#They cut this line down from its original context and then cut it entirely

[seasaltandcopper]

vampire hunter AU Pt 3

[Prev]

Summary: Teddy takes a moment alone with Mal. She and Will talk on the drive home.

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Profanity, (implied) torture, violence, manhandling, dehumanization

The truck’s headlights cut a swath through the darkness, spilling across chalky gravel, stubborn weeds, and jagged chips of concrete. Moths and bugs flit through the light, throwing flickering shadows as they knocked against the bumper of the vehicle, and pinged gently off its hood.

Out in the dark, past the lights of the truck and the old factory, beyond the high, razor-wire topped walls, a pack of coyotes yipped and howled. Crickets and frogs sang their nightly lullabies. Critters screeched.

A nice, mild summer night. Routine. Almost peaceful.

Teddy glanced to the side, giving the vampire another look over as she steered him towards the truck. Mal kept his head down as he stumbled along, every few steps needing her to tighten her grip when he didn’t lift a foot high enough and caught it on the loose gravel, either tripping himself or sending it skittering off into the dark.

It looked like the effort of even walking this far was about to put him on the ground. Or maybe the gravel just hurt his feet.

Boo-fucking-hoo.

When Teddy looked closer though, she noticed the dark red smudges trailing behind him, only visible because the loose rock out here was a dusty, powdery white.

She sighed. Even if this shit was rough to walk on barefoot, it shouldn’t cut him up that bad in such a short distance. Another lingering token of the hunters' hospitality, probably. Teddy briefly wondered if he’d tried to run recently and they’d taken steps to make it a little harder if he got it into his head to try again.

He didn’t look like a flight risk. But Teddy gleaned enough from the past half hour to agree with Brooks’ original assessment: Mal wasn’t broken. Not all the way; not permanently.

Not yet.

Teddy sighed again, face rearranging into something less pensive and more irritable. “Something wrong with your feet?”

Head raising so fast it might’ve been attached to a pull-string, Mal pushed out a sharp breath through his nose. Anyone else, any other context, Teddy would’ve called it amused; she didn't know what to call it with him.

He shook his head, brows pulled together in a deep line. “No,” Mal lied, voice hoarse from disuse. He swallowed, and tacked on a more automatic sounding, “Uhm—no, sir.”

Sir, huh?

Well, Teddy wouldn’t argue with that. It sent a weird, tingling thrill all the way down to her fingertips, like grabbing hold of a live wire. Wrong in the same way it felt right, the intoxicating high of knowing you had your oldest enemy completely under your thumb.

No wonder vampires got so drunk on that kind of power.

Uninterested in pressing him for the truth—anything and everything she wanted to know she’d get out of him later—Teddy gave Mal another firm tug, and pulled him to a stop beside the old, white appliance truck.

The open bed in the back was crammed full of various tools and equipment and (mostly Will’s) junk, but a good third of the space was taken up by a white, chest style freezer.

Not the fanciest transport, but for the hunter on a budget, it’d do just fine. Secure, for her peace of mind, and sun proof, for the vampire’s. Supposedly they felt safer in small, dark places, which had led to the whole coffin-sleeping myth in the first place. Regardless, Mal would be safe on the hours-long ride back, even if it was a tight fit. He might even enjoy the chance to rest, which was sure as hell more than he deserved.

Climbing into the back, Teddy reached down to pull Mal up after her, and hauled him bodily into the truck bed with surprising ease. He grunted as he landed hard on his knees, Teddy’s iron grip around his arm the only thing keeping him from eating shit.

The side of Mal’s jaw ticked, like he was biting down on something, but he stayed bizarrely quiet. Just like he’d been the entire time. The Mal she remembered had never shut up; it was disconcerting to see him rendered practically mute.

Whispering unease slipped through Teddy’s ribs like a cold wind through bare tree branches. It rattled and sighed with the voice of doubt. She shook her head and let it pass. Grimaced.

No, it was him. It had to be him. The tip, everything the hunters here confirmed over the call, even his own reaction to the name was all but proof.

But—

You’d feel pretty damn silly if you went through all this trouble and got home with the wrong guy.

“Alright, stop,” Teddy ordered, halting the vampire before he could get up off his knees. He’d been staring at the freezer uneasily, but one word was enough for his attention to snap back to her. “Hold still. I wanna get a better look at you.”

Reaching down, Teddy cupped his jaw, tilting his head back so they were staring eye to eye. She felt the subtle flinch, the way Mal’s whole body seemed to pull taut at the contact, how badly he obviously wanted her hands off him.

But other than the flare of nostrils as he pulled in a breath, he maintained a surprisingly good poker face. No fighting, no struggling. Not even a peep of sass.

Teddy grimaced again at the tackiness of Mal’s skin, built up residue of god knew what covering him. Patchy stubble scratched at her fingertips. She brushed loose strands of hair out of his face, roughly tugged a couple chunks free where’d they’d caught under the muzzle straps, ignoring his wince.

His hair looked longer than she remembered, hanging just past his jaw. Uneven in places, like he’d lost patches of it at some point, and was only partly regrown. With all the filth, the color was indiscernible—it could’ve been red. Or anything from medium blond to brown originally. And if he had freckles, Teddy sure as hell couldn’t see them beneath the filth.

Eugh.

A sigh. “Mal,” Teddy said, like she was testing the name against some metric. “You are Mal, right?”

She felt his throat work as he swallowed. The look he gave her reminded Teddy of a wild animal, caught in a trap. Slowly, Mal nodded. Then managed a raspy, “Who—who are you?”

“Teddy,” she answered flatly. A steel bite undercut the words. “But you know what, I kinda like the sound of “Sir”, so let’s stick with that.”

She noted the complete lack of recognition at the drop of her name. Mild confusion that seamlessly melted into acceptance, hastily buried under a glaze of apathy. Another jerky little nod at the second half of her statement.

Something about it pissed Teddy off; the surge of her own fury took her by surprise, capsizing her better judgment before she could reign in her temper.

Fingers curling, she dug her nails savagely into Mal’s jaw, wrenching his head back until she felt the tendons in his neck straining at the angle, needing—something. A real reaction. Anger, pain, fear, it didn’t matter, Teddy just needed to know the monster still felt something the way she did, some dim reflection of the turmoil raging inside her like a storm.

Mal made a sound, quiet, against her hand. He wasn’t looking at her with apathy now. Blinded by her own rage, all Teddy could think was that it wasn’t enough.

Both of them shook. Little tremors traveled between them seamlessly, like an electric current.

Just get him home, a more sensible part of herself insisted, you’re so close, don’t blow it all now for a cheap shot.

Teeth grinding, Teddy stared down, wild eyed at her captive.

Shit.

Teddy released Mal abruptly, shoving him away from her. He landed hard, metal rattling against the truck bed. “Just go.” A disgusted noise rumbled in her throat, and she scrubbed the hand clean on her dark jeans. “Fucking leech bastard.”

Rising, Teddy pulled Mal along with her to the freezer, ignoring his startled yelp and the clatter of limbs hitting the truck bed as he tried to help rather than simply get dragged. He ended up on his side, slumped against the freezer, wide-eyed and staring up at her.

“But you wanna know who I am—?” Shoving open the lid, Teddy paused long enough to answer Mal’s question. “I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”

Teddy pushed out a rough sigh and slammed the driver’s side door closed behind her. Both hands braced against the wheel to stop them from shaking. She curled them around worn, familiar plastic, tightening her grip until it creaked, and the crisscross of white and pink scars stood out across the backs of her hands like lines on a map.

Her pulse slammed in her own ears. Too loud. Something under her ribs ached, like a stitch in her side from running too long.

Ten years. Ten fucking years.

And a whole damn lifetime of nightmares, jumping at shadows, wondering if she’d ever get closure for any of it.

Slouched quietly in the passenger’s seat, Will tapped out a cigarette and the world finally shook itself back into some kind of order. She waited for the familiar flickflickflick of his lighter, the sharp burn of tobacco and paper, before breaking the silence.

Rituals, Teddy came to realize over the years, were important. There was a reason magic thrived on them, that countless human societies were structured around them. Even mundane ones carried weight.

She breathed in deeply, taking comfort in the familiar burn of secondhand smoke. Let it out again, slow and controlled.

“Yeah, it’s Mal,” she said. The words came from someone else’s mouth. “Son of a bitch didn’t recognize me, but I got that much out of him. Shit.”

Teddy wished she’d kicked him in the teeth before locking him up. Given the bloodsucker something to think about on the ride home.

She’d stayed calm until her slip a moment ago. Cool, collected, distanced from it all—outwardly, at least. But once she gave it some slack, the dam keeping all those ugly emotions and nearly thirty years of pain and fear-fueled rage at bay started to crack.

“Dude looked pretty messed up already.” Spoken as mellow and unruffled as everything else that came out of Will’s mouth. He took a drag and blew the smoke out the window, one long, thin stream. “Guess these guys had him for a while, huh?”

Something sharp edged into Teddy’s voice. “I don’t give a shit what those hunters did to him.” She held the wheel in a death grip. “Hell, whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. That isn’t even close to what that leech deserves, not after what they did to us.”

Briefly, her gaze slid sideways, settling on Will. Unlike Teddy, he rarely bothered to hide his scars. On a warm night like this, a t-shirt left plenty of exposed skin. All of it told a story.

An ugly, bloody one.

Dozens of bite scars crawled from his wrists up past the crook of his elbows. More bloomed from beneath the neck of his shirt. And those were just the ones she could see—

Teddy sneered, then buckled her seatbelt. She threw the truck in drive and pulled out, flinging gravel and fishtailing for a second before she regained control. She flicked a salute to the hunters at the gate as they waved her through.

Humming in annoyance as the abrupt acceleration knocked a clump of ash loose onto his shirt, Will grimaced and brushed at it. It smudged, gray crushing into the warm yellow fabric.

“Jeeze, Teddy, ease off a little.” Sighing, Will abandoned the effort to save his shirt. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I know why you need this.” Even if Will didn’t.

But he got it, and no matter how gruesome or bloody a path Teddy chose to walk, Will followed. She had no doubt he’d follow her to hell and back, something that brought equal parts reassurance and guilt these days.

Teddy knew all of that. Just like they both knew it wasn’t really him she was mad at. “Yeah. Sorry.”

Forcing herself to ease off the accelerator, Teddy fixed her gaze out the front windshield. Now that they’d passed out of the compound, the sky opened up overhead. Like the ceiling of a black cathedral, speckled with thousands of points of dim, distant light.

Here, in the swath of no man’s land between established territories, very few dedicated settlements persisted—human or vampire. Just hunters, lone wolf types without a coven to claim them, and a handful of civilians too stubborn to leave their homesteads, preferring to protect their land or die trying.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Just quiet. Dark. Empty.

Things most humans feared. Things that had frighted Teddy once, too, but didn’t anymore.

“Whoa, Teddy, check it out—you can see the Milky Way tonight. Awesome.”

Pushing out an amused snort, she glanced over at Will. “You can always see the Milky Way out here.”

“Not when it’s cloudy,” Will pointed out brightly, grinning. “Or raining.”

“Right.” A good natured roll of her eyes, and Teddy leaned back into her seat. Relaxed the white knuckled grip she’d had on the wheel and pulled off the gravel road onto a proper paved one.

Little tremors still zipped down her arms, but the distraction kept the threat of spiraling into darker memories at bay.

Picking a thumbnail at the wheel, Teddy kept her eyes on the road as she said, “Thanks. For staying.” For everything.

Nothing would go back to the way it was before. The kids they’d been, all those years ago, were dead and buried. Even vengeance couldn’t change that.

But maybe closure could give them a better future to look forward to, after.

Smiling, Will slouched lower in his seat and flipped on the radio. Only a couple stations reached out this far, and of those two only one played music. Old country. Blues. Folk songs that had a distant crackle to them even without the fuzz of interference.

Will’s easy-going chuckle drifted over the crooning of a singer who'd died before they were born. “Well, someone’s gotta keep an eye on you.”

AN: those of you who saw the teaser I posted a while back might be wondering where that went, and the answer is the second half of chapter three is now becoming chapter four because this is already so long lol

I want to lay the ground work now though, and start establishing these characters properly. Even if that means taking a little more time.

Taglist: @whumpsday @writereleaserepeat @thecyrulik @lookbluesoup @cinnamon-roll-whump @whumpwillow @bloodinkandashes @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump

#whump #vampire whump #vampire whumpee #whumper turned whumpee #vampire hunter au #my writing #salt ocs #salt oc: mal #salt oc: teddy #salt oc: will

[colloquialcolors]

gonna write a fucking post about the Winter TLOU section and episode 8 because what ELSE am I supposed to do after witnessing that huh.

As someone very very pleased overall with the adaptation from the game to the show, something I have missed a little is, oddly enough- the hard cuts to black and time jumps after emotionally harrowing sequences or intense moments. After Henry and Sam's deaths. Joel collapsing outside the university. This episode, though, made something about that choice click into place.

For more context- in the game, this section comes immediately after Joel's fall and unconsciousness. The entire section with Riley and Ellie panicking was DLC, meaning the original flow of the story does not provide you with that context, and you might miss it entirely. Instead, the game cuts to black as Joel goes unsconscious with Ellie pleading above him-

and you get the title card. WINTER. It was not winter before. And you are Ellie, hunting. You have been playing this whole game as Joel thus far, and you suddenly, after all that chaos, are Ellie. Hunting in a white blanketed forest. Lighter, quieter, agile and a far cry from the girl yelling, panicked, above Joel.

And this Ellie is capable, at hunting- she already has a rabbit or two, and has just shot another- when she spots the deer, she has some idea of how to track and take it down (hindered mostly by us, the player, adjusting to controlling her). Until the encounter with David, where Ellie asks a little desperately about medicine, you have no inkling on if Joel is even alive, and Ellie being so capable is almost its own negative indicator. As the section wears on, Ellie does a lot more killing in game than she does here- she stabs a nonzero amount of clickers, zombies, and people in the neck during various navigation and escape scenes, shoots the rifle and the bow (miss u bow) with her own kind of proficiency, and reflects many things you have to assume she learned from Joel. The game medium lends itself well to a certain level of capability, of course- even for 14 year olds with bloodied hands.

While the hard cuts to black provide a gut punch I do miss a bit, getting rid of those allows the show to fill in some gaps- especially about these characters in their weak moments, low moments, after the dust has settled and they need to pick themselves up again. It does a lot in humanizing them. Shows them rattled and uncertain and shaken and mourning, instead of dropping us back in after they've picked back up their broken pieces, given the dignity of speculation.

Ellie, especially, is more scared here- more uncertain, more shaky, playacting as Joel rather than successfully emulating him. There is no hard cut where we get to assume Ellie has scraped things together and settled in it. We see her fear, playing out, see her desperation firsthand, before she even sets back out. She is so young. She was young, in the game too, but it is driven home in new and more intense ways, here. She is so profoundly out of her depth.

The uncertainty makes these same victories hit harder, too. Ellie, terrified and horrified and angry, sassing back. Ellie with realization and fear dawning- making the play for the keys, snapping his finger. "Tell them Ellie is the little girl who broke your fucking finger." Ellie, telling him- I'm infected, and now you are too. So many of these lines and scenes are almost verbatim, but it lands differently, with this different context, with an Ellie who is much less sure but still so lethal.

Less, and more. David's entire Fucking Pedophile Shit deal was much less prominent, in game. The overtness of it made things so much worse. So much scarier. Bella's delivery of Ellie's yells and reactions carry an edge of panic, of fear, of raw emotion, brings a scene that was always at 150% up to 300%, until Ellie, screaming, swinging down the knife is an almost physical, visceral catharsis.

In the game, Joel finds here there- pulls her off, pulls her into a hug after she fights him for a moment, the music swelling to give their words to each other privacy as they lock gazes and speak. Here- Ellie pulls herself back to reality. She finishes her catharsis. She realizes, on her own, face spattered with blood, what she's done. She stumbles from the smoke to the clean outside under her own power, on her own.

When Joel grabs her- she fights, there is such audible rage and horror and fear, and it hurts more, it cuts deeper, understanding that fear, the depth of it. Before he spins her around, and the comfort scene is only half a minute longer, but there is so much more to it- more that led up to it, and more in the moment, of Ellie's gaze going from panicked to unbelieving to weak with relief to something heavier.

So few cut aways in the show. no dignity of a timeskip and implied fractures, just bleeding characters, holding onto each other in the snow.

#this is allegedly a meta but mostly for me to store my love 4 the winter sequence and capture my thoughts right after the ep #sysfandoming #tlou #the last of us #the last of hs hbo #tlou spoilers #the last of us spoilers #the last of hs hbo spoilers #tlou hbo #idk how to tag this #hmmmmmm. #tlou episode 8 #WHAT AN EPISODE!!! HOT DAMN! WILL REWATCH ONCE I'M SURE I'LL SURVIVE IT.

[decepti-thots]

OHOHOHO. I am always ready to help enable someone's reread, anon!

The way I'm gonna do this I think is, I'll put down a list of what I think is worth reading if you want to follow the IDW Prowl arc in a way that hits the main beats that wind up paying off in retrospect, with the luxury of examining the entire continuity from the vantage point of it being complete.

I'll also mark some of this stuff as "optional". Some of this is optional because it is not very relevant to the overall arc, or is out of sync with later depictions in some way; some of it is frankly just optional because it's bad, and forcing yourself to read endless shit TF comics is something that should never be demanded of anyone with limited time on this Earth if you aren't the kinda freak who wants to. LMAO.

Finally: I'm gonna write this as though it's for someone totally new to the whole thing. Because that way I can have fun infodumping. Hehe.

Below the cut is an excessively long explanation of what I would suggest and why. But the short, just-a-list version is:

[OPTIONAL] Transformers: Infiltration Spotlight: Kup [OPTIONAL] 99% of All Hail Megatron All Hail Megatron #15 specifically Last Stand of the Wreckers [OPTIONAL] Read all of Costa's run on the ongoing (#1-#31), inflicting horrific psychic damage on yourself Read just issues #8, #25-29 and Spotlight: Prowl The Death of Optimus Prime The early MTMTE Prowl stuff (#1, all of Shadowplay, #14) Robots in Disguise ("exRiD") in full Combiner Wars crossover event Sins of the Wreckers Titans Return crossover event [OPTIONAL] Requiem of the Wreckers Optimus Prime ongoing issues #1-7, #13-14, #22 Unicron (+ Optimus Prime #25)

[OPTIONAL] Transformers: Infiltration

Up front: Infiltration is a miniseries that is mediocre at its best and pretty bad at its worst IMO. It is, yanno. A Simon Furman comic, so.

Why am I putting this here anyway? One, it's the literal start of the IDW continuity and contains a shitton of stuff that will go on to be referenced through even comics like MTMTE. Two, it establishes Verity's character, which is obviously relevant for Wreckers later for our purposes here- and more specifically how she and Prowl actually know each other, which gives some context to their interactions. And three, it establishes the "original" Prowl characterization for IDW1, prior to Roche coming in and mucking about with him later on. Rather than be something which later retcons and developments undermine completely, this is more something where if you've been reading from the start, it makes it feel a bit less weird that every other character isn't constantly going 'why the fuck would we trust Prowl, though'. You get a sense of like 'oh OK, he was being Fucking Normal around them', haha.

Spotlight: Kup

Prowl is actually barely in this page time wise, but it still has big implications for stuff later down the line by way of setting stuff up, and since it is 1) only a single issue and 2) Actually Fucking Good, I'm putting it in. This issue works to help set up the eventual Prowl characterization we get, as well as his ties to both Springer and Kup. (Actually, I would generally say that if you've read Wreckers but not this, go back and give it a read, as it contextualizes a lot for the relationship between those three!)

[OPTIONAL] 99% of All Hail Megatron

This is a similar thing to Infiltration, really. Prowl is in it somewhat, it helps establish a kind of baseline characterization for him at this point in the comics. None of it is super important down the line but it gives more context if you want it for some later choices, and there's a few bits that establish stuff like e.g. his unpopularity with certain segments of the Autobots, that sort of thing. Also uhhh. Spike is in it! Y…ay. But I mean, he WILL be unavoidable in this overall trajectory; and he starts off here.

You can skip it though. Or skim it; again, it's soooo goddamn LONG. Sigh. You know, this series was what was coming out when I got into TF, it put me off IDW for years, hah.

All Hail Megatron #15, specifically

The one bit that's not optional because this is where his entire post-AHM characterization hinges, basically. The first half of this issue, which contains two 'coda' stories, is basically just one long inner monologue of Prowl showing himself to be someone who lies his ass off and manipulates people around him using his position and resources to do whatever he thinks is necessary, and it sets up a major plot point in Sins of the Wreckers with Kup and Springer. So, this is where Prowl goes from being kinda an asshole interpersonally to actually a war crimes man in-canon, haha. …well uh, sort of… we'll get to that later.

Last Stand of the Wreckers

Duh. He's not in this one as much as its sequel but this is still the first 'full' story to explore the version of Prowl detailed above and to cement him. He's an ambiguous little asshole whose presence in this story is less rooted in how much he shows up on the page proper, and more in how much his actions ripple out to effect other people.

Also like. Last Stand is great, it's just a good comic! Treat yourself to a (re)read sometime. Especially with the extras and the like.=

[OPTIONAL] Read all of Costa's run on the ongoing (#1-#31), inflicting horrific psychic damage on yourself

Prowl is in Costa's run of TF and it ties in to the above, sometimes controversially! It seems he was something of an author's favourite, honestly. Anyway it's awful. Actually doing this is a terrible idea. Costa's run of TF sucks so bad it actually kind of fascinates me, but 31 issues of terrible, badly-paced comics is way too much for most people, and rightly so.

The thing is though, Barber DOES pick up on stuff from this run in his exRiD stuff. He often makes sure to try and reintroduce it so you don't have to have read the Costa run to get it, but there genuinely is more stuff in there than you might assume given how much the fandom as a whole would go on to mostly just sort of ignore it. This includes with Prowl, who Costa seems to have latched on to a bit.

Of course, mooost of this run isn't about Prowl. So instead of doing a whole re-read, you can just read…

Read just issues #8, #25-29 and Spotlight: Prowl

Issue #8 is not actually an issue with Prowl in it. It's the issue where Spike kills Scrapper. This matters both because it gets picked up in Costa's run later, and also because Barber is gonna lean hard on a storytelling opportunity for this in early exRiD. Also, this issue is really awful, but will instill in you a loathing of IDW Spike that I think is part of being a well rounded person.

Spotlight: Prowl also sucks. It's basically a comic that exists because Costa didn't want to write the new Prowl characterization but everyone got mad he retconned it for his comic, because the Roche take from AHM's coda was wayyyy more popular than Costa's 'idealistic sort-of-noir-ish-not-really cop' take. Spotlight: Prowl tries to give an in-universe explanation for Prowl's complete personality 180 by giving us a story about how Humans Are Super Special or whatever. However, Barber doesn't retcon it, and in fact will treat this as an important if brief moment in Prowl's life in exRiD.

Issues #25-#29 are the 'Police Action' storyline which involves Prowl finding out about the above murder and confronting Spike about it. This betrayal will be something Barber also leans into very hard, though he's gonna recontextualize it a bit. Similar to the above, all this stuff is gonna get mixed up by Barber into a big old 'Prowl's having Issues around projecting his hopes for being better onto humans and getting burned' later on. So retrospectively, this is when Prowl's most recent attempt to turn a new leaf goes sour, in-universe.

The Death of Optimus Prime

This is the prelude to both MTMTE and exRiD and is sometimes overlooked when people talk about phase two these days. It sets up the new, phase two status quo for the ongoings. This is your introduction to Prowl as written by Barber and Roberts.

The early MTMTE Prowl stuff

Read the first issue, Shadowplay in its entirety, then at least issue #14 (the mnemosurgery/flashback one) from the Overlord arc. I talk about these on here all the time, whatever, you know the drill, it's Prowl And Chromedome Are Awful Exes ft. War Crimes AND Regular Crimes! Roberts has a take on Prowl that is actually pretty distinct IMO, it's fun to read alongside Roche and Barber's work in this period. They're not totally out of sync with each other, just... individual. (Sidenote: this, combined with a chunk of IDW1 fandom not reading exRiD in full or honestly at all, means that IMO a lot of disagreement over Prowl boils down to folks only knowing the Prowl in this comic and taking it as fully representative of the whole canon. Shrug.)

Robots in Disguise ("exRiD")

AKA 'the phase two ongoing where Prowl was one the main characters' so yeah, this one, obviously. This is where like… a good 70% of the Prowl stuff is in IDW, honestly. Anyway, Prowl is especially in focus at the start, where Barber gives us a lot of focus on him in the aftermath of the Earth stuff Costa did with him. The first arc of his runs through issue #16, the end of 'season one' before Dark Cybertron starts. (exRiD has a lot more arcs overlapping at once than MTMTE does, so its arcs tend to run along more issues as they take turns.) But he's around the whole time basically, right through to the end of Barber's time on IDW1. If you want to talk IDW1 Prowl, you basically gotta read everything Barber did with him. And if you want to understand it, you ought to read it fully.

(Note: exRiD underwent mandated name changes etc that mean at some point, the collected editions turn into 'The Transformers'. Use tfwiki if you get confused, haha. Also, Dark Cybertron gets its own trades as a crossover event- but that's the one everyone remembers, so I'll put it here. Buuut speaking of this comic being confusing...)

The Combiner Wars event, which includes but is not limited to exRiD, oh god this comic is so complicated.

There's an event that's set mostly around the exRiD parts of phase two called Combiner Wars. It includes some exRiD issues but is collected in a seperate trade called "Combiner Wars" and crosses over with the Windblade comics. Spoiler alert, Prowl is very important in it, because it deals with combiners and in exRiD he became a combiner. It's also kind of a mess because errrr, a HUGE amount of it was editorially mandated and in multiple cases basically required backtracking and retconning stuff to make work within what was requested for advertising purposes. Not... the series' highest moment, but there you go.

Sins of the Wreckers

Yaaaaay it's the Prowl divorce story! My favourite one!!! Anyway, you can actually read this one whenever after LSotW. The Wreckers stories exist as their own thing really. But this falls soooometime around, oooh, middle of exRiD, gestures at Combiner Wars, etc etc. (Basically: SotW was written while the ongoing was coming out, obviously, and by the time it was complete and being released, the timeline got a bit wobbly, so nailing it down to a super specific timeline in-universe is a bit 'eh'. The final page of SotW #5 was edited to reflect this but just read it sometime after CW, it's fine, whatever.)

This series actually has like. No meaningful impact on the broader universe's plot. But it has so many crimes and schemes! And divorce! And the one big thing: it's when Arcee gets properly sick of Prowl, after their relationship in exRiD was established throughout that comic's run up to this point.

The Titans Return event, mostly for the MTMTE bits, which I guess a lot of people skipped???

Same as CW except, thank god, smaller scale. Has its own trade, and the main bit of interest winds up being that the last two issues of MTMTE before it relaunched as LL were issues with Prowl in focus as part of this event. Apparently some folks reading MTMTE in trades these days have nooo idea these two issues exist because they're in a totally separate trade, oops. Anyway, Roberts puts Prowl on the moon and picks up some dangling MTMTE plotlines. TR makes no sense but these specific issues are fun because they are ridiculous in a way that is enjoyable to read if you just ignore the plot.

[OPTIONAL] Requiem of the Wreckers

...OK, fine, he's not really in this one. You should take the excuse to read it and conclude the Wreckers saga though, I mean. Why not.

Optimus Prime ongoing issues #1-7, #13-14, #22

I'm being nice and not telling you to read all of the OP ongoing even though I kinda want to. A lot of folks skipped out on that comic, even folks who liked exRiD, for a great many reasons. So I'll keep it to the essentials. The first arc includes some flashbacks to Prowl's early association with Orion and gives some insight into Barber's take on his backstory; he's not in every single one of those issues, but you may as well read 'em all, it's a full story. #13-14 is when Prowl comes back from his moon vacation and re-enters the exRiD playing field. And #22 is the issue that features Prowl that leads into Unicron, and. Well.

Sidenote: if the plots don't make sense this is pretty normal, and might not be meaningfully changed by reading the whole series, I'm not gonna lie.

Unicron (+ Optimus Prime #25)

Read the Unicron miniseries! It's what finishes off the IDW continuity and, crucially, is Barber's grand finale. Lost Light had its own ending where everything was at something of a remove, as a series that was able to exist a little more as its own thing. The other series, however, had Unicron. Prowl's in it, he does stuff. Some people hate this miniseries, I really like it, regardless it's the capstone to the entire segment of the comics Prowl has been a major player in. And then read Optimus Prime #25, the IDW1 universe's epilogue of sorts, which ties it up not so much in plot terms but thematically. Prowl gets his last word in there.

---

'James', you may ask. 'Did you know all this off the top of your head???' Of course not; I had to look up some of the issue numbers. Anyway, if you need a ludicrously specific reference list of stuff worth checking for specifcially IDW1 Prowl across the 17 odd years of IDW comics, here it is, for no good reason. Does this reading list result in a coherent story? No, but it does give you maximum schemes per page, I guess.

#reference #idw #prowl #dumbest thing ive ever written. enjoy.

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Halloween Horror-thon: Part 2 - #6-10

#6: Doctor Sleep: The Director's Cut (2019, dir. Mike Flanagan)

I have, of course, seen Doctor Sleep before, but I am not labeling this as a re-watch because the Director's Cut of this film, while not really that different from a plotting/through line perspective, is a wholly unique experience to the theatrical version of the film from a character perspective. This version of the movie gives you much more context around the its antagonists, The True Knot, and it's secondary protagonist, Abra Stone, that those major story beats existing in both versions hit with much more impact in the director's cut. It bumped this particular work of Flanagan's up in my ranking of his stuff all the way to third behind Hill House and, now, Usher.

Score: 9/10

Not currently available on streaming.

———————————————–

#7: Gemini (1999, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto)

This one surprised me by not being the kind of film I was anticipating it to be (this happened a handful of times this month). Gemini is the story of three characters plagued by their circumstances/upbringings, and a look at classism and people's desire to give and receive love, shot and told in a frenetic, gonzo style that only Japanese cult-director Shinya Tsukamoto can make work. Tear down the walls of your expectations for this one, it's a great watch.

Score: 8/10

Not currently available on streaming.

———————————————–

#8: Nightmare Detective 2 (2008, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto)

The sequel to Tsukamoto's lukewarmly received 2006 film Nightmare Detective (which you will see further down on this list), this one makes the original look like a litmus test for the concept. A much more restrained and patient film compared to just about all of Tsukamoto's prior efforts, Nightmare Detective 2 sits in the corner, quietly analyzing its core cast in a story about misfits and generational trauma. Really, a lot of the themes and ideas presented here would be honed in on and presented again, albeit from a different viewpoint, in Kotoko. This one really feels like a turning point for Tsukamoto in terms of tone and approach. Not to say that his earlier, more frantic films aren't sometimes just as good, it's just the mark of a talent that's willing to evolve.

Score: 8/10

Not currently available on streaming (this film has actually never seen any kind of official release in the States at all, so unless you're willing to do a little swashbuckling, this one's out of your reach).

———————————————–

#9: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970, dir. Dario Argento)

Horror icon Dario Argento's (Suspiria, Deep Red) debut feature is an unrivaled "whodunit" mystery thriller with that hallmark giallo flair that Argento would become known for. There isn't a whole lot to say about this one other than this was one of the most singularly entertaining of my October viewings, and that I highly recommend it for just about anyone.

Score: 8/10

Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

———————————————–

#10: Noroi: The Curse (2005, dir. Koji Shiraishi)

This is the best Japanese found footage horror has to offer. Noroi is told in a documentary style, acting as the discovered footage of the final film made by a supernatural investigator that has disappeared without a trace. This was my final watch of the Horror-thon and I couldn't think of a better way to send off the spooky month, because this was one of, if not the scariest watch of the entire month. It had me wanting to turn the lights on and sleep with one eye open, and certain images from the film's final moments will be burned into my retinas until I die. If I had any complaints, it's that I honestly could have used even more, although I guess an argument could be made that that's actually one of the film's good qualities.

Score: 8/10

Currently streaming on AMC+/Shudder.

#Rookie-Critic's Halloween Horror-Thon #Halloween #Horror #Doctor Sleep #Dr. Sleep #Gemini #Gemini 1999 #Nightmare Detective 2 #Nightmare Detective #Noroi: The Curse #Noroi #Mike Flanagan #Shinya Tsukamoto #Dario Argento #Koji Shiraishi #2019 films #1999 films #2008 films #1970 films #2005 films #film review #movie review

[cboffshore]

The French Toast Threat: a brief, carboloaded Jay character study

I couldn't stop myself. I'm rambling.

A lot of things about Skybound have haunted me since its original airing, but this line... this line is something else:

The central question I posed on my Twitter - does this line imply the existence of France in Ninjago? - doesn't matter right now. I dislike thinking about that and I'm amazed it got as much traction as it did, but there's a content drought for you. I am, however, fascinated by the word choice!

Usually - as in literally every other time I've heard "toast" used in a threat - it's just that: toast. You're toast, I'm toast, he's/she's/they're/it's/we're toast - conjugation 101. Toast is an easy process. Bread in, push lever, bread out, butter or jelly if you've got the time, hork it down on your way to class. A violent threat - "You've been through the painful process of baking, now go through it again for my benefit," it says - but it's such a routine thing! When was the last time you stopped and really thought about making toast beyond just going through the motions?

That's what the classical Toast Threat is: effective, but soulless. Little about the target is acknowledged; any paint inflicted leads to a brutal, efficient end. Doom is assured, but not much else.

Now, French toast? That's a whole process. You have to plan for that. You have to know what kind of bread will hold up best, what spices and flavors you want in the egg dip, what kind of pan and heat you've got - to say nothing of the act of making it. You can't zone out with French toast the same way as you can with regular toast - you have to be on your toes, but there's care there, too. You can't treat French toast with the same everyday roughness as regular toast or you'll get eggs all over the counter. No, French toast requires attention to detail. You have to watch it to be sure it doesn't burn, to ensure that your bread isn't too thick or thin, and that the eggs are actually properly beaten and cooked. My family's made French toast the same way for my entire life and it's always been a special thing, and I know when the last time I enjoyed it was. It's fussy, but it's worth the reward.

When Jay says that Nadakhan's about to become French toast, he's really saying:

I've been planning this. I'm going to cut him up so carefully with his own sword, dredge him in the nearest unpleasant substance, fry him with my most effective equipment, and let my friends help annihilate him with little effort on their part. I'm going to ensure that he is as fundamentally changed as I am when we're through - that he's unrecognizable in the same way I am now - and I will savor that process.

All that makes it an especially effective threat, but the final nail in the coffin is how Jay opens the threat. For easy reference, the pertinent chunk of the quote:

Note that Jay doesn't directly address Nadakhan here. In context, he's speaking to Nya. Jay's already spent most of his season in direct confrontation with Nadakhan, and it's kind of touching that he's developed to the point of being this flippant about it even after this much pain! (You could also bring in Nadakhan's extremely valid point about Jay acting that way to conceal fear, which also works. Talk about versatility!)

Not only does Jay not even grant Nadakhan a pronoun in passing reference, he jumps straight to "This guy." For a season so set on identity, it's a big deal to skim over that fear-inducing name and replace it with the most off-the-cuff, casual way to refer to someone. Not even someone! Just a guy! The highly specific, detailed implications of turning him into French toast blended with all the banality of regular toast-making... what poetry.

The aftermath of Jay's experience isn't explored much in canon, and we'd all do well to remember that the modern image of a PTSD-ridden Jay is a product of a widespread fan view of the character. In canon, especially the last few episodes, all we get from Jay is a dogged determination to fight and win. This line probably wasn't meant to have this much significance, but it's there, so it's open to interpretation. What I failed to mention on Twitter is that it ultimately doesn't matter why it's here - whether they thought it would just be a fun twist or if Nadakhan was originally supposed to be French-themed or if it was an inside joke meant to canonize France. What matters is that it is here and I'm able to dig into it, and in the process, learn a little something else about Jay!

#ninjago #ninjago jay #ninjago skybound #analysis freak lila back on her bullshit

[animehouse-moe]

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 21: I Am You

I think it's pretty funny that I haven't been active at all this week due to life, but my first post since the question about my activity regarding JJK, is a post about JJK. Just a bit of irony.

Anyways, this was originally just going to be a short complaint about narrative flops in this episode (that I thought I might not even write about), but I have a feeling it's going to end up a pretty long winded complaint about the handling of key characters at the end of this season. So here we go.

I'll just get right into it with the egregious ending of Itadori vs Mahito here.

I think that if for a minute you've understood who Itadori is, what he is, that this scene will immediately rub you the wrong way.

Why, on god's green earth, would you pull Sukuna into this conversation? Why would you make a reference to Sukuna with the words coming from Yuji's mouth in this context.

Better yet, why would you paint Yuji as a looming shadow above Mahito in this moment?

It's just an egregious and wasteful depiction of Yuji that takes his character in the complete opposite direction.

Our boy Yuji here isn't some grand hero, he is not some otherworldly threat to Mahito. He is, quite literally, the antithesis to Mahito. These are words that Yuji himself states, within this very episode.

Yuji is a cog in the machine of the Jujutsu world, he is a single piece of the puzzle that creates a bigger picture. He is the wolf hunting the rabbit on sheer instinct. There is no greater goal, there is no lofty ideal. It is clear cut and simple, that this is Itadori accepting his fate, accepting his life. Using the hole in his mouth to show him carrying the carnage of Sukuna on his back? Great idea. Using that imagery at the completely wrong time though? I can't imagine why they would choose to do that.

His entire character arc through Shibuya is to own his life at this stage, to say that everything he's done is his own actions, and that he'll keep pushing until he has nothing left. Not that he'll get stronger, not that he'll save his friends or the world, but that he'll keep. killing. curses.

It just sort of blows my mind to see how they would handle something so expertly clear cut from the manga. Gege's vision was so incredibly well defined and expressed in these finals moments of the pair. It was pure art, and absolutely earned its status and popularity within the fandom.

I won't lie, it hurts. Not physically, but it hurts. And then there's just a bunch of odd animation work with the sequence, like Mahito's mouth and eyes shaking at a million miles per hour. There's obviously some really great animation and work throughout the episode, and it's not so much that it's poorly animated, but just incorrectly animated. These characters can feel insanely different just from cut to cut alone, and when the smallest details can make the biggest differences, those variances can really add turbulence to their character arcs.

Anyways, onto the next topic of discussion: Todo. I love this man. Hands down, my favorite side character through all his time on the page and screen. Incredible character to put beside Yuji for balance.

But.

The production ran away with him a little too much. I get it, it's hard to not go crazy when you have the potential to, and in a vacuum I adore the two big sequences he's gotten in the last two episodes. However, I think you have to be pretty crazy to think that Todo's Takada Tandem (patent pending) is a good fit for the episode.

Todo and Takada are an... interesting pair. Todo doesn't "use" Takada too much, so it makes it hard to really define a proper line with it, so let me put it another way.

Before Yuji was in the picture, Takada was Todo's #1 by a mile. With Yuji in the picture though? Sorry Takada, a brother's more important than an idol.

So, you could imagine my surprise when Todo tries to steal Yuji's thunder with a Takada powered delusion. I mean, he's fighting side by side with his brother, the person closest to him in the world.

Todo went to Takada to ask a question in his season 1 dilemma with Hanami because Yuji was out of the equation. Yuji was not at risk, it was not "Yuji's fight". Where Todo was leading Yuji with Hanami, it is absolutely the other way around with Mahito. And I mean, the most obvious thing to explain that with is the fact that Mahito basically shoves Todo to the side to start.

Regardless, the idea is that Yuji's in the pilot's seat, he's the one that knows the most about Mahito, he knows how to fight him. Todo is there to support his brother. Bringing out Takada, stealing Yuji's thunder, and weakening the balance and chemistry between our brothers just confuses me to no end.

Like, just simple things like Todo's hand. Dude has 3-5 business days to chop it off in the anime, and realizes on his own to do so. Kudos to Todo and his insane IQ, but the entire idea presented in the manga is that Yuji is faster at warning Todo than Todo is at grasping what's going on. It's just things like these that undermine the significance and value of this fight, and consistently appear in the episode.

Completely baffles me why it happens, but it's just a further extension of the narrative trend of stirring the pot where no stirring is needed. And it really hurts. Powerscaling is nonexistent, fights have ended up vastly different in tone and execution, and core narrative elements have just all sorts of these little inexplicable changes that undermine that masterful work of Gege through this arc. We're almost across the finish line, and all I'm hoping for is for it to be over at this point, which is flat out depressing.

#jujutsu kaisen #呪術廻戦 #jjk #sorcery fight #gojo satoru #geto suguru #anime review #anime and manga #nanami kento #kento nanami #shibuya #shibuya arc #jjk shibuya arc #jjk season 2 #shibuya incident #anime #todo aoi #yuji itadori #itadori yuuji #mahito

[tearlessrain]

Lumpy Kiba Part 2: Origins

I just wanted to also address this real quick because a few people have insisted that Lumpy Kiba predates Wolf’s Rain and I don’t personally believe that’s the case.

even more deranged ranting under the cut!

Firstly, I was a teenager when Wolf’s Rain came out and was first popular, and to the best of my memory I only ever saw that silhouette in Wolf’s Rain fan content until later (it made a slight detour through the broader wolfaboo community before taking over clipart repositories everywhere, but obviously it broke containment in short order). I had Lumpy Kiba as my desktop background (on my user account on the Family Computer) for a while. Howling wolf silhouettes have been a thing since forever, of course, but I was obsessed with wolves and I don’t remember seeing much of Lumpy Kiba specifically until more recently.

Secondly, that opening sequence wolf is animated. I know an animation frame can be traced but that seems unlikely in an anime that is entirely about wolves. one assumes the people involved knew how to draw them without tracing.

Thirdly, the anime still is the only place where the wolf silhouette actually... looks good. It’s significantly higher in quality than the clipart and traces that followed, and includes shading and detail that Lumpy Kiba never does. The anatomy, while a bit wonky, makes sense with the way wolves are drawn in the anime.

It matches the style of the anime in the way it’s constructed and the way it moves. Here’s another still from it, of another wolf on a cliff with its head up (though this one is throwing someone else off a cliff. don’t worry about it)

wheeee

anyway, the wolf in this shot clearly has a different silhouette from Lumpy Kiba or Original Kiba, but a lot of the stylistic quirks (prominent wrist bumps that you can also see on the background wolf, concave back, long upper foreleg that extends down off the chest, long metatarsals, skinny waist) are the same, and consistent in a lot of scenes.

you can see the stylistic quirks in other places too, like the end credit sequence where elements of the wolf’s outline are exaggerated compared to a real one (also that tiny waist again). this isn’t a bad choice, and it works well in the anime where the artists clearly know what a wolf looks like and are choosing what to exaggerate. the lumps emphasize the wolfiness instead of obscuring it.

there’s also the particular posture and conformation of Lumpy Kiba that’s rarely seen in silhouettes that aren’t derived from it, but seen constantly in wolf’s rain. real wolves have somewhat narrow chests and stand with their forepaws fairly close together most of the time. a lot of non-Lumpy Kiba clipart reflects this.

but wolves in Wolf’s Rain tend to have broad chests and a wide, square stance that’s congruous with the silhouette from whence Lumpy Kiba came but not that typical in real wolves. they have a stiff, boxy sort of look and movement to them.

in the anime, it looks fine. but it makes Lumpy Kiba stand out because not only is he based on a pretty stylized wolf, a lot of elements that look fine in a few frames in an anime with shading and a cohesive art style around it (the pointy hocks and butt bump, for example) end up weirdly exaggerated in the clipart because whoever traced it was just following the lines they saw instead of considering actual wolf anatomy, so the quirks are both exaggerated by the process, and taken out of context.

my theory as to why people believe they’ve seen that same silhouette predating Wolf’s Rain is the same reason the Mandela effect and that dude who allegedly appears in everyone’s dreams are a thing: human perception and memory is flawed, howling wolves are an incredibly popular motif, and at this point Lumpy Kiba is so pervasive that that’s what most people probably picture when they think of a howling wolf silhouette, especially if they don’t know that it’s all the same wolf. there are also a lot of weirdly stylized wolf cliparts out there, and unless you’re me and have been holding a grudge about this specific thing for the last fifteen years, there is very little reason for your brain to have a dedicated “every distinct wolf silhouette I’ve seen on a tshirt in that weird crystals-swords-and-holographic-horse-print shop at the mall” section in its memory.

it’s certainly possible that Wolf’s Rain traced (and improved) a clipart that already existed for one specific frame for some reason, but for now I’m gonna continue my assumption that Kiba is indeed its origin.

#posting these out of order so you can read them in order #lumpy kiba

[twistedtummies2]

The Price May Be Right - Number 3

Welcome to “The Price May Be Right!” I’ve been counting down My Top 31 Favorite Vincent Price Performances & Appearances! The countdown will cover movies, TV productions, and many more forms of media. We’ve entered the Top 3 of this countdown! Today we focus on Number 3: ZigZag, from The Thief and the Cobbler.

This movie has a history like you wouldn’t believe. I could jabber on for AGES about this “lost epic” of animation, but I’m going to try and keep the context as succinct as possible. “The Thief and the Cobbler” – which underwent NUMEROUS title changes throughout its extensive creation – was the intended Magnum Opus of master animator Richard Williams, the man most well-known today for being head of animation on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Williams wanted to create a comedic, surreal film – inspired by the legends of the Arabian Nights – that would be the absolute pinnacle of animation at the time. Production started as early as 1964…but no complete version of the film was released until the early 1990s, with the last one being in 1993 (released a month after Price’s death, technically and posthumously making this his final film role). So, what happened between 1964 and 1993? Well, the short version of it can be summed up like this: Williams kept changing his mind on the project’s story, and the funding for the film kept changing from backer to backer. Animators came and went as the characters and plot shifted with the decades. Finally, Williams finalized the story and got support from Warner Bros., who delivered a simple ultimatum: Williams had to finish the project on time and on budget, or they would remove him from his own film and get someone else to finish it. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what ended up happening: unable to meet the deadline, Williams was fired from his own movie, and producer Fred Calvert turned to the Completion Bond Company to get the movie made. Two completely different “finished” versions of the film were released; neither was received very well by critics, and both failed at the box office. Williams would forever consider the fate of his intended masterpiece the greatest embarrassment of his entire career. There are now no less than four versions of the movie available for viewing. There are the two versions released by Calvert and the CBP, the original unfinished workprint by Williams…and a fan-made project called “The Recobbled Cut,” which attempts to give the film the closest thing to its intended release possible by blending elements of all three together. The Recobbled Cut, itself, has gone through several editions over the years, and is still a work in progress, much like the movie it aspires to breathe pure life into. The film has become something of a legend in animation circles, for a LOT of reasons…but we’re not here to discuss the movie in totality. I’ve rambled about its history long enough; we’re here to talk about Vincent Price. So where does he come into the picture? Well, back when the movie was first getting started in 1964, Price was in his heyday. As it turned out, Williams was a big fan of Price’s work, and he contacted Price to see if he’d be interested. Vincent thought the movie sounded like an interesting endeavor, so he agreed, and his antagonist – first named “Anwar,” then later renamed “ZigZag” - ended up being the first character in the film cast. As the years went on, and the film’s plans changed, Price – who remained devoted to the project – would return periodically to re-record new lines. Apparently, it became one of his favorite projects, and Richard Williams and his team all agreed that ZigZag was their favorite character to animate. What’s interesting is that, with the different versions of the film later released, every character in the movie was recast over the years, with multiple performers playing the roles in different releases. For example, one of the two titular protagonists – Tack the Cobbler – was played by an unknown actor (doing an impression of Sean Connery) in the workprint, Sean Lively in one of the two Calvert cuts, and Matthew Broderick in the 1993 release. The one exception to this rule was Vincent as ZigZag: every version of the movie very wisely kept Vincent’s voice for the character, and it’s a good thing they did. Because while every version of the film has its pros and cons, ZigZag is consistently the best character in every version. The villain is not an especially complex character; he’s essentially Proto-Jafar (very literally, since some of the people who worked on Aladdin also worked on the Thief at earlier points in their career). Like Jafar, ZigZag is an evil magician and corrupt vizier, who seeks to marry the resident princess and take the throne. But it’s Price’s voice that makes the character so great to listen to, and the animation is always glorious to behold in action. One of the odd things about ZigZag is that nearly every single one of his lines are spoken in rhyme. There doesn’t seem to be any REASON for this, but I’m not complaining: I could listen to Vincent Price speaking in rhyme all day and be quite happy. No matter what version you watch of this movie, Price delivers every single time. Tomorrow, I present my penultimate pick, with my 2nd Favorite Vincent Price Performance!

#list #countdown #best #favorites #top 31 vincent price performances #the price may be right #vincent price #actors #acting #number 3 #the thief and the cobbler #richard williams #zigzag #the princess and the cobbler #the recobbled cut #go watch that by the way #very very interesting #animation #film #movies

[adobe-outdesign]

(Part 2)

First, gotta mention this because someone else will if I don’t: Victini appears at the front of the Unovan pokedex and has a ‘dex number of #000. Why am I bringing this up at the beginning of the review? I dunno, why is Victini at the beginning of the pokedex? These questions and more will not be answered.

Anyway, I do like Victini, for reasons I’ll get into in a moment... but I’ll admit, it never really felt like a mythical to me. I feel like legendaries need to fit in one of three categories: A) they look powerful, B) they have cryptid vibes, or C) they’re just a little messed up. Victini is pretty normal, it doesn’t really give off cryptid vibes (like, I can’t see this as a vague blur caught on video for half a second), and it’s pretty normal. In all honestly, if you handed this to me out-of-context and told me it was the final fire-type starter evo, I’d believe you. That doesn’t make it bad, but I do question if the design couldn’t have been used for a regular Pokemon instead.

The lore does fit, at least, with it able to create a limitless amount of energy in its body. I’ve heard some argue that Victini is supposed to represent a nuke, due to it appearing in Unova (Manhattan), creating limitless energy, the V for victory thing (which has war origins), etc. However, I personally doubt this was intentional. Pokemon is a Japanese game, and the bombings were a massive tragedy; unsurprisingly, Japan does not take them lightly, and I find it hard to believe a Japanese company would make a fun nuke Pokemon for kids to play with. (Plus it doesn’t line up with how the ‘dex says it can share the energy.)

What it is definitely based on however is usagi-ringo, i.e., a way of cutting apples to make bunnies that’s popular in Japan:

It has little to do with anything outside of the V motif, but it makes for a fun concept regardless.

The victory theme is also very apparent; though it makes for a slightly weird concept given that the Pokemon’s theme is victory and you can still walk into battle with it and lose throughly (which, you know, is kind of a necessity). Weirdly enough, the ‘dex lampshades this; I’d assume this is a myth, but wouldn’t it be fairly easy to disprove/prove? Unless the implication is that no one has ever caught one in all of history, which seems unlikely.

Anyway, while the themes are fine and I like the visuals as a whole (especially the huge ears), there are a few weird visual things going on with it. Like the random V line on the torso; why is it there if it’s not dividing anything? It’s like it was meant to have orange haunches or something and then they changed it and never removed the line.

Also, the butt-wings. Aside from them presumably being non-functional (because how else would it fly with them, other than butt-first), I don’t feel like they add much to the design other than really hammering down that V motif to an extreme. In some poses the wings look more like tail(s), which frankly would’ve worked much better:

The haunches are also a bit too bulky, and the head is too big for my tastes (it might just be a me thing, but it tends to bug me when the head is the size of the entire rest of the body).

The design is fine as-is; but I can’t help but feel like it would’ve been cuter and more cohesive if you shrunk the head a bit, made the butt-wings a tail/two tails, reduce the haunches, and maybe make the lower body red to fit with that random line (or just remove it entirely).

Overall, Victini is fine; it’s cute enough and the apple-rabbit motif is charming. However, there’s a lack of focus in the design and even the concept to a lesser extent that makes it somewhat forgettable to most people. I feel like it would’ve worked better if they discarded the victory stuff entirely and just leaned into it being a weird little apple rabbit creature, but maybe that’s just me.

#victini #pokemon #pokemon reviews

[ghostofadragon]

I'm genuinely so obsessed with your sun of alcoritrés OC verse….. its so fascinating to me and i Love your drawing with the dragon & rider gear diagram it's so well thought-out!! The whole setting and the people seem so interesting i need to know More…….. do you have Information about the characters im obsessed

thank you!!! :^D its pretty new so its kind of underdeveloped but the main charas of the universe rn (and basically the only ones i have. like i said its new) are like

DRAGON INSTITUTE CONTEXT: unnamed officially as of right now but there is a thus-called Institute where several of the characters were born and raised as dragon riders. its very militarized and reminiscent of the irl (US) air force - riders are psychically bonded to their dragons from birth and use that link to communicate with them midair.

Farah "Spaceman" Al-Basri Glorymorn and her dragon Maiseylith - he's a Lockheed, built for high-altitude flights, hence the origin of the 'spaceman' callsign - are kind of the main pov characters of the universe? she's about 30-31, so a good handful of years younger than the other two i'm about to list, and hence she was in an age class underneath them in the institute and was around to learn about their short-lived War Hero Exploits and kind of revere/idolize both of them (well, not collar, but i'll get to that) as a result. since she is new i do not have an Entirely formed personality for her on the ground Yet but she's a bit of a smartass, kind enough but not very social/often the odd one out, is introduced as somewhat of an everyman, she's comparatively new to this whole active combat thing and wants to do good by her new boss:

Richas "Goldie" Auberon and his dragon [NOT NAMED YET FORGIVE ME] are the quintessential Golden Boy (hence the callsign) War Heros of the story at first. his moniker before i named him properly was 'heroguy' if that tells you anything about his narrative place. he's kind of a doomed-by-the-narrative servant of the war machine, but he does Eventually learn to be a better person. eventually. it takes a while. to the local public he's kind of a celebrity captain america type though. on the surface he's kind of the typical male video game protag emotionally constipated Man Guy archetype, but he's also just genuinely kind of a dick underneath it. he gets better though i promise. he used to have a vicious but one-sided childhood class rivalry with:

A. L. "Collar" Iscariot and her dragon Beowulf, deeply stoic and caustic, callsign named for the collar of scars around her neck - previous to the injuries she was called 'duck' because she cut it too close to the ground during training one too many times and they never let her live it down. farah is her "replacement", which is to say, farah is richas' right hand man, which is the place collar used to (bitterly and unwillingly; she did not like richas and did not want to be associated with him) have before she publicly deserted the Institute and left to, for her own reasons, follow:

Sinclair De Vautour and his dragon the Queen of Spades - a nighthawk, built for stealth: he was not raised in the institute, and bonded to QoS after he rescued her from a illegal trafficking/dragonfighting operation where she was in line for the ring. This was not an act of goodwill. He needed a weapon. (He did quickly grow to like QoS, though.) he is very much the Goth Evil Overlord kind of archetype: this is still in development but i think on paper he runs some kind of wide-scale company as a front for his operations; collar is his loyal second-in-command, there with him since (almost) the beginning. he is an orphan, though his dragonfire scars were given to him later on. he was forced to cannibalize his family to survive the event that killed them. he is generally very unforgiving and cruel. i would say he and collar almost have kind of a harrow/gideon dynamic going on if they were middle aged bitches instead of in their late teens and also were not in love with each other. and if gideon was a heartless cunt and 200x less goofy in nature. this makes no sense but you gotta trust me on it man

there is also "Lovelace", real name unknown, who is sinclair's... uh... side piece? literally do not know how else to explain it. he hired her under the guise of being his girltoy but she's actually there to do insane hacker work for him. whether they also have sex or not is irrelevant. she is wanted by the state government and has served significant time in prison for past cybercrimes. she does not have her own dragon but occasionally co-opts QoH by bribing her with food and/or baubles if she needs to go anywhere on dragonback.

like i said in there this verse is very new so there are a lot of missing or temporary details to all of this but i AM slowly chipping at it 👍 my time is currently being absorbed by namowrimo but ill get back in there eventually! dragon rider ocs are my passion 4ever

#ask #fishofthewoods #sun of alcoritrés

[thisfairytalegonebad]

"What we are is but a choice" - a Final Fantasy XV fanfiction

Written for Vol. 3 of Zibe Time, a multifandom/original works, anything-goes zine! This run's theme was Pride. Every participant was assigned a colour of the original Gilbert Baker Pride flag and did their piece according to the meaning of their colour in the context of the Pride flag. I was assigned the colour red which stands for life.

You can download the zine for free here, and its official Twitter is here. And here, you can find all volumes of the zine that have been published thus far.

Title: What we are is but a choice Fandom: FFXV Word Count: 4K Relationships: Ignis & Gladio & Prompto & Noctis, Ignis/OMC Summary:

Ignis is 13 when he comes out to his uncle. He never has a grand revelation about his sexuality. It’s something that just is, something he’s been all his life and thus has never given much thought. or... Glimpses into Ignis' life throughout the years.

Read the first ~1000 words below the cut and the entire fic here on AO3!

Ignis is 13 when he comes out to his uncle.

He never has a grand revelation about his sexuality. It’s something that just is, something he’s been all his life and thus has never given much thought.

That is until puberty hits and he starts to actually become aware of boys in a more tangible way.

Of course, between the distinct lack of boys his age at the citadel, where he spends most of his day, and his very full schedule, nothing much comes of it. But it does make him think that this is something he should perhaps tell his uncle. Unlike for Gladio or Noct, eventually, there isn’t pressure for him to get married and produce an heir, but Ignis isn’t sure if it’s something that might cause problems for him later down the line.

He’s nervous when he asks his uncle to have a talk one late night when they’re sharing a meal Ignis cooked. It’s rare for them to be home at the same time, and even rarer for the both of them to have enough downtime to slow down and have a conversation, so Ignis snatches the opportunity with both hands and pushes on, despite the fact that his heart is beating uncomfortably fast in his chest.

Ignis doesn’t even know why he’s nervous. His uncle is a kind man, beneath the stiff and formal exterior Ignis has long adopted himself. His uncle is also the black sheep of their family, on account of having never married and favouring a busy life with few close relationships. There’s no way he’s going to reject Ignis for something as mundane as his sexual orientation.

And yet.

“What did you want to talk about?” his uncle asks, once they’ve finished their meal and Ignis has run out of dishes to wash. There’s no way his uncle didn’t pick up on the obvious stalling, but mercifully, he doesn’t mention it.

Ignis brings two cups of tea to the coffee table in the living room. His hands are shaking ever so slightly, but his uncle ignores that too and makes his way over to his armchair.

There’s no reason to drag this out any further or try to talk around the issue, Ignis knows, so he wraps both hands around the mug to keep them from trembling, takes a deep breath, and dives headfirst into the conversation.

“Uncle, I’m gay. It’s something I’ve always been aware of, I suppose, but I felt you ought to know, too.”

He fights the urge to look away, instead holding his uncle’s gaze for the few uncomfortable seconds it takes the man to start talking.

“Well, that’s—no offense, Ignis, but that’s something I’ve known for a long time, too,” his uncle says, not unkindly.

Whatever Ignis expected to hear, this certainly isn’t it.

A small, strangled noise is all Ignis manages, all his usual eloquence going right out the window. 

“Am I really that obvious?!”

His uncle offers him a small smile and leans forward a bit, fixing Ignis with his gaze. 

“Perhaps a bit. But keep in mind, I’ve known you since you were a child. Also, I daresay I’m simply a tad more observant than most people, wouldn’t you agree? I don’t believe you have a reason to worry.”

Ignis nods, feeling slightly light-headed. 

“And… you don’t mind?”

His voice sounds smaller than intended, embarrassingly fragile even to his own ears. It’s clear his uncle has also picked up on it, judging from his little frown and the way his face grows serious.

“Of course not, Ignis, did you expect me to?”

Thankfully, Ignis doesn’t have to answer that because his uncle continues almost immediately.

“I simply want you to be happy, my dear boy. However that happiness may look.”

And, oh, that catches Ignis by surprise, coming from a man who so rarely shares his true feelings and has never been overly affectionate even when Ignis was a child.

His eyes sting a little, but he nods, not quite trusting his voice with words just yet.

“I just ask that you be careful,” his uncle sighs. “The Citadel is still full of old people with outdated worldviews, and if the wrong person gets an impression of you that they deem unacceptable, they may make your life miserable for it. You’d do well to keep your private life as much under wraps as you do the Prince’s.”

Ignis nods again, not really surprised. He doesn’t expect anything else, has already seen enough of the more conservative councilmembers and the way they treat anyone who doesn't fit into their narrow-minded ideals.

“Of course. It won’t cause any issues. I’ll make sure of it.”

----

Ignis is 17 when he falls in love for the first time.

True to his words, the people at the Citadel remain clueless about his love life. Certainly, there are a few rumors about his sexuality here and there because he never shows any interest in any woman apart from the expected polite exchanges, but he’s never seen showing interest in anyone who would confirm their suspicions, either. Ignis, after all, has grown up with the concept of discretion being drilled into his head due to his proximity to the Prince.

He comes out to Gladio, eventually, and then to Noct too, but as expected, neither of them particularly cares and life continues much in the same fashion until Ignis is 17.

What changes at 17 is that one night at a social gathering, Ignis is approached by a young man as briefly steps out on the balcony for some fresh air.

The man introduces himself as Sebastian, and Ignis recognises him as the son of a councilmember. Their similarity is striking, but the same features that make the father appear unapproachable, detached and consistently constipated look enticing enough on the son’s face that Ignis is intrigued.

They exchange numbers and a promise to be in touch, both knowing that they cannot risk anything at an event like this.

When Ignis gets home that night, there is a message already waiting for him, and then he falls asleep way later than he should because Sebastian keeps texting him and Ignis cannot bring himself to cut their conversation short.

They communicate mostly through text for a few weeks until Sebastian officially asks him to be his boyfriend, and Ignis feels stupid with excitement and giddiness when he texts back “Yes” with shaky fingers.

And for more than a year, Ignis is happy, happier than he ever remembers being. He’s been content before, certainly, but there is something about the way Sebastian makes his heart flutter that makes him realise how far removed his experiences are from those of a normal teenager. It’s his honour and his greatest pride, of course, to stand tall beside Noctis until the boy grows into a King who sits the throne. 

And yet, the terrifyingly thrilling new experience of a romantic relationship unlocks a secret longing in him, a desire to get a taste of what being young feels like.

Still, that’s all just silly, pointless thinking, so Ignis brushes it aside and focuses on his relationship with Sebastian. 

It’s safe to say Ignis is in love, and even though he wishes they didn’t have to keep meeting in secret, he’s glad Sebastian understands the societal pressure that comes with their status and never pushes him to make their relationship public.

----

Read the entire fic here!

#final fantasy xv #ffxv #ignis scientia #chocobros #queerplatonic chocobros #thisfairytalegonebad's writing

[clonerightsagenda]

10 First Lines Game

Tagged by @specialagentartemis

“Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway ❤️”

The person who tagged me also mentioned original work which is handy because that's the biggest thing I'm working on right now.

Also this post got wildly out of control length-wise, because I wanted to do full openers rather than a single sentence, so under a cut it goes.

So........ moving backwards from publication order, I guess, including Exclusive Sneak Peeks of podcast girls week content...

BEA: However old you are, wherever you live, you’ve almost certainly encountered some version of the Dracula story

From my upcoming Arden Dracula AU for PGW which I had a blast with and may be my nichest published fic ever. I am very good at expending my effort on things 2 people will read.

Officer Eiffel wouldn’t have walked into a mad scientist's evil lair.

No, Doug corrects himself, he would've. He did, a whole bunch of times before he knew Hilbert's lab was an evil lair, until he got banned for being clumsy and not caring if he broke things. He even went afterward, every time something else happened to this clunker of a body – another thing he didn’t care if he broke.

From a document titled "evil lair thing", a surprise other PGW project that was a surprise to me also. These things happen. How is it PGW-related, you may ask? You will have to wait and find out.

You are accessing a finding aid for records created or maintained by Hippolyta Space Corporation (HSC) collected after the acquisition of Outer Bounds Space Exploration Company.

Finding aids are a tool to assist researchers in using our collections. They introduce a collection’s scope and context and identify the arrangement of materials. Some finding aids may describe collections with folder- or item-level granularity. Finding aids are created by company archivists to improve access to our materials.

Finding aids are a way for you to tell people which parts of the story you think are important.

Finding aids are a map.

To what?

First page of space archives!!! Wrapping up yet another major revision rn. Its day will come....

Now time to go to ao3 and find out what my seven most recently published fics are.

PLAYA LA POZA DEL OBISPO, ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO – MIDDAY

Isabel Lovelace is standing on a beach. Waves crash over rocks, shooting spray into the air.

She hears a voice from behind her.

From "Monster in the Middle". Script format, in case you couldn't tell.

EIFFEL

Hey Hera, are you there?

HERA

I'm here, Officer Eiffel. What is it?

(teasing)

Do you need a clarification on military protocol?

From "The Couples Agenda". Also scriptfic. Sue me; they're fast.

Isabel Lovelace went out for drinks with the people under her command once.

She was fresh out of training and they were sizing her up, trying to figure out what kind of officer she would be. She wanted to let them know she was one of the real ones, happy to rub elbows with the enlisted folks, or maybe she was just tired of having to keep her nose clean.

She woke up the next morning to the reality that West Point wasn't a party school, she hadn't had more than one drink in a night in years, and the entire driving population of New York City seemed to be slamming on their horns inside her skull.

Her head feels like that now. Her mouth doesn't taste like she’s gargled an IPA, though, so there's that.

From "Not the Only One"

Here's a story. You're born broken.

That's not the politically correct term. It's not the one I would have chosen either. Not because I care about making you feel better, but because it's imprecise. You didn't start out different and then break down. This was how you were made. Like highly original thought patterns, or 500 petabytes of random-access memory, or… freckles. Are humans born with freckles? You remember some of the other children at your orphanage had them, so they start early, at least.

You liked broken, though. If something's part of who you are, well, there's not much you can do about that. But broken? Broken can be fixed.

From "Born Broken"

Isabel Lovelace gets out of bed every morning. She pulls on clothing in a battle against zero gravity that has become second nature. She brushes her teeth.

Isabel Lovelace cannot do any of these things. She is dead, reduced to less than ashes floating at the heart of a star-that-is-not-a-star. She has been dead for years.

Isabel Lovelace gets out of bed anyway.

From "Door Number Three"

“Ok,” Hera says. “You can open your eyes now.”

From "Everyone Ready"

Doug was born on a space station a few minutes away from crashing into a star.

Not literally. Literally, he was born on Earth (Boston, Massachusetts; Hera tells him). But as far as he remembers? Hello world, smack into the middle of a bunch of people’s worst day of their lives, or one of them. Part of why it was the worst day of a bunch of people’s lives.

Woohoo.

From "The Doug Eiffel Reunion Tour"

Wow, 10 fics (including 3 not on ao3) took me 3 years back. I am not a quantity poster. Hopefully I am a quality poster. (Doing only ao3 stuff would've taken me all the way back to my HS era.... a near miss indeed.)

I never know who to tag for stuff like this.

#documentation of my Podcast Era #kat writes fic related stuff

[xviicprc]

Which version of the count of monte cristo would you recommend for someone wanting to experience the most complete version of the story that the english language can provide?

HOO BOY.

There are a lot- and I mean a LOT of versions of TCOMC out there for literally every taste and every style.

Generally you must consider that each adaptation, while going under the same premise "Edmond Dantes is an innocent man who in the day of his wedding is unjustly imprisoned, years later he returns as the Count of Monte Cristo to enact his revenge on those who wronged him" is always the same line, the contents of the adaptations vary (such as the ending, what characters appear or what scenes are cut off from the book)

What I honestly would reccomend would be engaging with the story with the media that most caught your attention (for example: Many people who are curious about it engage with the musical as a first experience by being familiar with that medium)

In my case, I managed to snag the Robin Buss translation, which is the unabridged and the most accurate one to the original french release admist all translations out there, it comes with a really good essay in the beggining with insight on the translator about the nuances of the book and has specific cultural events explained at the end numbered by chapters (which is really good because TCOMC made many references to French politics not everyone will understand). If you can't buy it, you can always ask in your local library for it! Or dowload the PDF.

The book, in my opinion, is best enjoyed when taken in slow- and while this might be my Non-Native English side speaking, it can get quite wordy and use words that make you pause. I've found myself re-reading specific paragraphs to understand what certain characters meant to "get it".

If reading an unabridged version is not your thing, there are many youtube essays that can explain the contents of the book or its themes- from what I understand, many people in the US read TCOMC as part of their scholar program. Or you can always listen to an audiobook. Lit2Go has the entire book both in written and audioform.

IF you don't want to read, the Musical while not accurate to the book has really good songs that convey the emotions of the characters. Hell to your doorstep is a great song that applies to all versions of Edmond Dantes because it resonates with the core ideas he represents as a character.

I would reccomend watching Gankutsuou even if you have either knowledge of the story or no idea at all, it's a 24 episode anime reimagined in the far off future, focused on Albert as the protagonist and the Count as an enimagtic figure, but it was done so by people who clearly love the source material. It has a really good English Dub, althought I do lean more so on the Japanese because of preferences in the execution of some scenes.

If you end up engaging with TCOMC via Fate like I was, I say you have the basics down, his characterization in what he appears is very accurate to the book when adapted to the context of the Fate series and you end up covered to engage in with more of TCOMC.

And most importantly, you must be careful when threading the book because it IS a story released in 1840, a time where the values we uphold in current day society were wildly different. You'd be wise to look up a content warning if you happen to be sensitive to certain topics.

I hope this has helped you, but if you need any clarification, feel free to send me anothe ask!

#draft #tcomc #the count of monte cristo #ask #annonymous #finally i use the count of monte cristo tag in a useful manner and not to spam animeboy #guide #sort of #? #this is all propaganda go watch the count of monte cristo anime #i have no idea about the comics. the only comc comic i ever engaged with was the gankutsuou manga #and that was more so to see what the original ideas for the anime were since it worked as a of sorts #anyway! hi! I really like COMC ask me about the themes please #i swear im more than just the artist who spams anime boy in a literature tag i can think

[s-o-n-de-r]

“In Case I Die” - Will Wood

Review by Travis Boyer

Photo by: Jake Feldman

While putting an artist into focus, our vision of them becomes refracted through the prisms of myth and legend. Rarely, do we receive clarity on who the person behind the music really is, as they live and breathe. Instead, we listen to our imagination and clues from their carefully crafted persona for the answer. For his career, Will Wood has produced his own mythology through his early avant-garde days and his seemingly autobiographical lyricisms. However, with the release of what could be his final, live, album, “In Case I Die,” it begs the question, have we ever met the real Will Wood?

Never one to shy away from spotlighting his personal side, Wood reels the listener in with the inherent vulnerability of these intimate, stripped down versions of larger works. By letting the pure, uncut emotionality shine through, this live album makes a record of the non-replicable, human moments of when artistry transfers from studio solitude to exuberant exhibition. As a result, “In Case I Die” supplants the technical wizardry of its source material for a showcase of the man behind the curtain.

In pure Will Wood fashion, his aching torment of attempting to reconcile with himself often takes center stage. Right off the bat, “Cicada Days” stews in its discontent before projecting an exasperated shockwave of “whispered” into the ether. Furthermore, “Against The Kitchen Floor” elevates the typically innocuous ukulele to a starring role to replicate the disco-folk melody of the original. In addition, Wood further amplifies his palpable self-loathing on the vocal end. “Becoming the Lastnames” is a heart wrenching ballad that is nimble in its melodic dexterity, but its spooky level of precision will, inevitably, haunt you. In turn, changing up the instrumentation did not hamper the quality of two selections from 2020’s “The Normal Album.” “Laplace’s Angel” recaptures its Latin flavor, but without all of the melodic bells and whistles of the original. Still, Wood is up to the task while picking and strumming at an exceptional pace. Also, “Love, Me Normally” feels much more subdued with a solitary piano compared to its jazzy counterpart, but is no less of a sweeping ballad that ends up striking at the heart of what makes Wood so compelling. In this version, he’s allowed himself to sit behind those keys, pour into every note and captivate an audience through pure skill and talent.

Prior to playing “White Noise,” Wood acknowledged that he “never felt more connected to you, guys, than I have over the last couple of weeks.” Fittingly enough, it is one of the rarities in Wood’s catalog that lays down the melodic guards he has meticulously built around himself. It is about connecting amidst any internal or external static. In this moment, the universe is held in balance by a sweet symphony of uke chords, clearing the way for a momentary serenity. In addition, Wood has included two live editions of songs that missed the cut of his last studio album. “...And If I Did, You Deserved It” is another ukulele-led cut that grapples with being a vicious, but self-aware, narcissist. Also, “Misanthrapologist” rekindles some more Latin flair with its vigorous strumming style. In the end, it proves prophetic with the parting line of “this doesn’t have to end…but it just did.”

In the context of this live album, yes, we may have just met the real Will Wood in the form of a performer in his natural habitat. It is difficult to deny that his demonstrative emotionality reveals the great depth of the artistic character within. However, if this was the real deal, it would be on brand for the enigmatic artist to peel back his mask and abruptly leave before anyone gets a good enough look at him. Whatever the case may be, Will Wood has taken his final bow entirely on his own terms. As if he could have done it any other way.   

Where you can find Will Wood: Instagram | In Case I Die (Live)

---

Like this? Sonder is an independent music, travel and photography publication at sonderlife.com. Give us a follow here or at our Twitter, Instagram or Facebook if you like this!

#will wood #bands #band blog #reviews #features

[bi-bard]

Supportive - Cal Roberts Imagine (The Path)

Title: Supportive

Pairing: Cal Roberts X Reader

Word Count: 798 words

Warning(s): mentions of Cal's mom but there are no specifics

Summary: (Season 1, Episode 3) (Y/n) wants to support the person who has always supported them. What could that support actually end up effecting?

Author's Note: The rest of this episode could be its own part.

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

"Cal," I called, jogging to his car as I saw him leaving.

He stopped, leaving his trunk sitting open as he looked at me. He grinned at me.

"Hey," he said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I nodded. "I was just wondering where you were going. I thought we had the day set aside."

"Right," he sighed, looking back at his car for a moment. "I'm sorry. It's a last-minute meeting. I have to go."

I bit my lip but nodded again, "Yeah, okay. It's okay."

"I'm sorry-"

"It's okay," I promised. "We aren't kids anymore. Not as much free time."

He frowned at me for a moment, "When I get back, we'll have some time to ourselves. Sit down. Talk. Like old times."

"Thank you," I stepped forward and hugged him. "Good luck."

"Thank you," he stepped back and nodded.

I moved out of the way as he loaded up and started driving. I waved at his rearview mirror as he took off. If he waved back, I didn't catch it.

I only waited for him to get out of my line of sight before I got ready to follow him. It was sad to admit, but I knew where Cal was going. We had been friends for almost our entire lives. Last-minute meeting with no other context usually meant one thing... he was going to see his mom.

I knew it was an impulsive choice, but it felt like I had to do it.

I needed to be there for him. To help him. It was the least I could do after all of the time he spent helping me.

I pulled up behind Cal's car a few minutes after him. I walked into the building, trusting that I would just be led to the right door. I knocked lightly.

Cal pulled the door open. His eyebrows were furrowed, staring at me.

"Hey," I said quietly.

"What are you doing here," he asked.

"Helping," I shrugged. "That's it. Helping."

He let out a sigh before stepping to the side and letting me walk in. He didn't make a scene as I said hi to his mother and started helping. He had much bigger issues to worry about than the fact that I was here.

We didn't talk until much later that night.

"Umm, your mom fell asleep in her room," I explained awkwardly as Cal stared at me. I took a few steps into the kitchen.

"You followed me," he said bluntly.

"I know," I looked down, feeling guilty. It was invasive. But it felt like the right choice at the time. "I'm shocked you didn't notice. I wasn't very subtle."

My attempt at humor didn't have much effect.

"You shouldn't have done that."

"I wanted to help," I said, looking at him again. Cal clenched his jaw, looking away from me. "You... You are the closest person to me. You have been since I was- what- five? I... I wouldn't be able to get over myself if I left you alone in your time of need. It's not what we stand for."

Cal looked back at me after that last sentence. The tiny kitchen was even tenser than it had been originally. He stepped closer to me, studying my expression like he was looking for some trace that I wasn't telling him the truth. That I had some other motive behind this.

"Cal-"

He cut me off by pressing his lips to mine. I let out a small noise of shock. The initial kiss was rough. Like a wall had broken down. A damn broke.

I wrapped my arms around his neck after the initial shock wore off. I kissed him back happily. It was all I had wanted for years. All of it. Right here in front of me.

His arms wrapped around me; hands pressed on my spine to push me closer.

He leaned back slowly, taking a few deep breaths through his nose as he kept me close to him. The tip of his nose was barely touching my cheek. I grinned at him.

"I think you were sent to me," he muttered like it was some big secret to the rest of the world. Like I was the only one who was allowed to know. "All those years ago. I just couldn't bring myself to accept it."

I nudged his nose with mine, "And now? Is this you accepting it?"

"If you'll accept me," he said.

"I accepted you years ago," I let my lips ghost over his again. "And I always will."

Cal kissed me again. Slower this time. Softer. Like he wasn't in any rush. Like he had accepted that I would still be there when he pulled away and opened his eyes.

And it was perfect that way.

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

Masterlist (Includes links to All Writing Challenges)

What I Write For

Some Original Characters

#the path imagine #the path fanfiction #the path x reader #the path hulu imagine #the path hulu fanfiction #the path hulu x reader #imagine #fanfiction #x reader #cal roberts imagine #cal roberts fanfiction #cal roberts x reader

[cortexreaver]

apparently i wrote this in november i assume i never posted it because 1. it was stupid 2. drafts temporarily ate it thus 3. i forgot. it's probably an unfinished list of half-formed thoughts i dont remember what most of it says anyway end preface start post:

in the approximate month since i first played it ive apparently spent around 218 hours blocking out the horrors with dragon age inquisition at the time of starting to write this post. so heres my review but not really these are just #thoughts about an 8-year-old video game. this got out of control i need it out of my drafts but at this point i dont want to just delete it. longest fucking post ive ever written anywhere under the cut

initial + overall thoughts: i had low expectations and when i started out and the character creator sliders were different and the combat was different and the skill trees were sideways and you couldnt manually distribute your attributes and everything was hd realistic shiny raytrace 4k particle physics like youve never seent hem before and so on and so forth my kneejerk reaction having just played dao: awakening was "this feels weird, i'm gonna hate this." and there were a lot of things i didn't like about it but there were things i thought i wouldn't like that i ended up enjoying. the former was mainly plot and lore stuff and some gameplay mechanics and the latter was individual writing of many characters and level design and, most surprisingly, crafting (i liked the masterwork material stuff)

THOUGHTS ON PLOT: as stated above i thought it was some silly shit but i'm gonna keep it vague because zeroing in on each point i had issues with or just thought was lame would make this post even longer than it's going to be. so like the thing is i thought the game before this one was also fucking stupid however da2 got a pass from me because, in addition to it being produced in a time frame far too narrow for what it was supposed to be, it's all SO melodramatic and half-baked and so many things go nightmarishly wrong for hawke and pals that it loops around to being fun. inquisition i assume is also supposed to be an emotional rollercoaster but nothing really hit for me like some parts of da2 did. obviously that in itself isn't a bad thing, and it could partly be a me problem. hold that thought and peruse two paragraphs of rambling that i don't want to cut out but would fit even worse if tacked them on the end of this section.

one big thing i noticed is that inquisition feels less concerned with your character's background and their personal journey over the course of the game. i realize i'm not alone in this sentiment but that's the consequence of playing a game 8 years late. at times it was hard to pin down exactly why my inquisitor felt so flat compared to to my wardens and hawkes, but—when it wasn't a majority of the voice lines being read in almost the exact same cadence—i think it had something to do with the fact that the game starts with its focus on introducing the first big universal threat rather than introducing you to your character. your background is a short paragraph on the character creation screen and it gets referenced a few times for light flavor and if/when people are being racist towards you (i played as an elf) (i have thoughts on how odd playing this game as a dalish elf felt but nothing that hasn't been said before by pretty much every other person who's played as an elf)

in contrast origins has its backgrounds that each set a distinct tone and serve as introductions to various aspects of the da universe as well as giving context for how your character became a grey warden while leaving enough blanks for you to feel in control of your character's personality; similarly, da2's entire first two acts detail how a guy with nothing but a magnetic personality and the power of These Hands* became so respected by the freak shits running the city he fled to from his plague-ridden homeland that they turned to him to resolve their nuclear slapfight. in inquisition you're a pariah for the first like five minutes and then everyone realizes your special hand makes you the only person capable of fixing everything and after passing out from the power of your own earthshattering swag you awake to find yourself effectively in charge of an organization devoted to being heroic. life hack i guess

*not to be confused with inquisition's The Hand

inquisition's main theme, i think, was the past; looking at the past and its inhabitants for what they really were, even when the truth challenges one's beliefs. it's a clash between the past and the present for control of the future. the inquisition unwaveringly pushes towards the future even if it means discarding the past; the main villain, literally one of the guys whose foolery and fuckery spawned the chantry's canticle about evil mages walking into god's house and trashing it, is a walking relic of the past and he clings to it even as he's losing, crying out for The Old Gods to save him as you strike the final blow. you wage war on his supporters, you find the cracks in his armor, you kill his lame ass dragon because that's the only way to ensure he's dead for real this time or some shit, you kill him, you kill the past. it's a fitting theme for a game that strays so far from its prequels in almost every aspect to have woven into it.

near the end i took a break to finally play origins' witch hunt dlc and realized that that was where the concepts of fade rifts and eluvians and morrigan having mysterious motives were first established which provided context for parts of inquisition that i previously thought had been pulled out of someone's ass. 99% my bad for assuming a dlc wouldn't contain seeds of main plot points given that inquisition's main villain is the jokester from da2's legacy dlc but arguably 1% not my bad because my assumption was based on the amount of shit from origins that either didn't matter later in the series or underwent changes so drastic they bordered on retcon.

i thought it was funny that the mage-templar conflict that was built up over the course of the first two games escalated off-screen to a war that you personally ended in main story mission 3 of 10 (11 counting the trespasser dlc) and then the chodester whose shit you kicked in in legacy shows up and yoinks the spotlight. sure legacy ends with the implication that you haven't seen the last of his funny ass but if i hadn't already spoiled his role in inquisition for myself i would've been like no way it's this guy again you are shitting me. there's another bigger villain after this one right? but no it's just him and his pet dragon and then your shiftiest companion who is definitely a mortal being steals morrigan's "i have...... plans. goodbye my friend" bit except with more of a lore dump because he physically can't shut the fuck up. also objectively funny that you can have your character become convinced that they have indeed been sent by god to build a paramilitary force so powerful it starts freaking people out. the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a cult is a good guy with a cult

OTHER WRITING THOUGHTS jesus fucking christ this post is long: i liked a lot of the writing on an individual character basis. i had warmed up to pretty much every companion i wasn't big on by the end of the game, i think because i took the time to chat with them when given the option to and did everyone's personal quests. they all have at least one moment where it becomes clear why they are the way they are, what experiences have shaped their values and worldview and personality. i did not like that the wardens were fully turned into another dumb asshole brigade which is another thing that started in legacy that i wouldn't have expected to continue in a main installment, in this case because iirc the wardens trying to summon a darkspawnimation whatever the fuck in legacy were just some fringe weirdos in the desert? maybe i'm remembering wrong. anyway yeah remember when the wardens were scapegoats in origins well this time they're bad for real* to fuckin uhhh make a point about how anyone can become corrupted or something idk you can still collect grey warden decorations for your nice guys inc. headquarters though and nobody gives a shit

*"what about the time those fereldan wardens tried to overthrow king arland in 7:5 storm" not my prablem

THOUGHTS ON LEVEL DESIGN AND VISUALS: uh i wasn't expecting this game to be so big for some reason and by the time i finished i was a little over it but initially i was pleasantly surprised that there was still more to see wherever i was and excited to explore it all. aside from one cave in the storm coast where my party would get stuck in a corner and some rare (completely optional) pure platforming that was placed in the game by devils to taunt completionist dickheads like me every area is laid out really well

#final editors note what is it about this series that makes people physically incapable of shutting the fuck up about it #ive never willingly had this much to say on paper about anything else ever genuinely unrecognizable behavior