you’ll get the drift. Some of these have been in my mental wishlist for years, from right back to when I first played X-Wing on my mate’s Mac, or when I installed a friend’s copy of Dark Forces from floppy disk (we, er, did that in those days). One of the best things about Star Wars is that it contains multitudes; George Lucas really did create a whole galaxy full of weird side characters, intriguing backstory, and funky-looking locations (aided and abetted, of course, by a bevy of talented collaborators). What corner of the universe couldn’t support a game of some kind?

So here’s to the future, to the newly-rechristened Lucasfilm Games, and to ten titles that could all benefit from beginning with those classic blue words on a black background.

Jedi Padawan RPG: I’ve wanted a game like this for about twenty years: a third-person action-RPG where you play a Padawan. You create your character and build your lightsaber, and then follow your master on missions around the Republic, learning the ways of the Force and developing your character. In a way, Fallen Order has adopted some of these ideas; the fact you only use a lightsaber and Force powers, for instance. But in my mind this is more similar to something like the first Fable, or maybe Mass Effect, where you’d have a hub to return to (the Jedi Temple) and then go off on missions that you could choose. All the while there’d be a plot bubbling up, and an arc to follow, and all sorts of quasi-open-world Jedi shenanigans. It’d be cool if they could make lightsabers feel like the really dangerous one-hit-kill weapons they are in the films, or if you could use them to, y’know, open doors and stuff. Maybe this could be set in the “High Republic” era we’re starting to explore.

Deus Ex-style first-person RPG: I suppose this one could be reductively called “Cyberpunk on Coruscant”, but the idea is you’d play someone – not a Jedi, in my mind – going on quests or solving some kind of mystery, shooting people in first person whilst also upgrading your body and abilities in typical RPG style. I wouldn’t want it to be too dark; I don’t like it when people try to make Star Wars “edgy”. But that Mandalorian or Rogue One tone of seriousness interspersed with Star Wars’ typical melodrama and weirdness would be good. I see your character as a small-time crook or maybe a minor mercenary who by circumstance is forced to take missions for either the Rebels or the Empire (or maybe First Order and Resistance); perhaps mirroring Poe Dameron’s journey from spice smuggler to X-Wing superstar. It’d be cool if there was Fallout-style hit-modelling on characters, and if your arm or whatever got damaged, you could have it replaced with a robot one.

Star Wars meets Elite: I even have a title for this one: “Scoundrel”. Basically, like I say, it’s Elite but in the Star Wars universe; you have a ship, you fly from planet to planet, you trade goods or offer passage, you spend your money on upgrading your ship or buying a new one. You’re Han Solo, basically; hence “Scoundrel”. In my mind it’s set at the dawn of the Rebellion, so you can choose where your allegiances – and your ethics – lie. Take on official Imperial assignments? Help their war effort? Stay neutral but legal? Stay out of the politics, but, y’know, smuggle a little bit? Run a bit of spice? Or do you go all-in and work for the Rebellion – even take part in military action? Maybe it could even run all the way up to Return of the Jedi and give you the chance to fight in the Battle of Endor! C’mon, this one has “hit” written all over it.

Clone Troopers turn-based “Tactics” game: by “Tactics” I mean like X-COM or, well, Gears Tactics; turn-based team combat games. I think of all the groups of military characters most suited to this style, it would be the Clone Troopers; they’re a well-organised military force that functions as part of a team. We know there are loads of types of Troopers, with different uniforms for different jobs, so there’s lots of room for customising your team, as well as experimenting with different classes. Plus if they die there’s more to come, they’re just in vats! Get Temuera Morrison to voice them all for added authenticity.

A point-and-click adventure: this was the first ever idea I had for a Star Wars game, because at the time I was really, really into adventures. This could be anything; I’m not too fussed on the plot. Some kind of mystery obviously lends itself to the format. Whether you play as the same character all the way through or switch protagonists (a common genre trope), I don’t mind. But I want it to be a fairly straightforward, old-fashioned point-and-click game, with no action or QTEs. Make it look like Thimbleweed Park, make it look like Clone Wars or Rebels, make it look as real as possible, it’s all fine; just give me a slow-burn narrative adventure story in the Star Wars universe please.

Lemmings, but with porgs: yeah, there’s nothing more to add to this. Maybe you play one of the Space Nuns, or even Chewbacca, and you have to help out all these crazy porgs? They’re just wandering around, getting into mischief, chewing on the Falcon or playing with a lightsaber, and they’ll kill themselves if you don’t help. That’s it. That’s the game. Lemmings, but with porgs.

Rebel base construction/management game: my template here would be stuff like Evil Genius or Two Point Hospital: real-time games where you build different rooms or services in a given play space. So, the Rebels are constantly darting all over the galaxy, setting up shop temporarily and then evacuating when the Empire comes a-calling; here, you have to kit out the different bases, often to service different aims (a recon base, an aerial support base, a training centre, etc), and in different planetary conditions (think Hoth, Yavin, or Crait). Obviously there are essentials: communication, power, accommodation. Then you can build starship docks, weapons arrays, bacta tanks, astromech services, even Jedi training rooms. Instead of attracting “customers” the idea is to be recruiting new Rebels, so the bigger and better your base, the more troops you have. Maybe there can even be some kind of meta-game where the progress of the war is smoother if your bases are better? But there’d be virtually no combat, apart from maybe shooting probe droids or scaring away wampas. Anyway, I think it sounds cool.

Rebel Commandos cover-shooter: I guess this could also be a Clone Trooper game, but we’ve already had a Clone FPS, and I just invented Clone Tactics up the page a bit, so let’s spread the love. It’s basically Gears of War but with the Rebel Alliance. Think about the Battle of Endor or the Battle of Scarif; teams of well-trained and battle-hardened troopers up against superior odds but still kickin’ ass. Unlike the rent-a-clone nature of the Tactics game, this would be more story-driven, with a small team (four, maybe, as it’s a good number for co-op) who have to infiltrate and/or assault heavily-fortified enemy positions. I think this could be good with a nice narrative behind it, fleshing out the Star Wars universe, and maybe offering a bit of those Rogue One-style shades of grey.

Fallout Shelter-style Jawa Sandcrawler management game: utini! Jawas are great aren’t they? Whether it’s electrocuting Artoo, cheering at podracers, or just eating the shit out of a great big egg, everyone loves a good Jawa. How can you make a game about Jawas? Well, what about if you’re this tribe or group or whatever of Jawas, and you’ve got your own knackered sandcrawler. And as part of the game you have to develop it, tart it up a bit, recruit new bands of Jawas, and then, y’know, rob droids and flog ‘em. Like Fallout Shelter, you have to build and maintain different rooms in the sandcrawler to grow your people and earn more cash from droids, but you’re constrained a little by size. The sandcrawler can’t be expanded too much, and although you could upgrade to bigger ones, you have to make strategic decisions about where to allocate precious space. I see this as being quite low-fi and stylised (bring back Yoda Stories!), and working as a kind of chilled-out time-wasting game on Switch or something.

Homeworld, but in the Clone Wars: and we’re back to the Clone Wars again! But here, we kind of have to, as it’s the only war in the Star Wars wars that features two huge and evenly-matched armadas (Rebels vs Empire and Resistance vs First Order are both very much “scrappy underdogs up against vast organised militaries”). Playing as the Republic or the Separatists, you have to maintain huge fleets of capital ships, support craft, fighters and bombers, and go on missions to attack, defend, or escort. It’s probably the best way to recreate the feeling of that absolutely vast battles we see in the opening minutes of Revenge of the Sith. Maybe an add-on could even give us ground battles too, recreating scenes such as the Battle of Geonosis. Anyway, sounds cool don’t you think?

Incidentally – and speaking of the Star Wars of it all – this is the first week that we’re not watching a War for our family movie night. We’ve done ‘em all! All the episodes of the Skywalker Saga, the two live-action spin-off movies, and even (well, me an’ the eldest) the animated Clone Wars movie. I might do another Top Ten ranking them, based on the kids’ opinions; that’d be interesting. Although – of course – we’ve only got a couple of weeks to wait until the two Ewok movies hit Disney+. What a time to be alive!

Now, the Ewoks – there’s a good idea for a game there…

#top ten #star wars #games #gaming #lucasarts #lucasfilm games #jedi knight #fallen order #squadrons

[dumbbitchenergy17]

I’m Sorry (Part 2)

Summary- You are Michael’s vessel as you are dean’s kid and letting him use you instead of your dad

Dean x daughter!reader

Word count- 3,630

No One’s POV

“Is this...Are you real?” Jack questioned

Holding out his arms as if to gesture to himself “Always.”

“Sam said you're dead. He said Michael killed you.”

Lucifer shrugged “Yeah, I don't like to speak ill of people, but Sam is a big fat liar and he's a bad person and... like, freakishly tall, so,

“I-I don't understand?” Jack questioned

“No, Michael didn't...Sam was the one who left me behind.” Lucifer said acting innocent “What?” Jack said

“Yep.” Lucifer walks closer to Jack to face him “I mean, I think he thought I'd be trapped over there in "Giant Litter Box World" forever, 'cause that worked so well the first time. I don't blame him, though, okay? I mean...for everything that I've done to him, I think, uh, I had it coming, you know? But you know what? I'm moving on.” He explained

Jack responded, “But if the rift is closed, then how are you here?”

“Oh, no. Not ‘how.’ ‘Why.’ I'm here for you, Jack. Because, you know, even though the Three Amigos -- Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Dean’s little spawn -- won't admit it, you need me. You do, 'cause we're blood. And we're not human, no matter how much we pretend to be. See, humans are...limited and fragile. And I'll admit, they bring out the worst in me, I gotta say. It seems like, you know, no matter how much you try to do right around them, something always goes wrong. Follow?” Lucifer sighed

“I ...I know.” Jack frowned Y/n was his friend and she was gone.

Lucifer smiled “Right? And that's not their fault, or ours. It's just, us and humans, we're like oil and water. You know, sardines and strawberries. It's just a bad combination.”

“What do we do?” He pondered

“Leave,” He smiled Lucifer turns from Jack and looks towards the sky, “I mean...there's a whole universe out there, buddy. Planets. Stars. Galaxies. Why should we stay here on Earth when we can go anywhere else? Heck, everywhere else.”

Jack smiled “Like, um, like Star Wars?”

Lucifer turns to Jack excitedly “Exactly like Star Wars. You want a lightsaber? I can make you a lightsaber. Heck, I can make you a Wookiee.”

“But...no. Sam, Dean, and Castiel, they'll miss me.” he frowns

Lucifer placing his hand on Jack's shoulder “Yes, they will. They will. It'll be hard. But you have to live your life for you. Right? This is our second chance, kiddo. This is our opportunity to escape our past and our sins and start over. What do you say? Father, son. You up for an adventure, buddy?”

Jack nodded “I...I'd like that. But there's something you need to do first.”

Back at the Bunker 

“Talked to the other refugees. No one's got any idea who'd wanna hurt Y/n.” Bobby said scratching his beard

“Maybe it wasn't one of them. Maybe...there are monsters in this world that aren't monsters.” Mary said

Jack and Lucifer came down the stair “Jack! Hey --” she began

lucifer sent a small wave “Hey.”

“Kid, what the Sam Hell?” Bobby jaw dropped seeing Satan back

Jack held his hands up “It's all right, okay? He's here to help.”

“He is.” bobby said skeptically Lucifer walking with Jack past Bobby “You know it, Longmire.”

“Call Sam. Now.” Mary said to Bobby

Lucifer and Jack walk into the main room in the bunker. Y/n is lying on the map table. She has been cleaned up and is covered with a sheet up to her neck. Mary follows them into the room. “Hmm. So you're leaving dead bodies on tables now. Nice.” Lucifer smirked

“We were waiting, to give her a Hunter's funeral,” Mary said

“You won't have to. My father, he's gonna bring Y/n back to life.”

“I am?” he said shocked

Mary grabbed Jack’s arm “Jack, what are you doing?”

“What I have to. This...it's my second chance to prove to Dean I’m good.”

Lucifer clapped his hands ‘Yeah, uh, Jack, about this, uh, resurrection stuff -- It's not always a great idea because, uh... you know, people come back...different.”

“Well, Sam didn't,” Jack replied

“Right. Well, Sam's always been...sort of different. You know what I mean? Some would say ‘special.’, lucifer looked over at Mary “No offense.”

“You said you'd do anything.” Jack presses

Lucifer grudgingly walked over to Y/n “Fine. Fine.” He places a hand on Y/n's forehead

Mary leans over to Jack “Has he done something to you?”

“I heard that. Heard it.” Lucifer said annoyed

“Mary, everything's gonna be fine.” Jack placed a hand on her shoulder

“Okay,” Lucifer says Lucifer's eyes glow red. He pulls his hand away quickly and Y/n sits up, gasping. Sam, Dean, and Castiel come rushing through the door on the upper level.

“Jack? Jack!” Sam yells

Dean not caring for Jack staring at his daughter looking at him “y/n.” his voice cracking tears filling his eyes.

“Dad?” She said

----------------

Y/n’s POV

Uncle Sam, Dad, Castiel, Mary, and Bobby sat are around the map table in the bunker “How did Michael and Lucifer both get here? How did they open a rift?” Sam runs his hand through his hair

“You know what? It doesn't -- We -- we've gotta find Jack before Michael does whatever the hell he's gonna do, okay? I-I'll call Jody and everybody else.” Dean says grabbing his phone

Bobby grabbed his arm “You're gonna put out an APB on the Devil?”

“Yeah, I am.” Dean snaps back passing by you not giving you a single look

“I'll check angel radio,” Cas states to no one

“Sam, even if we find Lucifer, how we gonna stop him?” Mary asks

Hearing footsteps heading to you as you just stare at the wall “Y/n? Hey, sorry. You okay?” Sam asks grabbing your hand

“I'm alive, so... yes? One second I'm with my family and then everything dark and I’m in heaven.” You sighed

“Listen, I-I know this is weird -- so...weird -- but, um, before you...died, do you remember anything about the person that killed you?”

“Does it matter? Kinda seems like you have bigger, you know, Satan-y problems. and Michael here”

“Yeah, but -- but we're -- we're dealing with those. Mostly. Um...But yes, it does matter. It matters to me. and your dad.” Sam says rubbing his hand up and down your back

“I... I never saw his face, but, uh... I saw his eyes.” you said Sam nodded about to continue when your dad walks in “All right, Jody's lookin'. So far, Nada.” he frowns

Cas sits down as well “Yeah, angel radio is nothing but static, which is disturbing.” Dean sighs “Great. Well, we'll just add that to the list.”

“So what do we do now?” Mary asks A loud banging sound and the lights begin to flicker “What’s happening.” You ask your dad coming to your side.

Sam looks at the door to the outside world beginning to shake.

“oh god.”

“What the hell is that,” Bobby yells as the alarms blare

“Mom, Bobby take Y/n and get her out her go through the garage,” Sam says as the banging gets louder and the door shakes

Mary grabs your arm “We’ll buy you time.” Dean says 

“Dad no I won’t leave you!” You yell as mary begins to pull you with Bobby “Go Y/n.” Dean tells you “Dad no. no.” you yell out as you’re pulled out the room.

“Come Y/n we have to go.” mary tells you as tears stream down your face as you yell for your dad. 

Pulling your arm free from her you start sprinting towards your dad as Mary yells your name. Entering the room you see Cas thrown across the room and sam on the ground your dad in a chokehold in Michael's grip.

“Dad!” you yell getting everyone attention 

“Ah the youngest Winchester Y/n pleasure seeing you again.” Michael smirks tighten his grip on Dean

“let him go.” you yell at him 

“Y/n get out of here.” Your dad gasps for air struggling to free himself.

“Dean Winchester will be the first life that I take in this world, the first soul I save. Some would consider that an honor.” He smirks at you flicking his wrist sending you to hit the pole falling on the ground groaning in pain. “y/N! Y/N” Dean yells struggling in his grip

“Well, as Shakespeare once said, eat me, dickbag.” He growls out

Michael smiles and tightens his grip even more. Dean is struggling to breathe. Behind them, Sam is on his hands and knees “Jack, Jack. Jack, I don't know where you are, and I don't even know if you can hear this prayer, but we need you. We need you.”

----------------

“Could've done this quick, but I wanted to enjoy it, that moment when the soul leaves the body... ‭‬it's beautiful.‬” Michael grins seeing Dean slowly turn blue RIght before he passes out, he and Michael are hit with a shock wave and they fall to the floor. As they fall, Jack appears behind them. Behind Jack, Sam uses the wall behind him to push himself to a standing position. While you push yourself up by the table.

“Jack.” Sam breathes a sigh of relief

I heard your prayer.” Jack answered staring at Michael

“Yeah, it's me. Yay,” lucifer yelped, “Uh, we done, buddy? Buddy?”

As Michael starts to stand up. As he does, Jack's eyes glow and he raises his hand “You hurt my friends.” he growls Michael starts to yell in pain. Black liquid runs out of his eyes and ears. “You hurt my family!” Jack yells squeezing his fist and Michael goes to his knees, screaming in pain

“Whoa.” Lucifer gulped

“Lucifer, we -- we had a deal!” Michael screamed out ‘Deal’ you look over at Sam who was also confused

“Okay, game over,” Lucifer laughed, “Hey, buddy, let's, uh, let's, uh... split, okay?”

“What does he mean?” Jack questioned “I-I-I don't know. I didn't -- I didn't hear.” Lucifer stammered

“They had a deal. Lucifer gets you, and Michael gets everything else. He's gonna nuke our world, Jack, just like he did his.” Dean said walking over to us wrapping his arm around me pulling me closer to him.

Jack looked over at his father “Is that true?” he asked

“‭No! It's not.‬” he lied

“Is that why you wanted us to leave?” jack questioned, “Leave?” You called out looking at Jack with a frown.

“He said -- he said we'd go to the stars.” jack defended his dad

“What, and you're just gonna leave the rest of us here to burn?” Castiel accused Lucifer “Okay. Hold on a second. Let's slow down, 'cause I...I'm not currently the bad guy here.” he exclaimed

“Yeah, tell that to Y/n,” Sam said pointed towards you

“What about y/n?” jack asked about one his closest friends

“She saw the eyes of the person who killed her -- the glowing, red eyes,” Sam said

“You're gonna -- you're gonna believe this guy? Come on, man! Sam's a hater!” Lucifer sputtered

“Tell me,” Jack stated “He would say anything to get you on his side.” lucifer tried getting on jack’s side

Jack moved towards Lucifer, eyes glowing and hand outstretched “Tell me the truth!” He yelled

Lucifer’s eyes start to glow, his head tilts to the side and he starts speaking “She saw me when I was scouting out the bunker. She saw me and she screamed, and then...so I crushed her skull with my bare hands. And it was warm and wet, and I liked it.” Dean pulled you closer keeping far away from Lucifer

Lucifer's eyes return to normal and he looks confused “You're not my father. You're a monster.” Jack cries

Lucifer yells “Come on, man!” He bellows so forcibly that you, Sam and Dean cover their ears, his eyes glowing red “Okay. I tried with you. I really tried with you.”

“Everything you told me was a lie,” Jack replied

Lucifer threw his hands up “Because I told you what you wanted to hear, man. So what?! I killed the runt! Big deal! She's a -- she's a human!,” He points at you, “We need fewer Winchesters anyway She doesn't matter!”

“So am I!” Jack yells back

“Yeah? And that's your problem,” he points at Jack, “You're too much like your mother.” Lucifer steps closer

“Jack...” You say

“Stay back. I'll handle him.” Jack holds his hand up

Lucifer laughs “Will you? Oh, buddy. We could've been something, you and me. We could've remade the universe. It would've been great. We could've been better gods than Dad. And I really wanted that, pal. I wanted that. But now if I can't have it with you, I...I don't need ya. I just need your power.”

‭Lucifer produces an angel blade from his sleeve and cuts Jack on his neck

“Jack!” You cry trying to go to him your dad holding you back.

“No!” Castiel yells‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Lucifer grabs Jack's jacket in his fist and sucks Jack's grace into his mouth. His eyes glow yellow as he touches Jack's neck, healing him. Jack looks as if he's going to collapse.

“Jack,” Dean calls to him

Cas yells “Jack!” Dean and Castiel rush forward to grab Jack. As Dean touches Jack, there is an explosion of light. Castiel is thrown down to the ground by the force of the explosion, while Dean is absorbed into it.

“Dean!” Sam yells

“Dad!” You cry out.

----------------

“What just happened?” Sam asked

“I don't know,” Cas answered equally confused

“The Devil won. That's what happened.” Michael says Your heart drops your dad was with a juiced-up Devil.

Dean’s POV

He lands on the floor in a church. He struggles to his knees. Lucifer is standing in front of him, holding Jack up by his coat collar

“Really, Dean? Hitching a ride? I mean, do you ever quit?” lucifer hisses

“Go to hell.” He spits back

“Hell, yeah.‬ Been there. Done that.‬” He smirks Lucifer drops Jack and turns to kick Dean, knocking him to the ground)

Y/n”s POV

“How do we stop him?” Sam asks

“You don't. After consuming the Nephilim's grace, Lucifer's juiced up. He's super-charged. He'll kill the boy, your brother. Hell, he could end the whole universe if he put his mind to it. And you thought I was bad.” Michael says shrugging his shoulders

“No. No, you beat him. I saw you.” You said pointing at him.

“When he was weaker, and I was stronger. Believe me, I'd love to rip my brother apart. But now in this banged up meat suit... not happening. This is the end, of everything.” Michael holding his arms up showing off his body

“No. What if...what if you had your sword?” You said looking at him Sam and Cas both looking at you shocked “I'm Dean Winchester’s daughter I the next best thing.” you said staring at him a grin forming his face

Dean’s POV

“You know... it's been really fun. I really had a great time with you, but I think we should see other people. What do you say?” Lucifer drops him, his eyes glow orange as he places a hand on his's chest. ‭‬‬‬‬He grimaces and grunts in pain. Behind him, Jack is getting to his feet, his face bloody.

“Stop!” Lucifer turns, dropping him

“Now, why should I listen to you?” He laughs at the now human

“Because...I'm your son,” Jack replies

“Oh, yeah.‬ ‬‬‬Well, you had a chance with that, but,” Lucifer punches Jack in the face, twice. Jack falls to his knees, “Now?‬‬‬” Lucifer punches Jack a third time and he falls to the ground completely. He is standing up behind him.

“As for kids...Ah, I can make more of those.”

He grabs Lucifer by the shoulder, turning him around. Lucifer punches him in the face and he falls to the floor

“Wow, Daddy Dean coming to the rescue. But your little Jackie, the nougat-loving boy that you had before, he's killed, people. He's got lots of blood on his hands.”

He stands up “I don't care. He's family.”

“Ha! What's family done for anybody? My dad left me. My brothers tried to kill me. A lot. Family blows. And I'm gonna prove it to you.” lucifer yells

“What, by killing me? Go ahead.” He sighs holding his hands out

“No, I'm not gonna kill you,” Lucifer points at Jack, “He is.” As Jack and he looked at each other, Lucifer pulls an angel blade from his sleeve and drops it to the floor between them

Y/n’s POV

“Y/n, no,” Cas says looking at you

“I am your sword.” You say

Flashback

“It's you. You're the Michael sword.‬” Zachariah says

“Your perfect vessel.” You looking at him

“Why do you think you are his vessel? Michael You were born to become his other vessel. Gabriel explained when you first meet

“With me, you'd be stronger than you've ever been.“ you state

“Oh, I know what you are,” Michael smirks

“If we work together, can we beat Lucifer?” You ask

“Y/n!” Sam tries to get your attention. ‭‬‬‬ 

“Can we?!” You yell.‬ “We'd have a chance.” He replies

“Y/n, you can't.” Cas grabs your arm

“Lucifer has Dad. He has Jack. Cas, I don't have a choice!” You decided “If we do this, it's a one-time deal. I'm in charge. You're the engine, but I'm behind the wheel. Understand?” You look at Michael both your uncle and Cas look at the interaction in fear.

Dean’s POV

“Now I could -- I probably should -- execute you. I mean, really, really use my imagination. But I'm feeling generous today. So one of you is gonna walk out that door, and the other one will be laying dead on the ground. You choose.” Lucifer smirks glancing at them both.

“No.” He says

“Or you could do that, and I can murder you both and end all life in the universe. Remake it in my image, better than Dad ever could. I'm thinkin'... mm... fire-breathing dragons, sassy talking robots. I might give humans another chance if they know their place and worship me, 'cause I've earned it. But hey, it'll probably take a few days to unravel the universe, Maybe, uh, 7, 10 days tops. So maybe, just maybe, one of you could stop me. Maybe. Well, let's see. Clock's ticking, guys.” Lucifer lists off

Dean picks up the blade. Jack looks at him questioningly. Dean hesitates for several seconds and turns the handle of the blade towards Jack

“Kill me,” he says

“What?” Jack chokes out “Kill me.‬‬‬‬ You can stop him, Jack.” Dean begs. Placing the blade in Jack's hands “You can get your power back.”

“No, I-I c-can't. I can't beat him. But you can.” Jack answers

“What?” DEan says confused‬

“I know you can.” Jack turns the blade to point at his stomach

“No, no, no, no, no. Jack. Don't! Jack!” Dean yells

“I love you. I love all of you.” Jack cries

“Jack, don't! Don't!” Dean yells Jack pushes the tip of the blade into his stomach and blood stains his shirt. A bright light glows from behind him and he turns to see Y/n, bathed in light, angel wings unfurling behind him. The light goes out and they all turn to face Y/n.

“Y/n” Dean whispers

“Hiya, Dad.

“You let my brother in,” Lucifer growls

“Well, it turns out, he and I have something in common. We both wanna gut your ass.” You snap back Lucifer runs towards Y/n. As he gets near Y/n kicks him in the chest, sending him flying across the church

Y/n goes after Lucifer with an angel blade and the fight, Lucifer eventually knocking the angel blade out of Y/ns hands. They separate, and then run towards each other, rising into the air as they grab each other's shoulders. They continue to fight several feet above the ground. Lucifer gains the upper hand and proceeds to punch Y/n in the face several times, to the point that Y/n can no longer fight back.

“Well...” ‭‬‬‬Lucifer continues to punch Y/n “Good try, Y/n I'll give you that, buddy.‬ I'm not just powerful now. I am in power.”

Dean rushes over to picks up the angel blade

“And I don't need a blade to end you, pal.” He smiles

“Y/n” Dean throws the angel blade into the air and Y/n catches it

“Bye-bye, runt.” Lucifer's eyes glow as he places his hand on Y/n's head. As white light emanates from Y/n's eyes and mouth, she stabs Lucifer with the angel blade. Lucifer lets go of Y/n and she falls to the ground. Lucifer screams as fire burns from his eyes. There's a flash of light and Lucifer falls to the ground.

----------------

Y/n’s POV

Lucifer lies on the church floor. His outstretched wings are charred and burning. Y/n, Dean and Jack approach him

“Is he...” Jack starts

“He... he's dead.” Dean states

“Holy crap.” You mumbled

Dean looks over at you “You did it.” 

“No. No, we did it. We did it.” You correct him

You, Dean, and Jack are smiling as they realize what they've done when you double over, grunting in pain “Y/n,” Dean asks grabbing your shoulders

“We had a deal!” You yell when you stop grunting and stands up, incredibly calm “Michael” Dean whispers

“Thanks for the suit,” Michael said before he disappears leaving Dean and jack alone. Dean lost his daughter again. In the bunker, Castiel is sitting on the stairs Sam pacing tears in his eyes. Mary and Bobby run up to him. As they look down, Castiel slowly shakes his head.

No One’s POV

As the rain pelted down on the street as people headed to there destination a woman dressed in a suit a large coat on and a newspaper boy hat rest on her hair. As she looks up grinning her eyes flashing a blue glow.

#dean winchester #dean x daughter!reader #sam x niece!reader #jack x reader #michael!reader #dean!michael #castiel #dean #Sam Winchester #Jack Kline #daughter!reader masterlist spn #SPN

[themidgardlibrary]

I had a cool dream

Humans had long since fucked up and been forced to go to the stars to survive. But what they found over generations was that they weren't the only ones. Countless species were scattered across the universe, having made their original worlds inhospitable to their own lives. Many had branched off into species different from the original species that left their planet. This gave the statistically small number of humans that saw this hope - seeing that there were two species half way across the milkyway, one of which had evolved to breathe under water, and another had evolved flight, both coming from the same root species so very long ago, gave them hope that maybe they'd not fucked up as badly as it seemed.

And humans, oh humans would settle anywhere, groups of them branching off in their journeys to find places that worked for them specifically. This wasn't unique in the universe by any means - a species of being that were made of light and crystal and generated their own gravity/antigravity fields were just as bad at not settling down on every planet and moon and asteroid that caught their fancy. But the thing about this is that humans as a species saw more of the universe than average, and more species, but statistically the numbers of them that knowingly met specific species again and again were quite few. Mostly because the species had split so many times it was impossible to be in communication with the rest of humanity, so humanity as a 'whole' would discover the same species dozens of times, but the knowledge of someone on the other side of another galaxy wouldn't always be known, you know?

Mind you a lot of things were easier than in a lot of scifi, because, lo and behold: They had discovered magic at some point. It wasn't a snap, suddenly all of humanity knows situation like a meme, but it would often, just branch out over and over and over - not always connected - like some wave of information, like the universe itself had decided 'okay you're ready to know this now'. Traveling faster than light isn't terribly hard when you can bend the rules of light, after all. And the magic was eventually seen as a science, but it was magic: It had internal consistency, but it was the practice of bending if not outright ignoring the rules of the universe. Magic and the laws of the universe seemed at odds, incapable of coexisting at every level, but they did.

Now, here comes the narrative of the dream, now that I have the majority of the background out if the way, the delicious, delicious background. Sometimes humanity didn't just travel on space ships. Magic let them travel on planets, some of them being planets they created. And it was genuinely a human that saw magic, looked at how it worked, how you could create matter from a comparatively tiny amount of energy (the scientists who were studying entropy threw their arms up because god damn it,  this fucks up all their god damn calculations and UGH) and went 'FUCK YEAH I'M BUILDING A PLANET???' Not that this was a unique idea in the universe, just that a human was the first to pull it off, because one thing that was uncommon about humans was their inability to say 'hmm, maybe this is outside of my capabilities?', because let's be real they didn't really take to heart all the lessons they should have from destroying their planet for themselves. Other species kind of despair when they hear about the shit humanity does because god okay using magic is fine and all but some of this shit is just crazy!!! (There are people out there - not just humans now that planets have been created - that are working to create stars from magic. Once again making scientists in other fields weep because it puts to the bin so much of their work)

Humans, naturally, weren't fine with just making planets. They made planets they could move throughout space like it was a ship.

The dream focused on one specific group of humans who started with a ship, then made a dwarf planet, and then made that into a planet. They didn't do it for themselves though. They did it for a bunch of species they ran into that had either fucked up their planet, or were on planets that were naturally fucked up, and they just went 'puts arms around Protecc' to the species on those planets, made their own planet bigger, and just added those species to their planet and moved on.

Also I understand that maybe planet isn't the best word for this, but there is no better word I can think of.

So anyway, the bulk of the dream happened with a planet that was like 95% surface area water. It was a small planet, and only one side of it was inhabited. The primary species (honestly, one of like, 3 surviving species in the entire planet - it had been THAT fucked up in the past) was a group of aquatic beings who were kinda like mer people (manta ray and shark bodyforms were the most common) just without the direct human resemblance. They were down to, quite frankly genetic bottleneck numbers and only existed in two spots on the planet. The humans were all 'here let us help you out' because they didn't realise WHY the planet was so fucked. Turns out there was a black hole on the uninhabited side of the planet, but it was stasisted with exceedingly strong magic that poisoned the water on that side of the planet. It turned out that the planet itself was sapient, and that it was supposed to die a HELL of a long time ago, but it had a bustling population that had no idea it was basically imploding, so it did what it could to keep them safe. But it couldn't hold off for more than another thousand years, and that poison was spreading and gravity was fucked up.

Humans found this out and were all 'yo shit we'll help'. And like, they formed even closer relationships with their fishy friends, and then found out that their species? Didn't die like humans. A large amount of their species never made their full natural lifespan (like 200 years) and didn't die from mortal injuries or their bodies wearing out. They would sink to the bottom of the waters and calcify, but their consciousness could be reached again for upwards of a hundred years EASILY if they hadn't died of wounds or body failure - it was just not really socially acceptable to do this because usually the people who 'died' wanted to die. Basically the species had pretty fucking serious depression. So a bunch of humans started finding the calcified remains and talking to the people they could reach, and brought back a bunch of the species. They also found out that there was one EXTREMELY long lived member of their species. So the humans eventually found that member and GOD was tht person GORGEOUS. Had a modern day human seen them they'd have thought they met an aquatic angel, lack of human features not mattering. Turns out that member of the species could basically change the genetics of any single member of the species one at a time. So, they moved everyone to their planet, got this one person to deal with the genetic bottleneck, and introduced their fishy friends to mental health.

(Mind you it's not that the aquatic species didn't have their own version of mental healthcare, it was just prefaced more on accepting 'death' than our own was, and the idea that those who were meant to recover would after some calcification time.)

Anyway. It was a fun dream.

Further information that was passed between a friend and I:

Friend: (Also, are the crystal/light beings in the background section gems? XD) Me: (Actually, no! They're more like 'clouds of crystals that give off their own light' than anything even vaguely human shaped.) Friend: That's even cooler! :D Me: Right??? They reproduced asexually by splitting themselves in half. They lacked genetics, but had diversity in their numbers because they formed new crystals over their lives and the crystals were formed based on their locations!  :D

Friend: I want to explore the universe with them! Me: Honestly it would be a blast to do so. I figure they communicate in non-verbal languages among themselves, but they can make voices the same way one might make music using crystal glasses/cups! So they have these crystaline reverberating voices they use to communicate to humans and other highly verbal species. So you could talk to them and they could talk back!

#humans are space orcs #humans are weird #long post #text post #my posts #The dream is a week old or so now #i'm just slow to post things

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 81: Same Old World

”I’ve got nowhere to go.”

It’s impossible to overstate how important Mirror Gem was in redirecting the entire series from the daily adventures of a magical kid to a long-term story about (among many other things) how sins of the past loom over the present. But I’ve certainly tried! I’ve gone on about the episode’s impact at length in multiple reviews, but it bears repeating again here, because Same Old World is where Lapis Lazuli finally starts to shift from Important Character to regular fixture.

For someone that leaves such a lasting impression, we don’t see much of Lapis until Season 3. After she flies away healed in Ocean Gem, we catch a glimpse of her in The Message, where she once again has a huge impact for her small amount of time on screen. This frantic, confused version of Lapis is what we’ll get in The Return and Jailbreak and Chille Tid, but we see her get angrier with each appearance as she’s forced to face trial after trial. Her suffering was supposed to be over, but it keeps happening, and by the time she’s finally free again it makes sense that her first instinct is to get the hell off this planet.

But the saddest thing about Lapis isn’t her horrible luck, even if her ordeals are arguably more intense than any other character’s. It’s that she’s had to face these ordeals alone. The Crystal Gems and the Off-Colors are ragtag teams of outcasts, but they still have each other. Homeworlders like the Diamonds and their underlings, even the wandering Jasper, fit in just fine with an established society. Peridot makes a relatively smooth transition from the latter to the former. But Lapis’s comfort zone only exists in a past that will never come back. Steven may be the only Gem with parents, but the tragedy of Lapis Lazuli is that she’s an orphan. Only in Spinel do we meet another Gem cursed with such abandonment.

Why does Lapis attach herself so strongly to Steven, to the point where she’s willing to risk everything to protect him from Homeworld? For the same reason she eventually latches onto Jasper despite knowing that it’s toxic: because she has nobody else. And that isolation, rather than the specific injustices she has faced, is the trauma she’s actually forced to overcome starting in Season 3, beginning with Peridot in our next episode. But for now, Same Old World does a brilliant job establishing who this character is (a lost, lonely soul) and what she needs (a home and a family) so that she can make a change. And it does this not by showing her wallowing, but rather, for the first time since Ocean Gem, by showing her happy.

It says everything about Lapis that she sincerely enjoys hanging out with Steven. Despite her antisocial tendencies, she doesn’t hate people, she just doesn’t trust them (and for good reason). By freeing her in Mirror Gem and healing her in Ocean Gem, and by bonding with her in both episodes through open-hearted conversation, Steven earned her friendship. And an arc where Lapis finds the strength to open up to others benefits from our knowledge that she’s already capable of doing so, so that’s what Same Old World does. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and knowing this makes it even harder to watch when she stumbles, but all the more rewarding when she starts to come out of her shell around more people.

Lapis’s newfound exuberance is best conveyed by Aivi and Surasshu, who modify her theme (still my favorite) from its typically haunting or mystical tone to a breezy, adventurous anthem. Lapis began as a source of wonder for the audience, so it’s great to see her actually feel that wonder herself as she learns more about the planet that held her prisoner for so long. 

Steven’s narration gets funnier and funnier as they travel from the woods to Empire City to Jersey; even a show this sweet can’t help but make fun of New Jersey. While Empire City is a clear blend of New York and Paris, with a little Vegas thrown in judging by the town motto, and this universe has locations like Delmarva and Keystone and Aqua Mexico, I love that Jersey is just...Jersey.

Further signs that this is a setup episode are found in the Empire City segment, and not just because we go back there in Mr. Greg. We’ve already seen Peridot living it up in the barn, and soon enough she and Lapis will be roommates in the way Steven foreshadows here. But more importantly, he’s using the language of television, which Lapis might not understand now, but very soon will. 

Of course, an episode where Lapis is chipper throughout would be disingenuous, and boy does Same Old World deliver on the inevitable gut punch. We get one last moment of whimsy as the two head over the ocean, but the gleeful variant of her theme fades away as they encounter the Galaxy Warp.

Considering the way Pearl left Steven hanging in Rose’s Scabbard, there was a very real chance Lapis would drop him here as she has a minor panic attack, and the suspense allows us to feel all the weight of Lapis’s problems rushing back after a day of fun. It might not sound like a big deal, but this episode needs us to switch from happy and peaceful to antsy and pensive within seconds to keep the pacing solid, and it’s amazing that it does so without giving us even a hint of whiplash.

The return of Lapis’s hollow eyes is a nice touch, and leads us into a flashback that efficiently and stylishly shows us the depths of our hero’s misfortune. She wasn’t a Homeworld zealot but a noncombatant, and her cracking was a complete accident caused by a nameless, unidentifiable Gem. There’s no twist or big moment, simply a series of events outside of her control that built upon each other to ruin her life. This isn’t to say we don’t get lore—the Gem who poofed Lapis is our first glimpse at a bismuth, perhaps the Bismuth, and we see the Diamonds’ corruption attack with a quick taste of their theme—but the message here is that Lapis’s fate served no great purpose, and wasn’t even an intentional punishment. Sometimes life just kicks the shit out of you for no reason.

Lapis is clearly used to it at this point, shrugging off how horrible her life has been before she tries to leave at the beginning of the episode and rejecting Steven’s sweet offer to take a minute at the end of it. This isn’t to say she isn’t upset, but there’s a sense of acceptance that her life will continue to be miserable no matter what, which is why it’s so important that Steven doesn’t just tell her that she’s welcome on Earth, but that Earth is a place that allows change. He tells somebody who had no control for ages, then went on a power trip as soon as she had the opportunity to dominate somebody else, that she finally has the opportunity to make a healthy choice. And she takes it. 

Peridot obviously becomes a bigger factor in our next episode, but she’s established quite well in the first act so that her “surprise” appearance at the end feels earned; why would she have gone away in the day or so that Steven and Lapis went exploring? Lapis’s petulant reaction to sharing her new home with Peridot gives us one last bit of foreshadowing for her arc: her adjustment to Earth transforms her into an angsty teen.

I can imagine this characterization disappointed some people; certain fans are bound to insert their own concepts into a character as mysterious as Lapis, which of course makes any divergence from this headcanon a disappointment. But the idea that Lapis’s Daria Phase comes out of nowhere is baffling to me. Really, what better way to portray someone whose life feels like one crisis after another inflicted by forces beyond their control than as a teenager?

Lapis Lazuli rarely displays overt happiness after Same Old World, and will quickly develop a sardonic sense of humor that genuine playfulness occasionally escapes from. But it nonetheless sets the stage for her potential before Barn Mates wisely reminds us that her journey towards trusting others won’t be a walk in the park.

(And then we get a walk in the ballpark. Season 3 picks up quick once it gets rolling.)

Future Vision!

I already mentioned Empire City, Bismuth, and the Diamond Corruption, but it’s also quietly sweet to rewatch this episode after we learn Lapis actually held onto Steven’s leaf in Beta.

I hinted at it a little, but there are definitely echoes of Lapis’s story in Spinel’s, with the major difference being Lapis’s series of misfortunes versus Spinel’s single act of betrayal. Both endured thousands of years of solitude, both attack others on instinct as a result, and both are moved by Steven preaching the power of change.

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

It’s weird that there’s never any follow-up on Lapis’s poofing, considering she starts hanging out with Bismuth after Change Your Mind. Even if it was a different bismuth, that’s still worth a joke or something.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Such a great Lapis episode. If it had a song it might be even higher up, but it still holds its own through great characterization, great music, and awesome setup for her new arc.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

     5. Horror Club      4. Fusion Cuisine      3. House Guest      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

#same old world #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

[trashunlimited]

hope you guys like this one :) it came out slightly later than i expected, but oh well.

chapter 1

chapter 2

chapter 3

chapter 4

chapter 5

chapter 6

chapter 7

chapter 8

chapter 9

chapter 10

chapter 11

tagging: @nightshade1994, @glampyra

When Cyn woke up, he found that Rick was gone, much to his dismay, and to make things worse, the guards were all dead and blood was everywhere.

It wasn’t hard for him to deduce that Rick had killed all the guards and escaped, and it angered and devastated him beyond belief. His plan had failed, and now he would be discharged, after all his hard work and planning too! It would be for nothing in the end.

Cyn returned to where Pyri was, and when he arrived, the look on her face showed nothing but pure rage.

“I gave you three chances, and you wasted them all!’ She yelled. “You are discharged from now on. It’s far too late anyways, nothing can be done.”

Cyn was baffled. “Your Imperial Highness...you’re just...giving up...after everything? This empire has been going on for thousands of years! You can’t just-”

“I can and I will!” Pyri interrupted. “Panic and chaos have ensued here for far too long, the planet has become a mess. Our empire was already failing anyways..” She sighed. “I have given away the remainder of our planets to the newly rising Galactic Federation, and sending off remaining citizens to other parts of the galaxy.”

“But-”

“Enough! I want you to leave immediately! Get out!”

Cyn hung his head, and obeyed one final time to his empress. He walked out, feeling dejected, and observed outside to see ruin and destroyed buildings everywhere.

He clenched his fist angrily, this was all Sanchez’s fault! If he hadn’t stolen that chunk, none of this would’ve ever happened. Cyn looked up into the sky, and knew what he had to do: take revenge.

----------------

The next day, Julie found her thoughts returning to Rick again, and the torture he suffered at the hands of the fyralogins. It must’ve been traumatic for him, she couldn’t stop worrying about it.

After breakfast, she decided to ask him about it, but Rick just scoffed it off. “Y-You worry too much Julie, I'm fine, everything's fine.”

“I worry about you because I love and care for you. Just talk to me okay? There's no need to hide things from me.” She replied.

“Says you, you've never told me what happened to your family. If anything, you're the one keeping secrets from me.”

She sighed. “No, you’re right. It was hypocritical of me to want you to not keep secrets, while I’ve been...keeping some myself.”

Julie looked away, and Rick seemed a bit remorseful for acting harsh towards her. “I’m...I’m sorry...j-j-just..y-you can tell me what h-happened, I’m h-here for y-you.”

She turned her head up and smiled weakly, finally deciding he needed to know the truth.

Taking a deep breath, Julie began to explain what happened. “It was...a couple of years ago..back in ‘75...my parents had been saving up money to buy me a house, the same one we’re in right now. After graduating from university, I returned home, and that’s when they showed me this house. I was so excited, I moved in as soon as possible. But…” She started to tear up, which worried Rick. “My parents...were going to come visit me after I finished moving in, but on their way there...the weather..” She sniffled. “It got really bad..and they...they got into an accident...and..” Julie broke down into sobs, unable to finish.

Rick wiped a few of tears away and held her close, letting her sob against him. “Let me guess….they died?” He asked.

“Yeah..” Julie muttered through her tears.

Rick gently rubbed her back, not saying a word afterwards. He didn’t really know how to comfort her, but he figured that what he was doing should be enough. He didn’t understand her pain, due to how different their relationships with their parents had been, but he tried to be there for her regardless. Rick hadn’t lost anyone particularly close to him, in part because he usually didn’t let people get close to him to begin with, Julie was one of the few exceptions.

Rick decided the best thing he could do right now was find a way to cheer her up, and see her smile and laugh again, he hated seeing her so sad.

He pulled her away and gave her a big smile. “I have an idea to make you feel better, do you like video games?”

A small smile formed on Julie’s face. “I do.”

“Then I got something to show you!”

------------------

Rick brought Julie over to an intergalactic arcade called “Blips and Chitz”, it was one of his favourite places to visit, and he was sure, since Julie liked video games too, that she would enjoy it as well.

As soon as the two stepped inside, Julie’s eyes widened in awe and wonder, taking in the sights. It looked a tiny bit like a normal arcade on Earth, but far bigger and with a far wide selection of games to play. Not only that, but she could see screens displaying information relating to the arcade, various floors to visit, and in the center, there was a planet-like object with the words “Blips and Chitz” around it.

“I’ve been managing to save up enough flurbos for the two of us to use. I even started selling weapons to an assassin I met not too long ago.” Rick mentioned. “I...actually was planning to spend an entire afternoon here on my own for a bit, but now that you’re here, we can do it together.”

Julie grinned at him. “So..is this like our first date?”

He blushed. “Yeah...I-I g-guess ssso..”

She giggled, and took his hand in hers, then they started walking together. Rick smirked, he could only imagine Julie’s reaction to one of the games here. Video games on Earth were extremely primitive, so this would be completely different for her. As to not freak her out too much, he decided on starting her off with something simple.

Rick led her to one of the arcade cabinets, and pointed to it. “Here’s one I think you’ll like. The objective is simple, all you have to do is fly the spaceship while avoiding obstacles and shooting at enemies.”

She went and sat down in front of it, her curiosity peaked. “Sounds easy enough, this should be fun!”

As soon as she pressed the button to start it up, the extremely high-tech graphics amazed her beyond belief, and she was at a loss for words.

Rick laughed and tapped her shoulder to get her attention, snapping her out of her amazed state. “Sorry!” Julie apologized. “It’s just...I’ve never seen anything like this…”

“Don’t worry about it, just try it out.” He grinned.

Julie smiled at him, then turned back over to the game and attempted to play. He watched as she played and was a bit impressed at how well she was doing, it seemed she had managed to pick up on things pretty quickly.

When she finished, Rick gave her a thumbs up, then went over to play the game himself.

It was Julie's turn to watch him, and she found herself in awe about how amazing he was, he drove the spaceship very smoothly and with ease, and was able to shoot tons of obstacles quickly.

When he finished, Julie went up to him in excitement. “Wow Ricardo! You were amazing!” She beamed. “What are we gonna play next?”

Rick smiled at her use of his full name, and took out the tickets from the machine to get prizes, before looking around and seeing what else they could play together. When he found something he thought she’d like, he took her over there and they began playing the game together.

“Good luck trying to beat me Julie! I’m the master at this game!” Rick boasted. “Y-You’ll never even come cl-close!”

Julie giggled. “We’ll see about that!”

She was again, able to pick up on things pretty fast, and much to Rick’s surprise, she was managing to do really well, and he was getting nervous that she might beat him. He hated losing, being very competitive when it came to games, and wasn’t even going to let Julie win. He made the move to try and use tricks in order to win, but Julie caught on and was able to get the upper hand, causing her to win.

“Yay! I won!” She exclaimed happily. “Guess I'm the new master at this game huh?”

Rick just ‘hmphed’ and appeared grumpy and annoyed, crossing his arms together and looking away.

“Aw don’t be such a sore loser, Mr. Grumpypants!” She laughed.

Rick didn’t respond, and Julie got a devious idea. She grabbed onto his face and pulled him in for a kiss, making him blush madly. He was surprised, but quickly found himself enjoying it.

“All better now?” Julie asked.

“Yep..” Rick said, still in a bit of a lovestruck haze, before realizing he was in one and shaking his head, snapping him out of it. She laughed, and watched as Rick took out the tickets from the machine, before glimpsing back at her. “You wanna help me get more of these? If we win enough...well..there are some prizes I really wanna g-get..” He winked.

“Of course! Let’s get going!” Julie agreed.

----------------

The two went to play more games together, having fun and of course, collecting the tickets. Julie continuously found herself amazed with every game they played, and she wasn’t sure if she could ever play a simple game like Breakout or Pong ever again, but to her, it was worth it.

When they’d managed to collect enough tickets, they went over to the prize booth where Rick traded some tickets in for...a scooter? She was surprised, but not complaining.

“Rick! Why did you get a scooter?” She asked playfully.

“Why wouldn’t I get a scooter? These things are amazing!” He retorted, and Julie watched as he went on it, and he started to zoom around in pure glee.

Julie was glad to see him doing so well, and realized that this showed Rick clearly has a more childish side to his personality, not that she minded. If she was being completely honest, she found it rather...cute, and it further showed how Rick wasn’t afraid to be himself.

She was still concerned about how the torture he’d suffered had affected him, but decided that maybe he just wouldn’t want to talk about it, and that was okay with her. Besides, she’d rather see him like this than in any misery or pain.

At the same time, Julie thought about how it must be the same for Rick too, that he didn’t like seeing her miserable either, and that this must be his way of making her feel better. She had to admit, it worked. Her pain was still there deep down, but the fact alone Rick did this for her, was enough to show that he cared, and that meant the world to her.

--------------------

When they were finished, they returned home, only to see that it was dark out.

“Oh goodness!” Julie exclaimed. “We were there for a pretty long time huh?”

“Heh heh...y-yeah..” He chuckled. “But it was worth it right?”

“Totally.”

They headed back inside, where  Julie decided to thank Rick for taking her to the arcade.

“Thank you by the way...for taking me to Blips and Chitz. It was a lot of fun...and...I’d love to go back someday.” She smiled. “By the way...did you take me there to cheer me up after I told you about...you know..”

Rick nodded. “I didn’t know what else to do...I-I’ve never had to comfort someone b-before...s-sorry..”

“Oh don’t worry about it.” Julie assured him. “The fact alone you wanted to cheer me up is all that matters to me, it shows me that you care for me and want me to be happy.”

Rick blushed shyly at her words. “Ah..i-it’s...n-nothing r-really..”

“No, it’s not nothing, it means the world to me.” She replied before kissing his cheek, making him blush more.

He was speechless, unsure what to say, making Julie giggle softly. “I guess I’ll be off to bed now, see you tomorrow..”

Rick smiled at her, and they shared a kiss before he left back for his apartment.

While there, his mind kept thinking about Julie, how much fun they’d had at Blips and Chitz, how lucky he was to be with her. That had been the most fun he’d ever had there, and he knew it had to do with Julie, she brought out so much joy and excitement in him, and he never had to hide any part of who he was with her.

Rick had never been in a serious relationship, just casual ones, so he didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but he hoped he would learn what to do through Julie. She was always there for him, and he knew he would always be there for her.

----------------

In the morning, Julie decided to talk to Mark and Vivian again, especially Vivian. She wanted to apologize with her, and of course, they also had to know she was with Rick too.

Julie picked up her phone and dialed Mark’s number, before hearing his surfer dude-like voice on the other end. “What’s up? Whose this?”

“It’s me, Julie..” She answered.

“Oh..everything going okay?” He asked worriedly.

“Yes, everything’s fine, no need to worry, I’m doing better now.” Julie replied. “I also wanted to let you know, that I want you and Vivian to come over, I have so much to tell you!”

Mark smiled, already being able to tell from her voice that she was indeed doing better now. He was a little nervous about bringing Vivian over, but knew it was for the best. “Alrighty then, see ya soon!” Then he hung up.

Julie put the phone back, and then waited for her friend’s arrival. She’d been hoping to reconcile with Vivian, and apologize for yelling at her, it had been her mind last night while she tried to sleep, and she knew she needed to do something about it.

-----------

When they arrived, Julie greeted Mark with a hug, and when she saw Vivian, she gave her a gentle smile. “It’s great to see you again Vivian.” She greeted.

Vivian sighed. “Julie...look...I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“Thank you..and I’m sorry for yelling too..”

“What? No! You don’t need to apologize, I was the one who yelled at you initially.”

“But-”

“Ladies please!” Mark interrupted.  “Can you all agree neither of you meant to yell and you both wanna just get along again?”

They both looked at him, and Julie nodded her head in agreement, with Vivian following soon after, looking a bit annoyed that Mark interrupted them.

Now that that was resolved, Julie had something she wanted to bring up to them. “Well, I do have some great news!”

“What is it?” Mark asked curiously.

“Rick and I are officially together now!” She revealed happily. “A lot happened recently, I got kidnapped by an alien, but Rick saved and protected me, and now well...we’re a couple..”

Vivian had a befuddled look on her face, “Hold on, what is this about you getting kidnapped by an alien?”

“And just yesterday Rick took me an intergalactic arcade! It was so much fun!” Julie eagerly continued, completing ignoring her question.

Mark’s eyes widened. “You went to an intergalactic arcade?! What were the games like?”

“Really high tech and so advanced!” Julie answered. “It was so amazing it nearly blew my mind!”

“Cool! Do you think I could go sometime?”

She giggled. “Maybe, if Rick would let you.”

Vivian watched as Mark got all excited, and to her surprise, he went over and hugged her, making her blush, before pulling away. She was a little surprised, but shook it off, and her gaze focused on Julie. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear that Julie and Rick were a couple now, considering Rick was a murderer and all, but at least she seemed happy.

“So, you and Rick are a couple now huh?” Vivian asked, raising a brow.

Julie’s glee was replaced with nervousness. “Umm...yes...are you..okay with that?”

“Why would I be? He kills people for God’s sake..”

Mark went in between them, laughing nervously. “Ha ha...let’s not start this again..”

“No, he’s right.” Julie agreed. “Vivian, can you at least be happy for me?”

Vivian bit her lip, and sighed. “Whatever.”

“Thank you so much!” Julie exclaimed and hugged her, making her blush once again.

They spent a bit more time together, before Vivian and Mark said their goodbyes to Julie, and were on their way home.

-------------

Now alone again, Julie thought about Rick and seeing him again, wondering how he was doing.

She was so grateful to be with him, and she thought again about how he’d comforted her about her parents deaths.

Since the day they died, Julie hadn’t been the same, it had been a long time since she’d felt genuinely happy, but Rick had made her feel that way again. Thinking back, Julie wondered if she could finally come to terms with their deaths. As she thought, a flashback to her childhood formed in her mind.

----------------

Julie was sitting in front of the mirror in her room, while her mother brushed her hair, before tying it into a single braid and topping it with a white bow.

“Turn around Juliana, let’s see how you look.” Her mother told her. Julie did just that,  and her mother gasped in awe. “Oh sweetie, you look so beautiful!’

Julie smiled, but it quickly faded. “No one else seems to think so..” She sighed. “I think they’re right..”

“Just because a lot of people say something about you, doesn’t make it true. You are a beautiful girl, you just don’t realize it, but you will in time, I’m sure. Maybe it’ll take someone very special to help you see that you are.” Her mother grinned.

“Like my true love?” Julie beamed.

Her mother laughed. “Your true love will be able to not only see how beautiful how truly are, and help you realize that, but they’ll love you for you. That’s how you’ll know he’s the one.”

“When will I meet him?” She asked.

“Someday...maybe when you’re all grown up..maybe one day you’ll just bump into him by accident, or he’ll bump into you!” Her mother giggled, booping her nose.

Julie giggled too. “Is that how you knew Daddy was your true love?”

“Yep.” She confirmed. “I was just a waitress at a diner, taking orders and feeling bored out of my mind. Then one day Daddy popped in and I just felt this connection with him. We started talking a hit it off so well! Vivian’s Mommy would tease me all the time about it, asking when I was going to marry him, and I did, then you came around.”

Julie’s mother hugged her tightly, and she hugged back. Her words had comforted her, and she did feel a bit better now.

They then the doorbell ring, and the door opening, alerting her mother. “Daddy’s home!” She exclaimed. “We have to go give him the casserole we made together!”

She started walking out of her room, and Julie followed happily, now feeling like she didn’t have any worries anymore,

-------------

Julie shed a few tears, thinking about the happy memory with her mother. It seemed she’d guessed correctly somehow that Rick would end up bumping into her, or more like he’d rammed into her, but still! It was close enough for her. Everything her mother had said about her true love was right on the nose.

She smiled, thinking about her future with Rick.

ok i know the dead parents thing is cliche but i feel like i have a good reason for including it okay! hear me out!

answer me this, would you want your daughter dating some highly dangerous criminal? and not just any criminal either, but one of the most wanted and dangerous in the entire galaxy? no! you wouldn’t! we already had enough drama as it is with vivian, we didn’t need anymore with julie’s parents.

okay...with that out of the way, this is blips and chiptz 

it was from the episode “mortynight run”, and i wanted to include it because i wanted to show that both rick and julie like video games. i mean this is the stuff julie is used to:

and then she sees amazing high tech advanced graphics, and of course she almost loses her god damn mind.

i got the idea for rick’s more “childish” interests from here:

i wanted to make their banter and teasing feel believable...hope it is!

#my writing #rick and julie

[idolizenews]

SCHEDULE 09/08.

Each schedule post provides a snapshot into the way the company is marketing your group as a whole, the expectations they have for your involvement in the industry, and so forth. They’ll range from fun things like CF deals to run of the mill events like fan parties, concerts, or rest time. We’ll be varying things across the board and using this as a way to tease upcoming plot lines for groups. Schedules illuminate the often difficult realities of being an idol, and because of that we award +5 exp / + 5 sp to those who complete a 350+ 4/4 thread or a 500 word solo. Solos must be completed during the three week run of the schedule, but threads may be finished after the end of the prompt provided they were started well in excess of the end point (e.g. finishing up a reply or two after is fine, but posting the starter right before the next prompt goes up is not). These needn’t be taken extremely literally when threading and are open to tangential preparation threads and other flexibility.

OLYMPUS  – Olympus is putting on their special concert in Seoul this week, with performances on Friday (one), Saturday (two), and Sunday (one). It’s sure to be an exhausting weekend, but with the massive crowds being drawn in, it’s safe to say that this is a testament to their popularity. They’re said to be showcasing some solo stages throughout the concert.  Rumor has it: Performance at this concert will be folded into considerations for unit and solo promotional activities upcoming and will be followed by a few months without a comeback for the group.

FANTASY –  Both units are currently in preparation for comebacks after the rousing success of their summer songs. The girls are certainly on the upswing and have been invited onto Radio Star to speak about their progress since their slightly unfortunate but endearing fancam. This round of interviews has been more tightly packed even then usual. Rumor has it: This next comeback could make or break the unit concepts as a whole, and that there is discussion around the potential of losing a member in the upcoming days, which Midas is trying to stifle.  

TITANIUM –  With their first CF already under their belts and a successful debut now behind them, the boys are being worked harder than ever to prepare for upcoming efforts. The boys are being sent to LA for a week to train with notable dance instructors there in an intensive course. Rumor has it:  Now is the time to start trying to find ways to use your personal talents to promote the group as a whole. Midas will bend over backwards for you if you can prove yourself capable of bringing in cash.

IMPERIAL –With their 5 year anniversary this month, the boys are holding a fan party in Jamsil Stadium, taking up a fair portion of the venue with their fans. Tickets have already sold out for both dates, a Friday and Saturday night show. The run time is roughly 2 hours, with three comment sections and a host of b-sides, ballads, and songs to entertain their fans.  Rumor has it: They’ll be gearing up for a comeback in the second half of the year, and will use reception at this fan meeting to drum up some media play regarding fanbase and popularity. 

WINK  – A fun spread in CECI is the order of the day for WINK, rounding out their promotional activities with a cover, a photoshoot, and an interview spread on their quick rise to fame over the past two years. Media play is expected hinting at their desires for the next comeback to feature a more mature and sultry image.  Rumor has it: With the newly bursting popularity the girls are facing, they risk overexposure with the public, but Koala.T doesn’t seem to mind, intent on putting the girls into as many articles, CFs, and photoshoots as he can get his hands on.  HEAVEN – Heaven is on Radio Star this week discussing their recently shifted image, the sultry appeal of their new song, the standout success of their unit Heaven1004, and what the future holds for the members in terms of solo activities! Rumor has it: This guesting will be used to begin shaping the narrative of the girls both as a whole moving towards a more matured sound and image, retaining their summer crown via the unit activities, and establishing their brands as solo promoters, in various avenues, beginning a new chapter for the group. 

POIZN – POIZN are stepping in as special hosts for a late night radio show, taking over the air as a group and determined to show off their skills. They’ll be hosting, performing acoustics of a few songs, and designing the playlists for the night - although these playlists will of course be carefully vetted and approved first.  Rumor has it: This is a step towards cleaning up the image of the group, a baby step taken to hopefully put out some business posts and media play about their solid skills, improved personalities, and true love of music. 

GLIMMER – The ever popular rite of passage for all rookies is the school festival. The girls of Glimmer have been invited to Gyeongsan National University to perform at their yearly festival, and 99 is hoping to drum up some interest in the girls through similar activities throughout the coming months.  Rumor has it: The girls will be facing a brief hiatus if this debut doesn’t hit it’s stride, to give those participating in the Produce Project group a chance to drum up appeal for the group as a whole, which means the others might need to start thinking of a way to stand out. 

HONEY –  The girls have landed another  CF deal, this time with Lotte Duty Free’s Yum campaign! It’s a fun, cute, retro take on things, with the inspiration commercial (here). This is certain to further establish their brand power, and the retro styling certainly suits the members quite well! Rumor has it: The upcoming comeback was slightly postponed due to member health concerns and the desire to push Galaxy harder while the public interest in them is heightened.  

CHERRY BOMB! – With the girls building up a fanbase on the back of their new summer song, promotions have brought them to After School Club, leaning hard on variety to propel the girls up the ladder a little further if possible, intent on increasing their exposure and using this brighter comeback to provide an offset to their creepy cute image of late. Rumor has it: This new comeback is either heralding the end of their creepy occult vibe concepts, or is designed to demonstrate the girl’s conceptual diversity.  With it outperforming former tracks but receiving a mixed critical response, it’s unclear if they’ll continue building an image of experimental musicality or will forsake that for marketability.

ATLAS –  It’s comeback week! Time to burst onto stage and take the world by storm once more - hopefully. The immediate reception to the song has been mixed, but live stages are sure to turn that around, provided you don’t make any major mistakes. Rumor has it: The boys are being overworked behind the scenes to the point of exhaustion, with filming for Vlives, preparation for activities, and so on keeping the boys awake for a solid 24 hours prior to their comeback stage performance. 

JAWBREAKER – With Let’s Go! Jawbreaker! still filming weekly and a comeback on the horizon, the girls are as busy as ever, with an endorsement for Adidas Originals, who have just made the group their brand faces. It’s a big opportunity for the group and one that KJH is certainly pleased to have been offered. They’ll be shooting a commercial and some promotional material for upcoming release. Rumor has it: KJH is intending to enter the legal fray to reclaim the girls’ former discography from Singularity in order to begin planning a KJH family concert. 

GALAXY – There’s a comeback on the horizon for the boys! MSG is really trying to push them harder in hopes that they’ll catch on with the public and amass a bigger fandom to solidify their position in the industry before other companies start debuting new boy groups into the mix. This means their schedules are jam packed with comeback preparations: last minute photo-shoots, rehearsals, and hours upon hours of training to make sure that they nail this comeback. Rumor has it: That MSG is potentially going to be looking into promotional opportunities in China as a new way to strengthen Galaxy’s fandom.  

XLNC –  Arirang Simply Kpop will be hosting the boys this week.  The English speaking broadcast will be featuring the whole group, a few stripped down performances to give the boys a chance to show off their live skills, and audience interaction via live stream feeds and twitter submitted questions. Rumor has it: Having the boys on an English based broadcast is a chance for them to reach out to the foreign market, and Koala.T will be carefully studying the demographics of those responding and interacting with the show to see how best to move forward. 

Produce: With the show wrapping up and debut on the horizon, the boys and girls alike have been thrown into the fervor of preparations for their upcoming comeback. If they thought the show was tough, this is ten times worse. Without the cameras, trainers and management can be as micromanaging and strict as they like, which means the pressure is on to get everyone to an equal, debut ready level - not easy with trainees of different companies and experience levels all lumped together. Rumor has it:  Despite their overall lower performance and attention given during the show, the boys are being approached for more brand deals and appearances, illustrating the good ol’ sexism of the idol world. 

#id.schedule

[orrtala]

Peepers: my darling precious evil frustrated ambitious little eyeball man

Post S1 analysis

Also it would be nice if you’d read the thing. I like the thing.

A good while ago I wrote how much I liked Peepers willing to put his foot down, when he's not afraid of Hater, when he's done with his boss and it shows. And some of you told me "Oh man, you're going to like Peepers in S2!" And I was like "Ok, fine, we'll see."

"The Greater Hater" started with Peepers clearly annoyed with Hater, not caring if he get blasted or not. Okay, good. Then he's clearly in awe of Dominator's ship and I go "oooooooh I suspected he'd leave Hater in S2 looks like I was right!" Then he goes off on Hater again and as we all know frustrated Peepers is the best Peepers. So here I was, thinking that Dom was going to be Peepers' new boss, happy about Commander letting his frustrations out, maybe he'd get some character arc thanks to the switch? …But at the same time I enjoyed that dynamic between Peepers and Hater and I was also kind of sad it was going to end right when it started to get really good? The episode continued; Dominator managed to trap Wander and Sylvia, enrage Hater and fight him back with ease, while Peepers gets a good look at bot factory. "This is it," I thought. "He's going to leave Hater for the new guy for galactic domination."

And then Peepers saved everyone by wrecking the console and, though I didn't really know it at the time, became my favorite character.

Peepers got A LOT of character development this season. And, strangely, his character arc wasn't even that big or prominent. He wasn't the one who was supposed to face Dominator in one way or another (though he tried, oh boy he tried and ended up with disastrous results). He was a guy who wanted to have universe at his feet, knew he lacked the abilites to do so and had to rely on someone powerful. But now with Hater being distracted by Wander all the time he had to work even more and even harder to fullfil his ambitions.

Aside from the very first episode it didn't start with much. In "The Big Day" he tried hard to get Hater out of Wander-frenzy, and failed miserably not noticing the whole skullship planned a wedding destruction ceremony. He broke down in tears and that was that. In "The Breakfast" he just served the titular meal multiple times only to get roped into cleaning the mess Hater left in his morning tantrum.

But then "The Axe" happened. Peepers is fired by his boss, keeps on hoping Hater would rethink the matter, but it seems like skeleton man gets on his own just fine. Peepers suffers through his inner "Grop I'm so sad about life and stuff" song (and I still didn't got to hear Tom Kenny's version, come on, when is it going to be released?) gets into taxi and… tries to find a new job in newspaper? What the heck, there are so many villains around, why can't he just work for one of them? It's because he truly believed Hater is the greatest, the most powerful villain in the galaxy. And that they could be great again working together if Hater would just let him. And, well, eventually he does, almost to the point of begging. They get back together, Peepers gets a statue, and everything is right in the world.

We also got to see his room in that episode. It's small, it has a bed, a toilet, a locker and a giant Hater poster. That's it. And then he can fit all his belongings in cardboard box (along with a plant that I'm sure he stole from the cafeteria to have something to put into box). It just shows how much time and effort he put into his work. No wonder he was depressed about the prospect of losing it all.

"The It". Oh my grop I absolutely adore this episode. Aside from being hilarious it was great Peepers episode. Commander is fed up with Hater's shenanigans and decides to work with what he can. Hater causes a chaos with the game of tag (and also wants to tag Peepers himself, and, well, we can't have that… cause… reasons… nobody would like to be it anway…) – time to freeze him in coldbrrnte! Nobody wants to be it? Time to use it against other villains! And we get this nifty montage of evil, ambitious Peepers. "A true villain turns weakness into a strength!" Thanks, Peepers, that was subtle. While writers just can't keep Commander happy for too long and episode ends up with him crying, at this point Peepers understands that while he needs Hater for the empire to work, he ensures watchdogs are working with him anytime skeleton man gets distracted by Wander.

…Though then again does he actually need Hater that much?

Enter "The Cool Guy". Peepers and Hater's relationship is actually pretty decent at this point. They seem to have an actual fun playing with toys strategic figurines and planning an invasion at the same time, but Emperor Awesome's arrival puts a wrench into the whole thing. On Peepers side he worries that his boss won't get to the invasion on time but eventually gets fed up with waiting – it's invasion time! Commander goes on how he knows very well what Hater truly wants, mocking his dreams of being popular and tries to lead the invasion on his own. While putting his eye-face on the flags. Though he definitely used Hater's popularity as a villain to do this.

When he goes off to the aliens about bowing down to their new master and ruler he gets interrupted. And no one, no one will ever convince that he wasn't talking about himself. He wanted to conquer in his name for once, just to try, maybe he had capabilites, maybe he was enough, maybe he didn't need Hater after all? But Awesome makes fun of him, of his cuteness, his height, and him being a nerd. And Peepers, despite the initial failure, responds in truly great manner, making fun of him instead, pointing out what pathetic person he is. However he does that without mentioning the jab at his height. It's clearly a thing he doesn't want to talk about.

There's not much to talk about when it comes to "The Rager" and "The Good Bad Guy". Peepers continues on being Peepers to who Hater actually listens to, but also gets smacked around by his boss (more about that in relationships analysis). He's just kind of there. Getting punched by Sylvia who wasn't even there.

Oh yeah, time to mention his relationship with Syl, huh. Since their moment in "The Battle Royale" they started to get along, somewhat. It's continued in "The Show Stopper", "My Fair Hatey" and "The End of the Galaxy". They found a similriaties in each other, common goals, and at some point even had fun together. Their frenemy thing going on is important to both of them, but especially Peepers, who, so far, didn't have anyone who he saw on a same level as him.

Before "The Battle Royale" Commander managed to get his boss to the #2 spot on the leaderboard, learned to work with childish Hater and the only real obstacle was Dominator on the first place, destroying planets left and right. After this episode Dom rmeained as obstacle, but in an entirly different way: previously Hater was willing to fight the guy back. But since he developed a crush on her things started to be… complicated.

Peepers, after the fluke of attack in "The New Toy", where Hater sabotaged every attempt at fighting Dom back using the frostonium, is done. He just wants to get rid of Dominator, wants his boss back on track; he doesn't even dream of getting S1 Hater, he just wants the things to be what the status quo from the S2 first arc back, when childish, distracted Hater was a person he could work with.

So when Commander gets Hat into his hands he snaps. "The universe will be mine!" He's entirely willing to leave Hater and conquer the universe – yes, he said universe, not galaxy – by himself. Dude's definitely ambitious. Of course after everything blows up and Wander gets his Hat back things get back to normal. Well, relatively normal. As normal as WoY with Hater having a crush on a bigger villain can get, I guess. But it was there, Peepers and his ambitions resurfaced yet again.

By the time "My Fair Hatey" rolls Commander decides to take matter into his hands. I feel like fighting Dominator was pretty personal for him at this point; she was the person who messed up his plans, who made Hater into total fool. He explains his plan to Sylvia in a glorious singing manner, roping her into bringing frostonium onboard Dom's ship and… well, he successed. Sort of. It's unclear what has actually happened, but Dom gets ice powers thanks to that and the galaxy is even more doomed. But nobody can accuse the little guy for lack of trying.

In "The Bad Neighbors" Peepers clearly feels guilty and tries to reach to Hater for help. He doesn't sleep, overworking himself even more than normally, and comes up with nothing. There is a bright spot at the end of a tunnel though – his confidence is back by the end of episode and everyone is free from sitcom shenanigans.

When I finished the series my Screener asked me which arc from S2 was my favorite and which one I liked the least. Without thinking I responded that I the third arc was definitely my least favorite. Before I could mull over my response she said: "oh yeah, it didn't have enough Peepers in it, right."

Yeah, Commander kind of disappeared in a last act and took backseat to Wander and Sylvia trying to find ways to beat Dominator. He finally got to appear in "The Robomechabotatron", where he pretty much laid out his opinion about Hater to Wander (which also meant some Peepers&Wander interactions, yay!) And while I love "The End of the Galaxy" he didn't do much there. At the beginning he lost all hope, though was later shown to be looking for Hater, probably trying to plan what to do next, if that galaxy was lost. He was extremely happy about getting his compentent boss back, saved Sylvia's life, got a serious case of heart eyes and it ultimately got back to chasing Wander across the galaxy.

So, Peepers. Ambitious, evil, workaholic Peepers. I love this guy.

While it's obvious he's evil, more evil than Hater, I was thinking: how evil is he? Can we assume he's as evil or even more evil than Dom? (Or Screwball, but let's stick to evil guys who know they're evil kay.) People seem not to think so, if only because he exclaimed: "Man, that's evil!" upon learning her plan of destroying the whole galaxy. First of all he's fine with destroying few planets. He was planning a tour to do it back in "The Big Day" for flarp's sake! It's not about all the people who would lose their homes and lifes in that, no. It's about his lack of comprehension about this plan. See, Peepers is ambitious, he wants to conquer, he wants to rule, even if it has to be in someone else's name (though we all know he would gladly do it alone if he could). Sure when he sees her plan on a giant screen he's shocked, but then…

…he has this look. It's not 'it's so evil why would she do that to these people' look, it's: 'what the flarp, why would anyone do that, what are the benefits, is that her plan, is that why she destroyed everything on her path, better stop her quickly or I won't have anything to conquer.' He wants to save the galaxy only to conquer it, he says it himself later in musical episode, and Hater remembers it in the finale, causing the heart eyes. So, yeah, personally I don't think Peepers is less evil than Dominator, he's just more cautious, needs to work with others, and doesn't see sense in destroying everything; what is there left to rule after all?

So what would happen to Commander in S3? A lot of things, I imagine, I wrote the whole post about my suspcions regarding his future. Also there's a matter of his and watchdogs' home planet, that aaparently was destroyed by Dom. We would learn about his background, maybe finally get his first name. More interactions with Hater and Sylvia. Please, please, more interactions with Wander and Dominator. And…

…I'm… just gonna go cry in the corner, okay?

TL;DR: I love this character so much. He's ambitious, evil, and was supposed to get an arc in S3. Still got a lots of development in S2 and what we got was glorious.

#commander peepers #woy #savewoy #character analysis #wander over yonder #not liveblogging #orr blogging #non episode

[colorspilling-blog]

Movement and Color

eWe’re not this individual thing that has to push life on earth forward. We’re all part of this gorgeous s trail coming out from behind. A shooting star. The call of light alone would be as beautiful if it were jus b itself. It would be this floating mass of while, not moving, no momentum. We are the momentum. A rainbow momentum swoosh behind the ballushing life forward, vibrations inside the ball of the winging ball trick that goes on gu”s desks. We’re that magic vibrations behind. That no one sees, bue eakes things MOVE. Just dons of existence and motion, driving a force along a path, we are in==not important at all, but we are essential, those of us working hard to Mae life pretty calms and soothes. And lifts us up. It makes things kind, and great, because why not enjoy life? Why not???? We’ll get there anyways. But in that, we DO have people suffering and people here now, and support those here ecaulse they are so important. Strive to make the world better for EVERYone. It’;; take moe itime, but it will be more beautiful. It will transform the world in new ways, in more gorgeous way. It will bring us into a sea of relaxation, it will le t us sooth and become more vibrant as a while. One color alone is monotonous. Its inconsequential. It’s bland it’s harsh. Variation a better world, gives us a doting, calm, wonderful place to live. But if e get to harsh apart, if those just prey on those who give, the givers should put that responsibility on them, as they are pulling back the shooting arrow through space and time. We all must push FORWARD. And the best way is to spread our wings and catch a draft of air forward. We go nowhere without that breadth of life, the expansion of our wings causes us to move forward. Rare stagnant without variation. Everyone is important equally and we will move forward. But don’t give too rigidly equally, the air will slide off and we will become still and spinning, things will get diss. Move forward to feel better. Everyone is in better place, of these octagons building up life. These bridges between places making up a beautiful whole. We are but tiny pieces of a huge pulse and everyone is so important and essential to this piece, and no watter what they do or who they are and link of this chain Maile, this vibrant rainbow chainmail because why not? Who NOT have things be beautiful it’s better. It feels better. It would be all the same, but that’s boring and we don’t fight for poring shit. We fight for who we love and who we are, it’s just how we’re MADE. And no different part of that is more or less essential.  And maybe there’ s a creator who creates and IS our god? But then soon out and that creator is where we are, being created by another creator. We’re tiny molecules of time, zooming in and out in pattern and vibrations. This natural beauty in a snowflake, That essential support and life essence, we’re just all doing it to make things pretty anyways. L. The moral vibrations produced as I’m experiencing this go and produce their own energy behind a ball swining in these next universe, so in a way, I am a creator. I am unknowingly a creator of al these infinite possibilities and different ways of live, JUST because I exist? For m existence to take shape, molecules need to me moved, atoms need to me shifted and used, and all these different parts of me have tiny pieces just pushing and glowing and MOVING. How do they MOVE> all these tiny vibrations being caused by even smaller fractals of color and moventmt. All within me. Every tiny rivrant of light and LIFE make me who I am@ It’s wonderful and for no other sake than for making my rainbow and my color, I love it. I love the colofr the vibrations have made for me. I love each and every part of me, and I hope everyone does too. Even the ones who are choosing to be bleak and bland, vecause in this array of space, we’re only tiny dots that make up another pattern and rainbow. My colors are so pretty and varied, and that’s gorgeous, but far way I look like one dot of light, one dot of color. I don’t look particularly cold or interesting, but I’, jere bot to balance out the shit, to ve land and be a park part of a bigger mosaic, but ALSO to be colorful and wonderful within myself, and love every color and every bit of me, and that’s MINE and who else chooses to love it and let it influence them, But no one has to love my shine for it to still be valid and wonderful. But no one HAS to acknowledge my shine. I am just as interesting and bright as an other person, though I shine fright in the one direction I’m facing. We’re in 2D now kids, I;;m pulling one way and others are pulling the other way, creating this form factor for a bubleand piece of a grid,  hat is the difference between science and blind faith always? As long as it’s not actively harming anyone, why the fuck now? Be cooky, love something wild. we all deserve equl part in this life, and don’t go and enforce yourself on others. This is my truth and only my truth, I’m  not speaking for anyone else, but me, and thats all I can do. I can hold this shape and old this color, and be who I am but tnothing less and nothing more, nothing marking anyone. It goes out is so many directions, where I believe to put m love and m time and m energy, and that’s fractilizes down into littly colored parts and shapes that make p ME, the atoms and particles make up ME, just like I make up part of this world. 
I really need to pees, Life is just a fluctuation between macro and micro, trying to find that balance and trying to find what we are. And that’s all of us and I can’t force it to be anyone. It’s just a basic truth. You can only exist as you are, each tiny part of us making up us making up a bigger structures. There are tiny particles moving me, Make not typing on the computer, but maybe they are! I don’t know and I will never know, not in my life time! We all mean so much and so little at the same time. And as long as that’s focus on you and you alone, that’s fine. My brain is hurting.

I’m definitely beginning to not be high anymore, and I don’t know what science is and what is just plain existence, and magic and faith, and all we can do is strive for what is science, because isn’t micro and macro all the same anyways?should we push others aside to travel the world and see the beauty and push out and onwards, despite people, to see the colors fractling elsewhere, or should we stay stout and supportive of who we are, and become one shard in the mosaic that is this cosmic universe. Fucking everything is relative and that sucks to accept and that sucks that we have to sometimes be boring and shitty, that we have to make sure things still move and things still PROGRESS, but part of us has to be within us, taking care of our color and our vibrance, to aid the bigger cause? If we don’t care about the smaller structures, and we don’t love and nurture each and every part of us, how can we go on to achieve the goals we dream of? There’s not enough TIME to both be you and not you, and to be pulled in your heart way or your mind way, and we’re all these FRACTLES of gorgeous humanity and existance, and everyone is fucking weird as shit and that makes things BEAUTIFUL. That makes things interesting and just. As existence. I’m this fractal of honestly believing this and wanting others to acknowledge who I am and this my belief and also a fractal of knowing I’m high! I’m mistyping! I’m this REAL human, I keep running to the bathroom to make sure I’m not bleeding on everything beacuase I’m a woman and because I exist and am, that’s COOL? But looking at it on a such clinical level is weird and I have to aside saying that It’s both this solid existence and nonsensical matter that it borders the line of science speak and pure gibberish. I’m SURE someone would read this and thing it’s everywhere and nonsensical and a ramblings of a selfish, shithead, undeserving, lunatic, and some people would look at it as a way to exist. It’s MY way to exist! And I don’t know who else shares what I believe and such until I go out and look at other people, I don’t know what makes me great unless I see what makes other people great. We are all giving and getting from pieces and parts of others, synthesizing each other and becoming who we are, we are bleeding rivers of color into each other’s pond, each tiny gradient important and essential to life, but also in and of itself creating a larger more washed out pixel, which has it’s place in the scene of things. I just became aware of time. It has faded in and out for a while. That’s both important and non important. Time isn’t anything. Why shouldn’t I be me in this moment, and then I lose the moment and lose other things. It all slips away when you focus down to who you are. Things make you bland and stale if you’re predictable and boring, and thus you have to be interesting and essential and different, while not detracting from anyone else seeking to do so.  I do not matter and neither does anyone else, but if we cease to exist whole galaxies and stars cease to exist. Lives cease to exist. We don’t matter. We are essential. We both seek to create the greater good and support that which makes us up be able to exist. Life is INCREDIBLE and vibrationally faceted, and our atoms and electrons are made of galaxies. We keep discovering more and becoming larger and more vibrant, but we block others out of the way. Life is finding the balance between us and US. Brb I gotta go de-period myself. Some people will praise this as their logical thought path, and others Will not. Being high and writing both is a meaningless waste of time, and who I COULD potentially be, exist as, contrubute. Those see part of it wrong, others see it as the way to live. We are essential, and we don’t matter.

Some will want this to go on, and some will want it to stop. Some may thing that my ramblings an essential way of deconstructing man, and some will see this as a throw away and garbage. They both matter, but neither should dominate.

This was sparked by the Office and weed.

Doing something kind and sweet for someone both inconveniences others but makes others better. All we can do is try and lift others up when they need to lift others. Chains. Links. When does morality become bad? Selfish, draining, self care, awareness vibrates out. Everyone has their existence and it tears me apart. It tears me apart and I want to see everything but I can see nothing without providing something for others to see.have power by not having power

#High #Weed #color #motion #brain goop #synesthesia #brain weird #neurodivergent

[flusteredkeith]

[voltron]: it’s quiet out here

Title: it’s quiet out here

Read it on [AO3] Words: 1678

Summary: In which Allura is pleasantly surprised to see Keith's calmer side.

(A little, short speculative fic about what Keith/Allura might’ve been up to when they were stuck in the pod during The Ark of Taujeer.)

Probably going to make a series out of this called Peas in a Pod :@) stay tuned~

Also: special thanks to my gorgeous friend @quarrely for reading it over :D

Calm. Still. Peaceful.

The serene state of the world outside their pod is the exact opposite of the chaotic panic currently residing inside of her. Allura’s not sure how long they’ve been flying, but now that the adrenaline from their impulsive decision has faded away, peace is about the farthest thing from her mind. What if the team wakes up thinking they deserted them? What if there’s an attack on the castle? Or worse, what if Zarkon finds the castle despite their efforts and they are unable to make it back in time to form Voltron? What if—

She stops herself and takes a deep breath. They’re away from the castle for completely valid reasons, she reminds herself. The rest of the team should be safer without them.

Wondering whether Keith is feeling just as concerned as she is, she glances over at him to try and gauge his emotional state of being—they’re in this together after all. Much to her confusion though, aside from “extremely focused,” she can’t get a closer reading. His face remains stoic and impassive, seemingly unaffected by any bouts of self-doubt or second guesses. It’s really quite impressive.

She wonders how he can stay so quiet this entire time.

“Do you think this is far enough?” Allura asks, starting to feel antsy and uncomfortable with the silence. Straightening up in her seat, she checks the dashboard to see how many doboshes have passed since they left.

Keith shrugs. “I’m just driving.”

“Okay,” she says before falling silent again. Folding her arms, she sits back and allows a few more doboshes to tick by. Debris flies by in the window display before them; her heart feels just as cluttered. Although she knows they’re doing this for the benefit of the team, the inevitable shock and anger when the rest of them wake up still nibbles at the pit of her stomach. Crossing her legs, she leans against the wall and concentrates hard on preventing her fingers from nervously drumming. It’s a terrible habit and she doesn’t want Keith to notice or worry.

“What's wrong?” he asks after one quick side glance at her.

“What do you mean?” she replies a little too quickly. As Keith continues to fly, he spares her one more look before returning his gaze to the road ahead.

“I dunno,” he says. “You seem tense.”

As Allura studies him now with a curious expression, it suddenly dawns on her that she’s never spent more than five minutes alone with Keith before. She knows the boy is smart, of course, but she hadn’t expected him to be quite so observant.

“I’m just… having some doubts,” she finally answers. “I suppose we are doing the right thing, leaving the castle, aren't we?”

“You were all ready to leave when you found me,” he says, keeping his eyes facing forward. “You should’ve stayed if you had doubts.”

“No, you misunderstand me,” she says, shaking her head. “I wanted to leave. I just… my mind tends to second guess itself from time to time, even as I’m in the midst of action. Mostly, I'm just worried what the others might think or feel about it. What if something happens to them?”

“The whole point is to test if Zarkon will find them or us first, isn't it?” Keith reasons. “So it doesn’t matter what they think. If something happens, we’ll figure it out.”

“I suppose,” Allura mutters. “I just hope they won’t be too angry when they find out.”

“It’s gonna be fine,” he assures, casting her a small smile. “They’ll live. Well. Shiro is going to kill us—that is for damn sure.”

Allura snorts. She stops at the sight of Keith’s surprised face and clears her throat. “Sorry. I—I just imagined it. His face, I mean.”

Keith blinks and continues to stare at her before his face cracks into a smirk.

“‘What were you guys thinking?’” he scolds in an accurate imitation of Shiro’s voice. “‘We’re supposed to be a team!’”

“Bless him,” Allura laughs, feeling the tightness in her chest beginning to unravel. She lets out an amused gasp at her next thought: “Oh, and Lance. He’s probably going to be so jealous.”

“Oh man, I hadn't even thought of that,” Keith grins. “He’s going to have a field day.”

“But Hunk will understand,” she says without a doubt. “He’ll know we had to do what we had to do.”

“Pidge will, too,” he says confidently. “She'll explain it to them scientifically. Probably with big words that Lance will be too impatient to decipher.”

“Probably,” she agrees before they break off snickering again. When the laughter dies down, a comfortable silence settles in as she catches her breath. And although Keith’s eyes are back on the glass pane before them, focused and sharp, she notices his smile hasn’t quite left his face. With a deep exhale, her mind drifts over to the last remaining member they haven’t mentioned yet.

“Coran isn't going to be too happy with me though,” Allura sighs.

“Oh, yeah?” Keith says. “Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know,” she says, leaning against the wall again. “Ever since we woke up and discovered we’re the last Alteans left, he’s been more… on edge about the idea of me being in danger. He tries to hide it, but I can tell. You saw how he was after I made so many wormholes in a row.”

“Well, to be fair,” he points out. “You are in danger more often now than ever before. It makes sense. Especially when you add that to the fact that… that you’re the only family you two have left.”

Allura feels the pod begin to slow down and she glances up at Keith. His eyes are still fixed on the path ahead but they seem to have lost their focus somehow. Trying to pick apart what may have caused this, she repeats the last thing he said in her mind. The words “only family,” and “left” echo back in her ears. She knows Keith is an orphan, but she doesn’t know much beyond that. It had been so easy when she approached Pidge to try and coax her into confiding her secrets, but Keith is different. Sensing his tension, she decides it’s not the right time to probe. Instead, she searches for something more comforting to say.

“Well, at least Coran and I aren’t alone anymore. We have you paladins now, too.”

He doesn’t look at her. Her lips tighten—it was worth a try.

Feeling discouraged, she tries to cast about for something different to lighten the mood. Perhaps she ought to ask him when he met Shiro, or to have him tell her a random fun Earth fact she wouldn’t have known otherwise. But right as she’s about to start off with a new topic, Keith opens his mouth and speaks first.

“It’s beautiful out here.”

She follows his gaze and looks upwards at the skies.

No matter how many times she’s seen this wide starry expanse, Allura’s breath still hitches in her throat. Swept away by the demands and concerns of their current struggles, she’s forgotten up until now how untouched and boundless the world really is. As their pod comes to a stop amidst the quiet backdrop of endless black space, she sits back and marvels at its wonder, allowing the stillness to fully consume her.

“It is beautiful,” she breathes. In spite of all the chaos that’s been happening in their lives, she’s reminded that the infinite cosmos has existed for eons. Out here, it feels impossible that there’s a war going on, not when these millions of stars have probably been around longer than Zarkon’s whole empire.

“Back on Earth, I’d always known the universe was much bigger than what we could see with our naked eye,” he says, and Allura can see the multitude of stars reflected in his wide-eyed stare. “But now, especially after what the Olkari have taught us, when I look at how vast the whole galaxy really is and realize there’s still so much I don’t know, still so much I’ve yet to explore… I don’t know. Somehow, I’m even more convinced that we really are all connected.”

Yeah—except for the Galrans, she thinks, but she can’t bring herself to say it now and ruin the mood. Not when Keith’s gazing up at the constellations with the kind of curiosity and reverence found in the face of a young awe-struck child. It’s the first time Keith has ever let down his guard in front of her like this and it feels sacred, something she wants to keep untainted. And when she stares back up at the skies alongside with him, she too feels the same transporting effect, finding herself back in a time when she once looked up at the stars with her father.

She was sitting in his arms in the middle of the juniberry fields as he stroked her hair, telling her stories of legends and great kings of old. We are all connected, he had told her then—though that was before Zarkon betrayed him. She doesn’t know if she can fully believe that anymore. After what the Galra did to their planet, how could they ever find such a harmonious balance in the world again?

But even as the burning rage begins to flare up in her heart, when Allura looks back at Keith out of the corner of her eye, she can’t help but simply let the anger dissolve. Not wanting to destroy the rare bit of serenity they’ve both managed to obtain, she pushes the thought away, for Keith’s sake.

Instead, she lets the memory of her father’s voice calm her mind in the form of a gentle whisper. Because despite the chaos and war that had been dominating their lives, as she sits here with Keith in the cramped space of their pod looking out into the night, Allura is grateful to have a friend to share in this small moment of peace.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #kallura #keith #allura #justine writes #they are pod baes #peas in a pod #ngl wanting to write allura as someone with very teenager behaviors #was a huge motivator for this fic #justinewrites #!mine

[tokupedia]

Kamen Rider 45th Anniversary File: Den-O WAZA! Part 1

2007:

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive airs on ABC related networks as the 6th entry of the Disney Era of Power Rangers. The Power Rangers franchise reached its 15th year and we saw the brief return of veteran rangers such as Adam Park in a 2-part crossover!

PORK CUBE STEW! The 31st entry of Super Sentai, Juken Sentai Gekiranger, airs alongside Den-O. The show is styled to motif kung-fu styles with an animal theme. An example of the kung-fu motif aside from combat is that the names of some of the masters the Gekirangers are trained by are parodies of actual kung-fu movie stars (Ex. Sharkie Chan, Bat Li etc.)

Ultraseven X, a dark revival of Ultraseven, airs on Japanese cable TV.

Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, a continuation of the Ultra Series set 500,000 years after Mebius, premieres on TV.

GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai is released on DVD. This film acts as a 30th anniversary crossover of past Rangers and introduces us to the living embodiment of the Red Warriors, AkaRed.

Let’s fight if you wanna be a soldier! ~  Kamen Rider: The Next, a sequel to the reboot movie Kamen Rider: The First, premieres in theaters.

“The Train of Time, DenLiner...will its next stop be The Past... or the Future?”

2017 is Kamen Rider Den-O’s 10th anniversary.

Den-O is a bit hard to talk about...because it is massive. This is, by far, the most commercially successful entry in the series ever. Seven movies featuring the cast, anime spinoffs, crossovers, multiple cameos and guest starring roles of the cast members in other films, and toys...lots and lots of toys.

Kamen Rider was always as part of its core, a sci-fi based TV series and one of the younger long runners of the genre. So given that, Time Travel has popped up as a plot every now and then. But now, this trope was going to be front and center as one of the story’s main elements.

It is an odd coincidence they chose now to do this, as a certain British show made its return 2 years ago and was taking the world by storm. Another is the choice of a train as the time vehicle that didn’t need 1.21 GW. Kamen Riders ride motorcycles or in rare cases sports cars, so a Train seemed like left field thinking, but it was propelled by a motorcycle. Because when you think of breaking the space-time continuum and controlling it at will, you apparently need a Honda. We can assume in this world that if Honda can make robots that can climb stairs and play soccer, they can make train pushing timebikes powered by chroniton-flux-inverse neutron technobabbly whatchamawhozits.

But, Japan loves trains as it is an integral part of their public transportation system and it is fast and reliable transport thanks to the bullet trains. Trains also capture the imaginations of young boys, which means there is money to be made for toymakers like Bandai.

Now after a few seasons full of dark subjects like suicide, people being eaten, betrayal and such, the Powers that Be decided to lighten the mood a bit and have a slightly more comedic series. Toei producers chose Yasuko Kobayashi to be the head writer for this series (whom Toonami anime fans might recognize later on as the head writer for the Attack on Titan anime). 

Den-O is a love or hate series depending on your tolerance for moments of nonsense and slapstick and having characters who in some fans minds have long overstayed their welcome. The TV series itself and the first few films are fine and even fun, its when the Toei staff decided to drag it out that things got tiresome to some.

The basis of this series, outside of the concept of time travel, is how humans perceive time itself: How we cherish it and how what we do can impact it no matter how great or small. Some of the victims of the villains, The Imagin, all have regrets about time: “What if I did something different back then?”, “How can I move on from that?, “How can I face the future knowing this is going to happen and there is nothing I can do to change it?”.

At one point, the universe of Kamen Rider is said to have a concept, part of how Time works is how humans perceive it, events that happen are remembered and stay in people’s minds and that becomes the reality. There is a bit of truth to this, some of the actions we make have consequences, some bigger than others. But also, the connections we make in the time we have and how we interact with others can shape the world. Still, the concept also sort-of does not work as Time is wibbly wobbly stuff and would exist with or without humans as a fundamental force of all creation that is absolute.

The passengers of time

The star lead, Takeru Satoh, made the show work as unlike his predecessors, Takeru portrayed a more average hero. Rather than be a chiseled shrine to masculinity or a man who is naturally gifted at being a warrior after a few fights. Ryotaro Nogami...is us if we were given the power of the belt.

He is clumsy, when he sees a monster for the first time, he freaks out and faints, he stumbles during fights and flails around his weapon. But then he grows as a person and becomes the hero we want him to be. Just as we do in life, we grow into something better if we strive for it. In essence, Ryotaro is one of the most human Kamen Riders in the series as he isn’t perfect, but his heart is in the right place.  Another factor of Takeru Satoh was his comedic timing and ability he had to play a character who had more than one character in his body at times.

Praise should also go to main suit actor Seiji Takaiwa, as this was one of his most difficult roles. He had to pretend to be anywhere from 2 to 6 characters sharing the exact same body on top of being another character and every form of Den-O. It was grueling on him as he had to move his limbs in different directions or posture in different ways or even act like he had voices in his head and try to remember who acted what way. As seen in a stage show interview, it could drain him to the point of exhaustion.

Some actors were from previous Kamen Rider shows, such as Rina Akiyama from Agito and Yuichi Nakamura from Hibiki.

Given the extension this series has gone through, it is only fair to show the other players in the story so newcomers don’t get lost before going onto the Riders. (Yes, plural but we’ll get to that later.)

The DenLiner Crew (lovingly named Team DenLiner by fans)

Owner

Owner is the..Owner of the DenLiner, a mysterious figure who holds authority on his train and is very eccentric. Often he speaks in riddles about time and only lets on those who have a ticket or a Rider Pass on his train. He, like the main hero, is a Singularity Point, a being who can exist outside of time and be unaffected by Imagin. He also does not like fighting on his train and will throw anyone off for doing so.

Naomi

Naomi is the stewardess of the DenLiner's dining car, which the gang frequents regularly. She is a sweet and bubbly young woman who serves coffee to the passengers of the train, though her coffee is terrible and only Imagin seem to like its taste. She does get moments to shine and help out when the chips are down, but even when she doesn’t take part of the action, she seems perfectly content taking orders for hungry passengers and meeting new faces like other Kamen Riders.

Hana

Warning: Spoilers!

Hana is Ryotaro’s niece from the future (though she doesn’t know this). She, like her uncle, is a Singularity Point. As a young woman, she time traveled to 2007 and bestowed her uncle a Rider Pass to become Den-O in order to protect and restore the future that the Imagin had destroyed.

Due to her future being rewritten/restored at a certain point in the show, she de-ages to a 10 year old, presumably because the restored time had a ripple effect and changed the year she would be born.

Yuto Sakurai/Kamen Rider Zeronos Altair Form

Yuto Sakurai is the fiance of Ryotaro’s sister Airi and Hana’s future father. Yuto is a bit headstrong, but he means well.

There are actually two of them during the TV show, one from the past and one from the future. The Zeronos System is one that involves personal sacrifice, as each time a Zeronos card is used, Yuto erases his own time or rather the memories made from his existence. He later gets red cards that use his own memories to become Zero Form, which along with the green/yelow cards eventually erases his future self.

The cards unlike many trinkets are expendable as they fade away after a certain period of use. Eventually, nobody outside of a Singularity Point remembers him and he loses the love of his life (but he hopes to return to her someday.). He defends time along with Den-O despite the risks along with his Imagin...

Deneb

Deneb is an Imagin who rebelled against his kind and decided to help Yuto fight by forming a contract with him. He is something of a butler to Yuto and takes care of him, but this often leads to embarrassing moments for Yuto. He is very polite and friendly but can be serious in battle, merging with Yuto to become Zeronos Vega form or the Denbick Buster cannon in Zero form.

Kotaro Nogami/New Den-O

Kotaro is another Rider from the Nogami family from the distant future. He is Ryotaro’s Grandson. When first meeting his grandfather in the past, he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. This is due to the fact he named him and by his time period, Kotaro is a country bumpkin name and he has inherited his grandfather’s infamous bad luck.  He eventually learns to respect his grandpa and takes over his role as Den-O when Ryotaro decides to step down.

Up Next...the Taros, the Hero and the villains!

The Climax is only getting started!

#kamen rider #45th anniversary #kamen rider den-o #denliner #train #time travel #superhero

[frankkjonestx]

Stephen Wolfram’s hypergraph project aims for a fundamental theory of physics

Thanks to Kevin Bacon, everybody nowadays knows about networks.

There are not only Bacon-like networks of actors, linked by appearing in the same film, but also social networks, neural networks and networks of viral transmission. There are power grid networks, ecological networks and the grandest network of all, the internet. Sometimes it seems like the entire universe must be just one big network.

And maybe it is.

Physicist–computer scientist–entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram believes the universe is a vast, growing network of relationships that constitutes space itself, and everything within it. In this picture, Wolfram sees the basis for the ultimate theory underlying all of physical law.

Wolfram expressed something like this view 18 years ago in a 1,197-page tome entitled A New Kind of Science. But back then his picture was still a little fuzzy. Now he thinks he has found a more sharply focused vision for how to explain reality.

“I’m thrilled to say,” he writes in a summary document released April 14, “that I think we’ve found a path to the fundamental theory of physics.”

At the core of Wolfram’s approach is the notion of a hypergraph. “Graph” in this context is like the diagrammatic representation of a network: lines connecting points. But reality can’t be captured by lines linking points on a flat sheet of paper. Wolfram generates computer visualizations to depict relationships in more complicated “hypergraphs.” (In a hypergraph, the “lines” can connect any number of points, not just one to another.)

Wolfram’s investigations indicate that complex hypergraphs can mimic many features of the universe, including matter and energy, along with reproducing the physical structures and processes described by the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

“In our model, everything in the universe — space, matter, whatever — is supposed to be represented by features of our evolving hypergraph,” Wolfram writes.

His key point is that such extremely complex hypergraphs can be produced by applying simple rules to a simple starting point. Suppose you have two “abstract elements” labeled A and B. You have a rule that says every A should be changed to BBB, and every BB should be replaced with A.

Start with A. By the rule, you “update” A to BBB. BBB possesses two BBs. So you update BBB twice: Once, making the first two Bs into an A (making AB), and then making the second two Bs to an A, making BA. So:

A

is connected to

BBB

which is connected to both

AB and BA.

Updates of AB and BA both yield BBBB. But BBBB then makes ABB, BBA and BAB. As you keep on applying the rule, the graph gets more complicated.

These update steps, Wolfram says, correspond to our common notion of time, a sort of ticktock of the cosmic clock. As a rule is repeatedly applied to a set of abstract entities, the resulting connections — the graph of the relationships linking them — correspond to the structure of space. So space (in this picture) is not a mere uniform set of indistinguishable points; rather it is a network of points linked in unfathomably complex patterns that reproduce matter and energy and the relationships collectively known as the laws of physics.

“This is basically how I think space in the universe works,” Wolfram writes. “Underneath, it’s a bunch of discrete, abstract relations between abstract points. But at the scale we’re experiencing it, the pattern of relations it has makes it seem like continuous space of the kind we’re used to.”

It’s sort of like how fish perceive the ocean as a smooth featureless fluid, even though the water is made of discrete tiny molecules.

In a sense, Wolfram believes, everything that exists is basically made from space. “Put another way,” he writes, “it’s the exact same hypergraph that’s giving us the structure of space, and everything that exists in space.”

It almost sounds like theoretical physicists should close up shop and just run some computer simulations using Wolfram’s rules. But as he acknowledges, the job isn’t done yet. So far Wolfram’s project has identified almost 1,000 rules that produce complicated structures that look like a universe. It remains to be seen what rule produces precisely the universe we all actually inhabit.

“Sometime — I hope soon — there might just be a rule … that has all the right properties, and that we’ll slowly discover that, yes, this is it — our universe finally decoded,” Wolfram writes.

In his summary, Wolfram declares that hypergraphs illustrate a principle he calls “causal invariance.” That means that various distinct paths through the hypergraph can sometimes converge. Such convergences allow the cause-and-effect chain of events through time to be preserved.

In a hypergraph “there is not just one path of time; there are many paths, and many ‘histories,’” Wolfram writes. But one supposedly independent path of history can merge with another. “Even when the paths of history that are followed are different, these causal relationships can end up being the same — and that in effect, to an observer embedded in the system, there is still just a single thread of time.”

Thanks to causal invariance, Wolfram’s hypergraphs reproduce many of the consequences of various physical theories, such as Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Traveling rapidly slows down time (as special relativity says) because hypergraph structures corresponding to moving objects make an angle through the hypergraph that extends the distance between updates (or time steps). The speed of light is a maximum velocity, as relativity states, because it represents the maximum rate that information can spread through the hypergraph as it updates. And gravity — described by Einstein’s general theory of relativity — emerges in the relationship between features in the hypergraph that can be interpreted as matter particles. (Particles would be small sets of linked points that persist as the hypergraph updates, something like “little lumps of space” with special properties.)

In an even more complicated extension of these ideas, Wolfram explores how hypergraph properties even correspond to the weird features of quantum mechanics. “In our models, quantum mechanics is not just possible; it’s absolutely inevitable,” Wolfram asserts.

Space as constructed in such hypergraphs can have a very fine structure, like a digital camera sensor with gazillions of megapixels. Wolfram estimates that a hypergraph corresponding to today’s universe might have applied 10500 time steps (incomprehensibly more than the universe’s age in seconds, roughly 1015). So space could be fine-grained enough to contain matter-particle structures much, much smaller than the known particles of physics. In fact, Wolfram suggests, supersmall unknown particles, which he calls oligons, might have been created in abundance shortly after the beginning of the universe. Such oligons, subject only to gravity, could now be hanging out in and around galaxies utterly unnoticed — except for their gravitational impact. Oligons might therefore explain why astronomers infer the existence of vast amounts of invisible “dark matter” in space. (And that could also explain why attempts so far to identify the nature of dark matter have been unsuccessful.)

Similarly, the mysterious “dark energy” that drives the universe to expand at an accelerating rate might just be a natural feature of Wolfram’s hypergraphs. Perhaps dark energy might in essence just be what space itself is made of.

Beyond that, Wolfram believes that his hypergraphs could resolve current disputes about which of many speculative theories are the best bets for explaining fundamental physics. Superstring theory, loop quantum gravity, causal sets and other ideas have all been proposed, and debated, for decades. Wolfram thinks hypergraphs can contain all of them.

“It almost seems like everyone has been right all along,” he writes, “and it just takes adding a new substrate to see how it all fits together.”

Wolfram’s technical paper (and accompanying papers — here and here — by colleague Jonathan Gorard) have been posted on a website promoting his project, and Wolfram is inviting the physics community to participate in pursuing his vision.

“In the end our goal must be to build a bridge that connects our models to existing knowledge about physics,” he writes. “I am extremely optimistic that we are finally on the right track” toward finding the “right” rule for our universe.

That “right rule” would generate a hypergraph with our universe’s precise properties: three (apparent) dimensions of space, the right cosmic expansion rate, the right repertoire of elementary particles with the correct charges and masses, and other features.

But perhaps, Wolfram has realized, seeking one single rule misses a bigger point. Maybe the universe uses all the possible rules. Then all the possible universes are just parts of one really big universe, in which “absolutely everything … can happen — including all events for all possible rules.”

We discern a certain set of physical laws based on the “language” we use to describe and comprehend the world. The elements of this language are tuned to “the kinds of things our senses detect, our measuring devices measure, and our existing physics describes.” The right rule is the one that corresponds to the portion of the hypergraph that we explore from our own particular frame of reference. Life elsewhere might see things differently. “There’s actually an almost infinite diversity of different ways to describe and experience our universe,” Wolfram suggests.

In other words, explaining the physics that applies to our existence might require insight into the mechanisms of a vastly more complex reality, beyond the realm of what we can experience. As Wolfram puts it, “In many ways, we are inevitably skating at the edge of what humans can understand.”

As he acknowledges, much more work will be needed to merge his approach with the successful theories of established physics. And standard physics does have an impressive resume of accomplishments, explaining details about everything from the innards of atoms to the architecture of the universe and the nature of space and time.

Yet mainstream physicists have long suspected that space and time cannot be fundamental concepts. Rather it seems likely that space and time are conventions that must emerge from something deeper. It might be a long shot, but just maybe Wolfram has perceived a path that leads to the depths where reality originates.

Only time — or many more hypergraph updating steps — will tell.

from Tips By Frank https://www.sciencenews.org/article/stephen-wolfram-hypergraph-project-fundamental-theory-physics

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: G Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 7/26 Read on AO3 here.

“Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that’s what was happening …” A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? Rating may go up as the story continues

"So, what's everyone doing here?" Rose asked, tugging on the Doctor's elbow so that she wouldn't be separated from him and also to remind him that he couldn't simply turn and run off whenever something shiny caught his eye.

"They're here for the Festival of Offerings!" he announced grandly, smiling back at her. "Takes place every thousand years or so when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally - like, er ... Pancake Tuesday!"

Just then, one of the aliens in the booth they were passing by grabbed Rose's arm and forced her to a stop. She whirled to find a woman (at least, she thought it might be a woman) with an oddly dog-like face and menacing teeth staring down at her.

"Looking for a bauble, Miss?" the strange woman asked loudly. "We've got the finest wares in the whole System, right here! You'd look amazing in Reluvian Gold. What do you say, Sir? A fine necklace for the missus? Or earrings! We've got earrings!"

"Thanks, we'll have a look around," the Doctor replied politely, but Rose noticed that he brushed the alien's demanding grip off of her arm with enough force and authority to warn her that she should keep her hands to herself from now on.

"Do all of these aliens speak English?" Rose asked mildly, knowing that she would have to replay this old conversation as well, so as not to raise suspicion.

"Ah, that's the TARDIS!" the Doctor explained, just as excitedly as he had the first time around. "There's a telepathic field that she can project into your mind to translate spoken and written languages. Comes in handy quite a lot. You can understand them, and they can understand you!"

Rose fought the instinct to roll her eyes at him as she began to peruse the booth's wares. It seemed that he still didn't quite grasp why some humans might have an issue with his strange blue box getting inside of their heads. But Rose and the TARDIS had been through so many things together by now, she found that she couldn't really bring herself to be as angry as she had been the first time he had explained his ship's telepathic abilities.

"So, what do you say? Anything catch your eye?" the Doctor went on casually, watching Rose carefully as she inspected the glittering alien jewelry before them.

"I don't have any money," Rose reminded him, flashing him a pointed look over her shoulder as she leaned closer to poke at a long chain that looked to be made of gold. She knew that the Doctor didn't normally travel with currency - and she doubted that a century of time without her would have been enough to change that particular habit.

"Neither do I," the Doctor replied predictably, "but they don't use money, here. They trade in value. The more sentimental something is, the more value it has. A photograph, a love letter, something like that. It's called psychometry - the objects psychically imprinted with their history."

"That's ... different," Rose admitted, scrunching up her nose as she continued to casually shop through the alien woman's wares. How did someone rate value? It seemed a bit subjective to her.

"Better than using bits of paper," the Doctor countered stubbornly.

"Fine, then you pay," Rose challenged, flashing him a teasing look. "You're a thousand years old. You must have something you care about." No, he never traveled with money, but she knew for a fact that he did have bigger-on-the-inside pockets that were filled with various bits and pieces of varying value.

But the Doctor simply shrugged noncommittally and turned away from her without a response, a strange cloud darkening his green eyes.

"Talk about a cheap date," Rose teased, smiling at him in an attempt to lighten his mood.

"Oi!" he protested indignantly. The Doctor whirled around to glare at her, but at least the forlorn look had left his expression. "It's ... not a date," he grumbled under his breath as he turned to scowl at a row of bracelets that were studded with some sort of pink-colored gem.

"Alright, then, what can I use?" Rose asked, looking down at herself and trying to think of what she might have that would hold any sort of value. This was a new world, a new body, and new clothes - none of it held much meaning to her.

"What about your ring?" the Doctor asked mildly, not even turning to look at her.

"My what?"

"Your ring," he repeated, turning to nod pointedly at her left hand before turning his back on her once more.

Rose furrowed her brow as she glanced down at her left hand in confusion and noted for the first time that there was a thin, brass-colored ring around her third finger.

"But that's ..." she murmured breathlessly.

It wasn't her wedding ring - that had been handmade by her husband, and she knew for a fact that there wasn't another single ring like it in any number of parallel worlds. But it followed the same general shape that she had grown so accustomed to wearing over the past seventy-or-so years of marriage. It was thin around the bottom and widened towards the top, a single, open circle sitting where she was used to seeing a delicate rose-colored gem.

"That's got plenty of value," the Doctor continued with his back to her, his tone as unaffected as though he were simply discussing the weather. "You could buy this entire booth with that ring alone."

"No, that's ... I'm fine," Rose stuttered, trying to force words out through the sudden lump in her throat. "I don't really want anything anyway. It's fine. Let's go."

The Doctor flashed her an assessing look out of the corner of his eye, but then simply shrugged and led them off further into the alien bazaar. "Are you married, then, Clara Oswald?" he asked casually, his hands tucked primly behind his back as he quietly matched his pace to hers.

"I used to be," Rose replied quietly, staring down hard at her hand as she slowly twisted the ring around her finger. How had she not noticed it before? And how long had the Doctor known that it was there? Knowing him, he had probably seen it from the moment he first laid eyes on her.

"Bit young to be a widow, aren't you?" he asked curiously, and Rose wasn't even surprised that he had so accurately gauged the situation.

"Says the thousand-year-old alien with the baby face," she murmured sarcastically, flashing him a sardonic look out of the corner of her eye.

The Doctor chuckled good-naturedly, but Rose knew that he wasn't done questioning her - not by a long shot. "It's also a bit rude to assume a woman's age like that, Doctor," she continued, pretending to scold him. "And, just so you know, it's human custom to offer condolences in a situation like this."

"Oh, right ..." he murmured awkwardly. "Sorry."

Rose flashed him a forgiving smile and was prepared to let the topic of conversation drop when the Doctor suddenly asked, "How did he die?"

And Rose knew that she shouldn't tell him the truth - this conversation was dangerous enough already. After all, this man who she was talking to now was deeply connected to her husband in a way that was confusing and terrifying all at once. She knew that she shouldn't have even let on that she was married in the first place - the Doctor was right, her new, mid-twenties body would raise questions if she went around like the grieving widow that she was. But how was she supposed to know that the Bad Wolf would somehow make her a parallel approximation of her wedding ring without telling her?

Still, the temptation to blurt out the truth was too great to be ignored. She knew that it was selfish, but Rose had no one else who she could talk to about her husband, and she still missed him so terribly that it took her breath away sometimes. The man before her may be wearing a different face, but in some ways, he was the only other person in this world who even knew who her husband was.

"His heart gave out," she muttered, not daring to meet the Doctor's eye as she spoke. "About a year-and-a-half ago."

And for once, the Doctor surprised her by letting the conversation end there. Rose knew that he had more questions - how could he not? But he kept them politely to himself as he nodded solemnly and repeated his quiet condolences.

Rose, however, knew that she was never going to get a better chance than this, so she asked, "What about you, Doctor? You're a thousand years old, why are you wandering out here alone? Don't you have other friends or ... anyone else?" She didn't dare bring up Susan again, and certainly not Gallifrey, but Rose hoped that maybe he would deflect the question and at least tell her about his most recent companions. He had had friends in the dalek asylum, and the fact that he had still not brought them up concerned her greatly.

"Friends? Yes, of course I have friends!" the Doctor replied, his loud exuberance returning once more, along with his nervous fidgeting. "I've got loads of friends - all in different time periods across the galaxy. You can't do as much traveling as I do without making friends."

And enemies, Rose thought silently to herself. Out loud, she asked, "Well ... where are they, then? Why aren't they here with you?" And she knew that it hurt him to remember, but she just had to know what had put that deep, heavy sadness on his shoulders.

The Doctor only paused for a moment, but it was all that Rose needed to see that his hurt ran even deeper than she could have imagined. Finally, he threw his hands in the air and exclaimed, "Nah, they've got better things to do! They're all off living their lives, having babies and anniversaries and building debt - all that boring, normal stuff. They don't need me. Besides - I've got all of time and space to see! Can't forget that. There's so much that needs doing - worlds to save, people to meet, food to try."

The Doctor punctuated his chattering words by dipping his finger into the green whipped thing that was still slowly melting in Rose's hands and then brought it to his mouth with a gleeful grin.

"See?" he insisted eagerly. "Can't get that back on Earth, now, can you?"

Rose took a moment to watch him before replying. She wanted so badly to tell him the full truth of who she was, but she still didn't quite know how to explain this strange situation that they now found themselves in. She knew that as long as she decided to keep this secret, she would have to be subtle in order to keep him from getting suspicious, but she couldn't have stopped the words that came next even if she wanted to. She knew that he needed them now as much as he had back when he had first met her, and she wasn't about to let the Doctor go on in misery if there was anything that she could do to stop it.

"It's better with two," she muttered quietly. "Wouldn't you say, Doctor?"

Her words stopped him in his tracks and the Doctor turned to stare at her in unrestrained shock for a moment. She could practically see his brain working behind those new, bright green eyes of his. He was looking at her as though he had seen a ghost, and he wasn't quite sure if he could believe the proof of his own two eyes.

Rose threw caution to the wind as she stepped forward and firmly took his hand in hers. She watched as all of the air whooshed out of his lungs as though she had firmly and solidly hit him right in the gut.

"Right ..." he murmured slowly, continuing to stare down at her with a complicated expression. "Quite right." And Rose was pleasantly surprised when he offered her a kind smile instead of more suspicion.

"This way!" he said, suddenly tugging on her hand and jolting her immediately back into the adventure that he had planned. "There's this Hilomian soothsayer that you simply have to meet. Oh, I hope he's still here. The last time we met, he told me ..."

And just like that, he was back to his over-ecstatic Doctor-teaching-mode and he went about leading her off to see the many wonders of the universe. Rose grinned like a fool as she followed after him, hoping beyond hope that maybe this time the universe would be kind, and she wouldn't have to be torn from his side again.

#doctor who #dw #fanfiction #fanfic #doctor who fanfiction #doctor who fanfic #dw fanfiction #dw fanfic #the doctor #eleventh doctor #rose tyler #the doctor/rose #the doctorxrose #eleven/rose #elevenxrose