#adam gets exiled instead of given more power | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ckneal · 3 years

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There’s a midam AU idea that’s been living in the back of my mind for months now, but it’s been slow going. Mainly because I suspect that doing the idea justice is going to mean doing more research than I’m used to, and maybe even rewatching the series proper to help me fill in some of the weak spots, and I have so many other story ideas that are frankly just easier to work on, two of which are already slated to be multi-chapter works. . . But I’m in the mood to type up something longwinded, so here we go. Keep reading if you’d like to see a rough outline of the first few chapters of this story I really hope to write out properly sometime.

(Warning, this is a long one.)

So, this story is loosely based on the Hundred Years War that took place between England and France from 1337-1453. But it’s only very loosely inspired. Very, very loosely. As in, I was reading a book, I read about one thing that happened, it germinated in my head, and then suddenly I had a plot developing that featured my current favorite ship. Additional sources of inspiration include one of my favorite fantasy series, and a personally beloved trashy romance novel. Because it’s fanfiction, folks. There are no rules here.

Of course, in this AU, the entire world is going to be made up, with neither side of the war distinctly being assigned the role of England or France—or Flanders or Burgundy, for that matter. I barrowed an inciting incident, and few smaller details from history to help things along here and there, but with no regard for keeping all the French things assigned to one group and the English ones to another.

That said, the inciting incident took its inspiration from the Battle of Poiters, a conflict during which England not only won against the French, but also took their king hostage. King Jean II was later ransomed back to his people, but at a sum that was so high, France could not afford to pay it all at once. England still returned France’s king, but new hostages were provided to serve as collateral during the interim, including the King’s son.

So. . .crown Prince Michael Shurley completely decimates King John Winchester on the battlefield, and sends his demands to John’s queen, Mary Winchester. The two kingdoms have been locked in a territory dispute for several decades, and this is one of the more humiliating events to befall the smaller kingdom yet, especially since they are unable to meet all of Michael’s demands. When the Winchesters begrudgingly admit this to the Shurley representatives, they’re caught off guard when they’re offered a trade: John Winchester will be returned, so long Dean Winchester takes his place as collateral.

Things are less than stable in the Winchester kingdom however, with more than a few factions quietly scheming for power. John and Mary were an arranged marriage that was originally held up like a fairytale when the two seemingly fell madly in love during their mandated courtship, but the years afterward had changed them. Civil unrest sparked by the war had brought out a lot of disagreements between the Winchesters and the Campbells and their approaches to governing.

John’s supporters are the ones to step forward with a plan, and convince Mary that it’s vitally important the people are not alarmed by their king’s capture. Mary initially finds it distasteful, but it’s talked around and adjusted and reframed, as John’s people ferret out more and more information about the vital party involved, until she finally agrees.

Because John Winchester just happened to have a bastard son. The resemblance to Dean might not be particularly remarkable, but no one at the Shurley court has ever seen the Winchester heir before. Plus, Adam Milligan has spent the entirety of his teen years studying to become a physician, of all things. He’s perfect for their purposes.

Ten years prior, the Shurley court had had to deal with its own bout of civil unrest, when King Chuck Shurley’s second eldest son had attempted to overthrow him with the support of several nobles from one the kingdom’s richest providences. Lucifer had allegedly been driven into exile following his defeat, and Chuck had been said to have contracted some sort of mysterious illness. According to rumors, the king had shut himself up in his private chambers and refused to admit anyone apart from his remaining children. Even servants were barred from tending him directly.

They snatch Adam away from his studies and force him into compliance by dusting off an archaic law left over from before the start of the war, when the kingdom relied on a conscription military force rather than a standing army full of career military professionals—this law empowering the crown to call on any of its citizens for a minimum forty days of military service per year. They tell Adam that his mission seems more dangerous than it is—really, all he has to do is pretend to be Dean, and use his medical knowledge to figure out exactly what mysterious illness has bedridden the enemy monarch.

Sam and Dean—the proverbial heir and spare of the kingdom—are not at court to meet their younger brother, when he’s hastily fitted for a royal wardrobe and put through a crash course on court etiquette. Sam is very publicly put on display at a holiday festival in another part of the kingdom, while Dean is sent orders to quietly stay behind at a country estate while his valet, Kevin Tran, is sent on to court. Neither of the princes is told about the plan until after Adam has already been shipped out, with Kevin in toe to help Adam along with the impersonation.

No one involved is in anyway comfortable with the mission. But it was only supposed to be for forty days. Adam was assured that the necessary funds to pay off the ransom would either be raised by the end of the minimum mandated service, or they would make contact to extract him. The Campbells and the Winchesters both allegedly had spies in the Shurley court, and they would make themselves known when the time was right.

Adam is given the impression that the latter had been told to him with the intention of making him feel safer. It did not work.

He’s terrified when he arrives—almost would have preferred being promptly thrown into a dungeon upon arrival, instead of a room full of foreign nobility who one and all give off the impression that if cut they’d bleed straight silver, and look at “Dean,” the hostage prince and purported military genius from the tiny, vicious country across the channel, as a curiosity to be studied. He’s assigned two guards (who I decided will be Anael and Samandriel, based entirely on the tags I threw together at then end of this post, during which I decided that I love these three together), who follow him around relentlessly, but beyond that, he’s. . .pretty much treated like a guest. If a stiflingly monitored one. There are limitations on where he can go and what he can do, but for the most part he’s just sort of. . .there.

Most unnerving of all, however, is the small package that Adam finds in his room when he first settles in. Kevin swears he has no idea who left it. It has the Campbell’s insignia clearly worked into the pattern of the paper it’s wrapped in, and inside he finds a knife small enough to conceal on his person, and a number of different herbs and powders that he recognizes from his studies—though of course, he’s more familiar with remedies to counteract their effects.

In other words, he finds an assassin’s-first-kill-job kit, and instructions on how and when to use it, if opportunity arises. This had not been part of the deal when Adam reluctantly signed on.

Unbeknownst to Adam however—though suspected by some parties in the Winchester court—Adam cannot assassinate Chuck Shurley, because Chuck is not there. Shortly after Lucifer’s insurrection, Chuck had quietly disappeared. Michael had only been a teenager at the time. He invented the story about Chuck being ill on impulse, certain that Chuck would be back sooner than later, and Raphael had gone along with it because, being twelve years old, Raphael was not yet old enough to question Michael’s judgement. It is now an awkward point between them.

Adam soon becomes another.

Michael regularly checks in to see how Adam’s getting on, in a way that Kevin assures Adam is entirely appropriate, since Michael is under the impression that Adam is going to be a fellow monarch someday, and is likely trying to be courteous. Adam inherently feels somewhat flustered around Michael though, which is not helped by the fact that Michael is somehow always present whenever Adam puts his foot in his mouth socially. On more than one occasion, he’s thankful that almost no one has actually been to his homeland, allowing Adam to blame an astonishing number of fuck ups on cultural differences.

Michael and Adam’s early one on one interaction are intensely awkward. Adam will forget to wear gloves, and then Michael will comment that Adam’s hands are oddly devoid of callouses for someone who’d practically been raised with a sword in his hand, leaving Adam to scramble for some flimsy excuse about hand cream. Adam will inquisitively ask questions about what sort of illness would be severe enough to leave someone bedridden for a decade but not kill them in that time (Kevin frantically motioning over Michael’s shoulder to convey that that is NOT the right way to fish for details on such a sensitive subject), and Michael will struggle to find an excuse around the quietly bubbling panic, because he hasn’t had to try to explain anything about his father since that first year, and he is not a particularly gifted liar.

And then there’s Raphael.

Unlike Michael, Raphael is suspicious of “Dean” right from the start, pulling Michael aside to point out things that don’t seem quite right according to what their informants have told them about Dean Winchester.

“Doesn’t he look a bit young?”

“Some people look younger than they are, Raphael.”

“I was told Dean Winchester had dark hair.”

“Dark blond is dark.”

“Aren’t his eyes supposed to be green?”

“They’re obviously blue.”

“That’s exactly my point.”

The forty days come and go with Adam and Kevin nervously waiting for some sort of sign from home. Roughly two weeks later, a messenger arrives with unexpected news for Michael’s court: the Campbells have officially broken ties with the Winchesters in a violent bid for power that has left the kingdom at war with itself.

According to Kevin, the civil war has probably slowed things down a bit, if it’s as bad as the rumors say. . .

Adam and Kevin are stranded.

“Don’t worry though—I know Dean, and he knows our necks are on the line. He’ll keep out of sight until they manage to get us out of here.”

Adam finds it difficult to put faith in the virtues of a brother he’s never met, but doesn’t have it in him to question Kevin’s faith. He worries about his mother, who might have been safe in the countryside, but also might have made the trek to the capitol when it came out that Adam had been abducted for the sake of persevering the royal family's throne. He can’t be sure.

And to top it off, Michael takes to stopping by Adam’s room every couple of days to privately talk about the movements of the various factions—who has been sighted where and in what condition, where they’re rumored to be headed. Adam interprets it as an attempt to shake out inside information. One day, Adam finally tries to set him straight by saying it doesn’t matter how many ugly details Michael throws at him, Adam can’t help him because he doesn’t know anything—and is promptly put to shame when Michael looks at him in surprise and says, “You misunderstand. I assumed that you would want to know these things, because they are your family.”

Michael leaves, and Adam’s guards exchange a look. When asked, Samandriel awkwardly tells Adam that the royal family used to have a fourth child. Gabriel. He was lost during Lucifer’s insurrection. Pirates overtook his ship. They’d never received a ransom. Michael had purportedly offered a standing reward for any news of Gabriel, and put an unwise amount of resources into searching for him until it threatened the war effort.

Adam and Michael start talking more frequently from there, starting with an apology on Adam’s part. It’s tricky at first, because Michael starts out asking questions about Dean Winchester's military exploits—it is the most likely common ground between them, after all—and Adam has to hastily change the subject every time. By the two month mark, they’re talking affably, and rumors start to circulate through the courts as Michael's routine check ins on Adam start getting less formal and more frequent.

On the four month mark, rumors get even worse. Raphael finally sits Michael down and really gets into all of the things about “Dean” that don’t add up, item by item. If he’s trying to pretend he doesn’t know anything about his country’s military exploits, he’s far too convincing given his reported record, and Raphael has it on good authority that more than half of those “cultural differences” in etiquette that keep cropping up are completely unfounded—and look here, three different informants have sent lists of Dean Winchester’s physical characteristics, and the foreign prince DOES NOT MATCH.

“Michael, something is not right here.”

“Fine, I’ll talk to him about it now.”

And Michael storms off to address “Dean,” while Raphael calls after him that he should wait until morning. Because it is the middle of the night.

Adam just happens to be up reading. Michael’s familiar with the book. Michael gets distracted, and they talk all night. The sun’s coming up when Michael finally leaves, and a servant happens to see him slipping out of Adam’s room. Suggestive conjectures promptly follow, and Raphael exasperatedly admits they only have themself to blame.

And this only gets worse, because now Adam and Michael have transitioned into being friends. No more guarded conversations where one is convinced the other is about to catch them in some sort of lie. When Raphael mentions that some of the lesser nobles are starting to think Michael and Adam are courting, Michael’s fidgeting is not at all lost on them, as Michael assures them that of course that isn't the case. He and Dean are merely establishing friendly relations that will serve them well down the road politically—

“After the war is over?”

“Of course, after the war is over.”

Adam’s been stranded in the Shurley court for almost a year by the time that he finally slips into his room and sees a sealed message set out on his bed. Adam doesn’t recognize the insignia as belonging to either the Winchesters or the Campbells, but it’s signed with the initials “SW” at the bottom. It mostly contains a lot of vague phrases that make Adam wonder if he was supposed to be versed in some sort of code. As far as he’s concerned, the only important information comes at the end: Kate Milligan has been safely relocated for the duration of the civil war.

Relieved, Adam goes down to dinner, where some sort of seasonal holiday is being celebrated, and has a bit more wine than he normally would. The Shurley court is one of those stuffy courts where seating is stiffly dictated by tradition. As a foreign prince, Adam’s assigned seat is at the same table as Michael, although, according to Kevin, his placement's much further down due to his being a hostage. After a few drinks, and after most of the nobles have cleared off from the table to talk and celebrate elsewhere in the hall, Adam sees no reason not to get up and relocate down the line of chairs to sit closer to Michael. It was against the rules, but Adam was aware enough not to sit in Raphael’s empty seat, and he’d been seen with Michael so often that Anael and Samandriel barely even blinked, because Adam obviously wasn’t about to attack their prince or anything.

However, it is worth noting that while talking to Adam, Michael consumes a decent amount more wine than he would normally have as well.

Later that night, Michael’s walking Adam back to his room, and he starts to comment that Adam seems happier than usual. But even when sober, Michael would struggle to say something like that—if he’d even attempt it while sober—and Adam winds up biting his lip as he watches Michael’s mounting embarrassment, as a simple compliment inexplicably morphs—words seemingly forcing their way out as Michael tries and utterly fails to stop them—into a compliment about how Adam is beautiful—that is, he’s always beautiful—that is, Michael can’t help noticing Adam most days—that is. . .

. . .Michael is adorable. And in a moment of pure, thoughtless impulse, Adam leans in and kisses Michael right there in the corridor.

Michael is profoundly shocked, and his reaction delayed. Adam had only gone in intending to briefly press his lips against Michael’s, but as he’s pulling away Michael abruptly leans in and reseals the kiss, and Adam in turn takes that as an invitation to pull Michael closer. And a few minutes later, Raphael happens to walk down the hallway and find the two of them enthusiastically kissing against the wall.

And Raphael promptly turns around and goes back the way they came, only stopping at one point to flag down a servant and order them not to let anyone else walk down that particular corridor for at least an hour, hoping that Michael and Adam’s “friendly relations” wouldn’t result in anything too inappropriate.

As it happens, nothing particularly inappropriate happens. Nonetheless, Michael still wakes up the next morning, fully clothed in his own bed, in panic because the first thought to distinctly make its way through the ungodly pain in his head is that he’d taken liberties with a guest the night before. The heir to a foreign power at that, a peer, a hostage! Michael never thought he was capable of something so dishonorable--he’d had Dean pressed up against the wall as if they were a couple of ill-bred urchins, and how does one even go about apologizing for something like that?

(Of course, if Michael were thinking clearly, he might have remembered that Adam had actually been the one to back himself up against the wall, with Michael obligingly following along, quite malleable to whatever positioning Adam wanted so long as Adam kept kissing him.)

Michael’s behavior was beyond unacceptable. If his father hadn’t already abandoned them, he’d likely disown Michael out of pure shame. There was no telling what kind of damage he’d done to the relationship between their kingdoms. At best, Michael’s uncouth actions would be a dirty secret between them in the years to come, after Dean married, and Michael was left barely able to look Dean’s spouse in the eye. If Michael were a lesser noble, his parents might demand he married Dean outright.

And suddenly Michael sat up in bed, realizing he could marry Dean. His mind begins racing, because of course he could marry Dean! It made perfect sense. They enjoyed each other’s company, and with both of them being heir to their respective kingdoms, their union would effectively end the war. It might be complicated—especially given some of the odd customs Dean had introduced to Michael’s court—but marriages had been used to cemented alliances often enough, and the thought of marrying Dean elicited a curiously hot feeling in Michael’s stomach, remembering the way Adam had pulled him close the night before.

(Fun fact, England and France actually did try to do this with the Treaty of Troyes in 1420; it did not go as planned.)

Michael goes through the rest of his day in an uncharacteristically upbeat mindset, because now it all seems to just be a matter of organizing things, and he is good at organizing. He would have to write to either John or Mary Winchester as soon as the situation in their kingdom settled, and formally ask for Dean’s hand, and he and Dean should have a chaperone present at all times moving forward to avoid scandal--though there would be no way to sidestep scandal altogether, of course. Adam was still technically Michael’s prisoner.

More than likely, the Winchesters or Campbells would demand Michael relinquish his claim to at least half of the territories that they’d spent the last few decades fighting over, but that would be fine. It’s traditional in Michael’s country to give gifts to one’s in-laws, and Dean is a future monarch. Anything too little would be insulting, and all would be consolidated eventually when Dean and Michael assumed their respective thrones. . .

Michael is still walking around delightfully living in his own head when Raphael pulls him into an empty room to discuss what they witnessed the night before. While not the most shocking scenario they could have imagined, they were not expecting to hear their brother announce that he and Dean Winchester would be getting married.

“And how are we to explain away our father’s absence during the proceedings, Michael?”

Michael’s good mood promptly withers. Because of course Chuck would be expected to play some part in arranging his son’s wedding. Ill or not, at the very least, he would be expected to make an appearance at the wedding. To have no part in it at all would be suspicious, not to mention rude.

While Raphael intended to snap Michael back to his senses, they had not meant to shake Michael into an immediate depression. They try for a gentler tone.

“You know, Michael. Our father has been gone for over a decade. He left no formal plans, he's sent no word. By any standard, he's abdicated. Perhaps this isn’t the right time to introduce a political marriage. Perhaps we should consider your assuming the kingship, and then come back around to formalizing your relationship with Dean—”

Michael, of course, is against this. Because their father is alive, and he will come back, and it will not be to find that another one of his sons had greedily tried to usurp the throne.

Seeing Michael about to fall back onto a familiar tangent, Raphael chooses the lesser of two evils and takes the conversation back to “Dean.” They ask which out of the two of them proposed to the other.

Michael abruptly realizes that he's forgotten something.

Meanwhile, Adam starts his morning on a much happier note. His headache is less punishing than Michael’s, and while feeling the normal amount of embarrassment that comes with drinking a little too much, the feeling does not extend to kissing Michael. His mother’s safe, he’s nailing his Dean impression, and Michael apparently likes him. Things could not be better. Until Adam remembers how the latter two items on that list are linked.

Michael is not like a classmate back home, who he could chat up, get a drink with, and maybe start seeing regularly if all things went well. Michael is, in fact, the acting ruler of one of the most powerful countries in the world, which just so happens to be at war with Adam’s, and under the explicit impression that Adam is similarly situated in the world.

Adam promptly begins freaking out.

And then Michael finds him.

Adam’s in the library at the time. Michael walks in and quietly dismisses Adam’s guards, and Kevin, leaving the two of them completely alone. Adam doesn’t realize what Michael’s doing right away, though he’s spent enough time with Michael to recognize how nervous he is as he starts talking about a proposal to end the war—selling the idea, as if Michael wouldn’t be enough on his own—and then sheepishly tapering into the idea that both he and Adam seem to have feelings for one another. And if Adam were able to go back in time and strangle his tipsy past self, he would, because then he wouldn’t have to see the look on Michael’s face when he says no.

And no, Michael does not understand.

Adam can hear years of living in the public eye at work in Michael voice, as he just manages to keep his voice level in asking, “Even if it would mean peace?”

"I'm sorry, I just—I can't."

". . .I see."

Michael excuses himself, and Adam collapses onto a couch, assuring himself that no was the only right answer, and he shouldn’t feel terrible—which, of course, since Adam’s spent the last couple of months flirting with Michael while posing as someone else, is not an easy idea to buy into.

Michael and Adam avoid eye contact at dinner, even as Raphael—who has zero doubts as to who initiated what the night before—practically burns holes into Adam’s skin with the looks they shoot down the table.

And then a messenger comes in. One of the wealthiest duchies in the kingdom (the same one that had once supported Lucifer, and of course would be populated with demon characters in the narrative) has declared its independence, having formed an alliance with the Campbells, and has launched an attack not far from the castle. Several villages have already been attacked along the way. Michael accompanies the armed forces he sends out to quash the uprising.

Raphael is left behind to fortify the castle and take in the refugees, who the messenger assured them are not far behind. Unlike Michael, Raphael rarely saw combat. Officially, it was because Raphael had adamantly insisted on training as a healer rather than a warrior, which was true enough. Unofficially though, Michael and Raphael are both fully aware that if anything happened to Michael, Raphael is the only one left to inherent the crown.

Samandirel and Anael escort Adam back to his room. Samandriel assures Adam that no one thinks he had anything to do with the duchy double crossing them, but it would probably just be safer for Adam to stay out of sight until things calm down. Anael is more closed-lipped about the situation.

From his window, Adam watches the first of the villagers come trickling in, and even from his vantage point he can make out burn wounds, makeshift bandages and hastily thrown together tourniquets, and he’s in hell, because it seems the only two options in front of him are to worry about Michael, or feel absolutely sick with guilt because he’s a trained physician and he should be down there helping.

Finally he pokes his head out into the corridor and asks if someone can find Kevin for him. Anael raises an eyebrow that “Dean,” who’s usually inordinately self-suffice for a prince, is suddenly insisting that he needs to see his manservant, but Samandriel is already helpfully heading down the hall. A few minutes later, Kevin is in Adam’s room, confused, as Adam asks him to take off his clothes.

“You can have mine, just switch with me, okay?”

“Uuh. . . Don’t you think mine will be a little tight on you—”

“Less talk! Strip!”

Michael had probably errored in assigning the same two guards to watch over Adam. After a year, the three of them had gotten to be on fairly familiar terms. Adam waited until Samandriel started to get chatty, and slipped quietly out of his room when Anael was distracted—neither of them having had any reason to think Adam would try to escape, because he had been nothing but compliant since the day he arrived.

From there, he goes straight to the infirmary.

Raphael had set up tents in the courtyard to accommodate the high number of people in need of care. Adam was a year out of practice, but the atmosphere was still familiar to him, and he slipped into the chaos unnoticed. Raphael doesn’t notice him until they are well into the thick of things, and Adam’s as covered in grime and gore as anyone else present. Adam had just gone for more bandages and the two of them nearly ran into each other, and for a split second Adam thinks Raphael just might not recognize him until hand closes around his arm like a vice.

“What exactly are YOU doing here?”

Then Raphael notices the stitches Adam had just finished putting in for his latest patient—and Adam’s stitchwork is immaculate, not the clumsy, half-hazard work of a solider who picked up the mechanics of it over the course of their career.

"YOU did that?"

Adam starts to fumble out an answer, but they are interrupted because then Michael is being brought in. The fighting is over. Raphael and Adam promptly drop everything.

Michael has a concussion. He’s also been lightly stabbed. You know, just lightly. Needs stitches though. Raphael is adamant that Adam leave immediately, but Michael, who is delirious, sees Adam and absolutely refuses to let Raphael send him away. Raphael winds up patching Michael together while Adam—annoyingly, to Raphael—is sat next to him, holding Michael’s hand. Adam winds up sitting next to Michael all night, because it’s the only way to keep Michael from getting up and tearing his stitches like a feverish moron.

Initially, Raphael refuses to leave too, not trusting their brother’s suspiciously competent love interest, whose family was purportedly allied with the traitors who’d just attacked their people. There are still more wounded to tend to, however, and Raphael begrudgingly has to step away—making sure to leave orders that a guard be present in the room the entire time that Raphael is gone.

Little does Raphael know, Adam would have lowkey given a limb to have Raphael stay. Michael’s demeanor is a lot less closed off when he’s feverish and concussed. Shortly after Raphael leaves, Michael starts apologizing for proposing earlier, and Adam feels like he’s been stabbed in the gut. And as he’s lying there, looking at Adam’s hand in his, Michael starts saying things he would not normally blurt out—like that ending the war was not the main reason he wanted to marry Adam, because the last year has been the best he can remember, and it is entirely due to spending time with Adam—even if Adam was only there by obligation—and he would do anything to make Adam happy, even if they weren’t together—and Adam is just stuck there, highkey dying on the inside.

Then Michael sees his face.

"I apologize, you’ve already said you do not want to marry me, I should not have brought this up—”

Michael starts to get out of bed completely unconcerned about his stab wounds, and as Adam’s pushing him back down, the words “That’s not true!” just sort of. . .fly out.

Then Michael’s suddenly looking at Adam, and his face is suddenly very sober, and Adam can feel his own face turning red.

"That is, I. . ." Adam realizes, suddenly, that he’s fucked. Telling Michael the truth is somehow both the right and wrong thing to do at the same time, and Michael is definitely in no condition to hear it either way. “How about, if you still want to marry me when all this is over, then I’ll say yes?”

The next morning is a string of stressful events for Adam. Raphael shooed him out of Michael room at dawn, and Adam went straight back to his own. Kevin, Samandriel, and Anael had all been reprimanded for Adam’s escape, with the latter two being replaced as Adam’s guard under Raphael’s orders. His first interaction with Ishim and Maribel does not bode well for them becoming friends.

When Adam tells Kevin that he’s thinking about coming clean to Michael, Kevin panics. News from the Winchesters had dried up weeks ago, even for Michael and Raphael’s sources. Kevin argues that they’d be better off attempting to escape on their own if the charade was getting to be too much for Adam, especially after last night—but even then, they should wait awhile longer. Why take any chances right now? And Adam doesn’t know how to go about explaining the why. . .

And it gets taken out of his hands anyway, when they step out of the room and find that it’s somehow leaked that Adam and Michael—who had completely misunderstood what Adam meant by “when all this is over”—are engaged.

Kevin doesn’t get another moment alone with Adam to discuss how stupidly dangerous this whole situation is, and Adam, no matter how hard he tries—can’t seem to get a moment alone with his fiancé to try to explain that the situation is not what he thinks it is. Everyone had vastly underestimated how far the rumors about Michael and Adam secretly courting had gone, and Adam can barely take three steps without a noble or courtier or someone pulling him aside to offer their congratulations, and as Adam gets closer to Michael’s chambers, there’s Raphael, circling like a shark and Adam does not want to make his confession to Raphael before he sees Michael.

Come dinner time, Adam finds that his seat had been reassigned. He now sits directly to Michael’s left. He keeps trying to convince Michael to step out into the hall with him for a second, while Raphael, seated in their normal place to Michael’s right, continuously circumvents him, firmly believing that Adam has done more than enough in private.

Then there’s a scream. A servant comes running out into the dining hall, carrying a bloody knife. They run up to Michael—up until the guards step forward to stop her, but she’s not attacking. Instead she hands over the knife and says that she found in the corridor outside the king’s chambers. She had been worried, so she broke protocol and went in. The king’s bed was drenched in blood.

Adam looks over and feels a chill when he recognizes the same knife that had been included in the murder kit he found in his room on day one.

If Raphael had looked up, Adam had no doubt that Raphael would have read something in his face, but they didn’t get the chance to. Michael and Raphael are busy staring at each, the only ones in the room who know beyond any doubt that the implication could not be true, because there had not been anyone in that bed to assassinate in over ten years. Neither of them is given the chance to try to spin the knife’s implications in any direction, however. While the court is still reeling in shocked silence, a guard walks in—completely oblivious—and announces that a messenger has arrived with urgent news.

Adam looks up, and finds he has room to panic more, when he sees Anna Milton walk in, a serving maid in the Winchester court, and as she drops a curtsey to Michael, she identifies herself as one of Raphael’s spies. She had held her place in the Winchester court for as long as she could, but when her real identity had been uncovered she’d had no choice but to flee, and she’s come with monumental news. The civil war across the channel has ended, the Campbells having been forced to seek asylum with their allies outside the kingdom, John Winchester deposed, and Dean Winchester installed on the throne in his place. She had witnessed his coronation herself the very day they identified her.

And Adam feels very cold, as if his blood had actually managed to turn into ice, which would have explained why he couldn’t seem to move, as every eye in the room immediately turns to him.

And that would be the end of part one.

#midam #adam milligan #supernatural michael #samandriel #supernatural raphael #anael #kevin tran #my thougths #i'm very tempted to throw jack in a joan-of-arc-inspired role

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middlenamesage · 3 years

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Black Moon Lilith and Lilith the Character Archetype: My Reflections Coming out of Black Moon Lilith Conjunct the North Node

Following the astrological transits, both the collective and my personal, I have for a while noticed that when Black Moon Lilith is at play, it’s really hard for this to go unnoticed in my life. I always could sense this energy, I knew what it felt like, but used to find it hard to describe, or at least to dissect enough to understand with any valuable meaning.

Physically speaking, the astronomical point known in astrology as Black Moon Lilith is the point along the Moon’s orbit that is farthest from Earth (the lunar apogee), a point that changes position in the zodiac along with the changing orbit of the moon. To me it makes sense this point can be so potentially relevant to us, as all living beings are very much guided by the Moon, who keeps us in connection with each other. Out where the Black Moon is, in this metaphorical place of exile, it’s more of an “every man (or woman!) for himself!” vibe. Lilith is very much about the instinct of self preservation. It’s about resisting control or exploitation by others (and/or internalizing its effects). Often the two occur together as two faces of the same trauma. Black Moon Lilith represents the areas where life has taught us that we absolutely must advocate for ourselves. However, she can also bring shame and denial of wants wherever she is placed, or transiting, because this is something that generally develops where we have been told or shown we can’t have something.

Black Moon Lilith is in fact named for Lilith in the old testament/Jewish folklore, and the way we have come to make sense of its effects (rather, its correlations to our lives) is in considerable measure inspired by this character, and her archetype- who has many interpretations. Lilith was Adam’s first wife, before Eve, who left his ass! She refused to lie beneath him during sex, saying they were created equal. I think we can interpret this metaphorically, of course, as resistance to being controlled in many potential terms… but also literally, as there is a focus of unconstrained sexuality concerning Lilith, which I have observed has some definite relevance to the Black Moon too, but is far from the only or even the most important way to understand it.

Various legends say that after fleeing Eden, Lilith went on to become a she-demon/succubus/baby kidnapper/baby killer/so on….. (those are just the accusations I’m recalling off the top of my head). But over these many years, Lilith has picked up many other story lines, provided inspiration for phenomena such as Black Moon Lilith, and gained many evolving faces and interpretations. Other than being a religious figure, and/or a she-demon, some of her contemporary associations include witchcraft/dark magic, creative renditions in fantasy and horror, gothic culture, and the biggest switch of all, her status as the first feminist.

As a potent force from the most distant shadows of the Moon’s reach, where connection to one another is compromised and we must turn to ourselves to defend our basic natures, I’ve found that Black Moon Lilith can have both positive correlations- such as going one’s own way where it truly benefits one’s life, putting one’s foot down to mistreatment, and stepping into one’s personal power- and negative correlations such as pushing away and/or disregarding other people, general concern with defending one’s own initiatives, to the point where it is premature or anti-productive, and the shame, denial and/or rage that many have developed from being disallowed their power by others.

How we express Black Moon Lilith can be instigating healthy boundaries on one hand, and setting up unnecessary walls of defense on the other. It can be self respect on one hand, and self obsession/failure to consider others, on the other. It can be self protection on one hand, and self sabotage on the other. It can be shame and denial over who we really are/what we really want on one hand, and it can be where we liberate ourselves from shame on the other. Very often, it seems to dole out as a complicated mix of both the “bad” and the “good”.

It used to be that reflecting on my own experiences, despite my fascination with it, there was very little “good” I saw about the Black Moon’s correlations in my life. I came to associate the energy of Black Moon Lilith with a few of my “trauma responses” that have caused me to sabotage relationships. I felt she had helped me stand up for myself/walk away from people a few times when I actually needed to, but for the most part, she seemed to just make me quick to unconsciously wreck budding relationships, reject others, put up lots of walls, or not want to cooperate/compromise with others- even though this was also betraying my own desires deep down to be close with others. My natal Lilith is in Libra in my 7th house, so the relational element of her is especially relevant.

I think that this Black Moon wound of mine in the realm of partnerships has several big origins/perpetuators I can site, but one of the first and biggest that I can consciously analyze, is having internalized the messages I was told by a parent growing up (not necessarily said in as blunt of terms as I received them) that no one would ever want to be with me because I am too difficult to live with. (I was also shown this when my parents sent me elsewhere to live.) Internalizing this message about myself stripped away my personal power when it comes to partnerships. For so long I approached all relationships assuming they were damned to end before they ever got too serious (something I still do struggle with), and I long believed, a belief that at some times was not as much conscious as it was confirmed with my deeply engrained unconscious behaviors of sabotage, that a ‘true’ and committed relationship is simply something I can’t have. This long internalized belief has given rise to many of my independent behaviors in relationships... both in destructive ways that compromise my connection with others and/or alienate them, and in positive senses that protect my individuality and self respect.

Here’s the thing. I was never wrong to see my trauma responses in the force of Black Moon Lilith. Black Moon Lilith and Lilith the archetype are in fact rooted in trauma. We mustn’t trivialize that part. The defense mechanisms, rage, shame, denial, sabotage, the desire to leave people and things behind, and the general mechanisms for self-preservation which can accompany Lilith stem from instances where we have felt held down, lead to believe we don’t have power, mistreated, and in some cases even horribly abused/violated. But the reality of Black Moon Lilith’s painful origins does not make it all a bad thing! It can be a very empowering thing potentially, because where we are hurt is also where we can find the avenues for healing, and for gaining acceptance of our most authentic self and desires. And there is a very good reason we develop many of these less than savory reactions from traumatic experiences and messaging. Lilith teaches us to recognize our boundaries, and to reclaim the personal power that once was lost! - even if at times we may run too far with these prerogatives in stubborn quests for independence and personal autonomy wherever she resides.

Though I have been fascinated by and intent to ponder Black Moon Lilith for probably over a year now, my reflections on it, and later on the character Lilith for which the lunar apogee is named, have really gained a lot of new ground during this last month+ of Black Moon Lilith’s conjunction to the North Node. (Which is currently separating, but still in effect.) The Lunar North Node is another very important point in relation to the Moon’s orbit, which shows the path forward. Black Moon Lilith with the North Node in Gemini has proven too be so ripe with many new experiences for me to learn about Lilith. It’s hard to say if anything has actually changed about my relationship with Lilith, or if I am just starting to see more of the positive in her that was always there, instead of just noticing and perpetuating the glaring negative. Also, I decided it was about time to accept Lilith as a part of who I am. I can’t deny the power the associated energies and the archetype has had on my life, so I might as well embrace it- both the good parts and the parts that are a work in progress. (And that is the story of my new little stud earrings with the Black Moon Lilith symbol!)

One aspect of my relationship with Lilith that I think actually has started to bloom forth in more of a clear-cut positive way with this Lilith-North Node transit, is finding the power to actively and productively embrace a part of myself, via finding/claiming opportunities to keep cultivating this part, even though it’s meant having to disregard my reservations, and even fighting through some shame. I can see now that there is a whole world of great personal empowerment to be tapped into with Lilith, and not just in the ability to leave people behind. (But of course leaving people behind is one means she’ll employ, if it is necessary for stepping into her power!)

I have always seen myself as a writer. It’s not even by choice, and a great deal of the time, for a very long time, I have really resented this natural compulsion of mine. You see, I have a deeply complicated relationship with writing, one that undoubtedly needs some healing. Well, this Black Moon Lilith/North Node conjunction in Gemini, moving through my 3rd house of communications (and as I only found out the other day, also conjunct my natal White Moon Selena, i.e. the lunar perigee/polarity to Black Moon Lilith) ended up bringing me my first opportunities ever getting paid to write… something I guess I just used to assume I couldn’t do, due to my lack of a college degree, as well as the difficult relationship with writing and my paralyzing perfectionism. But with this transit, I placed aside my assumptions of what wasn’t possible for me, and I have some hope now that accepting the opportunity to write for other people, on subjects that generally don’t even mean anything to myself, may just turn out to be the good dose of objectivity needed to help restore some healing to my writing relationship.

Once again, where you’ll find the wounds in your relationship with your personal power, is also where you’ll find how to heal them, and use them to empower yourself and others- and that healing is really what Black Moon Lilith conjunct the North Node has been trying to facilitate for us all. Of course, the process is basically never straightforward and easy, nor all enjoyable. This transit has brought a wide range of Lilith experiences in my life to comment upon.

Some other occurrences have been: abruptly ending an extended off and on relationship with someone where there was always a good deal of power struggle (and would have been power imbalance if I had not stood my ground in a lot of instances), unconsciously driving away or creating distance with a few friends, being consciously and stubbornly persistent in putting more distance between myself and my family than ever before, and facing a couple situations providing awkward trial and error experiments in how I communicate my dissatisfaction to others who wronged me. But I know that all of these experiences are helping me to evolve, and to better understand my responses which stem from wounds that have set into me with the nature of Black Moon Lilith.

And I marvel at the fact that millions of other humans have also been going through experiences which are forcing them to confront and/or evolve their own instincts and behaviors associated with the Black Moon, whether they realize it or not.

Lilith says, “These are my boundaries[or conditions]. You will respect them, or I am outta here.” She says, ‘I know what I am capable of, so I’m gonna fight for it- even if I have to shut out other people.” The placement of our natal Black Moon Lilith shows a prominent area where power has been stolen from us, whether through physical or psychological means (and where the Black Moon is transiting can bring up these issues in other areas, as well). Lilith develops from a wound, and her determination to not feel the powerlessness again can serve as either the healing or the perpetuation of it.

* * * * * * * * * * *

P.S.

For any astro heads reading this with this knowledge of their birth chart, I welcome you to comment or reflect on where 5° Gemini falls in your chart. This is where the (currently separating) conjunction of Black Moon Lilith and the North Node occurred, so the house in your natal chart where it’s transiting, and any natal placements that may be in aspect to this point, especially conjunctions and oppositions, may be able to show where/how you have embodied or encountered Black Moon Lilith energy in recent times.

NOTE :

If anyone is wondering which “Lilith” in astrology I have been referring to, since it is a fairly infamous fact that there are actually 4 things bearing this name in astrology… I have for the most part only followed the mean calculation of Black Moon Lilith (and with Black Moon Lilith’s conjunction to the North Node, mean Lilith is what I’m referring to).

There is also Osculating Black Moon Lilith (aka True Lilith), which is a different calculation of the same concept I have discussed with Black Moon Lilith. A calculation that is actually technically more precise about the moon’s orbit, for the moment that it is taken, as the lunar apogee technically jumps around a little bit a whole lot… yet I have personally found Mean Lilith to be more worth following, especially when following collective transits, if trying to examine the effects of something lingering over an extended period of time, or if conceptualizing Black Moon Lilith’s cycles throughout the entire zodiac. I don’t doubt that the calculation of osculating Black Moon Lilith (which often is not too far from the mean calculation) has a lot of validity to it too though, perhaps especially for natal chart interpretations, and progressions.

As for the other two Liliths, there is the asteroid Lilith- but that is named for a French composer, not the Lilith archetype as we know her. Not saying it isn’t something worth looking into, it just hasn’t been a point of focus for me. And lastly, there is Dark Moon Lilith (aka Waldemath Moon), which is said to be a dark body of unknown origin revolving around the Earth- but there is a lot of debate as to whether it actually exists. I don’t have an opinion one way or another, and I haven’t followed it in transits. However, its placement in my natal chart, with an opposition to Black Moon Lilith for one, does peak my interest.

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corvidiss · 3 years

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On the Creature’s early influences and how they affected his view of relationships.

(Two TL;DRs at the bottom; one as a detailed summary, one as a far briefer summary.)

I will refer to Frankenstein’s creation as the Creature rather than Adam in this essay, as A) not all people call him Adam, and B) it will avoid confusion with Adam from Paradise Lost.

When thinking about the maturity and motives of the Creature, I was compelled to think on his request for a bride, and his early influences. My thoughts on the matter follow:

The Creature grew up (though his body was adult, his mind was arguably reset and had to grow like a child’s) with no guidance from any parental figure or friend. Instead of being shown the ways of the world by someone, he had to find his way himself; and of the few human things that influenced him, three stand out: Society’s reaction to him, the epic poem Paradise Lost, and the De Lacey family.

Society’s reaction to the Creature was the first, and arguably most important, human factor that affected the development of his worldview. He is immediately abandoned by his creator, and shunned and attacked by the people he stumbles across. Later, Felix De Lacey attacks him violently. All this shows the Creature that he is unaccepted by humanity, and the constant denial of the kindness and love which should come with family (his father, Victor) or familiarity (the family he helped and grew to love) is sure to make him wonder if he’s unworthy of it. His experiences subtly teach him that he is incapable of being loved by humanity, however much he is capable of loving them, and however much he longs for it.

The second factor I’ll address is Paradise Lost, which the Creature says had a profound effect on him. I’ve not read Paradise Lost myself, but I’ve gained the best impression I can from plot summaries and thematic analyses online.

(It is worth mentioning that the Creature relates to Satan – “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. In Paradise Lost, when Satan comes to Earth to take revenge on God by causing the downfall of his newest and most favoured creations, he is moved to great envy at the sight of Adam and Eve’s innocent happiness; a feeling the Creature will come to know all too well.)

In Paradise Lost, there is no depiction of familial love; only of divine love (of God) and romantic love, and the former is presented as more important than the latter. But the Creature has been shunned by God’s creations, and has been denied the love of his creator, whom he might compare to Adam and Eve’s God – so perhaps the Creature sees divine love as inaccessible to him, and romantic love his only remaining option in a theoretical companion.

Furthermore, when Eve eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam chooses to do so too, because he feels his connection to Eve is so strong that they must share each other’s fate, whatever it may be. The Creature has never experienced this kind of devoted connection himself, nor has anyone sacrificed anything for him. Reading about this connection, he must have longed for such a thing himself – a thing, he sees, which has its source in romantic love.

And finally, when Adam and Eve leave their paradise, they are horrified at what they have doomed humanity to, but are comforted by the knowledge that their offspring will have revenge on Satan, and by each other’s love. While Adam’s choice to eat the fruit as well, valuing romantic love over divine love, is depicted as bad in Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve’s romantic connection is shown to be strong enough to keep them happy when they are expelled from their home and the favour of their creator. The Creature might see in this, that if he had a partner like Adam had Eve, he would be able to live with and even enjoy his own exile from humanity.

And thirdly, the De Laceys. Here is the Creature’s only source of what familial love is – and while he sees it to be a comfort to the family, it cannot truly combat the sadness and despondency that hangs over them. They spend evenings listening to the father’s music or reading aloud, but the happiness it affords them, and the happiness it affords the Creature, both fade soon after.

When Safie – Felix’s romantic love – comes along, however, the family’s spirits are brightly restored and their despair disappears. They teach and welcome her – and by doing so teach and, in a way, welcome the Creature too; everything is better for Safie’s presence. Where familial love was inadequate, this appearance of romantic love banishes the family’s sorrow.

Regardless of the true meanings and causes behind the De Lacey’s sorrow and return to happiness, these were the first impressions the Creature got, and so must have shaped his view of the world.

The Creature might be compared to children raised on classic Disney movies of princesses and princes and the portrayal of romantic love in modern media – seeking to enter a romantic relationship before they know what it truly means, or before they are ready, or even before they know true friendship. He grew up an outcast from society, and with sources that taught him of the power of romance, and not its nuances, or what else is possible and just as powerful.

As a result, he sees the only chance of gaining happiness to lie in romantic love. He no longer wishes for the acceptance of his creator – which he has come to see will never be granted to him, and perhaps even begins to believe that he does not deserve it – and instead demands the creation of another like him, so he can have this romantic love which he has been taught, inadvertently, is the only thing that can lift him from his despair.

In short, he's a child who is misguided about relationships: Paradise Lost showed blissful harmony (something which does not occur perfectly in most romances), and the imbalance of power and knowledge between woman and man. While somewhat in keeping with the sexist views of the time, this is a bad starting point for forming romantic relationships when one has had barely any contact with people, let alone the personal interactions necessary for forming one's own opinions on the difference, or lack thereof, in qualities between genders. Not only this, but he is simply not ready for a romantic relationship, especially with someone of an adult age, given his incredibly small experience of relationships and of the world as a whole – and therefore shouldn't be pushed into romantic relationships until he gains more experience as he grows, just like any other child.

Thank you for reading. :)

(TL;DRs beneath cut.)

TL;DR 1:

The Creature was raised with three main human influences: neglect from humanity, Paradise Lost, and the De Lacey family.

The neglect he experienced (Victor's abandonment, the villagers' attacks, Felix's attack) taught him that he is only going to be denied the kindness and love that should come with family (Victor) or familiarity (the family he helped for so long).

Paradise Lost contains only divine love (of God) and romantic love, and since the Creature has been denied the love of his own creator, he might see that romantic love is all that is left to him. The connection between Adam and Eve is strong – the Creature, who surely longs for such a connection, would see its source in romantic love. When Adam and Eve leave their paradise, their love makes it bearable – if the Creature had that love, perhaps, he might think, his own shunned existence would be easier, or even enjoyable.

The De Laceys' familial love is present, but seems inadequate to combat the sadness and despair that hangs over them. But when Safie, a romantic love, arrives, everything gets better and the happiness is restored. Romantic love seems, to the developing Creature’s mind, stronger than familial, whether it be true or not.

The Creature was raised with the concept of romance as a cure for sadness, perhaps similarly to how children grow up on the presentation of love in the modern media. He has come to see romantic love as the only thing that can give him happiness, without knowing its nuances or even what friendship is.

He's a child who is misguided about romantic relationships, and who simply can't be ready for them, given his incredibly small experience of the world and the people that inhabit it.

TL;DR 2:

The Creature’s view of the world was shaped by the few distant human influences he had in his developmental early age – the neglect of humanity, Paradise Lost, and the De Lacey family. All of these contributed towards the idea that romantic love was the Creature’s only remaining chance at happiness, while not teaching him the values of friendship and the subtleties of romance and love in any form.

He was misguided by his influences and convinced that romance was the only thing that could grant him happiness; but with so few experiences of people and the world as a whole, he is not only drastically ill-suited for a romantic relationship, especially with someone of an adult age, he is simply not ready, and therefore shouldn't be pushed into romantic relationships until he gains more experience as he grows, just like any other child.

#frankenstein #frankenstein book #frankenstein adam #adam frankenstein #frankensteins creature #character study #character thoughts #long post #long text post #essay #victor frankenstein #adam #paradise lost #analysis #book analysis #character analysis #character ramblings

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gthreepio · 3 years

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i’ve been thinking about the future of the mcu and realized there’s a LOT that i didn’t know/didn’t remember in terms of where things are going so i figured i’d sum it up incase anyone else was in the same boat!!

quick recap of (unresolved) mid-credit scenes:

doctor strange: mordo (a sorcerer that is one of strange’s mentors, who by the end of the movie becomes disillusioned with magic/the ancient one and quits) confronts pangborn (the paraplegic who healed himself with the mystic arts, who tells strange about mystic arts in the first place) and steals his magic because according to mordo, there are “too many sorcerers." of note, this guy is typically a villain in the comics but hasn’t been thus far...

gotg2: ayesha (leader of the sovereign, a golden skinned alien race obsessed with genetic purity), after spending most of the movie chasing the guardians for stealing some stuff, is revealed to have created an artificial being named “adam” which is presumably, adam warlock. (other stuff that is less relevant: kraglin appears to take up yondu’s mantle; the ravagers regroup and several old and obscure comic book characters are introduced [charlie-27, aleta, martinex, mainframe]; the watchers are watching things.)

far from home: j jonah jameson basically tells the whole world spider-man’s secret identity, and frames him for what happened with mysterio....making him public enemy #1. ALSO, turns out nick fury and maria hill in the movie were ACTUALLY the two skrulls from captain marvel (talos and soren) attempting to do their job, while the real fury (and presumably hill) is ... up in space on some spaceship!!!

wandavision: monica (who we can assume is photon) is called by “an old friend of [her] mother’s,” up in space, which presumably means fury, talos, or carol. ALSO, wanda sits in the middle of nowhere reading the darkhold and hears the voices of her children who.. by all accounts, should not exist.

aaaaand what we know about future movies (i’m not even going into the tv series.....):

black widow:

takes place after civil war

nat confronts a “dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past,” likely has to do with taskmaster who has apparently taken over the red room where nat was trained as an assassin

prominent new characters: yelena belova, who will take over the mantle of black widow after this; alexei shostakov aka red guardian, an ollllld marvel hero analogous to captain america except for the soviet union.

tony stark will make an appearance... SOBS

shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings:

shang-chi has never been seen in the mcu before, but he is, essentially, a superhero that is a master martial artist, and in some adaptations can also create duplicate (fake) versions of himself to confuse opponents

main villain will be the the mandarin who we have *sort of* seen before... he is the leader of a terrorist organization called “ten rings” whose main goal is to destroy world peace. brief history -- in iron man 1: one ten rings cell kidnaps tony stark and tries to force him to make weapons (he of course, makes his suit instead). stark and ten rings become enemies and fight a bunch. nat and nick fury fight them too. in iron man 3, the villain aldrich killian hires a dude to pretend to be the mandarin and claim responsibility for a bunch of stuff, but its not the ten rings or the mandarin at all. this makes the mandarin v mad and he has a dude kidnap the faker to punish him. they also briefly show up in ant-man, when a ten rings agent tries to buy the yellowjacket suit that darren cross is selling. BUT IN SHANG-CHI....... looks like we are FINALLY going to see the real mandarin after over a decade!!

the villain razor fist will also show up, he is lesser known... he has no superhuman powers but he has surgically replaced his hands (1 or 2, depending on the version) with a steel blade, and is highly skilled at hand to hand combat.

besides the presence of these characters, the only bit of plot we know is “shang-chi is drawn into the ten rings organization and forced to confront his past.” so... yeah. we don’t know much at all.

eternals:

quick explanation: the eternals are an immortal alien race who have been secretly living on earth for thousands of years. they were created by the celestials, who are most prominently in gotg2.

more entirely new characters!!! their names are: thena, who can form any weapon out of cosmic energy; gilgamesh, who can make a super strong exoskeleton out of cosmic energy; ikaris, who has superhuman strength, flies, and can project cosmic energy out his eyes; kingo, who can shoot cosmic energy projectiles from his hands; makkari, who creates sonic booms, has super speed, and is deaf; phastos, who has enhanced intelligence, and is also gay (and married with a kid!); ajak, who has healing powers; sprite, who can project illusions; sersi, who can manipulate matter; druig, who can mind control; and dane whitman (black knight), a human with a mystical sword.

regarding the plot... it seems the eternals have kind of dispersed, but have to come together again to fight the deviants, who are their “evil counterparts” (also created by the celestials, though i’m unclear on why). thena and gilgamesh have apparently been in exile, unclear why; sersi, who is posing as a museum curator, has apparently been in love with ikaris for centuries and it seems as if their love story may be central to the film; and kingo is a bollywood film star in his spare time. aaaaand that’s pretty much all we know.

directed by chloé zhao of nomadland fame!

spider-man no way home:

based on the post-credits scene in far from home, peter parker will now be known as spider-man to everyone. unclear if he’s going to be seen as a bad guy due to mysterio framing him, but i guess we’ll see!

jamie foxx is electro, and alfred molina is doctor octopus; which is VERY interesting considering they played these roles in other spider-man franchises, once again stirring up excitement for possible multiverse.

there have been *multiple* reports that andrew garfield, kirsten dunst, tobey maguire, and emma stone will be in the movie but tom holland has repeatedly denied this... so... who knows.

there are also rumors that matt murdock / daredevil (from netflix) will be in several scenes! not confirmed though.

MJ is still his girlfriend and i hope it stays that way!!

doctor strange will be featured in the movie, taking on the mentor role now that tony stark is gone :( this will be interesting as i.. haven’t really seen them interact much before. because of this inclusion some people speculate that the film may draw inspo from some comic storylines where peter’s secret identity is restored with magic.

doctor strange in the multiverse of madness:

scarlet witch is essentially co-starring!!! it’s going to be really interesting to see if they bring vision or the twins into this at all, though i’m not counting on it.

seems like mordo will be the main villain -- recall the ds1 post credits scene where he is apparently running around trying to steal people’s magic.

america chavez will make her debut!!!!!! i have no idea how this plays into anything but i am so excited!!

regarding the plot, all we really know is that strange has been researching the time stone, mordo messes with him, and this results in him accidentally unleashing “unspeakable evil.” presumably there will also be heavy involvement of the multiverse, and who knows what kind of craziness that will bring!!

initially was going to be directed by scott derrickson who did ds1; however he stepped down to being just EP due to “creative differences.” i am presuming this is because derrickson really wanted to make this more gothic and horror than disney was comfortable with. i REALLY hope they keep some of those elements though and don’t erase the idea entirely! anyway, it will be directed by sam raimi now (of evil dead and spiderman 2002 fame).

the film also reportedly ties in with the loki series (will loki show up!?) and spiderman 3 (which is obvious enough, given that strange is in that movie and those curious electro and doctor octopus castings...)

thor: love and thunder

directed by taika waititi again, hell yeah!!! and he has stated, the film will be “so over the top now in the very best way" and would make ragnarok look like a "run of the mill, very safe film" .... so.... oh god

so many great returning players!!! including.... valkyrie (now the king of new asgard), jane foster, lady sif, korg, star-lord, mantis, drax, nebula, and kraglin (takes up yondu’s mantle after he dies in gotg2)

in this movie, thor isn’t thor anymore.... it’s JANE!!! she gets cancer :( and is undergoing treatment while simultaneously being thor. i’m a little nervous how this will be handled, but i’m excited. (it’s based off an amazing comic series by jason aaron)

the big bad: gorr the god butcher, played by christian bale! the gist of it is, this dude HATES gods because nobody helped when his family was dying and in need. his weapon is “all-black the necrosword,” forged from the head of a celestial, and allows the user to create wings and fly at extreme speeds. honestly, he sounds cool as fuck.

valkyrie is going to be made canonically bisexual!!!

it will explore more of korg’s backstory, and also include... space sharks!?!?! an alien race from the comics.

taika has called the script “very romantic” so take that as you will

black panther 2

will again be directed by ryan coogler

not much is known at this point, does not have an official name

t’challa will NOT be recast (which i’m happy about) so..... honestly no idea what to expect for this one. i think we can probably expect shuri to have an expanded role. all we know so far is they will be “exploring the world of wakanda.” not clear to me how this is different from the upcoming wakanda D+ series.

tenoch huerta has reportedly been cast as a villain, but no one has any idea who. there’s also rumors that donald glover is in “informal talks” to play a role. note all of this is unconfirmed.

captain marvel 2

will be directed by nia da costa (candyman!) and written by megan mcdonnell, who is one of wandavision’s best writers!

will take place in the present day

will feature kamala khan / ms. marvel, monica rambeau / photon!!! this will be so interesting.... kamala is a huge fan of carol’s in the comics, she is her mentor/idol. the ms. marvel series will also resportedly lead into cm2. and monica, well, monica knew her when she was a little kid. wandavision implies that there’s some bad blood between carol and monica though, not sure why. maybe because carol left and never came back? (until endgame)

post-credits scene of wandavision appears to tie into this, having monica go up into space at the reqeust of her “mom’s old friend.” again, not clear who that is. this could also be a tie in to secret invasion though, so we’ll see. or both.

zawe ashton has been cast as an unknown villain... a lot of people are actually speculating that she may play rogue? which would be fascinating, as there’s a comic arc where rogue steals her powers and memories. BUT there’s still no confirmation that X-men exist in the MCU so for now i remain skeptical.

they are looking to cast a ‘john boyega’ or ‘michael b jordan’ type which makes me wonder if they are going to create a new character, a “younger” war machine to be her love interest? (note: carol and rhodey are a huge thing in comics!) carol obviously does not look her age but her and don cheadle.... that just doesn’t work. which is why i wonder.

ant-man and the wasp: quantumania

in addition to scott and hope, pretty much all the major players are returning including: luis, hank pym, janet van dyne

cassie lang has been recast with an actress 5 years older, which is really making me wonder if they are going to make her stinger in this movie! (aka one of the main young avengers)

the villain: kang the conqueror! this dude time travels. original name nate richards. in the comics, kang travels back in time to rescue his younger self (nate) from an attack that would help shape him towards a life of villainy. kang also gives him some fancy armor. his younger self actually is like, what the fuck dude? and renounces his destiny, becoming a hero. and he makes his armor look like iron man, calling himself iron lad. who is a young avenger. which also makes me wonder about cassie lang.

otherwise not much is known!

guardians of the galaxy vol. 3

james gunn is returning, i’m mixed about this...he really does *get* the guardians though.

based on the gotg2 post credits scene, i think we can assume adam warlock will be a HUGE part of this. there are multiple versions of him, some villainous and some heroic, but no idea how this is gonna turn out.

no word yet on whether thor will be involved, or if those ravagers they introduced will be involved.

fantastic four

will be directed by the spiderman guy, john watts.

otherwise we know literally nothing.

aaaaand that’s the roundup!

#mcu #marvel #black widow #shang chi and the legend of the ten rings #eternals #smnwh #spiderman: no way home #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #dsitmom #thor: love and thunder #tlat #black panther 2 #captain marvel 2 #ant man and the wasp: quantumania #amatwq #guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 #gotg3 #fantastic four #mcu thoughts

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triggerblaze345 · 3 years

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Ok! Just finished watching the first episode of the Masters of the Universe: Revelation

My thoughts. (Warning: Spoilers)

1. I really liked it! This episode would have been a great finale to already started series. As a first episode to a new series it has me really excited.

2. My brother had already watched some of it and given me some info. I was under the impression that Adam had to run out in the middle of the ceremony with no explanation. Instead Adam does the only logical thing when you are a prince of the realm and get critical security info. Tell the general! It was great!

3. Skeletor has an actual army this time! I am so glad. It always felt odd to me in the 2002 series that Randor didn’t just steamroll Skeletor when Randor had an army and Skeletor had like five dudes.

4. The entire final battle is epic! Two armies, siege weapons, vehicles, people punching people out of vehicles!

5. It was fun seeing everyone interact! Adam and Teela are blatant best friends. Duncan is a proud dad. Orko is a funny wizard. Cringer is a furry coward.

6. Randor’s snide comment to Adam is awful but made infinity worse in the context that this is the last thing he says to Adam.

7. Marlena knowing Adam is He-man however makes her silence in the face of that comment really horrible. Borderline abusive. I completely get Teela’s anger at her later!

8. Castle Greyskull having enough power to destroy the universe is impressive as hell! It really adds a grandiose sense to the setting.

9. Adam’s death is the perfect heroic sacrifice. I don’t know what else to say. It’s perfect.

10. Randor’s anger at Duncan is entirely valid. If I had to learn my son was dead, that he had been a superhero, that I had been an ass to him for years because of secret identity bullshit, and that my best friend had known all along and said nothing. All at once! I wouldn’t have bothered with the exile, just skipped straight to murder.

11. Teela’s scene on the other hand feels weird. She should be angry, she should be upset. Her best friend just died in front, people she has trusted have lied to her. A grieving woman yelling in anger should be good scene here. But it comes across as her throwing a tantrum. She’s more upset by the lying then the fact that Adam died. She even has the gall to blame Adam! The scene just doesn’t work for me.

12. I like that people are celebrating the defeat of Skeletor. The end of the war is a big moment and it should be mentioned.

#spoilers #masters of the universe revelations #motu #motu: revelations #master of the universe #heman and the masters of the universe #he-man

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abwardplatform · 3 years

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He doesn't understand that it is a gift from God . . .

I often pause to contemplate a verse in the Glorious Qur'an that reads"

" And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth. "

God says that He has subjected to human beings, all what is in the heavens and on earth.

Almighty Allah has subjected "all things" to us.

The Qur'an is full of examples of subjugation:

"... the sun, the moon, the stars subjected to His Command ..."

We know God's Signs on the earth and in space;

clouds and winds move around, bringing forth rain;

all are subjected by Allah.

Let alone the oxygen and nitrogen in the air,

earth, with its water, metals, resources and animals, that we ride, eat and use their fur.

Also, there are the plants and vegetables that we consume.

But there are more amazing things that have been revealed to man;

the potentialities of bacteria and electrons.

Both are basic elements of the world.

As the Qur'an states; everything is subjected to us.

"He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth."

Stranger things are yet to come.

We are just starting !

A lot more is on the way.

In the past, when I used to read the Qur'anic verse, about everything being subjected to us,

I used to be astonished and amazed and wonder:

Has God given tails to horses for us to make fly whisks ?!

I'd think deeply about it all.

But now, I am neither astonished nor amazed,

God's given horses tails to benefit it and us, too.

The tail gives a horse beauty, and we make whisks from its hairs, too.

So, a horse's tail is useful to us.

God creates everything for its sake, for others, and for man.

That does not apply to man;

God has not created man for others to make use of.

Almighty Allah addresses man in a Divine Saying:

" I have created you for Me (My Devotion) ... "

"... for Me". How expressive !

" I have created all things for you .

So, do not get busy with what is yours,

rather than with that you are created for . "

This means we mustn't indulge in gathering property, money and

thousands of livestock.

These are here for our benefit !

They are created to serve us !

We've just seen wonders; bacteria at work !

Millions of sweepers working for free,

by Divine subjugation.

Don't bother, they're all ours. They're all created for us !

We must only think of the Creator; Almighty Allah.

The Divine Saying, then, goes: " Nothing stands between

Me and you . " See ?

" Nothing stands between Me and you . "

Allah is nearer to us than our jugular veins, as stated in the Qur'an .

Allah is even nearer to us than ourselves .

Look how near Almighty Allah is !

When angels fell in obeisance to Adam,

that was an order from Allah,

and due to their being subjected .

Angels are subjected, too .

There are angels for veering winds, protecting people,

recording human deeds, angels are for everything.

Satan refused to do like the angels had done.

But in spite of Satan's blatant refusal,

he is, also, subjected, and forced to do his evil acts.

He is still performing the job, which God has chosen him for;

that is, testing human beings.

Satan tests man and tempts him, but it is not his choice.

Satan refusing to prostrate himself before Adam,

yet, he is subjected by Allah;

he is carrying out the task he is assigned to do.

Satan tempts and tests human beings.

Sometimes, I keep asking myself how far these discoveries will go.

It's clear that man's power is increasing...

man's potentialities are dramatically expanding.

Now, instead of buying a hundred acres to grow crops,

millions of plant cells can be cultivated in a small dish at the lab,

to obtain pepper and saffron SO,

farmers can stay home and relax.

It is incredible ! This is unbelievable !

Bacteria generate electricity,

some purify sewage water and others generate biogas;

they work, while man does not lift a finger !

Human power is increasing thanks to the subjugation of things to man.

Man is getting more conceited,

and here lies the danger.

Man thinks that such a dominance is one of his personal traits.

He doesn't understand that it is a gift from God.

Man does not ride camels thanks to his intelligence !

A camel kneels down by itself; God's subjected it to do so.

In contrast, fleas are out of our control,

in spite of being tiny creatures, man can't control them.

So, everything is subjected by God.

God has laid down special laws for electrons,

which enable us to make use of them.

Planes are made and fly in the air by the laws of actions and reactions;

propellers and jet engines are based on them.

So, there are Divine laws, which we make use of.

Man's power is not derived from his bravery and excellence;

it is all a Divine gift from Almighty Allah.

Almighty Allah has given us the means to be powerful;

He has given us the way to make use of subjected things.

The arrogant men think that they alone have the upper hand;

that absolut power is theirs.

Then, comes the surprise !

The Shah of Iran was ousted and left with seven billion dollars,

yet, he could hardly finf an exile.

Where did his power go ? God grants us blessings and can take them away.

Praise Allah and remember His blessing, you're likely to keep them.

If you do not do so, you'll lose the blessings.

This is the core issue of everything.

A powerful man should remember the source of this power.

Nothing he has is due to his cleverness;

power is granted to him by none but Allah.

Allah says: " And He has subjected ... "

Man's role is to discover things; he extracts oil from underground,

but it is God Who has placed oil where it is.

This is a very important issue.

Man should know that the power he has is a gift from God.

Man reaches new horizons with it;

he discovers space, sends probes to Mars,

and travels the moon, by a power that is not really his.

Man has to praise Allah,

and know that power can be taken away from him.

Even the most knowledgeable scientists may get senile,

and may forget how to make simple calculations; reversed in creation.

" And he whom We grant long life - We reverse him in creation ... "

All powers granted to man may be lost;

a beautiful woman, who fascinates men,

gradually finds her beauty withering away as wrinkles fill her face.

A knowledgeable man is he who knows that what he's got is not really his;

the powers one exercises in this world are granted by Allah.

One has to go on in life fearing the beguile of Allah.

This is how a true knowledgeable man is; this is the true believer.

I hope that we will all benefit from this episode and be staunch believers.

ــــ

أنا بقف و بفتكر أية : " سخر لكم ما في السماوات و ما في الأرض جميعا منه "

ربنا بيقول انه سخر للانسان كل ما في السماوات و ما في الأرض 'جميعا'

شوف كلمة جميعا 'منه' التسخير منه سبحانه وتعالي

وفي القرآن نماذج و أمثلة؛ " القمر و الشمس و النجوم مسخرات بأمره .. " ،

و في الأرض و الفضاء ..

السحب و الرياح بتجري بتصريف ربنا سبحانه وتعالي و بتحمل المطر و مسخرة

الهواء بما فيه: أكسجين و نيتروجين

الأرض بما فيها: ماء و معادن و ثروات و حيوانات نركبها و نستعملها في الملبس و المأكل

و النباتات المستعملة في التغذية الحياتية

لكن ظهر أغرب و أعجب من كل ده ألا وهي 'البكتيريا' و 'الالكترونات' وهذه من مكونات الأرض.

فأصبح صحيح كما قال القرآن : "جميعا" .. كلمة جميعا

[سخر لكم ما في السماوات و ما في الأرض جميعا منه]

ولسه احنا هنشوف عجب .. الحكاية بدأت فقط ! المزيد سيأتي !

في السابق عندما كنت أقرأ القرآن في هذه الآية : ( أن الله سخر كل شئ لنا )

كنت أستعجب أقول يعني يارب خلقت للحصان ذيل لنجعل منه 'منشه' !

كنت أفكر بعمق حول هذا كله.

لكن الآن أقول نعم و ما العجب : ( الله خلق ذيل الحصان له و لنا أيضا )

1. ذيل الحصان - هو وجاهه للحصان وجمال و يستعمله منشه ايضا

2. و نحن أيضا نستعمله

* و الله خلق كل شئ لنفسه و لغيره و للانسان؛ ماعدا الانسان - لم يخلقه لأحد بل خلقه له فقط.

يقول الله عز وجل للانسان في الحديث القدسي : " خلقتكـ لي .. "*

= شوف كلمة 'خلقتكـ لي' دي جميلة ازاي !

" .. وخلقت الأشياء كلها لكـ، فلا تنشغل بما هو لكـ عما أنت له " .

يعني لا يجب عليك الانشغال و تجميع الأموال و الأراضي و آلاف من رؤوس البقر ..

هؤلاء جميعا موجودون لخدمتك .

و هذه الأيام رأينا العجب البكتيريا تعمل و تتكاثر ؛ الملايين من عمال النظامة يعملون مجانا !

// هكذا بالتسخير الإلهي !

فيقول الله عز وجل [لا تنشغل بهذا كله، فهؤلاء جميعا لكـ و مخلقين لكـ ]

[ .. ولكن فكر فيمن خلقت من أجله ] = و هو 'الله' عزوجل .

ثم يقول الله عز وجل " .. ليس بيني و بينكـ بين ". شوف المودة !

و الله أقرب الينا من حبل الوريد كما هو مذكور في القرآن الكريم.

" نحن أقرب اليه من حبل الوريد "

= ( أنا أقرب اليك من نطقك، أنا أقرب اليك من نفسك ) ؛ انظر لمدي القرب الالهي !

* الإسجاد :

عندما أسجد الله الملائكة ( طبعا بالاضافة الي انه اسجاد أمر ، لكن اجاد تسخير )

فالملائكة أيضا مسخرة.. ملائكة ( تصريف، تدبير، كاتبة، حافظة، ... ' ملائكة لكل شئ ' )

- إبليس : رفض السجودح لكن في اواقع ابليس رغم هذا الرفض مسخر أيضا رغما عنه .

لأنه مازال يعمل في الوظيفة التي أرادها الله له وهي إمتحان الانسان .

- فهو يمتحن الانسان و يغريه و يغويه ' رغما عنه ' .

رغم رفضه الاسجاد بالرفض الشكلي ؛

إلا ان معني الاسجاد و هو التسخير (أن كل مخلوق مسخر لوظيفته) لم يستطع رفضه .

رغما عنه فهو يقوم بوظيفته الغواية و امتحان الانسان !

أحيانا أتساءل إلي أي مدي يستمر التضاعف للأشياء ؟!

واضح أن قوة الانسان مستمرة في التزايد و التضاعف مثل ( التضاعف الرياضي ) .

مثلاّ : استطاع الانسان عمل تجربة في طبق صغير في المعمل عوضا عن شراء مليون فدان ،

و تتم زراعه مليارات الخلايا و ينتج محصول "فلفل، زعفران، .. الخ" ؛

لذا فالفلاحين يمكنهم البقاء في المنزل و الاسترخاء.

هذا جنوني، لا يصدق !

.. أو مثلا بكتيريا تنتج كهرباء ، و أخري تنقي مياه المجاري، و بكتيريا تنتج بوتاجاز .

كلها تعمل ، في حين ان الانسان لا يحرك ساكنا !

* فـ قوة الانسان في تزايد و تضاعف بالتسخير ، و تزداد ' حاكميته ' .

و يزداد غروره و تلك هي الخطورة .

- حيث يعتقد الانسان أن هذه ' الحاكمية ' به .. صفة ذاتيه له؛ هو لا يعلم

* هذه ' الحاكمية ' هي هبة من الله سبحانه وتعالي

= بمعني أنه مثلا : الانسان لم يركب الجمل بقدرته و قوته و انما الله سخره للقيام بهذا العمل.

// بدليل أننا لا نستطيع التحكم في " البرغوث "، رغم دقته و لكن لا نستطيع تسخيره.

لذا، فإن كل شئ مسخر الاهيا.

= فالله وضع في ' الالكترون ' قوانين بحيث نستطيع استخدامها .. ، وكذلكـ في كل شئ .

= الطائرات تصنع و تطير في الهواء باستخدام قانون الفعل و رد الفعل ،

وعلي أساسه صنعنا ( المراوح و النفاثات .. الخ )

* لذا، فهناكـ قوانين الاهية ؛ و نحن نستخدمها .

// قوة و حاكية الانسان ليست مستمدة من قدرته و تفوقه ، ولكن مستمدة كهبة الاهية ..

ربنا أعططي لنا المفتاح أو ختم الملك ،

فيخيل للجبارين أن هذا الختم ملك لهم و القوة ذاتية في انفسهم .

ثم ، تجد المفاجأة !

شاه ايران يفقد ملكه و معه سبعة آلاف مليون دولار و لا يجد منزل يسكن به

حيث كان يطرد من كل البلدان .. فأين الملك ؟!

إذن ، فالله كما يعطي يسلب .

لأن الملك و المفتاح و الختم مسألة مربوطة بالشكر ؛

فإذا لم تشكر تسلب النعمة ( فهي ليست ملك لك ) .

//العبرة : أن عند زيادة قوة الانسان يجب أن يعلم مصدر هذه القوة ..

* ليست من مهارته و قدرته الذاتية و انما هي ممنوحة .

فالله يقول : " .. وسخر لكم .. "

أما دور الانسان يكون في اكتشاف الأشياء ، فـمثلا ' فقط 'يستخرج البترول من باطن الأرض،

ولكن الله وضع البترول بداية .

:: فهذه مسألة مهمة جدا ::

أن يعلم الانسان ان الختم الذي بين يديه

و الذي يمكنه من ( الاستكشاف و الذهاب للفضاء و النزول علي المريخ و المشي علي القمر ، .. الخ )

هذا الختم ليس ملكه .

لذا، يجب تأديه واجب والشكر ، و يجب أن يعلم أن الختم او القوة ليست ملكا له فيحتمل سلبه منه .

* حتي أكثر العلماء علما ربما يكبر في السن و ينسي كيف يجري أبسط العمليات الحسابية

و يعود كما كان في مهده.

" و من نعمره ننكسه في الخلق " = يحتمل فقد كل القوي الممنوحة للانسان

* والمرأة الجميلة التي تفتن الرجال ، عندما تكبر في السن يذهب جمالها و تملأ التجاعيد وجهها .

* فالعارف الحقيقي يعرف أن القوي الكونية مملوكة للإله.

* و يظل يعيش علي تخوف من مكر الله

// هذا هو العرف الحقيقي؛ هذا هو المؤمن الحقيقي .

:: و نرجو أن نستفيد من العظة و العبرة ، و نكون مؤمنين حقيقيين .

#Allah #Islam #IslamExplorer #Muslim #Quran #Muhammad #ProphetMuhammad #books #Other #MustafaMahmoud #ABward

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Power Rangers Turbo Deleted Scenes That Could Have Saved the Movie

https://ift.tt/3aDPrNw

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is, at best, a glorified TV movie. Made when Power Rangers’ popularity was in slow decline after the zenith of the Mighty Morphin days, the film makes no pretense that it’s trying to be any kind of cultural event like the first film attempted to be. Instead, it only half-heartedly tries to bring in a new audience with the addition of kid Ranger Justin and struggles to please hardcore Power Rangers fans.

The story –new villain Divatox makes her way to a mystical island to marry an ancient evil and the Rangers have to stop her — limps along with little forward momentum. Guest alien character Lerigot, who speaks in an alien language nearly the whole movie, gets equal if not more screen time than Justin. There’s little to no character development for the main cast. It also takes over an hour and 10 minutes for the Rangers to actually morph and fight.

The two saving graces of the film are Divatox, played by Hilary Shepherd Turner, who brings a demented joy to the baddie, and the return of former Rangers Jason and Kimberly, who provide most of the memorable moments.

Overall, it’s a fairly dull movie… but it wasn’t always that way. Hidden in two early drafts of the film (specifically the third and fifth drafts) are some deleted gems, which, while they wouldn’t have completely saved the movie, would have made it a more enjoyable one. The characters all get more moments to shine, Justin (sort of) gets a character arc, we’re given more reason to care about Lerigot, Kimberly gets some snappy one liners, and there’s even an explanation of the changeover from the Zeo to Turbo powers!

Like we did with an early draft of the MMPR movie, we’re diving into these earlier versions of Turbo, but we won’t be covering every single change from script to screen. We’ll instead focus on the biggest changes and deleted bits that shed the most light on what could have been for the Turbo movie.

The Zeo to Turbo Transition

Considering this film is very clearly aimed at fans, let’s start with the biggest sticking point for them at the time when this movie was released. In the final version of the movie, there’s no explanation regarding what happened to the Zeo powers from the previous season of the show. Power Rangers Zeo, the fourth season in the franchise, featured a set of powers that were supposedly the most powerful, able to grow stronger overtime. However, the Zeo powers were completely tossed aside in Turbo with no explanation as to why (maybe after they saw the Zeo morph sequence could be disrupted by water they decided to get something better). The Rangers accept their Turbo powers, and not much else is said on the matter.

For years this has bothered fans… if only they knew how close we got to a real explanation. The third draft starts out with a partial explanation, that the Zeo Zords don’t have the power to withstand passage through the Nemesis Triangle and, as Alpha lays out, “the force of the triangle has mangled many power sources.”

However, it’s a later line of dialogue that could potentially solve every single problem fans have ever had with this.

As the Rangers work on the Turbo Zords, which will take them through the Triangle, Alpha specifically says, “the transfer of powers is complete.”

Now you can be nitpicky and say this was only referring to the Zords but considering that the Turbo keys and morphers appear in the same room as the Turbo Zords, it’s close enough. Plus Zordon makes it clear in the fifth draft of the script that Justin’s powers can’t be transferred to Rocky and that, “from this moment on, you are the Blue Ranger” lending more credence to the idea the Zeo powers have become the Turbo powers.

(This runs contrary to what the show implied in “Shift Into Turbo Part 1,” which made it seem like Justin could give the powers to Rocky if he wanted them.)

Zordon also reveals they had the keys in their possession for safekeeping, which seems to solidify the idea they transferred the Zeo powers into the Turbo keys in a way that would allow them to cross the Triangle.

This is truly the best explanation fans will ever get. After nearly 20 years of endless theories, forum battles, and debates, there was truly a simple explanation for all of this.

Justin

Without a doubt the most controversial addition to Power Rangers at the time, Justin was a legit child who bafflingly got the chance to become a Ranger. Like the film, the early scripts provide no real reason why a child gets to be a Ranger, although it does try to have Justin explain.

“It was an emergency and all, Zordon said I had the right stuff to be a Power Ranger, even if I was a little young, and Rocky thought so too…”

Considering Zordon’s “right stuff” for recruiting the original Rangers was that they were “overbearing and emotional,” I strongly question his decision making process here. Does he just find the closest person who won’t ask too many questions and go, “good enough!”

At least the script does delve a little more into the idea of a child being a Ranger, with Tanya and Kat both unsure if Justin really knows what he’s going up against. Tanya reasons they’ll have to be his family now, which was a line that made it into the film (albeit spoken by Kat) but doesn’t carry anywhere near as much weight there, considering that both of Justin’s parents are dead in the scripts!

In the fifth draft, that backstory is downgraded to just his mom but it’s still given much more time to impact Justin. Tanya and Kat comment several times how much trouble Justin has had since she died and his dad moved away. He’s clearly taken to Rocky quite a bit and is really disturbed by Rocky’s injury. This comes full circle at the end when, in a deleted scene, Justin worries he won’t be a Ranger anymore but Rocky reassures him that he deserves the powers. For someone who looked up to Rocky so much, this is huge.

Justin’s story even gets tied into Lerigot’s! It only happens at the very end but in another deleted scene in the fifth draft (that was briefly glimpsed in the film’s end credits) Justin gets to hold baby Bethel and sorrowfully observes, “it must be great to have your whole family together again.”

Damn, that made me feel things for Justin! I wish this connection had been explored a bit more but perhaps it was something they had planned to develop in the TV series. Still, these little glimpses into Justin’s life would have made the idea of a kid Ranger easier to accept and given him a more emotional arc.

Lerigot’s Backstory

Lerigot was… certainly a choice. Someone in the Turbo movie production office must have thought they’d be making some serious tickle me Elmo money off this alien but uh… he’s horrendous. His face is the stuff of nightmares. His eyes are that of a killer. His voice is what you hear as you’re slowly dragged into hell.

As mentioned earlier, he takes up way too much of the film’s runtime, especially the first half as we watch him play with animals in Africa. Both in look and execution, Lerigot is a huge misfire. However, the fifth draft of the script at least gave us more of a reason to care about him and, delightfully, tied his backstory to Maligore.

In the film, it’s revealed that Lerigot’s key can get Divatox through the Nemesis Triangle to Maligore. It was kind of strange how this specific key could do that but in the script Zordon explains to the Rangers that Lerigot’s ancestors, the Liarians, were the ones who exiled Maligore to the island Muiranthias in the Nemesis Triangle. Lerigot inherited the golden key, which, as in film, opens the gateway to the island.

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Speaking of keys, the keys the Rangers use to morph were also tied into Lerigot’s backstory. In the film, Zordon just calls them “similar” to Lerigot’s key but the script reveals that the keys and morphers were entrusted to Zordon for “safe keeping with the hope that they would never have to be used.”

So hey, uh, Zordon. Were you gonna… tell the Rangers about those powers at all? Could have been real useful all those times they lost their powers before now! Maybe you wouldn’t have even needed the Zeo Crystal if you just opened that wall and gave everyone the Turbo powers! Why do you have so many secret powers, Zordon?! We know you have a Zord fleet hidden away on an alien planet! I know you’re all about “don’t escalate battles” but people are dying!

Anyway, tying in Lerigot to the Rangers’ powers is a cool idea and does give both the powers and Lerigot more weight in the film since they’re the only things that can take on Maligore. The powers aren’t just something Zordon cooked up in a few minutes. It also conjures up images of ancient Liarian Rangers, possibly multiple teams who inherited the powers from each other.

That’s incredible! Even though it was scrapped, the idea of more alien Power Rangers out there isone I’m always open to, plus it gives us the image of Liarian Power Rangers beating up Maligore. This is an image I will treasure for all time.

Aqua Power Suits

One would think introducing the Turbo powers would be enough for a film but there were plans to feature a second set of… powers as well. Actually, it’s a little confusing so I’ll try to explain as best as I can.

In the script, Tanya and Adam are actively tracking Divatox’s landing on Earth instead of just kind of hanging around the Power Chamber while Tommy and Kat go off to Africa. Zordon instructs them to investigate and the two bust out the Aqua Power Suits, which are described as“five armored suits split down the middle and peeled back.”

Adam and Tanya don’t morph into them, they, as the script describes, “step backwards into their suits. The suits close from the feet up, snapping into place. The face shields show half of their faces as they step forward to reveal a small jet pack on their backs.”

No explanation is given as to where these suits came from; they were just hiding in a wall. At least, unlike the Turbo powers in the script, the team already knew about them and Zordon wasn’t hoarding them away until it was time to (sell some new toys) face a great threat.

Showing half their faces in the suits brings to mind the abandoned plans from the first movie, which featured open visors during fight scenes. It makes more sense here considering the suits, as written in the script, sound more like souped-up scuba gear than actual morphed suits. A later scene reveals that the suits have miniature radar screens, a button on the helmet that allows the wearers to talk to each other underwater, and a weapon attached to the hip.

The suits were mainly used in an altered scene where, instead of Jason and Kimberly simply being captured by Divatox, Tanya and Adam tried to save them in a thrilling underwater battle. The two former Rangers are taken into the subcraft, and before Tanya and Adam can try and get inside, Divatox electrifies them. It’s a great sequence that would have added some much needed action to the start of the film.

Aqua Suites, power up! #PowerRangers pic.twitter.com/YZcQgKIyiZ

— Jackie Marchand (@jackieyo) October 29, 2018

Concept art of these suits has been released by longtime Power Rangers writer Jackie Marchand but the images don’t match the script at all. The art features the regular Turbo Rangers, only with additional underwater equipment. They depict the aqua aesthetic as more of a power-up rather than a whole other suit.

So uh… how would that have all worked if the Aqua Power Suits were introduced BEFORE the Rangers got their Turbo powers? Would the Aqua Power Suits have appeared over the Zeo suits?

One explanation might be that in an even earlier draft of the script the Rangers did use the Aqua Power Suits later in the film. According to Power Rangers: The Ultimate Visual History, the original script for the film (which we assume is the first draft) was 150 pages, so there was ample time for the new suits to appear. (For reference the third and fifth drafts we’re covering are 87 pages and 91 pages, respectively.)

Another possibility is that, while the suits were designed for the film, Turbo didn’t really have the budget to film the scenes they were used in. As cool as an underwate fight scene would have been, it wouldn’t have been easy to pull off. Doubly so with actors in costumes like Ranger suits. Actor Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam Park) revealed in 2013 that, while some scenes leading into the Aqua Power Suits were filmed, they were ultimately cut during production.

Bulk/Skull/Lt. Stone

The unexplained change from Zeo to Turbo powers isn’t the only plotline that left fans of the TV series baffled when this movie hit theaters. In the finale of Power Rangers Zeo, Bulk and Skull were recruited for a secret detective mission off the coast of France, quitting their positions working under the former Lt. Stone. It was a seismic shift that was almost completely dropped in the film; the trio’s suddenly back on the police force that they’d been fired from with the only acknowledgment being Stone remarking they were lucky to be rehired.

While the scripts don’t address the France mission cliffhanger, it does at least provide some explanation for how the trio got back on the force. Stone tells Bulk and Skull at a baseball game that, “we are in the middle of the international summer festival. The department is short on manpower. Trust me… they must be if they hired you back.” It’s not much but… it’s something and does lead to a series of deleted scenes.

During the same baseball game scene, as in the film, Stone instructs Bulk and Skull to relieve him at the international danceathon. This is a reference to a subplot that never made the cut, with Stone stuck at the dance after Bulk and Skull were kidnapped by Divatox. Twice during the film we cut back to him being forced to dance, first to German polka and then a Jamaican line dance. This plot was to be wrapped up in a final scene where Bulk and Skull finally show up, only for Stone, in Kabuki makeup, to chase them down with a stick.

While I’m glad to see Stone get something more to do, these scenes are of little consequence and it’s no wonder they were cut. They were filmed though, and the footage that exists isn’t all that funny, especially since it features several cultural stereotypes that are downright offensive.

The Malichians make an appearance at the festival in these deleted scenes (seemingly having followed Bulk and Skull back from the island), and just like in the film, they’re a painfully out of date and racist depiction of native people.

Mandika the Mermaid

Ever wonder how Bulk, Skull, and Kimberly made it to shore after escaping the sub craft? In the film, it’s implied they floated back up but the script gives us a far more entertaining explanation. It was a mermaid! And not just a random mermaid but one that was going to share a subplot with Adam!

In the script, the Rangers face a much longer trek to get to the Ghost Galleon, needing to follow a river in the “Digathian Forest.” The Rangers drive there but can’t find their way until they spot “a beautiful young girl of about eleven. Her skin is the color of alabaster with long blue/black hair that trails in front of her bare chest.” (What a creepy description.) “She dives and a silvery tail flips out of the water.” The mermaid is named Mandika and is friends with Alpha! That robot must get up to some amazing adventures off screen.

Just after that introduction Adam is unnerved by a vision of Maligore at a campfire (the image of Maligore in fire recurs in the script) and goes for a walk. Mandika leads him to a pirate skeleton, which points the way to the Galleon. After that, Mandika pops up to save Bulk and Skull and then Kimberly before needing to be saved herself, which also helpfully fills in a plot hole.

In the film, as two missiles streak toward the Galleon, Kat suggests, “We can’t be detected inside the Turbo vehicles.” Which is completely pointless since the missiles end up hitting the ship anyway and the Zords simply withstand the blast.

In the script, the Rangers getting into the Zords diverts the missiles…to Mandika! She’s unaware of the missiles and Adam, on a recon mission, takes a bungee cord out of his power box and leaps down to save her in the nick of time. She thanks him and dives back into the water, never to be seen again.

Mandika is completely pointless. She has zero personality and is only there to help bolster the movie’s attempt at being a big adventure. But we’ve already got five Rangers plus the villains. We don’t need anymore side characters.

Notable Deleted Sequences

Director David Winning said in an interview for the Ultimate Visual History book that the script for the film was “massive – a series of one adventure after another. The original edit was over three hours long, so, realistically, it had to be cut down.”

While that edit was probably a very early rough cut, it still means a lot of sequences had to go, even some potentially great ones.

Power Rangers fans have hungered for these scenes for years, clues to their existence slowly trickling out. The script finally sheds some light on what these scenes were all about.

One of the biggest of these is Kat firing a flamethrower, with Tommy looking on, an image advertised on the back of the Turbo movie VHS. The script reveals their target was a crocodile, which followed Tommy and Kat after they reunited in the water. Tommy gets Kat out just before the croc tries to attack, getting into a full on brawl with the animal, even grabbing it in “an upside down bear hug” and shoving a branch in its mouth. Tommy gets to shore and Kat scares the croc away with a blowtorch that was in a power box. This sequence was probably cut for time or maybe the image of Tommy wrestling a crocodile wasn’t as cool as the script made it out to be.

Another scene known to fans was of the Rangers traveling through several different chambers to get to Maligore’s temple. This scene was briefly featured in a short music video at the beginning of the Turbo VHS tape, and while it promised something exciting, the script makes it seem pretty boring.

Tommy opens a door to the temple with his Turbo key (which makes more sense than Justin just happening to find a random entrance in the film) and the team enters the “Serpent’s Temple.” There’s an oil slick lake covering the floor, and as they move through, they see cobra statues with real snakes all around them. Tanya hates snakes because Indiana Jones reference and then they just… run into the main chamber. They don’t even fight some snake monsters.

Much better are two scenes that did show up in the film but only in silent form in the end credits. The first is made up of several shots of Lerigot, his family, Jason, Kimberly, Bulk, and Skull entering the Turbo Megazord. Kimberly and Jason share a hug with Tommy looking on, leading some fans to speculate Kim and Jason were now a couple. The script does not mention or indicate that at all but it does contain a great bit where the Rangers react to Bulk and Skull’s weirdness, and Jason bemusedly observes, “I’ve known them since Kindergarten and I still can’t figure it out.” This is the kinda character moment the movie needed more of.

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The second is the shot of Justin getting to hold Bethel that we mentioned earlier, but it also ends with Alpha getting Lerigot to say in English, “Go… go… Power Rangers.” Ugh. I kind of love it.

Fans haven’t heard of all the deleted scenes, though. One particularly interesting one occurs as the Rangers are about to enter the Triangle but first have to pass through some fog. There they see a phantom ship appear and vanish, along with a “world war fighter jet” and even a UFO!

This is a scene I really wish had been kept in the film. It gives the island more weight

because it’s a place humans have at least tried to interact with (and earlier dialogue in the script makes it seem like the Triangle is a well known myth.) It makes Earth just as magical as any of the far off planets the Rangers have encountered. If our planet is hiding this kind of power, it’s no wonder villains are always looking to conquer it.

Another great scene is an extended version of the Putra Pod fight where the Rangers actually morph! In the film, they take out Divatox’s minions on the ship unmorphed but in the script the fight is longer and much more exciting. There’s much more action described, with my favorite bit being Tommy having to fight his way into the captain’s room so he can pull the Turbo keys out of the ship. We even get an early version of the morph call, “It’s morphin Turbo time.”

That’s a mouthful but I desperately wish this has been in the film. It still takes way too long but it gives us some Ranger action earlier, which the film badly needed. Even the first film, for all its flaws, knows it has to bust out a Ranger fight early on to keep you interested.

Deleted Character Moments

Without much action to break up the film, a huge problem quickly arises, there are very few character moments. When the film isn’t shoving Lerigot in your face, the Rangers are mostly given painful amounts of exposition or mind numbing dialogue that doesn’t feel specific to them as characters. One could argue the Rangers were never that deep to begin with but there was enough to draw on if they wanted to… and the script did.

Unfortunately, when editing a movie, the first thing to go are little character moments, and that’s a real shame because there are some fantastic ones here. One of my favorites comes early when the Rangers and the shelter kids are all at the baseball game and Tanya catches a speeding ball hit into the stands. It’s a perfect little bit that references her baseball skills from Zeo and gives her a moment with Justin where she gives him the ball, producing his first slight smile in the movie.

There are actually several deleted little bits about Tanya. When Jason and Kim see Bulk and Skull acting strangely in the subcraft, Jason’s reminded of a report Tanya did about trauma and how people respond to it. Hey, they remembered Jason knew her! Tanya also tells Tommy and Katherine to “send my love to Africa” before they teleport there.

The whole team also gets an absolutely brilliant scene where they’re all around a campfire just before Justin shows up. They all talk about how they used to be afraid of the dark, with Tanya remarking, “That’s when all the monsters camped out under your bed.”

It’s such a sweet bit, especially with Tommy being the first to admit his fear. It also subtly feels like the team is comparing their childhood fears of monsters to their present day lives of fighting them all the time. This moment lets the Rangers feel like genuine people with the weight of the world on their shoulders. If this had made it in, it would have easily been the stand out moment of the movie.

Or maybe it would have been anything Divatox says. She was already one of the best parts of the film but the script gives her even more time. Early on, she gets Rygog to draw up a prenup for the marriage. Rygog dutifully confirms, “Everything that is yours remains yours. And everything that is his becomes yours as well” to which Divatox says, “Sounds fair to me.”

Later, during the big Volcano fight, she threatens to “throw a few Ranger wimps on the barbie” and adds, “You should appreciate that, Pink Ranger!” Divatox remembers more about Kat’s backstory than the final film did.

But none of these scenes even hold a candle to a line that should have been in every trailer because it would have sold this movie. Jason, having just been brought to the volcano, gives the very standard Power Rangers line of “Don’t you know bad guys never win?”

To which Divatox responds,

“Of course they don’t. Guys are complete idiots. Now women on the other hand…”

I LOVE IT. I ADORE THIS LINE SO MUCH. How could you not film this? How could you cut this? It’s brilliant! Perfect for Divatox.

How Much Better Is The Script From The Finished Movie?

Look, many of these deleted bits are great. The character bits help give the film more depth. It made me want to know more about Lerigot, and that’s a true accomplishment! There are some killer lines, acknowledgement of the TV show’s continuity, and Justin is far more likeable. For the hardcore fan, these moments do a lot.

That being said, these little bits don’t fix the film. It’s still a deeply flawed movie that, like the first film, seems to be ashamed of the TV show and tries to tell a story that is as far away from it as possible. But it’s just not that good a story on its own so the only thing that’s worthwhile are those moments that connect to the show and the characters we already love — which are few and far between.

The script gives us more of those but it doesn’t fix the major flaws, like the painfully slow start, the overuse of Lerigot, the lack of character arcs, and too little Ranger action, though the extra scene on the ship is appreciated.

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So yes, the script is better than the film but it wasn’t exactly a super high bar to clear in the first place. At least if some of these scenes had been included, the movie would have been more enjoyable for Power Rangers fans, which really are the primary audience for the film anyway. I’m not saying that’s whom the studio should have been exclusively catering to but the only time the script is able to shine is when nodding at hardcore fans. Without that, Turbo is just a forgettable ‘90s kids movie.

The post The Power Rangers Turbo Deleted Scenes That Could Have Saved the Movie appeared first on Den of Geek.

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cartoonfangirl1218 · 3 years

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BTS Inspiration of Winner’s Curse

I know not many people read my descendants fic, but hey it’s my Bday tomorrow and I feel like revealing some of the inspiration for it. This world building was actually what inspired me to start writing it down. Originally it was going to be from the POV of a Vk, and explore all the dynamics of the “new” Isle under the Coven of 13, and get into the motivations of each but as you can see that did not happen. I was intrigued by the idea of exploring a “sidekick” trying to be the hero and all that. Other notes are

Circe was originally going to be the mother of Malik, after having a fling with Mozonroth when she got sent to the Isle. Decided it was too much drama and discarded that.

There was going to be more focus on the power struggles between the mercenaries, the Coven and the authority figures. Was going to reveal Uma and Freddie to be siblings. Ended up sidelining Freddie.

Gaston’s daughter, Cosette, was going to have a role, becoming closer with Gil.

Atlantis characters were going to be part of the main group. As well as Black Cauldron characters. Also discarded.

Was going to redeem Drizella because I heard the original plans for Cinderella III was going to be Drizella redemption but they changed so they could give more development to Anastasia. So I decided I was going to do it. Dizzy would have been given more of a role.

Hans was going to be revealed as the cruelest villain. (Yeah I was going to make him a twist villain again. Be glad I did not).

Nasira and Mozonroth were going to be lovers before I decided on mother and son.

Diego and Ivy De’Vil would have had more a role.

Hercules characters would have had more a role. Including the Muses.

Ben would have had more a role somehow.

And that‘s about it.

But some things I am proud of in Winner’s Curse. Passing the Bedchel test.

A POC majority cast (This was completely unintentional but now I see it and counting it out, there’s four Agrabians, two WOC, and three European. Though I’ll admit I have not given Harry, Calix and Gil as much spotlight as I should. So my bad. But does Greek count as a white Euro? Idk, point is, unintentional diversity. Woo)

There‘s only two romances. Both are interracial. Also unintentional. Uma and Harry are totally together. And Aziz and Lala’s burgeoning crushes that will not end in a kiss after the final battle because it’s not important. Oh well. Attempts to explore PTSD, abuse, sexual assault and poverty.

The emphasis on family and friendship between characters.

Exploring the negative side of Auradon including it’s classist system, the Magic Ban, and the Euro-countries getting more resources and riches compared to the likes of Kuzcotopia and Atlantis and Atlantica,

Psychological studies(ish) and more character exploration.

Jay faces his dad!

Hook siblings!

Getting to mention tie ins to the Aladdin animated series, Legend of Tarzan animated series, Hercules animated series, Ariel‘s Beginning and soon Disney fairies books. And adding those characters.

That I finished 20 chapters! This is my longest fic ever! And just ten more chapters to go! I’ll get there.

Coven of 13: Villains dedicated to using their old magic to take over Auradon and be restored to their glory days once more. However they all have conflicting wishes with what the final plan should be.

Maleficent: Since being “overthrown” as queen of the Isle. Maleficent had to settle herself with working with others until she can be mistress of all evil again. Is in a constant battle for dominance with Queen Nerissa, Ursula, Mozenrath and Jafar.

(Evil) Queen Grimhilde: Though she may be pre-occupied by her looks and seem to be passive, Grimhilde is secretly gunning for complete control of the Isle and Auradon when they invade. She feels there should be a new queen that doesn’t get into such petty tantrums as Maleficent. Queen Nerissa: Queen Nerissa is the unofficial leader of the coven since it was her idea but it is impossible to convince the others of that. She wishes to get her ultimate revenge on Giselle, Edgar and the rest of Auradon by becoming the tyrant.

Ursula: Ursula is smartly setting her sights on just ruling Atlantica. Unless she gets bored. Then she might expande her pool of options. She mainly just wants to stick it to King Triton and when it comes to execution time. She isn’t going to make the mistake of keeping his soul, she wants to destroy it. Mother of Uma.

Circe: Very bitter about ending up on the Isle even after Helen of Troy vouched for her to stay in Auradon. So to say that she wants to crush Adam to the bone is understatement. She wants him to grovel. And if she can find that one good man while she’s at it, that would be a plus. Mother of Calix.

Mother Gothel: Though she has an intense rivalry with Grimhilde since day one about hoarding the scarce beauty products available on the Isle, she is her closest supporter now when it comes to finding magic for revenge and curing wrinkly skin. She is the mother of Ginny who she doesn’t dote on nearly as much as she did with Rapunzel.

Yzma: She wants Kuzcotopia and she will do anything and everything to get it even if it means teaming up with a bunch of “old hags” (yes pot calling kettle). Still remains overdramatic and delusional. Has a semi-dependent abusive relationship with her children Zevon and Yzla.

Morgaine Le Fey: Morgaine Le Fey, like Grimhilde, is quiet when it comes to group work but she is always observing for everyone else’s weaknesses and flaws that she will undoubtedly exploit when she becomes Queen of Camelot. Mother of Morrían.

Nasira: Sister to Jafar and mother of Jade and Mozonroth. She isn't nearly as enthusiastic about ruling Agrabah as her brother and Mozonroth are but she is just in it to get revenge on the stinking alley rat, Aladdin.

Queen La: Without her staff, her kingdom or leopard-man army, La has resorted to her Atlantean priestess magic again in hopes of getting off the Isle and reclaiming her staff. Still delusional, still lustful and hates having to depend on the rest of these people. Mother of Ranavalalona.

Jafar: Wishes to rule Agrabah and execute the royal family that “mistreated’ and “disrespected” him so much. Is in a constant battle with Mozonroth on the fact that he is the best sorcerer and will be ruler of Agrabah when they take over. Mozonroth: Finds Jafar to be a blowhard and believes that since he already took over the Black Sands and overthrew his former mentor that he should be doing far better plots. But with the Isle’s Magic Ban, he has to go with what he has. Besides that he would like to give his half-brother, Aladdin, a taste of “brotherly love” when he puts him in a headlock to crack his skull. Father to Malik and Imran Abbas.

Dr. Facilier: Like Ursula, Dr. Facilier smartly works on the fringes, setting his sights small on the Bayou before ruling the rest of Auradon. Father of Freddie and Celia.

All-Powerful Quartet: Generally speaking, if any villain was going to be taking over Auradon, it would be these 4. But due to their all-powerful status, they’d rather not exert themselves to do such menial tasks when they have other things to do.

Mirage: Evil Incarnate. So she does get to go off-Isle to maintain some balance of good and evil in the universe but generally enjoys the place. There is just so much evil and chaos everywhere and she glories in it. Mother of Illusion and Chimera.

Chernabog: Since being put on the Isle, Chernabog remains asleep on the mountain, waiting for his day to rise again.

Horned King: Without his deathless army, the Horned King remains in his cave, slowly wasting away. Mainly convenes with Hades.

Hades: God of the Underworld. So yeah, he has a full time job to do.

Mercenaries: The muscle behind the Coven, these are people who can’t adjust to domestic life, more 20th century living and miss the thrill of a fight. They deal with the dirtier deeds of murder and treason. The big boss (literal mob boss) is Sykes who rents their services out.

Sykes: Mob boss. Basically owner of the unofficially named, “Mercenary for Hire.” He never gets his own hands dirty but he has plenty of people who will do it for him. He keeps his people in line with his files of blackmail he has stocked up.

Clayton: Desperately misses the thrill of the hunt and more modern conveniences like a well-polish gun with enough ammo to shoot all these thieves to hell. Has a coworkers- with-benefits relationship with Helga. Father of Clay.

Rourke: Since being screwed over by magic, Rourke has kept a very rigid condition that he will only deal with non-magical situations. Still maintains his treasure-seeking ways and often pilfers from Jafar’s shop.

Helga Sinclair: One of the most intimidating humans on the Isle and of the mercenaries in general. She is known for her efficiency in work, stoic demeanor and same condition to her jobs as Rourke, no magic.

Muviro: Finds mercenary life to be very suitable since being exiled from his tribe. He does it less so for the money but for the glory and bloodlust. Father of Renavalalona.

Lady Caine: Self-proclaimed, “Queen of Thieves” and pirate extradonier. She is Captain Hook’s only real competition on the piracy front leaving a lot of punch-punch kiss tension between them. Many suspect that she is CJ’s bio mom since they share the same manipulativeness, “devil may care” attitude and self-centeredness. However she has no time for any child-rearing, and leaves James to do whatever neglectful work.

Gaston: Another mercenary that does it for the glory rather than the money. He needs something to do since his hunting days are over. Unfortunately he has not won a lot of admirers on the Isle for his chauvinistic attitude (Bad move considering that many of the women have actual powers). Father of Gaston Jr. Gaston the Second, Gil, Gaston (IV) the Great and Cosette.

Shan Yu: Finds himself very low being part of a mercenary gang instead of invading foreign countries. But it does provide some thrill that he can work on his own and make his homicides as bloody as he wants them to be.

Sa’Luk: Former “King of the Thieves,” Sa’Luk uses his mercenary work to get rid of his excess energy and anger towards his enemies. He joins Rourke in pilfering from Jafar’s shops and has a penchant for shiny gold trinkets.

Lt. Col. Jean Staquait: Former French officer and best to hire when you need someone to torture prisoners.

Authority Figures: Villains who are used to have some amount of power in more domestic/civilian pursuits. Pretty much like big corporations that constantly drain the other villains of cash, small trinkets, food and whatever other valuables are on the Isle.

Queen Saleen: One of the most malevolent mermaid, well only mermaid on the Isle. She spends most of her time in the Isle’s waters, avoiding the annoying two legged people. She is often in some sort of feud with Ursula.

Lady Tremaine: Guardian to Anthony Tremaine. Lady is getting on with her years and remains more or less infirmed in her house with a dozen grandchildren. She runs her house with an iron fist and is the most vocal on the Isle in support of child labor. She misses her days of richness and convenes with other elder women about how low they have fallen.

Medusa: Just like she did before the Isle, Medusa owns a pawn shop that is on a constant losing streak to Jafar’s so she has opened a small casino next to it too. She rather delusionally considers herself to be an entrepreneur and tries to work with those higher up in the social ladder to get more money herself.

Cruella De’Vil: While she spends most of her time tending to her furs and car and drinking, when she is sober she tries her hand at fashion design as in the olden days. She works closely with Lady Tremaine and Medusa.

Prince Hans: More or less the least-adjusted to the Isle with his loss of kingdom, servants and anyone gullible enough to believe his lies or manipulations. He is in close cahoots with Mozenrath and bought Drizella as his mistress. Father to Lars, his only son and heir since Stalyan refuses to ruin her figure again.

Sheriff of Nottingham: Serves as the Isle’s one man police force and a sucky job at that as he lets his henchmen squad do most of the work while he serves as trial judge and executioner with the Queen of Hearts: She works a bit on the judicial system, mainly the one who suggests the executions. She can also be found bringing most of the cases to court against henchmen who have wronged her or disobeyed her Tea Shop’s rules.

Captain Hook: The sole owner and commander of the coasts of the Isle while Ursula controls its seas. He is still as obsessive as ever about Peter Pan, his hand and crocodiles and can be found frequenting bars and other brawling areas on the Isle where his hook serves as a nasty weapon. Father of Harriet, Harry and CJ.

Gov. Ratcliff: The only one on the Isle that deals with paperwork. Sort of a treasurer of sorts. Not so much in organizing it but guarding it with his life and spends his time staring longingly at the piles wishing it were genuine gold than copper coins. Claude Frollo: Father of Claudine. Maintains his strict preaching and inflaming others against sin and towards prejudice. But he also tends to lose his inhibitions more and is a regular at the brothels of the Isle late at night. No woman has replaced his lust for Esmeralda though. Claudette seems to becoming close to that though.

Stalyan: Hans’ wife and Lady Caine’s part-time lover which drives Prince Hans crazy. She has her eyes on one thing and one thing only, money and bad boys that make her look good. She has no real ambitions of her own and depends on her father, the Baron, to give her what she wants. Mother of Lars.

Regular Citizens: Citizens that hold no sort of power and are pretty much everyone’s punching bags.

Morgana: Morgana would have been put part of the coven, but her sister, Ursula forbade it. Besides everyone knows that Ursula is far more powerful and talented than her sister. Instead Morgana is blackballed from any real position of respect and takes care of Ursula’s restaurant when she is away.

Marina Del Ray: Since losing her job to Sebastian she has become the Madam of the Isle’s seaside brothels, using the money to spiffy up her gaudy wardrobe.

The Bimbettes: Claudette (red dress) used to be Gaston’s gf but left him after he tried to “throw away” their daughter, Cosette, to try for a boy. She has since then been seen with the likes of Prince Hans, Mozenrath and Frollo. Laurette (yellow dress), the mother of Gastons 1-3 is Gaston’s favorite. Paulette (green dress), Gaston’s official wife is more or less his servant/punching bag and mother to Gil.

Drizella Tremaine: Since she couldn’t be married to Prince Hans, she has settled for being his mistress whenever he and Stalyan have a fight. A thankless position since she regularly bends over (literally and metaphorically) to his will and gets discarded like trash every time.

Lefou and Smee: Live together and own a kinda profitable gun and fishing shack. By far the best parents on the Isle due to their goofy more sympathetic natures.

Jasper and Horace: Still devoted henchmen of Cruella, they serve as secretaries, gophers and all manner of assistance to her. Fathers to Jace and Harold.

Ivy De’Vil: Mother of Diego, is the brains behind Cruella’s beauty designs since she isn’t drunk all the time. Can be considered one of the better mothers on the Isle.

Animals: No explanation needed

Scar, Zira, Shere Khan, Sabor, Benzai, Ed and Shenzi, Tublat, Hista

Couples: Captain Hook and Lady Caine (fight-hate sex rivalry. Child- CJ)

Lady Caine and Stalyan (with-benefits)

Stalyan and Prince Hans (Married. Child- Lars)

Prince Hans and Drizella (affair, possibly Dizzy?)

Mozenrath and Hans (Hans swears it was an accident. Or he was too drunk. Or it was magic)

Lady Caine and Hans (Revenge against Stalyan)

Queen Grimhilde and Prince Hans (One night stand)

Ursula and Dr. Facilier (fling, potentially Freddie and Uma)

Frollo and Claudette (with-benefits)

Gaston and Laurette (Affair/borderline married. Children- Gaston Jr. Gaston the Second, Gaston (IV) the Great)

Gaston and Paulette (Married. Child- Gil)

Lefou and Paulette (Lefou deux, drunken night of pity sex because Gaston’s treatment of them)

Smee and Lefou (Couple. Adopted Sammy)

Ivy De’Vil and Frollo (One night stand. Child-Diego)

Mozonroth and Morgaine Le Fey (Fling)

Clayton and Helga Sinclair (co-workers with benefits)

Queen La and Muviro (Married and dumped. Children- Ranavalalona. Musala, Taytu Betuvira, and unnamed, deceased)

Queen La and Clayton (Fling- Leopold, deceased)

Queen La and Gaston (Fling. Children-Amina and Shaka, deceased)

Queen La and Rourke (Fling. Child- Euware, deceased)

Queen La and Mozonroth (Fling. Child-Sarounia, deceased)

Shan Yu and Sa’Luk (Once- There’s no straight men in the trenches)

#disney descendants #disney villains #winner’s curse #bts #inspiration #my fanfic #world building

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kalyan-gullapalli · 4 years

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Post # 131

A bridge, its history and its mythology...

In 1860, a British Indian Naval Officer, Alfred Dundas Taylor, proposed that the time and distance taken by ships traveling from the west coast of India to its east coast and vice versa could be cut down significantly, if a sufficiently wide and deep passage was made connecting the Gulf of Mannar and The Palk Strait, separating the Indian mainland from Sri Lanka. Because of the shallow waters in the Gulf and the Strait, ships had to circumnavigate 400 nautical miles more, around Sri Lanka, taking them upto 30 more hours and a commensurate increase in cost. From 1860 till Indian independence in 1947, nine proposals were made and evaluated. But no action was taken.

In 1955, the independent Indian government set up a committee called the Sethusamudram Project Committee. After evaluating the costs and benefits, this committee found the project feasible and viable. Five more proposals and technical reports followed. But no action still, till 2005, when Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister, inaugurated the project, 145 years after the original proposal was made.

The project, budgeted at INR 2600 crores, was supposed to take 3 years, and was supposed to dredge a canal 165 km long, 300 meters wide and sufficiently deep to let cargo ships traverse that route.

Today is 2020. Fifteen years have passed and still no Setusamudram canal. Why? Because, right from its inception, the project had a few issues:

1. About 65 % of the ships in that area come from Africa and Europe. For them, the time saving was not 30 hours, but just 8 hours.

2. The channel could take only 30000 tonnage vessels. But most of the new ships, which are of 60000 tonnage and tankers, which are 150000 tonnes or more, cannot use the canal.

3. The project would disturb the ecological balance and destroy corals and kill marine life. It would also destroy conch trade worth INR 150 crores annually.

But the biggest issue was - the Sethusamudram canal would cut through and destroy what was left of the mythological Ram Sethu or Adam's bridge. And that would be disastrous to the political fortunes of the government that did that.

So what exactly is the story of the Ram Sethu or Adam's bridge? And why is it so sensitive? Therein lies a tale.

The Ram Sethu is today, a 50 km long chain of limestone shoals, between a village called Dhanushkodi, on Rameswaram Island (also called Pamban Island), in Tamil Nadu, India, and another village called Talaimannar on Mannar Island, in Sri Lanka. The bridge is believed to have been made by Lord Rama and his Vanara army to reach Lanka and rescue his wife, Sita from the evil king, Ravana. The Sri Lankan muslims, on the other hand, believe that Aadhaam, their first Islamic leader, walked over this bridge by foot from India to Lanka and thus this bridge has a holy connotation for them. Aadhaam got morphed to Adam, because the British found it easier to pronounce. Hence, this bridge was also called Adam's bridge. But for most Indians, especially Hindus, this bridge is Rama Setu or Nala Setu (because it was built by Nala, the architect-monkey in Rama's army).

That makes it mythological, right? Why worry about mythology in the 21st century?

Because that also makes the issue religious. In India, religious issues become political issues. Right wing parties like BJP and organizations like VHP put their foot down and said, "How can you break a bridge built by Ram?" Secular parties said, "Since Ram is mythological, Ram Sethu is mythological too."

I also grew up believing Ram and Ramayan to be undoubtedly mythological. But recently, I read a book called Historical Ram, written by D K Hari and his wife, D K Hemahari (who run an organization called Bharat Gyan), wherein they attempt to provide scientific and logical proof that Ram and Ramayan are historical.

The various arguments they put forward are as follows:

1. They say Ramayana and Mahabharata are called Itihasa in Sanskrit. Itihasa = Iti + hasa. Meaning - It happened like this = History.

They say that until the British came to India, Ramayana and Mahabharata were indeed considered to be have happened. The British classified these epics as mythology.

2. They use a technology called archaeo-astrology and make some powerful propositions. Archaeo-astrology is a technique of charting the future or past sky using a scientific tool called planetarium software. This tool helps to arrive at planetary positions, given a date in future or past. Vice-versa, given a set of planetary configurations, the tool can help identify the date in future or past, when the planetary configuration will or could have occurred.

This software was apparently developed by NASA to estimate the planetary positions of Voyager missions that would take 10-12 years to reach their destinations. Now, declassified, it is available for public use. Reminds me of how the internet was a classified invention of the US defence before it was made publicly available.

The authors refer to one Mr. Pushkar Bhatnagar, who used the original Sanskrit text of Ramayana and this technique to date the era of Lord Ram. For example, the birth of Rama is explained in detail by Valmiki.

This information, when fed into the software, tells us that Ram was born on 10th January, 5114 BC, at 12.30 pm, as per the Gregorian calendar!

This way, all major events in Ramayan were dated. Fantastic, isn't it?

Notice how the dating shows that Ram gets exiled when he was 25 years old, and how the Khar-Dushan episode happens in the 12th year of exile. Pretty consistent results, eh?

3. The geographic locations in Ramayan are actual places that exist even today - some of them have the same names then and now.

4. There is one school of thought that says that Ram Setu could be a natural phenomenon. The book refutes this possibility by saying that the layers of the bridge are so discrete that they can only he man-made.

None of these arguments are conclusive by themselves. But honestly guys, put together, there is a strong case that, after all, Ram and Ramayan may not be mere mythology. Maybe they are history - Itihas!

If they are, I would agree with Dr. Hari and his wife that Ram Sethu should be a protected monument. I will join them in demanding for a UNESCO world heritage site declaration for this piece of geography. Already in the past 500 years, a large part of it was lost to a cyclone. It is said that till 1480 AD, the bridge was a meter over sea level and one could walk from India to Sri Lanka over it.

And I look forward to the current BJP led NDA government and its minister, Nitin Gadkari's proposal that a bridge should be made from India to Sri Lanka, instead of a canal. This fits beautifully with this government's Look East foreign policy, whereby they are connecting all our neighbouring countries, as a counter to China and its aggressive intent.

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katefiction · 4 years

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Cora, Chapter 7: The Good Man

by katefiction (Maria) / 2013

It is the worst of winters. The freezing rain is battering against the windows, and the wind is whistling threateningly. It’s only 5.30 and it’s already pitch black out there. I get up off the couch and pull the curtains shut so I don’t have to look at it, before returning to the sofa.

I used to love this weather. Coming in from a long day, changing into my loosest clothes and curling into a ball on the couch. I don’t like it so much anymore.

I throw a blanket over myself and pull up my socks which have a habit of falling down. Navy blue with a red and white stripe across the top. As long as my pyjama bottoms cover them, no-one will know who gave them to me.

The door opens quietly enough not to hear it, but it’s 5.30, and he is always on time.

‘Hello’, I say with a smile.

‘Hello you’, he comes over to the couch and places a kiss on my head. ‘Good day?’

I shrug, ‘it was ok – you?’

‘The usual’

He joins me on the couch but doesn’t give me a cuddle or ask to share my blanket. But that’s just what he’s like and I’ve come to accept it.

‘So what are we up to tonight? There’s that new restaurant opened by the Pellys in Mayfair. Fancy it?’ he asks.

‘I’d rather just stay in tonight if you don’t mind’, I pull the blanket up to my neck to make the point.

‘Sure’, he says patting my leg.

I give him my warmest smile, ‘thank you Nick’

This is the point where I should probably explain.

Nicholas and I are together. It happened six months ago on the ski slopes of Verbier. One minute we were chatting and the next he’d asked me to join him for dinner again. I’d said yes and that dinner had turned into several. Now, having been an item for six months, I sit in his Notting Hill apartment for another night of pleasant company.

Eighteen months ago, on the day of my father’s coronation, Ben left. I haven’t seen him since. We exchanged a couple of texts after it happened. I commiserated him on his loss at Wimbledon that year, and he replied to say ‘thank you’. But that was it. Maybe I should’ve fought to get him back, but as the time wore on and his career sky-rocketed, I couldn’t ask him to risk all for me again.

Incidentally, this year, he won Wimbledon. I knew in my heart he would win and I couldn’t bear to watch it, knowing I should be there.

So I went to Verbier with friends instead. And that’s where it happened.

I could recall the last eighteen months in detail. The way I had cried and cried at first. Then came the anger that he’d given up so easily. Then the regret and loneliness. And finally the acceptance that he wasn’t mine anymore. But I won’t, because I made a decision to move forward, and to embrace the lovely man opposite me that had given me another chance.

‘How about a takeaway and a game of backgammon then?’ Nick says cheerfully.

Nick always did his best to cheer me up. I don’t know if he knew why I wasn’t really the same anymore. No-one ever tells you that you can mourn a relationship in the same way you mourn a death, but that’s how it felt. Like I was getting over a death and the people around me were treading on eggshells, scared of saying the wrong thing.

But I was determined to pull myself out of it and commit to Nick, ‘you always know how to cheer me up’

The pizza arrives and Nick sets it out on a large plate on the floor as we sit behind the coffee table, with the backgammon board resting on it.

I tuck into a slice of pizza, letting it droop dangerously above Nick’s cream carpet.

‘Hold on, I’ll get you a plate’, he says, dashing to the kitchen and returning with two side plates.

The little girl on me is tempted to drop it face down on the carpet, but I can’t be that cruel.

As we get into the game, I find that I’m enjoying myself. Nick is just as competitive as me, and I see him get frustrated every time a roll of the dice results in me gaining a point.

‘Must try harder!’, I tease.

‘Game’s not over yet’, he responds.

By the end of the game we are neck and neck, and it is Nick’s turn to throw the dice. It lands leaning against the edge of the board on six, not quite a full land but enough to prompt a whoop from Nick.

‘Whoop all you like, but that isn’t flat on the board so it doesn’t count’

‘Of course it does, if it had have landed, it would’ve fallen on six anyway’, he says, piling up his pieces.

‘Even so, it didn’t technically land so I’m still in the game!’

‘You lost Cora’, he begins to fold up the board.

‘No I didn’t’ I whinge.

‘Fine, well I’ve packed it away now anyway’. He shuts the lid on the box and takes the game away, ending the conversation.

Ben wouldn’t have given in like that.

I mentally chastise myself for comparing them. Ben left, Nicholas didn’t, that was the most important difference.

Make an effort.

I am still sitting on the floor when Nicholas returns and he sits down next to me.

‘Are you going to Louisa’s bridal shower? He asks.

Jonathan and Louisa still weren’t married. It had been over two years since their grotesquely public engagement, and they’d finally set a date for December. The official line was that Jonathan’s work was delaying the wedding, but the gossip was that regular arguments kept putting it off.

‘Do I have to?’

‘I would like you to’ he says, putting an arm around me. ‘You’re practically family’

I wince and hope he didn’t notice.

Change the subject. Quickly.

I rest my head on his shoulder and lean up to kiss him. It is sweet but unspectacular as always, with Nicholas seeming to concentrate intensely. I can live with sweet.

If I want to move on, I know I have to give Nick a chance to get closer to me. I run my hand up his leg as we kiss.

His hand lands on mine, ‘let’s not’

Thank God.

‘You don’t want to?’ I ask for the sake of it.

‘How about we wait until we’re married’

I hope he can’t see the sweat forming on my brow. Marriage? Already?

‘Yes of course’, I say, removing my hand from his thigh.

The thing about Nicholas was, despite pursuing me; he wasn’t too keen on the affectionate stuff. We kissed occasionally, but sex wasn’t an option. I guess if I was honest, I was glad. It had been eighteen months but I still couldn’t shake the image of the last person I was that close to from my mind.

***

Yorkshire

I beat the mixture to within an inch of its life, turning it around in the bowl aggressively.

‘Not so hard’, Mum tuts, ‘you’ll beat all the air out’

My mother didn’t believe in using an electric mixer for cakes. She thought it was the cheats’ way out. Which is why I am standing in her immaculate kitchen, with a bowl full of batter wedged in the crook of my arm.

She takes it off me and effortlessly begins folding in mixture until it’s perfectly smooth.

‘I don’t see why you should have to make a cake for this thing’, she says.

‘It’s Louisa’s demand; everyone should bring something either sweet or savoury for the bridal shower. I figured since I can’t cook for Adam and you’re a master baker, I’d go for sweet’

‘I wouldn’t say master’, she says, clearly not used to a compliment from me.

Mum had been unusually supportive since Ben and I broke up. Maybe it was just because I was getting older, but for the first time in years, we were enjoying each other’s company.

‘Why are you even going? You despised the girl at school’, she pours the mixture into a cake tin and slides it in the oven.

‘Nick asked me to, I suppose I have to get used to her at some point’, I shrug.

‘Mmm’. She wipes her hands on her pristine apron and starts clearing away the mess.

‘What does “mmm” mean?’ I say, looking down at my own apron, which is splatters with cake mix and flour.

‘I just always thought he was more of a friend’

‘He was. But he’s lovely and kind and Dad loves him…’

‘So that means you must too?’

I blush, ‘well no, but I know I’ll be safe with him’

‘When did you ever care about “safe”’, she laughs in her shrill tone.

‘I’ve learnt my lesson, I just want someone simple’

‘She cocks an eye brow, ‘do you?’

‘Yes’

‘He was a nice boy’, Mum says turning back to the washing up.

‘Who was?’

‘Benjamin, who else?’

My hearts rumbles at the sound of his name.

‘Well he couldn’t hack my life, and Nicholas can’, I say, attempting to clean my apron.

Mum laughs again, but this time it’s as if I’m not in on the joke, ‘I’d rather disagree, I’d say sneaking into the palace to see you two days before the Wimbledon final was hacking your life, don’t you?’

My head springs up, ‘how did you know about that?!’

I had told people that we’d broken up, but not when or where. Only Maggie knew that.

‘How do you think he got into the palace?’, she rolls her eyes a me.

‘You got him in?!’, I exclaim.

I guess I hadn’t really thought about it after he broke up with me.

‘Yes, he contacted me saying he wanted to surprise you or something of that effect, so I organised it’. She says it like it’s no big deal.

‘But how? You don’t have any authority…did Dad know?’

I didn’t want to say it, but like it or not, the ex-wife of a king held no power.

Mum sighs, ‘Darling, I know you think your father and I hate each other, but we don’t. If we did, he wouldn’t have invited me to the coronation. But no, he didn’t know. It was Maggie that I called upon’

I think it over, realising that she’s right. Despite years of apparent bad blood, Dad hadn’t exiled Mum from the family.

‘Mum…can I ask you something?’

She nods.

‘Did you and Daddy divorce because you were in the public eye…or would you have divorced anyway?’

It’s the first time I’ve ever asked either of my parents about the reasons for their divorce. All I remember are snide looks across the dinner table and the false smiles in public.

She beckons for me to sit down at the kitchen table.

‘Your father and I are very different. And the life you lead is never easy. But I knew what I was getting myself into when I married him. I loved him more than I loved my old life.’

She leans over the table and takes my hand for the first time since I was a child.

‘That doesn’t mean Benjamin didn’t love you enough to stay’

I gulp down the lump in my throat, ‘that’s what it feels like. And besides, he never told me he loved me’

‘Oh he loved you, believe you me, and the feeling was mutual?’

I nod.

‘I know you care for Nicholas, and I know your father approves whole-heartedly, but if he is going to pale in comparison for the rest of your lives…’

‘Everyone will pale in comparison!’, I sob. ‘I’ve got a good thing with Nick, why ruin it for someone who is never going to come back?’

‘That’s for you to decide’, I finally see the kindness in my mother’s eyes. ‘Just think about this, the happiest years of my life were with your father, and I don’t regret it for a second, never mind where we are now’

‘Really?’

‘Of course’

‘After all that happened between you, the divorce all over the papers, I just wanted to protect Ben, I didn’t want anything to get in the way…I don’t know why he couldn’t understand that…’

‘You wanted different things, that doesn’t mean you didn’t care for each other’

The oven timer pings, telling us the cake should be ready.

‘What should I do?’. I can’t remember the last time I asked Mum for help.

‘Well, I think you need to decide if “safe” will be enough for the rest of your life’

***

Louisa is dressed in a floral printed dress, her hair in a high blonde ponytail as she greets me at her parents’ home.

‘Great to see you Cora’, she says with her pursed lips.

‘Thanks for inviting me’ I say as I try to navigate a double cheeked kiss with the cake in my arms.

‘The cake can go in the parlour’, she points randomly behind her.

I have no idea where the parlour is, having never visited her house before, but I’d be happy to wonder around this massive country home if it gets me away from Louisa and her friends.

Unfortunately, the parlour is where the bridal shower is being held, and I find myself faced with a group of ten Louisa- clones staring back at me.

‘Hello’, I say meekly.

A murmur of ‘hellos’ are returned and I go to place the cake on the table with the rest of the food.

Louisa enters behind me and sits down, ‘now that we’re all here, it’s present time!’

Shit shit shit.

We go around in a circle, with each guest handing Louisa a present: some sexy bridal lingerie and designer shoes are among them.

And then it’s my turn. Louisa looks at me pointedly.

‘Um…well the thing is…I’ve been a bit busy and it slipped my mind’

Louisa’s face hardens, ‘so you’ve just come here for the free food then?’ she asks.

A few of the girls snicker.

‘Of course not, I just forgot’

How old is she?!

‘Fine’, she says smoothing down her hair to regain her composure.

As Louisa begins a monologue about all the presents that Jonathan has ever bought her, I glance over to the grandfather clock on the wall. Still only eleven o’ clock.

I had agreed to come here for Nicholas, to get to know Louisa better. At least that’s what I told him. In truth, I didn’t want a repeat of this day last year. The fourth of November.

Ben’s birthday.I think about what he might be doing. Giving himself a lie in? Doubtful. He always put tennis before himself, he’s probably training somewhere.

Last year, I’d woken up at 6am, and grabbed my phone. I desperately wanted to text him ‘happy birthday’, but couldn’t pluck up the courage. Every hour or so, I’d get my phone out again, determined to do it.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t had any engagements that day. Since I’d become the Princess of Wales, I’d been in public most days. The one day I’d hoped for a distraction, I’d been doing paperwork from the office, my mind stuck on him.

This year then, I’d jumped at the chance to keep busy when I’d found out the date of the bridal shower. Never mind how little I wanted to be here.

Turns out no matter what I was doing, he was still on my mind.

‘How about some cake?’ one of the friends says.

Everyone nods enthusiastically, happy for the change of subject.

‘Let me see what you’ve all bought!’, Louisa springs up and heads to the food table. ‘chocolate and orange, thank you Martha, ‘strawberries and cream, well done Simone…’

How much cake does one girl need?

‘And this is…?’, she looks through her nose at my dusky pink cake, which is decorated in little sugar paste roses. Courtesy of Mum, of course.

I put up my hand, ‘that’s mine, rose and vanilla’

‘Lovely’, Louisa says with her face screwed up. ‘I think I’ll go for the strawberries and cream’

She cuts into her cake of choice, nudging mine out of the way to do so. Only I notice that her nudge is more of a shove. The cake falls heavily to the ground, splattering face down on the hard wood floor.

The room gasps.

‘Oops’, Louisa says innocently.

I grit my teeth, ‘nice one’

‘It was an accident!’ she protests.

‘Of course it was…’

‘Now now!’ a friend says. ‘No need to fight!’

‘They’re bound to fight’ another says, ‘they’ll be like sisters one day’

Louisa and I glare at each other. Sisters my arse.

‘I’ll get a cloth’, Louisa says, obviously eager to flee from the scene.

‘I’ll help’ I say, and follow her into the kitchen.

‘Louisa, look’ I say when we’re out of earshot, ‘I know we’ve never gotten along, but was that really necessary?’

‘I don’t know what you mean’ she says, looking for a cloth under the sink.

I sigh. ‘We’re going to have to get along for Jonathan and Nicholas’

She laughs nastily, ‘are you planning to stick around?’

‘Well yes, if things go well’

‘Oh Nicholas will make sure things go well, trust me’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Nicholas will do everything he can to keep you around’ she says, looking me up and down.

‘I’d hope so…’ I say uncertainly.

‘You haven’t made it easy for him though, dropping him for the tennis player’

My face flushes, but I don’t say a word.

‘But he caught you in the end…the prize catch’

I want to ask her what she means, but don’t want to give her the satisfaction.

My curiosity wins over, ‘Nicholas is a good man’

‘Are you sure about that Cora?’ he eyes look almost icy.

‘Yes.’ Am I?

He demeanour changes in an instant, ‘well good for you…Princess’

She floats out of the room like nothing had happened, the seed of doubt planted firmly in my mind.

#katefiction #royal fanfiction

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yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy · 4 years

Text

The Willow Maid Part 3

@waiting4inspiration @gearhead66 @inforapound sorry this took forever to update. More sacriligious bible references? Check. Angst? Check. Fluff? Check. Enjoy.

The Willow Maid

Part 3

Floki woke up in his bed once more, not remembering coming back to his bed, the last thing he remembered was catching up with his deceased wife and daughter until he collapsed.

But his heart and his soul were healed. The way an old scar is given balm to soften it before it reheals anew.

“You live son of Odin, I thought you were going to climb through and pass right over into the next plane.” Rayth greeted in amusement as she came in with a large brunch since he had slept for over a day to recover. “How do you feel?” She asked thoughtfully.

“Healed.” Floki answered honestly.

“Good, it’s important to heal the mind, heart, spirit and soul along with healing the body.” She nodded in agreement as she casually picked a pear to munch on it as he devoured his large feast that she brought him.

“I can’t begin to thank you.” Floki offered meekly as he paused in eating to look her in the eye.

“You’re welcome, after you’ve eaten, I’ll take you back to your people.” Rayth informed him and Floki was strangely saddened and disappointed that his time with her was over.

“So soon?” He asked.

“Yes, you are needed back at your new home, your people will need more guidance.” Rayth explained.

“Oh,” Floki nodded in understanding before he begrudgingly continued to eat the meal. Once he was done Rayth gave him back his previous clothes and had him get dressed while she got her parting gift to him together.

“What’s this?” He asked when she handed him two heavy burlap sacks connected by a thick rope.

“A parting gift, you will find seeds in one and saplings in another. Plant them wherever you wish, they will sprout and grow and in abundance, no more will your little settlement go hungry.” She explained. Her own expression melancholy before she took his hand and led him out of the tree and down the steps around the outside of the tree like a spiral staircase, the bark changing as they descended until they were back in the settlement.

“How will the settlement be able to worship their patron goddess?” Floki asked.

“Be kind to the women and children in your life. No one is to rape or harm another.” She repeated.

“What kind of offerings will give you the most joy?” He asked second.

“A wildflower or two, Your settlement is still very small, I would not want to put any kind of burden on anyone. So when the settlement is stable, all the houses for the people are built and the crops are abundant, then I will take 3 or 4 wildflowers, whatever you find growing on the way to this alter.” She answered as she gestured to the hollowed out opening in the tree they were standing at the base of, not too far away from the settlement, just barely into the trees.

“Also, these were the animals left at the other alters, I want you to have them so they could help you and your settlement.” She explained as a few cattle and some sheep and goats came out of a doorway in the tree as they surrounded them, twine tied around them in halters and leads before she handed the lead twine to him.

“Goodbye Floki, son of Odin.” She bid him before she turned and walked up the steps again, the bark of the tree changing to that of the old and as soon as she turned out of sight, it was like the tree returned to normal, the door closing up to become the hollowed out tree it had been and the light that had been shining down on them from her tree vanishing and that left Floki standing there in the forest with the animals looking expectantly at him, wishing he could still say goodbye before he found a small tiny flower growing near his feet and picked it and laid it in the hollow tree trunk.

“Goodbye Rayth, thank you for everything, I will miss you dearly.” He whispered before he picked up the bags once more and walked the short distance away to find his small settlement, amazed he was alive.

“Where have you been?” They asked.

“I was in the World Tree with a new goddess, daughter of Lilith and Loki- Rayth, she has given me seeds and saplings so that our settlement will no longer grow hungry ever again and all these animals.” He answered as he showed them the bags and what was inside as the animals then decided to graze on the grass around them.

“We must plant them all as quickly as possible.” The settlers agreed and took them and quickly planted everything before a storm seemed to come out of nowhere and the moment everything was planted- it started to rain a warm rain and Floki stayed out in it, feeling and knowing that this was Rayth’s rain and happily let it drench him before he went back into a tent.

To his delight- everything that they planted grew 10 times as fast as any other plant and in just a matter of a week, they were able to harvest a crop so abundant that the storehouse they built for them- it all didn’t fit to the point they had to build two more store houses. They had pumpkin, squash and gourds, beans, wheat, rye and barley and oats including fruits, like grapes, apples and pears and all kinds of berries and a nearby river was now teaming with salmon and other fish.

Floki then showed them the tree that would become their alter as everyone left a handful of wildflowers as was asked and Floki and his people felt her blessing.

But there were still burning questions that Floki wanted answered, so he left a handful of wildflowers at the altar and laid on his belly and waited, and waited, and waited some more, patient as ever until finally he saw movement.

“Waiting for me?” Raith asked as she opened up the altar and leaned her arms over the ledge so they were face to face as he handed her the flowers which she gratefully took.

“Yes, I have some questions if you have the time and patience to answer them.” He explained.

“For you? I do, come on through,” she invited and Floki crawled on his belly through the altar and back into her home.

“Tea?” She asked as she helped him stand up.

“Yes please,” Floki nodded as he followed her through her house, remembering how it seemed to be a maze before she went to her kitchen and put a kettle of hot water in the fire to heat up as he took a seat at the little table she had there in her kitchen.

“So? What are your questions?” She prompted once the tea was done and she served both of them a cup of it.

“Is there another reason why you don’t like animal sacrifices or the blood of animals?” He asked thoughtfully and judging by her painful facial expression and suddenly rigid poster that he seemed to have struck a nerve.

“If I tell you, you have to promise to never repeat it and never bring this matter up again.” Rayth warned.

“I swear.” Floki vowed.

“In the beginning- of the creation of man, after the first man Adam rejected my mother because she demanded to be treated as an equal instead of a subservient, the Creator- he made for Adam a second woman, made from his rib rather than the very earth he was, Eve- who was submissive, young, naive, fragile and completely dependant on Adam. Everything my mother was the opposite of. They sinned and became imperfect- because my father vowed to avenge my mother, because after Adam rejected my mother, she was kicked out of the garden like paradise- called Eden. So once Adam and Eve were out- they had children, many children, their first born was Cain and a second son was Able. Cain and Abel both sought to regain the Creator’s favor. I was the firstborn of my parents, so we all kind of grew up together and I fell in love with Abel and since I was a direct descendant of the Creator since my father was a son of the Creator and my mother the Creator’s creation- and closer to perfection than he was, Able asked me how to gain the Creator’s favor. And I loved him so much that I told him exactly how to do it. The Creator gave life, so life should be given back to him, and you know as well as I do that blood is life.” Rayth recalled, her voice becoming thick with emotion as a single tear streamed down her face at the memories as Floki reached out and held her hand in sympathy.

“So Abel promised me that if his first sacrifice was accepted, he would make another for me, so that I could be completely human with him and be his wife and I couldn’t hardly wait because the Creator has that power. But then…” Rayth broke down into sobs before Floki stood up and pulled her to her feet and hugged her tightly and consoled her physically since he didn’t want to say anything and interrupt her revelation.

“Cain offered his best vegetation, Abel sacrificed a lamb, the Creator approved of Abel’s sacrifice but he did not approve of Cains. And Cain became so angry and wrathful that he killed Abel. The first murder on earth and it was all my fault, if I hadn’t told Abel about the power of life’s blood or if I had just lied, he would have lived. Life belongs to the Creator, all sacrifices made to any god but him are all made in part to my father instead because my father is the father to every god but the Creator who is his father in turn. How can I take delight or pleasure in the very thing that was responsible for Abel’s death? It’s so abhorrent to me. Every time I see it, I get sick because it reminds me of Able and every time I see my parents or my siblings getting drunk off of it- I get sick. Because it doesn’t belong to any of us, it belongs to the Creator and only him.” Rayth bawled into his chest. “But if that wasn’t enough- the Creator actually protected that murderer! He forbade anyone from striking him and put a curse on him so great that even I couldn’t strike at him. And when Cain founded the land of Exile, because of the Creator’s protection, I couldn’t even set foot in it! It’s all my fault and I’ve been powerless to do anything about it.” Rayth lamented.

“No, none of this is your fault! It’s Cain’s fault, he’s the one who got angry and wrathful. All you have done was provided a way for those to find favor of the gods who want it. That is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed or guilty over. I am so sorry that this Cain took your love away from you, trust me, I know exactly what that feels like.” Floki sympathized as he stroked Rayth’s back lovingly.

“So what happened next?” He asked.

“The Creator offered me recompense, and he allowed me to return to the garden of eden and offered me this tree as my home and it will stay mine until Abel is brought back in the resurrection, and then and only then will I be reunited with him. But it’s just...so long to wait.” She answered.

“How long have you been waiting?” He asked.

“Over five millenia.” She answered with a huff of a laugh. “I figure I will wait a few more before I am reunited with him.” She ventured.

“Then I will come and help you wait, distract you if need be.” He offered.

“Ok.” She nodded.

#The Willow Maid #@waiting4inspiration #mythsandlegendschallenge #Vikings Floki #floki x reader #Floki imagines #floki the boat builder

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victorluvsalice · 4 years

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AU Thursday: Alice Vs The Questionnaire I Just Made

Because it would be remiss for me to send it out into the world and not answer it myself, right? ;p

1. How many of the sidequests did your characters do? Did they manage to complete all of them?

Alice completed most of the sidequests, mostly because I find them interesting, they're good to advance the plot of my story, and -- in-game -- they're good sources of XP. The only ones I skipped/failed were (Edit: naturally I forgot a few on my first posting; what can I say, there’s a lot of side quests!):

Drug Trip -- The Unofficial Patch Plus only quest where you can get some XP and +1 Finance by stealing some drugs for Trip from the clinic. In-game, I completely forgot this was an option and never did it. In-story, Alice is trying to get drugs by more legitimate means for Mercurio rather than steal morphine, so I don’t think she’d be keen to get the recreational stuff for Trip.

Daydream Believer -- Only marked as an official “quest” by Unofficial Patch Plus, this is where you can sell Copper “unicorn blood,” fang-blunting gum, and a stake to kill the head vampire if you’re feeling maliciously playful. Alice was not -- in fact, she likes the Thin-Bloods and wants to help them. And that includes sympathizing with Copper about his desire to become human again, while also warning him off doing anything stupid.

Replanting A Lily -- The quest where you send Vandal someone to replace Lily in his blood-draining chair once you’ve freed her as part of Thinned Blood. In-game, I simply Demented him into some hysterical laughter to forget the whole thing (in case I needed him for emergency rations). In-story, Alice slammed him up against the wall and informed him the only reason she wasn’t about to kill him was because she needed to stay in the Voerman sisters’ good books. Vandal being Vandal, he immediately found this the sexiest thing that had ever happened to him and tried to give her free blood (like might happen with the Intimidation option), which she told him to stick where the sun don’t shine. Yeaaaaah, Alice doesn’t like Vandal.

Occultish Personality -- The quest where you get occult items for Pisha, and she gives you powerful items in return. Rather than work with Pisha, I had Alice kill her after taking care of the Simon business. This was purely a character choice, as I didn't see Alice ever working with her (she disapproves too strongly of what Pisha does to sate her Hunger -- she understands that the woman is under a pretty nasty curse, but the entire camera crew?!).

Venucide -- Okay, this is an interesting one -- this is the alternate side quest you get if you take Boris up on his offer to kill Venus during And Her Name Was Venus. I didn’t do this in-game -- I’m not doing low Humanity with Alice, and besides you earn a lot more with Venus alive and giving you club profits -- but I mention it because Alice pretends to take the offer, goes back to Venus, and works with her to fake her death before going back to Boris to get the reward, then kill him. Venus is quite tickled by the whole thing. XD

Dirty Dishes -- The quest where you help one of the three Giovanni relatives at the party to gain an advantage over the other two. I attempted this one, with the intent of having maybe Victor or Victoria do something with the info in the story (as they're the ones actually doing the social stuff -- Alice snuck in Obfuscated with them), but as it turned out, I didn't have the Persuasion necessary to get the dark secrets out of all three. I only managed to get Adam Dunsirn to admit he’s broke -- ratted him out to Mira for an experience point. Ah well. . . In-story, Victor will probably learn Adam’s secret while socializing, but not actually tell anybody.

Model Citizen/Cover Girl -- Imalia's quests -- either planting webcams to spy on her rival Tawni, or (if you piss her off/want extra XP after the previous quest), getting her a copy of a magazine with her on the cover back before Nosferatuing. Imalia is one of those characters who reacts very poorly to meeting a Malkavian, and is generally pretty conceited, so I didn't have Alice stick around to actually get the quests. By this point in the story, she's not doing favors for people who treat her like ass unless she has to.

Poster Session -- The quest where you trade various objects you can collect around the world to Gary for posters of the ladies in the game. Okay, in all actuality, I am doing this one in my game, if only because I'm collecting the objects he's asking for anyway while doing other quests and I might as well, but Alice in-story wouldn't be interested, and I'm not sure Gary would make the offer anyway, given their relationship.

2. How long do you think their stay in L.A. lasted, from Embrace to ending?

I'm working on figuring this out right now in my current playthrough! Part of the reason I fired up Bloodlines again was to actually work out a timeline for "Londerland Bloodlines," as the one given on the wiki feels absurdly short (and cuts out all the side quests). The way I've currently got it, it looks like Alice's Adventures In Los Angeles will stretch from October 21st, 2004, to the middle of November that same year (maybe about the 15th or so?), though I think I'm going to be adding in extra time in the story to help develop relationships and build in some extra breathing room for the characters. So, at a rough estimate, about two months.

3. Which ending did they go for? And if they're the rare Kindred who sided with Ming or LaCroix, did they somehow manage to escape their canonical fates (blown up/sunk to the bottom of the ocean)?

Alice is Independent all the way -- by the end of the game, she neither likes nor trusts practically anyone in the Kindred/ghoul community of L.A. (with four key exceptions, and one of those -- Beckett -- has already skedaddled by the end game) and just wants out. Hell, she would have left earlier if she'd gotten the chance -- she would have happily left L.A. the moment LaCroix sent her up against the Sabbat alone if said Sabbat hadn't kidnapped Lizzie and Victoria, and she would have just left straight after rescuing them and killing Andrei if she hadn't had a guilt attack about helping to get a Blood Hunt called on Nines and deciding she had to tell him about what Ming-Xiao told her. And the Cabbie is the one who talks her into taking down LaCroix and Ming-Xiao when she escapes the Blood Hunt, telling her that the only way to truly feel free is to make sure neither of them can come after her again. She is only too happy to leave the city when everything and everyone is done and dusted.

(Also, semi-related I had what I feel is a pretty awesome idea regarding why she gives LaCroix the key -- a post in the vtmb tag mentioned that anyone who had Auspex might be able to scan the sarcophagus and see there's no uber-vampire inside. The way Alice uses Auspex in her story, it functions partially as a real-life "Shrink Sense,” to fit with her madness. Maybe, at the end of the game, Alice finally uses Auspex on the sarcophagus to see what she can glean, and sees that a) there's no vampire and b) the Insane Children have drawn jack-in-the-boxes all over it, along with arrows to leave. Figuring LaCroix can suffer the disappointment of it being empty, she drops the key and heads off, not QUITE realizing WHY the kids told her to leave -- that is, until her Wonderland friends start BOOKING IT out the door when she gets down to the lobby, and she realizes those jack-in-the-boxes look like her own Jackbombs. . .)

4. How do they feel about the major power players in L.A. (LaCroix, Strauss, Smiling Jack, Nines, Isaac, Ming-Xiao, Gary)? Did their opinions of them change at any point thanks to a quest or just more time spent with them?

LaCroix: Hates him from the moment he Dominates her into leaving the Nocturne Theater instead of bothering to answer any of her questions. She's willing to keep her head down when she's around him (for fear of more Domination) up until Grout's mansion -- then she starts demanding she be paid like a proper employee, at least, and getting a lot snarkier in his presence. When the Blood Hunt on Nines was called (which involved him Dominating her AGAIN so she wouldn't warn Nines beforehand), she was about ready to gut him, and sincerely hoped there was something in that damn Sarcophagus so it would eat him. She doesn't particularly mind he got blown up in the end -- she was much more concerned for anyone else who was in the upper levels of the tower.

Strauss: She found him a little condescending, but helpful, when she first arrived in Downtown and sought him out. (Didn't think much of his poetry skills, though.) He gave her some good information on vampires around the city and the Camarilla in general, and she can't deny he paid well for helping take care of the plaguebearer situation. Her opinion of him plummets the moment she learns about his role in creating the Gargoyle, though. The idea that he kept that living, thinking being as his slave. . .not to mention, his low opinion of ghouls doesn't do much to endear him to her either.

Smiling Jack: Like Strauss, she spends most of the game thinking he's not exactly the best company, but he was helpful and gave her a hand in a very tough spot in her life. And he seems to be the most chill of the older vampires she's come across.

And then the sarcophagus explodes, Alice manages to put together the clues on who's behind it, realize he slaughtered all those people on the Elizabeth Dane and is indirectly responsible for a lot of the shit she's gone through. . .and basically exiles herself from Los Angeles forever by staking him and leaving him for the sunrise on her way out. (She is as shocked as anyone that she managed to pull it off -- she thought it would be a much worse fight!)

Nines: Alice is grateful to him for helping to save her life at her initial trial, and she likes his philosophy just fine. Unfortunately, their relationship was wrecked fairly early on by two factors:

1) Alice making a joke about the Last Round, which Nines took poorly -- Alice attempted to apologize, but Nines refused to hear it

2) Alice not liking Skelter and Damsel, both of whom immediately gave her shit for being LaCroix's "lapdog" and a Malkavian

So yeah, there was definitely some tension there. And the whole Blood Hunt mess happened, and frankly Alice is shocked Nines was willing to talk to her when she went looking for him on her way out of L.A. post-Sabbat. She sometimes wishes they'd had a chance to make up, but given that she doesn't think much of the Anarchs in general anymore. . .she's not losing sleep over their cool relationship.

Isaac: He's one of the main reasons she doesn't think much of the Anarchs in general. She thought it was pretty smart of him to have someone to direct vampires new to Hollywood to him to say hello -- up until he mentioned "tribute." That and his generally imperious attitude toward her at first means she considers him just another Prince under a different title. Learning what happened between him and Ash didn't help either -- she can understand not wanting to let someone you care about just die, more than she would admit, but he doesn't seem to have handled things well post-Embrace, given he didn't do jack shit about the hunters menacing him. (Hoping the threat would drive Ash back into his arms, perhaps?) Add in that he didn't even pay her for taking care of the Gargoyle (never mind Alice didn't actually kill it -- she still convinced it to leave), and -- yeah. She considers him everything wrong with the Anarch movement.

Ming-Xiao: Alice considered her fairly stuck-up when they first met, but really no worse than any of the regular Kindred she'd met -- and it was interesting to quiz her on how Kue-jin are different. Of course, learning that the Mandarin was on her payroll and she's actively trying to kill her lowered her opinion of her a bit. She actively avoids Ming-Xiao after the Fu Syndicate stuff, and nearly just puts her new enchanted katana straight through her when she shows up post-Sabbat. She certainly doesn't shed a tear when she has to destroy her at the end of game.

Gary: Alice thinks he's a bit of an overdramatic jerk, but she kind of enjoys matching wits with him. And at least he's more honest about being a jerk than most vampires, and keeps up his end of the bargain when she frees Barnabus, no problem. Whatever relationship they have is built upon snarking at each other, basically. :p

5. How did they handle the situation with Heather (or, if you're like me, whoever you replaced Heather with in their personal story)?

Obviously, in my world, Victor got hit by the car and got the ghouling treatment. Alice saw him lying all alone in that room and -- couldn't let him just die like that. She's utterly horrified to learn that she created an addict by doing so, and actively has Betram and Knox seek Victor out (using the Cathayan's laptop as payment) and send him her way so she can keep an eye on him and hide any Masquerade violations he may commit. Her original intent was to hold onto him until he stopped being a ghoul, then quietly set him loose, away from prying Kindred eyes. . .

. . .And then she fell in love.

Cue quite a lot of angsting over the fact that she doesn't want to lose him, but she feels so guilty about the Blood Bond and she doesn't know if Victor's feelings are actually real -- which only gets worse when Victoria and Emily join the group, as then she's like "I should let Victor be with one of them -- oh crap I like them too, what the hell Alice, years of not falling in love and now it's two mortals and a zombie." It took Mercurio explaining that his Blood Bond does not actually force him to like LaCroix, just be loyal to him, to convince her that keeping Victor -- and turning Victoria into her ghoul -- might not be as bad as she feared.

And then Victor had his prophetic dream about the Sabbat. He and Emily successfully fled the city (the "letting Heather go" branch of her mini-storyline), but Lizzie and Victoria got captured by the Sabbat and used as bait for a trap for Alice (the "Heather gets captured and killed" branch). Unlike in canon, though, Alice is able to successfully save them (with the help of Bonejangles, VV, and Bertram), and ghouls Victoria to help her heal before sending them away. They all reunite once she's done with the endgame. :)

6. More generally, how closely does their storyline stick to how you have to do things canonically? For example, in quests, did they find third options that weren't offered by the game? Are their stories affected by mods you use while playing the game?

I play with the Unofficial Plus Patch, so there's going to be some stuff from that included in my story, just because that's what I'm used to -- for example, Alice is doing the restored library quest featuring the Lasombra in her storyline. As for the main storyline itself, I'd say that, even with the character replacements and suchlike, it stays pretty much true to the game until about the time Alice hits Hollywood -- namely because I've replaced one-shot character Sam with Victoria, who has a much larger role in "Londerland Bloodlines." After that, it starts to veer off a bit more, in particular during "Italian Dinner," where Emily, Lizzie, and Bonejangles join the party --

But the most major break with canon is in the endgame. Namely, Alice decides to skip fighting her way up Venture Tower and instead climbs up the outside with the help of some climbing equipment she sources from Mercurio. :p Lacroix is more than a little surprised. XD (Though she still has to fight the bat-form of the Sheriff -- can't escape the whole boss fight, Alice!)

7. Do they have an alternate storyline/history of what might have happened had they been Embraced but not ended up the protagonist Fledgling?

I covered that a couple of weeks ago! You can read the "Mistakenly Thinned Blood" AU of the AU in detail here, but the short version is "Alice is Embraced more secretly by her sire Fish, manages to kill him post-Embrace, goes to Santa Monica, and ends up hanging out with the Thin-Bloods because everyone thinks she's one of them. Still saves Victor, meets Victoria, and rescues Lizzie, Emily, and Sam from the Giovannis, though -- and then gets out of town before the freaking-out populace who just learned what she actually is can catch up with her."

8. Is the Cabbie a) Caine, b) another Kindred who believes himself to be Caine for whatever reason, c) another Kindred playing the long con by pretending to be Caine, d) something else entirely?

He's Caine -- I like the headcanon, and the idea of him posing as a random taxi driver in L.A., looking upon all this chaos and wondering "why. why." amuses me. XD

9. How do you handle/explain away obvious "this only works in a video game" mechanics in their storyline (e.g., the inventory system that allows them to carry like seven guns and five melee weapons at once)?

With me, Alice is going to be carrying a lot fewer weapons at once -- she'll generally pick a few favorites to take with her on missions (she always has a knife on her, at least), and uses Obfuscate to truck them around invisibly when she's in crowded areas. She probably also gets a bag or backpack to carry useful things. She also goes through a lot more clothes until she gets some decent leather jackets and such -- her starting outfit is basically wrecked by the tutorial mission, leading to LaCroix's agents having to buy her a new dress before she can pick up her things and go to her new haven in Santa Monica. (I have decided to make it Symbolic by having her wear the modern equivalent of her London outfit from A:MR when she gets Embraced, and the outfit being destroyed representing her change from human to vampire.)

10. How do you explain why the Fledgling is so ridiculously overpowered when compared to most other vampires their age (beyond the fact that they're likely 8th generation, going by their blood pool)?

My personal explanation, which might come up in the final conversation Alice has with Caine in the cab, is that some people in this universe are born with great supernatural potential, for whatever reason, and Alice is one of them. There's just something about her that lends itself well to being a supernatural creature -- and a powerful one at that. If she'd been from a werewolf line, she would have been an amazing werewolf; if she had awakened as a mage, she would have been a super-talented mage. As she was Embraced, she gets to be a terrifyingly strong vampire. Alice personally considers this a pretty shitty "chosen one" status, but she can't deny she liked getting really good at Obfuscate really fast!

#londerland bloodlines #vtmb #questionnaire #this about covers most of what I wanted to talk about with Alice #and I really like that idea for Alice giving LaCroix the key #my original idea was her just going 'you know what #here I hope the vampire inside eats you'#but that felt a little too vicious #not toward LaCroix but toward everyone else in L.A.#Alice may hate most of the Kindred she deals with #but that doesn't mean she wants them all dead from super-vampire #better to have her thinking 'oh there's nothing inside? just a toy?#great all yours LaCroix enjoy disappointment'#she probably should have recognized the explody jackbombs sooner but #she'd had a long night #queued

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theinsanecrayonbox · 4 years

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well it was supposed to be FCBD (yes i know “postponed”), and it’s been a terrible day thus far, so how’s about my plot outline/list for what was going to happen in Superverse before it went on hiatus...because at this point it would either be another time skip past all/most of this or a full on hard reboot if we went back to it at this point

to start off, the STT was going to continue with Chloe struggling to be leader since Tim’s around, and everyone keeps going to him a bit more than her...well half of everyone. it culminates with Time leaving to go restart the Power pals, since well, he’s nearing 20 at this point. and the STT was getting quite a large roster, so the older members went with him, while the younger stayed and Chloe once again could be the leader.

Kevin would’ve met Junior at some point (because who doesn’t like amophus daemons). Trudy also got herself a girlfriend in the form of Susan C. Anthony, a bank heiress, who does not have powers.

Tootie was going to eventually come back (idk when or how) as Shadow Stalker. again, her return was farther down the line, so i don’t have the details that well ironed out...

Chester had already left Star Investigations because Mari had called him to a reading of Catman’s will. he did indeed inherit half of West Industries, as the young Adam was posing as a long lost son and thus was legally entitled to half the company too. Chester took over as Catman, while Mari stayed on to help Adam deal with the company. Chester would join Tim’s new Power Pals, thus finally fixing their broken friendship.

Trixie and Trini were going to head to Glamazon Island after they defeated Hair Razor. Trini’s lasso was destroyed in the fight, so they figured maybe she could use this reality’s lasso. Trixie’s powers were also starting to flare up, so they were also hoping to get some answers to that. once there they get to see that Goldenlocks has had her son, and they get to meet Hermia (whom Dwight was dropping off). they both end up going through a mystical trial of sorts that ended with Trini not getting the golden lasso of this universe, but her own silver one forged for her; Trixie on the other hand gets flashes of Cel’rey and Trisha, and the mystical voices tell her that she needs to go to England, leading into a Star/Sonic crossover event

over with Sonic and Paladin, it’s business as usual. however, CHATTY is starting to get hyper aggressive since Sanjay and Francis are starting to renew their romance.the team has to take her out, but in the ensuing battle their complex looses power for some time. this leads to 1) Sanjay learning that Britannia has blackmail over every member of Paladin and 2) it jump starts Molly out of her coma. Molly goes full Phoenix force though, as she absorbed the Light from Trixie at the end of Civil War (thus leading to her coma). this is when Trixie and Trini arrive more or less, so they help Paladin wrangle Molly back in and Trixie is able to reabsorb the Light, getting her powers back, and becoming Star-Gal once more. this also leaves Molly awake and permanently able to fly.

it would soon become revealed that BRAT, headed by Doombringer (the life hopping sorceress from King Arthur’s time), had been bankrolling Paladin (she also had a hand in funding Shallowgrave’s Civil War, and had the Summers killed, among other things). how is it revealed? because Crimson Lightning comes back into play once Sanjay and Francis are together again as the annoying jealous ex that he is. they manage to get him under control thanks to Molly’s help, but Alyssa ends up with the demon sword, becoming the Black Knight.

Trini goes and joins Tim’s Power Pals, while Trixie gets called back into space. First she finds and frees Hawkgal, then the two go out into space. Remember the ice guy Star Investigations helped out? well he sends a distress call to Trixie; her mentor Killgala is back some how...and the Darkness is also en-couching. Mark and Starfury also join up with them, ad they would in time find a version of Crash Nebula. the whole Light/Darkness mythos was also better explained, about how at the time of creation the cosmos split, thus leading to the Darkness and the Light; both energies became corrupted in different ways (the Light Corp imprisoning and using the Light, the Darkness going power hungry and creating the Eliminator drones, etc) and only by genuinely reuniting them could there be balance or something. that’s all cosmic stuff that i hadn’t fully fleshed out, since we needed to get past the Cosmic Cat stuff...

of course one minor subplot; Hermia would use Trixie and Trini’s existence as an excuse to escape Glamazon Island, claiming to go back to the mainland to go live with them, only to instead go shack up with Liam (the young Wet Willie). Trini, since she joins the Power pals, is the one to find that out, and gets royally peeved. but Hermia eventually takes over her spot on the team.

over in Eraserz, the team was going to get stuck going on a World Tour, being cut off from the Nexxus because some force was screwing up the multiverse. they would end up in a Mojoverse-like setting where they’d meet a half-editor entity (i forget who it was, might’ve been the April Fool or Puck). they’d pick up some temporary members, like the Franklin West Catman (who ends up staying in his reality), Charlie Hampton, the young Crimson Chin (who ends up on an alternate earth where the Power pals and STT had tehir age roles reversed, but there was no Chin, so he stays with that earth’s teenage Goldie) and some more permanent ones like RJ; specifically when they recruit RJ, Shirely stayed out of the Primeverse to do so (this was plot important) but so did Tony because he didn’t wanna risk running into Trini; RJ was recruited BEFORE Trini joined the Power Pals though. Tony would end up going missing while the team was hunting for an entity that was killing off alternate Trixie tangs, so they called in Trini to rejoin the team. somewhere along the line, RJ got stuck in a time displacement, and wound up on Earth 0 (the world that Shirely was exiled to) in the past; see, since RJ joined up, Shirely had been half avoiding, half flirting with him, and he was just starting to come around to it, but now he understood why, because from Shirely’s perspective they'd already dated. so RJ spends time with the past Shirely, is the one that convinces him not to be a prick and help the Eraserz when they come to him to take down Dark magician and co, and he ends up going back to his proper time, and the two of them pick back up tehir relationship where it left off. (this is all every important because as it would be revealed, Shirley and RJ are actually Tru Turner/Double T/FTT’s Masked Magician’s parents. Tim and Toot adopted her to keep her safe. that’s why she has such cosmic power, because she’s half Editor).

we were also going to learn more about Maggie’s backstory, since on the surface she seems like the only Eraserz member without a horrible tragic backstory, but as the plot progressed we’d keep getting hints to something. yeah, she has a Winter Solider!Kevin on her earth, and she kinda had to kill her cousin to save lives. but turns out she didn’t really kill him or something, because they end up on her world at some point and find out that she was manipulated to think she had?? something like that...i also had no intention to ever bring Kore back, so yeah, he’s dead-dead.

anyways, the Trixie hunting entity; that’s the Dark Star-Gal from that one special. she’s the Trixie that merged with the Darkness (since the Darkness wants to consume the Light, that we know she was the vessel for) and became self aware of the multiverse and started reality hopping to consume all Trixies. the Eraserz stop her...only to discover that the reason that Dark Star became aware of the multiverse was because the Showrunner gave her access...the Showrunner that has been MIA since the Eliminatorz were stopped.

the Showrunner was the one now causing the multiverse to start collapsing and breaking down because, to him, “this isn’t what the universe was supposed to be like”. he created one canon, and then another entity (the fandom) came in and started breaking it up, making spin offs, AUs, different versions, creating the multiverse. so he broke that entity up into pieces and scattered them across the multiverse, then created the Editors to police the multiverse to make sure the pieces couldn’t get back together (thus the universe rule of only 1 version of a person can exits there at a time) and slowly try to correct and remove the “wrong” universes. but the Editors grew out of his control as they evolved, so he created the Eraserz to, well, “erase’ the mistakes. but even they went against his plans, so he decided to just leave and just erase everything. but the pieces of the greater entity did find a way to come together, (a fragment of?) Omegus managed to hitch a ride with RJ when the Eraserz recruited him. Omegus then overtook Tony who bore the mark of Beteal, who went to Dark Magician to take the powers that Anosmotic, aka Zethran, had given him away, undoubtedly found a way to the Nega-verse to confront Alphane, and so on and so forth (if you hadn’t noticed, each reality that had an Omegus equivalent had a different name, and now you know why)...until all the pieces could be reunited, possibly in the body of CoT!Saber actually, into one being called Omnicron.

and the final confrontation of the Showrunner and Omnicron would be in the vast void as the multiverse was set on pause as it crumbled. the Showrunner claiming that Omnicron had destroyed the thing he had created, only for Omnicron to be all “i saw what you created and wanted to create my own. you helped me flourish, and then i helped others flourish. how can growth and creativity be the wrong thing to do?” because no, Omnicron did not destroy the multiverse, it was indeed the Showrunner; Omnicron took what the Showrunner had made and let it flourish on its own, while he just tried to contain it back into what he made it to be to begin with.

and so yeah, that’s what i had planned for Superverse. some thing were far more fleshed out than others, but those were the parts i’d had planned for YEARS. i had the Omnicron stuff planned before Civil War, while the Cosmic Cat i had planned since Civil War

#superverse #My writing #long post

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34choco · 5 years

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what’s with the thing where fandoms of shows where everybody is written as redeemable don’t want redemption arcs but everybody watching shows that are in a darker/more realistic universe want characters who have no redeeming qualities to have redemption arcs????

Examples:

Steven Universe: the diamonds were always redeemable, because they were separated from anything that would cause them to think they’re doing wrong. they had never encountered a reason to change (at least not one that made any sense to them) before steven, so him showing them the error of their ways worked. they don’t immediately become perfect and caring, they’re shown to struggle with changing their behavior, but they still put the effort in. the show doesn’t imply that the audience or any of the gems they hurt have to forgive them, but they still try to be better anyway.

RWBY: adam was not redeemable. everything said about him, everything shown of him, and everything in the soundtracks indicated over and over again that even if he had a tragic backstory explaining why he hated humans, he would not have changed his mind about extremism because he was spiteful and self-centered and abusive.

he didn’t actually care about the cause he represented, he only cared about being worshipped as a hero and getting what he believed he deserved. he killed those who questioned him even when they were on his side, and even outside of being a revolutionary, he was a shitty person. he stalked and abused blake, tried to kill everyone she loved, and then tried to kill her when he realized she would never fall for his manipulation again. He was provided multiple reasons and chances to change and passed the line of redeemability so far that the only way for his victims to save themselves was to kill him.

okay, let me give another example, of a show that actually gave the wrong characters redemptions, and suddenly turned around the plotline of characters that should have been redeemed.

Voltron:

Lotor and Allura both should have been redeemed. Allura was treated like she earned redemption, but her actual actions in the show imply that she learned nothing and did not change. Lotor did bad things, but ultimately always had the right goal in mind, and worked to be better until a sudden change of motivations that only made sense if looked at as the crazed ramblings of a brain-poisoned person who was so traumatized that he snapped and said things he didn’t really mean.

Allura started the show with the idea that all Galra were evil by nature. we learn over the course of the show that this isn’t even remotely true. She has the same information the audience was given, but she does not change her views (at least not for long). She finds out one of the people on her hero team was partially Galra all along, and he never even hints at betraying her even once. She works with a group of Galra who have dedicated their entire existence to opposing the Galran Empire, even though they would have everything to gain and nothing to lose by embracing it. She is suspicious of them and rude to them and never changes this behavior.

She meets Lotor, who is the half-galra, exiled prince of the empire, who spent his whole life trying to save her race from being wiped out by the empire. He has to do unethical things while trying to keep enough power to eventually overthrow the power structure in place and start undoing the bad things his father had done, without completely condemning his own people without giving them the opportunity to change. Allura is reasonably wary of him for a long time, and eventually, because he is half the same race as her, comes to trust him.

When she learns he’s done bad things to further his goal of saving everyone, he immediately comes clean to her, he does not lie or manipulate her or even ask for her forgiveness, he only asks for a chance to explain his reasoning. She refuses and attacks him, and after he wakes up from her knocking him out, he’s understandably upset with her, and tries to do things on his own again. She attacks him again, triggers his lifelong trauma by calling him a clone of his abusive father, and in a poison-induced fit, suddenly claims that he would be evil like everyone expected him to be, and kill every galra, creating a new empire of the race he initially saved from genocide. sounds stupid and out of character, right? that’s because it is.

Instead of saving him from the poison and trying to fix things with him, she leaves him to die a slow, painful, lonely death. The show applauds her for this, and when she sacrifices herself to undo damage to the universe that could have been avoided altogether by listening to Lotor and not attacking him in the first place, she is portrayed as the always-righteous hero who deserves an apology from Lotor. What she really is, is a racist murderer who caused the deaths of billions because she could not let go of her hatred. Lotor was a victim of abuse, a survivor of genocide, and always tried to use what little control he had left to make the universe a better place for everyone.

Allura could have been truly redeemed if the writing had allowed her character to grow from her experiences and unlearn her racist views. Lotor had already redeemed himself, because he was always working towards the goal of being better, but was ruined by the sudden and unnecessary decision to write him as a twist villain.

#this is a fucking years worth of reading sORRY but i have FEELINGS about STUFF #long post #wall of text #fandom meta #sheldon watches voltron #sheldon watches rwby #sheldon watches steven universe

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slashtakemylife · 5 years

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Voltron x ATLA x LOK fusion

A prompt or idea of sorts of the Voltron characters that follows a bit on the ATLA and LOK storylines with little changes, I also added a bit of Voltron’s lore into it

It’s a bit long and I in fact cover 3 arcs from beggining to finish but there are some blank spots which is why it won’t be made into a full fic but I hope you enjoy the ride

Allura, an airbender and the Avatar finds herself in the last and most prominent of the Air Temples being decimated by the Fire Nation, in order to protect her from the Fire Lord’s rage, her father, knocks her out and send her with Coran and her bison away, they catch a storm and when they go down the water she freezes them

- time skip of only a few years - (10?)

Keith, is a firebender from Republic City looking for his missing brother Shiro, his last clue sent him to the South Pole were a stranded Fire Nation boat may have more information on his wereabouts, he sees a south pole-ner? looking at his reflexion on an ice, he tries to bypass him but Lance, a waterbender from the South Tribe spots him, he then wants to capture Keith, who he thinks is a Fire Nation soldier, to impress the ladies and fellas at home however Keith gets the upper hand and easily defeats him, leaving him on the floor covered in snow, Lance in a tantrum brings forth a giant ice that has Allura and Coran along with their bison, named something that I would love if it sounds similar to the Castle of Lions (Cas? just straigth out Castle?)

Allura doesn’t trust Keith because he is fire nation, Keith doesn’t give af and leaves them to reach that ship and they separate, Allura goes with Lance, however Lotor, the exiled prince shows up, Allura can easily beat Lotor but he sends his soldiers to attack the village.

After Keith finds what he needed in the ship, he knows Lotor is attacking them due to the smoke of his ship so he goes to help, that is how he gains Allura’s trust, Keith tells them he is looking for Shiro, he is an important metalbender that has helped keep Republic City safe, however he was sent to Ba Sing Se to help protect it with a few of their squad, they succeed but he ends up captured, there are rumors on him being alive but no one can do anything, thus Keith leaving, he knows he is close

Allura, Coran, Lance and Keith go save Shiro from an ice prision, (long haired Shiro), he has no arm but when he finds metal he uses his bending to create one, while his metal arm works as a natural hand, he still needs some adjustment time to get used and learn how to bend with just one arm, he tells them their most important task is to protect and train the Avatar, Republic City is the most advanced, heavily protected city and is filled with masters that would gladly teach the avatar, btw Allura can’t reach the pasts Avatars and her Avatar state is either weaken or she just can’t reach it, they think it’s a spiritual thing, remember this detail ;)

And then this is the reason this is just like a prompt because basically the next part is just Lotor giving chase and shenanigams happen, in the middle they find Hunk, an earthbender who’s village has been taken by the FN and took his father, they liberate them all and he joins them in their quest, they go to an air temple were a group of non benders has taken over the temple, they were seeking refuge from the fire nation and found the temple, they are tech junkies, once the FN took notice there was someone in the temple they attacked, their inventions helped protect them but with little resources they knew a second wave would decimate them, Sam agreed to be taken away so long as the temple was spared, his son was also taken away as guarantee, Katie Holt just knows his father and brother mysteriously disappeared, leaving Colleen in charge, she escapes as goes by the name of Pidge to avoid being discovered and joins the team

So they reach Republic City (I have to say it’s mostly Adashi but there is story, bare with me please) were Shiro (obviously) reunites with his husband Adam and gives them a place to stay in their home, he wants to announce Allura as the Avatar and begin her training, Adam tells him not to, apparently there is a new issue

Sendak, the equalist, they say he can take bending away and has been kidnapping benders and striping them of their bending to create a benderless world, the kidnappers are expert at close combat that use chi blocking and electricity to kidnap them, this makes Shiro nervous, so they wait out

Next day finds Adam not going to work, Shiro asks if it’s okay given the situation and Adam says he is just a worried husband caring for his recently appeared husband

The truth is the next, Adam is the highest ranking non-bender in the police force, they obviously prefer benders and of course there is the police force of only metal benders, Shiro is a high rank officer (even Chief maybe?) before he was deployed to aid Ba Sing Se from an incoming attack, Adam had a hard time proving himself as a non bender in the police force, the way he reached the top was with his amazing fighting skills and chi blocking, he uses the later to handle benders, so many people in the police force were wary of him, everything Adam fought for, all the time he took to convince the benders he was equal to them, died in 5 seconds when this radical dude showed up (ADASHI TIME! Can I interest you with in-training yet prodigy metal bender Shiro crushing hard on also in-training Adam as he decimates his 5th bender opponent with his bare non-bending hands?)

While they had yet to investigate him fully, he feels uncomfortable since everyone is suspicious of him, some think he is their true leader. So Adam is using Shiro as an excuse to ask for an early vacations to take care of him and also, Adam does want to take care of Shiro, come on! He hasn’t seen Shiro since his deployment nearly four years ago and after he was announced as missing in action, his little brother who lives with them, just dissapears as well so yeah, Adam is not letting his boys out of his watch Ever Again

Again there’s a reason this is a prompt or I don’t know but smth smth happens, Allura is discovered to be the Avatar, they find Sam, he knows part of Honerva’s plan I’ll cover in a few, smth smth, time skip XD then Adam is having an interview done, since he is the highest rank non-bender they want an interview regarding the recent equalizer events, in reality they just give an introduction on who Adam is, the interviewer does the “what you think” question and goes to commercial

There in the radio booth is Sendak and he wants Adam to support the movement since he is one of the most prominent non-benders there is, transmission comes back and instead of a pro-equalists speech, Adam makes a pro-benders one (even mentioning how the love of his life it’s a bender for extra tears)

So anyway, Shiro realizes it’s a trap and he desperately tries to reach Adam but unfortunately Adam gets kidnapped because he refused to bow down to the equalists

In reality, Sendak takes them to Haggar, she is in Republic City because it has the biggest concentration of benders and the most powerful as well as diversity, so the bending is just her taking out their spirit energy/quintessence, leaving them benderless, she trained Sendak to be a blood bender in order to temporarily chi block their bending and make them faint enough for her to act

They go to save Adam but in there, Shiro finds Adam, he is brainwashed and tells him he should allow Haggar to take his bending away so they could have a happy benderless life, away from the battlefield like Adam always wanted, Shiro is one of the strongest benders there is so they do use Adam as bait for him, he has no choice but to shock Adam unconscious, still he losses his bending before Allura can get there, Haggar with so much spiritual/quintessence energy from taking the benders and now one of the strongest, Shiro, goes against Team Avatar until only Allura is left and she also sees she can energy bend even if it’s a little so she is able to defeat her but she escapes, she restores Shiro’s bending as well, btw Lotor also reached Republic city and gets a redemption ark, he changes like Zuko in Ba Sing Se and goes to Team Avatar to reveal that Haggar wants to release Vatu and make Zarkon a dark Avatar

The third ark is they discover the story behind it all, so here it is:

We go back to the paladins of old, GoodZarkon is the Avatar, great friends with the previous Paladins of Voltron, a group of representatives of each nation that helps the avatar with it’s affairs, they had the issue of Vatu being released, you know the 10,000 y/o, it was with them that happened so they make plans to imprison him again

However GoodZarkon’s wife, Honerva believes she can put an end to this cycle because every 10k years each avatar has to deal with him, you just need one avatar to fail for everything to be over, she has been studying spiritual leaves and vines from the spirit world and finds their energy source, which she names quintessence, we all have it, in fact that is what allows benders to bend but spirits can use quintessence at will for so much more, she actually wants to release Vatu and make something with him, not imprison him

Vatu could have tricker her into thinking this would put and end to the squabble, of course they all disagree but shit happens and Honerva is badly injured, maybe a spirit passes through her and she get’s weird? Vatu tells GoodZarkon that with the combined power of him and Raava inside him, they can heal Honerva, so he releases him and tries to contain both entities inside, but only works for them to fight inside GoodZarkon, Vatu just wants to have his cycle like Raava and have her be locked away, the paladins come over and manage to separate both entities out of GoodZarkon, they imprison Vatu and release Raava for her to look for an Avatar, since it was Alfor the one who physically releases her to the world, unbestknown to him, it makes Raava latch onto his energy signature and thus falls into a days old Allura

Leaving GoodZarkon “dead” and out of the cycle but actually he and Honerva both survive as Zarkon and Haggar, since Zarkon had Vatu inside him and Honerva is now kind of spirit crazy Haggar, few years later they kidnapp the current Fire Lord and go to the spirit world were they find the face swapping spirit and they exchange the face to that of the current Fire Lord into Zarkon so he becomes Fire Lord

Zarkon slowly begins his quest of conquering the world but really he is looking for the Avatar because he wants to be the Avatar again, he wants to drag Raava out of Allura and into him again or, release Vatu and take him instead, Haggar is in charge on finding where he is and how to release him, the old paladins sealed the entrance

There was peace in between the old Paladins fight with Zarkon and his supposed ‘death’ were Allura grew but one day the Fire Nation went crazy (they face swap, it’s Zarkon now) and started to want to conquer the world, they were able to keep him contained but they struggle and Zarkon is incredibly powerful due to having previously had both entities inside his body, he retains his core element bending which is fire, and lays waste on the air nation, the paladins join once again to defeat him but without the avatar they can’t do a thing, Alfor knows Allura (now grown up) is the avatar but he considers she’s still to young, Allura wants to fight, wants to fulfill her destiny but one day Zarkon finally lays waste on the final air temple, Alfor sends her and Coran away

Back to the present, The Paladins knew the Fire Lord was previous Avatar Zarkon but said nothing to no one, they just said he died while saving the world from Vatu, that is the reason Allura can’t reach the previous Avatar since the link is broken since Zarkon is not really dead but he’s no longer the Avatar? She finally strips away any connection and finally can connect to previous Avatar and reach the Avatar state at it’s full potential

Big fight, they win, end

#voltron x atla x lok #voltron #voltron crossover

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