#I really wanted to put Gem and the Scotts on the same base

[m0ther-of-p3arl]

soooo i'm thinking of writing an au

just gonna throw that out there so yall won't be surprised if i randomly throw a fic or seven in your faces <3

FOR REFERENCE: this is gonna be a long post of me talking about shit i wanna write, it's mostly for my future self to look back and so i have all my thoughts in one place (i'm unorganized ok) and im publishing it so it's easier to find, but this is really mostly for my personal benefit in the future but if you all find it interesting yay thats great :)

anyhow

if i /do/ write an au, and that's a big if as my irl friends know about this acc and the teasing i could endure would be /endless/, it would be:

empires s1, with maybe some traffic characters thrown in- i don't feel like wc meshes very well with empires (else i would add it), unless the witchcraft witches were like at gem's academy or s2 shubble's witch school (OOOH that's an idea in and of itself lol

probably flower husbands based, or maybe mean gills, as they're slowly clawing up my mcyt ship tierlist... i'll have to think a bit on that one, but scott will most likely be the main character, cuz he was my very very first exposure to the wonderful world of empires and mcyt in general (found him through lauren, watched ep 1 of empires s2 and was hooked)

only very loosely based on canon events, i'd more be wanting to play around with the characters. therefore, out of the 3 ideas i have (more on that in a bit) i'd be more inclined to pick the more modern-day ones- though there would be fantasy elements of course like babe its empires

i have 3 main ideas that i feel like i could use- i'll put em in a poll if yall wanna vote, more info on each of them underneath

so yeah the first two are awfully similar- the main difference being that in the first option, the characters would be teachers, and in the second, students. imma go through all these a lil more in-depth, as i have ideas for all of them and i wanna see which one you all would rather read and i shall weigh that in on which one i'll (possibly) (ALLEGEDLY) write

teachers: scott is a teacher/the headmaster (i'll decide which later) at empires university (PLACEHOLDER NAME i swear i will come up with a better one) (probably) and jimmy is a new teacher who's just come onto the scene. he continually messes things up and scott is fed up with him and so they have a CHAT but obviously scott is traumatized by something in his past probably xornoth related or relating to one of the death games (life series) and jimmy is just CUTE but scott doesn't realize it and scott goes on being dumb about it and there is ANGST and such

students: basically the same general plot, but scott lives with horrible parents and jimmy becomes a reprieve and they become like best friends but they both have a secret crush on eachother (like in trust au omdsfksjdlkf go read it right now stop reading this rambling post and go read trust au SO GOOD SLDKFJ its by @/thetomorrowshow) and eventually scott is living at jimmy's house full time (jimmy has a cod tank in his room bc ofc) and then stuff happens heehhehehe no spoilers but again: ANGST

the main deal with these is there's ANGST (but also fluff because the two go hand in hand)

war: this is the main different one sooo it's set in the original empires world, but the cod empire and rivendell have been at war for decades and scott and jimmy hate each other but THEN they like meet one day and neither realizes who the other is until too late because they've never seen each other in real life and it's blasphemy and they like each other and all that yadayadayada ANGST

ummmmm anyway that's my fucking long rambling post done good graciousness this is the longest post i've ever done- anyway let me know (or don't, again, for my personal benefit) which one you would rather read and if any of them sound engaging at all- personally, i'm leaning towards students or war over teachers, i was full-in students but now i have so many great ideas for the war one- god i'm so messed up

that will be all

farewell

#flower husbands #empires s1 #empires smp #empires #empires au #empires scott #empires jimmy #smajor 1995 #smajor95 #smajor #scott smajor #dangthatsalongname #jimmy solidarity #jimmy #esmp s1 #esmp #empires smp s1 #empiressmp #lots of tags here wow #potential au #oooooooooh all my ideas- #i really wanna write all of these now #help me

[starlight-matrix]

I don’t normally post original stuff here but part of me just really wants to put my ideas out in the world, so that they exist even if I never end up turning them into a full story.

Anyways, here’s a Life Series pirate au!!

- technically based in 3rd life, but follows other dynamics from later seasons

- scar and ren are rival pirate captains. ren is a seasoned pirate, he’s been doing it far longer and is far more feared. scar is new to the trade but very quickly made enemies and a reputation for being impossible to kill

- scar’s first mate is grian, of course. they’re best friends and it’s undecided whether or not scar begged grian to become a pirate with him, or grian lost a bet of some kind and being a pirate is his punishment

- also on scar’s crew: cleo and bdubs, his mom and brother; tango and impulse, mutual friends of cleo; scott and jimmy, allies of scar’s

- affiliates to scar’s crew include mumbo, who is an engineer friend of scar and grian’s who is terrified of the open sea. they keep trying to convince him to join their crew, with dubious success. also gem, who is either a bounty hunter/assassin/guard for hire who has her own beastly reputation and whom scar constantly tries to scam (unsuccessfully)

- ren’s ship is called the scarlet hound and his crew is generally referred to as the hounds (but meant like “hound’s” bc ren is a werewolf and they’re all “his”)

- martyn is his first mate, is one of if not the only member of ren’s crew who has been around since the beginning of ren’s pirate career. their crew has changed many times due to deaths in the field

- other members of ren’s crew include: skizz, etho, and bigb (of course); pearl, who was an outlaw in a similar vein to gem before she became allies with ren and martyn; Joel and lizzie (Joel was an enemy of ren’s but lizzie and ren got along and became allies, which forced Joel to put his opinions aside so he could follow lizzie)

- hybrids/fae exist! ren is a werewolf; lizzie is a pixie/fairy; scott, grian and Jimmy are avians; cleo is a zombie (she was revived from the dead by a necromancer); tango and impulse are both different species of dragon/netherborn

- there’s a little bit of empires crossover in that Rivendell is a real place with a lot of influence in this world; xornoth isn’t evil (yet) and is the current ruler. the cod empire either does not exist or is not affiliated with jimmy. other empires may exist but aren’t relevant to the story

- after xornoth rose to power, he and scott had a falling out and scott ran from Rivendell to pursue his own life, and either met jimmy afterwards or brought him along (this would make Jimmy a Rivendell citizen)

- Scott and Jimmy then met scar and grian, who invited them to join their pirate crew. they accepted for the thrill

- cleo and Etho are exes, in the same vein of limited life where scar and bdubs are their kids and Cleo took them in the divorce. no idea if they’re biological kids or not, don’t think it really matters. a large amount of the beef between the two crews is bc of this

- another point of contention is impulse, who was childhood friends with skizz. they went down different life paths for a while and met again after skizz had joined ren’s crew; impulse joined as well, only to betray them months later and steal valuable information from ren’s office on the way out

- impulse had joined scar’s crew during their time apart and they’d already planned on getting impulse into ren’s crew to steal, they just hadn’t planned on impulse being friends with one of ren’s crewmates

And that’s about all I have so far!! I have some vague plot ideas for a maaaaaybe 2 part fic someday, but who knows if it’ll ever exist for real. Feel free to comment any opinions or ideas for this au <3

#my fanfic

[rpm-rosesstory]

Rpm roses story-chapter 4: starting over

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38025982/chapters/95697946

Text

“What happened to the milk?” Said Scott, an African American young man. “Ziggy, I thought told you to get some more.” “Well you did.” Said Ziggy, the scraggy curly haired man with a look that obviously wants to avoid getting in trouble. “And then I told Flynn to get it because I uh, didn’t want to run into bobs boys.” “Ah was doing repairs on the Jeep, couldn’t hear ‘em.” Said Flynn, the blond haired man with a thick Scottish accent, who was wiping the bar. Scott rubbed his temples in annoyance.

“Wait, when checked last night, the milk was still half full.” Said summer, the long blond haired woman. “Dillon, did you have any milk since?.” She turned to the black haired, bulky man who was standing next to the pool table. ”No.” he said in a non chalet manor. The others also said the same thing. Scott stared at fridge.

“Have you tried this milk, it so good.”

Scott jumped up in surprise. Next to him was a white haired woman, currently drinking straight from a carton of milk. “Who are you and what are you doing in power rangers HQ?” “My names rose.” She said, wiping the milk from her lips. “And I am a power ranger.”

“Okay doc” said Scott.”can you tell me what the hell is going on?” “Oh, you mean rose?” Said dr.k. She called a meeting. “I forget to make introductions clear. This rose. She will be the new ranger operator series pink.”

“This is Scott trueman, ranger operator series red.”

“Flynn McAllister, ranger operator series blue.”

“Summer landsdown, ranger operator series yellow.”

“Ranger operator series green.” “Hey” said ziggy.

“Dillon, last name unknown, ranger operator series black.”

“And gem and Gemma, ranger operator series gold and silver.”

“Wait” said Scott. “You never had me approve her.” “Rather redundant now, since the morphed has already bonded to her.” “What? May I remind you that I’m the team leader-“ “yes, but I am in charge with creating and dolling out new ranger technology. Ergo, it is ultimately my decision to decide the new ranger operator series.

Scott stormed off.”I don’t trust this.” Said Dillon. “For once, I agree with you.” Said Scott.”doc k creates a new morpher, hand picks a ranger, and has it bonded to her without anyone knowing? Something’s not right.”

“How comes she says the new guys name and not mine.” Said ziggy annoyed.

Rose stood their, obviously sensing the uneasy she put everyone through. Though at the moment, she was more concerned with how bright it was. When she was alone, dr.k approached her.

“You see theses lights too, right?” Said rose.

Dr.k ignored her.”you seem have set a bad first impression.”

“I know. We both agreed we shouldn’t tell the others about what I really am but… What am I supposed to do to get them to like me?”

“I’m wouldn’t know. I’m generally not concerned with other people liking me. I don’t like most people.”

“…you can still offer me a little advice right?”

“I don’t know, just, be yourself I guess?”

—

“Okay rose, all you gotta do, is not be yourself at all.”

Roses first attempt to get to know the rangers was…not that great. She had made a foul tasting smoothie with Flynn’s mixer that nearly made him sick(she’s still getting used to the whole human taste bud thing). Ziggy attempted to hit on her by asking her zodiac sign, which lead to her infodumping about constellations, much to his confusion. Dillon was already in a grim mood, probably do to being slowly taken over by a virus. And Gem and Gemma… well, they enjoyed showing her videos of train wreaks a bit too much.

“Hey Scott.” Rose said “I’m sorry about the milk. Can I come with you to the store?” “Sure.” Said the leader of the rangers. During the car ride, rose gushed about the city. It was her first glimpse of this new world beyond the base, out side of dr.k’s memories. “This city is great, but I prefer the wilderness. I don’t think hu-people appreciate the earths natural environment enough.”

Scott remained silent, not wanting to remind her that there’s not much environment left. He remained silent at the store, when she moaned about cookie cat being discontinued for years now. He remain silent during the car ride back as she made faces at children passing by.

Clearly, she was not going to be easy working with.

Not long after they came back, a siren blared offed. “Tenaya and a patrol of grinders have being spotted in the southwestern sector.” Said dr.k. “There goes going through proper training.” Growned Scott. As the rangers rushed out, dr.k stopped rose.

She gave her a small black box and a grey micro card shaped object (which rose would later learn were called engine cells). Rose pressed a button on the latter, which caused it to unfold into a key. “This is the ignition morpher.” The doctor said. ”all you need to do is insert the activation key into this slot, turn into, and say the activation code.” “What’s the activation code?” Asked rose. “the same as the others, now go!”

—

The rangers reached the area and were confronted by the grinders; humanoid robots with brown metallic parts covering their body’s. They were being led by a human like android. She was dressed in a brown jumpsuit. Her hair was pitch black, and most of her face was covered by a visor.

“Okay we’re here to steal some humans and get out.” The android said in a bored tone. “Hopefully we won’t run into the-“ “tenaya! Said Scott. “Oh.”

The rangers got out their morphers, inserted their engine cells, and shout “Rpm! get in gear!”. They where transformed into multicolored warriors and charged at the grinders.

Rose unfolded her key and sighed in preparation. She closed her eyes and lifted her morpher above her head, before inserting the key and turning.

“RPM! GET IN GEAR!”

Rose was bathed in a pink light, and energy over took her being. The sensation was too fast to really appreciate it, but the transformation was apparent.

As the light faded, she was downing a soft pink jumpsuit, complete with gloves, boots, and a little dress. The rim of her cloves and boots were adorned by translucent rings. Her belt, which adorned the symbol for the rpm rangers, was connected to silver. suspenders that went over went shoulders. A zero was emblazoned on her chest and back. The helmet she was wea.ring was adorned with a star shaped visor.

She rushed into combat. She was able to put up with grinders, but soon caught the attention of their leader. “Why, you’re a new face.” Said the android, a smirked formed on her face. T looked too human.“Who are you?” Rose asked. “I am tenaya 7, human infiltration attack bot. I-“

Tenaya was blasted away. “God do you ever shut up?” Asked Dillon. Rose got out her side arm, a key shaped blade. The battle reminded her of the rebellion, when she was fighting along side pearl. She swung at tenaya, who blocked the blade with her wrist guards. Rose swiped at her, only for tenaya to bend down and for ziggy to get struck instead.

/s

“ziggy, I’m so sorry!” She said. “Rose!” Shouted Flynn.”your weapon can turn into a gun!” “Oh yeah!” Said rose. She shifted her blade into a blaster shape and fired at the grinders. All her shots missed. She’ll need more practice with this.

“Hah!” Heckled tenaya. “Hey ranger red, your new teammate is more dead weight than useful. Unless you train her wrong on purpose, as a joke.” Rose hated that. Tenaya made a charge at Scott. He readied himself. Rose jumped in between the two. She tried to summon her shield, forgetting that she didn’t have it.

The two rangers were sent back by the force of tenaya’s attack. She towered over them, pointing a gun a the two, smug in her victory. Her attention was quickly turned towards a rock near roses foot. It was glowing pink. To the threes amazement, it began to change, transforming into a red frog.

“What the-“ tenaya said, before the frog jumped on her vision, disorienting her vision. By the time she got it off, she realized the rangers had already eliminated the grinders. Tenaya retreated in frustration.

—

Back at the base, Scott took rose aside. She wasn’t sure what to make of his expression. Then again, she always had a hard tell reading faces.“Look, I know doc choose you personally, but it was mistake not having you go through the proper training first.” Rose could tell by the sound of his voice that he was upset with her. “It’s not that you can’t handle yourself. It’s..” Scott brushed his hair trying to find the right words.” It’s that you’re not good with the team.”

Rose knew it. She knew she didn’t belong here.she didn’t belong anywhere.. And yet she was curious as to why Scott wasn’t ripping into her more, when she knew she deserved so much worse.

“What Scott is trying to say” interjected summer “is that Scott,Flynn, and I have been rangers for a year and a half. Ziggy and Dillon have been here for six months. And gem and Gemma joined just last month. You just need some time to better synchronize with the team.” “Rose nodded in agreement.

“Now, how about we all get ready for bed.” Summer said. Rose got into her pajamas and crawled into bed, sharing the same rock with summer and Gemma. Today wasn’t good, rose thought, but tomorrow might be better.

—

In the dark, grim chambers of venjixs palace, tenaya stomped her way in.

“How is this any fair?” She said, in a sour mood. “Eight of them, one of me.” “Eight?! There’s only supposed to be seven!” Said shifter, venjixs golden plated general. “Yeah, there’s..” said crunch,shifters dimwitted companion, who was counting on his fingers. “Wait till master venjix finds out.” Said tenaya. “He’ll probably-“

“I ALREADY KNOW”

The three generals were startled. In the center of the room was the tall cylinder contain the consciousness of The ruler of this world, and their creator, venjix. He starred at his underling with a single, piercing red eye.

“Master venjix” addressed tenaya. “This new ranger is not a threat. She seems like she’s more trouble than she’s worth to the rangers-“

“SILENCE.” Ordered venjix. He unfurled several mechanical tentacles, each equipped with a sickle blade. Crunch hid behind shifter at the sight of them.

“DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE RANGERS. THEY HAVE ALREADY GROWN STRONG ENOUGH, AND MUST BE STOMPED OUT.”

“HOWEVER,” venjix said, curiosity brewing in his code.”THIS NEW RANGER SEEMS…HAUNTINGLY FAMILIAR…”

#rpm roses story #fanfic writing

[floweroflaurelin]

I am asking very nicely for you to PLEASE talk about all the tiny details of your art i LIVE for that shit.

Yes yes yes!!! Okay this is gonna be LONG. We’re just talking about my portraits for this one but I’m gonna talk a lot, so most of this will be under the cut. In this essay I will be going over what goes through my head when coming up with facial features for different personalities and why I did what I did for each!

Let’s start with fWhip and Gem. Both of these characters are smart as hell, but I think of them as being high INT but low WIS. They’re maybe not the most personable—fWhip makes enemies pretty easily, and Gem doesn’t need to be nice when she knows she’s right. The challenge with these two is: how do I make that clear while I show their different, distinct personalities while also making them look like twins, even to people who don’t know them?

They’re fraternal twins so I wanted them to have different eyes, different nose shapes, different mouths, different chins and jawlines, but while still looking the same.

Fun fact, Gem was the only one who didn’t have an initial pencil sketch. Here’s why:

^ I wanted them to have the same base, so here’s how hers started! I painted directly on top of Count fWhip and changed the features to reflect Gem’s traits instead of his.

So, what traits do their portraits show? The weight on fWhip’s face draws his features downward, but the tightness in Gem’s face draws her features upward. His brow is furrowed lower while Gem’s is slightly raised, and the, like, meatiest part (?) of his cheeks hang lower while Gem’s cheeks sit up higher. fWhip has a hint of a downturned smirk while her lips are quirked up, looking more smug. This is because fWhip is surrounded by ores from the deepest part of the earth while Gem lives high up in a tower! As well, fWhip’s eyes are sunken deeper into his skull with slight marks around the eye sockets as a result of wearing his goggles tight against his skin; Gem has wrinkles around her eyes as a result from squinting while she pores over books in her studies.

You can’t see it here but I interpret Gem’s braid to really go down to her knees like on her mc skin, and when loose it falls into really long, loose ringlets. fWhip has the same hair texture but it’s way curlier since he keeps it shorter. I took a lot of inspiration from @pontsalin’s fWhip design for the hair!

Going back to my notes about them being high INT but low WIS, I played around with the proportions of their faces relative to the overall silhouettes of their heads. Gem and fWhip both have their facial features take up the least amount of space compared to the rest of their skulls—fWhip’s silhouette is mostly hair, and Gem is mostly hat. Their faces are overall less important than everything else because they’re not focused on making friends so much as they are being clever and using their brains (implied to be large because their head silhouettes are very big). As well, neither of them have very bright highlights in their eyes, and their gazes are more calculating than warm or friendly.

—

Up next, Scott versus Shrub. These are the only two characters looking at the camera fully head-on, but for very different reasons. Both of them also have their facial features take up a LOT of room on their skulls, because in their cases I’m thinking about the face they put on to show the others.

So first of all, Scott is looking down at us while Shrub is looking up. Sure, Scott is tall while Shrub is short—but Lizzie is the tallest and we look at her normally. No, this is about power. Specifically the fact that, whether he wants to or not, Scott has a lot of it—and Shrub has very little.

Scott is the mortal Champion of a god and was tasked with defeating his own brother, a demon bent on destroying him and everything he loves, and grappling with supernatural powers he can barely control. Dude’s been through a lot!! He didn’t ask for any of what he ended up with, all he can do is deal and try to lead as best he can given the circumstances. He’s drawn up to his full height, looking down at us with a cold expression of neutral, careful control. His eyes have no highlights in them at all—his eyelids catch the light, but his irises are in complete shadow. His head sans accessories takes up the most space on the canvas of anyone. His hair is perfect, his clothes are crisp. It’s a carefully curated facade.

Shrub is similar in that her life was turned upside down by Xornoth, but in a different way. Her story is all about loss and grief. She has no family, no home, no people, no kingdom. She’s looking straight on at the camera but from below, a position of vulnerability and loneliness. Her eyes have the most highlights in them of any character—almost as though she’s holding back tears. Her face doesn’t have uncanny elven symmetry; while Scott’s hair is perfectly kept to show his need for control, Shrub’s is messy with hair escaping her braid and curling around her head. Her head, minus the mushroom hat, is the smallest of anyone’s, and the lowest down on the page. Her mushroom hat contrasts nicely with Scott’s perfect geometric circlet: it’s asymmetrical, it fits a bit wonky, it’s an organic shape, and it looks like it belongs in the Undergrove.

Overall, these two both get to face forward because of their particular relationship to Xornoth. Scott had to step up and become a leader in an unexpected way, forced into it by circumstance and received a portrait displaying a cold, distant expression and tidy appearance; Shrub lost everything and was driven to madness, so her portrait has an expression of pain and vulnerability.

—

The Seablings!

Don’t worry, it’s more lighthearted from here on out 😜

Since the Seablings aren’t twins I made them look much more different from each other—the main similarity is that that they both have scales (duh) and really dramatic bone structure. Note the shape that the rim light makes as it catches the sides of their faces, sinking in so deeply in the eyesocket and clinging so tightly to the skull, only protruding again for the muscles of the mouth and chin.

When it came to Lizzie my focus was on the textures as opposed to the expression. Her features are well-proportioned and her expression is kind, but more important to me were the scales—I know axolotls don’t have them, but I wanted a really distinct mermaid princess vibe for her. Since scales are shiner than white human skin, hers reflect the colours around her while being the purpley-blue of the Blue Axolotl. That’s why in the highlights they take on the pink of her hair and the brighter blue of the background. I’m also really happy with the way her ear fin came out, with that semi-transparent stretched texture.

Lizzie’s tiara is made of pearl, just like the accents on the banner I designed for the Ocean Empire.

When it comes to Jimmy, his skin tone is unique among the rulers for being the coldest in hue—he has green accents in his cheeks and nose! I imagine that his scales are sort of a weird slimy film over his human skin. As well, his ear fins are far more opaque than Lizzie’s, much more like the webbing between human fingers (but green instead of reddish!). I also made his lips protrude a bit in a fishy sort of way.

Notably, Jimmy is the only person who’s genuinely smiling in their portrait. I had in mind that everyone would be taking it really seriously, trying to project the vibe they want their Empire to have, while Jim is just happy to be there. He also has some of the most high-contrast highlights in his eyes because he’s one of the friendliest emperors there are!

Jimmy is also the ruler that looks the most like the real life CC. I swear I didn’t reference his irl face when making this—I think it’s a combination of Jimmy having a face cam in his videos so I’m really familiar with his face in my mind, and also those are just his vibes.

—

The Copper King! He’s the other CC whose face I’m pretty familiar with, but I deliberately didn’t make his face anything like irl Pixlriffs’ because I had specific ideas in mind for him. I’ve mentioned most of this previously but I’ll include it here with the new stuff :)

As mentioned in a previous ask, in order to get him to read instantly as “wise and spiritual desert man” I borrowed a few traits from Prince of Egypt’s Moses: the hair length and the way the beard is shaped around the jaw. He also has the deepest tan of anyone besides Joey, since they both live in really hot climates.

Pix also has kohl around his eyes because a) he lives in a desert and b) I love eyeliner on men. The kohl in this case is painted on in such a way to draw your attention on the corners of his eyes, appearing to weight them downward. As keeper of the Vigil, Pix has seen a lot of death, and so I wanted to show the weight of that in his eyes—Pixlriffs gets significant highlights both in the eye and on the lower lid, drawing you in. As well, there is no pupil visible. The deep blue of his eyes just keeps going and going, mysterious and endless…

But!! And this is important! The Copper King isn’t weighed down by sorrow and grief. In fact, he’s a really chill guy most of the time! He loves practical jokes and playing pranks—he’s wise and playful. Like an airbender. It would be so easy to have his whole face weighted downwards like his eyes and eyebrows but instead we catch it at the mouth. There’s a youthful upturn there like he’s about to smile.

The Copper King’s crown is something I designed ages ago, and it does have floating parts! The shape of the front of it is inspired by the distinct patterns in Pixandrian architecture, with the floating hemisphere representing the conduit powering the Vigil.

He also has earrings now, something I hadn’t put in my initial Copper King design, and a more… plunging neckline. These are both there because, uh, for reasons. *ahem* Have I mentioned I’m bi?

—

Speaking of, Pearl’s up next! Good segue right there.

I honestly think Pearl’s Empires skin is the most beautiful of them all. As mentioned, her expression is one of kindness and tiredness after a day of working out in the sun. She’s covered in freckles and her hair is sun-bleached, and she’s got a shiny red sunburn across her face and shoulders from all her time spent outdoors. She also has broad, muscular shoulders from hard work and her martial training. Her lips have a natural upturn so she looks like she’s smiling even when her expression is neutral, and her eyes are bright. The moon necklace is self explanatory ☺️🌙

—

The next three are the ones whose videos I’ve watched the least of, so their portraits are mostly based on vibes.

First up, Joey and Katherine!

Joey gets to be sharp, sharp everything. Sharp cheekbones, sharp eyebrows, sharp jawline, sharp eyeliner. His skin is flawless because he has a 14-step routine he does twice a day and he never really stopped being evil-adjacent so his chin is up and he’s looking down on us. He really knows his angles to look as fabulously intimidating as possible.

Katherine, on the other hand, is more round! She gets a heart-shaped face because she is full of love. She just wants everyone to be friends and for there to be peace! And she collects severed heads! Wholesome and little bit crazy, she gets to have big, bright, friendly, round eyes that are perfect for inviting you over for a sleepover. She’s got a dainty little nose and thin fairy ears and perfect glossy hair that is always scented like floral shampoo.

Then comes Sausage! Now, Sausage is A Lot. He talks fast and he says a LOT and he’s got a big personality and there’s always a lot going on!!! But my portrait is much more subdued—his head is tilted down, he looks tired.

Well, when it comes to showing How Much Sausage Is I wanted to show this through his features rather than his expression. He’s got a broad forehead, a large jaw, huge eyebrows, big ears, a wide mouth, and (though you can’t see it here) huge hands. I wanted to focus his expression on how much he’s gone through, in a rugged and world-weary kind of way. He practices blood magic, he’s been possessed, he’s been imprisoned, he had part of his soul locked away, he’s covered in scars…

Sausage’s complexion is ruddy and his skin is pulled taut over his features. I left the most brushstrokes in his face to show the roughness there. He has dramatic bags under his eyes, which are downturned, and he’s barely got any highlights in his eyes. You can’t really see his pupils, either—his mouth is smiling but his eyes are heavy and closed off. Like Shrub I wanted to show how he’s suffered through his eyes, and in this case it’s the exact opposite approach to the highlights.

—

And finally, Joel Smallishbeans! I watch Joel a lot but his portrait is the easiest to explain so I saved his for last.

Joel is smirking because he’s a smug bastard (affectionate) and he has a wide face, cleft chin and small ears because his pfp used to be Shrek ❤️

Literally, that’s it.

—

So yeah!! I spent about two hours on each portrait but only about 5-10 minutes on the initial sketch for each, which is when I would’ve thought about all this stuff. I’m thinking that later this week I’m going to try and put out a post showing the process of how I go about creating a portrait from the sketch to final with all this stuff in mind!

I know this was a ton to read through but if you’ve got any questions about this sort of thing I’d love to hear em :3 Thanks so much for handing me an opportunity to talk about all this stuff!!

#empires smp #empiresblr #empires meta #tutorial #empires smp fanart #this is LENGTHY but I had fun writing it! #i love love love talking about this stuff #gardenergulfie #ask

[lovelosescongrats]

ranking mcc skins: mcc20

reject the reddit mcc players tier list, embrace the skin tier list. /hj

before we get into the madness that is me, a sapphic ranking pixels, some things!

1) this is all just my opinion. keep it to yourself if you have any shit to say.

2) all the skins that were made by fans are really great and I wish I had your level of talent and skill! please do not take this seriously at all I'm just messing around.

3) I will not give as detailed explanations for some rankings. they're cool, I liked them well enough, I just have nothing extra to say

now let's get into it:

link here to make your own tierlist. made by yours truly. please tag me if you're using it!

da vinky wishes he could

the highest tier! i want to stare at all these skins lovingly for hours.

eret. as always, she is giving me A Look. the slit, the off shoulder, the high waistline, the floor length gown. I could not pull this off but he is doing beautifully in it. (also i am bisexual)

gumi. she's giving me e-girled red riding hood and it goes surprisingly well together. (again i am bisexual)

elaina. for some reason, this reminds me a lot of jan's tulle look in s12 of drag race? it's very pleasant to look at, the brown/orange/white ensemble is a delight. (did you remember that I am bisex- *gunshots*)

5up. to this day I'm still not sure if his skin is a turnip or an onion, but nevertheless it's very adorable. the idea of stuffing a vegetable into a 90s style colorful sportswear is very funny to me, so he's way up there. also, the little axolotl is so cute? kudos to whoever made this one I am gently cradling it in my hands.

scar. frankly, it's scar and it's his first mcc, so he could literally show up in a white t-shirt and jeans but I'd still be like scar!!!! and plop him on the top. BUT he did not so I feel very justified in putting him there! the little flower (that's matching with grian's, shoutout to all the desert duo/scarian fans), that scarf, that's a dapper looking man right there.

pete. to be fair pete has an advantage because his base skin is along the same color palette as his team, so he's very easy to look at. (as you will see later on, this is extremely important for me) the waistcoat, the belt, the chain, everything fits together so well.

I was delighted. good job

seapeekay. red continues to be the best dressed team. points to whoever made the skin, I adore it.

illumina. I love gradients. where's his flower crown though?

false. falsie!!! *twirls hair and giggles* she looks so so so good. she was this close to making it to top tier for me, but unfortunately a lot of the colors in her outfits was to similar to one another and made it hard for me to see the details, so she had to stay in this tier. but the flower crown, the skirt, the jacket, its all just *chef's kiss*

cubfan. flower crown, jacket, nice.

tapl. green and pink is a color combination hard to pull off, but this entire team (minus the obvious) all looked so good! the flower as a knee patch were a good touch too. the cardigan seem very soft. a man i would trust.

shubble. ahah when girls do The Thing! (<- existing) the overalls and the bandanna is lovely and the details are amazing. both her and tubbo could have made it higher if not for those socks/leg warmer things. i don't know why some people are so obsessed with them-they're impossible to wear and essentially functionless? also realistically they make your legs look way shorter so :/ no

tubbo. see above, very cute.

scott. cute gecko pattern, looks very comfy.

the captain. gold buttons very pretty, light green collar also pretty.

ryguyrocky. why are his eyes like that.

antfrost. to quote scar, did I just see a cat go by with a track suit on? the concept is hilarious and the execution good.

gem. I adore cc!gem, c!gem, and this skin is adorable. (ahah women amirite)

hbomb. put more beefy men in crop tops 2k22.

oli. giving zombie jock, cool.

quig. open shirt, also cool.

ponk. just a color re-texture but still easy to look at. am verging close to dropping a tier though.

kara. see above

purpled. also see above.

jackmanifold. red/pink good combo, nice flower.

passing grade. star for trying

niki. it's nice, but the overall thing just ticks me the wrong way. (shoutout to her makeup on mcc day though almost made me cry cc!niki is so pretty)

puffy. that's just a dragonballz costume.

punz. see above.

martyn. I want to like it so much but I despise bow ties and it doesn't have anything else special to redeem it so :/ sorry king

ranboo. why does it look like he's in green cargo pants oh god- +1 for the suspender, -5 for the cargo shorts I hate those with a burning passion

preston. I understand they wanted to keep the most iconic part but the red and blue is clashing and throwing the whole thing off. bad on the eyes.

sam. see above, the green and blue do not mesh well together.

connor. again, just a color re-texture and there's not enough distinct shadowing to move it upwards. looking very cozy saves him from a lower tier, though.

sb737. having more of a gradient would have moved him up.

soft *meh*

it was hard to put anyone in this section. i'm sorry, guys.

purpled. dude, thats just Orange. also, you look so similar to other blonde white boy in your group that I had to check four times to make sure I didn't get you wrong, so in the meh tier you go.

philza. his original skin was already green, so there wasn't enough of a change to make me like it. sorry.

abhorred. beloathed.

unsuprisingly, it was very easy to put these four fuckers in this section. ps, the hermbi discord unanimously put these four in the shame corner. completely deserved, I'm not in the slightest bit sorry.

wilbur. for the love of god please put in some effort. where is your team spirit, white boy?

sneegsnag. no.

fruit. sir who peeled you and revealed that you are raw meat?

tommy. stop learning from wilbur's bs.

who would have won mcc20 if it was based on their skin and also up to me?

team totals:

in first place, tied three ways: 13 marks

red rabbits: the red and black is an iconic combo. i am maybe in love with 3/4 of this group.

cyan creepers: well dressed dapper boys

aqua axolotols: still winning no matter what because they are just that great

in second place, tied two ways: 10 marks

yellow yaks: incredibly well dressed

blue bats: special mention to the desaturated skins because they're bats. devil's in the details.

in third place, tied four ways: 9 marks

orange ocelots

lime llamas: blame wilbur

green geckos

purple pandas

in last, because of fruit and tommy's crimes: 5 marks

pink parrots

this took me almost the whole evening. I'm not sure if it's worth it. nevertheless, I will be doing this once more when mcc21 rolls around! stay around for that if you want to.

#kue loses #ranking mcc skins #mcc20 #mcc #mcc skins #eret #vgumiho #elainaexe #5up #goodtimeswitscar #petezahut

[favoriteginger]

Empires Worldbuilding

The Empires brainrot is real lately, so here, have some worldbuilding that came to me when I was trying to make angst:

The Empires world is filled with a bunch of different types of nature spirits. These spirits tend to stay in certain areas and tend to do their own thing for the most part, but they are willing to help the people living in the world with certain things if it benefits them in some way. I don't really have any specific ideas for Joel, Pearl, Joey, and Gem, but I have ideas for the rest that I'll go through in some detail. Idk much for the jungle yet, and I'll have to see how Joey's series progresses, but the jungle is full of life, full of growth and death and rebirth, which is why spawn is there, why it still has the bones of an old civilization that is once again starting to be populated by people.

(this one is kinda iffy imo but) the ocean spirits are generally happy with the ocean as it is, but they also kinda desire the ability to change and grow and adapt. When Lizzie comes along and starts setting up the beginnings of her kingdom, the ocean spirits see the opportunity available. They can use the infrastructure that Lizzie has put together to grow and change, in return offering Lizzie citizens to fill her realm and warriors to protect it (the villagers, the axolotl golem, her axolotl knights).

I'm thinking that the spirits can also change people over time too, so as the ocean spirits get closer to Lizzie and help her expand her kingdom, she begins to take on some of the same appearance as her citizens, the ocean spirits sometimes deliberately helping it happen so she can more effectively rule her realm (axolotl Lizzie go brrr). The main spirit in the flower forest is the Overgrown (or maybe it's more a collection of spirits that exists and acts as one being). Katherine settles in the area and is called by the spring, a slightly lesser spirit, to protect the Overgrown and help it prosper. in return, she is able to use some of the bountiful life that springs from the Overgrown, using it to make her kingdom look more beautiful and to forge and maintain peace with the lands around her.

As time goes on and Katherine becomes more familiar with the overgrown, the animals and plants become almost attuned to her. She tends to have flowers and vines woven through her clothes and hair, and it isn't unusual to see her surrounded by various animals while tending to her lands. (I also want to incorporate some sort of faerie type lore into Katherine's area but I'm still working on that)

(warning for mentions of death in the next paragraph or two, for any who want to avoid it. nothing specific, and it's not any of the empires members)

(adapting some ideas a friend had here) The swamp doesn't really have any major spirits inhabiting it, and I'm still figuring out what the ones that do live there are like, but it is full of the spirits of the dead. All of these spirits died at different times and for different reasons, but they were all drawn to the swamp and reside there long after any trace of their previous homes is gone. These spirits don't want much, mainly just company and peace for as much of their eternal lives as possible. When Jimmy first settles in the swamp, it seems to be empty of any sentient life, but as time goes on he begins to see the ghostly forms of people long dead and he begins to be able to hear their voices. The first spirits he's able to fully see are a group of children playing in the water with the cod. As more and more spirits appear to him and he gets to know them, he starts working to help them. He does his best to stay on peaceful or friendly terms with the other kingdoms so his land and the people in it can live in peace.

As time goes on, Jimmy starts to look like part of the swamp in a way. It isn't unusual to see him covered in slime and seaweed after playing with the children in the water, and sometimes he has vines woven into his hair, or a crown made of sticks and mud atop his head.

The spirits of the desert are quiet and unmoving, happy to stay where they are and watch the world change around them. Pix is one of these spirits, though he took a more human form long ago because he was curious about the people living in his land and watching from afar wasn't enough. Now, the people he used to be a part of are long gone, and he's left alone in the remains of their once great empire, watching over the world as it changes and keeping vigil over the other empires, still occasionally venturing out to get a closer look at the surrounding lands, and bringing goods to help them when he does.

Now, Pix is also a dragon (because dragons are fun), and though he exists in his human form more often than not now, he still occasionally stretches his wings to fly over the desert, stirring up sandstorms in his wake. He still burrows under the sand sometimes, looking to nap in the warm dunes, and he still hoards copper and emerald ore, using them to ornament his buildings when he isn't able to ornament himself with the treasures as he once did.

(I gave Scott a bit of a corruption arc because they're fun I guess idk) The mountains tend to be populated by wind spirits, forever moving and forever free. Their main desire is for more land to fly over and explore, and they see a way to achieve that though Scott. They offer him the freedom of the wild mountaintops, away from people and connections that could tie him down and cause him pain. As time goes on and Scott starts to hear them more clearly, they begin to tell him that having too many connections would be bad. According to the spirits, alliances are good, since they would mean that other empires wouldn't encroach on the mountains, but actual close friendships would just trap Scott in obligations and promises and do nothing but hurt him down the road. They tell him to expand the borders of his empire and give himself more space to roam free and do as he wished, as well as provide a buffer between him and the people who could hurt him. (I'm thinking that 3rd life ties into this, and after loosing Jimmy in that series, he's afraid of being hurt in that way again, which is why he listens to the spirits)

As time goes on, Scott becomes more cold, both in personality and physically. He extends nothing more than basic pleasantries to the people around him, maintaining alliances but that's it. His skin grows paler and cold to the touch, and his hair grows lighter, starting to look more like frosted ice than the rich cyan it had been before. His fingers and ears also grow kinda blue at the tips and he finds he's sometimes able to manipulate the flurries of snow falling around him or ride the winds across his growing empire.

Fwhip settles in a plains biome and not long after, he comes across the spirits of the stone and darkness, who tempt him with glowing redstone and promise him all the riches held underground and the power that could come with them. Fwhip, having spent most of his recent time alone in a hardcore world, is maybe a tad bit paranoid, and takes these spirits up on their offer, thinking he can use the riches underground to build himself and his people a beautiful city, and to make armor and weapons and trade offers and alliances to protect himself. However, in agreeing to the deal, he gave the spirits a connection to work with and they began corrupting him, making him treasure the dark deepslate and shining redstone even more, convincing him that the heads he mounted around his base were his citizens and friends, that he had to expand his empire and gain more power, or it would all be taken from him. Over time, the corruption starts to take a physical form, and not just in the land that grows darker as redstone-laced spires emerge from the ground, deepslate making it's way through the grass. Fwhip's eyes begin to take on a red tinge, glowing slightly like the redstone he cherishes so much, and his skin starts to appear grey in patches, matching the darkstone consuming his land.

So yeah, worldbuilding

Feel free to add on or whatever if you want I guess

#i had an angst idea #and then it turned into worldbuilding #so that's a thing #empires smp #mcyt #fwhip #smallishbeans #ldshadowlady #smajor1995 #pixlriffs #katherine elizabeth #solidarity gaming #ginger rambles #long post #corruption arcs go brrrr

[rosfrandomness]

Who wishes to know more about my Last Life and friends Stardew Valley AU? You do? Click the read more then!

I shall cover the basics!

So I defined all the important jobs that are kinda needed (food, pharmacy, someone to build the houses, all that stuff) then after that chose ones I want to keep out of the rest! for example, I kind of don't want the same type of museum and want to make it more of a "there's someone who studies stuff and you can choose to help their research by giving them things"

So the mandatory occupations are

Blacksmith - Stress

Bar keep (at the saloon) - Gem

Farmer (mainly crops) - GGG

Farmer (mainly animals) - I was thinking the southlands, but it may change

Pharmacist - Etho

Grocers - Tango

Carpenter - Bdubs

There's also a ton of others who don't necessarily have a job that's, well, necessary for any absolute basic human needs, let alone a job at all! But many have a role within the universe.

For example, Lizzie is the forest fairy to the west of town who learns and even to an extent gets involved in a conflict between BigB and Cleo after he accidentally trampled her crops (I can elaborate on that tidbit if wanted). Wels, Impulse, and Gem all help decorate for things like spirit's eve, or the flower dance, or town wide barbeques, or any other events! Impulse also sells books, and Joe is a ghost that comes as a package deal with Bdubs since the carpenter has a clock that used to be his during life (again, can definitely elaborate if wanted (also here's a link to a comic based on that))

So, back to the main point, Cleo, Scott, and Pearl take the place of the player/player crew and are the ones mainly responsible for growing crops, and make it their main point of profit.

Now, you may notice that I've omitted the mayor from the list. That's because there is no mayor! Instead, the selling box is repurposed and reworked, and things are mostly sold to others within the township, merchants, and travellers who visit during festivals and whatnot.

° • ☆ • °

As for universe rules (ex: Minecraft's nearly nonexistant gravity or Stardew Valley's "food never expires") I was thinking a few things:

- food still never expires. It's a thing in both games, so I'm keeping it! In a similar vein, food provides energy and health in both games (or sometimes temporary speed, food poisoning, other such sicknesses, other stat boosts, etc) so I'm keeping that as well.

- The flower variety from MC and dish variety from SDV are both staying, being combined to give more flowers and more food options beyond Soup. This'll mean fun new recipe opportunities!

- the gravity will still be a little wonky. We're gonna have the "infinite pockets with seemingly no weight" in the form of backpacks, and you'll be able to have the 9 by 4 inventory Minecraft has rather than Stardew Valley's only 9 by 3 inventory option that comes with two pack upgrades

- they can't perma-die! they either faint or they need to go to the pharmacist's or they die and respawn. It's a combination of both game's health mechanics, and it's dependant on the severity of their injuries n all that jazz

- there will be more to come if I think of more or someone makes me think of it cjdnccj

° • ☆ • °

I think we're gonna have the GGG be the main protags, if I ever write anything based on the AU. Scott very well may have a romance with Jimmy because of 3rd Life, but who really knows! There may be shipping, there may not, I'm not really sure

I really want this AU to focus on things like relationships (not just romantic ones, in fact I want to put a focus on platonic ones and conflicts within any of those) and other stuff if I'm able, such as mental health!

so yeah, feel free to ask me about any of this. even if no one does, I'm still gonna be making content about it (duh) since I really like both games. honestly this is meant to be more a passion project; self indulgent, if you will! and if anyone else enjoys it then yay!

#ll&co sdvau #trafficshipping #<- just in case since I did mention it #I'll probably go more in depth about all this in a few separate posts and compile it all into a masterpost #or maybe a google doc since that'd be more organized #who knows

[popculturebuffet]

Scotrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (The Comic)

Hello, Hello, Hello scottaholics! And what a beautiful day it is: After decades lost in the lost woods, at least it had that catchy tune to keep it company, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The Game is FINALLY back and performing for you on all platforms!

Even Stadia, the platform most likely to disappear like this game did for a while! Cheap shots at the stadia aside as a huge fan of the franchise as a whole and of this game who played it back on the 360, and had since sold said 360 so I had no way to get it back or ever play the dlc packs. Seriously who didn’t want to play wallace but never got to? Everyone, everyone is the answer. But with those the entirety of what I consider to be the main cast is playable, it has online so you can beat up hipsters, guys in costumes and robots with your friends, it’s a good damn feeling.  And since i’m in a celebratory mood, naturally i’m also feeling like a review. And since it just so happens the next volume up in my look at the comics is Vs the World, seriously I planned this review for this month without thinking to have it come out on the same day as the game until a week or two in, I felt there was no better way to celebrate the biggest day for Scott Pilgrim fans in some time.. and for Brian Lee O Malley as he’ll stop getting twitter asks about it. So with all the exposition taken care of LAST TIME, and the link right there if your curious, we can jump right in. On with the show!

After our opening titles, and yes this comic has opening titles, with Ramona sitting solmely in the rain. 

And Scott caught in the title. The rain shot is real pretty by the way. But yeah once we get past those we’re taken back 7 years ago. Finn found out his father was an asshole, and voiced by Stephen Root so hey you take the good with the bad, Steven just learned the horrifying truth about Gem Monsters, Guardians of the Galaxy saved the MCU and I was trying to find work after college.. wait... sorry sorry that was 7 years ago from THIS year. The comic came out in 2005, though the comic takes place on a sliding timescale where only like 2 years pass so I dunno when this is. Let’s just say 98.  Okay so 1998: Bill Cllinton’s sex scandal breaks, and puts way too much of hte blame on the young intern whose life came to be defined by one stupid mistake she made with a man who was way older and should’ve known better, the tide of the Monday Night War turned in favor of the WWF as Stone Cold Steve Austin became a household name, and it was an utterly standup year for video game relaases with Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, StarCraft, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, WWF: War Zone, Pokemon Stadium, Spyro The Dragon, Pokemon Yellow, WarioLand 2, Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Pokemon: Trading Card Game and Sonic Adventure. It’s like someone took a good chunk of my childhood and squeezed it into one year holy shit, I did not expect this when looking up what came out in 98. 

And while the movie pool wasn't’ quite this amazing, we still had The Wedding Singer, The Big Lebowski, the dude abides, Batman and Mr Freeze: SubZero, The Truman Show, Mulan, the good one not the one made near concetration camps that makes her into a demigod, Saving Private Ryan, Blade, Simon Birch, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Rushmore, Bride of Chucky, HalloweenTown, Plesantville, and the Prince of Egypt. And in music Weird Al changed from his first signature look to his second, getting Lasik and growing out his hair. Seirously had no idea that was this year. Good to know. Also Elton John got his knighthood. Super shooters. I could go on with 1998 triva for days but I cannot go on for 8 weeks so let’s get to the point here.. during alllla this  Scott Pilgrim, age 16, was starting St. John’s Catholic School and a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble. . by threatning to beat him up for no real reason. A fight insues and we cut to the principal’s office as Scott’s still a minor and not allowed to get into death fights just yet under the people’s freedom of choices and voices act. 

It’s here he meets Lisa Miler, a peppy and sarcastic blonde, who’s intrigued by the fact Scott somehow got beat up after being here just 15 minutes and wants to be friends. Naturally for scott next we see him he’s busy playing video games, and annoyed someone else is around and wondering who this person whose now in his basement is. God no wonder teenage me related to him. So for the next few pages we see their friendship in time lapse: Lisa joins him at lunch, then geninely wonders since Scott’s Untentionally a dick if he hates her.. it’s part of why I think Scott has some form of autisim. And not just because I tend to belivie a character is on the spectrum all the damn time, it’s because of the way he acts: while he is nice and charming at times.. he also clearly has trouble relating to people or realizing how his actions effect them and as seen here in a younger form can often be compeltely distanced from normal social queues, not getting how his actions might be seen until Lisa outright talks to him about it. I mean.. it’s not a huge stretch, and it dosen’t mean he’s nto responsible for his own actions, but it does EXPLAIN a lot of them better: why he just sorta forgets about Knives post-ramona but at the same time still cares enough he dosen’t want to hurt her despite you know, that ship sailing just by having moved on. 

But now the two are friends and his parents, who we meet for the first time and sister inquire about her being his girlfirned.. and by next jumpcut his parents apparently don’t want him hanging out with girls? What exactly the fuck? Also they mention Laurence, Scott’s brother whose missing for most of the books and has no real payoff for not being around. Next cut we get KIM!

Thank you Prissy. And she’s.. not all that different, assuming, correctly that their partner project, how she meets scott will just result in her doing all the work.. which not only is how these things usually went when I was in high school a decade later, but reminds me of the time me and my friends curtis and justin were put on a project and when asked who the alied powers were, guessed “Germany?”.... you can understand my fear. And also Curtis punching him for getting nothing done.. and not hard or brutally mind you just once quick in the gut and with full warning. Ah... the adaquate old days. 

So back to Lisa as, since Scott’s Mom has a guitar.. a fact I.. never honestly thought about. Seriously I never realized her children, since the Bass Scott has for most of the books is Laurence’s, getting into music was probably due to her. Also Lisa makes her case for WHY be a band: the school has a regular event called Lunchapalooza, where everyone goes to and since by teen logic, just being in a band is automiacally cool, she figures they can jump from not QUITE being in any cliques to being super cool. Which honestly yeah... while I didn’t know any bands in high school, the fact one of my friends, ironically named Scott, was a DJ automatically made him pretty damn cool once he got past his awkard phase. I never got past mine but somehow was loved by all except that one douchey kid in our group who mocked me for naming my Luxray kim, assuming it was based on Kim possible and not Kim Pine... though frankly how that’s an insult when Kim Possible was a fucking awesome show and character is beyond me but he was just 17 and also a douchebag, it didn’t have to make since it just had to piss off the easily pissed off kid with aspergers. So Scott poses how they can be a band with just their guitars and Lisa concedes drums WOULD help.. I mean it’s what MADE Shallow Gravy. 

So while Kim wonders if Scott is dating Lisa, because teenagers don’t really get girls and boys can be friends without wanting to be together, though not often as teenage boy brains can be rather stupid and horny... can confrim from personal experince. So it becomes clear Scott has a thing for Kim, and when Scott tries broaching it with Lisa she dosen’t take it well and he backpedals to asking her to be her drummer and plans to monday, proving Scott has somehow not gotten better at reading women, or anyone after 7 years. Can relate. 

So yeah he decides to ask Monday, same day as their presentation.. and thankfully missed the bus as he arrives to find the Benvy Tech boys came in, took everyone out and abducted Kim. Because yeah, just in case you were wondering Scott’s life was always like this.. or was it? Questions for later. So one Canadian Version of River City Ransom later, Scott’s made his way to simon... who, since most of you have probably seen the movie or art of the movie.. looks an AWFUL lot like Gideon. Hrmmm. Simon is naturally the final boss here and wonders if this is the best St. Joels can muster. Scott quips back as only Scott can. 

So cue an unsuprisingly awesome actoin sequence. IT’s part of why I love these color editions: While they already LOOKED thoroughly fantastic the added colors really help the series shonen manga meets old school video game vibe REALLY fucking pop. So Simon pleads mercy which like Scott delivering a good quip.. should’ve really been a red flag to younger me and is foreshadowing for later in case I was too subtle. He then does what any noble hero would do.. kicks simon into the sunset, tells Kim how he feels and asks her to play drums. They then make out. Awwww. 

Lisa suprisingly takes it well as the next montage shows.. granted we’ll learn in Feburary she wasn’t QUITE as over scott as it seemed, but the three, along with a friend of Lisa’s whose name I forgot and who DOSEN’T come back so I’m not going to bother learning, form their own friend group, Scott and Kim get an A, and Scott, Kim and Lisa’s band is dubbed sonic and knuckles, which is an objectively awesome band name. Something the series really does great: Video Game Based Band Names. Crash and the Boys, Sex Bomb-Omb, Clash at the Demonhead... we need more bands like this in the real world dammit. So then they play their big game, the two loose their vrigniity.. and then Kim asks scott “your moving to tornoto?” And.. for now.. that’s that. 

While the framing of that will be VERY important in the last volume, as notice how KIM’S the one who brings it up and it’s not explicitly stated scott actually told her, this flasback is great. While it does contribute to the volume’s drifty pacing, more  on that as we go, it brilliantly sets up a LOT of stuff for later, paticuarlly Lisa who I assumed wouldn’t be back and younger me’s jaw fucking DROPPED when she popped up in Volume 4. Granted i’m spoiling that suprise for you now but odds are most of you reading this have either alreaddy read these or were probably wondering if the girl from the animated short ever had any actual relevance in the books. So yes, yes she does. She’s also the pink haired girl you see pop up in the game in the background, as a nod to O’Malley’s comic strip style which had her and Kim as the leads.  Also yeah for fans of the game or movie or even the comics who were unaware.. this prologue got an animated adaption on adult swim to promote the movie. Naturally Micheal Cera and Allison Pill reprised their roles as Scott and Kim, with Mae Whitman voicing lisa.. and honestly being perfect for the roll, and Jason Schrwartzman voicing Simon naturally. While the animation is slightly limited, it still looks decent and expertly translates O’Malley’s art, while sliming things down slightly where needed to fit a short, and the anmation takes a huge bump for the fight scene which like the comic is short but awesome. While it has no real bearing on the film as Kim’s former relationship with Scott never really comes up or has any impact, as the Film while good was based primarily on volumes 1-3 with small pieces of 4 (paticuarlly the iconic “Lesbians gag”), with Wright working off outlines and drafts of 5 and 6, so the last half hour or so is mostly Wright’s invention. 

Not a bad thing as it’s still awesome and not o’malley’s fault but it means kim dosen’t get to do much, and is a big reason why I want an adaptation on netflix or hbo max. While i’d still want changes both because there’s no sense doing an adaptation if your not going to make some tweaks of your own and because it’d be intresting to update the series to modern day, both in societal conventions and so everyone stops saying the r word. Seirously the most telling sign of the series age is that word showing up quite a bit during the first half of the series. Point is there is merit in doing another remix of the story and doing a longer form one so we can get more of the characters, as well as flesh out ones like Steven, Neil (Who was done WAY better in the movie adaptation thanks to the wonderful Johnny Simmons), and Stacey who got the shaft in the books. Again, not slagging off the movie, it’s really great. Just saying there’s always room for more Scott Pilgrim content and we all know it. 

We’ll get back to the comic proper, and the present day of 2005, after the cut. 

So the story proper opens with Scott dreaming of playing video games... because of course he is with Ramona walking in. and finding it charmingly pathetic but wanting her boyfriend to you know, get out of bed. It’s 11:30.  So with Scott’s ass out of bed, we find Scott, Age 23 idiot with a heart of gold and Wallace, 25 king of all gays, on the bus as they talk it getting warmer and Lucas Lee, movie star and jason lee stand in coming to town to film a movie.. and Scott being Scott gets him confused for Luke WIlson. He’s also seen Bottle Rocket which.. good on him. Seriously while not wes anderson’s best film, those were made long afte this comic was published, it’s still a damn good one.. where was his career at this point... looking it up life aquatic was his most recent films and is still one of my favorites. So yeah he was in a good place career wise. 

Scott proudly talks about having Ramona over in a couple days so she can see his place and meet Wallace. But as explained by Wallace for those of us just tuning in, he already met her last volume. You know during that time Stacey thought she could magically make her date not be attracted to someone else.. and yes even almost a month later not letting that one go. Stacey should know better. Not saying i’ts right Wallace keeps poaching her boyfriends, but she still shoudlnt’ try and force a relationship with a guy or even finish a date with one who makes out with someone else, regardless of gender, mid date. She deserves better. In general not just in this one scenario but we’ll get to that. 

Point is while Scott, as usual, is a bit pissy about this Wallace.. has no time for that and issues an ultimatium

And he’s not bluffing, as he fully intends to tell Ramona the minute she walks in the door if he dosen’t break up with Knives. It really shows Wallace off at his best and why he’s Scott’s closest friend: Kim and Stephen do care about him but Kim both has a LOT of unresolved issues and sexual tension with him and keeps eveyrbody including Scott at arm’s length. And Stephen.. while he will OCASIONALLY call Scott out mostly just enables him, either ignoring his college buddy’s shittier behavior or playing along with it and backing him up when Kim rightfully calls him on being a dickhead. While both love their friend they just aren’t the best at dealing with his shit or getting why he does the things he does good and bad.  Wallace on the other hand geninely likes Scott. He’ll lock him out of the house and tell him to sleep elsewhere so he can bang one out, he’ll not wear pants if he dosen’t have to and he’ll certainly hit on Scott just to get a rise out of him, phrasing.. but he also genuinely cares for the guy’s well being. He lets him sleep in their house basically rent free since scott has no money, buys most of their stuff, and is, as we’ll see in this one, the ONLY one of his friends to take an active part in the fight against the exes, training Scott and researching his opponents when he can get info. He won’t baby Scott as seen here, but he will help him, and he will be the harsh voice of reason his friend needs.  And he did TRY doing a softer approach last time, simply telling scott to break up with his fake high school girlfriend. Scott had every chance to dump Knives during the last third of the first book.. it’s just a combination of both Knives and Ramona being in the same place and Scott getting panicky meant he balked. He NEEDS to be pushed into leaving Knives or he’s not gonna. And he also gets it’s not just Scott being a shifty coward: Scott DOES like Knives.. he just found someone who actually challenges him, intrests him and connects with him on his level, versus someone who worships and adores him like a puppy who just happens to be skilled with knives. The relationship with Knives. was an ego boost, an unequal paring that gave Scott the illusion of moving on from Envy. Ramona is him ACTUALLY moving on and given how badly Envy fucked him up, which comes into play in this book and the next, Wallace recognizes that Scott does need her... but this relationship can’t go anywhere if Scott is seeing someone else, and they both know it. Wallace is just the one who’s willing to do something about it to force scott to do something about it. He’s doing this for Knives too: it’s very clear he cares about the girl, was against this from the start, and knew this was going to end in pain and the faster Scott rips off the Band-Aid the faster she can move on to someone closer to her age and far more equal to her. Scott.. takes this about how you’d expect, even calling Double Standard, as Wallace does sleep around.. and while Wallace will be a homewrecker to Stacey.. otherwise it’s not remotley the same. Wallace does his sleeping around either casually or when he does get a partner, with their consent from what we can tell. He never cheats or anything, he just likes to bone. So yeah Scott doesn’t have a leg to stand on and acts accordingly. 

One of my faviorite gags in the series and one that’s etched in my head for keeps. So with a justified Ultimatium over his head Scott calls knives to hang out. Knives.. shows off that as adorable and trusting as she is.. she’s also kind of creepy and shows up just outside the phone booth he’s calling her from.  So the two go to a record store and Knives tries to get Scott into Clash at the Demonhead, her faviorite band. But since i’ts you know, headlined by Scott’s ex as we’ll find out, he’s not into it. But before that can get awkward.. it gets awkward in another way as Knives invites Scott to dinner at her parents place. Which is an objectively bad idea even before you get into the fact Scott wants a way out and as Volume 4 will show us her dad is both not happy with the idea of her dating a white guy and willing to use a katana to prevent it so he dodged a bullet there. Scott TRIES weasling out of it, but his “I’m too old for you” thing falsls on deaf ears.. and actually explains why she thinks this is normal: her parents are 9 years apart. of course obviously two consenting adults with a decade between them is a mite bit diffrent than 5 years between a teenager whose taking this way too seriously and a grown man whose taking this not seroiusly at all and dosen’t get how effed up this is. But Knives is too naive to get that, and papers over any possible concerns about her parents not wanting her to date a white guy with i’m in love.  Seeing that he has no EASY way out of this, as he shouldn’t, Scott just rips off the band aid and bluntly breaks up with her, saying it’s not going to work out. Knives.. is clealry devistatd. To her this was a serious relationship.. and Scott realized that too late.. and thankfully while he didn’t break up with her in the best way, at all, simply syaing i’ts not going to work out and confirming to her he means it, it’s clear from his face this hurts to do and he knows he’s REALLY hurting her and REALLY shoudlnt’ of dated her to begin with. IT’s why Scott dating a teenager dosen’t make him a morally rephrenisvie monster: because he was genuinely intrested, didn’t use her sexually, and there are tangible consequences for his actions. Knives just dosen’t disappear neatly into the sunset so he can be with ramona. The rest of the series covers her emotoinal recovery from being with Scott, and how she very horribly handles it and that’s why this plotline works at all: she’s not some act one contrivance to be thrown away, sh’es a human being, and more than that a young woman who got hurt REALLY bad and got way too in over her head with someone who just..wasn’t the one fo rher no matter how much she can’t admit that. 

We also get one of my faviorite sets of pages as Scott relfects on things and the sheer devistation on Knives face, which credit to a series that even at this early point loves it’s big bold facial expressions.. her’s being more subded just makes it sting MORE. 

This bit to me is vital to keeping Scott sympathetic and to his character. We see he really does regret what happened, dosen’t know how to process it and genuinely feels awful. As I said instead of some exgerated face that would still hurt him.. her face is quiet, clearly unable to process this and clealry lost and hurt.. and that hurts more than any fuck your or sobs he was probably expecting. Just her clearly not getting WHY he’s doing this or why he hurt her, and he KNOWS why he just knows telling her the truth would hurt her even more. But.. as he thinks.. his thoughts move to something else.. and the WHY of why he did this. 

He did it for Ramona. Wallace was as harsh as he was right: he needed a clean slate to actually give this relationship a shot and the smile comes off less as him being a calous dick whose just happy to move on, I mean he is a little, but more jus tsomeone READY to finally move on. He found the right person, he let the wrong one go if clumsily.. he has a future to look forward to and he can smile about that. 

Granted he’s still his usual unteitonally callous self and his way of telling his friends he and knives broke up is to casually say so and say “dont’ worry you’ll meet my new girlfriend soon.” Their reaction.. is my own. 

Look just because Scott is a nuanced douchebag dosne’t stop him from being a Douchebag. It just means he isn’t intolerable to watch and you actually care about him growing as a human being is all. 

So with that out of the way, it’s date night and Ramona is coming over.. also Scott is considering calling her Ramy which no. I'm genuinely in favor of a pet name that’s just a variant on someone’s name but a bit cute, as it’s just the right level of obnoxious, but no, just no Scott. No.  Ramona enters, meets Wallace again and sits down while Scott tries to shoo him out.. because turnabout is fair play bitch. They also see Ramona’s new hair as she dyes it something new for the first time, in this case a very lovely two tone, the purple from last volume but with a darker purple bellow it. I honestly wish she went for multiple colors in her hair again, but likely didn’t since the book was originally in black and white... which still dosent’ make sense as it would’ve been EASIER that way. Regardless Wallace makes himself scarce proving that he’s more than willing to be equal in terms of one of them spending the ngiht elsewhere. What a guy. 

Ramona finds out a few things about Scott: That his apartment is VERY small, just one room with a bed, a cabinet, a small kitchen and a bathroom, which despite what scott says I REALLY dont’ count as another room. Just common sense. She also learns that he can COOK. Yeah while you’d expect Scott to just get a wad of “I did the ultimatum thing okay now gimme” money and buy dinner but no.. he made the whole thing himself from his own recipe.  And once we cut to them eating on the floor.. turns out yeah he not only can cook but is REALLY good at it. She wishes there was a table which, small as the place is.. fair point. I mean at least get some tv trays. You have chairs. Or at least the easy chair. You can get nice padded folding chairs so you have a second chair guys. I know your poor but come on. Also Scott leanrs bread makes you fat. Good stuff. Also Scott freaks out when , while making out with Ramona in bed later, she mentions his hair’s getting kinda long and could use a cut... which turns out to be a thing for him. He isn’t an ass about it he just panics a bit because he’s partially convinced his last relationship’s nightmarish breakup was because of a bad haircut he got. As we’ll see next week, that’s a no but as someone whose a touch neroutic myself I get blaming a larger issue on something trivial. 

So we then get to the next chapter where it’s KIM’S turn to have a dream.. and the only time we see someone else's dreams. Honestly.. I really would’ve liked if it was a recurring device, even have Ramona pop into other people’s Not used ALL the time but I could easily see it being used with Knives to convey her obsession with Scott and her pain or kim again to help move her plots along or Wallace because I want to know what’s going on in his head. It must be a maze of male gentalia and fine liquor the likes of which has never been seen. It’s scotts funeral as Simon killed him and Scott’s corpse wonders if she dreams about this a lot. 

So we see her get ready and wake up her roomate Sarah whose a bitch. And as we’ll see in one of the backups, so’s the rest of her roommates. So drifting into work. Hollie is a character I really liked... the past tense will be explained later. And the first scene is probably why as her and Kim banter effortlessly, with Kim suggesting maybe she was a happy kid... only to admit quickly no she wasn’t, she was pretty withdrawn and then pretty angsty over someasshole who will be named Scott. “Your a holy terror kim, and i’m glad your on your side”> It’s a short scene but the kind this series excells at: just realistic, fun little exchanges bursting with character. I also GENUINELY wish we got more of this kind of thing, as only Knives really gets these kind of scenes to herself for the most part. There ARE scenes without Scott, but not enough like this that just give us as look into what his friends lives are like during the moments they aren’t putting up with his dumbassery or watching him engage in mortal combat. It’s why i’ve been hoping a spinoff will happen even though it likely won’t SOON. I’m sure O’Malley will return to this world some day, but between Snotgirl and Wicked World, which will come out when it’s ready but should be good.. he’s just really busy. But i’d love to see more of Kim.. or Wallace or Knives. The latter two are a no brainer: Knives is the tritagonist of the books, and it’d be intresting to see what she’d be like 5 years at the book, at the same age and stage in life as Scott. And with Wallace it’s because we really DON’T see his friend circle, life or what goes on with him. We hear him talk about a new boyfriend, who we don’t meet until near the end of the series, though you can see him in stage 3 of hte game if your curious, we see him with some random friends in volume 4, but we really don’t KNOW what hyjinks and lojinks wallace gets up to. He’s pretty isoalted from the rest of the main cast, something I hope an adaptation could fix as while realistic i’td be curious to see what his relationship with Kim or Steven would be like. Just food for thought. 

Point is this was a good scene. But as is typical for Kim’s life just when she has some serenity her ex crashes back in. In this case Scott needs to rent some movies, kim works at a rental store and god teenage me really wanted a clerks style spinoff.. but enough spinoff talk. Scott asks kim to bororw them, of course and explains he’s training for his fight with Lucas.. which Kim reacts to finding out her second best friend is in a series of death matches. 

She has understandable questions such as how the hell doe she know that and is he stalking Lucas and just hoping he’s an ex.. which let’s face it would be a very scott move. But nope Wallace told him, likely learning in an interview he dated Ramona or is coming for scott because he knows everything. We also get one of my faviorite exchanges when Kim wonders why Wallace and Scott are roomates.. a valid question he deflects by saying i’ts a long story. 

Also yeah, as much as casting Micheal Cera backfired for the movie.. that panel there proves there wasn’t another choice at the time. When you want a loveable, somewhat douchey, but also somewhat innocent and oblivious slacker.. who you gonna call. Also before we move on.. Kim.. how are you this suprised. You were there for the fight with Matthew. And Ramona giving out the exposition on why he’s there.. and you even did that whole weird space channel 5 thing no one ever did agian and to this day I will never understand what O’Malley was going for and only know the refrence by hearing that’s what it was. Point is you shouldn’t be this suprised.  Anyways we next cut to Ramona and Stacey, as Ramona enters her workplace, second cup, and they talk and Scott’s spider sense goes off... 

I mean it’s just a bad feeling but still.. weird. WE’ll get back to that later. Scott is in the middle of his training.. and I love the mentor side of Wallace and feel it didn’t get used enough as the series went on. As said before he cares about Scott, so he serves as his Shounen Mentor and a great one: he’s stern and makes Scott work, but he also gets his student and what Scott needs to work. I just wish he’d taught Scott some actual combat, but as we see Wallace’s combat skills boil down to yelling useless info from the sidelines.. I mean he can be useful, we’ll see that next week, it’s just he’s not an action guy. But spirtually he’s the guy scott needs to kick his ass into shape. That being said his “training” consists of watching Lucas’ movies, playing tony hawk and when Scott wants to play more Tony Hawk, having Scott do pushups while Wallace plays Tony Hawk.  Before we turn... there is an elephant in the room I just gotta shoo out: Lucas.. is easily the worst setup of the 6 exes. Patel SEEMINGLY comes out of nowhere but his letter and email hint SOMETHING is coming up, and his flashy dynamic entry intro is damn cool and is what turns the series on it’s head, from an indie comic about a guy getting it together.. to that but with huge shonen dustups with epic visuals. Todd is introduced masterfully here, and is a presence from the start of volume 3 as a result, Roxie gets a slight tease in the free comic book day issue, and her not attacking for two months not only sets up tension but allowed for a red herring.. im’ not only hiding that the fourth ex is a she because anyone whose seen the movie or played the game knows the fourth ex is a woman. The cat’s out of the bag, no sense hiding it. The Kentangis show up pretty early on and Gideon is hinted at and built up, as this towering, mysterious figure, his relationship with Ramona, who he is, why he set up the league, and just how fucking strong he is is all obscured, with his only four apperances simply teasing the big final showdown and giving him that much more mysitque. 

Lucas.. is just sorta intorduced like “Hey I gotta fight this guy”. There’s just.. nothing. Scott’s just gotta fight him because he’s next up and Wallace knows that because plot convience. It’s VERY lackluster given what comes before.. and frankly while I like Lucas, he’s the weakest plot and character wise. HE’s not even really EVIL, just a sellout and is more doing this because he has to I guess, and likely because of stuff we find out in Book 6 but sssssshhhhh. We’ll get more into that when the fight happens but it’s one of the books weakest points. The evil ex.. just feels like an afterthrought again despite there being no reason to. Thankfully this would never happen again as I said, but it dosen’t make this any less frustrating. 

So we cut to Sex Bomb-Omb practice, and after that we get more tease for Clash at Demonhead. And Stephen.. is cool with them and entirely happy one of them made it, while Scott is understandably pisssed off about it and not happy one of his best friends is you know, promoting the band of his ex who broke his heart and as we’ll get more into next time, said rising career is what tore them apart. So yeah Stephen’s a dickhead, and I was wrong last time that he got better. He really.. dosen’t. He gets less CREEPY.. but out of the main 6 characters he’s the weakest: he dosen’t have much of an arc, does some very questionable shit in the second half, and his being around means we have to suffer through Julie. I’ll tear into him more on a case by case basis but for once Scott’s not overreacting. While Kim does nothing she also has no idea just HOW bad things were and Scott won’t tell her. Stephen was there the whole fucking time. He just saw Scott’s rebound with a teenager. He knows he was kind of messed up after this. Dosen’t justfiy knives but still he looses the moral high ground he tries to have at times. 

So while Scott shops a song for Ramona to her, Knives calls Scott’s place clearly setting up another suprise apperance. Wallace.. figures out what sh’es doing quick and simply gives her a stern “You have to go” And to me it’s not him being a dick.. he’s both trying to save her from seeing Scott with Ramona and fucking her up worse... and is looking out for her. She needs to move on and moving up to stalking Scott’s not going to help that. Scott dosen’t WANT her anymore, and while he handled it bad, Wallace gets she needs to see that. Granted he could’ve you know explained it to her and tried talking, but as i’ve said he’s not a perfect person and he was also on a time table to get her out of there in case Scott you know, showed up with his new girlfriend and made things a billion times worse. And the two are indeed headed to his place to watch one of Lucas’ movies, and part of that weak setup is that Ramona.. just has no connection with him. It was high school. Scott also pretends he dosent’ remember his. You are a lying liar sir stop that.  So they watch the film together hanging out, and it’s.. really bad. The good one was rented out. I miss rental stores.. a magical time. I mean i’ts better now, streaming means 80% of movies are avaliable if you have a bunch of services and even if you just have netflix or hulu or hbo max, you still get a pretty decent selection each month. Plus digital rentals are super easy. Do miss redbox though. I mean it’s still there I’m just warry of something that relies so heavily on touching things in a state with a lot of trump morons. You CAN get Covid twice and I don’t wanna. Also we get some dated Dialouge as Scott commenting on Lucas being hot, he is good taste Scott, is given a “good job convincing me your not gay”. He and ramona end up having sex though so .. yay? I dunno. The series has a really weird thing about not getting bisexuals exist and as someone whose bi, and really against bi errasure it bothers me, it bothers me a lot. Though given O’Malley apparently has not only far more queer rep in snotgirl but a bisexual lead, he’s clearly learned so i’m not going to drag him too hard on this. It was the early 2000′s. People were pretty damn stupid about this. Creators have gottten MUCH more important issues much worse. 

So the next morning, Scott gets a call from his well meaning but ditzy mom, and reacts like you’d expect. His parents are in Europe to keep them out of the action and what not. Though apparently according to the last book his mom did read volume 3 at least. Or Wallace told her about the relevant bit. You make the call. 

So i’ts Ramona’s turn to meet Sex Bomb-Omb. The group hang out and discuss Gordon Downie. 

Look I don’t know indie bands. I have no idea who the tragically hip are I just know the name is really hipstery. We also get the recipe for Vegan Shepards Pie. None of them are vegan they just wanted to try it and I.. really want to make this some time. Just to see if it’s any good. But yeah it’s in general a fun casual scene, as Kim reveals she and Scott dated, just to break the tension, and Scott tries out Rammy but quickly backpedals. Just fun slice of life stuff. Oh and Knives is watching them from the window and takes Scott dating someone else as well as you’d expect. 

So she gets some hair bleach to do some highlights and calls her friend Tamara over. We met her last volume as she dragged her along to the show, but it’s here we really get to know what she’s like.. i.e. the sane one in the duo, rightfully pointing out Scott’s not that great. Also Knive’s points out ramona’s “fat”, which is thankfully portrayed as petty sniping as while Ramona does have some curves it’s you know.. not remotely a bad thing and the kind of thing a teenage girl would harp on. Still she’s just in STEPS from this happening. 

But yeah.. it’s clear here Knives has some underlying issues to address and really needs therapy  not to go after her ex’s current girlfriend with knives. I mean it’s in the name but still. Then again volume 4 has her dad going around with a katana or something like it wanting to murder her daughter’s older ex boyfriend he dosen’t realize is ex so it’s clear her whole FAMILY needs some therapy. But this does round her out and show there’s more to her.. a pretty violent and obessive side sure, but it shows she wasn’t just some one dimensional ego boost for scott but a person. One whose just as flawed as the rest of the cast.. but more sympatheic because they’ve all got about 6 or 7 years on her and at this age that’s a lifetime. And while Scott DID set this off by dating her which was objecitvely a bad idea... the rest of this isn’t remotely on him. He handled things BAD.... but all he wanted was for both of them to move on. Knives.. simply can’t admit Scott is not a nice person, was probably two timing her as Tamara points out, which as we know he 100% was, and is not some perfect guy she can’t replace: like Knives.. he’s just a person with faults and she’s too blind to see that. 

So before we can get to the crazy stalker ninja fight, let’s instead get to Scott and Ramona hanging out where we meet Gideon, Ramona’s Cat who i’ll call Cat Gideon, both because I love steven unvierse and because it’s less confusing. This is a pretty slight scene as Ramona admits not a lot happened with Lucas and Scott’s apartment is a hole.. which yeah, yeah it is. Also she DEFINTLY dind’t cheat on him with any cocky pretty boys. Which would come off worse if it wasn’t for the pact Ramona was clearly doing it out of regret and Scott just liked like 50 pages ago about rembering his exes when one of them is his second best friend.. which neither would admit but you know it’s true. Stephen is third where he belongs. 

So next morning it’s fight time, and Scott is glad wallace is going with him. It’s awkard going to fights alone. Which leaves me to wonder if before this comic Scott just.. fought random guys letterkenny style. Like they’d call up, schedule it and then he and one or more of his friends would go beat up a guy. It’s just.. hilarious knowing that this kind of thing is common in canda minus the ki attacks , flash effects, wizards, vegan psycics, ninjas, and roboticists. But damn I now want a scott pilgrimized letterkenny now more than ever. You know you do too don’t deny it. I”d love to see the hard right jay fight but iwth a loud “KO!” when he gets his ass knocked out. Also Casa Loma is a very real, very cool Toronto location, as I never realized as a kid, to the point that the lucas fight was filmed there for the movie. 

So Scott approaches Lucas a bit star struck and upon finding out scott is.. punches him out as seen in the header image and throws him into a tower. When Scott regains conciousness, Kim and Neil have arrived and Lucas calls a time out. And it’s here we get to, while being the weakest of the 7, why I like Lucas.. he’s actually a pretty nice guy. At WORST he sold out. But the two have a pretty nice conversation over ritz and baby carrots, with it turning out, unsuprisingly Ramona did cheat on him with a cocky pretty boy, and while like Ramona he’s clearly moved on, it still hurts a bit and understandably so. He also warns scott while she might seem nice i’ts an act. 

I mean it isn’t ALL an act, but she does have a tedency to put up walls and act pretty badly as we’re slowly finding out.. though given Scott does the exact same it only means.. she’s human. She’s not MUCH higher above him in terms of morality and this is where we get our first peaks into the fact the series isn’t just about Scott’s development but hers. But it’s understandably absent from volumes 1 and 2 since we need to know her first, and this volume is about getting to know her a bit and get a feel for who she is, something I ddin’t really get a grip on as a teen, but do now. We see more of who she is good and bad as the walls go down. She’s more SURFACE LEVEL functional than scott, but beneath it has a lot of the same exact issues.  Lucas and Scott continue to GENUINELY bond, as Scott genuinely thinks the guy is talented and Lucas want’s an Oscar this year.. maybe not for the current film which is a romantic comedy with a teen star but hey, stars have done far worse in their Oscar years. I mean at least he’s not making a comedy about himself in a fat suit domestically abusing himself in a wig while he also plays an asian sterotype. He explains he almost didn’t get into the league but felt too important to ramona’s past.. plus he looks cool. Plus they let Patel in despite barely being in a relationship with her and being kind of a tool so they kinda had to let the handsome affiable movie star in. Scott wonders “wait league” and Lucas is understandably frustrated to find out Patel just sent a letter Scott didn’t read.. and at Matthew let’s be clear. I mean.. Gideon has to have known Scott wouldn’t read that since he’s been in his head. We’ll get to that in part 6. Point is they formed a league, hence why their organized enough to come after him like this and Scott understandably glares at Wallace for you know, having him play tony hawk and watch movies yet missing the fucking obvious clue they were all working together and they were only coming at him one at a time by choice. 

Lucas offers to just.. take a bribe and SAY Scott beat him, Scott calls him a sellout jokingly and Lucas proves that while not AS bad as the rest of the League, he’s still a dick by telling him to kiss ramona’s sweet ass goodbye pilgrim. Okay either he’s seen her since high school or he’s fondly remembering a high schooler’s ass. Neither one is nice to think about. But Scott gets out of his ass beating by pointing out a ramp, real thing too used for the movie, and asking him to skate down it. Lucas says i’ts impossible, and Scott just whistles. So Lucas tries skating the impossible and dies via velocity. Yes really. Scott collects his change and gets a gift, a mytryil skateboard he.. can’t use because he dosen’t have a proficency for it and bemoans not picking it up in 5th grade. Also he didn’t get his autograph. He does get some coins though so neat.   Yeah I mentioend Lucas was the least of the exes and I stand by it: He’s an intresting character, not a GREAT person but clearly a charming and nice enough guy who likely offered the bribe not because he’sd a sell out but because he genuinely liked scott, and is easily the best adjusted of the exes. But obviously a near non existant setup and a really hilarious and unsastifying finish just.. don’t really feel sastsifying. I mean i’t slampshaded, but after all the build up of her having 7 evil exes, the next one is just..filler. Not BAD, but not really anything special and giving Scott a an early pokemon victory, but unlike ash having done nothing to really DESERVE it.  Thankfully both adaptations so far VASTLY improved on this. While Lucas is still affiable in the movie he’s also smarmy, if on better terms with Ramona, saying “he seems nice” after the tower throw and throwing in some stunt doubles. His fight goes from one of the least satisfying and weakst of the series, to easily one of the best of the movie. We’ll talk about that more there but obvious Chris Evans version is far superior, keeping the good traits while giving us an intresting fight.. and still keeping the skateboard death because it’s fucking hilarious and the movie improves on THAT too by having scott give flat wows as he slowly dies. The game likewise keeps teh skateboard death, if shortening it, and the skateboard, and while not changing his apperance does make him a hell of a tough boss. Took three tries and some online grinding to take him out. Still a hell of a fight. Point is while I genuinely like Lucas story wise.. this just dosen’t work for me and is pretty damn weak, even if it gives us some godo character insight we could’ve got that, and a fight and still had the finish we did. 

That being said.. we DO get a fight instead, likely why the Lucas fight was so truncated. Next chapter and that evening or the next day or whatever, we pan over the real life tornto refrence library. It is a VERY nice touch thatt the comic and it’s adpations use either real places in toronto or reasonable subsittues. While not canadian myself I love the place and hope to visit Tornoto some day when the world isn’t a living nightmare and it’s really nice that like New York for Marvel, Brian Lee O malley really makes the city feel integral to the comic, like it’s own character. But Knives is ominously perched above.  At second cup Scott is horrified to find Julie. Seconded. Julie takes the moment to give out to scott about him dating Ramona despite telling him no. Okay... 

Yeah as you can probably guess I don’t like Julie. She’s not a good character. The movie did her better, with the bleeping gag and aubrey plaza’s performance, but in the comic.. she’s just the worst. She sucks bad. If she were an ice cream flavor she’d be pralines and dick. While she’s fine on OCCASION, and actually works in the next volume, outside of that she just gets more unplesant, more unlikeable, more bitchy, more unfathomabbly assholish every. damn. volume. I”ll give out about that a bit then too but I have to put up with her for the entire damn comic. Now her being bitchy to Scott is fair to a point: Scott is a mess, and she’s loyal to Envy in the breakup, and Scott’s own friends drag him on a daily basis.  The problems are that she’s like that to EVERYONE, even Knives who isn’t about to stab her much as i’d like that. She’s unberable to Stephen whose tolerance for her is unfathomable, though the ending bits of volume 6 show maybe he just has terrble taste. She’s just a throughly unplesant, social climbing bitch who thinks she’s better than everyone. And it sticks out badly against the main cast; Scott is very bad with women and relating to people, but is also nice, charming and most of the damage he does is not intetional. Ramona puts up walls to keep others out but is also a responsible adult and often cuts through Scott, and at times others, internal bullshit. Wallace is an alcholic, but still a very responsible, very loveable guy who clearly cares about scott and supports him finacially and emotionally. Kim is VERY emotionally distant, very misntrhopic.. but also a good person who as we see as the series goes, has an inner light to her and often drags on Scott because she’s been putting up with his shit the longest and WANTS him to be better. Knives is an obessive and violent stalker.. who was also deeply hurt by an older man, dosen’t GET that her realtionship with scott was wrong and uneven, and is clearly not emtoinallyr eady for the deep feelings she’s having. And Stephen.. well he’s a talented guitarist but also enables scott and julie. Especially him enabling Julie. 

Point is their all pretty well rounded, llikeable characters with flaws. Julie.. is just an ass. And this scene demonstrates that with flying colors. While Scott does ignore her because he’s too worried about his sister and girlfriend becoming friends, understandably given Stacey knows all his dark secrets, Julie spends two pages giving out and treating scott like some bad guy for persuing Ramona against her orders. And i’m going to break down why.. this dosen’t work.. on any level for her.  1) Ramona is not Julie’s property. She’s a big girl with her own free will. They aren’t even remotely close: Julie met her only barely before Scott, and given the dream thing probably not even that. And you could say Julie is just looking out for her... she dosen’t know Ramona well enough to KNOW if Ramona is still smarting over Gideon. She probably was.. but she readily, once the awkwardness passed, went out with scott and dove right into the relationship. While there’s still some scars as we’ll see.. she CHOOSE to move on and that’s her choice. If she wasn’t ready, she woudl’ve turned him down or broke it off by now realizing it was a mistake.  2) Scott has no reason to listen to her. She hates his ass, somewhat justifably but still, she hates him and has been against him since fucking colllege. She took his exes side in the breakup despite Envy still being partly in the wrong but paints him as some abusive dickhead and not just an insesntive dickhead. To him he’s just some villian she needs to reign in for her cool friend who wants nothing to do with her and grows to justifably hate her over time. Scott and Julie TOLERATE each other. They are not friend,s they do not like each other and never will. They are around each other because of Stephen. That is it. If Kim , Wallace or Stephen had asked, or at least made him wait for kinves. he probablyw ould’ve or at least considered it since while they take the piss out of him, they genuinely care about him and actually have shown they care about something other than themselves! Speaking of which the cou de gras 3) She’s a selifsh bitch: She is NEVER not  in any volume seen as out for anyone but herself, and thus scott has no reason to trust her judgement. She berates Stephen, him and anyone who will listen, is only so loyal to envy because she’s famous, and as I said treats EVERYONE like dogshit.  And given Scott is still a very flawed guy.. it takes a LOT for him to be so right and he runs out screaming when Julie mentions her.

So back at the library, Ramona brought Stacey along because the place is a maze. Scott calls Stephen and calls julie evil.. which given the last two paragrahs. Yeah. She is. She really is. But that goes nowhere as he dosen’t have Stacey’s number. He also thinks Julie was responsible for this which while she’s very much not.. would it REALLY be that suprising that if Julie were there she would’ve introdcued the two and set up their little hangout just to piss scott off? God I’m  so sick of talking about her. 

So the two after dropping off Ramona’s package decide to hang out a bit.. not long as Ramona’s got shit to do, but hey I agree with her logic i’m curious about this palce too. But before they can go up an elevator Ramona spots incoming.. and thus we get the fight of the volume. Though given the next one has two climatctic fights and one or two before that, they easily could’ve had both.. this is still the highlight of the volume.  So Ramona snaps off a railing and before Stacey can give out about that she finds out WHY as Knives attacks with a pair of sais. And O’Malley did his homework as while you’d THINK it was just another dumb white person mistake.. O’Malley is asian, thoughw ether he’s candaian korean or canadian chineses, as his last name is korean but he has a large chinese cast in this very comic that might come from experince, I do not know and if you do know tell me. I’d like to refer to him properly as I don’t LIKE lumping all asian cultures into one basket. But not only that he did his home work, as Sai’s, while popularized in Okinawa Japan, were also used in other countries. I bring this up since I assumed it was just a simple mistake even knowing Brian was mixed-race, and was plesantly suprised to fine that know, I was the moron. And i’m fine with admitting that. 

So we get a damn good fight.. and Knives figures out Scott WAS cheating on her. Granted she assumes so due to seeing Ramona at the refrence Library, before he actually cheated and clearly blames Ramona for it, but still, it fucking hurts. Plus while her attacking Ramona, who initally assumes she’s gideon’s doing, which.. yeah sending a teenage assasian just to mess with her head does sound like him. So while Stacey does complain “ramona you can’t just tear out art objects” to which I say... yeah high, Stacey? NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW SCOTT’S EX IS TRYING TO KILL HER. SHE’S DEFENDING HERSELF.  So we get one hell of a fight. It not only shows off that Ramona is one hell of a fighter herself, as is knives, but just how immature knives is, resorting to constnat fat jokes and taunts showing just how immature she is.. and unlike volume one where it was endearing and we just saw how sweet she was here it just comes off as mean, bitter, and uncomfortable. But again part of the series biggest charm is the main cast are all well fleshed out and throughly human. She’s doint this because she dosen’t know better and was raised in a house where, again as volume 4 will bear out, finding out her dad is going after scott with a samurai sword just warrants a “dad’s are so weird aren’t they” my point is her frame of refrence is a mite skewed. Plus this is a world where everyone but Stacey just calmly accepts big shonen fights break out, so it’s not that unsuaul to want to settle things with a fight and while i’ve joked about her killing Ramona we genuinely don’t know that was the goal> Could’ve been, easily given murder is peachy in this setting and just leads to a respawn according to O’Malley and would’ve just sent ramona back to her apartment. But I genuinely don’t think she has it in her to do it and while she could’ve planend to, she never would’ve. Plus Ramona easily leads the fight as while Knives uses hit and run tactics and tries make her follow.. Ramona is more annoyed than anything as she has shit to do. Knives only gets one hit in and while i’ts a pretty nasty scratch on the cheek, if thankfully not scarring.. Ramona shrugs it off when she brags about it and easily takes knives down with a potted tree. Knives runs and while she tells herself it’s to fight another day.. its really because her opponent was WAY stronger and way more ready for something like this than she probably planned on. She did defintely want a fight, she just wasn’t prepared to be outmatched so handily. It’s also a nice  parallel to last book’s fight: Like with Scott and Matthew,  while the fight SEEMS pretty even, in reality our hero/heroine was alwasy teh one in control and easily took care of the less experinced and less ready upstart, who likely wasn’t expecting a fair fight much less to loose. 

So Ramona and Stacey wisely get out while Stacey explains Knives is indeed Scott’s ex, though is unaware of the cheating thing. Speaking of Scott he’s playing sonic and knuckles, and in fact kept wallace on the line before just to get advice because of course he did hence why stacey didn’t get through to him, but gets a call... from Envy. 

This is easily the second best sequence in the boook, which was lovingly and wonderfully adapted to film and as a result I cannot read it without hearing Brie Larson’s voice for Envy , a nice mixture of seduction and condescension. It’s CLEARLY painful fo rhim, and we do get some things established as Envy toys with him, that it’s been about a year and that she left him for a cocky pretty boy, familiar.. and while Scott claims to not know what he looks like.. given Todd is clearly on her band cover... it’s not exactly hard to put two and two together. So after some awkard catchup and Scott telling her about ramona against his will, we get to the reason she’s here with Scott understanndbly being supscious and calling her a user.. which while Envy denys.. she ends up admitting to. She’s coming to town as estalbished and her opening act backed out, and since Scott has a band, and one that 2/3 of which she knows, she wants them to open for her.  Scott naturally isn’t too intrested and thinks it’s just pity. The sequence. is masterful, using a watchmen style 9 by 9 panel layout and intercutting scott’s pained reactions and clear lack of comfort with flashes of envy on her side.. never showing her proper, but showing his memories or what he’s seen in magazines. It’s really striking and really sells the sheer discomfort Scott’s going through.  So soon after Wallace gets home.. and finds Scott, drained and miserable on the floor, not even responsive. And this really is the scene that shows me that Wallace cares for the guy and cements that asshole he may be, he loves his buddy. He goes through possible scenarios that fit scott: Food poisoning, finding out Wallace saved over his final fantasy save (though he rules it out as last time that happened he was crying), that ramona dumped him.. before Scott let’s out a pathetic and miserable “Ennnnnvvv”. Wallace , who was at ground zero for that relationship as we’ll find out, realizes this and lets out a little shit, unsure how to help and pissed off at that bitch for once again hurting him like this. As I said it shows how Wallace knows scott in and out and loves him dearly.. and how he knwos about this paticuarly heartbreak better than anyone but Scott and Envy themselves. IT’s just a really tearjerking scene, as we get a sense of WHY scott spiraled into an ego boost of a relationship: His last one REALLY tore him in half, and he’s still not completely healed from the emtional bisection. 

So Scott gets more bad news next chapter as Stacey tells him about the fight and he’s worried he’s going to loose ramona on top of this. I mean he desrves it.. .but it’s clear she’s the best thing to happen to him after a really rough year of denial and poor decisionss and loosing her will likely only make him WORSE. He also breaks the bad news, to him at least to the band about the gig. Stephen, being kind of a dick who while understandbly excited about a big gig fails to see his friend REALLY isn’t happy about this nor remembers you know, that the person offering this tore his heart out indiana jones style and while they should take the gig despite the risks, it’s too big an opportunity not to, he should be fucking senstive about this. Kim however... has a suprising and heartbreaking reactoin to this. Which is spread over a few panels but i’m gonna string into one image for convince sake. 

Just.. DAMN. I honeslty missed this both as a teenager and as an adult when I read through the books last time but holy shit is this a heartbreaking little moment, even more with the development she gets in later books. Keep in mind, over two books so far, Kim.. really hasn’t shown a lot of emtion. The most upset she’s gotten was getting a bit pissed about another a girl drummer. The only other time we’ve seen her sad was at 17 when Scott left. Her only emotions that we could see were angry and surly. But here? She’s genuinely upset and we see her walls break down for the very first time.. and it’s with the clear indication she NEVER really got over Scott. She never got proper closure and while she hasn’t let it so.. it’s been VERY clear she's been grossly uncomfortable with how he just likes to brush off their history, something that very clearly still bothers her and understandably so: 6 years , while a lot of time, still really isn’t long enough to just .. FORGET your first boyfriend , how he made you feel or the fact he took your virginity and you took his. Stuff like that sticks with you.. I’m ony assuming on the virginity thing but my point remains: To Scott it’s SEEMINGLY nothing, when really he’s probably just trying to brush it off because he dosen’t like dealing with things and given how Kim is wrongly assumed she can’t feel pain. I mean to anyone else i’d be a fair assumption and even i’m not convinced if she touched a hot stove she’d burn, but that’s phsysical this is emotional. DIffrent playing fields. Point is Scott’s kind of a dick and not having ANY closure for anything, Kim is still smarting from him leaving as much as Scott is smarting from Envy dumping him.  And it somehow gets MORE painful.... which should’ve been the tagline for Bojack Horseman now I think about it but yeah: her line is what cuts me up the most “I saw her on the cover of Now. She’s pretty”. It’s a little line, it’s easy to see why I missed it .. but the subtext really stings. It’s that despite being VERY pretty, I had a crush on her as a kid and I still do now.. Kim just can’t help but compare herself to someone whose now a glamrous rock star.  Their equally attractive but all Kim can see is ANOTHER person who Scott cared about more than her. Which seems petty but again he just.. abnadoned her. His moving wasn’t his choice but his not telling her as was framed earlier sure as hell was. And then just.. look at the next people he dates: A glamorous rock star (She wasn’t at the time but that’s for next week), a much younger girl who can’t possible challenge him, and an ultra cool american. To her.. it must feel like he just looks right through her to every other person intersted in him and never even consdered her as a person anymore. I mean.. jesus christ that hurts.. and makes me hate Stephen more since you know he dosen’t notice any of this.. though at least unlike with Scott it’s a bit more understandable because Kim’s so unflappable and he’s already ignoring very obvious and transparent emotional pain why shouldn’t this be any diffrent.  So yeah no one’s happy about this, and that ends up including Stephen as he’s so insecure about his band’s talent he’s pretty sure they suck when their probably at least adaquate. 

So while Scott dosen’t say anything, it’s clear he’s at least consdiering the offer as when we next see him he and ramona are heading to Envy’s show. And honestly it’s just a really sweet scene as Ramona asks about envy and the two banter and hold hands. A really nice palletee clensar since hte last few pages were like I was the one lucas socked in the gut. Also she assures him she dosen’t hate him, and asks about how the breakup happened, turning down any offers to hear the good times.  It was new years eve one year ago, and he mentions it was over her leaving to meet some guy named Todd.. and Ramona finds the story familiar but brushes off Scott wondering if her todd and Envy’s todd wer ethe same guy as a douchey joke. When prying about what happened otherwise, Scott admits it was all a blur.. Ramona isn’t ahppy with the answer.. but it’s nto like it’s that unresonable: he was in deep with Envy, and the breakup was damn bad to the point it took a year for him to recover and end up in the relationship he is now and the one before this was clearly a cry for help. It also helps reinfroce just how much Wallace was there for him and probably WHY Wallace hates Envy so much. They probably live together simply because Scott needed a place after college, was in zero condition to get a job or do anything given his zombie like state.. and Wallace just had him move into his bed, platonically and into his place. It’s probably why while Wallace will complain ocasoinally he isn’t that on scott to find a job. He dosen’t need a paying roomate, they do fine just on his sallary and he has a steady, secure job in some sort of calling office, probably working in medical stuff like my mom. He needs his friend to be safe and happy, then he can get on his ass about being functional, as he is in present day. If nothing else this volume made me realize just how good a person Wallace is.  The one thing he CAN remember, to Ramona’s disbelif is a restraunt opening up, the job story he hinted at last volume: basically it was a fancy tex mex place called, and this is one of the best restraunt naems in the history of fiction brace yourself: The Gilded Palace of Flying Burritos. Naturally, as would I as I love tex mex and that name, Scott loved the place, ate there most of the week and like me with some places I liked waited impatietly to get a job. He did and they were even super generous as the food was FREE.  Which is a euphoric feeling I relate to, though I also liked any discounts I got. seriously when I worked at Bagel and Bagel a good chunk of my paycheck was eating there for dirt cheap every shift. I miss that place so much. Like even after I left there I still like a good bagel sandwitch. And it wasn’t covid or anything it was just low staffed and slowly coming apart due to a lack of a solid manager after Crystal, the manager who hired me, transfered to a store closer to her home, which I do not blame her for. 

Point is I get it even if Ramona thinks this is all made up. Anyways at Lee’s Place, based on the real life Leo’s place, everyone’s gussied up: Steven got an awful haircut and Kim... 

But no time to dwell on how great kim’s..everything is.. who DID  Neil bring to the concert? 

While Kim is VERY much enjoying this, everyone else is a bit freaked with Ramona getting assurance her and Scott dated breifly, with Kim quipping her and neil will probably date even breiflyer, and Stephen.. freaking out, wondering if she seduced him, and asking if they should take him out back and kick his ass.. 

Just..... that’s a lot of douche to unpack and this review has been VERY long and suprisingly hard already.. but fuck it, we don’t have much left to go let’s do this. Okay one did she seduce him.. I mean I GUESS, but really let’s be clear here: Neil is a horny, lonely, monosolobic 19 year old who lives with his sister’s college friend and whose life revovles around said guys band. Knives is adorable. She likely barely had to flirt with him to get him to say yes .As someone who was a lonely 19 year old doofus, I guarantee no matter the red flags I probably woudl’ve said yes provided she was 18 instead of 17, despite the abudant red flags such as neil vaugely looking like scott, neil being the one single man within scott’s circle to get her way back in, as Knives hasn’t realized she’s bi yet or given how much she looked up to Kim, she probably WOULD’VE gone for it. As would any sane person, which neither knives nor I entirley are. So she didnt’ so much seduce him as offer him a girlfriend he didn’t have and him being too intrested in having a sweet, caring girl on his arm to see the giant army of adrestian soldiers needed to carry all the red flags this presents. 

And as for “do we need to kick his ass. “ Stephen.. did you kick SCOTT’S ass? No, you fucking abetted him and only stepped in for the good girl thing. You did NOTHING to stop his relationship with knives or tell him he was screwing up or look out for that girl’s well being. This will bite him in the ass even harder in volume 5, but even now it just makes him look REALLY fucking bad that, even if he probably dosen’t mean it, that’s at all on the table. Also.. Neil, unlike scott is doing slightly less wrong. While he is 20 to her 17, three years.. it’s HALF of what Scott and her’s age diffrence is, and far more equal in power structure. It’s still not.. GREAT, but my point is you did NOTHING when Scott did this, for far flimiser and less forgiavble reasons.. but when NEIL, whose been nothing but weirdly loyal to you dates her, you want to kick someone’s ass. I mean yes he’s being stupid: in a clear role reversal of the Scott and Knives situation, it’s obvious just from her expression that KNVIES is the one in control here, and the one using someone to ease her own pain. Granted it’s wrong, if not as wrong as Scott should techincally know better and Knives very clearly dosen’t, as well as get into a show of her faviorite band. Is what she’s doing wrong.. yeah... while she can’t see it again it’s what Scott did just not QUITE as fucked up due to not being AS embalanced. Should neil probably be dating her after scott did ? No. But should you be threatning him and not scott for you know, setting all this in motion? No. Jesus christ you suck Steven. 

Thankfully while Scott presumibly calms Stephen down, Kim spots Hollie and her roomate Joseph, who will be suprisingly important. He’s very gay, very quite, very bearded and is only hear because the bass player is hot and when prodded on it....

Well said. Also I read that with John Heder’s voice fo rsome reason.. don’t know why, his career ended as quickly as it began because he REALLY did not pick his films well. He saw that he was going to be in a film with David Spade and Rob Schinder and didn’t fire his agent for suggesting it. Meanwhile Scott and Ramona run into Sandra and Monique, Scott’s old classmates who just sorta.. show up every so oftne, often backing up Julie because every Alpha Bitch needs a posse. As Boscha has proven once you loose your posse you loose your bitchy powers. They also ask if Scott and Ramona are an item which leads to a fantagious visual gag. 

Also Stephen awkardly talks to the new couple, about how much Knives loves the band, and because why start reading the room now just sorta.. CASUALLY slips in the fact he knows her is because she and scott dated. 

Granted Knives action this book really EARNED her that curveball.. but still, it’s transparently clear she’s both not over Scott and Neil’s a placebo, and that she loves the band... how the fuck did you get through college, much less get two loyalish friends Steve. 

Kim tries to hide when she runs into Sarah whose with.. someon O Malley does not know, literally captioning it “I don’t know htis girl”. Fucking love that gag even if SOMEHOW kim is the roomate they all hate. Despite hte fact as the side story will bare out, her roommates are all pretty obnoxious, so i’ts probably because she’s the only sane person in that group and their VERY lucky kim just dind’t set the place on fire on her way out and let god do what he should’ve a long time ago. Also we meet Lynette, the band’s drummer who smokes “She must be evil” “Still hot though”... both accurate. Also Luke wilson is there.. no really. Just holy shit that’s awesome.  Okay so with all of that out of the way, it’s time for the show. So after a full volume’s build up , and a really cool build up in the page before we finally properly meet clash at the demonhead, and miss envy adams. 

Heck of  a reveal and not the only one as ramona realized what the audience probably already guessed....

Dun dun dun! And since I don’t like leaving a cliffhanger dangling lest I have to... we’ll be getting to this next week.. what you thought i’d say right now or tommorow? This was a lot. But no i’m not leaving you too long. Next week, Evil Ex Crossover! Ramona and Wallace become BFF’s! We learn what the deal with Scott and Envy is! Scott faces the Ken to his Ryu! And Wallace gets a boyfriend. All this and more next week. for now...

Final Thoughts: This one.. was a VERY rough one to review and it ties back to this volume’s biggest problem: it is not paced very well. Like the series as a whole it has a pretty easy going, slice of life pace. The only ones without this kind of easy pacing are 3 and 6, and even 3 has some slice of life bits, their just both more focused due to the events going on. This one... well....

Pretty much. While this one has very important stuff going on, Scott and ramona getting closer, ramona getting more fleshed out, Wallace showing how deep his character is, Kim also getting fleshed out quite a bit, Knives showing off her crazy side, setting up the next volume, the second ex fight.. it’s all just kinda.. jumbled together. It’s not really until the knives fight onward the book takes on some really solid pacing and really gets going.It’s not a BAD book: ther’es some REALLY good character stuff as I dug into.. but the pacing is just really loose and without the Evil Ex fight as an anchor and with ramona and scott just sorta.. getting to know one another, in both biblical and non biblical senses, it dosen’t have either of the series main narrative thrusts. Even the knvies subplot really amoutns to nothing for now, as Ramona dosen’t find out Scott’s a cheater, and only distrusts knives now. That’s about it. It does improve on book one in characterization, with eveyrone being MUCH cleearer in terms of who they are and settling into their iconic selves nicely. Wallace’s more selfless and protective side pops up, Ramona starts to show mroe of her personality good and bad, Scott’s better traits are mixed a bit mor eeven with the douche ones,  Knive’s far more unstable and violet stalker side emerges, and Stephen.. well fuck him, point is things are coming together.. but O’Malley still isn’t quite at peak power yet. Not bad and still worth a read like last time, just a bit uneeven is all. That being said... if you want O’Malley at his peak.. well then come back next week. Until then i’ll be doing my usual buisness of reviewing birds, refrencing simpsons and letterkenny, and putting my eyes back in after kim’s look up there. For now the sun’s setting and i’m out of here. 

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #ramona flowers #kim pine #stephen stiles #wallace wells #envy adams #lucas lee #oni press #Brian Lee O'malley #knives chau #neil nordgraf

[alcalavicci]

So there’s a really interesting interview with Deborah Pratt here. If you don’t want to pay for it, I’ll paste what I can below, but a few points first. 

Deborah says she doesn’t know where Dean is, and says she misses him. I guess she hasn’t had contact with him since he left for NZ? And with Russ Tamblyn saying Dean’s hanging in there in answer to a recent Twitter question, that brings up more questions about his condition.

Deborah claims she came up with the idea of Quantum Leap, which I’ve never seen come up before. Also Don wanted to send Sam home?? I feel like she’s misremembering a lot of details/making herself seem better than she is.

“Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished… He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time tht his next leap will be the leap home…”

The premise of Quantum Leap succinctly and empathetically explained by a voice that spoke to viewers week to week, setting the scene at the opening of the episode. It is a voice that left an indelible print on the show, from its inception to its finale. This is the voice of its Head Writer. No, not Donald P. Bellisario, but a woman of color who was leaps ahead of her time – co-executive producer and uncredited co-creator, Deborah M. Pratt.

Deborah wrote or co-wrote 40 episodes of this sci-fi gem and her authorship of the show runs deep through its five seasons. Aside from the opening narration, Deborah is audible as the voice of Admiral Al Calavicci’s pocket computer, Ziggy. She also guest stars in the episode ‘A Portrait for Troian’ (S2, Ep11) as a grieving widow who hears the voice of her husband calling her.

Deeper still, Quantum Leap was a family affair. It was co-created with her husband at the time, Bellisario, and their daughter, also named Troian, appears as a little girl in ‘Another Mother’ (S2, Ep13, who can not only see Al, but also sees Sam as he really is, rather than as her recently divorced mom.

Prior to helming Quantum Leap, Deborah rose through the ranks as an actress, racing the screen in Happy Days, CHiPS, The Dean Martin Show and many more, and was also a writer on shows such as Airwolf and Magnum P.I. She is a five-time Emmy nominee, Golden Globe nominee and winner of countless other awards. She went on to produce CBS comedy cop show, Tequila and Bonetti, and then to co-create and produce the TV series adaptation of Sandra Bullock tech thriller, The Net. But Quantum Leap was Deborah’s brainchild – one which is emblazoned on the hearts of its faithful fans.

Deborah has since moved into directing, including on hit show Grey’s Anatomy (2020), but was generous with her time when spoke in late 2020 to leap back into the past.

It does seem that you were really ahead of your time as a female head writer and a showrunner in the ’90s, especially in science fiction TV. Was it hard for you to progress and to get Quantum Leap made?

“Usually women were relegated to comedy, very rarely was it drama or heavy drama. It’s changed, finally, with people like Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal). But yes, I was a true pioneer, even though I don’t have a ‘created by’ credit, it was a ‘co-created by’ show – with Don. I brought him the original concept, and we were married, and he said ‘Let me just run with this. I can get it made.’ And to his credit, he understands how to tell a story to the audience. He simplified it in a way that you could welcome Quantum Leap into the world. But it was still a tough show to sell.

“I think we went back three times to pitch it to the network. It was complicated to explain. Brandon Tartikoff [the executive] said ‘It’s a great idea – It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen on TV. Let me think about it.’ Then he asked us to come back, ‘I want you to pitch it to me like I’m six years old, then pitch it to me like I’m 80 years old’ and finally he took it. Then even after the show first aired, they decided to introduce that opening where I tell the story. That was created to explain every week to a new viewer what was going on and it worked really well.”

On rewatch now, the best part of three decades later, the show feels groundbreaking in terms of the subjects you cover. Did you feel like you were pushing the envelope?

“I feel we got to do so much on that show. I remember when I did ‘Black on White on Fire’ [S3, Ep7], the networks in the South in the United States wouldn’t air it because it was a black/white relationship. Even though there is no scene where you see a black person and a white person being intimate.

You saw Sam, who was white, and the girl who was white, but because he was playing someone who was black, it was an issue. They wouldn’t air the show in the South. This was around 1992.

“It was challenging for sure. I think we pushed the limits.

“The beauty of the show too, was that it was about hope, which I see so little of on television today. Everything’s so dark, so mean, so vicious, bloody – how many people can you kill? How mean can you make your lead characters and antiheroes. I think it’s why I didn’t work as much afterwards. A) I was a woman, and B) a black woman. There weren’t any black female executive producers that I knew of in drama. I got to do <em>The Net</em> because it had a female lead, but that was almost ten years after <em>Quantum Leap</em> was created. Any show I brought in that had a black lead was never bought, or a female lead, was never bought. 

“I remember I wrote a big action piece – like an Indiana Jones, but female-driven, feature film – and pitched it and the studio executive said, ‘Yeah, yeah, but when did the guy come and rescue her?’ And I said, ‘She doesn’t – she rescues him.’ The look on his face. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”

The show darted around TV schedules, but the fans remained with it, and still to this day hold it dear to their hearts. Was that palpable at the time, or has that grown since?

“I think near the end of the first season, Harriet Margulies [Production Assistant on the show] found a chat room after an episode where people from across the country talked about it and it became the ‘watercooler.’ We were the first television show that had a chat room as a watercooler. Before that, it was literally you going into your office and standing around the watercooler and talking about movies or TV shows you were watching. Suddenly, it was online. So we started to go into the chat room and talk to people about what they liked and what they didn’t. Not necessarily telling them who we were, but that fan base is what kept us on the air because the network didn’t know what to do with us. There was no show like it, so they couldn’t like pair us with anybody.

“In the five years we were on, I think they moved the show six times and the fans still found it, they followed it, they watched it. That’s how we knew we had something unique and special. To this day, I’ll go into a meeting with a young executive who’ll go, ‘I have to tell you, I loved Quantum Leap. I used to watch it with my mom and dad’.”

Scott Bakula was such a great hero and heartthrob as Dr. Sam. What was he like to work with?

“He was so approachable, you know, in the sense that he had this great, easy acting style. He took chances and he was likeable – in a way that he could be a man’s man and a woman’s man at the same time. He’s really a brilliant actor. I am saddened by the fact that he has not had the opportunity to do movies in the way that could really have lifted his career. He’s had an incredibly successful television career. He’s a good actor. He’s a kind man. I’ve always admired him and felt like when we were working together, I had a friend that I loved to write for because he was always so giving and willing and wanting to take chances as an actor. So it was fun to go down to the trailer and say, ‘Guess what? You’re going to be pregnant this week’.

He does everything in the show from sing and dance to baseball, football, hopping over car bonnets to fights and martial arts. Did you know he had such a wide skill set from the outset, or did you write the challenges for him to rise to?

“I think we had conversations with him about that. I also knew that he had been on Broadway doing musicals. I knew he could sing and dance. When I wrote ‘Sea Bride’ [S2, Ep20], I wrote a tango number – that was unique for him. When Don knew that he could play the guitar… We asked Scott, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he said he wanted to do a musical and I think that’s how the ‘Catch a Falling Star’ episode [S2, Ep10] came about, which involves a performance of ‘Man of LaMancha’.”

Admiral Al Calavicci – he’s so much more than wisecracking and surface jokes or flirtation. There’s so much depth to his character. Was that fleshed out early on with an end to end journey for him in mind, or did his character evolve through the seasons?

“It was a little bit of both. Dean Stockwell had been on Broadway at five-years-old and had been a major child movie star. I remember when we wrote the show where Sam had the chance to save Al – ‘The Leap B4, Ep1] – he was so good in that. I’ll never forget how beautiful that was. And then in the very, very end, I love the fact that Sam did change history and Al ended up wih his beautiful wife with five kids.

“I remember once asking Dean, ‘Do you want us to write more drama for you? Big dramatic moments?’ And he said, ‘I want you to look at me right now. I want you to tell me what you see.’ And I said, ‘Well, your performance, the pain, fear and loss and all that, because you’re such an incredible actor.’ And he said ‘For me to perform that, I have to be it and live it. So don’t do too many.’ 

“He had that depth of acting talent. He is so good – Dean,  wherever you are, I love you. I miss you.”

The episodes that follow later in the seasons involving celebrities – Sam as Elvis, Dr. Ruth, or Lee Harvey Oswald, was that kind of a direction that you always foresaw? It feels like a sea change as the show progressed.

“The stories were designed, for the most part, to be so, so simple in that they were everyday stories. They weren’t change-the-world stories. I think the biggest one was Lee Harvey Oswald, and maybe the one involving Marilyn Monroe – those were with people that could have had a ripple effect.

“But there were other little kisses with history in the show, but they were very hard to do. They ran into a child version of Donald Trump in a taxi cab, [‘It’s A Wonderful Leap’ – S4, Ep18], then they ran into a little boy who is supposed to be Michael Jackson – Sam teaches him to moonwalk [‘Camikazi Kid’ – S1, Ep8]. The first time I did a kiss with history was ‘Star-Crossed’ [S1, Ep3] – Sam meets up with the woman that left him at the altar and they’re at the Watergate Hotel. That was fun stuff.”

Sam managed to awkwardly kiss lots of ladies in that sense of ‘Oh God, they’re going to kiss me and I’ve got to be this person, what am I supposed to do.’

“We never, ever really discussed what happened to Sam. We didn’t want him to be encumbered by a relationship. But I didn’t get to kiss him. My husband wouldn’t leave the set on the episode I was in!”

Your move into directing – from your TV drama Cora Unashamed back in 2000, to Grey’s Anatomy just last year. Is that something you wanted to do sooner? Were there barriers prohibiting you?

“I was supposed to direct on Quantum Leap four times. Every time it was coming up, something would happen. The only women who directed on the show were two black women – Debi Allen [Fame, Everybody Hate Chris, Jane the Virgin] and the other was a woman named Anita Addison. They each did two shows.

I said, ‘If I’m not doing this, I want black women.’ There were no other black women. And it was a fight. I tried to get black women directors on the show, but I could never get them past.

Then when I went to do The Net, the studio blocked it. I give huge amounts of credit for executive producing to Shonda Rhimes and what she has been able to do. She did what I thought I was going to be able to do. She’s so talented and I’m such a fan of her and her shows. I’m looking forward to what she’s going to do on Netflix. And it was an honour to do Grey’s Anatomy because I’m a fan of the show and I’m really grateful to have that opportunity.”

Has there been progress in terms of female directors and filmmakers being given opportunities?

“It’s very hard for women because there aren’t a lot of women executives at the studios. There are more now. And so there is an evolution that’s happening, but it still feels slow. There were shows run by people I gave opportunities to back in the day, but when I said, “hey, I want to direct on your show,” the response was, “oh, there’s too much machismo. There’s too many male hormones around here. They’ll eat you alive.” And I went, “no, they won’t, you’ll protect me. How about if I do my job?” And that was only last year. But there are more opportunities. There are more women making decisions, but we have to do more because women’s stories and women’s voices are more than half the population – we need to hear those stories. The historic ones as well as the contemporary ones.”

Is there a leap that was your favourite overall? That you feel made you made your mark with?

“’The Color of Truth’ [S1, Ep7] touched so many people and it opened a dialogue. I remember we got a letter from a teacher who said she brought the VHS in and she played it to her class, up until Jesse [Sam as an ageing black chauffeur in ’50s Deep South] goes and sits down at the counter in the restaurant. Then she stopped it and asked the students what they thought happened next. They thought that he just ordered lunch. And then she played the rest and that hostility and the animosity he endures and the fact that he had to get up and leave really incensed these children. They had never heard of or experienced racism. They didn’t want to believe that it really happened. This is how history gets buried and why television is so powerful and important. It opened a conversation that she could not have necessarily had in her classroom, according to her, had she not brought that show in to share with her students.

“We had another letter that was very moving, and I want to say it might’ve been ‘The Leap Home’ [S2, Ep1-2]. There was a couple who wrote and said they had a child that was on a cancer ward and every Thursday the whole ward would watch Quantum Leap. Their child was dying and they had kind of given up and it was just time to help that child transition out of this world. They watched the show and she said, ‘We realized we gave up hope. When we watched the show, we realized we didn’t have to give up hope and we wanted to write to you. It’s now six months later and the crisis has passed. The cancer is in remission. Our child is up and going back to school. And we just want to thank you for reminding us that hope has its own power’.”

Its power and poignancy has never diminished. Though the final episode, ‘Mirror Image’ (S5, Ep22), with the caption saying Sam doesn’t get to go home, does leave a sucker punch.

“That was our last fight. Don was going to send him home. And I said, ‘You can’t, you can’t send him home. If you ever, ever, which we’ve not ever been able to get Universal to let us do it, want to do a movie… If you want to keep the story going, you have to leave Sam out there in the hearts of people, leaving people thinking he could leap into their lives’. And at first Don said, ‘No, no, we need to bring him home’. And I said, ‘Do not bring him home. Or you will end the show. If you leave the hope out there, that Sam is out there and he could leap into your life and make a difference’. You keep the show alive in the hearts and the minds of the fans. And I think I was right.”

The ending was poetic for me as a viewer, but your point about Sam still being out there – Is there a leap back to the future for Quantum Leap?

“I started writing a project called <em>Time Child</em> about Sammy Jo Fuller. I actually wrote a trilogy in Season 5 where Sam leapt back three times into the same family and the second time he leapt he ended up in bed with this character and conceived a child. Then the third time he leapt in, he met her at 10 years old – a girl named Sammy Jo Fuller. So in my vision, Sammy Jo Fuller grows up. I actually have Al say, ‘Sammy is in the future with me. We’re trying to bring you home.’ That was my set-up way back in 1993, in Season 5, to say someday, Sammy Jo being his daughter might take over…. 

“This was the ’90s. Women heroes didn’t exist really – other than comic books – Wonder Woman was there, Super Girl was there. But I set it up in the show that Sammy Jo was going to bring him home. Sadly, I have not been able to get Don and the studio to give me the green light for Time Child. It might happen someday.”

Right now, it feels like we need more shows that offer hope. Is there a place for a reboot on streaming platforms?

“Universal keep saying they want to bring it back. They’re not going to give it up to Netflix because they have [US streaming service] Peacock now and still have NBC. I personally think it should be on a full blown network. The hard part would be that it would have to be recast if there was a female version using my character Sammy Jo Fuller. Or if they just redid the show, it would be interesting in the sense that there was such an innocence about the show. I still believe that there is an audience out there that wants it, that longs for looking at the past through the eyes of somebody in the present. But who would that person be if you did the show now, what are those eyes like? 

“We’re living in the time of COVID and suddenly you go back in time. How do you warn people that this is going to happen? How do you warn people about 9/11? How do you warn people about things in the future?

“I mean, one of the beauties of that innocence too, and I thought that was a great gift from Don to the concept, was that Sam’s memory as Swiss cheese – he didn’t remember things and that made it a lot easier, and Al was not allowed to tell him what was happening in the present. There’s a lot of detail woven into the mythology that allowed it to be innocent and in the moment of time travel. You didn’t have to drag the future back with you.”

Do you have an actress in mind to play Sammy Jo in a reboot?

“Oh my gosh, Jennifer Garner. I always felt she would be a great female Sam. She’s an ‘every woman.’ She’s funny. She does great drama. When I think of a female Sam or even Sammy Jo, I think Jennifer – in a heartbeat. She’s so great in Alias. That show just never stopped. You couldn’t take a breath. If I had to go younger, somebody that would have that kind of believable humour that you think could actually rescue you – maybe Jennifer Lawrence. She’s pretty formidable in that sense.”

“To bring Quantum Leap back. If they’re thinking about it, now’s the time to happen. Tell people to write to Universal! Write for the attention of Pearlena Igbokwe – if anyone can bring it back, she can do it. Write! Write to Pearlena – she’s the one that’ll make it happen. That’s how we stayed on the air for five and a half years. Fans unite and write!”

#quantum leap #article

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Good Business: Part 8

Fandom: Marvel (Mob AU)

Pairing: Chubby!Bucky x Reader

Summary: Bucky Barnes is a ruthless mobster. He’s also referred to as Big Buck due to his towering strong frame as well as his round stomach. You’re the owner of a small diner, a place that Big Buck decides to visit. Based off this drabble.

A/N: used google translate for italian translations. if they’re wrong, feel free to dm me the correct translations!!

You weren’t going to let Bucky back into your heart so easily. You couldn’t. After the shit he pulled, you have to be careful. Because nothing is more painful than a broken heart. 

So when he picked you up Saturday night, you weren’t particularly cold with him, but you weren’t warm with him either. You were...civil. 

You slid into the passenger’s seat after he opened the door for you and he made his way to the driver’s side. During the drive, you made light conversation: how work was, did anything interesting happen, hear any reviews on the movie you two were going to see, etc. 

When you arrived to the movie theater, you were a bit surprised to see that it was hustling and bustling with other movie goers. Noticing your surprised expression, Bucky shrugged, “I figured you wouldn’t appreciate watching a movie with just you and me. So I didn’t rent out the place this time.” And he’s right, you wouldn’t appreciate it at all. An empty theater with just you and him? Sounds more than a friend date to you. 

Bucky paid for the tickets and you both walked to concessions. He ordered a large popcorn for the both of you as well as your favorite candy to eat at the movies. He pays, after you attempt to do so yourself, and then hands you your candy.

You give him a confused expression, "How did you know these are my favorites?"

Bucky shrugs with a small smirk on his face, "I have my ways."

Flashback

"Scott, I need your help." Scott hears when he goes out the back to take out the trash. 

His eyes widen and he drops the trash, seeing Big Bucky waiting for him there, "I-I know I used to be an ex-con, but no money in the world is gonna make me go back to life. I've got a good life going on. I have an awesome job with a great boss. I don't need to be supervised to see my daughter anymore. So whatever place you want me to break into, I won't do it."

Bucky cocks a brow and scoffs, "You done?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Good, and fortunately for you, I'm not asking you to do anything like that. I just need some information on Y/N."

Scott starts to feel uncomfortable again, "What-What kind of information?"

“Do I wanna know?” you ask apprehensively. 

Bucky just shoves his hands in his pockets and answers, “I asked Scott, sweet cheeks.”

“Ask or threaten?” you narrow your eyes at him.

Bucky can’t help but chuckle, “Ask. I swear on my ma I didn’t hurt or threaten him. I just-I just wanted to know some things about you so that I don’t fuck up-sorry,” he says when a woman in front of him looks at him with scolding eyes, “-mess up tonight. Don’t wanna offend ya in any way, shape, or form.”

Your gaze seems to soften when he tells you this, “Thanks, Bucky. That’s very...considerate of you.” he gives you another shrug and proceeds to lead you to the theater where your showing was. 

The seats you two picked were right in the middle, the same seats from the previous movie night. You just hoped that this would go a lot better. 

_______________

Throughout the movie, Bucky found himself paying more attention to you rather than the film. He kept glancing your way, whether you noticed or not, you didn’t show it. This is what he missed from the first movie night. He wasn’t able to enjoy your smile and laughter at any of the jokes said in the film. He missed your intrigued stare while you stuffed of your face with popcorn and candy. He missed your whispered commentary, and shared giggles, with the occasional shushes from the people around you. 

This is what could have happened the first night that Bucky brought you to the movies, but he’s thankful he gets this with you now. 

There’s a point during the movie where you get a bit chilly, your hands moving up and down your legs to warm you up a bit. Bucky proceeded to shrug off his jacket and place it on top of your lap. He receives a grateful grin and a whispered, “Thank you” from you. A big victory seen in his own personal book. 

Then there’s the occasional times where you two grab for popcorn at the same time. Bucky’s always the first to pull away because he doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable and he hopes that the light from the movie screen isn’t bright enough to showcase his round blushing cheeks. He feels like a teenager on his first date. But no, it’s not a date. Not really. It’s a “friend date” as he’s specified, but dammit does he want this to be more. In due time, Barnes. In due time. 

You walk out of the theater, discarding the empty bag of popcorn and candy container. Bucky’s jacket remains hanging off your shoulders as you’re spouting off your opinions of the movie. He can’t help but stare at you in awe, that is, until you call him out on his gaze.

“What’s with the look?” you ask curiously, a hint of a smile dancing on your lips. 

“Nothin’. I’m just really glad you enjoyed the movie.”

You nodded, “Did you? Enjoy the movie, I mean?”

“Gonna be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention. Something more interesting caught my eye,” he says fondly. 

You nervously clear your throat and look down at your feet, not wanting to let Bucky know that his words have affected you so much, “So, uh, I’m kinda sick of the popcorn and candy. Wanna get some pizza or something?”

“Sure,” Bucky mumbles and gestures for you to lead the way back to his car. 

The drive to the pizzeria is silent, but not the comforting kind. Oh no, this was awkward silence. You both know you should say something, anything, but you don’t know what. Bucky’s mentally cursing himself because he probably made you uncomfortable with his comment while you’re scolding yourself for disregarding his comment. 

Bucky takes you to a small, hole in the wall, pizza joint. It’s fairly empty on a Saturday night, which you’re a bit surprised about. 

“This place is a hidden gem and have the best pizza I’ve ever had.”

You can’t help but snort, “All words, Big Buck. I’ll believe it when I taste it.”

A wide grin appears on his face when he swings the door open for you, “Prepare to eat your words, sweetcheeks!” 

When he follows you in, you jump when you hear a loud yelp and a “Big Bucky!”

Bucky moves around you to wrap his arms around a small Italian woman, “Tina! Come sta la mia mamma preferita?”

Tina, reaches up and pinches Bucky’s round cheeks, “You’ve been learning Italian! Good!” she exclaims in her own Italian lilt. When she looks at you, awkwardly standing there in Bucky’s jacket, she immediately pushes Bucky to the side, “Chi è questa bella donna?”

He then moves to stand next to you, “Mama Tina, this is Y/N L/N, my g-my friend,” he inwardly winces at his minor slip up, “Y/N, this is Martina Russo, aka Mama Tina. Her family has owned this place for decades.”

You extend your hand out and Mama Tina, takes a hold of it, but then proceeds to pull you into a hug, “It’s nice to meet you, bella!” 

“Oh yeah. She’s also a hugger,” Bucky adds with a giggle as Mama Tina lets go of you and then drags you to a table. He proceeds to sit down across from you, a proud grin on his face. 

“The usual?” Mama Tina asks.

Bucky nods and takes her hand, kissing the back of it, “Grazie.”

She then pats Bucky’s cheek lovingly and then moves to the kitchen, her boisterous Italian accent yelling an order to her employees. Both of you chuckle.

“Well, she’s very charming.”

“I help her and her family out whenever they’re short on money. Stevie and I used to come here a lot when we were younger. Mama Tina always made sure to take care of us. She’s like a second mom to me.” Bucky’s voice is so soft and caring as he speaks, “There was this one time,” he stops to chuckle, “I came here with a date and it was terrible. She kept complaining about the place, about the food, about Mama. Before we left, Mama pulled me aside and told me to never bring a girl here again unless I know she’d like her.”

“And did you?” 

“Not until now,” he says softly, blue eyes peering into yours with such meaning and compassion. It was like you were put under a spell. You couldn’t seem to look away from his gorgeous enchanting, ethereal blue-

“To set the mood!” Mama Tina announces as she places a candle on the table, lighting it with a lighter. 

Bucky chuckles and shakes his head, “Mama, it’s okay. You don’t-”

“Hush. You take what I give you,” another pat to Bucky’s cheek and she’s gone again. 

The moment is gone, but a light chatter fills the void. You ask Bucky more questions about his childhood. You realize that despite knowing him for some months, you still don’t truly know him. He talks about his family, being raised a tried and true Brooklyn boy, as well as many stories of the trouble that he was pulled into because of Steve. 

“But Steve’s so nice and pure!” you exclaim, which earns a snort from Bucky.

“Sweet cheeks, Steve has been and always will be a punk.”

You opened your mouth to comment, but then Mama Tina placed down a ten sliced pizza with various types of meats and veggies, “The Big Bucky special!”

“You have a pizza named after you?” you asked incredulously.

“Yes, I do and it’s the best pizza here! Not that I’m biased or anything,” he says when he grabs a slice and placing it on his place. He then winks at Mama Tina, “Grazie, Mama!”

“Buon Appetito!” she heads behind the cashier counter, trying not to seem obvious that she’s watching you and Bucky. 

Bucky watches as you lift up a piece and take a generous bite. You stare back at him as you chew, mulling over the taste, “Well?” he asks.

When you swallow, you shrug, “It’s alright,” you say nonchalantly, a hint of a smirk at the corner of your lips. 

“How dare you!” Bucky yells playfully and throws a napkin at you. 

You laugh, throwing it back at him, “Alright! Alright! I’m kidding! It’s delicious!” 

Bucky looks over your shoulder and yells to Mama Tina, “She loves it, Mama!”

You giggle at Mama Tina’s little happy dance as you take another bite of the Big Bucky Special. 

Good Business Taglist (OPEN): @cametobuyplums @sergeantrosabellaswan@asadmarveltrashbag​ @youcanhaveyourspacecowboy​ @reniescarlett​ @j-the-smol-otter @buckysknifecollection @lowkeysebby @rinthehufflepuff @134340-cm @snoot-snoot-toot @seabassali1328 @bluebellhairpin @emzy106@viarogers @feelmyroarrrr @vxidnik @jasura @jade-cheshire3303 @yknott81@baliebay19 @jessieray98 @fandommemporiumm @iluvsumbucky@bucksandroses @lecoindenox @ylva-stark

#Bucky Barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #chubby!bucky #marvel #au #mob au #mob boss au #mobster au

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Moriarty 5 - 7 | HypMic 10 - 11

Moriarty 5

Saito’s Moriarty and Gentaro voices are quite similar, now that I compare them.

“…he’s a good egg at heart.” – LOL, never thought I’d be reading subtitles that said that.

Oh, so that was Frida on the bridge?

I wonder, is Moriarty like Bon and nursing a weak leg with that cane? Or is the cane just a symbol of nobility?

Moriarty 6

The Titanic? Wasn’t there a Black Butler arc based on it?

LOL, these people in the foreground are CGI.

…is that the grapefruit guy? (Beats me, I haven’t watched this in weeks and am only returning to it because Scott keeps mentioning spoilers. The only thing I’m keeping up with properly is HypMic and my Kanon watch with #AniTwitWatches…and soon I’ll add the final episodes of Sailor Moon to it.)

Found him! Sherlock Holmes! I sort of triangulated from buzz around me that he appears in this episode.

What’s with the skull ring Holmes wears?

…ah, the golden ratio!

…Oh, this is gonna get interesting! You can tell this Holmes is adept in fighting due to his build, but…how did Moriarty figure out Holmes played the violin? Calluses on his hands?

Is this Holmes a womaniser…? I thought the guy was often characterised as an asexual, or at the very least aromantic. That’s part of what makes the guy so intriguing to me - because he still has Irene.

A colliery is a coal mine. It’s been a while since I heard that word.

Moriarty 7

The anime’s sense of colour is probably one of the most striking parts of this. Not just red, but blue and green where it counts too.

Not a fan of the 1st person cam…

That knife came out pretty clean for something so blood-stained.

I wanted to say “’Right,’ said Fred”…but Fred didn’t talk, so I can’t do that. (Dangit!)

I somehow found it slightly funny that France was ahead of Britain (America?) in forensic pathology, although I dunno what made it funny exactly.

I squealed (…just a little bit) when the iconic quote came up: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I have it memorised from my Detective Conan days still, see?

Next time: A Study in S (according to stuff I read, the S stands for Sherlock this time).

HypMic 10

…I can’t believe it’s almost over already. I’ve basically been in a dream this entire season…but then what happens once the anime is over…? Waiting for the 2nd DRB to happen, I guess.

I didn’t even realise, but Jiro’s varsity jacket has an owl on the bottom of the logo.

…”[H]it the head”? Wassat mean? *checks up* Oh, so it means to go to the bathroom…Right. It’s US slang, which might explain a thing.

Notice Ramuda uses “Jakurai” and not “jijii” or something like that during his time with Ichijiku. Also, there’s a lot of his deep voice going around…

You can see MTR on the poster behind Ramuda at one point.

*anguished noises* Ramuda!!! Please don’t do this!!!

LOL, Sadamezuka and Kazuha.

Is “bum-rush” even an appropriate word for this situation…? US slang is weird…

…Doppo’s performance almost seems like a Rosho foreshadowing. Also, I love how Doppo’s screens disappear with his motivation.

…I saw a spoiler today on Twitter regarding Dice and meat…now I get it.

“detarame” – I know this word means “nonsense”, but for some reason I memorised it as meaning “s***” at one point due to the context of Scenario Liar. I find it interesting Hifumi used a word from Scenario Liar in the first place, even though it’s not necessarily meant to be taken in that context.

“the King of Normies” – For some reason, that made me laugh pretty hard. That is an accurate translation of “riajyuu no ousama” though.

Gentaro’s smile puts a smile on my face as well.

“colours you’ve dyed” – Note Shibuya is constantly referred to by colours, including how PCCS (in the Shibuya 1st DRB team song) apparently means “practical colour coordinate system”.

I find it interesting that Saburo was the one who mentioned holding hands as a sign of camaraderie first in the anime and then the Funi translation makes Ramuda use the same symbolism here. It may have been unintentional, though.

…the subbers keep using “OMG” and I’m like ????. Is OMG outdated slang in 2020?

…wow, that holy imagery…they really went all-in on Jakurai’s godliness there.

…even when knocked down, Jakurai’s hair is still 100% gorgeous.

I noticed one of the lyrics the translators cut out of Doppo’s rap was “borderline”.

Ahhhhhhhhhh! This anime just kicked me where it hurts! (<- As in, it used the trope I love so much – where the underdog causes a sudden turn-around in the battle and they’re not even aware of it!) This is why I love you, Doppo!

LOL, FP spent their countdown gossiping. That’s such a FP thing to do.

Hifumi seems to carry the beat in MTR’s Kizuna. Jakurai gets drowned out quite a bit, although Riou (who has a similar voice) was less drowned out.

“No pain, no gain.” – That’s a good saying.

HypMic 11

2 episodes until the end! (Yikes!)

I still take some issue with subbing the laughing. Well, then again I’ve been half-deaf lately with my ears being clogged (accidentally clogged my ear up again…), so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

If I’m hearing it right, Ramuda goes “nee-san” and not particularly anything to do with “Beauties” or “Beasts”, which seems to be exclusive to the subs.

Stone guardian? I guess this has to do with jizo in Japanese. Hifumi does go “namu” (short for “namu amida butsu”) towards Doppo at the end there.

That bed is…why is it so empty if it’s meant to be the room someone’s staying in?

Is Jyuto’s hair black or brown? I’ve been colouring it a deep brown because I think that looks nice, but it might actually be black…

I have a newfound respect for Komada ever since I found out his birthday is [secret censored – maybe if you follow the hints I leave behind, you might find out what I mean].

LOL, I spotted the fire extinguisher in one corner and was immediately reminded of how someone once translated “fire extinguisher” to “hand grenade”.

…how does Jakurai’s hair work from the back? There’s this coil of hair that seems to go places it shouldn’t be…

For some reason, the subbers keep translating “sensei” as “the good doctor”…or is that the first and only time it happened?

I think it’s appropriate they discuss bonds on the day Kizuna (the ED) goes out on streaming.

…*thinks about 2nd DRB, where BB vs. DH is going to happen next month* …Yeah, you better pay attention or your daddy’s gonna come spank you boys.

Jakurai summoning his mic is always freakin’ cool. Aspire to be like this elegant man.

The wolf hand sign again.

There’s a pun between kizukizu (wounds) and kizuna (bonds). Update: The phrase is actually gisugisusa (stiffness, unsociability, coldness [of atmosphere] etc.), but...there’s the same rhyming scheme, so it’s not wrong.

Doppo’s bit about Jakurai(-sensei) being a kasugai (hemostat) is, surprisingly, quite faithful, as you can tell from how those words rhyme. Hifumi’s verse mentions a monkey wrench, though.

…kasumitai ore ga yoi… - that translates to “…[Jakurai is] better than us, who are like scum…” It’s a very Doppo sort of line, noting that kasu literally means “residue”.

I didn’t realise this until now, but Riou has a piercing in one ear (his right). It’s just in an unconventional place in the upper curve, so I never spotted it.

Samatoki’s death aesthetic really contrasts against Jakurai’s healing one. I can see why people really liked the MTC vs. MTR fight now.

It seems the strategy to win in this series is to keep spamming your attacks. It seems hugely suitable for my pseudo-Pokemon AU, which emphasises attack over defence.

Oh! I never noticed the blue gem on Jakurai’s mic!

Note how Samatoki said “lightning rod” – Jakurai’s name means “lonely thunder”. It’s one reason why I fell head over heels for the guy – his stupidly awesome name.

“horse/rabbit/bush warbler” – These refer to MTC. Samatoki, Jyuto, Riou. On that note, ARB currently has an event where Ramuda hangs out with MTC and he calls Jyuto “usa-chan” as a pun. I find that so darn cute!

“And the winner is…Matenro!” - *cue the song, The Champion*

Notice how they put BB and FP before MTC and MTR in the ED…it’s foreshadowing!

#simulcast commentary #Hypnosis Mic #HypMic #Hypnosis Microphone #moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #Chesarka watches Yuukoku no Moriarty #Chesarka watches HypMic

[andrewmoocow]

Steven Universe: The Fantastic Mutants Chapter 2: Right into the Danger Room (originally posted on April 17, 2020)

AN: Kept you waiting, huh? After originally deleting the Fantastic Four from the climax of last chapter due to not giving them any dialogue, this is where I now shall introduce the First Family to the story. Well then, let's finally hop to it!

--

"Here we are Steven, the X-Men's personal training room." Pearl announced as the group exited the elevator, went through the hallways, and stepped into the famous Danger Room of the X-Men. Aside from the small control room above it housing X-Men ally Moira MacTaggert & Gold Team member Doug Ramsey aka Cypher, the area was a large white room decorated with turrets, holograms, and various other traps designed to test whoever trains in there. "So, the legendary Steven Universe in the flesh." Reed Richards announced his presence by appearing behind Steven with Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm behind him. "Wait, the Fantastic Four are here too?!" Steven exclaimed. "That's right little guy. The professor and Stretch here actually wanted to test you." the Thing stated patting a big orange hand on the stretchable scientist's shoulder. "We've already heard about how you helped those Chitauri and Thanos." "Charles is already sort of familiar with you Gems thanks to your mother." Sue added with a wink. "Which version of my mom are you talking about, Rose or Pink Diamond?" Steven asked, casually bringing up his mother's true identity to the four, which incited an awkward silence. "Okay then." Johnny muttered nervously. "Why don't we just get to fighting already to get our minds off that junk?" he asked. "Very glad you asked Johnny." Reed answered just as sheepish while gazing down at the Danger Room. "Eight Crystal Gems against twenty-four mutants, Johnny and Ben. Sounds like pretty bad odds for you." "We'll find a way around that." Garnet declared as she pounded her fists together. "Now then, shall we begin?" "Gladly." Wolverine smirked and he popped out his claws and the two teams of both eight & twenty-six were lowered down into the training room. Charles, Reed and Susan remained in the control room to monitor the Gems' abilities from afar. "Let the testing begin." Xavier declared. "Heads up X-Men!" Cyclops exclaimed firing his eye beams at Garnet, who swiftly blocked them with a cross of her arms. "Joke's on you, my future vision saw that coming." the fusion smirked before she went in for the kill, punching the mutant in the face. "So what can you do little one?" Colossus asked while towering over both Peridot and Lapis. "That depends. How heavy are you with that form?" Peridot replied with a grin as she lifted the metal man into the air with her ferrokinesis. "My word, I am floating!" Piotr cried in astonishment. "C'mon Lapis!" Peridot muttered to the water Gem. "Go and make him wet! He should rust, right?" "Oh uh, I don't think I can do that right now." Lapis said nervously before slowly shuffling away, inciting curiosity from the green Gem. "That's a little odd." Peridot observed while lowering Colossus to the ground. "Yes, you say she has water powers yet has not used them at all." Piotr added. "And by the way, I do not rust." Meanwhile, Pearl and Connie were clashing their blades with Wolverine and Laura's claws. "Likin' the new sword Connie." Logan complimented. "But what the hell happened to the old one?" "Oh, funny story actually." Connie stated while parrying Laura's foot claws. "Ruby and Sapphire had this wedding that we put together after we all learned Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond in disguise only for it to be crashed by the Diamonds and Blue Diamond broke the first one. Then we went to Homeworld where Bismuth eventually came to help us with a new one she made for me." "That's certainly a lot to take in." X-23 remarked while flipping backwards to avoid Connie's attacks before she locked the claws in her hands with Pearl's spear. "Yes, everything after that did take some getting used to." the white Gem stated. "Between repairing the beach house, making a place for all the Gems we uncorrupted to live in and still sort of recovering from becoming extensions of White Diamond, it's a lot to take in."

-- "At home base is our golden boy Sammy "The Cannonball" Guthrie, as he gets ready for perhaps the biggest hit of the season!" Cannonball narrated to himself like a sports commentator while aiming himself at Bismuth, who was duking it out with both Ben and Johnny. "To say he's been preparing for this moment the entire year wouldn't be saying much, but by God he plans on making this the hit that'll change the way everyone sees his team for centuries to come!" "Hey Cannie, quit stalling!" Magma jeered as she made small talk with Nephrite. "Not even his fans will break his concentration!" Sam continued and then, he began to ignite his feet. "HERE COMES THE PITCH!" he yelled, blazing towards the blacksmith, the Torch and the Thing with rapid speed & a big grin on his face and then, knocked them all down like bowling pins. "AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!" "Sam you nino." Amara tutted to herself. "Is your relationship normally like this?" Nephrite asked the lava mutant. "Yeah, he's kinda like an annoying little brother to me." Magma replied. "So anyway, what can you do?" "Oh, you mean you want to see my weapon?" the former Centipeetle mother inquired. "Well, here g-" Before she could demonstrate, Cannonball was sent flying into a wall by a single punch from Garnet, right next to the two. "I'M OKAY!" he exclaimed. "NAILED IT!" Far from the others, Steven was backed into a corner by Blink and Warpath. "Gotta say kid, you're not too shabby." Clarice Ferguson nodded while flinging her crystal javelins at Steven's shield. "You still got a little to learn, but that's what the professor is for." "Oh yeah? Well try this!" Steven exclaimed, now turning his shield into a bubble to roll around in and raced off, knocking down Clarice and James along the way. "There is so much about Gems that we must learn." Warpath muttered. "Don't you agree Clarice?" "Hey Connie, over here!" Steven called out to his human friend. "Let's show everyone something really cool!" he offered. "Oh, you mean-" Connie began when Logan cut her off. "I'm sorry, what?" Wolverine asked as the girl raced to the bubble and high-fived each other, glowing brightly inside the sphere before it dispersed, and out of it came Stevonnie. "TA-DA!" "What the hell just happened?!" Cypher exclaimed in wonder. "Anyone else seeing this?" Moira asked the others, who were already monitoring the current events. "It seems they have merged into a singular being!" Reed analyzed through video footage of the fusion before speaking into an intercom. "Excuse me new fighter. Can you please tell everyone in the room who you are?" "We already know Richards." Garnet stated. "Meet Stevonnie, a fusion of well, Steven and Connie." she introduced the kids' fusion before they cut her off. "Let me take over Garnet." Stevonnie suggested. "In case you couldn't tell, a fusion combines multiple aspects of its fusees, like appearances for example." they explained. "And abilities too. Like so." To demonstrate, they summoned Steven's shield following by swinging Connie's sword about. "So in short, you're basically two cute kids standin' on top of each other to form a non-binary lookin' person?" the Thing remarked. "Whatta strange development!" "Fusion? Interesting." Lapis muttered to herself with her back turned to Peridot. "Uh, why would you say that Lapis? You know you've had bad experiences with fusion!" the green Gem asked. "Do you mind little one?! I'm trying to think!" the taller Gem shouted harshly, giving Peridot a fright. "Something just isn't right! Who are you?!" "We shall focus on your friend later child." Colossus stated as he picked Peridot up and walked away with her, leaving Lapis alone. "I assume you are very close?" he asked. "Indeed we are." Peridot remarked. "We've had our conflicts in the past, but overall we're very good friends or maybe something more. But still, she never called me little one before and hasn't acted like that since we were first getting to know each other." "You are correct. Something must be wrong." Piotr agreed. "I suggest we keep our heads down and see what happens." -- As for Stevonnie, they had just finished going a few rounds with both Cyclops and Jean before finding themselves getting tired out. "Okay, let's take five for a bit. I'm beat." they announced, officially splitting back into Steven and Connie. "You two work very well together." Scott remarked as he helped the kids up. "Are there any more fusions we should know about?" "Well, there's Ruby and Sapphire for example." Wolverine stated, cuing Garnet to split up into the married Gems. Ruby's headband was now a shiny orange color, she now wore brown pants and the top part of her torso was the same color. Sapphire's dress was currently covered by a light blue vest with navy lining underneath a white top with much pointier sleeves than before. "AAAWWW! Aren't you two just the cutest?!" Cannonball squealed at the sight of the two. "You're right, these funky little lesbians are just so small!" Kitty exclaimed. "Oh you're too kind." Sapphire giggled and blushed. "Anything else we should show you?" "Yeah, you got any more fusions?" Laura asked. Without any hesitation, Ruby, Sapphire & Steven merged into a new fusion that looked like a giant sun wearing sunglasses. "Sunstone is in the house baby!" Sunstone proudly announced, following up by offering everyone a high five. "How has everyone been doing lately?!" "T-this can't be real, can it?" Cyclops gasped at the friendly fusion. "Don't be so alarmed buddy." Sunstone exclaimed. "It's always nice to meet new people. But if those new people do anything to make you uncomfortable, that's NO GOOD!" "Why are you talking to the wall?" Beast asked Sunstone after they had given an important life lesson to seemingly nothing in particular. "No matter. Could you perhaps show us your abilities?" "With pleasure sir." Sunstone accepted the offer and made a pair of suction cups appear, using them to climb up the wall. "And another thing, don't forget to respect your elders!" they added. "Oh god, this new one is just like Wade." Wolverine face-palmed. "Who's Wade?" Bismuth asked, to which she was met with a terse "You don't wanna know bub!" -- Meanwhile in the mansion above, classes had finally got out and the students of the X-Men were ready to call it a day. "How come none of us have ever heard of these Gem creatures before?" Hisako Ichiki asked her friends. "Which one do you think is your favorite? I think mine's the big one with the rainbow hair." Megan Gwynn also inquired. "I find the little green one very funny." Sooraya Qadir answered. "And so cute to-" Suddenly, a loud knock came from a nearby closet. "Anyone else hear that?" Dust exclaimed. The knocking sounded again. "It's coming from over there!" The three mutant girls proceeded to investigate, opening the closet to find a blue-skinned woman tied up and gagged. "Is that one of them?" Armor shouted as she freed the girl from her restraints, and she only had one question. "Where's Peridot?" "Are you talking about the tiny one Sooraya said was her favorite?" Pixie wondered. "Last I checked, she went with our teachers to the Danger Room." Faster than the three mutants could see, Lapis zoomed off to the training room. "Please tell Peridot I find her hilarious!" Dust called after the water Gem, but her words barely reached her. -- "Okay, I do believe we've seen enough!" Xavier called to Sunstone from the viewing box. "Don't want anyone to get crushed if you fall!" "You got any pyrotechnic abilities Sunstone?!" Johnny exclaimed. "If you do, then I think we might have a little competition!" Sunstone was quick to correct the Human Torch however. "I do believe I haven't tried that out yet." they remarked, then they made the suction cups disappear from their hands and landed on the floor with extreme bravado. "Thank you, thank you very much!" "Ugh, showboat. You kinda remind me of another fireman." the Lapis Lazuli that Peridot believed might not be the one she remembers snarked. "Am I the only one who's noticing how different Lapis is?!" Peridot exclaimed. "I haven't seen you act like this since we first moved in together! What gives?" "I'm just not impressed, that's all." Lapis growled. "Something tells me we got a spy around here." Mr. Fantastic announced as he, Susan, Xavier, Moira and Doug entered the Danger Room. "Tell me Ms. Lazuli, what can you tell us about the disappearance of the ocean a while back?" "Oh well, they just vanished. That's all." Lapis answered while fidgeting with her hands. "I know a liar when I see one!" Ben growled. "And by my great aunt Petunia, you definitely look like a liar!" "That's because she is!" another Lapis exclaimed racing into the Danger Room and scowling at her double. "So, what thinks you can snatch me out of that elevator and take my place?!" she argued. "Who are you talking about? I am the real deal!" the other Lapis stated flamboyantly. "Loyal member of the Crystal Gems and this little Peridot's dearly beloved!" "Oh yeah, well which one of you likes this?" Steven declared before he began making fart noises with his mouth, causing the first Lapis to laugh and the second to smack her face in embarrassment. "What an absolute child." she groaned. "AHA!" Peridot cried. "Now we know who the real one is!" "I AM!" the pair of Lapises exclaimed in unison. "Oh please Mystique, you can use your powers better than this." Xavier tutted disdainfully. "It's almost like you're passing yourself off as incompetent to annoy us." "Of course it had to be you to expose me." the second Lapis growled as she began to change form. Unlike Gem shapeshifting, she didn't glow as her eyes turned an empty yellow, her hair was dyed red, scales appeared on her face & arms and Lapis's clothing was replaced with a white leotard that came with matching boots, gloves and a shawl kept together with a skull. She was no longer Lapis Lazuli, but instead her true identity as the shapeshifter Mystique. "Frankly, we knew this part of our plan wouldn't end well." "We?" Steven asked, but the X-Men knew exactly who she was talking about. "The Brotherhood!" Iceman shouted when the alarms sounded. "Oh hey, speak of the devil." he muttered bemusedly. "No offense Kurt." "No time to talk, we must go now!" Nightcrawler commanded while Mystique made a break for it. "You are exactly right Wagner." Scott declared. "X-Men, let's move out!" -- Where the proud front doors to Xavier's school once stood, now there was only a hole created by a massive man dressed in red, most notably a large helmet covering his entire head. "Okay ya walkin' talkin' rock candy, where are you?!" Cain Marko, better known as the Juggernaut, roared. "It's a good thing Mystique planted that hearing bug on herself just in case." his amphibious partner Toad added. "I just can't wait to see those pebbles for real!" "Hello boys." Mystique greeted her fellow mutants as she stepped out of the shadows. "I suppose you may have already gotten the news." she said. "Well I got worse news: they're after me." And Raven was right. The Crystal Gems came charging after the mutant and took up arms against the two new mutants. "And you two are?" Garnet asked. "Pardon me for being so rude." Juggernaut stated. "You can call me the Juggernaut, bitch!" he roared. "And we're all from the Brotherhood of Mutants, here for that brat with the shield!" "Let me guess, is this about my mom?" Steven asked, exasperated how most of his enemies come after him because of Rose Quartz. "No, we don't care about her! The master only wants you!" Mortimer hissed. "Now just come quietly and none of your rainbow friends will get hurt." "No dice Kermit!" Amethyst shouted. "Steven, keep yourself away from these guys and get everyone to safety! The OG-3 got this handled!" she ordered the boy. "Right!" Steven accepted. "X-Men, I need you to help me find the students!" As Steven led the mutants and the Fantastic Four away; Garnet, Amethyst & Pearl charged at Juggernaut, Toad & Mystique with weapons ready. "Do you wish to know the qualities of the mighty toad?!" Mortimer bragged as his long tongue tangled with Amethyst's whip. "Wait wait, I think I got this!" Amethyst exclaimed. "This can happen to them." Suddenly, Amethyst tossed Toynbee around by her whip, still tangled with his tongue, and smashed him into the ground multiple times. "Okay!" Mortimer declared, getting more desperate with each pound. "I surrender! Same thing that happens to everyone else! Make it stop! I'm gonna be sick!" "What business do you have coming here following us and replacing Lapis?" Pearl asked as her spear clashed against Mystique's knife. "We are simply in league with someone who wants that child's gemstone." Mystique replied. "He desires it for experimental purposes." "If you think you can take Steven from us, then you got another thing coming!" Pearl howled protectively. -- "Okay, that should be all the students." Cyclops announced while doing a headcount of the school's student body. "I swear, we should really increase defenses at some point and maybe build a stronger building." "But I on the other hand believe the school being damaged builds character." Colossus responded. "So what can we do now guys?" Steven asked his fellow mutants. "I mean, is there any way we can just reason with these villains and make them leave the place?" "Don't you go thinking some cutie pie words will just make us surrender pink brat!" a new mutant declared emerging from the dust & rubble. He looked very similar to Wolverine, but looked more feral with blank white eyes, crazy blonde hair and a red & brown costume. Beside him was a pale Japanese woman dressed in tight black leather that had an Oriental style to it. Also like Logan, they both had metal claws emerging from their hands. "Creed. Oyama." Logan snarled at Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike. "Looks like we almost got the whole Brotherhood here." Emma Frost implied. And just as she said so, a morbidly obese man in a blue singlet came rolling in using his fat body. "HOWDY TRAITOR!" the Blob shrieked. "And lookie here, we got us a good one!" "Why don't you just hand over the boy and no one will have to get hurt?" a pyrokinetic mutant offered while standing alongside another member of the Brotherhood in steel blue armor who was causing the school to slowly fall apart. "Naw just kidding to be honest, someone is probably gonna get hurt no matter which side they're on!" "Don't get too cocky John." the Brotherhood's earth-moving tactician Avalanche coldly reminded Pyro. "Now where could Tom be?" "Right here gang! And guess who I found?" the plant controlling Black Tom Cassidy announced while having assisted Juggernaut, Toad & Mystique in detaining Garnet, Amethyst & Pearl with his vines. "Seriously, who are you crazy people?!" Lapis exclaimed in fright at just how one man was able to defeat three powerful Gems. "They're the Brotherhood of Mutants, a group of extremists dedicated to more violent ways of mutant peace." Jubilee exposited. "And by the way, what do you want now?!" "They want Steven! I don't know why exactly, but they're working for someone who wants him for science junk!" Amethyst cried out. "That's not untrue runt." the Brotherhood's leader Magneto concurred while descending from the sky in a sphere of purple energy. "I do apologize for making this much of a scene but I implore you all, give us the child and you'll go free." "You shall do no such thing Erik." Xavier boldly rebuked the master of magnetism. "Just who are you in alliance with?" "Well, it should be someone quite familiar to some other guests of yours." Magneto answered while looking at Reed and company, who knew exactly who he was talking about. "Doom." Richards muttered in shock. -- As the invasion of the mansion went on, a man dressed in green robes and silver armor watched everything play out through a holographic screen in his castle in the nation of Latveria. Its literally iron-fisted ruler Victor von Doom slouched in his throne as he watched the Brotherhood of Mutants contend with the Crystal Gems and their new allies before he got up and walked towards the screen. With a devilish grin that couldn't be seen through his emotionless mask, he traced a circle around Steven and let out a menacing laugh. "Soon child, your gemstone shall belong to Doom." -- At long last, chapter two is done! Yeah, tons of things got in the way of its creation like my bad habit of unintentional procrastinating along with a certain virus that's been ruining everyone's fun lately. But on the bright side, I've been able to get this out long after the grand conclusion of Steven Universe Future, so I'd have a lot to work with for future stories. But for now, stay safe out there in these trying times and stay tuned.

#steven universe #x-men #fantastic four #fanfiction #crossover #steven universe the fantastic mutants #steven quartz universe #garnet #amethyst #pearl #connie maheswaran #peridot #lapis lazuli #bismuth #nephrite #lion steven universe #wolverine #professor x #cyclops #jean grey #beast #iceman #angel #rogue #gambit #storm #nightcrawler #jubilee #kitty pryde #mr fantastic

[fallingin-like]

an aftg fanfic appreciation post

the other day at work i saw something about fanfiction writer appreciation day and told myself “ah i will make a post when i get home” and immediately Did Not Do That. so i’m doing it now! first, thank you to everyone who writes fanfiction! it’s such an honour to be able to read your writing and i am so grateful to the writers who spend so much time and effort into creating these stories. i do not deserve such amazing content and yet i have it. also thanks to nora for this wonderful series which has changed my life in so many ways. 

these are in no particular order. i really tried to tone down my ‘i love you so much and really want to be friends with you’ vibe but i don’t think it worked. this is a super long post and i still didn’t get to say everything i wanted to.

some  fics/series that need more love (aka they have under 350 kudos)

to the south by Morcai - this is a series (never to be caught and secret, safe, close to the door) that was really cool to read. it has elements of the Iskryne Series which i don’t know anything about, but apparently has to do with bondwolves. basically, neil has a wolfbrother who he can speak to telepathically which is written in a really unique way, through interesting phrases and scent-based nicknames for people. i’ve never read anything like these fics and i adore them

all that we see or seem by rorschachs - an inception au. need i say more? this fic flows well, has good use of flashbacks, and an amazing ending. it’s ~23,000 words but feels like much less due to nice pacing and an interesting take on this au

Travelers by @sunrise-and-death ​ - a series (Placeless Destination and Moving Towards) that’s a soulmate au. soulmates can interact through a pyschic bond that allows it to seem like the other person is there with them. neil and andrew meet when they are young and it’s so interesting seeing them get to know each other at this age. we also get to see some neil/mary angst and all of the terrible things happen to andrew. an intense series that manages to feel light-hearted at the same time. the second fic in this series is incomplete

atlas by @purearcticfire ​ / @pipedream-truths ​ - a magic au that features shapeshifters and a cursed neil, so immediately you know i’ll like it. this fic has some cool uses of italics, caps, spacing, etc. that creates a stylized story that helps build tone and gives the story a clearer voice. unfortunately, i can’t tell too much detail about my favourite parts because it they are *ultra spoilers* so i’ll just say, it gets so intense at the end. just trust me about this. ao3 says it’s incomplete (4/5 chapters) but it seems complete to me. also, at ~72,000 words, it’s a pretty hefty fic

Golden Keys and Gray Lines by @wouldyoulightmycandle ​ - just a feel-good post-canon fic that involves a road trip, an ice cream museum, and a bit of Working Through Rough Times. super cute! this fic is incomplete

some authors i just really love and appreciate (you probably already know them and if you don’t then idk what you’re doing)

all of these writers have serious talent that make it look easy to write fanfiction. it’s not easy. you guys have all of my love. all of it.

@nakasomethingkun ​ /  ephemeralsky - basically i just see their name and automatically click the fic without bothering to fully read the tags or summary. they have never let me down and i adore the way they write. everything they write is an easy read and i always come back to their fics. i was going to mention my favourites and then i realized i was going to list everything they’ve written for aftg and i’m not even kidding. funny, angst, fluff, everything you could want in a fic they have it. so so good i actually don’t know how to describe it. their fics break my heart and then put it back together a little bit different so that even after i am finished reading and continue with the rest of my life, i feel different. they make me hurt in a way i didn’t know that i could like. this quality of fic has me scrolling back to the top to reread it the second i finish. what in the world they’re so good.

@annawrites ​ / moonix - 50 aftg fics. that’s actually crazy. and all of them are so high quality and there is such a variety. flower shop/tattoo parlor au? one of my favourite series ever. high school au? of course it includes 4 fully complete fics. shapeshifter au? amazingly done. scott pilgrim vs the world au? so good that i went out and watched the movie for the first time (i am not even joking). i was looking through all the fics and just started rereading them, i just can’t help myself. they describe everything in a way that makes their stories unique, but doesn’t seem like they’re trying too hard. or at all. their fics flow so well and every sentence is a gem. i read and reread so carefully to make sure i don’t miss a thing, but always find myself catching new jokes and quirks.

@lolainslackss ​ / lolainslackss - i really don’t know where to start. once again, i just really love all of their fics. i started scrolling through their works too see if i had a favourite and could not even choose a top 5. their writing is so beautiful i can’t get enough. they always choose the best things to include. selective mutism and sign language? that’s a sure way into my heart. the suit shop au is adorable and pining andrew really is best andrew. i found exycast surprisingly late in my fanfiction reading and that is a real tragedy because it’s amazing and really cute. the soulmate timer fic is an old favourite and if i’m looking for angst, i know i can pull it up.

@gluupor ​ / gluupor - an absolute legend. with 54 fics for aftg, it’s amazing that all of them are outrageously funny, entertaining, and just really well written. a lot of them are fics adapted as an au for other fandoms (like their super popular brooklyn 99 au that i absolutely adore) and they are all hilarious. it’s so fun to search for familiar quotes or realize how similar characters from different fandoms are to the foxes and the quirks they share. these are fics that will definitely cheer you up. i love their sense of humour, it fits the characters so well and helps to shape the world they’re writing in. it’s always exciting to see them publish a new fic.

@idnis ​ / idnis - they have a really unique writing style, i’ve never seen anything like it in this fandom. every story has so much care and love in it that’s evident through the small details that you only pick up through rereading. their stories are stylized with spaces and formatting that help guide the reader and adds to the tone of their stories. i fell so in love with their cat!neil. they write such interesting stories, have original plots, and their fics read like poetry. before you know it, you’ve finished the fic without realising you should have gone to bed an hour ago. they also have some amazing original work that everyone should go check out!

@badacts ​ / badacts - so recently a lot of their fics were made visible to ao3 users only (a shame in my opinion) so if you haven’t read their fics, go make an account! or log into your account! you really don’t want to miss these fics. they have a kid fic where both andrew and neil are baby versions of themselves so it’s obviously one of the best things ever. they who made you/they made me too is so good even the title is enough to make me feel. there��s introspection and realization and it’s from aaron’s perspective. i love seeing the twinyards bond. and, of course we have to mention the terra firma series because i love injured!neil and this one hits me in a different way. i love the way the abrupt transition into injury for neil and being able to experience the confusion and not knowing what’s happening with him.

iaquilam - they have posted 2 fics for aftg and they are some of my favourites in this fandom. this has amazing characterization, neil and andrew and everyone feel so real and so true and i love them. a mouthy, raven neil is one of the best types of neil. they write from andrew’s perspective and i cannot believe have well they capture him and his thoughts. quotes that have stuck with me “there’s more than one way of getting what you want”, “’he hurts,’ kevin says. ‘it hurts”, “you will be afraid and you will do it anyway”, and “to keep living. until i don’t”. also i think that andrew with synesthesia in where everything is good fits so perfectly. the idea that andrew has something so unique ahh i love. “your voice was the first blue one i ever saw” makes everything around me go quiet.

@jemejem ​ / jemejem - first of all i am really loving the radio show ficlet that’s being posted on tumblr. i’m a sucker for breakup fics, especially cheating fics (because i need angst) so only was the find of the century. it’s a fic where no matter how many times i’ve read it, i still feel gutted and achy reading it. their recent fic, the sound, was really interesting and i loved the later chapters so much but can’t share because of *spoilers*

undertow - okay so they also only have 2 aftg fics but oh my goodness they are so good. tenuous is one of my most reread fics, i love the concept, interactions between all the characters, how i feel like i’m there with them, and their descriptions. one of my favourite lines are “The sink turns on; water smacks against the bottom of its metallic basin. It feels—well. It just feels.” ugh i don’t know why i like it so much i just do. it fits so perfectly. and i can totally imagine kevin and neil being super petty in their love song writing, this fic is such a contrast to the other one and yet still so good.

@broship-addict ​ / broship_addict - kid!au! oh my goodness ice cream au! ahh they’re so good at writing cute fluff that has such good characterization that they’ve adapted perfectly into whatever au they have written. and at the same time impulse hit me in a different kind of way. what a joy to read, i love witnessing the ways that andrew and neil come together in all of their fics. also i really can’t not mention their amazing artwork. so grateful to have them contributing so much to this fandom

@unkingly / vicariously kingly - bless these fics. i don’t know anyone that doesn’t love a good de-aged neil fic and this really does The Most for that trope. also can i just say that callboy!neil was a thing i didn’t know i needed in my life but now i don’t know how i lived without it. also mermaid!neil?? yes please. i adore the way they write andriel. their fics are angsty and never fail to make me feel something, often a little bit raw in a good way. latchkey child wrecked me. i felt like i had been scraped clean and felt a little bit off for the remaining night and day after. Say Golden, Pony Boy was eerie and just the right amount of mysterious. i was left feeling unsettled in my own home. these fics have delightful endings that leave you satisfied and yet wanting more all the same

@spanglebangle / spanglebangle - i really really cannot get over sunshine and moonlight. it’s such a soft version of neil and andrew’s relationship, i love the direction that was taken and how the boys grew and the changes because they found each other. i love the quote “you like the big gestures and ridiculous things i say. i’m in your head, remember, i know it makes you feel wanted” fox!neil is really so adorable and pure, but also feisty and protective and funny. i would love to see more of this fic. also the elementary au is everything to me. there’s a lot of content and it keeps me interested, but i especially love the later chapters with everything surrounding neil and then even later with andrew wrestling with his feelings. so well written.

@hopingforcoordinates ​ / crazy_like_a - if you haven’t read their fics then ?? i really don’t know what to say since they wrote 3 of the top 5 fics with the most kudos in this fandom. and if you have read their work then we both know why they are being mentioned. i have fallen in love with their take on raven!neil. their writing style feels so simple and natural, which is a real talent. if you’re looking for a more explicit post-canon fic, then lessons is great, just make sure nobody is reading over your shoulder hah

@fuzzballsheltiepants ​ / fuzzballsheltiepants - the iconic a mewment like this series is so funny, sweet, and angsty and features The Cats which is always a good sign. in particular, i loved the conversation about mark rothko and all of the art they looked at in the 6th fic. i don’t know what counts as spoilers so i’ll say thank goodness for neil ‘oblivious’ josten, trivia nights, and the good bad jokes that made this series such an enjoyable read. similarly, you can’t go wrong with the angst that’s sure to come with a fic where andrew gets hurt and doesn’t remember who neil is. or at least, this fic definitely went the opposite of wrong. 

and i really cannot make this post without mentioning the mind-blowing collabs of lolainslackss and moonix to create dating & other disasters and of moonix and gluupor to write No Place Like Home (incomplete). i literally don’t even have words for how excited i was for when i heard of these fics. these collabs are too powerful for this world and if you haven’t read them then i guess you don’t want to enjoy yourself.

as well, additional thanks from this little ace baby to everyone who writes ace!neil or demi!neil. you guys have a special place in my heart.

i tried to find everyone’s tumblr but obviously didn’t succeed. please tag them if i missed them or tagged the wrong account. thanks! i also did not take the time to research pronouns/names so i refer to everyone as ‘they/them’. i know some of the right pronouns/names but it felt wrong to have some of them and not the rest. some of my comments might seem incoherent or repetitive. my apologies for all of this.

also if you go to my ao3 and see that it’s a little bare/notice that i never comment just know that it’s because i am *ultra lazy* and most of the time i cannot be bothered to log into my account. probably commented as raelle instead. or just ‘a’ because i really am That Lazy. or i’m planning on writing an essay for your fic but haven’t gotten around to it and i’m just drafting it in my head every time i reread.

#SORRY IF I MISSED ANYBODY I REALLY DIDN'T MEAN TO #I THINK AFTG HAS SO MANY GREAT FANFIC WRITERS #and unmentioned but also there are AMAZING ARTISTS in this fandom #raelle writes #please tell me your favourite fics! #all for the game #the foxhole court #aftg #tfc #aftg fic #fanfiction #funny because i'm wearing armbands wearing this and feel like mr andrew minyard #also this is taking me hours because i'm rereading all these fics lol #but trying not to reread them because i want to write this #i just can't help myself #uhhhh why am i nervous about posting this #this has taken 2 days #and like 6+ hours #hhh i just always get scared posting nice things about people for some reason #anyway hope you guys enjoy!!! #thank you #you guys are amazing

[seven-oomen]

Okay, so first off, Happy Birthday to your cat!  I hope he got lots of his favorite treats.  Glad to hear that today went as well as can be hoped for you.  And overall today wasn’t too bad here.  We got several big truck deliveries, but when I deal with those I tend to deal less with customers, so it sort of balances itself out.  We’ve been told that we’ll be closing early all week because of the protests, so that’s been ramping the anxiety, but the internet has provided a number of pleasant distractions on my breaks.

Secondly, I would pick Noah for the one that has the second set of twins, for mainly two random reasons; 1) because last time it went Chris, then Noah, so it feels like it should do the same this time, and Chris already had Ben, 2) because it keeps the number of kids per family more balanced- 4 & 3 rather than 2 & 5.  Idk, my brain just gets weird about symmetry and balance in things and I’ve never figured out if it’s an ADD related thing or just a me thing.  Also, the idea of him trying to do his job while pregnant, with Chris and ESPECIALLY Peter trying to be super protective at the same time is just amusing to me.

And actually, thinking about that and the preview for the next chapter made me think of a couple things that didn’t make it into my reviews.  When/how/from whom did Chris learn about the fire? Did Gerard or Kate tell him in a gloating sort of way and kind of tip him off that something was hinky about it, or was it through other hunter contacts, so the thought of outside involvement came later?  

Was he still pregnant with Ben, or was it later on?  Did he contact anyone in Beacon Hills about it for further info at any point before he showed back up in town?  Because I was trying to think about some of the things that could turn up later for angst (why I was doing that to myself is anyone’s guess, but here we are…) and it occurred to me that if Noah was going to have any lingering upset over Chris leaving it would most likely (to me) be from the time right after the fire.  

He’s just lost Claudia, and went off the rails from it, but at least he had Peter, and Laura, and the other Hales.  Now Peter is in a coma, Laura’s left town, and the rest of his adopted/found family is dead.  He has no idea where Chris is, or if he’s safe from whoever did this (does he know about what happened between Chris and Peter before Chris left again?, and he’s dealing a set of even more heavily traumatized twins right now.  I feel like even the most understanding person is gonna have some stuff to work through there.  (Also, Jesus, poor Melissa [possibly for multiple reasons])

Uhhh…sorry to send things into a drama tailspin there for a moment.  Allow me to try and brighten things back up with the original impetus for me to make this a submission and not an ask; because you mentioned X-Men Halloween costumes and I have Thoughts.  *takes super deep breath*  Because omg, yes, so very many options.  

Side note - I would be so happy if someone dressed as Nightcrawler.  He is my precious fuzzy elfin bb, and I love him to bits and get so tired of him getting left out of things (looking at you Funko.)  I feel like Stiles or Peter have the best attitude match (maybe, MAYBE Jackson), but don’t know if anyone would want to deal with the amount of makeup involved.  But, anyway, just, the possibilities.  

Stiles telling Malia she can’t just take the easy way out by going as Wolfsbane, so she takes one of her old white A New Hope Leia dresses and cuts it down into an old school Mystique costume. 

 Peter pulling rank and telling Derek he’s the Alpha so he gets to be Wolverine (this even works better height-wise [I didn’t realize you didn’t know their approximate heights.  I’d looked them up before for…reasons.  Having seen them standing next to each other repeatedly, I’m pretty sure any actual height advantage Ian has comes strictly from his hair], although when Stiles points this out he earns himself a hell of a glare.)  

Naturally that means Chris has to be Cyclops, because, well, calm and serious.  Noah realizes this means they expect him to be Jean Grey.  (N: “Why can’t I ever be a character that wears normal pants?!” C: “Well I have to be the boring one all the time” P: “I mean, you are the closest to a telepath of the three of us.  Don’t you want us mock fighting over you?” N: “…if we do this I get my pick of the Phoenix costumes.”)  

Stiles and Noah trying to fight over getting to be Gambit so they can do exploding playing cards, but getting told they can’t be Gambit unless they can do the accent correctly (Gambit isn’t Gambit if he’s not Cajun, that’s just how it is, I don’t make the rules.)  While part of me thinks it’d be funny to see Jackson as Nightcrawler because of the tail thing, I think Stiles would be more entertaining.  

He’d make little smoke bomb things to fake the sulfur and brimstone effect of his teleporting.  All the family members with enhanced senses would HATE him because they STANK something fierce, and it LINGERED.  But anytime one of them tried to tackle him to get them away, he’d yell “BAMF!” throw on to the floor and run like hell.  

Jackson would be Iceman so he could make it a crossover costume with the character from Top Gun so he could wear aviators and a leather bomber with his outfit.  Allison could dress like Shadowcat from the early Excalibur run, and she could see if Ben would dress up as Lockheed with her (because that would be adorable).  

Derek would decide that if he can’t be Wolverine and glare angrily at people the whole time, he’ll be Colossus so he can just stare with silent disappointment the whole time.  Scott would decide he wants to be Cable (because “…he just looks so cool…”), so Melissa and Chris would dig through their old hunter gear to help him make his costume.  

Melissa could be Jubilee, and rig up little flash bangs to fake the plasma bursts (unlike Noah she has absolutely no qualms about proving that she can still rock a pair of short shorts.)  Lydia would either be Rogue to show off that SHE at least can manage a believable accent, or Emma Frost for the looks that costume would gain her from Allison.  

Alternatively; both sets of twins argue over who gets to be Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, so they decide that one pair will do the classic comic version, and one will do either the Evolution cartoon version or the MCU version (though they are allowed to switch out the Quicksilver for the other film version if they choose).  

Lydia claims Mystique instead (it’s tempting to make her Banshee, but that seems a bit TOO on the nose), or maybe one of the other Phoenix looks (when I say Phoenix looks I mean Jean’s Phoenix or Dark Phoenix suit from the comics, because I LOVE that outfit), and Ben dresses as Beast (because that would also be adorable).  *finally stops to take another breath*  …umm…so anyway, yeah, as a perennial X-men fan I think it’s safe to say I love this idea, and am so grateful for you putting it in my head…  …sorry about the wall of text, I may have got a little carried away…  …again…

I loved every single sentence of this wall of text, so never apologize. (Although I did break it up a little before posting because that makes it easier to read for other people.

I think all of my ideas for the middle of this fic where either based on questions you, or @artemisa97​ asked me in reviews. So honestly, keep them coming if you want to ask them. They help me determine where the problem areas are, what kind of kinks I need to work out, so honestly, even the sad ones are a great help.

And yeah, I hadn’t looked up their heights yet, I just assumed Peter and Chris were a bit bigger than Noah, but I was delightfully wrong!

I do have one more gem to share, a height comparison of some of the boys and to show you just how tiny Ben is compared to the others.

Blue - Noah (182 cm / 6 ft)

Purple - Chris (177 cm / 5′10)

Red - Peter (178 cm / 5′10)

Yellow - Derek (183 cm / 6 ft)

Green - Ben (111 cm / 3′8)

Turquoise - Jackson (170 cm / 5′7)

Ben’s height is about average for someone between the age of 5 & 6, Jackson’s height is a little on the short side, but I’d imagine that he’d still grow a little until he’s like 20 and end up being around 175/176 cm.

I’d imagine Stiles to be a little taller around 172 cm, Allison is a little shorter at 165 cm and Malia is around 168 cm. (They will all still grow a bit, averaging between 173 (Allison) and 178 (Stiles) )

And the one thing I will say about whether or not Noah gets the twins, without getting too spoilery, or maybe it is, I’m sorry if it is but I can’t help not share.

Is that eventually both Noah and Chris have the same amount of kids from Peter. And one of them has twins. I’m still debating on names, in the deleted scene I named them Mikhail and Adeline, I currently have different names picked out. 

And I think the balance thing is ADD related, because I had the same issue with planning the story XD. So yeah, Peter gets to have a lot of kids, and adopt a lot more into the pack, because Season 2 is kinda canon in this universe, in the sense that Isaac, Erica, and Boyd are still turned. Kira comes along, and of course Lydia. Considering what I have planned for Danny and Mack, I might add them to the pack as well.

And omg I LIVE for those X-men costume ideas <3 Omg. I love it. Considering Stiles’ abilities he would definitely be Nightcrawler and would probably use a quick spell or two to get the makeup in place. (A druid invented this fantastic spell to always get eyeliner on fucking point and shared it in their spellbook. Spoiler alert; said druid was Noah in his teenage punk years. Turns out, it works for other makeup too.)

And I’m in fucking love with all of these ideas actually, I can’t really say which I like more.

#once upon a time comments #ben says stuff #submission #once upon a time spoilers #kinda?

[bigskydreaming]

But what does the economy of Faetown (or specifically the one Scott resides in as there are multiple similar settlements in the world) look like 🤔 These are all young adults who have up and relocated, running from home. Is there a bartering system, which makes sense since they're partly fey

What? Me, including the Fae folklore about their tendencies towards bartering and double-edged favors in almost everything I do? Pfft. What ever would give you that idea. Absurd!

LOL no, but yeah that’s definitely a thing, buuuuut because I do use that so often in so many things I wanted to make sure it was distinct from like….the barter magic system I used for that one Scackson, yknow? The tattoo magic thing.

So pretty much all the Changeling settlements operate off of some form of homegrown/naturally developing quid pro quo exchange. You need something from someone, you offer something in return. If you don’t have anything they need, you get it from someone else first in exchange for something you do have to offer, and so on and so on.

Precisely because most of these are young adults relocating with minimal resources and a lot of them only partway through schooling and such, its intentionally meant to be an unnecessarily, overcomplicated system at times. It differs from one Faetown to the next, but its never totally streamlined or the most efficient process because they’re literally making this stuff up as they go along. They haven’t figured out the most efficient ways to do things yet.

And in every Faetown there are those Changelings that anyone’s pretty much happy to give them whatever they need, for the most part. Kind of a “this person is always welcome to eat here for free” kinda thing, y’know? Because we’re talking about the Changelings who are basically built into the actual infrastructure of these Faetowns themselves, like part of the very reason they exist. So in Bordertown in SF, for instance that’d include Scott, but also the Ferryman, the Rose Garden, that one dragon Changeling and his Rider, etc. The ones whose magic is responsible for the protection and safety of the Faetowns, bringing Changelings to them in the first place, etc.

And then the rest of the Changelings in each settlement basically just put themselves out there and make themselves known as offering or available for whatever products or services their Changes make them best suited towards, in various ways. In Bordertown, there’s a central marketplace right smack dab in the center/most protected part of the town, near Rose’s Garden and the Aerie. But with some kind of Changeling-dug river that cuts straight through the town to it from the docks so the aquatic Changelings who live out there have easy access to it too. And they organically congregate in various clusters or ‘lanes’ of similar type of wares, so to speak.

So for instance, there’s a row of stalls or shops called something idk yet, but like, Answers Alley, something like that. And this is where the various Changelings who traffic in information can be found. 

The diviners, seers, prophets, like Boyd and Alicia…..or the ones that have access to various forms of esoteric or ‘valuable’ information, like that one kid, the Archivist, the one modeled after Aaron idk if you remember. He’s the one whose skin is covered with constantly changing, flowing script like tattoos….writing that appears on his body and is endlessly replaced with new writing day after day. And all of the writing is straight out of various sources of ‘lost’ or destroyed knowledge, like the books or tomes or scrolls destroyed in places like the Library at Alexandria and similar places throughout history. 

And also Lydia and her Whisper Lounge would be on this street, there’s a Changeling who specializes in memory retrieval and another whose Change lets them imbue physical objects with memories or feelings, like imprint them onto the object so anyone who touches it experiences that particular feeling or sees that memory. Etc, etc.

So basically, any Changeling who is looking for some form of information, be it a specific piece of knowledge, a way to check up on someone, finding someone or something that was lost, etc…..they go here and just start working their way down the lane til they find a Changeling who can help with what they need.

At one end of this street, it ends up at the warehouse that was converted into a lair for the dragon Changeling to live in, with the roof removed and replaced with a covering for when it rains but otherwise opens up to the air, so he can fly up and out as needed. But since he’s so huge and the city itself just isn’t really adapted to his needs, he really tends to stay put unless he’s needed somewhere for some reason, like to defend the town or do a warning fly-by overhead if for some reason they think outside forces are thinking of making some kind of attack or incursion. Plus, his metabolism is like, insane, and so he’s fairly sleepy and lethargic a lot of the time anyway, reserving most of his energy for spurts when he needs to be flying and fire-breathing and all that jazz.

Basically, his very presence is a deterrence to a lot of threats and he’s one of the primary defenders of the town, and that’s a contribution in and of itself the rest of the town tends to be very appreciative of. So they always make sure he has plenty to eat, but more than that, like, the big drawback to his size and shape is that he misses out on a lot of day-to-day activities and is limited in where he can go and what he can experience firsthand….his magic and that of his Rider sync up in such a way that like I’ve mentioned, they can see through each other’s eyes and kinda share experiences that way….but along with that, the one big thing about the dragon is that he’s actually fairly young, was early teens at the most when he was Changed, and he loves stories.

And so that’s the reason his lair is located along this particular street….because along with housing him, it ends up becoming like a central gathering place for storytelling and theater, performing arts, etc. Changelings flock here pretty much 24/7 (given that there are as many nocturnal Changelings as there are diurnal), and its basically like….the entertainment hotspot, sprung up around the Changeling who is most land-locked and who most benefits/is ‘compensated’ or appreciated via a constant revolving door of storytellers. Changelings just sharing personal stories or weaving tales out of their journey to Bordertown in the first place, or making up stories and kinda bringing back a resurgence of storytelling as an oral tradition, etc. 

And then pretty much anything related. Here’s where you’d find the Changelings who use illusion magic to make three dimensional movies, shapeshifters reenacting any number of plays, Changeling singers, bands made up of those whose music or art has nothing to do with their Changes, is just their own hobbies and interests separate of that, as well as the Changelings with actual magic that manifests via singing or music in some way.

Then on another street tentatively called Mercy Row, you have the healers. Isaac would eventually end up here once he was settled in, for instance, but also ones like Brett who can purify toxins and poisons, and part of the river/canal would cut across this street so the aquatic Changelings with healing powers could be found here as well. 

Because the aquatic Changelings have such variety and there are some who are just totally undersea 24/7 vs the ones who are more amphibious and can have a presence both underwater and above it, down in the adjacent sub-aquatic settlement by the docks where they all congregate, there’s a separate Market just for the always-underwater Changelings to go to. 

And occasionally there are Changelings here who never go above the surface but have specific Changes or magic that the surface Changelings might need or want to seek out. So for instance, there’s one Changeling in the surface market whose magic lets her produce these pearls…that when held or worn allow an air-breather to survive underwater until the pearl finishes magically dissolving. So between her and some others, there’s a few different ways that surface Changelings can take like, day trips to the underwater village.

At the very heart of the Market, the part that intersects/butts up against the Rose’s Garden, you have the various Changelings with nature magic or elemental Changes. So that’s where they go to trade for most food, with the Garden and its various flora-related Changelings able to grow year round pretty much any fruit or vegetable known to man and a number that aren’t. Plus stalls from the various Changelings who trade in food of various types made or obtained via other kinds of non-plant based magic. And then the various weather workers are gonna be situated here most days they’re at the Market, with them usually to be found up in the Aerie the rest of the time (given that the vast majority of the weather workers are flight capable as well).

And then scattered throughout the various streets and lanes specific to their kind of offerings or services, there are various Changelings whose magic creates or provides the stuff the town as a whole trades with either other settlements or with mainstream humanity - which has as much to do with people leaving them alone and there being no official responses to their presence/settlements as the threats/warning of weaponized Changeling magic acting as a deterrent.

So on one street, Kid Midas has his shop, the gold-skinned Changeling with ruby eyes, who can turn anything into some form of gem or precious metal with just a touch. And sure, there’s the occasional Changeling looking to make or give someone some kind of jewelry or gift, of course there’s a ‘demand’ for his talents in that respect, but honestly not that much of one. Changelings are still for the most part the same as they were before they were Changed, so its not like there’s not still a bunch of them who like jewelry and pretty things as much as anyone, but there’s not a hugely pressing need for those things due to the things that are most prioritized in Bordertown. And its just…not the direction the still forming, still young Changeling society is taking, even as its still being formed day by day. So yes, there’s still plenty of individual Changelings who like the things Kid Midas makes and are willing to trade for them, but nothing he can’t ‘fill to order’ on a day by day basis without breaking a sweat. 

But in contrast, the gems and metals he can make out of anything do still hold quite a bit of value in mainstream society, so he’s one of the primary figures in Faetown providing the various trades they offer people outside Bordertown in order to keep people off their backs. Like, there’s the idea ‘okay but why wouldn’t someone outside just try and have this particular Changeling kidnapped and thus have a constant source of free money’….but the thing is, when the various Changeling settlements first started springing up as central gathering places, and there were skirmishes, and efforts to abduct and exploit individual Changelings….like, the Changelings worldwide made sure to impress upon people that for every Changeling with a ‘valuable’, exploitable Change or magic….there were just as many whose magic was dangerous to others or outright fatal, and many of these Changelings had instinctive defense mechanisms they didn’t even need to be conscious to deploy. 

Like y’know with how the Rose’s skin is like smooth mahogany wood to anyone who touches her with her consent…..but any hand that touches her without permission or being invited to is inevitably going to find itself stabbed by poisonous thorns that can kill with a single prick of the thumb.

So…..there are plenty of Changelings any of the seedier elements of society would love to snatch up and exploit as their own personal golden geese, but there are just as many where anyone who tries that with them, they’re going to regret it. And due to the sheer breadth of Changeling appearances, and how so many of their appearances don’t directly or obviously correlate to their magic……good luck trying to figure out at a glance whose magic is ‘valuable’ and whose is going to kill you if you so much as look at them the wrong way, like the Basilisk and Devil-Eyed Johnny and assorted others. Or Lydia, if she so much as takes off her sunglasses in your vicinity, lol.

All of which means that anonymity is one of their greatest protections. As long as they’re safely within their particular Faetown, and they’re not directly associated with those who go to trade these various valuables with the outside world, some random criminal looking to kidnap the Changeling who makes precious gems and metals wouldn’t even know where to start even if they got someone within Bordertown itself and was able to hunt around looking for which Changeling that might be. Kid Midas is far from the only Changeling whose Change is related to precious minerals or kinda of artistic statuary, etc, and there’s several who look not too dissimilar to him but where touching their skin without permission is just as likely to turn you into a statue yourself.

So basically, as much as different people outside Bordertown gnash their teeth at not being able to just have direct access to any one particular Changeling on their terms, so long as they have something of a pipeline to the valuables they’re being offered in trade on the Changelings’ terms, its counter-productive and not worth the risk to most to possibly end up losing even that and gaining nothing to show for it, if they tried storming Bordertown and either accidentally killed the very Changeling they were looking for, or just ended up driving all of them further underground and into complete hiding instead. Doesn’t mean nobody’s ever tried or isn’t going to at some point, but for now, that status quo is holding.

And as such, even though what Kid Midas has to offer isn’t something that most of Bordertown is hugely interested in or in need of on an individual level, he’s still one of the more crucial Changelings in town, due to his role in keeping their emerging society the way it is and largely autonomous.

And then there are various Changelings whose magic lets them create artifacts or items with different kinds of imbued magic that can be utilized by others, plenty of potion-makers of different types, you’ve got that one Changeling with the magic tears and different kinds of teleporters/transportation magic, so on and so on.

Plus there’s also a thriving black market, since even within Bordertown and the various other Faetowns, there are divisions and internal strife…..plenty of Changelings are far from perfect angels, and as stated, there’s plenty of ways in which Changeling magic can be dark and dangerous and deadly, and there’s obviously a market for those things as well. But obviously none of the Faetowns really have distinct marketplaces or shops dedicated to these things, and its more sort of a ‘you have to know who to find/look for’ kinda thing. So for instance, within Bordertown, we’ve talked about how Theo is the largest presence in that kind of vein, and he has his group he’s gathered around him and they all operate out of that one restaurant he kinda called dibs on in the early days of Bordertown, so that’s where you go if you’re looking for something a bit more ‘frowned upon’ than the wares or services you’d find in the central market. 

I tend to picture Theo’s restaurant as being on the outskirts of what the Changelings have kinda claimed as officially within Bordertown’s borders, making it easy for him and his people to duck in and out of town and meet with people outside the settlement, because they know there’s definitely a market there for them and many of their skills and magic…and they feel pretty safe and confident in doing so, because trying to snatch up one of them just because they’re outside the safety of Bordertown is a bit like having a deathwish. These tend to be among the most deadly of the Changelings and most of them would be more than capable of protecting themselves anywhere….they come to various Faetowns for the community and so they don’t have to constantly fend off attacks, but its not remotely because they can’t. So a number of the Changelings Theo’s surrounded himself with are in high demand as assassins, poison-creators, etc. 

So among these you’ve got like, the Doppelganger, and Garrett with his autonomous shadow, and Tracy’s feathers that allow her to kill people in their dreams and Violet who’s a constantly shifting mix of human flesh and hallucinogenic cloud, almost impossible to keep your eyes on, let alone know where to even aim when trying to kill her or defend against her. 

And last but not least, each of the major living spaces throughout Bordertown have a large floor to ceiling painting in the main area of their home. So like, there’s one in the Aerie, Scott has one in his ‘sheriff’s station’, Lydia pulled some strings and arranged to get one in her bar, as did Theo in his restaurant….Danny’s got one painted in materials expressly meant to be protected from underwater damage, in the heart of the subaquatic village. There’s one in Rose’s Garden, about a dozen others in all, scattered throughout the town and kept in the homes/care of the Changelings who all in all are considered the most influential, well known, most-looked to, and well, powerful and dangerous. They’ve deliberately spaced themselves out throughout the town so there’s one for every several streets or blocks, meaning in an event of an emergency, one of them is in fairly close reach to any and all Changelings and no one has to go far or run for long before reaching one.

The significance of these paintings is they were each painted by a Changeling named Paul, whose magic makes each of them a permanent portal or doorway to the scene/landscape depicted by the painting. They look like ordinary, albeit beautiful paintings, but any Changeling who knows what they are knows that the second they touch it, their own magic will resonate with the Changeling magic imbued in the painting. Which in turn turns it from a two-dimensional image to something that magically gains depth and perspective as the surface of it becomes intangible while the Changeling walks through it, until they emerge out the other side and it becomes just a painting again. 

So each and every one of the paintings in question is an image of another Faetown, somewhere elsewhere in the world. And the unofficial leaders of Bordertown, basically everyone who has one of these paintings, offered the same in trade to any other Faetown that allowed them to paint one of their city/town. To be used as a last resort escape hatch should the Changelings in their town ever need to flee somewhere safe. 

And each of the other Faetowns agreed, and so in return they got their own paintings by Paul, paintings of Faetown….depicting the very rooms that each of these Bordertown residents kept their own paintings in. So that they too could use their own paintings to escape to Bordertown if they needed to instead. By mutual agreement, every Changeling in possession of one of these paintings, across all the various Faetowns that have one now, all agreed that they never change hands from the Changeling they were initially given to, without notifying all the others first. 

Thus, everyone who has one of these paintings acts not just as a guardian of it, ensuring the preservation and safe-keeping of a valuable escape hatch in case of emergency….but by the same token, they act as a first line of defense in case of anyone coming through a painting from the other side, that shouldn’t be. 

Like, just in case worst ever comes to worst, and a Faetown was overrun by hostile forces who somehow found out what the paintings truly were and how they worked, and forced a Changeling to touch one to open up the way to an adjoining Faetown….even if some enemy somehow managed to hijack a painting portal and use it themselves, they’d still be emerging right in full view of basically the very Changelings who are most capable of defending themselves and just destroying any attackers, the second they determined “this is not a Changeling who should be using this doorway.” 

Like, Lydia’s magic makes it pretty much impossible to catch her unaware, thanks to her constant retinue/crowd of Whispers, meaning anyone trying to coopt the portal leading to her bar is likely to find her already waiting for them, just standing there with her arms crossed and sighing because of how tedious this all is….before just taking off her sunglasses and annihilating them all with a look, lolol.

Also, being not just powerful but influential and in a leadership role in their Faetown’s society as well, the caretakers of each of the paintings are also the best positioned to immediately take charge of coordinating and helping Changeling refugees that suddenly start spilling out of the painting in their home without warning.

Anyway, so that’s the basics as of right now….with one addition. So going back to how I said the barter system as they have it right now is somewhat more complicated than it needs to be and can turn into a pretty intricate web of trades upon trades, even favors or debts made to one Changeling just to obtain something that they in turn can trade to the Changeling who has something they actually need?

Well, as I said, that has a lot to do with their ages and the fact that they’re just making this all up as they go along and don’t always have the best idea what they’re doing or anywhere to really look to for precedence.

But only part of it. There’s another way in which the very complexity of these arrangements is entirely intentional, as a kind of….test many of these Faetowns are conducting in concert.

See, like you suggested, it makes sense for the Changelings to naturally fall into a kind of barter system, given that they’re part Fae…..but that begets the chicken or the egg question.

Nobody knows why these particular kids were taken and Changed, let alone by whom or why, though Faeries is just as popular a theory as aliens. And the way so many Changelings seem predisposed to bargains and debts and trades is something others have noted and taken into account and added to their list of why they think Faeries have something to do with it, assuming that the things they can do now really are magic and not just Sufficiently Advanced Technology.

So nobody is oblivious to the possibility of Fae-involvement in this, least of all the Changelings themselves. I mean, there’s a reason Changelings so quickly became the most widely used slang to describe them.

But anyway, even noting they have that common personality trait among them, it still begs the question….which came first? The personality trait or the Change? Meaning….was the fact that they were all already predisposed to things like that, had a certain way of thinking along those lines, was that part of the reason why they in particular were taken and Changed in the first place? Was that part of the criteria for whomever took them, were they looking to Change individuals of certain mindsets, personality types, perhaps those with outlooks or perspectives or ways of thinking similar to the Fae folk of old? 

Or was it the other way around, and this tendency of theirs is an addition or alteration of their pre-existing outlooks and personalities, a Change every bit as much as their physical Changes and magical gifts? The end result of some forces trying to make them more like the Fae, in mind as well as body and magic?

The thing is, even the Changelings themselves don’t know….and they don’t like that. Many of them are constantly looking into their origins, trying to figure out what happened to them, who did it, and to what end, using their magic, combing through ancient lore from various cultures, etc. The one thing most all of them agree on is that they very much don’t like this blindspot hanging over them like a Sword of Damocles. There’s a lot of cynicism in various Faetowns, due to the circumstances that led most of them to run away or seek out a community like them rather than stay where they were in the first place. 

So the popular sentiment is that nobody tends to do things for free, and they’re wary of anyone who has the power to take them and Change them on such a massive scale, worldwide, imbue them with such vast powers themselves in a lot of individuals….without a clue who that anyone might have been and why they did this. What do they want out of the Changelings themselves, or want them to do, because….who knows if its something the Changelings are going to be on board with…or have the power to resist, given the likely power of whomever their unknown ‘benefactors’ might have been.

And in the very early days of the Changeling settlements, when they were first seeking others out and coming together in large numbers, sharing these concerns with each other….their tendencies towards making barters, trades, deals….that definitely was something they’d noticed by now, once they had enough other Changelings to compare and contrast themselves too. Most agreed that they didn’t feel that different in that regard than they had before their Changes, like they felt like the same person as always so they didn’t think it was some new trait transplanted to all their personalities….but they also agreed that with that said, there was a slightly more…intense nature to it now. Not just like they were naturally inclined to barter and make deals and take a quid pro quo outlook to life….but there was a vague….something underlying it now, like an additional instinct almost.

With them also noting to each other, on a related note, that they’d pretty much all universally disliked ever being in someone’s debt…owing someone something….but since they returned Change, there was an added intensity to that tendency of theirs too. It was almost like they each felt an instinctive…revulsion, to the idea of being in someone’s debt. It wasn’t a full on compulsion or anything, it didn’t override their decision making or anything like that….but it was just this gut feeling most of them had that for some reason, it felt unnatural to be in someone’s debt. To owe someone for something. On a bone-deep level, they all seemed to instinctively shy away from that, as though their bodies and minds were warning them for some reason that wasn’t good for them.

And this too matched up with a lot of lore about Fae in various cultures, that part of the whole reason behind Fae gifts was that the Fair Folk can’t stand being in a mortal’s debt, that its a form of powerlessness for them….debts unpaid held some sort of magical significance to them, not just cultural….so they would try and resist or refrain from being in another’s debt by any trickery or other means possible.

So when running through the various possibilities as to the origins of their Changes and who might have done it and why, and what they might want from the Changelings in the long run, like when building their various settlements around the world and birthing their own new and distinct societies….it was agreed this was one of the possibilities at the top of their lists for various reasons, and so they factored that in.

And so the overly complicated barter system and web of favors and bargains and debts they all developed some form of, became a kind of….longterm test and the foundation for a possible defense against their unknown benefactors trying to exert control over them at a later date. Just in case. With the Changelings leaning into offering each other favors, bargains, putting themselves in debt to each other as part of their barter system, just as often as they kept things simple and even one on one trades. 

Like, even though this defied their very instincts, that they all felt that instinctive revulsion each time they made a bargain, agreed they owed another Changeling a favor, bound themselves to another with a promise to come to their aid if they should ever need in the future, in exchange for the other doing this thing for them now….

This offered them two things:

First, it allowed them to use themselves as a kind of group experiment, a trial run testing out how far this dislike of longterm bargains and debts went with them, and what the potential longterm consequences were, of say, having a longstanding debt to another, a favor they’d let go years without paying in full, a promise with no real and definitive end date, etc. They figured they’d rather find out any potential consequences this held for them, by not following their instincts and shying away from these sort of arrangements….like, if anything was going to manifest further down the line as an actual consequence to things like being in someone’s debt or owing someone a favor or promise….

Well, it seemed to all of them it would at least be better to have the individual on the other end of that debt or favor or promise or oath be a member of their own community, in the same boat as them, with mutual understandings that it was in all of their best interests to not try and utilize these hypothetical consequences against them, or exert any power being in each other’s debts held over them, if it turned out to hold real, magical power over them in some fashion.

And secondly, again - they’d been discussing among themselves all along, what would be the potential endgame of their Changes, what would anyone stand to gain from just….bestowing them with all these various magical Changes and abilities, making some of them extraordinarily powerful, with magic that theoretically could be turned on the gift-givers themselves if they ever came calling and wanted something of them that the Changelings did not want to give.

With it occurring to some of them, in these hushed councils among themselves in those very early days post-Change….that suppose favors, bargains and such did hold magical significance for them now, thanks to their Changes and their own magic. Suppose that being in someone’s debt was something they instinctively felt resistant to, that it was best to shy away from if at all possible…..that like those stories about the Fae Folk, debts could be a kind of binding, that owing someone or something could turn into an obligation to see them paid back in full for whatever they’d given you first... 

That because they were in some way or to some degree part Fae themselves now, assuming that there was some connection between them and whatever beings were chronicled in these old legends and stories…..that their new Fae natures were the part of them that was trying to tell them body and mind that they absolutely did not want to be bound to anyone, be obligated, to owe anyone in some form...

Because, following that train of thought….if that were true to any degree, on any level….imagine some beings of some kind imbued you with great powers, magic and Changes that made you stand out as different, but also made it possible to find others like yourself, form communities of yourselves, pool your various magics to decisively protect yourselves from those who would seek to harm or exploit you because of your new gifts. Gifts which you in concert with others like you could use to further empower yourselves and build lives and communities for yourselves that left you vastly better off than you were before, or would be without them. Given that all of you that found yourselves Changed still only wound up having to leave home and seek out others like yourselves because your home was less than inviting to begin with, and actively hostile or apathetic after your Change was revealed.

Well, they concluded, if those beings were to then just sit back and wait while you utilized the gifts they’d given you to empower yourselves and enrich your own lives, build communities far more to your benefit than those which you came from…..

It seemed the longer those beings waited before revealing themselves, the more you became accustomed to using their gifts and becoming one with them, just as you became more accustomed to being one with your new communities….the more you felt grateful for being who you were now, post-Change, with your true potential revealed, with your magic making you autonomous, capable and powerful, with your community now one you couldn’t imagine being without….

The more in debt you would end up being to these mysterious gift-givers.

And once someone arrived at that conclusion, the mere possibility of it was unsettling to every single Changeling who heard it theorized. It wasn’t at all an implausible scenario, even if they certainly couldn’t prove it true or rule out other possibilities….but they pretty much all agreed it was a possibility they had to prepare for…..because if it did turn out to be realized, if being in these beings’ debt did end up binding them to them, making them obligated to them….well, how would they be able to fight or resist that? 

It wasn’t like they could pretend they hadn’t already been given great gifts via their new magic, or like they could just refuse to use these gifts, especially since many of them were needed in order to defend or protect themselves from those who viewed them as targets or prey because of their Changes, many of which weren’t easy to hide.

And so they eventually came up with their ‘overly complicated’ barter system with its sometimes completely unnecessary web of bargains, promises, favors and debts owed all throughout their communities, seemingly baffling in its complexity and intricacies…all while leaning into these natural or amped up tendencies towards barters and bargains and just with the spillage over into the unnatural debts and binding promises plausibly seeming to be just the unintentional results of their youth and lack of knowledge or experience with such matters.

While in reality….the Changelings have this whole time been using their barter system and promises and debts to each other to quietly test their own natures and possible ramifications these things had on their magic…..trying to little by little feel their way through the ins and outs of the ‘rules’ that might come with or govern the magic they’d been given without an actual manual to go along with it. Using themselves to test the limits of their magic-imbued bargains and how far they could stretch things….and to practice the trickery the Fae in all the old stories so often employed to try and weasel their way out of their debts or promises.

And underlying all else….their ultimate Hail Mary, should their mysterious benefactors ever appear at some point and try and exert power over them by ‘calling in their unpaid debts’ for the gifts given to them,’ cite that as proof the Changelings all owed them their allegiance or obedience and potentially back that up with magical compulsions or bindings….

Because should that day ever arrive, the Changelings of various Faetowns all across the world were prepared to fight anyone trying to claim they owed them anything, for gifts they’d never asked for and certainly hadn’t been offered guidance on how to make the most of, even while they’d been made targets just for having them….

And their weapon of choice for fighting any possible coercion later down the line, any claims towards owing mystical unpaid obligations….

Was to be prepared to have counterclaims in place to push back with….to weaken the hold initial and unasked for debts held over them….by drawing upon the strength of the bonds and favors, promises made and debts owed….

To each other. Members of their own communities. To their communities as a whole.

So at the end of the day, the barter system isn’t just their quid pro quo arrangement that acts as their own particular version of their economy.

Its also their protective armor of obligations they willingly and with full knowledge of what it meant, made to each other and their communities.

That they were prepared to uphold as more powerful, binding, and compelling than any other debts others tried to hold over their heads. Try and call in past favors we owe you all you want, they decided in regards to their mysterious ‘benefactors’ years ago. Guess we’ll see how much weight that holds compared to what we owe each other, who have been right here at our sides helping us, building with us, the whole time.

#changelings 'verse

[sporadic-writer]

The bold and beautiful

Bucky x Reader, Sam x Reader(sorta)

Warnings - some light swearing, slight angst, mainly fluff and such, it's meant to be sweet I promise

Summary - you feel broken and shot down, but your true man picks up the pieces (wow that sounds cheesy lol sorry 😅)

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Your bold. You say what you want and don't filter yourself often. People made you feel like shit in the past, but being with the Avengers now helped you be stronger and more confident. Plus, you were a mutant, which made you very cool in their eyes. Your telekinetic and telepathic powers were something you were born with, not developed like Wanda's. You are a unique individual in their eyes, but you know you are too.

You are close with everyone, even the non-residents like Clint and Scott. They appreciate your style, sarcasm, and toughness. Training is always interesting, and you work in the bio labs with Bruce and Tony, even though is your own research and more animal-based. But no one had any serious or harsh complaints about you, or so you thought.

Sam Wilson was just as cheeky as you. He kept up with your humor and wit while still keeping you on your toes. You could say you developed a crush on him. He was handsom, kind, and made you laugh. Aside from Bucky and the scientists, he was the only guy you were really close with. The girls and you are classic best friends. You tell each other everything and always do your cliche girly activities together. But Sam.. Sam had a bit more of your attention. You went out of your way to hang out with him. Or you found subtle ways to flirt harmlessly and gain his attention.

"You gonna grow a pair and tell him today?" Wanda asks while painting her toes. She smirks at Nat while you roll your eyes.

With a chuckle you respond, "Actually yeah. I have been prepping the right words in my head for a while now and I'm going to ask if he wants to go get drinks Friday night."

Nat and Wanda look at you increduously. "Hold up. I was teasing you. You're really asking him out?" You nod and give an mhmm back to her.

"Haha damn girl! Look at you go. When is the big moment happening?" Natasha asked with curiosity.

"Uhh probs after dinner tonight, before we all end up together in the media room." The nervous bubbles in your body were pushed down. You were young, but not a child. If you liked the guy, you finally need to do something about it.

"Good timing. I'll make sure he is in the kitchen when you're cleaning up."

"Wanda you don't need to do that." She said nonsense and it will make your gesture easier. You shrugged and summonded your phone to your hand from the side table a few feet away.

"Well I just noticed I have to be in the lab in 5 minutes. A nerds job is never done. I will update you after I ask him!" You walk out of the room towards the elevator, you passed Bucky and Tony, talking about his arm. Both smile and say hi to you while Tony jokes about not paying you to be late for work. You tell him to get the stick out of his ass and keep walking as the men laugh.

You get to the lab's floor, passing one of the training rooms on the way. You hear Sam with Steve and Peter all chatting lightly and normally. Usually, you don't listen in on conversations, but some words caught your interest.

"Yeah she said yes so I'm thinking we will go get dinner or something." Sam said and you suddenly felt small. Without realizing it you felt a hit of his thoughts in your own mind. He was geniunly excited.

You hear Steve say a supportive response. Something along the lines of how exciting it is. He made a joke about pulling the 'Avengers card' to get her. But Peter mentioning you kept your chuckle away and feet in place.

"I thought you and Y/N were a thing?" You could hear the confusion in his voice. And your heart raced awaiting the reply.

"What? Nah kid. She and I are like best friends. We are almost the same person. It'd be weird. Plus lately she's been kinda clingly. I see her all the time when she isn't in the lab. I don't really mind it, because it's Y/N, but going out with this chick will give me a nice reprieve." You could hear in his voice that he was not meaning any hatred towards you, but it still stung. You never thought you were being clingly? You did not even think you were hanging with him more than usual. However, you sulked away quickly before accidentally popping into the men's minds or making your presence known in any other fashion. You just went to the lab to play music, do your work, and distract yourself from the outside world.

Dinner rolled around eventually and you tried to act normal, but it was hard. The girls and Bucky noticed you were quieter than usual. You were in your own head and distracted from the people around you. Nat and Wanda assumed it was you prepping for the moment you ask Sam out. However, they werr really confused when you never came back to the media room. Sam and Bucky walked out and the girls asked where you were.

"Um I don't know. She cleaned up while we were getting beers then headed towards the elevator." Sam said to them. They asked if you said anything and said no and added you seemed slightly quieter.

Wanda sighed and looked to the men. "Well did you say something to upset her?"

Bucky shook his head and repsonded, "No we were just talking about Sam's date Friday." He shrugged and watched the two ladies' faces change subtly while dismissing the men and Sam walked off. But Bucky trailed behind.

"What's going on?" He knew they knew something.

They looked at each other before explaining to him that you were going to ask him out. He ignored the pang of jealousy and focused on the matter at hand.

"But that doesn't explain why she barely spoke tonight. She hardly even looked at him tonight. She seemed reserved." Bucky knew something else was at play here. It took a lot to shut you up like this.

"I might know about that" Steve's voice came from the doorway. "He said he felt she was being clingy. It wasn't said with distain or any dislike of Y/N, but she must have heard somehow."

"So now she's hurt and questioning herself... I am going to beat him I swear!" Bucky clenched his fist. While Nat told him to calm down.

"Just go find her. We will deal with Sam when that time comes." Nat spoke to him in a serious tone. He just moved Steve out of the way to find you.

Walking down the hall to your room he groaned when he found it empty. After asking F.R.I.D.A.Y where you were, he headed to the gym.

You had music playing and your face was red from running on the treadmill. Bucky walked up, noting how your expression was not as bright as it usually was. As he approached, you took notice of him and slowed down. Your ringed hand flicked and he heard the stereo click off. You kept walking but looked at him and asked what was going on. He noticed that you were trying very hard to sound normal, but it didn't fool him.

"I know what happened with Sam. Don't fight me on it, the girls told me what happened." His tone was soft but strong and you knew to just roll with it.

"So why are you here? I just want to be alone right now." You looked defeated. You just wanted to be alone in self pity for a while until you got over all this nonsense.

The man look at you and shook his head. "Do not break and change your view on yourself just because Sam his a moron. Not having you talk and joke at dinner, you not being you? It really sucked seeing that. Nothing should do that. Sam's isn't good enough to have you like that anyway." He mumbled the last part a bit, but you caught it in the end.

Rolling your eyes you spoke back to him. "And you are? Bucky I just need to give everyone a break from me. I can be a lot, I get it. It's fine! Please just let me sulk in pea-."

Him pulling you in for a kiss shut you up easily. You put your hands on his chest and shoulder and kissed back. He hummed lightly at your reciprocation and pulled you close. In your heart and gut, flutters and sparks went mad. Your head spun a bit from running and these pleasant feelings suddenly surfacing.

As he pulled away he saw your small but happily shocked expression. His voice was soft as he spoke.

"You are too bold and beautiful to not let everyone see it. I always got jealous Sam was the one guy you hung out with most, but I have also always really really liked you and let you be happy. I don't mean to make a move right after all that happened, but I needed you to know that one person for sure appreciates who you are." Your hands were still on him, and you felt those broken bits in your chest come back together. With bright eyes you looked up at him and pecked his lips again quickly.

"Well then. Since your ass took so long to tell me you liked me, you pay for drinks Friday night." He chuckled and his hands around you squeezed you a bit in a playful manner. "But now I wanna go sit in the back of the media room with you. The others can slowly realize what is going on all on their own."

He smiled at you, "That works for me darlin. I kinda want to show Sam what he's missing."

"Play nice!" Your tone was light, knowing he wouldn't be rude. You still wanted to have some fun though. "Buut... I never said we couldn't make out or fool around a tad while in the back of the room." As you grabbed his hand you winked at him.

"Babe that sounds perfect." He held the door open for you and lightly smacked your butt as you walked out. You geniunly laughing in response made him know for sure you were a gem never to be let go of.

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