#I don’t even wear legendary gauntlets that often

[luna-light-eclipse]

As thankful as I am for the solstice event for giving me the opportunity for good gear I’m so tired of it. I just want a decent gauntlet roll bls

#luna’s brainbox #destiny 2 #I don’t even wear legendary gauntlets that often #but I need them for when I start messing around with my growing collection of exotics #I can’t imagine doing this for all three characters nuh uh #I think if this type of armour levelling wasn’t tied to an event it’d be cool #but the time limit is mildly stressful for me #I’m gonna miss how pretty the tower looks when the event ends tho

[xenoblademisadventures]

Also here's a dump of other sketches with my thoughts process. Long post, so everything’s under the cut.

The Mythra:

I really liked my first idea so I stuck with it. My thought process was I wanted to emphasize that she's mecha anime and therefore out of place (she already has a mech). Pants are a reference to Alvis's illegal shoes. She’s wearing a crop top because Mythra reads as the type of person who would enjoy wearing a crop top to me. She has giant gauntlet things on her arms because they look cool. I gave her two giant braids because anime (and I’ve noticed a trend of tsundere characters often having two strands of hair going outwards for some reason? And I figured “might as well copy+pasta lol). Her left eye is partially covered by hair, which is supposed to represent her feeling distant or partially isolated from the rest of the world. It’s also a character design trend sometimes used in villain characters, which I thought would fit Mythra since she’s worried about her power being used for evil in 2 and is being constantly compared to Malos in Torna. I kept the choker from the base design because it looks cool and also relates to how she’s constantly constraining herself.

I also wanted to make her buff because she’s a warrior who wields a giant fucking sword, she should be buff (like, the fight scenes involving her in Torna DLC looked a bit awkward because Mythra was swinging a giant sword around one-handed like it was nothing while also having very shrimpy arms). 

Overall, I wanted Mythra to feel very alien and distant to the rest of the world. If I were to continue iterating on this, I’d probably look at some of Elma’s armor (mim and alien) for reference because doing that would allow for Mythra to look disconnected from the Xenoblade 2 cast but still feel like a Xenoblade character.

Side note: I assumed that the Aegis shape Core Crystal was a requirement. If I had the option to remove it, I probably would. It doesn’t look bad, but if the goal was to connect the Aegises with the Monado, I don’t like that Alvis’s key had to be retconned for that to function.

The Pyras:

A consistent theme here between the designs was the pants. I wanted Alvis's illegal pants to be a running theme among the Aegises because they are stupid and illegal and I like them. They also look like the most vaguely scifi part of his actual outfit, so I figured giving them a shared article of clothing would be a nice way to visually connect the five character designs (Pyra, Mythra, Pneuma, Alvis, and Malos), and I wanted to keep the vaguely mecha theme going. You can see in Pyra 6 that I was tired and just drew Pyra in Alvis's attire. 

I wanted Pyra to look like a mecha design covered up by something that more closely fits the aesthetic used in Xenoblade 1. So not quite mecha, not quite 1. The idea was that Pyra was trying to look more like a common person in order to appear less threatening. If she despises and fears her power, I don’t think she’d want to wear an outfit that embraces it. Putting her in more casual clothing would also contrast with Mythra and better communicate that Mythra is significantly stronger than Pyra. But all that said, putting her in full casual clothing might undercut the emotion Rex and Pyra’s first meeting was meant to invoke (of being like “oh wow, a legendary ancient weapon). And designing her to still look mecha would still be saying that “even though Pyra doesn’t want to be the Aegis, she is still the Aegis and cannot escape her power.” Which is why quite a few designs lean into the mecha aesthetic. The exact balance between mecha and casual clothing was the main thing I struggled with on this design. The final design is the one that more or less struck the balance I was hoping for.

A few of the designs are vaguely sexualized. Specifically Pyras 1, 4, and 7 all have tiny boob windows. If I were to finalize 7, I’d remove the boob window because it looks a bit awkward and I think a belt (similar to Elma’s underboob belt) would look better, but my thought process there was “do I want Pyra to be comfortable?” I don’t want to go over the top with the revealing clothing, but making Pyra wear slightly revealing clothing that she probably wouldn’t want to be wearing could help drive the point that she’s a combination of all the traits Mythra was criticized for lacking. It’s not pleasant or comfortable letting others dictate your entire existence through repeated harassment and Pyra already very heavily acts like the sexist ideas of what a woman should be, so giving her a tiny boob window could help emphasize that point. The main reason I’m saying I’d change it if I iterated on 7 is because I don’t think it compliments the design particularly well.

Another thing that stuck between each version of Pyra’s design was that her left eye is completely covered by hair. I did this for a few reasons: it would follow up on the symbolism of Mythra’s design partially covering her left eye, it would give Pyra a slight air of mystery, and it would faintly reference Alvis’s design (I want the designs to hint at each other but I don’t want it to be super obvious). The earrings were also kept between designs because they were in Mythra’s design and I wanted that to get carried over because it’s a little bit extra cohesion between the two designs. 

I wanted was to use Pyra's hair to help represented Mythra binding herself. Mythra has two braids that are loosely flowing, so she's already semi bound. If I were to start drawing Pneuma, I think I'd want her hair to not be tied at all (maybe a similar style to KOS-MOS and Elly as a reference, maybe not?) or I'd just put her in really long dreadlocks or something because hair go brr. One idea I had was to just have one big braided ponytail, but another idea was to try and tie the hair up (which is what I was going for in Pyra 2). I couldn't find a way to do that in a way I particularly liked, so single big ponytail is the way I went.

You can probably see that there were a lot of ideas thrown at a wall here, so I’ll go over some noteworthy facets of each designs.

Pyra 1 had a key on her chest, it was meant to be reference to Alvis. It didn’t stay in other designs because the reference felt too obvious. The first two designs also had a giant X on her chest, it was meant to look like the outfit was binding her, but I don’t particularly care for it. Pyra 2′s pants had weird patterns on them because I was trying to visually make them look a bit distinguished from Mythra’s while still keeping the same idea, but I don’t really care for them. I also don’t like how Pyra 2 is just wearing a T Shirt. I’m not really sure what I was going for with Pyra 3. She kind of looks like Glimmer in the She-Ra reboot, which wasn’t intentional. Pyra 4 leans more into the mecha than any other Pyra. She kind of looks like a ballerina but not really. I was focusing mostly on making her look a lot like Mythra, but I feel that this design has a lot of similar issues to what I have with Pyra’s actual design where it’s sexy and looks cool, but doesn’t really fit the character. Pyra 5 looks like a heroforge character (or maybe like something that fit Mass Effect’s aesthetic if I’m being generous?). I feel that this one also doesn’t fit her character particularly well. Pyra 6 was a bit of an overcorrection and I ended up just drawing Pyra in Alvis’s outfit. And Pyra 7 is the one I actually went with.

Rexes:

Rex 1 was more of a warm-up than anything. I put him in a vest and some pants. The hookshot and x marking were things I completely forgot about until last minute, which is why they look tacked on. He has a belt with some items in it. I wanted to give him scraffly hair and freckles to better emphasize that he’s just some kid. I don’t really like this design. I feel like if I polished it up, it would still have a lot of the benefits to base Rex while not getting as many people complaining about his pants, but the design is overall a huge “meh.”

With Rex 2, I decided to actually look up what scuba gear looks like. This design ended up emphasizing primarily that Rex has a lot of expertise in salvaging and that he’s a kid with humble origins. His strap on was based on a scuba outfit, same with the shoes. He’s also wearing pull-ups with giant pockets. I felt those imply humble origins because pull-ups get associated with rural settings. The giant pockets imply that he works with machinery. That’s also why his hair’s tied back. If you long hair and you work with machinery, that’s supposed to be tied back so that it doesn’t get caught in anything. I also gave him glasses because we need more characters with glasses. 

The character’s meant to be 15 and I feel that this looks closer to 15 than 12. If I were to make future iterations of this design, I’d try to lean more into making him look 15 because he doesn’t look 15 enough to me. I’d do this by giving him acne.

He has gloves because he’ll be using a sword and it’s generally not good to scrape up your palm while using one of those. His hook-shot also now takes up his entire arm because that’s heavy equipment. I haven’t figured out how the wire is supposed to be stored without having it fuck up his arm. But the hook itself is now in a little hook cubby. I think I’d want to make the bottom of the shoes look heavier than they are since they don’t currently look great for walking around the bottom of the ocean. 

Still, I’m very happy with this Rex. I mostly draw anime girls, so I’m happy with the number of things I feel I’ve gotten right with Rex 2.

Nims and a Dahlia:

I’m a bit unsure of what I want from the Blade designs. I decided to design around their element, their rough personalities, them needing a core crystal, and their element. I also want them to look like they could also exist in the same universe and maybe not look very human? That was, at least, my thought process when drawing Nim, though that thought process was not consistently held, like, at all. A lot of my Blade redesigns don’t look very good because I didn’t have a very good idea towards what I should even be aiming for. The Blades have very generic personalities and overall feel so disconnected from the world that I’d probably just scrap every existing Blade in their entirety and replace them different characters who are better established. Like, maybe because this Blade was born from the Gormott Titan, they look like Gormotti or part giraff as a result and are more likely to have the earth element? And how many hands they’ve been through and the personalities of their previous drivers stack up to subtly influence their appearance? Like, a Blade from Gormott that ended up in Uraya for 10 lifetimes might be an earth-type cat-person with fins or something? Or maybe the more developed a Blade is, the less it resembles a human? But doing that would require writing a lot more lore per individual Blade than is actually provided. But just having something to better frame the Blades as something other than “random (mostly) anime girls that you pick up along the way” would be necessary to give them good designs.

Anyways, with Nim, I figured giving her a Saytr like appearance would be good. She has a strong association with animals and nature, which, for me, translates to “naked.” Alongside that, I looked up Nymphs and they’re also usually depicted as naked women. I also completely disregarded to the two foxes on her shoulders. They were put into Nim 1 as an afterthought. 

Nim 1 is the only Nim that isn’t plus-sized because I figured “why not have some different body types among the blades?” A lot of my redesigns for Pyra and Mythra try to keep their body type more or less in tact less because I think it’s the best body type for them and more to spite the idea that them having big boobs is the reason that they’re oversexualized. Like, they are comically big, but they’re only sexualized because of how much attention the camera and design draws to them. But, that’s a side tangent. I made Nim overweight because I like drawing overweight women. Nim 1 gets the vibes of “naked lady” while Nim 2 has the vibes of “big fluffy friend” while Nim 3 is somewhat of a compromise. If I were to make a final design for her out of these, I’d definitely try and fuse some aspects of Nims 2 and 3.

Nim 3 has vines on her arms because Nymphs get depicted with vines quite a bit. The main reason Nim 2 is wearing a sun dress is because I stepped back and thought “wait, maybe some people would have an issue with a naked anime lady running around.” Nim 2 also has a transition between furry legs and no fur legs. 

I didn’t really have any ideas for Dahlia. I saw someone draw a version of Dahlia based off Elsa from Frozen and I thought that might be fun to draw. I don’t really have any further thoughts on this.

Praxises:

This is sort of where I was at the point where I realized that if I wanted to redesign the blades, I’d need to figure out some unifying theme for them all. I was thinking “maybe blades could try and visually represent different aspects of being human?” This idea was only really used on Praxis and wasn’t very strongly represented. I was kind of tired when I drew Praxis 1 and Praxis 2 was a bit of a warm-up sketch. 

Neither of these designs are particularly good. I wanted Praxis to be wearing those 90s bubbly arm and leg warmers because she has a bubbly personality and is a water type. I don’t know why Praxis 2 is a cowgirl. 

Zenobias:

Zenobia 1 is based a bit a wrestler because she has wrestler vibes. I see her as the type of person who would do Dark Souls no armor run on the dance pad. My other thought process was “let me google the word ‘zenobia’ and see what crops up” and I saw something about a Syrian empress but I decided to do zero research, so I have no idea if what I drew was offensive towards muslims. She has a scarf tho because wind.

Zenobia 2 is based on a picture of that empress lady. I don’t think it follows her character in-game particularly well though. 

Two (Blade) Nias:

Neither Nia is particularly finished. The main requirements were that this Nia has to look like a Blade, a catgirl, and like something were she’d be able to hide the Blade parts, but not comfortably. I’m at a bit of a loss here. I think the formal wear used in her base-game design is not the way to go. The outfit just doesn’t feel like it matches her brash and snarky personality, like, at all. The first outfit was trying to throw random ideas but nothing was coming up and that’s what happened with the other. Though, Nia 2 gets bonus points for looking like a cats 2019 character. I was sketching out what parts of her body should be covered, but I don’t think I’d want to go with crop-top and skirt because Mythra already has a crop top. The tail is also debatable since I figured if I kept that, how Nia hides the tail could be a fun part of her driver outfit. I also didn’t really like how Driver Nia and Blade Nia have different hair and ear lengths. It bothered me more here than with the original Pyra/Mythra designs because Nia isn’t the Aegis, I don’t think she should be allowed to material and dematerialize her clothing, hair, and ears like that. I do kind of like the idea of giving her paws since those are things that can be easily hidden by shoes. Giving her spotted skin isn’t a bad idea but it’s not as high on the “keep” scale as the paws are (which aren’t super high in the first place).

Overall, it’s probably a bit anticlimactic to end on some lame designs, but that’s how it goes, I guess. If I were to redesign more of the Blades (or finish the Blade redesigns I started), I’d need to figure out what running themes I want from the Blade designs. I think maybe focusing on the human designs first and working from there could be a way to go. Unsure. 

#xenoblade chronicles 2 #character redesign #pyra #mythra #rex #praxis #zenobia #nia #nim #dahlia #xenoblade spoilers #xenoblade 2 spoilers

[atlas-the-worldbuilder]

Final thoughts on Pokemon Sword/Shield

So in case you weren’t aware (which is most of you, I’m sure), a few months ago I started a Pokemon Shield blind Nuzlocke Run.  And recently, I completed the main portion of the Nuzlocke by defeating the Champion.  Having played through the game, though, I thought I’d give my final thoughts on it as a Pokemon fan, a gamer, and as a storyteller.

The Story & Characters

In all honesty, I rather enjoyed the main story of this game.  The Pokemon League has always been presented like a professional sport (at least in the anime/cartoon), so it’s fun to see the games taking that perspective and rolling with it.  It felt like an actual tournament/championship, to compete for the title in an officially organized manner, rather than just running a gauntlet of preset combatants.

In addition, I liked how they incorporated both the gym leaders and our rivals into the league story as not only combatants, but also as individuals with their own lives and aspirations.  Marnie and Team Yell are adorable, Hop is... mostly tolerable, thus far, but by far my favorite rival character has been Bede, the Psychic/Fairy trainer.  His haughty and prideful demeanor make him a delight to defeat, and his arc is a wonderful story to see unfold.  I’m really curious to see what he gets up to in the after-story! The Gym Leaders are also fun to meet and battle; the Pokemon games as a whole have been gradually attempting to give more and more character to each of the Gym Leaders you meet, beyond just trials to overcome on your journey to victory.  And while I always have a soft spot for the Hoenn & Sinnoh gyms, I like that they opted to have the Gym Leaders return in place of having more Elite Four members to fight  I only wish I could get more opportunities to get to know them better, cuz there’s some standout leaders from this batch which I truly enjoy!

My biggest complaint with Sword/Shield’s story, though, has been the “Heroic Quest” plotline which has become increasingly common these days.  I like the character of Sonia the researcher, and Oleana is satisfying to watch lose, my biggest complaint has been the pacing of the plot; the first 2/3rd’s of the story are us teaming with Sonia to gradually get the backstory revealed to us, and then in the last half hour, right as the Tournament’s getting underway, all the villains suddenly crawl from beneath the floorboards and run amok while you have to chase them down!  There didn’t feel like there was a proper buildup explaining why the villain wanted to summon the legendary Pokémon, especially one which we heard next to nothing about! This brings about an interesting idea, however... what if instead, they had completely forgone any Legendary-Summoning stories until after the league?  Honestly, I was way more invested challenging the gyms and fighting the champion than I was stopping the literal POKEMON APOCALYPSE from happening... so what if for future games, they saved those for after you became champion?  As a sort of test of your skills, to prove your worth to bear the mantle you have taken!  Maybe it wouldn’t have meshed well, maybe they needed to show of the game mascot more, I dunno...  it’s just my thoughts.

The GamePlay

THEY FINALLY LET US TURN OF THE GODS-FORSAKENED TUTORIALS!!!  PRAISE THE ALL-FATHER!!!

Ahem... In all honesty, I think I’d grown a bit too used to the 2nd screen of the DS-series games, but after a couple days of getting used to the mono-screen style again, I am pleased to say I found it very easy to settle back into.  Though there are still some features I wish would make a return (the HM moves as opposed to public transportation, poison’s effect while walking, wild double battles, etc.), there are alot of fun mechanics introduced and remedies to older problems that have been introduced!

I think one feature which hasn’t had much said about it is the introduction of the Poke-Jobs system; this system allows you to send your Pokémon out on timed “away missions” to gain both experience and items.  In the old days, if you wanted to passively level your pokemon, the only real option you had without introducing a second player was the Daycare center, and they could only raise two pokemon at once... and you had to pay for it.  With Poke-Jobs, though, I can send anywhere from 5-10 teammates out for whatever amount of time I want them to be out for, and then come back later to see them lively and with goodies to show for their work! At first, I didn’t think I’d get much use out of this system; I, like many players out there I’m sure, prefer to guide my pokemon’s training personally, honing their movesets and guiding their levelling and points the way I want from them.  But as I progressed further in my Nuzlocke, and as my daily life became busier and busier, I found myself sending my backup teammates out on jobs to keep them on par with my main team.  Given that the Move Deleter/Tutor and Name Rater are now services that have been rolled into the Pokemon Center, yet another good thing this series has done, I found it much easier to keep my reserve Pokemon prepared in case I needed a substitution. Some Nuzlocke “Purists” may call that taking the easy way out, but... frankly, I don’t have the willpower to do that much grinding.  I’m here to play a game and have fun doing it, dammit.

The Wild Area is another thing I’ve wanted to see from Pokemon for a long time - taking more steps to make the regions seem like an open world, with vast sprawling environments full of pokemon and secrets to uncover.  I’ll admit, though, the execution is... not entirely perfect.  While open expanses are fun to explore, the Wild Area did seem a bit... flat to traverse.  And while the weather mechanics translating into battle are fun to deal with, the same sets of wild pokemon appearing did start to wear me down.  I think what the Wild Area really needed, in the long run, was a system similar to how Black/White/Black2/White2 did - having seasonal progression ingame, where different pokemon would show up during different seasons, making the different places unique and novel all over again throughout the year. And for the record, many of my gripes with the Wild Area were addressed in the Isle of Armor’s expansion island.  VASTLY superior, and much more fun to navigate and traverse.

...I’ll openly admit this: I was not a fan of Mega Evolution when it was first introduced in X/Y.  I felt it was fine enough to see Pokemon battling without power boosts or “digi-volving” or whatever you wanna call it.  When Sun/Moon Introduced Z-Moves, it felt like a step in the right direction, but at the same time, I ended up not using it very often.  If I had to have a power boost to my pokemon, I would want it something that couldn’t be used as a crutch when the going gets tough - something that has a limited usability, and offers benefits specific to the time it’s being used. I say this because I initially approached Dynamax the same way: as just another power boost to level the playing field and shake up the battle meta which I don’t keep track of.  However, after barely surviving all 8 gym leaders without using a single dynamax pokemon, I decided to give it a chance: after having completed the Isle of Armor’s subplot and gaining access to the Max Soup, I fed it to my Toxtricity Spike, and started running dynamax raids.  As I started using it more and more, I started gaining a certain appreciation for it that I hadn’t before; this was something written in to being a unique cultural effect!  This literally is imagining Pokemon as Kaiju!  And for the most part, it works! While I still feel mega-lvl-power-boosts in pokemon are a huge waste, at the very least I can say Dynamax didn’t leave me with too bad a taste in my mouth.  I do hope, however, that Dynamax stays a Sword/Shield exclusive power; given it’s cultural importance in Galar, and how Mega-Evolution was in the previous generation, I think having power boosts specific to regions works better than having the same stuff used across the board for every meta onwards,

What Do I hope for the Future?

I can’t say for sure if they’ll release a sequel game for Sword/Shield, but if they do... I would want them to make these minor changes:

Hold off the Heroic plot for after the League plot; devote the main first half of the game to just the gyms and league story like was done here, and then save meeting uber-god-tier Pokémon for after you’ve claimed the title of Champion.

Having said that, fix the pacing of how the Eternatus/Darkest Day subplot feels as it’s being played out.  Offer us more insight into Rose and Oleana’s mindsets as they go about their business, and give us more coherent exposition from our field trips with Prof. Sonia. 

Fix how the Wild Area looks - give it more variations for each sub-region and offer more varieties of habitats, like in the Isle of Armor.  Or, alternatively, try to implement a seasonal mechanic to make the same areas change over the year, opening new paths and new avenues to explore!

Let Bede defeat Oleana.  Give my boy some closure.

Allow us to see and interact with the Gym Leaders outside of the gyms more.  I had, like, barely 2 lines of dialogue with Nessa, and even less for Milo.  Not asking for a whole lot, just a bit more to tie us into who they are as people.  Piers is best big brother.  <3

That’s all I had written for now.  If y’all want a biography of my champion team for my Shield Nuzlocke, let me know, and I’ll scrap a post together! <3

#Pokemon #Pokemon Sword Shield #Demotivated Review #Video Game #Atlas the Worldbuilder #nobody's gonna care about this #but that's ok

[little-voice-the-parasprite]

The Doom Slayer was not often surprised. The horrors of Hell were a common sight to him, and he merely used the newfound rage he’d feel when discovering humans performing experiments using the energies if Hell on their own kind to further empower his slaughter.

His rage was legendary; feared by Hell itself. This was the first time he ever saw it in someone else.

The imp before him was the last one of many demons he had found in cell-block and had been about to attack him from behind when a small, purple-haired human had tackled it to the ground screaming in pure, unadulterated rage, and began pulverizing its skull in with her fists.

She wore a black, skin-tight suit with red highlights, something the corpses he had found in some of the cells he had come across were wearing. Guess she was one of this UAC group’s surviving test subjects.

She did not slow down her assault until the imp’s skull was nothing more than paste splattered on the floor. She was about to begin pounding it’s upper torso when the Slayer’s gauntleted hand grabbed her raised forearm.

——————————————————————

She spun around to lash out at what was about to attack her, or worse, put her back in that room.

“Please, ma’am,” a calm, yet strange sounding voice said, “we’re here to help.”

She took a good look at the being before her; and felt a little intimidated. He was big, and the green armor he wore... well, the man before her was clearly powerful, even without it. He wasn’t one of THEM, though. That much she could tell from seeing him fight. His grip was firm, but it didn’t hurt.

His visor was mostly opaque, but she could see barely make out eyes looking through it.

“Who-“ she coughed and swallowed, her voice slightly hoarse from her sudden screaming after not being used for so long, “who are you?”

“This man” the voice, who she could now see was coming from the man’s helmet, “is simply known as the Doom Slayer. I am VEGA, and am currently using the Slayer’s armor to communicate with you. Who are you?”

She had to think about that for a bit. She had been so terrified near the begining, when she had been delivered to these monsters who had done... things to her. She couldn’t even remember what it was they had done. All she could remember was the pain. It was a struggle just to survive, let alone remember.

She did manage to remember her name, though.

“B-Bernadetta. Bernadetta von Varley.”

“Hello, Bernadetta,” VEGA said, “We will help you as best we can. For now, it would be best to find a place to hide until-“

“NO!” She roared, wrenching her arm from the Slayer’s grasp, “Bernie is done hiding. Bernie is done being scared. Bernie doesn’t want to stay in a room anymore! Bernie wants to KILL!”

She stood there huffing a bit, glaring at the visor. She had been so afraid when she had first arrived here. Resistance always ended in horrible pain, and what they did to her was always painful. After so long, she had begun to feel numb to the pain. Then, today happened.

Her door had opened. She didn’t dwell on the fact that it was much earlier than it usually did, though, as she beheld the slaughter before her. The big, green-armored man, the Slayer, had torn apart the demons in room with brutality and power. Her captors and tormentors had become mere paper before his onslaught. Her fear had begun to slip away.

Then, she saw one of the smaller, comparativly, demons sneak up behind the man. She didn’t know what exactly happened. She just remembered something snapping inside of her. She knew she had to act.

When came to herself, she saw that she was on top of the demon, the demon no longer had a head, and one of her now bloody fists was where the demon’s head should have been.

She did that. She killed the demon. That knowledge had granted her an epiphanie. Bernadetta could free herself. Bernadetta could free herself by spilling the blood of the demons.

A few moments had past since she raised her voice to the Slayer, and she began wonder if she had made a mistake. He was way more powerful than she was, faster than she was—

“Lesson one: always stay in control. You can’t kill if you’re dead.”

The voice was deep, far more human-sounding than VEGA’s, and it also came from the man’s helmet.

The Slayer reached behind him and pulled pulled out a strange, L-shaped tool that had blue glowing from parts of it, and he held it out to her.

Bernadetta took it tentatively, unsure what to do with the tool.

“Ever use a gun before?” The deep voice asked.

Bernie shook her head. The Slayer stared at her for a few moments before holding up what she guessed was another gun, though much differenly shaped.

“Hold the handle,” he demonstrated with his tool, “in your dominant hand. Keep only the tip of your finger on the trigger when you’re ready to fire. Use of your other hand to give yourself more control and support.”

Bernie followed the Slayer’s instructions, finding her hands fitting comfortably where he said they should be.

“Don’t you need this?” Bernie asked.

The Slayer simply held up his other tool.

“Better ones.” He said simply. “Don’t need that one.”

“We’ll instruct you on the pistol’s additional functions later.” VEGA said. “For now, we should keep moving. I have hacked this facility’s system and have found evidence suggesting that there are additional subjects locked away here. It would be prudent to find them before destroying the facility. Marking the nearest one on your HUD now.”

“HUD?” Bernie asked.

“Just follow me.” The Slayer said before turning away from her and walking.

“Right.”

#bernadetta von varley #doom slayer #she becomes an apprentice #woke up with this stuck in my head #need to go back to sleep #Bernadetta snaps #click-click boom-boom

[starkravinghazelnoots]

Inevitable

Time was of the essence. Janet van Dyne knew there was a chance she would not be able to restore Stark’s hand that wore the gauntlet, but she could keep his soul in his body. What good was the ability to heal if she didn’t use it?

Hope landed her behind a small crowd who had gathered in front of the legendary Tony Stark. As tempted as Janet was to push her way to the front and heal him immediately, she waited. And she watched.

Time was ticking.

(An Endgame Fix-It.)

Read on AO3. Read on FFN.

xXxXxXx

“And I... am Iron Man.”

The following snap of armored fingers against each other echoed across the battlefield, stunning the ongoing fighters into silence.

Janet van Dyne found herself glancing desperately across the area, trying to find the one who called himself ‘Iron Man.’ She understood the power that had rippled through all of them. She knew the damage it would do. She could help him, if given enough time.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Hank asked, pulling her away from one of Thanos’s soldiers as he - it? - crumbled to ash in front of them.

“I can save him, Hank,” she pleaded, clutching his hand between both of hers. “I know I can! Each of those stones has traveled through the Quantum Realm, they are now connected to the Quantum Realm. I can heal him!”

“Heal who?” Hank demanded. “Stark?”

“If that is his name, then yes.” Janet turned around to see that Hope now stood beside her. “Please take me to him, Jelly Bean. There isn’t much time.”

Hope nodded, flicking her mask down and lifting her mother up, the wings of her suit straining but carrying them quickly enough across the battlefield.

Or so Janet prayed.

Time was of the essence. She knew there was a chance she would not be able to restore Stark’s hand that wore the gauntlet, but she could keep his soul in his body. What good was the ability to heal if she didn’t use it?

Hope landed her behind a small crowd who had gathered in front of the legendary Tony Stark. As tempted as Janet was to push her way to the front and heal him immediately, she waited. And she watched.

A young boy with brown hair was kneeling in front of the armored man. Even from a distance Janet could see how the dust and blood coated on his face was streaked with tears.

“Hey, Mr. Stark, we won,” the kid choked out, reaching towards the man before pulling away. “We won, Mr. Stark! You did it. You did it.” The kid furiously rubbed his eyes. “Tony, please don’t go...”

Janet felt a lump form in her throat. The child’s actions reminded her so much of Hope, when she had been younger. Or perhaps it hurt too much to imagine Hope in the boy’s place.

A young woman with fading red hair and wearing armor similar to Stark’s gently pulled the boy away, taking his place in front of whom Janet presumed was her husband.

“Hey, Pep,” Stark coughed. Blood trickled down out of the corner of his mouth.

“Shh. Don’t speak, honey,” she murmured, touching his cheek with her thumb. “You’ve done it.” She brushed the dirt and blood from his forehead before leaning and kissing him on the cheek. Janet didn’t fail to notice the grief in her eyes, as much as the woman tried to put on a brave face. “We’ll be okay. You can finally rest.”

Janet’s own heart skipped a beat as the arc reactor in Stark’s chest flickered before going out. Unable to stop herself, she pushed through the crowd and dropped to her knees in front of the famed hero. “I can heal him,” she begged. “Please, if you will allow me to, I can.” She placed her hand on his chest. “He is still alive. He is dying, but he is not yet dead.”

The red-haired woman seemed at a loss for words, her eyes wide as she remained frozen.

“Please heal him!” the boy from earlier pleaded, grabbing her arm as he choked back a sob. “Please!” He shook his head, whether it was intentional or not Janet couldn’t tell. “I can’t lose another dad. I can’t. Not again. Not like this. Please.”

Janet turned back to Stark’s wife, who was covering her mouth with her hand in shock as silent tears fell down her cheeks. “With your permission.”

The woman breathed a shuddering gasp, then nodded. “Yes. Save him.”

“Rest doesn’t have to mean death, Pep,” a dark-skinned man murmured, pulling Stark’s wife into a tight hug. “He deserves to rest with you, and with Morgan. He deserves the future you’ve always wanted.”

Janet took that as her cue, placing her hands on Stark’s heart. Her hands glowed with a golden light as she channeled everything, everything she had into revitalizing a man who needed to live. There was no question. As soon as his heartbeat was steady, she transferred her concentration to the man’s arm and the side of his face. She numbed the pain and stabilized his nervous system to the best of her ability. There wasn’t much she could do about the physical state of his skin. That was beyond her abilities.

But she could keep him alive.

And that – that was enough.

xXxXxXx

“So he’s going to make it?”

The doctor nodded, and Pepper fell into Rhodey’s arms, unable to stop tears from escaping for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Rhodey murmured soothing words as he gently rubbed her back.

Peter likewise found himself being hugged tightly by May. “He’s going to live, May!” he sobbed into her chest. “Oh my God, he’s going to live.”

“It was the treatment he was given before he came to us that likely saved his life, however,” the doctor continued. “In truth, perhaps the only thing we did was use the research left to us by Dr. Cho to heal his face, and manipulated the quantum particles provided by Janet van Dyne to finish restoring his nerves there. But he will live, and for a long time, at that.” The doctor smiled. “He’s very fortunate to have people who care about him so much.”

“Can we see him now?” Pepper asked, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

The doctor hesitated, their smile disappearing. “I’m afraid not. While we are quite certain that Mr. Stark will survive, he is still sedated from surgery. You will have to wait until visiting hours reopen later.”

The blood drained from Pepper’s face. “Surgery? What surgery?”

“We tried our best to save his right arm, but the damage was just too extensive. His nervous system appeared to have been mostly healed, somehow, but his muscles were shredded beyond repair.” The doctor winced. “I apologize if my language is insensitive. I simply do not wish to give you a false impression. We had to amputate.”

Silence fell among the group. It was broken when Rhodey chuckled.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said as Pepper stared at him in a mixture of shock and horror. “I was just thinking that it’ll finally be my turn to help Tony. Like how he helped me.” His fingers brushed his leg braces.

The doctor smiled warmly at the group. “Mr. Stark will need all of your help. And I believe you are all quite qualified to provide it. That is the exact reason I am sure he will live a very long and very happy life.” They shifted their clipboard to beneath their arm. “If you have no other questions, I will be on my way.”

“When can we see him?” Peter blurted out. “If not now, when? When do visiting hours reopen?”

“Hmm,” the doctor mused. “Well, visiting hours don’t reopen until tomorrow. But I would estimate he will wake a few hours from now. But I can find my superiors and ask for a more exact time, if you’d like, and see if they’ll let you visit early. They often do that for extreme scenarios.”

“Yes, that would be much appreciated,” Pepper said. “Thank you.”

The doctor nodded. “I’ll be back the moment you’re allowed entry.” With that, they walked away.

May ran a hand through Peter curls before kissing the top of his head. “Not to jinx us, but we’re very lucky, aren’t we?”

Rhodey reached out and pulled both May and Peter into a tight hug with him and Pepper. “Yes. Yes we are.”

xXxXxXx

“I’ll have to write a hundred – no, a thousand – thank you notes to Ms. Van Dyne,” Pepper said as she reached up and stretched. The hard plastic of the hospital chair wasn’t good for her back, especially after three hours. “We are indebted to her for life.”

“I can’t help but wonder if Pym will gloat about that for as long as possible,” Rhodey chuckled. “Only in good humor, of course.”

Pepper shrugged, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth for the first time in what felt like years. “I doubt I’d mind if he did.” Pepper’s gaze shifted to Peter, who had fallen fast asleep after the first twenty minutes of waiting, his head resting on May’s shoulder. “He must be exhausted.”

May gave Pepper a soft smile. “Yes. But he’s not the only one. Have you considered trying to rest, Ms. Potts? God knows you need it.”

“Please, call me Pepper. I think we’ve reached that level of closeness.” She sighed. “I know I should rest. But I can’t. Not without seeing him.”

May nodded. “I understand.”

All heads turned at the sound of approaching footsteps from down the hall. It was Happy, holding the hand of a little girl with dark brown hair, both making their way towards the group.

“Morgan,” Pepper breathed, standing from her chair and rushing over to her daughter. She knelt down and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

Morgan nodded, even though she was squished in her mother’s embrace. “Yes. Where’s Daddy?”

“He’s resting right now, in that room over there,” Pepper said, lifting up Morgan as she stood and gesturing towards the room where her husband was sleeping. “We’re waiting for him to wake up.”

Morgan nodded, not speaking as she contented herself with twisting and braiding her mother’s long hair.

Pepper returned to her seat, and Happy sat down in the chair opposite her.

“Any updates?” he asked.

“Not many,” Rhodey said. “But we do know that he’s going to make it.”

Happy breathed a sigh of relief, his hand moving to his heart. “Oh, thank God.”

“And we know that he’ll look as handsome as he did before,” Rhodey continued, a small smirk dancing on his lips. “Apparently over the past five years they’ve been able to replicate the progress Dr. Cho made in ‘growing’ flesh.” His smirk faded. “But they weren’t able to recover his arm.”

Happy winced. “Is a prosthetic at least possible?”

Rhodey shrugged. “The doctor didn’t say. But knowing Tony, I’m sure he’ll create something. I have a feeling he may stop being Iron Man, but he could never stop building. Inventions are a part of him.”

Peter sat up, startling the adults around him. Sweat beaded his forehead, and he was gasping like no air was getting in his lungs.

“Hey, baby, what’s wrong?” May asked, shifting herself so she was facing her nephew. “Did something happen? Was it a dream?”

Peter’s breathing slowly evened, but he clenched his eyes shut. “It felt...” He coughed, causing his body to shudder. “It felt so real.” He glanced up at May. “I saw – I saw Mr. Stark, I saw him –” He choked up, unable to continue.

“Oh, Peter.” May pulled him into a hug. “It was just a dream. I promise.”

Peter buried his face into his aunt’s shoulder, unable to respond.

Pepper hesitated, then adjusted how she was holding Morgan as she moved next to Peter. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet, kid,” she said gently. “But only if you want to.”

Peter gripped his aunt’s shoulder tightly, but then relaxed his body and turned his attention to Pepper. The moment he did so his eyes widened. “Is she...?”

Pepper chuckled. “Peter Parker, I’d like you to meet Morgan Stark.”

At the sound of her name, Morgan’s focus drifted away from braiding her mother’s hair to the teenager sitting in front of her.

“Morgan, you remember Peter, right?” Pepper asked. “Daddy told you a lot of stories about him.”

Morgan beamed. One of her front teeth was missing. “Spider-Man!”

Tears welled in Peter’s eyes, but he rubbed them away, smiling at the girl. “That’s me.”

Morgan held her arms out for him to take her, but Peter hesitated, looking towards Pepper for permission. Pepper nodded and carefully handed her child into the teen’s shaking arms.

Peter’s face was pale as he situated Morgan in his lap, but his brown eyes glimmered with a mixture of happiness and hope. Morgan fiddled with Peter’s collar, a satisfied smile on her lips.

“So, your dad has told you stuff about me?” Peter asked, grinning at the child and ruffling her hair. “I’m flattered.”

Morgan nodded. “Mhm! He says Spider-Man is the best superhero ever. He told me a story about how Spider-Man saved New York from a evil villain who looked like a robot-vulture by crashing a whole plane!” She frowned. “He also said that Spider-Man would stay out past his bedtime and that I shouldn’t do that.”

Peter snickered, not noticing how with his laughter came a lightening of everyone’s mood in the room. “Well, sometimes bedtimes have to be ignored in pursuit of justice.”

Morgan giggled, and the two quickly became lost in exchanging short, silly stories about Spider-Man and his clumsy sidekick, Iron Man.

Happy and Rhodey became engaged in a conversation about some TV show. Pepper turned to talk to May, but paused when she realized the woman’s attention was glued to Peter. After a moment, she reached out and placed her hand on May’s shoulder.

“That’s why, isn’t it?” May murmured. “For them.”

Pepper watched as Peter started to braid Morgan’s hair, both grinning from ear to ear. She found herself smiling. “Yes. That’s why.”

xXxXxXx

“You’re allowed to see him now.”

The five shot up from their seats almost in unison. Peter nearly dropped Morgan.

The doctor held up their hands to prevent the group from rushing in. “But not all at once. And for no longer than twenty minutes in total. Understand?”

“Yes,” Pepper said, taking the initiative. “We understand. Thank you for letting us know.”

The doctor nodded. “Alright. I’ll be back in around half an hour. I’m trusting you not to exhaust him, or else higher-ups will have my head.”

“Of course,” Pepper reassured them. “Again, thank you for everything.”

The doctor hesitated, but nodded a second time and left.

“You can see him first, Happy,” Pepper said. “I know you’re itching to get back to SI.”

A guilty look formed on Happy’s face. “Yes, but I shouldn’t – it should be you –”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Go ahead, Happy.”

“I’ll join you,” Rhodey said, clapping him on the shoulder. “I was supposed to be back at the pseudo-compound two hours ago.”

Pepper nodded, stepping aside and allowing the two to enter.

Rhodey made sure to pull the door shut behind him, unsure how much bright light Tony should or should not be exposed to. He hadn’t thought to ask the doctor. “Hey, Tones,” he said, sitting in the chair on his friend’s right side, Happy taking the one on the left. “Forgive me for the awkward icebreaker, but how’s it going?”

Tony was sitting up in the hospital bed, although not at a 90 degree angle. He managed a laugh, somehow, despite the tubes in his arms – arm. His arm. “Oh, not bad, honeybear. All things considered.”

“Maybe this is a premature question, but how does it feel to be the person who saved the entire universe and lived to tell the tale?” Happy asked.

Tony shrugged, which looked... odd with only one arm. “Not sure how much credit goes to me, really. Banner brought everyone back. Carol beat Thanos into the dirt. Steve wielding Mjolnir and Thor with Stormbreaker took out half of the enemy army. The Wakandans gave us the numerical edge. Nat...” He trailed off, and the room was silent. “Nat got us the Soul Stone. It was all of us who won. Together.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Pulled back from the brink of death after saving everyone, yet somehow modest?” He smirked. “That’s not the Tony Stark I know.”

Tony laughed, and his shoulders relaxed for the first time since the two had entered. “I would apologize, but I bet that’s also too modest for you, isn’t it?”

“Damn right.” Rhodey wiped tears from his eyes. He hadn’t realized he’d started to cry. He stood, leaning over the hospital bed and pulling Tony into a tight hug, somehow managing to not pull the IVs out of his friend’s arm. “God, I’m so glad you’re alive.”

“It’s because this time, I rode with you,” Tony replied, his voice muffled in Rhodey’s shoulder.

“And you’re going to keep riding with me.” Rhodey released his friend, giving him as brave a smile as he could muster. “Pepper’s going to call me the moment you get out of the hospital, and I’m gonna rush over so we can ride back together. Got it?”

Tony nodded, grinning. “Roger that, Colonel.”

Rhodey snorted. “Right.” He saluted his friend. “See you later, then.”

Tony saluted in response. “Forgive me for not using my right hand.”

Rhodey said nothing for fear of his voice breaking. He nodded before stepping out the door.

Happy stood from his chair, moving next to the bed. He offered his hand, and Tony took it. “Get well soon, Boss. SI employees miss those occasional visits from you. There’s a stack of cards waiting for you at your room in the tower.”

Tony chuckled. “Understood.”

As Happy left the room, May stepped in.

“Ms. Parker,” Tony said, surprised. “Is Peter here?”

“He’s outside. I just wanted to thank you in person.”

Tony frowned. “Thank me for what?”

“For taking care of Peter. And for bringing him back to me. Five years without him...” Tears lined the corners of May’s eyes, and she gave him a sad smile. “I’ll admit that I’ve never been a big fan of you, Stark, but...” She shook her head. “You’ve given me my world back. And God knows I can’t thank you enough for that.”

Tony offered May a soft smile. “Thank you for sharing your world with me.”

May laughed, wiping away her tears. “It’s the least I can do. I’m sure Peter’s already made plans to visit your new place over the summer.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ll let you see Peter now. You’ve only been given twenty minutes of visitor time, and eight of them have now been used.”

May left the hospital room to see Peter trying and failing to return Morgan to his mother’s arms.

“No!” Morgan shouted, clinging tightly to Peter. “I don’t wanna go! I wanna stay with Pete!”

Peter flinched at her words. “Morgan, your mom will be mad at me if I keep you for too long. She wants to hang out with you, too, you know.”

Morgan buried her face in Peter’s neck. “I don’t care!”

Pepper laughed. “Alright, Morgan. Don’t worry. You can stay with your brother.” She didn’t fail to notice how Peter flushed bright red at her words. “But I do need you to loosen your grip on Peter, okay? You don’t want to choke him.”

Morgan did as instructed, though she didn’t let go completely.

“Tony’s waiting for you,” May said to her nephew, holding the door open. “He misses both of you very much.” She shut the door after the two entered.

“A visit from both his children.” Pepper smiled. “Every father’s joy.”

xXxXxXx

“H-Hey Mr. Stark,” Peter stammered. He flinched as the door was pulled shut behind him. “Uh... How’s it going?”

“Daddy!” Morgan said excitedly, reaching forward and nearly causing Peter to fall over.

Tony laughed at the sight. He shifted slightly on his bed, making more room on his right side. “You can let her sit here, Pete.”

Peter nodded and carefully set Morgan down next to her father. The fact that he was placing her down in the space where Tony’s right arm used to be was almost nauseating. He then grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to his mentor’s bed on the other side before sitting down.

Morgan contented herself with playing with the sheets of the hospital bed. The fact that her father lacked a right arm did not seem to concern her.

Peter was impressed.

“I missed you, kid.”

Peter stiffened when Tony broke the silence. “I - uh, thank you?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “What are you thanking me for now?”

“For saving the universe! And bringing me back! And... And all that stuff.”

Tony hesitated, then said, “I know this really isn’t what you want to be asked right now, but do you... Do you remember what happened? On Titan?”

“Sort of.” Peter bit his lip, shrugging. “I mean, it feels like it was only yesterday for me. But you’re asking about when I disappeared... Right?”

Tony nodded.

“Yeah.” Peter sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I remember. My body felt like it was numb and on fire at the same time, and then it started to crumble and I could just – just feel myself fading, and, and –” He stopped, covering his mouth with his hand. He shook his head. “I’m – I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Tony reached out and brushed away the tears falling down Peter’s cheeks.

Peter hadn’t even realized he’d started crying.

“Kid, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Tony whispered. “It never should have been you.”

Peter wanted to protest, wanted to tell him that there was nothing he could have done, wanted to remind him that there was only one future in which Thanos could be defeated and they were living in it, but he couldn’t. No words would come. Instead, all he could do was lean over and sob into the chest of the man he dared not call a father for fear of losing him. Tony’s arm was wrapped around him in an even tighter hug than they’d shared on the battlefield.

They remained that way for several minutes. Peter’s sobs only started to quiet when Morgan joined in on the group hug, petting her almost-brother’s hair and telling him it would be okay and that it was okay to cry.

“I love you 3000, Peter!”

Peter sniffled as he slowly sat up. He was sure his eyes were red. “I think Morgan gets her comforting skills from Ms. Potts.”

Tony laughed, and Peter noticed that his mentor, too, had been crying. “I think you’re right.”

Peter glanced at the clock on the wall. “I have to go now. I know you want to talk to Ms. Potts before they shut down your visiting time.” He stood, and started to move towards the door. He stumbled as Morgan reached out and grabbed his arm. “And I guess I’ll be taking your daughter with me, Mr. Stark,” he added, laughing as he picked Morgan up. “But we’ll both come visit again later.”

Tony nodded, then raised an eyebrow. “Wait, ‘Mr. Stark’? I thought we were on a first-name basis now.”

Peter shook his head. “Nah. That was a near-death scenario. You haven’t earned that right from me in everyday conversation.”

Tony gasped in mock-offense, but his face soon shifted into a genuine grin. “Alright, kid. We’ll see how long that attitude lasts.”

Peter didn’t say anything as he left, instead winking before nudging the door shut with his foot behind him.

Tony didn’t have to wait long before Pepper joined him.

“Hey Ms. Potts,” he greeted as she sat in the chair Peter had previously occupied. He noticed the tearstains on her cheeks. “Mm, did you miss me? Cry a few tears for your long-lost husband?”

Pepper managed a laugh. “Tears of joy. I could never get remarried.”

“Well, neither could I.”

There was a pause before Pepper spoke. “So what do you think about Peter and Morgan?”

Tony snickered. “Oh, I think I’m going to hire him as much as possible for babysitting.”

“Well, we both know that will backfire.” Pepper smirked. “You won’t want to leave the house if the both of them are there.”

Tony tilted his head, as if contemplating her words. Then he grinned. “Okay, yeah. You’re right.”

“Mhm. Aren’t I always?”

Tony beckoned her. “Come here.”

Pepper rolled her eyes, but she knew exactly what he wanted. She leaned forward and kissed him, running a hand through his hair and ignoring how his beard scratched her face. God, she missed him. When she pulled away, she couldn’t help but laugh at his goofy smile. “I take it you’re a bit touch-starved?”

“Only in the purest of senses.”

“Right.”

Tony glanced at his right arm - or rather, where it used to be. “No more Iron Man, huh?”

Pepper leaned back in her chair and gave him a soft smile. “You don’t have to hide it. I know that fact doesn’t upset you as much as you think it should.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s okay to want to rest, Tony. You’re getting old. I think a life of retirement will suit you.”

Tony snorted. “Wow, you think I’m getting old? That hurts, Pep.”

“Hey.” Pepper reached out and intertwined her fingers with his. “At least we’ll grow old together.”

“You always know exactly what to say, don’t you?”

“One of us has to.”

Tony stared at his wife. Then he sighed. “You’re all I have, Pep.”

Pepper released his hand as she stood up, shaking her head. “No. You have so much more than just me. You know that.” She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I’ll be back to visit as soon as I can. You need to get some rest.”

Tony chuckled. “Yes, Dr. Potts.”

Pepper laughed before leaving the room, making sure to close the door behind her.

Peter was now playing a game of hangman with Morgan. May was watching and whispering letters in Morgan’s ear as Peter pretended to be angry about it.

“You know, I’m pretty sure this is cheating.”

“Mm, I don’t think so.”

“The word is ‘heart’!” Morgan said, giggling. “Heart, heart!”

Peter sighed. “Darn. You got it again.” He ruffled her hair. “You’re way too good at this, Morgan.”

“Okay, my turn!” Morgan took the paper and pencil from him, drawing four and then three blank spaces. “Guess a letter.”

“E,” Peter said.

“Nope!” Morgan drew a circle. “Guess again.”

“A,” May offered.

Morgan beamed and wrote an ‘a’ in the second-to-last blank. “Yep!”

May snickered as Peter pouted.

“I,” Pepper said, joining the trio.

Morgan wrote an ‘i’ in the first blank. “Mhm!”

Peter, May, and Pepper all exchanged knowing glances.

“Iron Man,” Peter guessed, a soft smile tugging at his cheeks.

Morgan laughed, filling in the rest of blanks. “Yes! You’re so smart, Peter!”

Pepper watched with a smile dancing on her lips as Peter started tickling Morgan, May laughing as she stepped out of the way. After five years, her family was whole again. And soon, the love of her life would be able to join them.

At the back of her mind, she feared that the day would come when she might lose it all again. In the blink of an eye.

But in her heart, she knew this present, this happiness, this warmth – it was inevitable.

And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

xXxXxXx

Need more fluff to recover from Endgame? Check out Hair Dye, my collection of Iron Dad and Spider Son oneshots.

AO3. FFN.

Thanks for reading! :)

#fanfic #my fanfic #tony stark #pepper potts #morgan stark #peter parker #avengers endgame spoilers #avengers endgame #may parker #james rhodes #happy hogan #pepperony #iron dad #spider son #iron man #spider-man #janet van dyne #avengers endgame fix-it

[tigerroseblue]

Seven Deadly Sins Prompt:

Another Liz x Meliodas oneshot, for #11 "I don't even know what I should say". Set when Liz thinks he's a naive idiot and then something happens to where she realizes that he has a breaking point that you want to steer FAR clear of. Also, I've had an oneshot for Ban and Meliodas friendship angst, for prompt #12 for a while now. I just haven't posted it because it has an UNGODLY amount of angst in it and I don't know if y'all want to read it. If you do, then please comment and tell me and I'll post it.

Liz sipped her drink, staring blankly at the wall of the tavern. Cain and a few other knights sat with her, all drinking and cheering loudly. They had just returned from a mission that had gone particularly well, and they were celebrating their success. She was too busy thinking back on what happened on the mission to really join in their festivities.

"Come on, Liz, why the long face?" One of the knights, Dain, asked. His face was slightly red from the alcohol. "You did the best out of all of us. Celebrate a little!" She started out of her thoughts and nodded. "Oh, yeah. Thanks." "What's up?" Cain asked, hiccuping. Liz shook her head. "Nothing. I was just wondering...about Meliodas."

Simon, a large, black haired knight who had the power to control water, laughed. "Aw, you fallin' for tha Grand Master, Lizzy?" She turned and snarled at him, her face burning. "As if I'd ever! And if you call me that again, I'll light your ass up!" Cain laughed. "Better watch yourself, Simon. Else you're going to regret it." He then turned to her. "So what were you wondering about him?"

She huffed, still a bit embarrassed. "I've been here for nearly half a year and in that time, I've never seen him anything other than laid back, goofy, and perverted." The other knights busted out laughing at the last one. Liz went on, ignoring their amusement. "I've never seen him take anything seriously or get more than mildly annoyed. I haven't even seen him use magic or any kind of weapon. Any time he trains with the knights, he's unarmed and it never escalates to an actual fight. Usually, it's just him giving them advice. Why is he the Grand Master? He just doesn't seem powerful enough."

All the knights stopped and stared at her. Even Cain, who still had his full set of armor on. "Girl," Cain started, "trust me on this. You never want to see him more than 'mildly annoyed'." The other knights nodded vehemently. She blinked. "Why?" Cain sighed. "Let me tell you something. I was here when Meliodas first arrived in Danafor and when he fought the previous Grand Master. I knew the previous Grand Master. And I'd prefer Meliodas over him any day of the week."

"What happened?" Liz asked, leaning forward, incredibly curious to find out anything about the mysterious person who had saved her life after she had attacked the kingdom he protected. Cain took a deep breath and leaned back, setting down his drink. Liz knew it was serious if he set down his alcohol. "The previous Grand Master, Garrick, was a horrible knight. One of those that used his power to abuse the people he was supposed to protect. He was powerful, though, so we didn't really have a choice but to follow him."

"One day, a blonde-haired child and a colorful, talking, bird came to the city. A few knights that followed Garrick's ideals were terrorizing the people in a tavern that the boy had stopped at. He ordered a drink–of course, due to his looks, the waitress refused to serve ale to a child," he mentioned jokingly. The knights laughed, along with Liz, who knew by now that Meliodas was definitely older than he looked.

"While he was waiting for his drink, having finally convinced the waitress, the knights came to harass the poor waitress. In a minute, the boy was standing and had grabbed the leader of the group's arm, asking him to step away. Of course, the leader looked at him and laughed, thinking he was just a child playing at hero. He jerked his arm away, and was about to hit the waitress. And before anyone in the tavern knew what was happening, the knights were all unconscious. And the blonde boy was standing above them, wiping his hands like he had just taken out the trash."

"He looked down at the defeated leader and then around at the room of stunned onlookers. Then, he asked where their Grand Master was. After one of the men answered shakily, he grabbed the leader and began dragging him to the castle." Liz laughed. "I bet that was a nasty surprise." Cain laughed with her. "It was. I was there when he came into Garrick's office and threw the bastard on the floor. His exact words were "Perhaps you want to screen your knights a bit more carefully. Else you get bastards like this guy"."

Liz laughed. That sounded just like Meliodas. Polite, while delivering a massive bitch slap. "What happened after that?" "After that, Garrick challenged him. Worst idea ever. Meliodas didn't even use a sword. It was over in under five minutes. When the king heard about it, he immediately offered Meliodas the job." Liz frowned. "Why did you say I didn't want to see him angry? He didn't seem to get angry in your story."

Cain shook his head. "I didn't tell you that part. The fight probably would've ended sooner had Meliodas been serious in trying to fight him. Really, for the first four minutes, he just seemed bored. Then one of Garrick's attacks hit his feathered companion. It was over for him then. Meliodas nearly killed him." Liz blinked. She knew Meliodas and Wandle were close, but she couldn't see Meliodas getting that angry over him.

She was about to ask him if he knew anything about the two's past, but she was interrupted by an apprentice knight barging in the tavern door. Everyone stopped talking and looked at the panting boy. "Lord...Meliodas..." he huffed. "Has a...challenger! First courtyard of the castle!" A challenger? Liz wondered. Before she could ask what the apprentice meant, every single knight in the tavern let out a huge whoop and started running out the door. "What the–" she started, shocked.

Cain laughed. "Right. This is your first time. Come on, you'll enjoy this." She followed him and the rest of the knights to the first courtyard of the castle. The first courtyard was massive and it was a good thing it was, because she thought she could see every single knight in the kingdom there. Cain pushed his way through the crowd. "Move it! Short people get the front!" He barked. Liz sighed, not even wanting to touch upon that comment.

They finally got to the front of the crowd and Liz carefully oriented herself so she wouldn't step on anything in the flowerbed they were standing in. Standing in the middle of the large circle created by the crowd was a man in armor. He had brown hair and a huge scar over the right side of his face. His armor was blue and had the symbol of a different kingdom painted on his chest. A longsword was sheathed on his back. Five other knights stood behind him, all wearing the same symbol somewhere on their person.

The scarred man was scowling. Cain laughed lowly. Liz turned towards him. "What's so funny?" She asked, having to raise her voice a little to be heard over what had to be over a hundred Holy Knights's voices. "What's going on?" Cain looked up at her. "You see, every so often, a knight from another kingdom will come to challenge Meliodas to a fight. He's well known for his..." he coughed, "youthful appearance...and most seem to think the rumors of his power are just that. Rumors. So, they come thinking they'll be able to defeat the legendary Grand Master of Danafor." He laughed again. "It's very amusing to the rest of us. Poor bastards never know what they're getting themselves into."

Suddenly, everyone stopped talking. Liz followed Cain's gaze and there, walking into the circle, was Meliodas. He had that blank expression on his face that Liz was beginning to read as utter boredom. As always, he had no weapon and only the bare basics of armor, which amounted to gauntlets, poleyns, greaves, and sabatons. The rest was his standard green and white tunic with the Danafor symbol and a pair of loose pants tucked into his greaves. She bit her lip. That idiot...wearing so little protective gear, especially now.

The foreign knight stepped forward as Meliodas stopped in front of him. "Sir Meliodas of Danafor! I, Carac of the Carhaix Kingdom, challenge you to a duel!" Cain snorted, probably at the similarities in the knight's name and the name of his kingdom. Liz, on the other hand, rolled her eyes at his over-the-top introduction. Meliodas looked slightly amused. "Well, well, well...lets get on with it then. Are your comrades joining in?" He asked calmly. Carac started. "Of course not! I will take you down myself!"

Meliodas was definitely silently laughing at that. "Then they should probably back away. Don't want anyone getting hurt accidently." Carac motioned his men to step back into the crowd behind them. It took a minute and some jostling, but they were soon out of the way. "Are you not fighting with a weapon?" Carac asked, reaching for his sword. Meliodas shook his head. "Nah." The other knight looked insulted, but nodded. "Then neither will I."

"Poor, poor bastard," Cain muttered. Liz looked down at him, shocked. "Really should've used the sword. Would've had no chance with or without it, but this is going to be embarrassing for him." "But if he was using his sword and Meliodas wasn't," Liz whispered to him as the two knights in the circle got ready to fight, "wouldn't that mean Meliodas would be at a disadvantage?" Cain looked up at her, amused. "Girl, I've seen Meliodas snap a pure steel sword in half like it was a twig. I wouldn't have been worried at all if that knight had used a sword."

They stopped talking and turned back to the fight as Carac rushed towards Meliodas. Liz blinked and he was right in front of him. Both knights were a blur, one of brown and blue, the other of gold and green. "Holy crap," she breathed. Cain laughed quietly at her shock. A moment later, the brown and blue blue shot away from the green and gold and both knights became visible again. The challenging knight was trying to be inconspicuous as he shook his hands, but his slight and noticeable grimace ruined it. He also had a visible dent in his chest armor. Meliodas on the other hand, was virtually untouched and had his hand held out towards the knight, palm facing him. It looked as if he had just pushed him away.

The fight went on, but Carac wasn't having much luck. Meliodas either dodged or blocked his attacks, he couldn't touch the smaller knight. Liz saw that Carac was getting frustrated and she began to get a bit nervous. She knew that look that had appeared on his face and it usually meant that something underhanded was about to happen.

She was right. After being smacked in the back of the head once more, Carac snarled and grabbed his sword. "What the–?!" Cain exclaimed angrily. Meliodas spun around and a minute change in his expression showed her that he too was aggravated by the knight's lack of honor. Other knights around them shouted their protests as well. "Cheater!" was the word being tossed around the most.

Carac ignored the knights' displeasure and continued to fight Meliodas. Liz went stiff, instantly wanting to go and help him. Cain grabbed her arm, shaking his head and pointing at Meliodas. "Watch," he said quietly. Meliodas swayed to the side, dodging a sword thrust and swung his hand up in a smooth motion. The knuckles of his left hand hit Carac's wrist and forced him to drop his sword. The sword clattered to the ground and spun away from the two knights. The Danafor onlookers cheered, impressed with their Grand Master. The foreign knights looked appropriately embarrassed.

But that wasn't the end to their embarrassment. Carac backed away from Meliodas and picked up his sword again. Cain groaned. "God, boy. Just admit defeat, you're just embarrassing your kingdom at this point," he muttered. Liz had to agree. Carac, on the other hand, didn't seem to. He swiped his sword down and created what seemed like a blue blade of energy that was...headed straight towards them.

Liz's eyes widened when she realized that her, Cain, and the people behind them were all in the direct path of this attack. She brought her hands up, ready to try anything to stop it. But before she could even muster her magic up, a now-familiar blur of green and gold. Meliodas stood firmly in front of them and lifted his hand, his thumb and pinky folded down. And before her eyes, the magic of the other knight disappeared.

She blinked several times, shocked. Meliodas turned and smiled at her. "Hey, Liz! Mind moving to the side for a minute?" He motioned her to the left. She moved, still somewhat in a daze from seeing the attack that she was sure was going to hit her just vanish. He moved past her and bent down. There was a small snapping noise and when he straightened, Liz saw that he had a twig that he had broken off the bush next to her. He jumped down from the flowerbed and walked back to Carac.

"It seems that knights in Carhaix aren't taught the rules of a challenge," he stated cheerfully. "Allow me." Cain whistled. "Yep. He's dead." Liz blinked again, utterly speechless at this point. Dead? How? Meliodas doesn't even seem– Then, the knight charged at him again. Meliodas dodged and smacked him hard against the back of his head. He slammed into the courtyard stone, cracking it with the force at which he had been knocked down. "First rule: All aforementioned conditions to the fight, conferred with and agreed upon by both parties, must be followed to the letter." Meliodas said.

Carac shakily got to his feet, blood coming from both his nose (probably broken) and his split lip. But before he got the chance to launch another attack, Meliodas blitzed him and punched him soundly in the stomach, causing him to fall back down and start coughing retchedly. "Second rule: If not a fight to the death, when it becomes clear to one of the parties' comrades that said party has been throughly outmatched–even if he can still walk–his comrades must stop the match." A shiver ran down Liz's spine as Meliodas looked at the other Carhaix knights, clearly admonishing them. She had finally seen it. The look that Meliodas had given both Carac and his fellow Carhaix knights during his lecture...he wasn't annoyed. He was angry.

And what happened next confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that Meliodas was indeed powerful enough to be the Grand Master and that she definitely hoped this was the last time she got to see him angry. Carac once again got to his feet and held his sword protectively in front of him. Then, Meliodas dropped the act. No longer was his face neutrally blank or his voice pleasantly informational. Instead, his expression formed into a dark scowl. "And thirdly," he growled, coldly furious, "you never attack onlookers!"

He took the twig he had been holding tightly in his hand and swung downward. Suddenly, Carac's sword was cut neatly in half. His armor was sliced through like butter. And blood spurted from his chest. Even the stone in front of his was cut. Everyone was deathly quiet as Meliodas stood alone, taking deep breaths, the twig in his hand disintegrating from the sheer force he had used while swinging it. "Take your comrade to the infirmary," he said after a few minutes. His voice was still frosty, but nothing like it had been. "After he's been healed, I suggest you take your leave."

The other Carhaix knights, pale-faced and stunned silent, carefully retrieved their injured friend and left. Meliodas let out one huge sigh and then turned to us. "Entertainment's over, everyone! Return to your posts and remember to pay all those taverns you ran out of to get here!" He then turned around and walked back to the castle, probably returning to his office. Everyone immediately began to leave, obviously not wanting to test their Grand Master's patience after such a show.

Liz stood there, unable to move or speak. Cain stood next to her. "So, what do ya think?" He asked. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I...I don't even know what I should...what should I even say to that? Cain laughed. "I believe the words you're looking for are: If he can do that with a twig, I sure as hell don't want to see him with a sword." Yeah...that works, she thought numbly.

#Meliodas x Liz #the almighty twig #Lord I love that scene in the anime #I had to include that here #Cain #Danafor #seven deadly sins #nanatsu no taizai

[overwatchochelp]

Overwatch OC Review: Phuong Nguyen, “Phuong”

Sent in by @kokizuki! @chiefpharah! Review under read more.

Appearance: Phuong is 5'3" tall with black hair and near black eyes. her default skin is her stage magicians outfit! she wears a dark violet jacket with tailcoats over a white button up, accompanied with dark violet slacks. her accessories include: a violet + red velvet top hat, a velvet bow tied under her collar, a yellow rose, pearl earrings, and a belt full of canisters.

Effective design! It certainly matches Overwatch’s charm for being thematic and detailed.

she got her gauntlets and leg prosthetics from her former circus to complete her stage outfit. her gauntlets are hard light compatible, and she uses them for her magic acts, including the production of her throwing knives (her standard weapon).

Full name: Phuong Nguyen (both common Vietnamese names)

Callsign: it’s just Phuong! she’s a performing magician, so unless you strongly recommend a stage name, i want her to be addressed by her first name

Judging by how she styles herself, I think she’d be suited for a bold stage name. Performing magicians always present themselves with an air of superiority and awesomeness- it’s how they win the audience. 

At least, that’s my understanding of performing magicians. “Phuong” is still fine too.

Age: 29 years old

Sex: female

Sexuality, romance: a lesbian very comfortable in her sexuality! :> i ship her with Tracer and Emily romantically, but it’s not canon in her lore because i simply can’t find a way to connect them story-wise?

Both at once? So it’s a polyamorous lesbian triangle. It will be difficult to pull it off since it’s not confirmed (according to my information) if they are open to polyamory, so if you want it canon you’ll have to push your headcanons on canon characters. The shipping is harmless though.

Nationality: Vietnamese

Ethnicity: Vietnamese, as well!

Language/s: Vietnamese, English, Russian (from her former work)

Base of operations: Saigon, Vietnam (but she travels frequently due to her work)

Occupation: Phuong’s a solo-performing magician! she built up her reputation from her former circus by making acts primarily with hard light, a new practice in the entertainment world. as a very well-known celebrity from both her talent and charm, she often tours to spread as much happiness and hope as she physically can.

Affiliations: Dove’s Eye Circus (formerly)

GAME WISE

Health: 200

Armor: 0

Shields: 0

Role: offense! i picture her as a ★★-difficulty fast-moving player who does well at close combat, due to her higher melee damage, and someone who can easily jump into the fight when a bulk of her team is already there. she’s extremely mobile at a level similar to Genji, especially with her passive. an effective Phuong playing style is using height advantage to use Clapperclaw and getting as close to use melee. (as a lil heads up though, most of my worry about her is her move set being too defense-y, so additional attention would be greatly approached!)

Weapons: her main weapon is knives she rapidly produces with her hard light gauntlets! her primary fire is Light Toss (left mouse), which is long range. its default is throwing 2 knives at a time, but it’s chargeable (like Zenyatta’s secondary fire) to have a set of 2/4/6 knives. the charge time for each stage is .2 seconds, output is 8/14/28 damage, and reload time is 1.7 seconds.

Secondary fire: none

Melee: she slashes with two knives, with an output of 60 damage (that might be too high though?)

Maybe so. I’m not sure about the usual melee damage range of Overwatch heroes, but I believe cutting it down to 45 damage should do it.

Abilities:

Review posted in your updated ability post!

- passive: High Jump (due to her prosthetics, Phuong is able to jump higher distances, accessing heights others may not be able to reach; can also grip walls for .5 seconds)

- shift: Clapperclaw (at a high distance in midair, Phuong directs her fall at her target, damaging them with her claws; 50 damage, 3 second cooldown)

- e key: Bullet Catch (can catch bullets/projectiles with her gauntlets, but does not direct them back, kind of like a half Genji deflect; duration 3 seconds, 8 second cooldown)

- right mouse: Dove’s Ditty (short range, healing for one ally (attaches to closest teammate, prefers teammate with lowest hp), heals 50 health per 3 seconds, 15sec cooldown)

note: i’ve listed three abilities, but i was thinking that the additional ability makes up for her lack of secondary fire (like Doomfist).

Ultimate: Phuong’s ult is Chainsaw Trick, which traps enemies in a radius within hologram boxes she creates with hard light. In the next sequence of her animation, she pulls a chainsaw out of her hat to attack her trapped enemies. The chainsaw has enhanced damage with 95 damage per swing. The enemies that aren’t currently being sliced by her chainsaw are stunned for a 5 second duration.

Signature quote: hostile, self ult line is “Ready for my showstopper?” and friendly ult line is “Tune in for the show!”

Skins: her rare skins are based off suits of cards! she also has two epic skins: Rock Dove (which is based on her dove/magic theme) and Lotus (the national flower of Vietnam).

her legendary skins include: Ao Dai (a traditional Vietnamese dress meant for the Lunar New Year Event), Skvader/Wolpertinger (not yet designed; based off the similar mythological winged rabbits), and Prophetess/Soothsayer (not yet designed; meant to be fantasy sorcerer kind of clothes).

I love the inclusion of Vietnamese cultural elements. Overwatch is a highly culturally diverse organization and it makes me glad to see people make use of that fact.

LORE WISE

Bio(short): i’m not very confident in my full bio, so i held off from making a short one!

Bio(full): she grew up in the first Omnic Crisis in Saigon, Vietnam. her parents were poor farmers, and she spent her childhood helping them + going back and forth from the city running errands for extra cash. as a young adult in her 20s, she found work in Dove’s Eye Circus after her enthusiasm for their work was reviewed by the ringleader. when she was taken in, she did some maintenance work helping the circus travel (Dove’s Eye performed in a route from Vietnam to Russia).

How did the first Omnic Crisis affect her in Saigon? You can also reason why it didn’t, but you better be good. The global omnic uprising isn’t exactly something anyone can sleep over. 

the circus carried and left cargo at certain pit stops which confused Phuong, but she paid no mind to it (the circus was kind enough to gift her a job so why question it?). after receiving a shipment of hard light tech, the circus taught Phuong to create magic acts with it. since hard light was still incredibly new to the public (i estimate this is around the time Vishkar introduced hard light), Phuong became a sensation w the circus’s already existing popularity.

How did a travelling circus acquire such cutting edge technology? If it is around the time hard light technology was unveiled the world, then I don’t believe Vishkar’d let any little bit just slip away from them.

she enjoyed her work immensely, making people smile as she did when she first saw the circus, and developed a very attached loyalty to the circus. in a stop to Russia, while dropping off shipments, her circus was violently attacked by a Talon branch to steal their cargo. in the fight, Phuong got blasted by a grenade and lost her legs from the knee down.

You can probably align this with my earlier point. Instead of a Talon team, it could be criminal mercenaries under the employ of Vishkar.

she had to stay in recovery for weeks under the medical care of the circus staff, and once she was given prosthetics, she fell even deeper in her loyalty to Dove’s Eye.

How so? What drew her closer to Dove’s Eye, seeing replacements of her loss? Or is it the realization of how important Dove’s Eye really is to her? Is it from reeling from the heat of battle did she understand her love for the circus?

when she recovered though, she couldn’t let go of the Talon attack and the shifty business the staff had when transferring goods to and from stops. after some snooping through logbooks and laptops, she learned that the circus was illegally distributing + selling, and even stealing, tech and weapons for money. page after page, screen after screen, she found herself horrified that she was associated with such a corrupt organization. however, her extreme loyalty to the circus made her reluctant to think of resisting. despite her newly-gained knowledge, she not only went along w their illegal activity, but also cooperated with them, as the staff knew of Phuong’s revelations. she helped them transfer their goods through strictly negotiations, though she sometimes got into physical fights in the name of self defense and defense of her coworkers.

Admittedly, it does take a lot for someone’s loyalty and trust in a group that feels like home to them to waver in the face of a terrible truth. However, it doesn’t feel like you adequately established her loyalty. How did she grow to love the circus? Her job? Did her fellow performers feel like family? Did she enjoy the constant moving? What made her so loyal?

What led her to cooperate with something she found so hideous? Did she figure she would get punished? Did the punishment weigh more to her than the morally upright path?

Phuong continued w her magic acts, which gave her comfort in the suddenly unfamiliar environment she placed so much trust in. when the Second Omnic Crisis broke out, Phuong had extreme guilt about how much her circus was contributing to the new war in Russia through their distributions of tech and weapons to both sides. with information she fought for and stole from the ringleader, she exposed the hell out of her circus and was an integral part to their shutdown. from then on, Phuong performed solo and rose to be an international celebrity from her experience and charm

Personality: Phuong is a very coolheaded person who is dedicated to her craft and life mission. her life mission? to spread hope and happiness to those around her, no matter the cause. and she takes it extremely seriously, making her a very altruistic and charitable person. she takes it to the point where her obsession causes her to neglect her own needs and wants (but i’ll save that for later! :>)

like i’ve mentioned before, Phuong’s a successful magician and entertainer, so she’s naturally a charismatic and people pleasing person. what kinda makes her stand out to her fans though is the extent of compassion and exhaustion she’ll push herself for her fans. she’s on tour often and is constantly trying to think of new tricks to satisfy her audience and is always trying to make her fans smile and laugh a lil. she tends to be hands on w her fans, frequently having meet and greets and runs past her own security to high five a fan. maybe two. she’s as involved as she is because she solely believes that her life purpose is to give people hope and happiness. (take note: she feels she’s FATED for this, it’s not just an interest) (also, the repetition of hope comes from her dove theme!)

Beautiful character ;-;

with company, she’s a good conversationalist with the right amount of snark and is pretty chill. she likes to flirt and tease and finds nothing in it, so she doesn’t get flustered by it when other people do the same. she will, however, be very grateful and almost shy if you tell her how much you respect her work and spirit.

Not too shy I hope! A magician’s best quality is their confidence!

Relationships: i don’t mention Overwatch in my bio? i think she could be recruit material due to her knowledge of hard light, so these are possibilities if i decided to add Overwatch to her bio! these would affect in-game interactions too, i suppose

- Tracer and Emily: Phuong very much admires Lena as the embodiment of compassion and determination she is! Phuong also loves Emily for her cheeriness, and the three are just a bunch of big ol lesbians

- Symmetra: Phuong’s paid attention to Satya’s hard light work through media (since Phuong also uses hard light for magician work), and although she admires Satya for her skill, she feels sorry for her. Phuong herself has been tied to a criminal circus she dedicated her life to, so she feels some sympathy to Satya’s misguided loyalty to Vishkar.

Looks like it’s a distant relationship. Which brings to mind: how would Phuong try to approach Satya? Knowing her own troubled past, what would she come up with?

- Zarya: she finds Zarya very admirable due to her strength and how she gave up fame for her country, and Zarya finds Phuong interesting due to her beginnings in a Russo-Viet circus. they could sometimes be found talking about the beauty of Russia or working out together.

- Lúcio and D.va: Phuong is also a celebrity, so she’s sometimes chatting it up with them!

i can list a ton of other interactions, but basically she gets along with most people. in her canon lore, she admires Overwatch for their core motivation to uphold peace (and has a little bit of a crush on Tracer since she’s the poster girl). she also has an opinion on Talon, but in that she absolutely despises the destruction and harm they cause wherever they go and also that y'know. they kind of demolished her legs

Strengths: as previously stated, she’s not only hardworking but also a huge people pleaser to those she respects. because of this, she’s willing to perform to her extent to complete any task given to her, and maybe a lil more if she’s eager. Phuong is also a charismatic person and finds it easy to get along with other people, allowing her to work in a team and to draw people to her. physically, she’s an alert person and is quick on her feet, ready to slice and dice anytime.

Weaknesses: she’s willing to work to her extent, but that commonly means beyond her physical extent. she drives herself to exhaustion if left unattended and can sometimes become paranoid, making her waste more energy and ammo spent on her fear. Phuong is also an easily manipulated person, in that she realizes she’s being manipulated but allows it to go on due to her obsession with pleasing people. though it’s easy for her to focus on tasks, she also finds it hard to commit herself to people themselves, due to her complications with misplaced loyalty in Dove’s Eye. she finds herself distrustful of strangers and coworkers alike at times, tensed for them to reveal some horrible truth harming others. to somewhat cope with this, she tends to tease to feel “unattainable” and play hard to get with people who want to know her past friendly coworkers.

Glad to see the terrible, two-faced aspect of totally giving to others made manifest in this character.

Likes: she absolutely loves birds, especially pigeons and doves! she finds them extremely charming and finds delight in the coincidence that their symbolism corresponds with her life mission. she also takes an interest reading up in modern technology, especially in the realm of hard light (though she isn’t picky). romcoms are also her thing, since she loves the idea of, well, love and how it can make people happy. she also appreciates the comedy and often stores it in her mind to spice up her magic shows.

Dislikes: she is not a fan of overly authoritative, bossy people. she gets that there needs to be order, but if the person in command doesn’t deserve the respect in her mind, she’s very passive aggressive. on a more material side, she finds dolls uncomfortable in that they’re always in one expression and look kinda fake. and wooden floors. she loves how they look but can’t stand the idea of walking on them and scratching them up with her prosthetics.

Hobbies: as predictable as it is, bird watching! she loves writing down the birds she sees in a lil logbook and feeding them if she can. even when she’s not on a bird watching quest, you can bet she’ll whip out her phone to take a pic of a parakeet in a bird store she just finds adorable. Phuong also likes to dance and collect little things. she just got off her button high and is now collecting rocks

Extra: her general theme is magic and doves, especially their symbolism, so i hope that was apparent in my submission! but other than that, i think that’s it! thank you so so much for reading this in advance!! <3

Verdict:

I find Phuong to be a beautifully fleshed out character! She is exceptionally well designed, especially with the gauntlets and prosthetics. I would recommend you add some gold accents on her suit and hat, because the abrupt change from the golden tech to her dark purple clothing can be a little jarring. Perhaps some gold stripes on her shoulders, pant legs, and hat brim ought to do it. 

“Recommend” is probably more in a personal taste here. The design stands on its feet well enough without further changes! (I just realized that might be a backhanded remark at Phuong’s... Uh.)

Her backstory stands well enough too, but some lack of detail makes it falter. See if you can try rewriting the climax of it, where Phuong finds out the Truth. You’ll find you’ll be able to sufficiently establish details this time around, I’m sure.

Her character is absolutely well done! The consistent inclusion of her general theme is a fine touch. Her quality of appearing perfectly amicable and peaceful on the outside while being perfectly not on the inside is quite well established too. It’s good if you put this detail into the conclusion (as it is) of her backstory. Perhaps it should go on to enumerate how her experience with Dove’s Eye changed her being.

Overall, Phuong is an excellent character. I recommend going over this sheet again and try rewriting some of the backstory. It has been the one I considered more thoroughly than the others. Good luck, and thank you very, very much for waiting. I know I’ve taken so much from your patience, and am very thankful you still hit me up after a long, long while. 

Cheers.

-Mod Jager

#overwatch oc #oc review #phuong nguyen #chiefpharah #OC development #mod Jäger #submission

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (60/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[5 August 238 Before Age.  Planet Wist.]

Tobiko's sanctum was a large hut made of peat and muck, submerged beneath a swamp.  Long ago, he was part of the Mystic Council, the ruling body of Ancient Wist.  When he fell out of favor with his peers, they put a terrible curse upon him, transforming him into an amphibious creature forever bound to the swamps of the planet.  They had also made Tobiko virtually immortal, in order to prolong his exile.

Ironically, their punishment had been a blessing in disguise.  Cut off as he was from their civilization, Tobiko was a living witness to its decline.  Now over five thousand years old, he possessed great wisdom and expertise about his homeworld.  He had found ways to teleport himself and others to almost any fen or bog on the planet, and he knew of secrets that had long since been forgotten by others.  He was a valuable ally, provided one was willing to see past his fearsome appearance.  

M'ranga, otherwise known as Ensign Liberty, was more than willing.  Her critics called her a revolutionary and an idealist, but she embraced those labels.  She had fought for freedom on dozens of worlds oppressed by tyranny, and she had learned long ago that courage and skill came in all shapes and sizes.  Others might have balked at the idea of using his underwater home as a base of operations, but she was honored by his hospitality.  

Besides, the place didn't smell nearly as bad as one might have assumed.  She had expected an odor like sulfur mixed with rotting fish, but instead there was an aroma reminiscent of an incense shop.  It was possible that this was an illusion brought on by Tobiko's magic.  He normally spoke in a slurred and gargled voice, but he had a spell to sound more normal whenever he had a lot to say.  

Tonight was such an occasion, as he was telling her what he knew of the origin of the Shockmaster, in the hopes that this would provide the key to defeating him and freeing Planet Wist from his control.  While she didn't mind the way his voice usually sounded, she was grateful for the clarity the spell provided.  The story spanned more than seven thousand years, and she was having a hard enough time following along as it was.  

"All right, so the Ur-Ember powered the Golden Age of Wist," she said, "But that ended about seven thousand years ago, when Wist's moon, was destroyed, and the Ur-Ember was lost along with it.  But the Mystic Council still had a lot of magic power left over to work with, so even though it was a serious blow, it wasn't enough to collapse the Wist Hegemony right then and there."

"Correct," Tobiko said patiently.  He was examining a gemstone M'ranga had obtained for him.  He claimed that it possessed an even more detailed historical record than his own long memory.  Though now that he had it, he seemed uncertain of how to use it.  

"Then, you could call it a Silver Age, where the Mystic Council relied more and more on conventional resources," she said.  That's why they gave the Shockmaster his Helm of Power, so he could lead a whole group of super-powered champions to defend the planet.  Without the Ur-Ember, that was the best they could manage, but it still worked for a long time."

"Indeed," Tobiko said.  

"So what went wrong?" she asked.  "They chose him because he was such a noble man, so why did they seal him away?  The Shockmaster of today is so brutal and ruthless.  I don't see how he could have lost his way so completely."

He chuckled quietly.  "The Shockmaster’s greatest flaw was his over-zealousness.  In his youth, it was his strength.  Those were perilous times, and the world needed a principled, uncompromising standard-bearer to show the way.  Someone rather like you, M’ranga."

"We’re nothing alike," she insisted.  "I’m fighting for Wist’s freedom.  The Shockmaster’s nothing more than a petty tyrant."

"In my experience, today’s liberator often becomes tomorrow’s oppressor," Tobiko said.  "Long, long ago, you might have found a kindred spirit in the Shockmaster.  But as the years passed, he became disillusioned with the world around him.  Wist was changing.  Indeed it always had been changing, but in his mind it was changing for the worse.  Perhaps he was right, but it didn’t excuse him from his duty..."

*******

[7 January, 7018 Before Age.  Wist.]

They had rejected his proposal.  He had waited three years for an answer.  Three years of dithering and useless protocol, designed to make bureaucrats feel an illusion of importance.  And in the end, they told him no.   He shouldn’t have been surprised.  No one took action in this day and age.  It was all about gathering signatures and countersignatures, making sure no one rocked the boat, or upset the status quo.  

The Golden Age hadn't been like this.  In those days, Wist had been strong, and its leaders hadn't wasted time fretting over every little detail.  When something needed to be done, it was done, and with the full confidence of the people.  

But the Golden Age had been over for centuries.  He was the only one left who even remembered it, and he had been born at its very end.  To have never known the beauty and glory of Wist as it should have always been!  That was true blindness.  

The Shockmaster had found a way to restore that Golden Age.  It was there for the taking.  He only needed the Mystic Council's approval to proceed.  It should have been a mere formality, an obvious decision ratified by a unanimous vote.  Instead, it took three years.  And they said no.  

He wondered if they even knew what it was they had rejected.  The Mystic Council wasn't what it once was, after all.  He respected that great body, but the sorcerers who served today were but a pale imitation of the great leaders from fifty years ago.  

He had found the Ur-Ember.  There was a way to bring it back!  And with it, all of the splendor of Wist's Golden Age would follow!  The last four-and-a-half centuries of decay would be wiped away, like a bad dream forgotten in the light of a new dawn.  But for this generation of Wistians, the bad dream was all they knew.  They feared losing the meager prosperity they had, simply because they couldn't understand what lay ahead.

"Penny for your thoughts, Shockmaster," asked the Groundshaker.  Like himself, she was a warrior specially empowered by the Mystic Council, though she had only entered the service eighty years ago.  She was formidable and skillful, but terribly naive.  And like so many of Wist's youth, she lacked the proper respect.

"THE WORLD DOESN'T MAKE SENSE ANYMORE, GROUNDSHAKER," he replied.  He saw no need to share details about his disagreement with the Council's ruling.  It would be unseemly, and besides, she wouldn't understand his position.  

"I know what you mean," she said.  She wore a pair of massive gauntlets and a mask that covered most of her head except for her eyes.  Though her function was similar to his own, she had different abilities, which mostly involved power over the earth.  They and their other colleagues patrolled Planet Wist on a regular basis, and the two of them had worked together for decades.   She likely considered him to be a friend.  

The feeling was not mutual.  

As they flew across the western continent, she shook her head sadly.  "It's not like it used to be, is it?" she said.  "This whole area used to be factories.  Back when Wist used to make things, you know?  Now it's all being converted to farmland."

The idea of Wist growing crops from the ground was appalling, to be sure.  But what disgusted the Shockmaster was that she actually missed the factories, as if they weren't just as bad.  He remembered a time when Wist didn't need to export manufactured goods of any kind.  Everything was produced through sorcery, but with less and less magical power to work with, the Mystic Council had to focus on matters of defense and infrastructure.  Using magic to produce food and goods was a luxury in this benighted era.  

"And children these days are so entitled," she went on.  "They don't know what it means to work for a living."  

She was right, but he couldn't help but be reminded that she had been approved by the Council for empowerment with less than a quarter of the training he had received.  The standards for excellence were already low a century ago.  That they had gotten bad enough for her to notice was especially dismal.  

"And they wear such salacious clothing!" she whined.  "The loud colors on their kilts are just atrocious.  And if they wore them any shorter, they may as well be belts!"

He stifled a groan.  The Groundshaker's kilt barely covered her calves, but that hardly mattered to him, since he found the very notion of kilts revolting, regardless of their hemline.  Pantaloons had been proper Wistian attire for tens of thousands of years.  Kilts and dresses were a sign of foreign ideas contaminating the culture like a blight.  If the Groundshaker and her generation didn't like the way things were going, they only had their own poor example to blame.  

He continued to brood as they went about their patrol, until suddenly a giant image of a man's head appeared before them both.  They immediately recognized him as the intelligence chief of the Mystic Council.  Privately, the Shockmaster resented the office, as it was an overt admission that the Council no longer had the raw magical talent to divine information through sorcery.  However, the conventional method used by the chief were sound, not even the Shockmaster could dispute the chief's effectiveness in exposing threats to the Hegemony.  

"Shockmaster!  Groundshaker!" he called to them.  "Are you receiving this psychic transmission?"

"WE ARE," he replied.  "HOW MAY WE SERVE THE COUNCIL, MY LORD?"

"A new lead on the Kashvar attacks," he said breathlessly.  "We've found their secret base!"

*******

The Kashvar’s latest weapon of mass destruction was a monster called Vorshiki, which resembled a hideous flying lizard of enormous size.  It could teleport across interstellar space, an ability the Kashvar used to launch attacks on various planets in the Wistian sphere of influence.  

Naturally the Mystic Council launched an investigation to track down the Kashvar, but they were shocked to discover that the enemy had been had been controlling Vorshiki from a secret base on Planet Wist itself.  When the Shockmaster and Groundshaker exposed their lair, they summoned Vorshiki to protect themselves.

The battle had been ferocious, but the Shockmaster had won the day.  The Vorshiki was utterly destroyed, and the Groundshaker had captured the Kashvar before they could make any more trouble.

Now, as work crews arrived to begin repairing the damage to the city, the Shockmaster stood alone, and looked pensively at the crater in the road where Vorshiki had met its end.  Nearby, the Groundshaker was giving an official report to a representative from the Mystic Council.

This never should have been allowed to happen, the Shockmaster thought to himself.  The Kashvar were a fanatical race of black magicians who believed the universe was theirs alone, and that all other species were to be eradicated.  They had menaced the galaxy since time immemorial, but they had never dared a direct attack on the Wist Hegemony or its interests.  Until now.

Now, the Kashvar were bold enough to wage their genocidal war from the Wistian homeworld, right under the noses of its citizens!  And when discovered, did they cower in fear and beg for their lives?  No, they went on the offensive, bringing their monster here to fight.  It was the first such battle fought on Wistian soil in over a hundred centuries!

And the Shockmaster had won, yes.  The people were grateful as always.  But the battle should have never been fought!

How he longed for the days of old, when Wist was unchallenged in the universe!  He dreamed of restoring it to that stature, though with each passing day he wondered more and more if it was too late.  Perhaps the decay was irreversible.    Other enemies would brazenly attack Wist, and her people would simply be grateful for men like the Shockmaster who protected them.  And in return for that protection, they would perpetuate Wist’s decline, until there was nothing left of value.

"Oi, Shocky-baby.  Grand bit of work out there, brah.  Anytime you’re in the borough an' you want to have a brew, just give me a shout, hey?"

He turned and saw a man smiling at him, offering his hand in friendship.  He was wearing a lime green kilt with a slit that exposed his left thigh, and his upper body was wrapped in what looked like a series of interconnected belts.  The Shockmaster was familiar with the fashion, but too revolted to learn its name.  As the man grinned and looked up at him, the piercings on his lips and eyebrows glinted in the sunlight.  His hair had somehow been artificially colored, arranged to form three peg-like columns that were lined up in a row  that ran from his forehead to the back of his neck.

Perhaps it was the recent battle, or centuries of pent up frustration, or the Mystic Council’s refusal to grant his request, or the way this man spoke to him like an equal.

Whatever it was, in that moment, the Shockmaster didn’t see the man as a fellow Wistian, or as an innocent person, or a grateful admirer.  In that moment, the Shockmaster could only see an enemy of everything he held dear.  A threat to the continued safety and prosperity of Wist.  A monster just as insidious and destructive as the one he had just slain.

In that moment, the Shockmaster unleashed a torrent of lightning upon the man.

It was only a brief indiscretion.  He came to his senses almost immediately and ceased his attack, but the damage was already done.  The man collapsed to the ground and started convulsing, and passers-by noticed the incident right away.  The Groundshaker turned when she heard the crackle of lightning, and gasped with horror.

The woman from the Council sprang into action at once, rushing to the fallen civilian’s side and weaving spells to ease his pain and heal his injuries, but there was only so much she could do on the spot.  There were burns that would require more extensive treatment, and the Shockmaster could only speculate on what internal injuries he had inflicted.

"What happened?!" the Groundshaker shouted.  The answer to that was obvious.  What she really wanted to know was why.  No, what she really wanted was for him to reveal a perfectly logical reason for what he had done, to say that this man was a powerful enemy disguised as a helpless, unarmed civilian.

But he couldn’t tell her this, and so he simply stared down at his victim, and awaited the consequences.

*******

[5 August, 238 Before Age. Planet Wist.]

"They tried him, of course.  Not that they had the power to compel him to stand trial.  By that time the Mystic Council was far weaker than in the era that birthed the Shockmaster.  If not for his respect for jurisprudence, no force on the planet would have been enough to stop him.    And he did save them all from the Kashvar, so there was that."

"How can you say that he and I have anything in common, Tobiko?” M’ranga asked.    “He was sworn to defend his people, and then he assaulted one of his own countrymen?  Without the slightest provokation?  He was as brutal then as he is now, only this time he doesn’t have the Mystic Council to answer to.  Not that they had much control over him in the first place..."

"I say you are alike because of your idealism," Tobiko explained.    "This isn’t your home world, yet you fight for its people as if it were, because you consider it to be the right thing to do.  The fact that many Wistians object to your intervention is unimportant to you.

"The Shockmaster was driven by similar ideals of right and wrong, and eventually his ideology overshadowed his reality.  In the end he was more focused on the Ideal Wist of his imagination than the one he was supposed to be protecting.    I cannot tell you why he attacked that man, but I’m certain his discontent with the world had something to do with it.  In the end, Wist had changed, and he had remained the same, until he could no longer recognize his own people."

"And you think that could happen to me someday, is that it?    I either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain?  I refuse to believe those are our only choices."

"Nor do I," Tobiko said.  "I merely submit that the Shockmaster’s fall from grace can serve as a cautionary tale against rigid adherence to a cause.  The Shockmaster craved a new Golden Age, but gold is soft, flexible, and ductile.  Now that he has power, we see a reign of antimony, brittle and dubious."

"Is that what happened to you?" M'ranga asked.  

"My banishment provided me with a change of perspective," Tobiko said.  "Like the Shockmaster, I feared that Wist was losing its way, sacrificing long-term political stability for temporary security.  I was born some twelve centuries after the Shockmaster's sentencing, and in those days Wist was relying more and more upon private mercenaries to bolster its military.  I spoke out against this, calling for Wist to end its policies of military adventurism, and this offended enough special interests to seal my fate.  

"Their punishment was cruel, but it allowed me to see the bigger picture.  Over time, the sorcerers ceded more and more power to the Wistian generals, who relied more and more upon the foreign fighters, until eventually a powerful faction of mercenaries were ruling the planet through Wistian proxies.  Eventually, they dispensed with the proxies, and the Lords of Goldwall claimed sovereignty outright.  But to see it all happen so gradually, I realized that it wasn't the disaster I had feared during my political career.  One day the last traces of Wist were gone, but life went on.  And my agenda was fulfilled.  The military adventurism did stop, after all.  Not because anyone listened to me, or because it was the right thing to do, but because Wist and its military had ceased to exist.   I could do very little to alter the course of events, and in time, I learned that it might be better that way."

"Then why did you help us when the Shockmaster first returned?" M'ranga asked.  "You could have stayed in your swamp and waited for things to play out like always."

He rose from his seat and glanced down at the gem in his hand.  "Like me, the Shockmaster is a living relic of a bygone, a man out of time.  Unlike me, he does not recognize this.  The Mystic Council preserved him like a fly in amber, sealing him away in suspended animation.  They feared he might turn against him someday, but what they feared even more was that they might need him even more in the future.  The idea was that there would come a time when the Mystic Council could summon him once more in their hour of need, but that time never came.  Now he stands unleashed in a world that has forgotten his values, and he remains as embittered and uncompromising as the day he was sentenced.  I feared that he was too anomalous, that he would cause far more suffering than I was willing to ignore.  At first, I was unsure how to proceed, but then I found you and Scotch Woodcock bravely opposing his takeover.  It reminded me of myself when I was younger, back when I was willing to take a stand even if I didn't have all the answers."

He held up the gemstone and showed it to her.  "That is why I asked you to retrieve this Crystal Chronicle for me, Ensign.   The Shockmaster lacks historical context, and while I can fill in some of the gaps, we need more information before we can act.  Unfortunately, my cursory examination of the Chronicle reveals that it would reject my attempts to use it directly."

"Because of your curse," M'ranga said.  "There has to be another way."

"I believe there is," Tobiko said, "but it will not be easy..."

*******

[9 July, 7018 Before Age.  Planet Wist.]

It was appropriate that he be sentenced here, in the Great Hall of the Mystic Council.  This was where his father had saved the gutless cowards from Beerus the Destroyer.  This was where they had begged him to don the Helm of Power and rescue their decrepit empire from their own ineptitude.  This was where he had stood to receive orders every day for the last four hundred seventy-three years.   Orders to ignore the decay of society while he propped up their failing regime.  This was where they had denied his simple request to put things right again.  

"I pray, noble Shockmaster, that this will not mark the end of your service," the Council Elder said solemnly.  

"MY DUTY IS EVER TO WIST," the Shockmaster declared.  To himself he added: the true Wist, not the pathetic joke you have allowed it to become.  

"Know that should our successors ever have need of a great champion, they shall summon you to aid them, as you have aided us for so long."

"I SHALL AWAIT THEIR CALL," he replied.  It was only a matter of time, after all.  They were fools, and their descendants could not help but become even more foolish.  Without men of conscience like himself and his father to help them, they would be lost and helpless.  At least this way he would awaken to a world that actually wanted his help.

The Elder nodded and joined hands with two of his colleagues.  They performed a series of ritualistic chants, and he felt himself fading, as if into a deep sleep.  

His last conscious thought was that when he next awakened, he would let nothing stand in his way.

*******

[7 August, 238 Before Age. Planet Wist.]

"You’re certain you wish to do this?" Tobiko asked.  He had spent the past forty hours devising a workaround that would allow his magic to decrypt the Crystal Chronicle without directly accessing it himself.  She had no intention of backing out now, although she supposed she could understand why he was asking.

"It’s the only way," Ensign Liberty said.  "Your curse prevents you from using the Chronicle, so it’s down to either me or Scotch, and it might reject Scotch because he’s an alien."

"Yes, but you’re an alien too, Ensign," Tobiko reminded her.  "I can’t be sure of the risks..."

"Risk is my business," she insisted.  "If there’s a chance of discovering the Shockmaster’s plans in that gem, something that can help us defeat him and liberate your people, then I’m willing to try."

"Very well," Tobiko said.  Sitting in a lotus position, he began to wave his webbed hands, making a series of esoteric gestures until he Chronicle floated from its pedestal and hung in mid-air, directly in front of his face.  "I shall need but a moment more to align the mystic fields.  Please stand and focus your attention on the crystal."

She did as he asked.  For a few seconds, nothing happened, and she wondered if something had gone wrong.  Finally, he spoke again.

"Good, now hold out your arms," he said.  "No, lower.  A little lower..."

She brought her outstretched arms down until her hands were roughly level with her abdomen, but he said nothing further.  She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands.  After another delay, she finally asked:  "Is this righ--?"

And then suddenly the crystal glowed bright green, and her mind was flooded with so many images and sounds that it felt as if she had been struck by a physical force.  For a moment, M’ranga worried that the unexpected blow might have caused her to flinch, disrupting the pose Tobiko had requested.  Then she realized that she was no longer aware of her own body.

It seemed that she now existed as a being of pure consciousness, surrounded by pure information.  Tobiko had spoken of "accessing" the Chronicle’s records, but this was nothing like what she had expected.  It was as though her mind had somehow entered the gem’s very memory... or it had entered hers... or perhaps it no longer made a difference.

She found that if she concentrated, she could filter the deluge of information and focus on key points of interest.  Slowly, the swirl of images and words began to make more sense.  This was the Crystal Chronicle, an artifact used to record the history of Wistian Civilization.  It contained thousands of years worth of knowledge and wisdom, covering topics from all walks of life: governance, agriculture, technology, magic, science, engineering, philosophy, bureaucratic data, art, and many more.  The answers to her questions seemed to spring into her mind almost as quickly as she could ask them.

As she struggled to express the purpose of her visit, she found that the exchange of information went both ways.

Are there records on the Shockmaster?

[Yes, over one hundred thousand individual files.  Who are you?]

My name is M’ranga.  I’m a revolutionary trying to free your planet’s people.  I need to know what the Shockmaster wants from Planet Extraliga.

[You are not of Wist.  What is your world of origin?]

I’m from the Planet Basteel in the Gallis Sector.  Please, I need to know--

[Is your attire typical of your culture?]

I designed it in honor of the spirit of the Great Revolutionaries of my homeworld.  It’s made from a special material that repels--

[Are the colors symbolic?]

Yes.  The red represents the noble blood of patriots who died in the name of--

[Why aren’t you wearing pants?]

It’s the style of costumed freedom fighters of my world’s history.  Why does it matter what I wear?  Tobiko only wears breeches made of seaweed.

[Tobiko was banished from the council of Elders in Year 29,874 of the Wistian Reform Calendar.  He was cursed to live in exile as a swamp creature for not less than--]

And on it went.  The Chronicle asked questions faster than she could answer them, and the answers it gave her in return seemed to distract her from the matter at hand.  Curious about the nature of Tobiko’s curse, she found herself learning about the Wistian legal precedent behind it.  Then she became engrossed in the sorcery that had transformed him into a swamp creature, and how it might be possible to reverse the effect.  As she researched this, the Chronicle interrogated her on the cultural and historical background of her tricorne hat, and the physical properties of the special material of her costume.

And then, in the middle of researching political theory of Wist’s Third Dynasty, while informing the Chronicle of her planet’s attitudes on gender as a social construct, she remembered why she was here in the first place.  With great effort, she struggled to separate herself from the Crystal’s immense flow of information, and she forced herself to formulate a specific query:

What did the Shockmaster want on Extraliga?

It wasn’t that simple, of course.  She had to ask a dozen follow-up questions to narrow things down, and each time she had to resist the urge to respond to the Crystal’s questions about her own knowledge.

And then, as she felt she couldn’t go on any longer, and it seemed that her very sense of self would be absorbed into the Chronicle’s endless stream of information, she suddenly found herself back in Tobiko’s inner sanctum, standing before him with her arms held out at a particular angle.

Disoriented, she took a step forward and grasped at her forehead with one hand.

"How... how long...?"

"A few seconds," Tobiko replied.  "I sensed your consciousness becoming overwhelmed, and terminated the spell."

"Seconds?!" she exclaimed.  "It felt like... like...!"

With a wave of his hand the crystal returned to its pedestal and he rose to his feet.  "I apologize," he said as he gently took hold of her shoulders to steady her.  "Though it seems you were able to link with the Chronicle, you had no way to navigate its archives."

He led her to a cushion of moss, where she sat down and tried to collect her thoughts.  The sensation of her body against the cushion, of Tobiko’s hands on her, even her own hand on her face was strange.  Gradually, it became more and more reassuring.  She was alive, corporeal, individual.

"Don’t apologize, Tobiko," she said after several minutes.  "It didn’t go quite the way we planned, but it worked.  The Chronicle told me about Extraliga.  It showed me what the Shockmaster wanted from that world."

"What is that?" Tobiko asked.

"I’m not completely sure," she said.  "I’ll need your help to sort out what I learned, but I know this much: If someone don’t stop him, a lot of innocent people are going to die."

NEXT: The Triumph of Wist.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #tobiko #m'ranga: ensign liberty #the shockmaster #wist #groundshaker #think that's it #all right that's the origin of the shockmaster i'm going to bed folks

[littlemeangreen]

Imagine the Rubies (From Steven universe) Meeting Red and thinking he's a giant Ruby. And they're all just so confused??? Like is he a fusion? Where's his gem located? So they all just sort of follow him around like baby ducks asking him questions, looking for his gem, and probably climbing on him. Much to his chagrin and amusement to the other hulks. (IM SORRY IM SU TRASH!!!)

Anon.It’s all right.I too, am su trash.Such trash that the garbage men always acidently collect me instead of the actual trash.

But yeah, 10 out of 10 I am all for Gem!Hulks. In fact I’ve got some ideas on what gems they’d all be:

Skaar • Ice Quartz. I was going to go for Amethyst but Ice Quartz sounds so cool and mysterious just like Skaar’s memories. Plus, the colour fits well with him and Ice Quartz sounds like a gem that wouldn’t be normal unless it was a fusion so it makes Skaar even more odd. His weapon would be his sword and his gem would be located where the obedience disk is. He’s the only one of the smashers that needs to eat, connects well with corrupted gems and is the hardest to fuse with.A-bomb • Lapis Lazuli. He WOULD be the strongest of the team if he could control his water powers. This means that he could be walking along and suddenly out of nowhere, fly into a wall or punch Red through a wall with a water fist. I chose Lapis Lazuli because of the su episode ‘The crystal Temps’ where Lapis makes a hilarious Amethyst and because Rick’s a hulk, incredibly strong but the weakest of the team. His weapon would be Hydrokinesis but it’d be very weak so this is why he learned the sonic-quartz ability, making him very unusual among his class, especially since he’s meant to be a very high class gem. His gem would be located on his right kneecap. One of the other reasons I made him a Lapis Lazuli was because of his eyes, I’ve seen lots of Lapis oc’s with gold colouring so I thought 'hey, why not?’. His powers are weak because a Lapis isn’t useally that large so it takes more concentration and power to create water wings that size.

She-hulk • Originally used to be a Zircon, but after she was cracked by rebels. Close to shattering, her Planet-cousin gave her a gem transfusion where you take a shard out of your gem and place it into another gem. This caused Jen to reform into an entirely new gem: Prasiolite, aka Light green Amethyst. She’s the most normal out of the smashers, being the most female looking but often gets tired after battle. She-hulk wants nothing more than getting her original position back; serving as Blue Diamond’s Zircon but for now settles on looking for the crystal Gems, swearing to never sentence an innocent gem to death. Her gem is located on her left knuckle and she fist bumps them together to form gauntlets like Garnet’s. Right now, her worst enemy is Red agate aka Titania.

Red hulk• Like you said anon, a Ruby. Red was always quite proud over how a mere Ruby became Yellow Diamond’s head general. He was originally sent after Hulk to capture him but when he failed Yellow Diamond banished him to earth where he soon joined the agents of s.m.a.s.h and turned against Yellow Diamond. Red is quite defensive about being a Ruby, being embarrassed about not being a 'proper quartz’ but when he meets the Ruby squad but is surprised and touched over how excited they are to meet the legendary 'Renagade Ruby’, the toughest Ruby that isn’t even a fusion but is as big as a quartz. Red’s heat power is much more extensive, able to melt anything in a 3 mile radius. His gem is located on his back where he can take out guns, he’s the second hardest gem to fuse with but once you do fuse with him the fusion will be POWERFUL. You know your dead when Red and Hulk fuse after messing with Red’s gemling: Carnelian who prefers the name Betty.

Hulk• Green Jasper. Banner would have been for being an over cooked runt but luckily his brilliant mind saved him. He met his love Carnelian at the corruption testing site. An experiment requested by Yellow Diamond as a defense should the earth rebels ever choose to attack. Banner actually supported Rose-Quartz’s ideals but was to afraid to speak his thoughts when he had General Ruby glaring at him and burning a hole through the floor. The Gamma bomb caused him to grow to a full grown Quartz when he ran out onto the testing site to save a Lapis Lazuli. (Which is a bit pointless since look at him now) Hulk ran off to hide on earth and after a while, now has a team full of off-colours. Hulk now searches for the crystal Gems, a rebel team where his smashers will be safe no matter what. Hulk is the only gem on the team that needs to sleep so he gets quite cranky without a nap and is the enemy of the Leader; a gem sent from Homeworld who’s mission is to capture the Hulks and colonise the earth but was bubbled in their base for a short time before escaping. Hulk’s gem is located on his navel and his weapon is the Gamma blaster that he wears on his wrist.

I’m not sure what gem to make the Leader, on one hand I want him to be a Pearl because the idea of the Diamonds sending a PEARL to capture the Hulks is beyond funny to me but on the other hand he’d make a very good Peridot with his gem being where Amethyst’s gem is.

I’ve been calling this the Crystal SMASH au, it’s messy and all over the place but highly amusing. If I could draw I’d make an entire blog about this but sadly I can’t….but that doesn’t stop me from making a hell lot of ideas for this, if anyone wants me to, I’ll happily do some details for this if there’s anything specific you want to know, I’d love to see this all drawn out but there’s barley anyone in the HatAoS fandom let alone someone who would draw any of this….sometimes it really sucks being in an unpopular fandom…

Sorry I didn’t specifically answer your ask but I think you got a bit more than you were expecting! I love EVERYTHING in your ask and agree with it. The next thing you know Red’s got his own mini army to command and everyone around just coos and squels over how cute it is to see Red walk with a line of tiny Rubies that salute and yell in tiny voices “Yes sir, General Red Ruby sir!” And no one knows why they don’t stop calling him Red Ruby but it’s so cute so they just leave it alone.

[barbosaasouza]

Destiny 2 - All Exotic Titan Armor

As Bungie releases more content for Destiny 2, the conversation about which piece of exotic armor to put on becomes more complicated. What might have been an easy choice when the game launched will need some thought. What activity you’re in, what subclass you're using, and what modifiers might be preset are all necessary considerations, which is why we've accumulated a complete list of exotic Titan armor in Destiny 2 and provided details and advice on when to wear it.

List of Exotic Titan Armor in Destiny 2

Use the links below to jump to specific Destiny 2 exotic Titan armor listings to learn more about each piece's type, trait, and intrinsic perk.

ACD/0 Feedback Fence Actium War Rig Aeon Safe An Insurmountable Skullfort Armamentarium Ashen Wake Crest of Alpha Lupi Doom Fang Pauldron Dunemarchers Eternal Warrior Hallowfire Heart Helm of Saint-14 Khepri's Horn Lion Rampant Mask of the Quiet One Mk. 44 Stand Asides Synthoceps Wormgod Caress

For more information about other exotic armor in Destiny 2, be sure to check out our guide to all Exotic Warlock armor as well as our guide to all Exotic Hunter armor.

ACD/0 Feedback Fence

Type: Gauntlets Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Fury Conductors - Melee hits build energy. Being struck by a melee attack reduces incoming damage and unleashes the energy in a devastating explosion.

Good or Bad: You’ve got to melee things to build energy, then depend on something hitting you with their melee, which will then release the built-up energy in a huge explosion. That’s a lot of criteria to meet to make these gauntlets useful. I’d blow these up for the extra Legendary Shards until such a time that they receive a buff from Bungie to become relevant again.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Doom Fang Pauldron

Type: Gauntlets Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Horns of Doom - Void melee kills give super energy. While Sentinel Shield is active, melee kills recharge your grenade and grenade hits extend your super.

Good or Bad: In their current state, when paired with a Sentinel Titan, this is probably the best exotic in the game. It will be nerfed as soon as Bungie can push an update. As it stands now, a Titan could use their Sentinel Shield indefinitely.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Synthoceps

Type: Gauntlets Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Biotic Enhancements - Increased melee lunge range. Improved melee and Super damage when surrounded.

Good or Bad: Great. The Synthoceps are all about increasing the effectiveness and damage of your melee. To start, your melee range is increased from 5m to 7m just by wearing them, which means you can melee long before you’d think to. Secondly, when surrounded, your melee damage increases from 90 to 180 damage, which is double. This is all without considering the increased super damage while surrounded. Thanks to CoS Gaming for the detailed information.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Crest of Alpha Lupi

Type: Chest Armor Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Survival Well - Generates an additional orb of light from supers and a healing pulse when the barricade class ability is activated.

Good or Bad: Useful in controllable and predictable ways, which is good. You know what you’re getting, even if it isn’t great. Four orbs of light generated from your super ability would now be five, and the idea that you get a healing pulse when using a barricade makes a lot of sense, because Titans tend to use their barricade when damage is incoming, which is the ideal time to heal.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Actium War Rig

Type: Chest Armor Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Auto-Loading Link - Steadily reloads a portion of your equipped auto rifle’s magazine from reserves.

Good or Bad: Good. I use this a lot for the Calus fight when playing the through the original Leviathan raid in Destiny 2. This works well for shooting skulls, and it’s great for maintaining damage on Calus if you run low on heavy ammo, which is almost certainly going to be the case. Any time you’d prefer not to reload, consider the Actium War Rig for the job.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Hallowfire Heart

Type: Chest Armor Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Sunfire Furnace - Greatly improves the recharge rate of your solar abilities while Hammer of Sol is charged.

Good or Bad: Nah. You must have your Hammer of Sol super ability fully charged for this exotic to work its magic. Even then, the benefits just aren’t there compared to other exotic armor pieces. You might find a situation where weekly modifiers make this useful, but I can’t think of any of the top of my head.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

An Insurmountable Skullfort

Type: Helmet Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Transfusion Matrix - Kills with Arc melee abilities trigger health regeneration and restore melee energy.

Good or Bad: I don't really see the big sell here, and I’ve used this helmet a fair amount. Once again, the benefit depends on you using your melee ability. I suppose it’s great if you’re getting overwhelmed and you kill an enemy by punching them, initiating health regeneration when you’re in a bad spot, but still not my favorite.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Mask of the Quiet One

Type: Helmet Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Dreaded Visage - Grants melee, grenade and class ability energy when damaged. Void ability kills grant health regeneration.

Good or Bad: Good. Any time you take damage you are getting melee, grenade, and class ability energy. You don’t have to be using the Sentinel subclass for this. Of course, using the Sentinel subclass means that you can chain the benefits of this exotic helmet together. Take damage and you get your ability energy. Get an ability kill and you repair the damage. Great cycle of events there if you work it correctly.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Lion Rampant

Type: Leg Armor Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Jump Jets - Provides additional aerial maneuverability and enables accurate hip fire while in the air during Left.

Good or Bad: Good for highly skilled players who want to have some fun in PvP. Because there is a bump to hip fire accuracy, they work even better when paired with a weapon that provides the same benefits. In PvP, players will often have a hard time tracking players who use height to their advantage, especially when you jump before they come around a corner, and the Lion Rampant can make for some fun plays if used correctly.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Dunemarchers

Type: Leg Armor Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Linear Actuators - Increases sprint speed. Sprinting builds up a static charge. After melee-attacking an enemy, that charge will chain damage to nearby enemies.

Good or Bad: The fact that the Dunemarchers increase sprint speed is the primary selling point for me, but I tend to value mobility over other benefits. I’ve used them a lot and the damage chaining from melee attacks is cool, but players at full health in PvP are going to survive it, and your primary PvE strategy isn’t like to be running melee attacks. Could find some situation use, but unlikely that you’ll use these as your main Titan exotic.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Aeon Safe

Type: Gauntlets Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Aeon Energy - Summoning a barricade grants ability energy to Aeon Cult allies, such as grenade energy to Warlocks, barricade energy to Titans, and dodge energy to Hunters. Non-Aeon Cult allies receive a fraction of the benefit.

Good or Bad: A great idea that doesn’t really materialize. Aeon Cult allies are other members of your team that are wearing Aeon armor. So, Hunters with the Aeon Swift and Warlocks with the Aeon Soul. If you can get your entire team to use these exotics, and you communicate effectively, these could be useful to a degree. You pop your barricade and the Warlock has their grenade back. The Warlock throws their grenade and you have your barricade back. The chaining possibilities are good, but this exotic is almost entirely useless unless you coordinate with your team.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Khepri's Horn

Type: Helmet Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Solar Rampart - Solar damage kills recharge your barricade, which unleashes a blast of solar energy when summoned.

Good or Bad: It’s okay. Solar damage kills can be weapons or abilities, so that’s good. The primary selling point is getting your barricade back quickly, so any situation where you benefit from frequent Rally Barricades, such as a boss fight where instantly reloading a rocket launcher is beneficial. The blast of Solar energy is cool, but it’s never been a game changer for me.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Helm of Saint-14

Type: Helmet Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Starless Night - Your Ward of Dawn blinds enemies that enter it. Guarding with Sentinel Shield temporarily blind nearby enemies.

Good or Bad: This exotic helmet is only useful for Sentinel Titans, so already it’s no good for two of the three subclasses, which is fine. It’s situational. My team and I used Ward of Dawn during The Whisper, the quest you must complete to get the Whisper of the Worm. Unfortunately, there are just too many other options for Titans to make this a viable solution to most problems.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

MK. 44 Stand Asides

Type: Leg Armor Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Seriously, Watch Out - Grants and overshield when sprinting at full health with Seismic Strike, Hammer Strike, or Shield Bash equipped. Hits with these abilities recharge a portion of your melee energy.

Good or Bad: I’m not a fan. To get the overshield you must be at full health and sprinting, so it’s going to be problematic in PvP right away. Melee hits in PvP tend not to be one-shot kills, so the idea of sprinting around the map looking to deliver a melee hit is silly. The major benefit is the cooldown for scoring hits with your melee. A normal melee cooldown is about 60 seconds, and this cuts that in half. Again, that isn’t much help in PvP where a melee hit often won’t score you a kill.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Ashen Wake

Type: Gauntlets Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Bring the Heat - Fusion grenades now explode on impact and gain increased throw speed.

Good or Bad: Only useful to the Sunbreaker Titan, and even then, you don’t appear to get a damage buff on the Fusion grenades, they just travel faster and explode on impact. I don’t see how anyone would find a value here that outweighs the Armamentarium.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Wormgod Caress

Type: Gauntlets Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Burning Fists - Melee kills increase melee damage for a period of time. Additional kills extend duration and increase effects.

Good or Bad: They’re fine in PvE, but useless in PvP. The entire point of the exotic is to get melee kills, which will increase your melee damage for a time, allowing you to get more kills. Melee kills are unreliable at best in the Crucible. Even if you get the first level of the buff, it’s probably not enough to one-shot another player. In PvE, however, killing a few low-level enemies can apply a significant damage buff that could be used to melee an enemy with more health. Could come in handy.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Armamentarium

Type: Chest Armor Trait: Plasteel Reinforcement Mod Intrinsic Perk: And Another Thing - Gain an additional grenade charge.

Good or Bad: Phenomenal. You know an exotic is good when it doesn't need a big paragraph to describe its intrinsic perk. The Armamentarium gives you an additional grenade, and Bungie knew that was enough to make it great. The only negative is that when wearing this with my Striker Titan and using the Code of the Earthshaker tree, it was useless. I already have a second grenade charge, so this exotic is best enjoyed by the Sentinel and Sunbreaker.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

Eternal Warrior

Type: Helmet Trait: Mobility Enhancement Mod Intrinsic Perk: Resolute - Gain an overshield when activating Fists of Havoc.

Good or Bad: Closer to bad than good for several reasons, one of which is how ugly it is. Seriously, though, it’s only useful to Striker Titans and only when they cast their Fist of Havoc super ability. This means you get usefulness from it once or twice during each round of PvP, and every few minutes in PvE. If you’re dying a lot when you cast Fist of Havoc, this could help you solve that problem, but you could also solve that problem by making a few tweaks to the way you play.

Back to Exotic Armor list.

That's it for all of the exotic Titan armor in Destiny 2. For more information about other exotic armor, be sure to check out our guide to all Exotic Warlock armor as well as our guide to all Exotic Hunter armor. There will be more to collect and try out once Destiny 2 launches its Forsaken DLC this September 4, but until then, these are all of the options for Titans. You can check out our other content by visiting our Destiny 2 complete strategy guide.

Destiny 2 - All Exotic Titan Armor published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

[taxicabmag]

A Story by Michael K. White

Ralph And The Rubbers (A Cautionary Tale) An Excerpt From A Janitor’s Memoir (With Commentary)

The local Green Thumb program was a woefully misguided program to help out old drunks who had, at one time, been in the armed services. Through the years at Central High School the Night Crew had to endure quite a few of these old guys, including Oliver, who once cooked the crew an entire pot roast dinner which the crew refused to eat because he cleaned bathrooms without rubber gloves. There was old George, who every day at three o’clock would come into the keepout and retch over the trash can, using his fingers and hands to dislodge promethean gobs of rubber cement-like mucous and drop them with a thud into the trash can.

Then there was Ralph.

He was a crusty old sailor from WW2 and he didn’t like anything or anyone. Darrell made him wander around outside picking up trash. That way Darrell had more time to smoke. Ralph set forth every day with an old green five-gallon plastic pickle bucket and a pair of Nifty Nabbers ™, which acted like an extended mechanical arm.

Ralph would make his way all around the school and its grounds, taking his time, picking up trash, stopping for a cigarette, taking in the day.  He worked a lazy ellipse and took his time, venturing down through the heavily littered side streets through clots of stoners and ditchers who taunted him and abused him. One pimply kid demanded a cigarette from Ralph and when he refused, the kid said, “You suck!”

Ralph was flabbergasted.

“Why would anyone say something like that to me,” he’d ask, hurt and mystified. “I don’t suck.”

Ralph was standing right outside the frickin school when a plastic soda pop bottle came flying out the window and hit him on the head. He had a bruise there for a week and goddamn if it didn’t hurt like a sumbitch. Ralph went storming up there, green plastic pickle bucket and all, stamping up three flights of stairs to confront the goddamn teacher who allowed such mischief to reign in her goddamn classroom. After raving at Mr. Hurtado’s twelfth grade Health class Ralph figured he had showed them how the cow ate the cabbage and left to go find Darrell and have a smoke, but Darrell, who avoids any kind of conflict, smoked alone, hiding out on the football field.

One day Ralph found a cruddy used condom in his journeying, right there in the parking lot. He was thunderstruck. His eyes blinked behind his magnifying eyeglasses.  He was instantly a man transformed.

After that he would lean on his Nifty Nabbers™ and watch the teenage girls deliciously bounce by. “Jesus Christ,” he’d mutter raggedy. “Jesus Christ they’re all aprobably fuckin’ like crazy.” 

He started sighing loudly at inappropriate moments.

The limp, dripping rubber had galvanized Ralph and aroused what was left of his libido and soon he was confiding to John that he often fell asleep with his hand on his girlfriend’s “puzzy.” The girlfriend in question was a deaf, matronly 72-year-old woman who lived in the same assisted living home that Ralph did.

It was the fortuitous discovery by me of a box of condoms in the health room (the very room of Ralph’s previous meltdown, oh irony of ironies) on the third floor that gave us the ideas for planting rubbers for Ralph. At first we just tore open the foil packs and left the rubber laying in the parking lot for Ralph to find on his daily patrol, but soon we were striving for realism by experimenting with various sperm substitutes, such as Bubble Buster™ and Creme Kleen™, which were the only viscous white fluids we had in our cleaning supplies. Finally after careful mixing and experimenting for texture we perfected our cum-filled rubbers and took great pains to strategically place them to best advantage.

The first one Ralph found had about a half-pint of slimy white fluid in it and Ralph was so excited he ran to the lunchroom while John and Darrell were cleaning it and triumphantly held up the bulging rubber for them on the end of his Nifty Nabber™ for them and the entire gawking lunchroom to admire.

Like all our jests and japes the Night Crew soon grew tired of this game so we decided to let him in on it, to crush his feeble longings and disperse any remaining dreams he might have cherished. One day I came to work to find John and Ralph sitting in the keepout.

“You’ll never guess what I found today,” Ralph crowed as I punched in.

“A condom," I said.

“Nope,” Ralph shook his head. I could tell he wasn’t even listening. He licked his lips compulsively. He wiped his palms on his polyester pants. “A goddamn used johnnybag all fulla spunk!”

“I bet it was a black one,” I said. The rubber had indeed been black.

“Nope. It was black,” Ralph said. His eyes were wild behind the smoked lenses of his glasses.

John looked at me and started laughing his wet smoker’s laugh. “I put it there Ralph,” I said in a frank, no nonsense manner so it would have the extra weight of Truth.

“The hell you did,” Ralph blanched.

I went outside and pulled the rubber out of the Dumpster and brought it down to the keepout swinging it around. Ralph backed away as if I were swinging a cobra at him. John was laughing as I squeezed the rubber and rubbed Bubble Buster between my fingers. Ralph started coughing.  His face turned purple. 

“You some kinda queer?” He snarled as he staggered up the stairs. He edged away from me to go outside and have a cigarette with Darrell to calm his nerves.

Well, now Ralph had thrown down a gauntlet and the Night Crew rose to the occasion. From that point on we were merciless. One of Patrick and Chris’s masterpieces was two bras, stolen from the girl’s locker room, liberally sprinkled with bubble buster, and nine cum filled rubbers, strewn about. For an added touch, Dan added some red food coloring blood drops.

“Jesus Fucking Christ,” Ralph wheezed the next day, agog.

Ralph started wearing particularly smelly aftershave and he was also tucking in his 1940s sports shirts into his high-waisted polyester dress pants. He spent less time picking up trash and more time combing his newly dyed hair, like the Fonz.

We lost interest in Ralph and the Rubbers when, in a creative frenzy started by the combustive combination of beer drinking, marijuana smoking and the fortuitous cooking of hotdogs, that Patrick and Chris created the ultimate Ralph rubber. They took and bit off a hot dog, smeared it with ketchup and jammed it into the rubber. The result was extremely hard to look at for more than a few seconds at a time. We proudly left it on Darrell's desk so he, as our building manager, could best decide it’s proper placement. Instead Darrell just threw it away because he didn’t want to get into any trouble.

Ralph never saw it.

As we went on to other pursuits and interests, Ralph found no more rubbers, and like a beautiful flower deprived of sunshine and water, his color faded with his hair dye, he wilted and started to dry up. The shirts came untucked and he stopped shaving. He started limping around the parking lot again with his Nifty Nabbers™ and his green plastic pickle bucket, darkly muttering about the goddamn kids.

Michael K. White wasted his youth as a member of the semi-legendary playwriting group Broken Gopher Ink. Their New York shows were "Human Skeletal Remains," 1983;" A Fall of Stones," 1988; "The Black Blood of Angels," 1989; "Stigmata," 1990; "Men In Black," 1991; "The Amazing Melting Man," 1991; "Confetti,"  1995; "Clazion Catches Light," 1995; and "My Heart and The Real World," 1999-2001. Along with Dianna Stark, he is the author of the "Daguerreotype Dialogues," a series of short plays produced and performed monthly by MTF Short Play Lab and Manhattan Repertory Co. in New York. Their full-length play, "Punk As Fuck," was produced for a three-week run in June, 2015 by Everyday Inferno Theatre in New York. His novel, "My Apartment" and Broken Gopher Ink's "Four Plays" and "Murder in the Men's Store: An Anti Musical" are  available on Amazon and fine bookstores everywhere.

#prose