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alienwritestoo · 7 months

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Legend Reborn

Technoblade is a legend on the QSMP. His deeds are ballads sung in the festive streets of the favela, chronicle of dedication inspiring the monumental stretch of potatoes growing on the wall and tales of hard-won battles uplifting the fight against the worst government known yet.

Sometimes, an unusually large Cucurucho can be found at the shrine dedicated to his memory, fingering a singular emerald earring.

The crown before him gleamed with familiar, unfulfilled purpose.

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Technoblade left the DSMP when he deemed Dream’s oppressive server free from the tyranny of governments, forever meant to be more than the sums of suppressive never meant to bes and unfinished symphonies. The tundra that once shielded armies of dogs and withers soon swarmed with the metaphorical winds of adventure, melting the cold heart he developed to survive on this server with its dangerous consequences, urging him onward to his next quest.

The piglin hybrid felt comfortable moving on, like his older brother had, towards an inexplicable future. He trusted his old man Philza to look after anyone who still stayed on the server, especially those who would no longer accept his help.

Philza stood with Steve at the gate to see him off, waving softly while his eyes burned with pride and unshed tears. The older warrior promised himself that he would make the old immortal never worry about one of his sons ever again, the only remaining to make it through the harrowing experience of DSMP mostly unscathed. His father surely trusted him, and only him, to survive despite all the world could throw at him. He would not let him down.

His fur prickled as he followed the warm breeze to warmer climates, ripping away government after government in his path onwards to an unknown ultimate prize. The governments there quickly realized he was coming, hastily setting up assassinations and armies to disway him. Yet Techno persisted, striding unceremoniously into rebellious camps who quickly accepted his tutelage to overthrow sure tyranny. It was a walk in the park after the annoyance it had been L’Manberg, that had been backed by an mask-cladded Admin until it miraculously switched to his side.And besides, even if Tubbo had been a weak president, the sting of Tommy betraying him stung like nothing else.

The king of Antarctica wasn’t meant to get so close to the desert, but Technoblade would make the world realize otherwise. His quest lay south, and then someday he could retire to own a farm.

In his uncomfortable state, he didn’t see it coming that he would be cowardly captured on an assuming night in a desert village near the sea. The anarchist had no time to react, huffing with outraged growls towards an unseeing assailant who didn’t react to a single hit from him as his humble lodgings wavered in his vision. Another Admin had taken interest in him, not even bothering to show its face as it continued to invisibly rain down potions of harming with impassioned precision. He continued to struggle for agonizing minutes with blood pouring out of his mouth and staining his tusks.

Technoblade’s face paled at the predicament he was in as he finally collapsed, lumbering form falling to his knees as his kidnapper removed the crown from his head like they were taking a toy from a toddler.

The piglin hybrid later woke to a cell of stark, lifeless quartz, with nothing but an orange jumpsuit to his name. Soon after, he lost himself to a haze of interrogations and treatments that turned him into something else, a creature with red eyes that eventually passed all the tests except-

He could never manage to speak, in support nor against the federation. It was the only rebellion he had left, as a duck creature handed him a clipboard and gave him his first task.

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Philza knew there were multiple Cucuruchos. The immortal had seen Chayanne slink back into the bunker from “night school” enough times, and glimpsed more than one of the white-furred creatures poking into the islanders’ business. Not the career path he would’ve encouraged for his adventurous egg, but the once-famed Angel of Death knew they had little choice in the matter.

Other than the times he saw Cucurucho-Chayanne, there was just one other that bothered him deep down.

One of the newer Cucuruchos was especially odd in comparison to the rest. The creature appeared when Luzu logged on with his binary code messages that oozed of sudden warnings, lumbering behind a pair of regular Cucuruchos with glinting red eyes. It towered over its cousins with muscle, wielding axes and crossbows rather than the classic gun. Tubbo, who was newer to the island but had managed to typically outmaneuver the creatures, had frozen inexplicably at the fireworks lining the crossbows it handled with ease.

Etoiles had gaped when the creature had joined the battle with an arsenal of old school vanilla weapons against three fake eggs, and carried.

“What the fuck?” Cellbit exclaimed as he examined the photo Pomme had taken of the newer creature. The detective looked like he wanted to drink vodka at its looming presence in PVP, only calming with Roier’s reassuring palm on his shoulder.

“No mames!” Roier shook his head in agreement. “This fucking sucks, man.”

“Why are there more of them?” Baghera questioned with a frown. “Why would they need one so big? Is it an intimidation tactic?”

Philza let the conversations wash over him as the order deliberated over what the new creature’s presence meant. The crow hybrid held a photograph in his hand, fingering the emerald earring it wore on its ear. It was the same exact style to his, a piece of jewelry that had been a mystery to him since his arrival to the island.

The old immortal remembered much of his past in comparison to the rest of the islanders. He was the only one to willingly volunteer, able to bargain with the foreboding federation to retain most of his memories.

Philza didn’t remember what he gave up, but he had his suspicions when his memories tried to tell him he never had any family. His heart pulsed with a heart thrumming with power his soul knew had been gifted, making him never age as long as he didn't die in combat. When he first joined the island, the man found a bag of blue dye tied together with a fancy ribbon and a note saying “calm yourself, have some blue”. None of these items had an explanation, especially the emerald earring that swung on his ear-

Until now.

“Does he want to die?” Etoiles inserted as the group gravitated around the corpse of one of the codes, pulling Philza out of his thoughts. “I can give it the gift death if Cucurucho doesn’t want to live anymore?”

His throat hissed automatically, eyes flashing as his mind keys in on the emerald the large creature wore somehow just right.

Multiple pairs of eyes whip over to him. “Woah there, what was that Philza?” Badboyhalo asked.

Philza blinked when he realized he had reacted instinctively to a threat against flock. He swallowed uselessly to calm himself down, angry clicks echoing up into the air instead. Unable to speak, he jerked his head towards the photograph and pointed a sharped clawed hand towards the creature.

“Oh shit guys.” Jaiden spoke up, a fellow bird hybrid. “Philza’s bird instincts think that the new Cucurucho is a part of his flock. Better not hurt the guy until we actually know he’s bad, if we don’t want the case of an angry crow hybrid on our hands.”

“If that’s the case, Maybe we shouldn’t attempt to attack or harm this Cucurucho until we know more about him.” Maximus concluded, looking at Cellbit who looked very tense but gave a reluctant nod.

The group eventually decided to only observe the new federation creature. The crow hybrid’s hackles raised when he noticed Cellbit, Etoiles, and Baghera didn’t explicitly agree to not harm it, but life soon went back to normal for a few weeks when nothing unusual happened.

They noticed the creature had an weirdly normal and routine schedule, easily trackable in how it simply sparred in the middle of the battle dome every morning and built for the Federation in the afternoons following a checklist it regularly squinted at. Philza had to shove down the urge to hand it a pair of glasses when he occasionally approached on Cellbit's behalf to see its tasklist. It never tried to spy or speak to them, content to swing its archaic sword at practice dummies and occasionally amuse the eager Etoiles.

“It's the best monster I’ve ever fought, Philza!” Etolies praised highly one day as they ran into each other at the front of what used to be Las Sacapuntas. “Battling with him is more interesting than anything else on the island except spending time with Pomme because she is my daughter and therefore automatically makes her the best thing to ever happen to anyone and I will kill anyone who says otherwise.” The French player grinned with teeth.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Philza laughed genuinely at his friend's strange humor, watching the warrior leave as quickly as he came with a fond shake to his head before he teleported to his own base on top of the wall.

That evening, Philza blinked when he spotted the creature outside of schedule by Techno’s shrine, wiping the dirt from his eyes as he stood up from his potato farm.

The hulking Cucurucho looked up from his vigil, turning away from where a crown sat in display on an armor stand. The creature's eyes glinted with a dark red color that strangely made him feel calm and collected.

“Hey mate.” Philza greeted him, wiping the dirt from his hands with spider silk. “Do you know who that is?”

The creature nodded curtly, not speaking nor turning to write in a book.

“He was one of my best friends.” The crow hybrid stipulated as he approached. “A great warrior, much like yourself.” He stood next to the creature. “Mostly I just know him as Techno, and as one of the most compassionate people I ever knew." He craned his head up, gauging the creature's interest in their conversation. "You know why?”

The hulking mass cocked his head, grunting. Philza took that as encouragement to continue.

“Hypixel skyblock was terribly going through a famine before Techno made the potato war happen. You see Cucurucho, even though they're the top server and could've simply asked for help, not many people knew Hypixel actually had food shortages because the number one server doesn’t like people knowing they fucked up." He snorts. "So naturally, my friend took it upon himself to solve the food problem for them. Techno never liked people starving, my so-” He choked, panicking at the unconscious wording. “...Friend.”

The creature reaches towards Philza’s emerald earring with a strange chuff. The old man’s mind translates it reflexively to mean question, curiosity.

“I don’t know what it is, mate.” Philza admitted. “Do you know where you got yours?” For a split second he wonders if the creature stole it, but the idea drains away as the creature shakes his head with an air of confusion.

Cucurucho took a few steps back. He looked at the shrine with an unreadable expression, but his red eyes were so expressive.

“I know this is weird to ask, since you're a federation worker and all but… do I know you?” Philza couldn’t help himself. Why does his instincts see this Cucurucho, out of all of them wandering the server, as his son?

Cucurucho huffed, turning away from him unceremoniously before hopping off the edge of the wall.

Philza leaned back on his hoe in the potato farm for support, stopping himself from following with a panic similar to one of his eggs in danger. The old immortal wanted to talk to it again soon, chest winding up with longing to connect to this unknown creature.

“Dinner’s ready!” Missa called in the distance from the house, likely serving something Chayanne cooked up for his family of four. Philza blinked back unexpected tears when he realized it was potato night, the memories of inexplicable pink fur and comforting chuffs raw against his chest, before collecting himself to have a quiet evening with his anticipating two eggs and husband.

#qsmp fanfiction #qsmp #technoblade #philza #emerald duo #mcyt fanfiction #unfridging fanonQ!Techno respectfully #sbi fanfic #sbi au

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randomfoggytiger · 10 months

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X-Files' Collector's Edition: Fight the Future Fics (Part I)

No introduction necessary, I think.

Loose chronological order below~!

astronaught's Equilibrium - Entr'acte

""He doesn’t like having an aversion to smallness because it means he might reject a truth for being insufficiently grand. Tall tales curdle in Kurtzweil’s mouth, and for the eighty-seventh time that year he feels dirtied by their hold on him....

If their work was going to be destroyed by anything, he didn’t think it would be because she lost her nerve. He and she share a tendency to hold their noses when it comes to dealing with the spiritually mundane, but they don’t do so childishly....

But all the same. Their intellectual honesty has always been its own kind of snobbery. It isn’t really smallness (nor practicality, nor effort) that he’s averse to, but rather inefficiency of a very specific kind. His duty is to the necessary. To the fundamentally true....

And he thought she was the same.""

Mulder and Scully spin their wheels, confused and hurt by each other's lines they draw about the work.

red2007's Icarus

""One breath. Two breaths. Chest compressions.

Molten lava was licking through his veins. Every movement he made, every memory he conjured was a four alarm fire coursing through his body. He’d been pulled closer to her everyday since they’d first met, no one else heard him or bothered to listen. No one could see him the way she did, she made him feel relevant. Her trust in him made him feel invincible. He didn’t remember what life was like before her, he didn’t care to.

He was terrified of a life without her and it was burning him up from the inside out. This partnership turned friendship turned codependency turned love…he didn’t know how to survive without it.""

Mulder's body is on fire with adrenaline as he pushes its limits to save his partner.

@leiascully's (Ao3)

OctoberFicFest Day 6: Frost (Ao3)

""He’s too desperate to revive her to think of how empty, how shattered his heart will be if she doesn’t wake up.""

Mulder ruminates on twisted fairytales while saving his frosted partner.

To The Ends Of The Earth (Ao3)

""He’s still shivering, even in his suit in the sun in the summer. He’s seen her shivering too. They’ve both been drinking more coffee since Antarctica. He’s been watching her lace her fingers around her mugs, just letting the warmth seep into her. He hopes his hand is as soothing to her as the terrible coffee in the bullpen.

“If I quit now, they win,” she said. He turns it over and over in his mind as they walk. He doesn’t know where they’re going. He doesn’t care. They’re together. They survived. They have their work. That’s all that matters to him anymore, Scully and the work.""

Post FTF Mulder and Scully leisure around DC, he enjoying and she surprising.

@scapegrace74-blog/scapegrace74's Walking After You

""It was foreordained that Mulder be beside her. Where fear and the improbable intersected in her life, there was her partner, vigilant defender against all her katabases. She no longer questioned his presence there. He simply was.

...Her beautiful Don Quixote, caring only for the quest, and not its consequences.""

Scully pulls Mulder to her on the ice, contemplating her childhood dreams and her partner's revitalized wonder.

@all-these-ghosts's (Ao3

if i am hopeful - Chapter 6

""After everything, all of the strife and regret, she will die here. In this great whiteness. They say that freezing to death is an easy way to go, but she is a doctor and a realist and nothing, nothing has ever been easy for them.

He has already stopped shivering.""

Scully is convinced she and Mulder will freeze to death, noting his deterioration but grateful to perish with him.

unfinished business

""This is Scully, he reminds himself. Scully who follows him on every insane adventure, who pulls him back from the edge, who not even a year ago was dying in a hospital bed while he raged, unable to contend with his absolute powerlessness.

And now, here in his living room: he is not powerless.""

AU-- Scully is overthinking her rescue, questioning why Mulder went to the ends of the earth for her. He finally demonstrates why.

@scully/humancredentials’s

a series of tumblr prompts - Chapter 8 (Ao3)

""Her eyes sting, her tears freezing on her face as soon as they fall. She feels the ache in her bones and her lungs burn with every inhale of cold air. She presses her cracked lips to his forehead and tastes blood. His, she thinks, but she’s not sure....

“Mulder,” she murmurs, her voice hoarse and underused. He doesn’t react, doesn’t even move, this foolish hero of hers that followed her to the ends of the earth. He has given her his warmest clothes.""

Scully begs her partner to stay awake, thrilled and relieved when he cracks a joke.

@frangipanidownunder’s (Ao3)

I Love You Prompts: Tiny Fics - Chapter 2

""Thank you,” she says and her voice is cracked like the ice.

He doesn’t know what to say. She would have done the same for him. Had done the same. Their rescues of each other are becoming more epic by the year. He chuffs out a laugh at the thought but it gets stuck in the frozen air.""

Mulder drags Scully to the Snocat, letting Scully off the hook for not remembering the hallway completely. They always save each other, after all.

Cold, happy, tired.

""She can recall his expression though. Standing before her in that chamber, willing her to breathe. His lips parted, his eyes wide with a mix of terror and happiness. Wet hair flopping over his face. He had saved her and himself - the relieved note in his voice told her that. In that moment, a tiny speck of time between them, she knew she loved him. Irrefutably. The thought flashed through her mind, a bolt of reality. It warmed her chest, spurred her on.""

AU-- Scully sees the spaceship; and, mind blown, helps drag her weary partner to safety, welcoming his tiny little move.

@sixhours/6hoursgirl's (FFN) Waking Hours - Chapter 1 (FFN)

""Mulder,” she tries again, jaw aching with the effort. “Wake up.”

He does, then, ice crystal lashes blinking open to reveal muddy hazel eyes. His lips form her name, a soundless whisper cast into the storm, received by mutual telepathy.""

Scully wakes Mulder up in the icefield, pulling him away from looking for the spaceship he claimed to have seen for more practical pursuits.

@scullydubois/scully_dubois's txf prompts - Chapter 2

""He is numb to everything except a weight and warmth near--one that could not possibly have originated from him, for he has known nothing except ragging breath and stillness for...well, he doesn’t know how long. There are no sunrises or sunsets here to mark the time.

He remembers, then, why he is here. That he’s not alone. That he came here to rescue the one person that’s ever believed him when he needed it, and that he did, and so she must be here, she must be that weight against his side.""

Mulder wakes to Scully, filling her while on the ice and leaving it open-ended on how to go forward.

@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66’s

Never Let You Go

""For as long as I live I’ll never be able to get the image of her in that capsule out of my head. It will haunt me till the day I die.""

Mulder drags Scully back to the Snocat, both vowing to never let the other go.

Helpless

""I’m too late.

As I helplessly pump at her chest I begin to feel the sobs. My chest and my throat feel like they are being ripped open with the force of them.

She’s gone. Scully is dead and there is no point in living.""

Mulder has a nightmare; and he makes a move on Scully while she attempts to comfort him.

@i-gaze-at-scully’s (Ao3)

Tundra

""I saw it,” you whispered, holding me, as the loose wet hair around your face froze in strands.

Belief as soft and fresh as the snow we laid in insulated us from the cold.""

Mulder and Scully lay on the tundra, warmed by their belief.

Pad Thai and poison apples

""They get out together though, naturally, at the basement level. Scully wants to be smug, wants to rub it in Diana’s face that this is her office, her work, her.... she wants to, but she can’t. Not without a nameplate on the door. Or even a desk.""

Post FTF Diana goads Scully about not getting a lunch invite from Mulder. And even though he'd forgotten about Fowley, it doesn't soothe the sting.

ML/ML_is_me’s (Ao3, Gossamer, DW, Invidiosa) and LaVa, Jacquie and Tess

Fight the Good Fight

""His cot was less than ten feet from hers but it might as well have been ten miles. She was exhausted by the time she reached his side. Collapsing onto the floor beside him, she called to him.

"Mulder. It's me."

Fear sent her heart bumping against her breastbone when he didn't stir.""

Scully is worried for her partner, both physically and mentally: it's obvious that he's losing his drive for a quest that always hurts her.

@allyinthekeyofx’s (Ao3)

Small Considerations Between Partners - 6 (Ao3)

""Because mostly what I remember is the fear; the absolute all encompassing terror I felt when I tried to swallow and discovered my throat was blocked by a tube, gagging as I tried to scream, to shout, to have someone please come to get it out of me. This invader of my prone body that stole my breath and rendered me almost hysterical as I fought with everything I had to lift my hands in an attempt to rid myself of it; the restraints that prevented me from doing so biting cruelly in to the soft flesh of my wrists even as I arched myself from the bed, the high pitched sound of alarms piercing my already aching head as I silently screamed for him to help me, needing him to find me, to save me just this one last time as scalding tears streamed down my face only to become instantly chilled against my skin.""

Scully is traumatized while recovering from her experience; but Mulder is there (as always) to comfort and reassure.

@danascullysrationalism/ARoadInCapeCod's Whatever's Left

""For too long, she had been his ripcord.... She would always bring him up and out. Alive.... It had saved him too many times when he wandered too far in the ticks of light that led him astray. She was the storm that let him live. He always knew there was something righteous inside her.

This was all he could do to thank her.""

Scully is lost in her recovery, knowing she can't follow Mulder forever; and Mulder is lost watching her recover, knowing he can't give her more.

chezamanda's The Five Times Fox Mulder Didn’t Tell Dana Scully He Loved Her (and the One Time He Did)

""Now here they are, still together even though it feels like the world is constantly trying to keep them apart. If I quit now, they win.

FTF (amongst other seasons) Mulder ruminates thrice on his awe of and love for Scully.

Singing_Violin's This I Can Do

""We are so cold. But she is alive. I am thankful for that.""

The one thing that Fox Mulder can do is hold Dana Scully.

@broadcastnews1987/audries/@kennedyandheidi/inkspl0tchess's (WBM 1/2/3)

string theory (or seven times dana scully wore fox mulder's clothes)

""be careful,” she thinks she says as the medics move them into the helicopter. the voice in her head is cool, detached, precise. hypothermia demands gentle treatment, it says. he needs me, she tries to tell them, he told me so. she doesn’t know why they won’t let her hold his hand.

two days later and he is slouching in her doorway wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved shirt. he tilts his head to wait for permission and she uncurls her fingers to open her palm like a flower.""

Scully's hypothermia hinders her responses but not her resolve-- to care for and stay with her partner.

DanaScully77's Delirium

""Dearie, you really shouldn’t be speaking.” The nurse is kind with a calming hand on his chest. “Do you remember what happened?”

Mulder shakes his head no. His eyes are pleading with the nurse, confusion too thick in his brain to make sense of anything around him. All that keeps ringing in his mind is that Scully is hurt and that he needs to get to her.

“You both were found in Antarctica by a team of scientists exploring disturbances in the ice. Do you remember how you got there?”

Flashes of alien testing tubes fill his mind and his jaw opens. “Scully.""

The Unnatural Mulder remembers comforting Scully during the events of FTF. Now, they enjoy hot cocoa at his apartment, happy.

@frogsmulder/Brynstein's Chapter 1: Post Fight the Future

""Mulder, it's me."

He couldn't help but let a laugh go down the line. "Never have I heard sweeter words, Scully."

"Mulder?" The was a pause of quiet, no doubt filled by the rise of a singular eyebrow. "Have you just taken your meds?""

Post FTF Mulder wanders around, bored, before calling Scully to re-patch his wound.

@mashnotesofthemythopoeic/Penumbra/The_Mythopoeic - Works/Penumbra's X-Files Fiction (Alt., Zuffy's Tripod)

The Cretan Paradox

""No minotaur," she says, as they gain the center.

"Looking for trouble, Scully?" he asks, with some intent. His soft mouth quirks.

Labyrinths, Mulder explains, are convoluted journeys fraught with dead ends and blind passages, and are solved by intuition and creativity. "But a maze is a left-brained puzzle." He looks down at her, eyes narrow and warm in the afternoon light. Not unlike you, his eyes say.""

Post FTF Mulder takes Scully to a maze, showing her how to always escape it and leading up to his tentative movie night invite.

AUs

@oceanofthesky/noifsandsorbees’s White Noise (Ao3)

""She smiles and she laughs. A lot.” Mulder says suddenly, and his eyes are faraway, lit up and peaceful. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“What are you talking about, Mulder?”

“Scully. The rare moments when she lets herself be happy. It’s really something.""

Mulder and Scully may resolve things between them in the hallway, but she's still reassigned. Many phone calls, doubts, and insecurities plague their long-term relationship, deeply rooted by the time they're reunited.

@starwalker42 (Ao3

can't stay awake

""Underneath our cocoon of blankets, trembling fingers wrap around mine. I barely feel the contact, but I’m glad for it all the same. It’s not lost on me that not an hour ago, she was frozen in ice on the brink of death, and now she’s the one comforting me. She’s too good at this – looking after me when she’s the one in pain. I know I don’t deserve Dana Scully. I certainly don’t deserve to die next to her. But I’m glad that if I have to go, I get to go like this.""

Mulder keeps a slurring Scully awake by bantering about penguins; but the two of them soon slow on the ice, dropping a love you before they succumb to sleep.

@o6666666's (Ao3) Prompts 1, 2, and 83

""He came with a big bottle of aloe, planning to paint her cheeks with it. How funny that his conscientious Scully should get sunburned in the dog days of August from lying out on the ice. (It wasn’t funny.)

They’d brought her all the way to Antarctica in her skirt suit. He pictured the henchmen in their parkas and gloves and boots, none of them caring how she shivered.""

Mulder's guilt over his ice-burned, clingy Scully almost destroys the potential between them. She sees past his reticence and reassures.

2plumsandagherkin's Like You Wanted to

""Do you remember anything that happened… in the hallway?” he asked, tentatively.

“No, what happened in the hallway?”

He explained about her getting stung by the bee and the ambulance crew taking her and trying to shoot him, but she had the feeling he was leaving something out.""

Scully doesn't recall the hallway incident until later, rushing over to Mulder's and affirming her love.

@frostbitepandaaaaa/FrostbitePanda’s Four Days AU

""If she had just followed her parents’ wishes... she would be laying in a king bed right now. Safe in some boring suburb with a dog and perhaps even some handsome husband watching reruns of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and idly wondering what it would feel like to be a pioneer, a woman planted on the edge of the unknown, spread before her vast and endless and hers for the taking.

That’s what Mulder gave her— a borderless realm, a fertile landscape lain with both the dreadful and the sublime.

“I’ve always felt… that it should interest me. That… in order to be a real person in the world, I needed to want those things.” She shakes her head, tilted back on the seat, staring at the riveted ceiling, beaded with condensation.

A great breath shifts out of him, but he says nothing.

“But the only thing that has ever made me feel like a real person, Mulder, is you.""

While trapped in the Snocat for four days, Mulder and Scully reopen their hallway discussion and plan for a first date that is not over file cabbage packaged meals. Diana tries to throw a wrench in that; but Skinner is not going to sit idly by at the FBi shindig.

Ann Ripley's Any Resemblance

""The chip was reinserted and her health steadily improved. I know this because I was able to watch the process through a two-way mirror.... They cured her but also filtered out all her memory of our work, our partnership, our love.

Anna's recovery and future safety was the price I paid for my silence. Any subsequent investigation into the consortium or revelation of colonization plans would result in the cancer's return. It was not too high a price to pay. I would do it again in a second.

The show debuted a year after Mrs. Spriggs wheeled Anna out of the consortium-run hospital and started a new life.""

FTF was based on the life of two real people; but the fact was separated from fiction after the unhappy reality. The man who Mulder was based on watches the show, ruminating on all that never and really was.

Enjoy!

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best-underrated-anime · 2 months

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Best Underrated Anime Group F Round 3: #F3 vs #F1

#F3: Daily lives of tiny forest women

#F1: High school girls go to Antarctica

Details and poll under the cut!

#F3: Hakumei and Mikochi (Hakumei to Mikochi)

youtube

Summary:

In a world inhabited by people only a few inches tall, young women Hakumei and Mikochi live together in a house built into a tree. Hakumei is an energetic and tomboyish carpenter, while Mikochi is a feminine and calm tailor. Despite their differences, they get along well and spend their days having fun living their lives in the woods. The two of them spend their time working, going on sightseeing adventures, and taking shopping trips into Tsumiki Marketplace by the ocean. They make many friends along the way, be they sentient woodland creatures like Iwashi the Weasel or fellow miniature people such as the songstress Konju and the inventor Sen. Hakumei to Mikochi is a relaxing look into the day-to-day lives of its titular characters as they explore and interact with their tiny world which seems to be straight out of a fairy tale.

Propaganda:

It really is super adorable, and the art is gorgeous. Every bit of the world is rendered lovingly with a great level of detail, from the characters to the environments. The anime has this really cool effect where they use paneling to emulate the manga’s style while also making the characters visually smaller on-screen, which works because they’re tiny.

For a slice-of-life show, there’s a good amount of continuity. They introduce the swamp necromancer Sen in one episode, and she keeps showing up later on, helping rebuild their house when it explodes, then Mikochi repays her for that by designing and making a dress for her. The show gets really into the intricacies of everything, like how dying fabric is a multistep process that is similar to chemistry, or how soap is made with aromatics.

Every character is well-realized, with their own set of quirks, profession, the tricks and tools they use in that profession, and they make pretty consistent re-appearances. And the writing is very dry and witty despite the whimsical setting. It’s cute, but it feels very adult, all the characters are adults with jobs who get drunk sometimes. Everyone is very professional and responsible, and it’s a nice change of pace from teen shounen.

Trigger Warnings: None.

#F1: A Place Further than the Universe (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho)

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Summary:

Spurred by her mother's disappearance, Shirase Kobuchizawa has been working hard to fund her trip to Antarctica. Despite facing doubt and ridicule from virtually everyone, Shirase is determined to embark on this expedition to search for her mother in a place further than the universe itself. Inspired by Shirase's resolve, Mari jumps at the chance to join her. Soon, their efforts attract the attention of the bubbly Hinata Miyake, who is eager to stand out, and Yuzuki Shiraishi, a polite girl from a high class background. Together, they set sail toward the frozen south.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho follows the captivating journey of four spirited girls, all in search of something great.

Propaganda 1:

This show literally changed my life I’m not even kidding. It’s messages about living your life to the fullest and finding, creating, and maintaining important friendships in your life literally got me to pick myself up and actually start living my life. All of its main characters are all incredibly memorable, and they all bounce off of each other very well. It’s fun and cute as hell, but also a really powerful story about dealing with grief and moving on. The final three episodes of the show are an emotional gut-punch, but they leave you with a sense of bittersweet fulfillment and a drive to get out in the world and have your own adventure.

Propaganda 2:

Let’s start with the fact that this is Madhouse doing a (relatively) grounded coming of age story about high school girls - the show looks gorgeous, of course. The music’s solid as well. (I still regularly listen to the ending.) But what really shines is the writing and characterization.

The pacing on this is perfect. For a show that spends half its runtime getting to Antarctica, you never feel like the time should be allotted differently or that you’re missing out on hijinks. Episode 12 is a particular standout, with tension building up until it explodes, and then goes still for the true emotional climax of the show. The four main girls all feel like believable teens, and seeing their relationship develop over the course of the series and watching them come into their own is well-done. The way it handles Shirase and her emotions, and how this complicates her relationships with them all is a particular standout. This may not be eligible in that it’s one of those anime people who watch A LOT of anime will recommend highly—it was on Crunchyroll and IGN’s best anime of the 2010s lists and on several “best of” lists for 2018. But it never quite took off the way it truly deserves, so I’m submitting it. It’s getting an English dub soon, though, and I really hope that gives it a resurgence of popularity. The girls are alright.

(Admin: Propaganda has been edited slightly to remove spoilers)

Trigger Warnings: Death via freezing

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 3 #tournament polls #group f #hakumei and mikochi #hakumei to mikochi #a place further than the universe #sora yori mo tooi basho

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purplehanfu · 9 months

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Self Indulgent Birthday Post: 2023

notes: Spoilers!, probably. Yay, it's my birthday again! Enjoy some of my finest unfinished work!

Oh? You have both my interest and attention!

Booooo.... (this disappointment brought to you by The Young Brewmaster’s Adventure, which happens to be the prequel to Blood of Youth)

Recap Recycle Bin

So many dramas and never enough time to write a full review. Read on!

Dominator of Martial Gods

tl:dr for this drama

Each episode is 35 minutes long, feels like 3,500 minutes, and delivers maybe 10 minutes worth of story. Impressive!

We waste a great deal of time in the first few episodes watching Qin Chen and the bootlicking alchemist refine a needle that will allow our hero to activate his bloodline. Intriguing, because you often hear dramas refer to treasures being refined into weapons, but you never see the process. There's a reason for this- it does not make for compelling viewing. But that does not stop us from standing around arguing about the specs and adding things to the oven. This process was more fun when Chu Wanning just takes you up to the lake. On a technical note, I am enamored of the way the ever present green screened background makes no attempt to be in scale with the human actors.

My Deepest Dream

Ooh, a plot with a time loop, evil birds, superpowers, getting sucked into the Marianas Trench when you just wanted to go on a scuba diving excursion and JIN HAN!!! But, as always, there's a glitch in the matrix.

Our heroine realizes she has lost a year of her life and no one has noticed. No one except the astrophysics PhD candidate turned car mechanic Wu Yu (JIN HAN!!!). Wu Yu divulges that he can read a phone screen at 10 kilometers. But mostly he uses his special eyes to keep an elaborate dossier on the comings and goings of the FL, who lives across the street from the garage he works at. Is that creepy or romantic?

don’t be silly, if it were a Marvel movie we’d be having an interminable CGI sky battle

Till the End of the Moon

Meet Tantai Jin. As you may have noticed from his costume design, he's totally evil.

He's a goal-oriented CEO who's turned the Devil Sect into a high reliability organization that generates impactful customer experiences (annihilation). I bet he's evil enough to use six sigma. But where Tantai Jin truly shines is personal branding. You may not be buying what he's selling, but product recognition is through the roof.

Tantai Jin seen here working out of his travel office: a flaming, flying boudoir with melting skull detail. This is why CEOs should never make more than 10x what the average worker does.

Circle of Love

I can see why the Republican period was relatively short. Everybody setting fire to each other's estates, staying out late ballroom dancing, getting uniforms tailored, making sure there are enough manacles to chain the female lead to a bed... it doesn't really leave a lot of time for governance.

We start out, as we generally do, with a clean sweep of the FL's family, in this case via a big ol' raging house fire. Where is everyone? Or even anyone? Even Maid's Revenge scraped up some extras to be dead family members.

My Kung Fu Girlfriend

Slow your roll, it ain't GL.

You know what they say- it's not whether you win or lose the MMORPG, it's how you min max all your stats and then act like an ass in chat about it.

Meet Huang Xiao Yu. She clearly did not pay to win because she is the low XP real life martial sister of a kung fu champion. In this drama, she'll level up in love and life with the help of an OP MMO NPC who escapes her game and shows up uninvited in the real world.

The Antarctic Octopus

Not to be confused with the 2020 film Big Octopus. I guess that's the great thing about having an audience of over a billion people- even the most niche interest has plenty of content.

This is how you dress when you visit your Uncle Pete in Antarctica.

In this movie: monsters, explosions, a supercharged ice jalopy and a dedicated ignorance of the laws of physics usually only seen in a Fast and Furious film. But credit where it's due: The Antarctic Octopus delivers. Only 12 seconds in and we get our first tentacle!

available free on youtube although how bravely they were fighting is up for debate

Bonus Content: Superlatives

In the Day We Flipped

My post of the year!

Getting over 500 likes on a review? Unexpected.

Forgetting to add a link back to my other recaps? Priceless.

Bloody Romance

still my favorite drama

when your grandma’s a zombie and she was left in a cave to guard a tiny box with one (1) restorative pill in it and she’s suspended by her hair but her hair is also like tentacles that can kill people and she thinks you’re your mom but she still loves you. 💚💚💚 But then she starts screaming and tries to strangle you with her hair.

Heroes

2nd favorite drama

you know something’s good when you have a file called ‘sappy su mengzhen yang wuxie edits.txt’

go get your man, Wuxie!

pinboard full of recaps!

#holiday special #till the end of the moon #my deepest dream #JIN HAN!!!#dominator of martial gods #the young brewmaster's adventure #circle of love #my kung fu girlfriend #the antarctic octopus #bloody romance #heroes #in the day we flipped

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reformedpeasant · 18 days

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had that dream again where my best friend who has teleporting powers gets in some sort of trouble and my life is at stake so he flies me to this orphanage from a tv show to hide me, but on the way there that enemy of his runs into our plane with their plane and we end up in an icy, cold body of water and then I start my adventure to find the treasure. except this time I know all the answers to the clues so I skip to the last one and then the enemy person comes out of nowhere and scolds me for finding the last clue on accident, like babes there was a whole poptart just sitting in this weird antarctica glacier cove thing??? it was obvious

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faehrys · 1 year

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Dream said he has footage from a few of his adventures so besides Antarctica, we can get Chile, the OU game, New Years Eve, George’s birthday, George’s first week, Sushi dates with the boys, unseen Twitchcon footage, LA, Halloween, the stream with Technodad, Texas, more manager Ken, footage from BEFORE the face reveal. We’re going to see Dream’s friends from his perspective and more of him talking to us 😭

i cannot wait to see the world from dreams eyes ☹️

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stargatelov3r · 4 months

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Oh bestie I absolutely wanna hear you go off about Elizabeth and Simon

okay bestie, here goes (i don't even think it's super controversion but i have been thinking about them a while)

first of all, in their case i'm not a person that denies their relationship. of course we could just go ahead and pretend the relationship never happened but i think it serves its purpose that's why it's part of my personal canon

They probably met at a party of a friend of them, or some kind of event or something, they fell in love, and i do believe they fell in love. it wasn't the romance of the century but that's nothing Elizabeth wanted anyways, or was even expecting. They got enganged, moved in with each other, but Elizabeth probably kept a small apartment somewhere, a safety apartment so to speak. Simon probably didn't know about it.

I think the biggest thing about their relationship is that they settled for it. As i mentioned before, i think they did love each other at some point, and they did like each other's company (for a while) but I also feel like there were huuuuge, unsurmountable differences between them. I think Simon wanted to get married bc he wanted a family, a home, stability, follow tradition. Idk if he ever questioned that.

Elizabeth also wanted that, at least a home, a family (but only when she arrived in atlantis did she realize that family can mean much more and different things than a husband and children and maybe a dog. a dog can be a family for that matter). But she also wanted something else, she wanted adventure, she wanted to work, she wanted to help people, she always believed that what she did was important, and she didn't want to give that up for the family home with the picket fence.

i'm not sure if they ever talked about it. i think for a while they were living together and as coincidence will, they were both living and working in the same place. But then Elizabeth got assignments that led her further away, and they never talked about it. And then Stargate Command happened. Then Antarctica. Then Atlantis. And I don't think they ever talked about that either. Elizabeth never asked Simon if he was okay with that, she didn't question that it would get into the way of their relationship (at first). Maybe Simon led her to believe that he would always be there, that he would be her haven once she got back.

I think the basis of their relationship is a colossal lack of communication and the voicing of one's dreams, wishes and desires, or at least actual discussions about what these dreams, wishes and desires meant for their time together. They were living together, but they were living parallel lives, and at some point Elizabeth took a turn and Simon just kept going straight forward.

I still believe they loved each other on some level, but as I said earlier, I think they mostly settled for each other. It was nice in the beginning, then it was comfortable, then neither really wanted to leave the relationship bc why would you leave something so comfortable? As long as there are no real problems you can stick around, right?

Anyways, Elizabeth leaves, not knowing if she'll ever come back. "Home" happens and i think it shows in the deepest sense what Elizabeth saw in the relationship with Simon, he was kind, he was hopeful, he was attentive, he was honest, heartfelt, he loved her openly. It was the ideal, maybe it was the Simon she first fell in love with.

But as time moved on, as things in the pegasus galaxy grew worse she realized that this was not working out, this was not fair towards Simon, who she believed was still waiting for her at home, so she let him go. This has absolutely nothing to do with a certain stunning and intruiging Athosian woman ;)

But lo and behold, they can return to earth! she can see Simon again! and turns out, he's actually kind of a dick. not because he moved on, i don't blame him for that, at least she told him to do so (but it begs the question if he even watched her message? we never saw him finish the first one, maybe he never did, or not until a few months later. Or if he even got her message, we know some people didn't). For some reason I don't believe he waited for Elizabeth to break up with him to look for someone else. Again, can't really blame him, she went off to gods know where, no idea when she would come back.

But what majorly pisses me off is the way he behaved when she actually came to talk to him about coming to Atlantis in person. he was so cold, so abrasive, so dismissive of the whole thing, shut off and again, not really telling things how they were. Okay, you can wonder why Elizabeth would come back to Earth and pretend like they were still together. And I do wonder about that. We don't see their first meeting (at least I don't think the one we saw in "The Intruder" was their first one), but I think that Elizabeth called him or maybe just showed up at his place to say "hiiii i'm back, how are things." He could have told her right then and there that he found someone else.

maybe he really didn't watch the message, because then he'd KNOW that she gave him the go ahead and he technically wouldn't have to feel guilty bc girl it was her idea!

So yeah, she put him on the list, he got the NDA but didn't sign it but didn't even have the guts to tell her, didn't have the guts to tell her that he was seeing someone else UNTIL SHE COOKED A FUCKING CANDLELIGHT DINNER FOR HIM. Really. You waited until then. Wow. Thanks for nothing i guess.

Anyways, I think letting Simon go in that message in "Letters from Pegasus" was not an easy decision for Elizabeth, because of everything i said in the beginning. And maybe some part of her still hoped that he would be there once she got back, she was definitely shaken up about it, but I don't think you can blame her.

ANYWAYS, after "The Intruder" Elizabeth is totally free from any attachements she still has to earth (save her mom) and i think that will only work out in her favour :)

that was a lot, but these are my two cents on Elizabeth and Simon

it turned out to be a lot longer than i thought

thanks for reading!

sleepover asks

#anon i hope you know that i love you by now #idk if you're the same as the other asks i got today/yesterday but ily #thanks for coming to my inbox #asks #anon #elizabeth weir #simon wallace #sga #long post

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kaythefloppa · 1 year

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WK S7 Prediction: Owl Odyssey

Earlier this week, the Season 7 marathon premiere of Wild Kratts was listed on several TV stations. The marathon will be running from May 22nd to 25th [which is fucking rad considering that's gonna be my first week of summer vacation after junior year].

I'll make predictions/concern posts on the other episodes, but right now there's one episode that really piqued my interest: Owl Odyssey

When the Wild Kratts get marooned and lost a world away from the Tortuga, they must embark on a long journey home. The gang finds inspiration in several owls that they encounter along the way. As owls live on every continent except Antarctica, Aviva thinks it must be a sign. She has enough supplies and power to make one creature power suit and one only and ultimately it's up to owl power whether or not they ever get back home.

Already this is an interesting enough plot [and thank god we won't be subject to any of the "Zach tries and fails to rob the Tortuga for the 9th zillion time"]. It looks like we're having another Puffin Rescue on our hands [may god have mercy on our souls if that Creature Power Suit makes a re-appearance]

Something you'll notice when looking at all the listed S7 episodes is 28 minutes long, as opposed to the 26-minute runtime [excluding two-parter episodes aired as one-hour specials]. Are all of S7's non-two-parter episodes going to be that length? If that's the case, no wonder that the season took so long to make. They were switching things up [for some reason].

We've seen 3 Creature Power Suits based on owls. However, there are tons of owls in the world that they haven't adventured with yet, such as Great Horned Owls [which never appeared in the animated segment] and Screech Owls [which appeared in the Bat Episode]. So the possibilities are limitless. If they don't end up using the 3 Owl Powers they have, then I hope they use Great Horned Owl Power, since that rocks.

I'm 50% sure that this episode might be the one where Jimmy gets a CPS. I'm not sure if it's me misinterpreting the synopsis, but this gives me the vibe that everyone else will lose their Creature Power Suits, so Aviva will have to invent a new one on the spot and program the Owl Power into that suit, and thus Jimmy will activate that suit. Again, it's a slim chance of happening, but one can dream, [plus Owl Power kinda suits Jimmy].

Either way, I'm hyped for this episode!

Any questions, comments, or concerns of your own?

#wild kratts #wild kratts season 7 #wild kratts owl odyssey #2023 #kratt brothers #2d kratt brothers #2d martin kratt #2d chris kratt #chris kratt #martin kratt #aviva corcovado #pbs #pbs kids #I really hope Jimmy gets a CPS in this episode idgaf if I'm wrong #let me dream ok #Also Owl Odyssey is such a badass title omfg #Like this sounds like some Hunger Games shit #These motherfuckers really spent the past 2 years putting their entire Krattussy into this season haven't they? /nsx /pos #good for them

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hartnellwho · 1 year

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There are a couple of posts recently about companions who are only in one story and whether they count.

https://penny-anna.tumblr.com/post/709511371006541824/ and https://penny-anna.tumblr.com/post/709513022569431040/

It’s hard to judge who counts and who doesn’t and everyone is gonna have their own opinions about each.

But the one I instantly think about who only got a single story but would’ve obviously had more off screen is Allie Kay. Who is, sadly, pretty obscure. I even realised I hadn’t mentioned him on this blog yet which is remiss of me.

Under the cut will be spoilers and discussion of Big Finish’s Companion Chronicles range. Specifically First Doctor’s second and third boxset, both of which I strongly recommend.

Big Finish in their Companion Chronicles boxsets set up a canonical explanation for Polly and Ben having more adventures with the First Doctor in between The Smugglers and The Tenth Planet.

There’d been books and comics with that team before but the ending of The Smugglers, their first trip in the TARDIS was very strongly implied to lead directly into The Tenth Planet.

Big Finish decided in the trailer for the second volume to have off screen Dalek interference during the Time War cause the team to land somewhere else instead of “the coldest place in the world!” in the audio The Bonfires of the Vanities, setting up a new era for the team. The very next story in that boxset; The Plague of Dreams, ended with the situation resolved and the Doctor and company sent on to Antarctica as they had meant to be. But the implication and intention was obviously for more stories to be set in between.

This was followed up in the very next set in a single story: The Crumbling Magician. In it the team were trapped in a nightmarish hospital and one of their fellow prisoners/patients was an eight year old boy who had been aged by a temporal accident into an elderly body. At the end of the story the TARDIS team took him with them to look after him.

This was obviously intended to lead to more stories and I was hugely looking forward to them at the time.

Problem was first the actor playing the recast version of Ben quit. Then the Companion Chronicles range got cancelled. Then the actor who played Allie sadly died. Now it seems we’ll never hear any more about the character and his travels.

I suppose they could do it in that new Audio Novels range and just have it read by Anneke or Stephen Noonan, but I doubt they’d devote a whole novel to following up a loose thread from nearly five years ago.

#Allie Kay #Big Finish #First Doctor #Classic Who #Ben Jackson #Polly Wright #The Bonfires of the Vanities #The Crumbling Magician #The Plague of Dreams #Doctor Who

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rwking01stuff-blog · 3 months

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Antarctica Dream Expedition 7 - Fortuna Bay

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sammysdewysensitiveeyes · 10 months

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I have now shifted from reading the first X-Men run to reading the Claremont stuff, and of course I have opinions. (I'm nowhere near done with Claremont's run, just past Dark Phoenix and Days of Future Past.)

I can honestly see why Claremont basically saved the X-Men franchise, his stuff is so much better than the first 66 issues. I'm sure part of it is a shift in comics writing style, from less adventure-of-the-month to more ongoing saga, soap opera style, but it's just good. It's really good. Claremont sets up plot points well in advance, he creates a team with distinct personalities, and friction (or friendships) that come with that. The prose is beautiful at times. I remember trying to read Claremont stuff after growing up with 90's X-Men, and thinking the writing sounded corny (and I know people who grew up reading later era X-Men feel the same way about 90's comics now). But after reading the first run, Claremont's X-Men hits differently, and it's so much easier to read, like I'm not forcing myself to slog through it.

Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga is genuinely a beautiful story. There's a lot to be said about the all-powerful female character being unable to control her power, and being essentially corrupted by lust (both physical lust and lust for power), and the weird virgin/whore dynamic Claremont has going with Jean. Like, there are absolutely weird sexist undertones. But if Jean absolutely had to be killed off, it's a well-written death, and I can see why adaptations keep going back to it, although I wish they'd stop, no one has gotten it right. I think the X-Men Animated Series actually did the best job, they stayed close to the original story (with the 90's cast) and went with a "Jean is possessed by Phoenix" angle rather than the "Jean was replaced by Phoenix" retcon in the actual comics. I can kind of see why the later retcon went with "cosmic firebird" to separate Phoenix from Jean, as even the way Jean talks about "Phoenix" in the original story, like she's tapped into some primal, cosmic power, sounds like it's some force outside of herself.

I totally forgot that Beast and Angel are both there for the final battle before Phoenix dies, Beast because he saw on an Avenger's monitor that the X-Men were in trouble. And Angel actually rejoins the team for awhile. Poor Bobby is the only one who gets left out.

There's a long period in the comics where Jean and Beast think the other X-Men are dead, and the X-Men think Jean and Beast are dead after the groups are separated escaping Magneto's lair, which fills with lava. I can understand Jean not being strong enough to do a psi-scan (she is exhausted from protecting herself and Beast, and they emerge in Antarctica, so they are struggling just to survive). But apparently when they report the news to Xavier, he just doesn't bother to do any kind of Cerebro search. "The X-Men are ambiguously dead with no bodies or real confirmation of their deaths, guess I won't bother to use this device that can locate mutants, I'm off to space with my bird girlfriend."

This was also the start of the "Professor Xavier is a jerk!" era. The first run had Xavier doing so very questionable stuff, but it was always treated in a "Father Knows Best" kind of way. Xavier was the mentor that they all obey without question, and he was basically always right. Claremont wrote an Xavier who is flawed and capable of making mistakes, although he still appears to be a man who loves his students like his own children. He gets distracted by his dreams of (and later romance with) Lilandra, he butts heads with Cyclops and tries to treat him like a child when Cyclops has been leading the team independently for a while. After Jean's death, when Cyclops is basically summarizing his entire life with the team, he criticizes a few of Xavier's decisions, and in particular thinks about how cruel the whole "fake death Changeling substitute" thing was. I know Claremont is also responsible for also fleshing out Magneto as a character and making him a much more nuanced figure, and I like it. To be honest, I think fan opinion lately has swung too far in the other direction, now we've got "Magneto was right" and "Xavier is the worst," and I don't fully agree with that, either. I think they are both deeply flawed leaders who are both capable of good and bad. I like flawed Xavier who is still a thoughtful and caring person.

This run also gets into Claremont fetish territory, big time. We've got the whole Jean seduction thing, the Hellfire club fetish gear (only for the women, of course!), Storm constantly getting naked, and that time Magneto turns the X-Men into adult babies. No, seriously, he is angry about being changed into a baby by Alpha the Ultimate Mutant (something that happened in another book between the first run and Claremont's run), and he wants to give them a taste of it. So he has them strapped into chairs with collars that shut off their powers and greatly restrict their movement and speech, while a robot nanny feeds them and brushes their hair, and yeah, it's really weird. He sort of makes it make sense, as Magneto claims that in baby form he could still remember who he was and what he had lost, and that actually sounds nightmarish. I can understand wanting to subject his enemies to the same indignity. But it's still weird.

Claremont really loves putting people in leather bondage outfits and the whole "you're mind-controlling me to be evil but I secretly like it" thing, starting with Jean. Even in the New Mutants and Excalibur we get some of this stuff, like Empath forcing Sharon and Tom to have sex with each other and put on weird bondage outfits. It's a whole thing with him. Storm is kind of like Starfire (who came later), in that she's a sexy, beautiful character who likes to get naked because she is comfortable that way, but she is not actively trying to be "sexy." I can kind of see it as "Storm is connected to nature," but otherwise I'm not sure how I feel about it. I don't think female characters should have to dress in skimpy outfits because they are trying to be sexy, but at the same time we get sexy characters who aren't really "allowed" to own their own sexuality. I almost respect it more with characters like Emma who say, "Yes, I dress this way to be sexy." We just get a lot of Storm taking showers.

Poor Thunderbird, he only lasted like four issues. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been if Wolverine had died instead, and if Thunderbird would have become as big a character. Wolverine has the whole "Weapon X" past thing going for him, but it seems like that was added later to flesh the character out, they could have just as easily given Proudstar an interesting backstory. Thunderbird's death is interesting, because it's not really depicted as a necessary sacrifice. Thunderbird didn't have to stay on the plane with Nefaria, Banshee was right there and could have caught him in the air. It was less of a noble sacrifice and more like a character desperate to prove himself. I'm not trying to disrespect Proudstar here, I just think it's interesting. I wonder if this death was meant to show Cyclops/Xavier failing in leadership for the first time, that they didn't realize Thunderbird would do something like this. They sort of "bring him back" with James Proudstar/Thunderbird II/eventually Warpath in the Hellions. Normally I don't really like "replacement characters" that have the exact same powers and look very similar to the original except Madelyne but New Mutants did a good job of making James Proudstar his own character. He is connected to John as his brother, he wants revenge for his brother's death, but unlike John, James comes across as very calm and serious, the leader of the Hellions who is responsible for everyone. And hey, now they're both alive in current comics - if only they'd be allowed to actually interact.

Claremont starts with a big team and then does a lot of pushing characters out. The original team leaves except Scott. Thunderbird dies. Then Jean comes back as Phoenix (and dies). Sunfire goes on the Krakoa mission, then says "Fuck you, I'm out," which is kind of constant theme with him. Lorna and Alex are constantly on the periphery, occasionally getting dragged into stories (like when they are brainwashed by Erik the Red), but never full team members. At least Havok gets to properly join later, Polaris is constantly getting pushed aside. Banshee actually gets a proper run on the book and is there for the first Phoenix saga before Claremont eases him into retirement with an injury to his voice and a romance with Moira. I really like Banshee, it's neat to have an "older" character on a team full of kids (and even Wolverine is treated as a younger guy in his early appearances, before his backstory gets fleshed out), and he has his own backstory of being an Interpol agent, and an evil cousin who wants to kill him. He also has an ancestral castle with leprechauns, but we won't talk about that. Claremont sort of keeps the "Muir Island" characters in the loop for awhile, so occasionally Banshee, Moira, Multiple Man, and sometimes Lorna and Alex get drawn into the story again.

Erik the Red shows up as a Shiar agent, even though Erik the Red was a fake persona that Scott used in the first X-Men run, and I swear we never get an explanation as to why. Did the Shiar agent just find the costume and think it was cool? Or maybe it was the agent's costume the entire time and Scott found it somewhere, that would explain how Scott quickly cobbled together a villain disguise complete with laser gloves that mimicked powers. I think Claremont just saw the bondage gear and couldn't resist.

First appearance of Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy as a duo, and Juggernaut even dives into the sea to save Tom. These two, along with Pyro and Avalanche and Unus and Blob, are high on my "gay villain duo" list.

Mesmero hypnotizes the X-Men into thinking that they are carnival workers, and Magneto shows up and is like:

Magneto actually rescues the X-Men from Mesmero just so he can take revenge on them himself, and says that Mesmero was just working with a Magneto robot the whole time.

I probably make it no secret that Wolverine is very low on my favorite character list, but I like him more in the early days when he's not only allowed to be a massive asshole, but the narrative actually treats him like one. Wolverine bothers me the most in his over-hyped days, when he is basically, to borrow TV Tropes, a Jerkass-Sue, who always saves the day and is still loved and respected by almost everyone despite being a massive asshole. In the early days there are actually consequences for Wolverine being a massive asshole, people yell at him and put him in his place, he actually loses fights occasionally, he gradually develops and shows that he has a good heart and cares about his team-mates. He is actually part of the team, not the star. My favorite Wolverine is a character who fits in as part of the X-Men, while Wolverine on his own bores the shit out of me.

The Hellfire Club story really makes Mastermind an impressive villain. I always thought he was a creep, and Hellfire club elevates him to mega-creep, but it also shows him managing to work his way into this Inner Circle of powerful mutants, and gain control over Jean with his illusion powers. (And some help from a device that Emma made, current comics forget she is a tech whiz). Like this is a legitimately dangerous, threatening Mastermind, although not after Jean wipes the floor with him.

I wonder what fan reaction was like to Kitty Pryde - was she a welcome addition, or the "annoying child character," like Wesley Crusher? Personally, I like Kitty, and I appreciate her acting like an actual child, not a hyper-competent genius, although she is an actual genius. I don't mind her doing things like wandering into the Danger Room and forgetting to phase because she's so scared, it makes sense. She's like 13.

There's a lot more to be said about the introductions of Sebastian Shaw and Emma and my favorite Brotherhood, with Destiny, Mystique, Blob, Avalanche and Pyro, but this has gone on too long already. Claremont definitely gave us a lot of characters with staying power.

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castielsupernatural · 2 years

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thanks for tagging me @klinejack 🧡🧡

no pressure tags: @doemons-blog @bloodydeanwinchester @gaydeanwinchester @destielgaysex @destieldisaster @magdaclaire

relationship status: i’m at least one very good therapist away from being able to have a relationship

favorite color: orange

favorite foods: every single thing on the IHOP menu

song stuck in my head: invisible string

last thing i googled: boots that look like feet realistic

current time: 10:30am

dream trip: train across the silk road or cruise to antarctica or road trip around the faroe islands

something i want: all my friends to be single again. so tired of no one wanting to go on adventures with my anymore because they’d rather do it with their significant other

#sometimes i’m like i wish i was in a relationship so i could do things again!!!#but then i’m like hmm well actually maybe what i want is my friends and my childhood back #unknown!!!!!!!#but i AM tired of planning trips and weekends with friends only for them to be like oh actually me and this guy i love are gonna do it #instead 🙄#whatever #anyways if anyone here is in the vicinity of [redacted] and wants to come to [redacted] with me in october <3 #oh and don’t ask about the feet boots

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pjsks · 1 year

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A Place Further Than the Universe (Eps. 1-4) Blog Post

This is a really cute coming-of-age anime. I really appreciate the character designs and characterization. I feel like in a lot of anime, high school age characters are depicted unrealistically. I especially like how simplistic the character design is, as I feel that viewers can take more time to get to know the girls as characters and not be distracted by a flashy appearance. It also helps cement the idea that these are four normal high school-aged girls going on a journey.

Kimari is so relatable to me because I felt the same way as her when I was her age. I felt like I was wasting away and not doing enough with my life when in theory, I had a lot of extracurriculars and great grades. Most people go through development at that age to find out who they really are and where their passions lie. Our parents dictate how we lived all throughout our lives up until that point. Unlike Kimari, however, I didn’t try as hard to rectify it and go on my own journey of self-discovery until I got to college.

I also really relate to Hinata. Even though she’s still in high school, I feel that we share a similar mindset in regards to adventuring before it’s too late. My parents always tell me that college is the time to discover who you truly are, and that experience is more invaluable than the physical lessons you learn in your classes. I personally used to stress out about not taking on enough to prepare for my future, but I realize that this is my individual journey and I don’t need to compare myself to others. I can’t have these same experiences after I graduate college.

Shirase is a little bit less relatable to me because I don’t often have such large, strong passions, but I understand her motivations. I’ve seen people work hard to accomplish their dreams, and I admire her tenacity despite what everyone says about her. She’s a really amazing example of not letting what anyone says get in the way of your dream.

I’m not famous so I can’t fully relate to Yuzuki either, but her story makes me really think about how celebrities must feel. Everyone always talks about how nice it would be to be famous, but after thinking about it, I can really see how fame can get lonely. She has such a pure desire to make genuine friends that it’s hard not to root for her.

All four of the main girls have different reasons for wanting to go to Antarctica, but that doesn’t make any of their reasons less important. At the root of all of their motivations, there is dissatisfaction and they believe that this journey will help alleviate that feeling. I think it’s really amazing to see four different types of people go through their own journeys to self-discovery, and I look forward to watching more.

#jpt1311

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best-underrated-anime · 4 months

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Best Underrated Anime Group F Round 2: #F1 vs #F2

#F1: High school girls go to Antarctica

#F2: 90s maid girls with guns

Details and poll under the cut!

#F1: A Place Further than the Universe (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho)

youtube

Summary:

Filled with an overwhelming sense of wonder for the world around her, Mari Tamaki has always dreamt of what lies beyond the reaches of the universe. However, despite harboring such large aspirations on the inside, her fear of the unknown and anxiety over her own possible limitations have always held her back from chasing them. But now, in her second year of high school, Mari is more determined than ever to not let any more of her youth go to waste. Still, her fear continues to prevent her from taking that ambitious step forward—that is, until she has a chance encounter with a girl who has grand dreams of her own. Spurred by her mother's disappearance, Shirase Kobuchizawa has been working hard to fund her trip to Antarctica. Despite facing doubt and ridicule from virtually everyone, Shirase is determined to embark on this expedition to search for her mother in a place further than the universe itself. Inspired by Shirase's resolve, Mari jumps at the chance to join her. Soon, their efforts attract the attention of the bubbly Hinata Miyake, who is eager to stand out, and Yuzuki Shiraishi, a polite girl from a high class background. Together, they set sail toward the frozen south. Sora yori mo Tooi Basho follows the captivating journey of four spirited girls, all in search of something great.

Propaganda 1:

Propaganda 2:

(Admin: Propaganda has been edited slightly to remove spoilers)

Trigger Warnings: Death via freezing

#F2: Akiba Maid War (Akiba Meido Sensou)

youtube

Summary:

The innocent Nagomi Wahira has always admired the cute girls serving at maid cafes. Hoping to fulfill her dream of becoming one, she moves to Akihabara to work at the maid cafe Ton Tokoton.

Nagomi’s first day seems completely normal—until she has to run an “errand” at a rival maid cafe along with her fellow recruit, the mature Ranko Mannen. There, things quickly go south, and Nagomi soon gets her first taste of Akihabara’s violent maid wars. As she watches Ranko calmly battle her way through a horde of gun- and knife-wielding maids, Nagomi realizes that maid cafes are drastically unlike what she had envisioned.

While struggling to reconcile her expectations with the harsh reality she finds herself in, Nagomi searches for the enjoyment she once saw in the lives of maids.

Propaganda:

It was animated by P.A. Works! As far as I know, they also worked on Buddy Daddies, Angel Beats, Ya Boy Kongming, etc. Cygames also contributed to this anime!! The story is creative as well. Who would’ve thought of a cute maid mafia anime? Keep in mind, this is a P. A. Works ORIGINAL. They went SO crazy on this anime. There’s also 12 episodes, which means that you can binge it all on one day and still be satisfied :D The OP and ED are also catchy, creative and unskippable. Despite its dark themes, it can sometimes get a little more “lighthearted” and silly, even in the most violent scenes ;P

Trigger Warnings: Flashing Lights, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore.

Just like what I explained, it’s violent. A lot of guns. And a lot of blood. Yes, they kill fellow maids in like every episode ever lol. Also, since Akiba is known to have flashy street signs, like every city ever…. And the guns, of course…that’s why I put the Flashing Lights warning.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how they’re presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 2 #tournament polls #group f #a place further than the universe #sora yori mo tooi basho #akiba maido sensou #akiba maid sensou #akiba maid war #Youtube

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