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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 4 years

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The Anti-Spider-Girl Agenda within Marvel

In 1998 Tom DeFalco, former EIC of Marvel, created Mayday Parker/Spider-Girl. Her debut did gangbusters and a first edition of it still fetches a lot of cash. She got a solo series in 1999 which launched an entire interconnected universe of characters, the MC2 universe.

The universe ultimately wrapped up in 2010 but throughout that time Mayday was being regularly published in one format or another, she was even the FIRST ever Marvel character to get a digital ongoing series before it went to print. An impressive accolade to add to the fact that she still holds the record for the female Marvel solo protagonist with the longest running continuous series. That is to say no breaks or relaunches, just over 60 straight monthly issues...

... And THEN she went another 40 straight issue for good measure before finally being continued in a relaunch.

So, given how the anniversaries of both her debut and the debut of her series/the MC2 universe have come and gone I have to ask...why has there been 0 acknowledgement from Marvel?

We’re in the middle of a 2099 celebration, and that imprint (that lasted less time and was arguably less successful) was an on and off presence between 2013-2017.

We’re going to get something acknowledging Iron Man 2020 a character who is hardly in the zeitgeist of Marvel fandom to the same extent as Spider-Girl.

Now in fairness both of those examples are reliant upon the literal names of both properties. It does make a certain amount of sense to celebrate the 2099 line in a year ending in the number 9, thus bringing us ever closer to the real life year 2099. Equally it makes sense to revive Iron Man 2020 during well...the year 2020.

But then you get to Marvel celebrating the Earth X stuff. Now for all you out there who haven’t read the Earth X stuff I want you to ask yourself a question and be very honest with yourselves. How much do you actually know about the Earth X universe just via osmosis, without having read it. I’m willing to bet it ain’t much if anything and what you do know probably amounts to:

It was Marvel’s answer to Kingdom Come

Alex Ross did art for it

MAYBE you know Norman Osborn was the President

Oh and you probably remember that really cool Venom/symbiote looking character who was a version of Spider-Girl!

Golly, it’s almost like if Marvel are going to celebrate the not-that-well-remembered Earth X line (which like 2099 also lasted for less time than the MC2 universe) then they should do SOMETHING (beyond releasing some trades) to mark EITHER of the appropriate anniversaries for Spider-Girl and/or the MC2 universe as a whole.

But no. We get some trades and also Mayday appeared in Spider-Geddon for a few issues...at no point being solely in the spotlight...

This my friends is simply the latest in a very, very, very, very, very long list of instances where Mayday/the MC2 brand is mistreated.

And a lot of that mistreatment I think is due to Tom DeFalco’s hand in creating Mayday and the MC2 universe. Because frankly, in particular relation to the MC2 universe, DeFalco’s work has also been mistreated in recent years.

The facts are:

Mayday’s ongoing (Spectacular Spider-Girl volume 2) was turned into a mini in spite of solicits

She was cancelled so Anya Corazon could get the name Spider-Girl

The very next time she shows up her Dad is killed off, thus fundamentally wrecking the whole premise for her character

The guy who killed her Dad proceeded to treat her as an abused babysitter

That same guy finished things off by removing her unique name and costume

That same guy (Slott) in the same run before and after Spider-Verse wrecked other elements from DeFalco’s ASM work AND threw shade at his origin for MJ, calling it reductive

Slott also was hired by DeFalco and had to uncomfortably admit he’d conned the man. Which combined with everything else makes me wonder if DeFalco maybe threw some shade Slott’s way back when he was an intern. Like he looked upon him as underhanded and unworthy of his place in the company, and Slott knew that and resented DeFalco for it. And again, being EIC earns enemies and DeFalco was the EIC when Slott started

Slott also wrecked Ben Reilly a character DeFalco did not create but had strong associations with.

During secret wars the story focused HEAVILY upon Hope Pym, Stinger and Ant-Man at a time when coincidentally the Ant-Man movie was happening.

During Secret Wars the same writer who wrecked her in Spider-Verse COINCIDENTALLY happened to a story about the daughter of Spider-Man who was born during the 1990s, but it was his own OC

During Secret Wars, Mayday appeared on the cover of one of the ongoings she was set to appear in, but it was then revised to be Anya

Mayday when she began appearing regularly in a new title was seemingly killed off early into it and didn’t appear for awhile, not getting much spotlight when she did

Mayday had to share her spotlight moments in Spider-Geddon with Anya (again), still wasn’t allowed to be called Spider-Girl again, and the story was mostly about Annie not her.

She was going to appear in the USM cartoon but then that was totally changed to be a gender flipped Peter Parker

Eric Masterson/Thunderstrike, another well remembered DeFalco creation, has also gotten little-no attention this decade despite it being a 20th/25th anniversary of him too. One of the more notable acknowledgments of his character was turning him into a Neo-Nazi for Spider-Punk to beat up.

Spider-Girl’s VERY SUCCESSFUL digests were discontinued but conveniently other digests for other Marvel properties either continued or started up after Mayday’s were discontinued.

The ‘complete’ Spider-Ham trade paperbacks ‘conveniently’ do not include Spider-Ham’s equivalent character for Spider-Girl, Swiney-Girl

Gee that’s an AWFUL lot of coincidence, especially when you consider fucking Spider-Ham has been getting more attention from Marvel than Mayday; and that was BEFORE Into the Spider-Verse came out.

I’m sorry, but it’s really, really, really, really, really, really obvious that there is an anti DeFalco/Spider-Girl/MC2 sentiment within Marvel.

But why you may ask?

There are a few reasons for that. The biggest one though is that Tom DeFalco is the former EIC of Marvel comics.

At the time of me writing this, Axel Alonso recently stopped being EIC of Marvel and no bad words are muttered about him. People in the industry equally have little bad to say about Joe Quesada, especially those within Marvel.

But then again...Joey Q is still working for Marvel and in a position ABOVE the EIC. He never stopped working for Marvel even when he stopped being the EIC. And Alonso, one of Quesada’s right hand yes men conveniently took over for him and do you know he didn’t run the company all THAT differently to his former boss. Funny that right?

It’s almost as funny as how other former EICs of Marvel absolutely don’t have the same treatment. Jim Shooter is routinely BLASTED by countless fans and creators, especially the ones who worked under him, even though he oversaw arguably the height of Marvel comics’ creative history. Bob Harrass and his decisions are often talked about less than flatteringly. Tom DeFalco meanwhile had a whole disparaging phrase named after him.

Yes. That is is a real life Marvel letter page from the mid-2000s literally using the term ‘DeFalco’s Folly’ in reference to a former Marvel EIC and outright BLAMING HIM for their bankruptcy in the 1990s.*

When you are the EIC you make enemies. It’s rare that the boss of any business isn’t resented on some level by their employees. And your words take on much more meaning that what you simply say, being subject to misinterpretation.**

But now imagine you are the boss of a bunch of creative nerds (for most creators of superheros are nerds). Creative people A LOT of the time tend to be fairly sensitive as is, it’s likely critical to their craft. Nerds historically have tended to be sensitive (that’s neither a good nor bad thing). If you are the boss of those people, hoo boy will you ever make enemies. Tom DeFalco in fact once told a fellow editor that an innocuous comment about how an artist under said editor’s employ drew a character was being taken by the artist as an insult to their whole career.

NOW imagine all that and also under your tenure the company goes bankrupt and a lot of people lose their jobs?

Enemies. Enemies galore.

Even if it wasn’t necessarily your fault, you are the most visible person in authority so you get the blame. If the internet wasn’t that much of a thing do you really think that Ike Perlmutter would be the guy who got the blame for deep sixing the X-Men and F4 in the 2010s? Hell no, it’d have been Axel Alonso and/or Tom Brevoort.

So yeah, Mayday was DeFalco’s baby and the MC2 universe more than anything was the logical extrapolation from the Marvel universe as it existed under HIS tenure as EIC. It’s very much seen as representative of DeFalco himself. Thus if people have an issue with DeFalco, they’re not going to do all that much positive as far as his stuff is concerned, in particular if it gives him anything like royalties.

But on top of all of that I think Spider-Girl and the MC2 universe simply conceptually lean against Marvel’s ‘party line.

I didn’t notice this, but it was pointed out to me by an acquaintance that the MC2 universe is VERY similar to DC’s Earth 2 concept, wherein the classic heroes are older and/or retired with their immediate descendants picking up their mantles. Marvel and DC have this petty and asinine pissing contest between them, with many within Marvel even outright hating the fact that they have numbered universes like DC. It’s likely (definitely) the reason Earth 616 was rebranded as ‘Earth Prime’. This of course won’t stop them ripping off DC if they think it’ll make bank

The MC2 universe was a universe of OPTIMISM. In particular in the 2000s, and this attitude has definitely lingered, there is this emphasis upon cynicism and at best Pyrrhic victories within Marvel. Partially this is due to a misinterpretation of what ‘realism’ means, but partially this is due to misguided belief that controversy sells and pissing the fans off makes bank.

The MC2 universe is very old school. It’s deliberately designed to be nostalgic and feel Silver Age in it’s sensibilities. this is why the violence is not all that gory, the sexual references are at best reserved and tasteful and there’s that optimism I talked about. not to mention it kicks back hard against the decompression/writing for the trade storytelling model Marvel typically employs and has typically employed for almost 20 years now. Whether it’s simply because the universe doesn’t conform, or because Marvel views anything ‘retro’ as bad because it isn’t ‘modern’ (with no inspection of whether the modern trends are a GOOD thing) the end result is that the MC2′s sensibilities are not in line with how Marvel WANTS their comics produced.

Then you have Mayday herself. Mayday is a living symbol of both the Clone Saga and the Spider Marriage. Whilst Marvel are NOW willing to more openly reference the Clone Saga, few people i any kind of positions of power look upon it (or even aspects of it) with anything but disdain and embarrassment. Dan Slott for instance openly hated it. As for the Spider Marriage...I mean do I even need to explain that one?

I’m sure a frustrating fact for Marvel during Spider-Girl’s publication, and something likely passed down to Axel Alonso when he was handpicked by Quesada, was that the book refused to die. Spider-Girl was scheduled for cancellation multiple times and defied the odds multiple times. Marvel 90% of the time won’t kill a book if it’s making a profit (especially in a day and age when they were still feeling the fallout from bankruptcy) so they kept Spider-Girl around, but because it was so against the party line I’m VERY sure they’d have LIKED to have had the justification for killing the title. That’s likely why they shuffled her onto a digital platform in 2009. Amazing Spider-Girl did poorly enough to justify cancelling it but not so poorly that they couldn’t still make money from it. Another relaunch would’ve boosted sales for the series, but making it a digital series at a time when hardly anyone read digitially (let alone PAID for it), now that’s a shrewd manoeuvre. You make SOME money from it, you pay lip service to keeping it alive and appeasing very upset Spider-Marriage fans, but you’ve essentially guaranteed it’s failure long term.

Part of that annoying success was those incredibly successful digests that were possibly indoctrinating a lot of young impressionable readers on a character/brand Marvel wanted to bury and aspects of their flagship character (read: a married older Peter Parker) that they wanted to bury. Hence Spider-Girl digests disappeared but conveniently there were still digests for Ultimate Spider-Man sold featuring a young, buffoonish, Avengers worshipping Peter Parker.

Oh...and she also had the incredibly brand sexy name ‘Spider-Girl’ that Joe Quesada wanted for his own precious pet OC character, Anya Corazon. In fact Mayday was going to be rebranded as Spider Woman in Spider-Girl #75, specifically so that Anya Corazon could be given the name Spider-Girl. Years later Mayday was cancelled specifically for that purpose.

tl:dr There is a VERY OBVIOUS anti Tom DeFalco/Spider-Girl/MC2 agenda within Marvel.

My hope is that it’s rooted out, hopefully as a result of the 20 year nostalgia factor kicking in sooner of later (her series was most prevalent in the 2000s) and more female creators coming into the industry.

*Which is very much unfair. There is rarely one singular decision that results in bankruptcy. So whilst DeFalco making a single purchase might’ve been a contribution (emphasis on ‘might’) the idea that it was THE ultimate cause of Marvel’s problems is ridiculous.

Marvel were heading for the shitter the moment Ron Perleman purchased it in the 1980s. They were the victims of a ‘pump and dump’ scheme wherein sleazy yet clever financial people showed up, created a bubble to make a load of money, then moved on to the next thing when the bubble burst. To my understanding a similar thing occurred with baseball cards.

** In fact DeFalco’s friend, Ron Frenz, has spoken about how he was witness to DeFalco saying one thing and the people listening to him hearing and acting upon it in a totally different way than was intended.

The same happened to Stan Lee when he made an aside about Iron Man’s lack of a nose, which resulted in his employees believing Stan wanted them to give Iron Man a nose.

P.S. You know in the 1990s when all the 2099 books got cancelled sans Spider-Man 2099, they never got a second bite of the apple.

But between the late 90s and 2000s the MC2 universe was seemed successful enough that around 2006-2007 both Spider-Girl AND the wider MC2 universe were given second volumes, even the ones that only lasted like 6 issues.

Since then there’s been at least 3 attempts to revive the 2099 universe, we’re living through the latest one.

And yet Mayday doesn’t seem to even be worthy of a spotlight issue in the current Spider-Verse series.

#Spider-Man #Spider-Girl #Mayday Parker #mc2 #mc2 universe #Tom DeFalco #Ron Frenz #Thunderstrike #Eric Masterson #Dan Slott #Joe Quesada

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felinalain · 5 years

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Cates garbage list of problems

- Eddie being retconned as a “ egregiously depressed suicidal bastard “ (thanks Symbean) which is against Eddie very core.

- Symbiote being retconned as a cruel manipulative abuser.

- Both main characters being retconned several steps back into their character development, for the sole purpose of Cates getting to develop them again, except he’s doing it by destroying everything that made them “them”. And it’s even worse compared to the run that came just before (like Carnage 2016 and Costa run). Like, this wouldn’t be so bad if this run was happening right after the 2000s. But it’s not.

- Eddie cancer arc being retconned: makes no sense because of anti-venom and mister negative. Also if the symbiote gave Eddie cancer, why would he abandon him because of the cancer in the 2003 hunger?

- Eddie memories being changed by the symbiote: makes no sense because other character remember the same events like Eddie did, and other symbiotes could/would have told him about it

- Mary being retconned, only to be replaced by Cates OC Dylan (note, I like Dylan, but the way he’s being shoehorned in is what I have a problem with)

- Dylan entire origin (codexes?)

- Anne have been raped by the symbiote. (forced pregnancy is rape) edit: Recent issues have mentioned that symbiote codexes can only “affix” to existing foetus, so Anne was pregnant, from Eddie? And somehow the codexe made the baby an hybrid? Unsure and unclear, better than rape option, still stupid overall

- Codexes as a whole being nothing more than plot gimmicks. They can do anything and everything depending on what the plot need. They can resurrect the dead, imprint people, transmit info, make hybrid babies, and probably do the washing and coffee while at it

- Red is dead and Cletus barely reacted

- Cletus HATES fate and destiny with a passion, why is he going along with Knull bullshit?

- There is no Carnage in this event, only Grendel and Cletus. Garnage? (thanks mushroom for the name, it works)

- Why do the Venom symbiote codexes matter so much to bring Knull back? Who knows! Not Cates apparently!

- Shriek and Scorn being killed off as sacrifices goes against all of their respective characters: !Shriek was never a meek submissive, even if she WAS obsessed with Carnage. She was always shown as strong and fighting. She even fucking SLAPPED Carnage once when she had enough of his bullshit! !Scorn fought against Carnage in Carnage USA and she was shown to hate him and want him caught at all cost... we never get told why she’d become a zealous follower of his, and she dies with her character butchered

- Shriek being killed to bring back demogoblin, who never even got that well along with Carnage, only to then give him tits and have him make out with Carnage, because it’s fine to do that now that he has tits, but Carnage couldn’t just make out with Shriek, that wouldn’t have worked, got to have those monster-tits

- In fact, every single named women that Cates wrote into this shitshow is dead, or was retro-actively raped. Every single one. The only survivors so far are in side-stories that he didn’t write himself. (and that’s not saying all side stories women survived) Here is a full list, to not loose track, adding the most recent entries as they appear, because apparently he’s not done yet:

Scorn: character butchered, killed Mary: erased from existence Anne: retconed into a rape victim (of sort, see above point about her) Shriek: killed to give Demogoblins tits, so he and Carnage could make out Louise Kasady: rectoned to have died in child birth Alejandra (A ghost rider): Killed Sadie and Tess (from the family taken over by the life Symbiotes): alive, in tubes in the makers lab? Traumatised. Patricia : Killed by Garnage Aunt Sarah (Andi’s aunt) : killed by carnage worms Andi: Still Alive (now sharing her body with Donna and Scream) Misty: Still Alive (for now)

- In Alejandra case, she died for her codex, despite that she never, ever had a symbiote herself. The excuse for her death being that the spirit of vengeance had the codex because it bonded to Venom once, so it passed her the codex (because spirit are known for having spines, as we all know) That is literally making up bullshit to get to kill a woman character.

- Now let’s compare this to the number of male characters that got the short end of the stick this run: Lee price: dead (cf more on that below) Mac gargan: paralysed Osborn senior: still crazy The Judge (from the side story): dead Jameson Junior (wolfman): escaped carnag-ification, probably traumatized? Miles: escaped carnag-ification, probably traumatized? Sadie brother and father (from the family taken over by the life-Symbiotes): alive, in tubes in the makers lab? Traumatised.

Now assume any character not on this list is still alive, and the worst they got was normal super-hero type injuries while fighting Garnage legions... When you know that there is an overwhelming majority of male characters in comics, do you see the problem with the fact that nearly all the victims are women?

- The entire scene with Miles getting caught by Carnage, being told by two writers, and cates version makes no sense and makes Eddie an idiot “Mac get to Carnage!” “Mac Get away from Carnage!” (thanks lobac for nailing this)

- On the subject of Miles, let’s go back in time to earlier Venom issues when Miles got mad at Venom, as if he’d forgotten about his reality jump, except Miles had SEVERAL issues in which it was proven that not only he remember he jumped universe, he already MET Venom before this, when Flash still had the symbiote. So WHY would he react like this now? (we all know why, Cates doesn’t give a damn about anyone run but his)

- The symbiote was braindead, suddenly it’s not. We never got told why or how

- Venom symbol was never copied from spider-man, it’s actually a dragon because knull symbol is a dragon! Look at my edgy oc design! I didn’t copy Venom, he copied me!

- Making Carl Brock a physical abuser, and a poor man, when we were told in ASM that he’d never raised a hand on Eddie and it was emotional neglect that turned Eddie into what he was. Less important but making Carl poor when in ASM when we first met him he had a maid and a fucking mansion on a hill.

- Everything of Eddie’s past actually seems more pulled from the cursed Dark Origin than from the ASM issues where Venom first appeared. (Carl, the house, the grimdark, etc)

- Eddie personality being reduced to “gruff bland dudebro with manpain” instead of over-the-top, literate, dangerous, lethal protector. Heck, Dylan feels more like Eddie than Eddie himself!

- On that line, Norman feels more like Carnage than Carnage has the entire run!

- Absolutely no acknowledgement of the symbiote abuse of Eddie, it’s being brushed over without so much as a single line mention, like “we’ll talk about it once Carnage is dead” Edit: we are now several issues past the whole abuse thing, Garnage event is over, and their relationship switched back to being happy partners with still no explanation or acknowledgement, leading me to ask: “Why the fuck retcon all that shit in, if it’s to then ignore it? What was the point, aside from pissing off the fans by making shit up in a desperate (and failed) attempt at edginess?”

- The life fondation symbiotes being once again treated as monsters with no personality when their stint with deadpool AND scott both proved the opposite. Yes they’re being possessed by knull, but it’s barely made clear and barely shown whether or not they’re fine with it. (And they should not be)

- Lee price character was murdered before he was. He always was a cold, calculating bastard working from the shadows, and was created and used to demonstrate that host can abuse symbiotes. In Cates run he was just a stupid braggard. His death wasn’t satisfying because he wasn’t himself.

- Ravencroft and the people in it (mentally ill people) are represented as monsters, and the establishment itself is made to look like a b-movie asylum. I know comics have a hard time with respecting mentally ill people, but I still wasn’t expecting it to be that bad

- Why does Eddie still have so many wounds? He got a big-ass black eye, why isn’t the symbiote healing him like it always did in the past? Eddie never stayed hurt, the symbiote never LET him stay hurt... so why is it doing that now? (never solved, past Garnage event Eddie is now healed)

- Eddie and Sleeper reunion (AC3) is as cold as an iceberg. All past interaction they had, Sleeper called Eddie “father” and Eddie called Sleeper “his child/baby” And now it’s “... oh yeah you’re here. Cool I guess?” Also Sleeper is a cat. Why? Who the fuck know!

- Eddie refusing to kill Norman Osborn. Norman Fucking Osborn. And why? To not set a bad exemple for Dylan. Who is not even present at the time. Who is in deadly danger because of garnage. Let me re-iterate. Eddie LETHAL protector Brock, refuse to kill Norman Green Goblin Osborn.

- (AC3) The symbiote suddenly doesn’t mind dumping Eddie, to jump on someone more powerful. We spent months with shit being shovelled at us about how possessive it is, and how it fucked up Eddie to keep him forever, and then suddenly, poof. It’s jumping ship.

- (AC3) The symbiote is evil because it's staying with Eddie, then it's Evil because it's leaving Eddie. Not even mentioning that it did this because it's trying to kill Garnage. Ya know the thing that's trying to kill literally EVERYONE?

- (AC4) Garnage can see the green door, when only gama-radied people can. Garnage is not gama-radied. This is apparently a dig from Cates at the writer from Hulk who think Knull is not that good. The whole dialogue certainly seem that way.

- (AC4) Eddie “I can’t fight I need to protec my child!” Brock “Wait, spider-man protect my child I must fight” Again with the constant change of motivation that give you whiplash. Of the bad kind.

- (AC4) Eddie spent the whole run being made to hate symbiote, bath into codices to create a new Venom.

- (AC4) Miles who had previously gained control of the Garnage piece attached to him, now somehow has lost control again, and Eddie has to fight him. Anyone who read the Miles tie-in know this is bullshit. Cates did not consult the other writers on this, once again.

- (AC4) The bonus note at the end, presenting Eddie having lost the symbiote as an addict, when at the time, Eddie reaction was to exercise like a madman to get stronger, to get revenge for the symbiote. The only one to ever make Eddie a sad mopping mess is cates and yet he mocked that very concept. Am I the only one seeing the arrogant irony here?

- Garnage die in one-shot. After all the hype and build-up and “he’s invincible! we’re doomed!”. He dies. In one shot. In the most anti-climatic way possible.

- Dylan kept a piece of Garnage. Why the fuck would he do that?! Why the fuck did he become suddenly so stupid?!

- Ravencroft side story can be summed up in a single (if long) sentence: “Hey what if we changed everything that ever made Cletus interesting, like the chaos and killing, and made him an agent of destiny, born from a lineage of serial killers, while throwing in some racist bullshit in our comic! Doesn’t that sound neat?”

- I’m astonished at the length at which Cates will go, to avoid writing the main characters of the serie he’s supposed to be writing. He retconned Eddie into an entirely different man to not have to write him, and he use every single excuse he can come up with to avoid writing the symbiote. So far, the symbiote: (numbers aren’t fully accurate I went from memory) - Was there but silenced with medications - Was brain-dead - Was a dog - Was gone and got used in a space viking elf war - Was back to fight Garnage and kept being treated like everything it said or did was evil - Was held hostage and silenced by Garnage - Got blown up with a nuke, on the “Honeymoon Island” as we call it

Please someone tell me: if C*ates hates Venom’s character so much, why is he still writing them?

I probably forgot some, but if I did, feel free to add

Also, a personal thought but the pacing of the whole run is awful. We go for half a dozen issues of nothing but exposition dumps, then cluttered rushed action scenes, and then back to expo-dump... that’s not a good story-telling pace.

edited 17 TIMES.

#absolute Carnage #absolute garbage #venom #cates run #I feel like this list is going to be long

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 4 years

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 33: AMJ #5.2

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

Picking up where we left off last time. MJ is in the midst of fighting the Savage Six and has just attacked Tarantula.

Rhino charges at MJ only for us to get another splash page. She points out how it’s smarter to use Rhino’s weight against him kicks him. His causes him to fall down the slope, a fact MJ mocks him for and calls him a big bully.

Of all the pages in this issue this is the one I was most debating about. I didn’t like it when I saw it but I spent a good while mulling it over in my head. Could this moment be internally justified at all? However, looking at it again I’ve concluded no it absolutely cannot be.

Yes, in theory the idea is sound. Rhino is very heavy and so if he’s coming up a slope it would be possible for someone to use his weight+gravity to throw him off balance.

The theory is sound but the execution is not.

First of all as lovely as the colours and style of the art has been, Gomez has dropped the ball hard at depicting the terrain and movement of the characters. Once again we’ve jumped from one reaction to another with no idea how we got from A to B. it’s even worse when you consider they are both splash pages. What’s worse is that the slope doesn’t seem that steep based upon the art and his artwork poorly conveys the layout of the area where the fight is happening.

But what makes it worse is the idea that MJ has kicked Rhino down the hill. The sound effect is even ‘KRAK!’, implying she did some damage.

This is simply an absolute failure to understand both physics and Rhino’s powerset. MJ physically incapable of harming Rhino with a mere kick because his super strength, durability and suit would protect him, so why the hell is there a sound effect at all? Is her ankle breaking?

More poignantly, yes you could throw Rhino off balance with the slope, but not the way MJ does it. He has arms, he can stop his fall. And whilst his weight could work against him, you’d need a sufficient force to destabilize him. His weight and durability is simply going to make a kick from MJ incapable of doing that. Spider-Man with super strength has struggled to stop him mid-charge. A normal human kick won’t do anything.

Also the artwork fails because it’s depicting MJ’s kick and then the after effect of it on the same page. There should either be motion lines to convey how we got from A to B or panels simply depicting that.

Furthermore MJ’s dialogue here is questionable. In his most recent appearances the Rhino has been played as sympathetic, a man who’s return to villainy Spider-Man was cut up about because he showed genuine signs of wanting to change. Spidey even blames himself for Rhino’s renewed interest in crime.

It’s highly unlikely Peter wouldn’t have told MJ about this so her attitude to him is very questionable. It is also very contradictory considering she’s been so sympathetic towards Beck for five issues. But for a bad guy who is arguably nowhere near as bad and has shown more concrete signs of redemption she unflinchingly kicks him down, mocks him and writes him off as a big bully.

Finally WTF is Tarantula stuck in anyway?

The next page is yet another beautiful splash page of MJ tossing a fake dinosaur head at Stegron with her mocking him again.

The same problems from the other pages apply here. The only other things to add are how the fuck did MJ even lift that thing, let alone toss it on target. Also why is Stegron so horrified at this?

Oh no, an obviously fake dinosaur prop is falling on him. A prop obviously so lightweight that a normal human woman can lift and toss it.

How on Earth can someone with a bulletproof hide and the immense strength of a literal stegosaurus possibly cope with such a situation. He couldn’t possibly lift it off of himself. He can only lift up to 20-25 tons! He couldn’t possibly use that strength to swat it aside. He couldn’t possibly use his strength and claws (that can cut through goddam stone) to rip it apart.

No, all he can do is beg a normal human woman to stop her attack and then yell no.

Guess Mary Jane is just that fucking awesome. Can’t wait to see Spider-Man punch out Galactus next.

We then get another splash page, this one depicting the X-Men robots (who can mimic all of the X-Men’s powers sans Jean Grey’s) take on King Cobra. MJ meanwhile hangs back with Jean’s robot.

Again, the art and colouring of this page is beautiful, though the flow from the last page continues to be problematic. I also have no idea where those X-men robots came from nor how MJ had the time to activate them. Also I double-checked ASM Annual #1 where they first appeared and there were no Ice Man or Jean Grey robots. Likely because Lee and Ditko, clever as they were, figured that having robots mimic ice powers, telekinesis and telepathy would be too much of a stretch.

I will give Williams a pass on this though. With so much time elapsing it’s not unbelievable that Beck created new robots and technology allowed him to mimic ice powers somehow.

I will also give her a pass for not having MJ fight King Cobra herself. Initially I wasn’t because he’s so much weaker than Stegron or Rhino. But in reading up on his powers he’s actually very durable and deadly. Keeping her distance is genuinely the smart tactic here.

The problem comes from her doing the reasonable thing in this encounter whilst being played as so stupidly over capable against Rhino and Stegron. Instead of taking your earrings off, why not get the robots ready before the villains reached the fence.

Shit, why weren’t the X-men robots deployed as general security for the set? Or as weapons to be used to just beat up the Six in the first place? Between them, Mysterio, Master Matrix, Screwball and HERBIE, the crew had more than enough manpower and skill to locate and defeat the Savage Six?

Not only did MJ not contact the authorities or her super hero buddies but she had the means of actively defeating them herself but chose not to use it. Don’t give me crap about losing time for the filming either because she’s been uber great multi-tasking this entire series and more than willing to have stuff cut out from the movie due to time constraints.

God, this story just keeps getting stupider.

We get another nicely drawn splash page of MJ taking on Scorpion. She side steps him and causes him to get his tail stuck in the cement mixer.

Another well drawn page but how the fuck did MJ know that strike was coming? And how the Hell was she quick enough to dodge it? Last I checked Mj doesn’t have spider speed or a spider sense.

Vulture then does what he always should have done at the start of this fight and just picks MJ up in the air and then drops her into some scenery. He says he could just fly past her but decides to pay her back by smacking her across the face.

Why didn’t Vulture just fly past MJ in the first place?

Why does his claw tipped super strong smack across the face not kill or scar Mary Jane? Is he going easy on the person he has been willing to kill

How the fuck did falling from a height and crashing into a wooden set not kill or seriously injure Mary Jane? She has some scratches and maybe a hurt leg but that is literally it? She doesn’t have super human durability or protective armour! She would never be this unhurt. It’s not a matter of luck, this is just plain bad unrealistic writing.

And here comes some more. Wouldn’t you know it Mallorie, Diperna, a wardrobe girl, Kangaroo, Mysterio, Screwball, Master Matrix and HERBIE all happen to come by the battle field together at that exact moment. Beck is surprised to see the six there. The two groups charge at one another.

What another spectacular coincidence for Mary Jane? And how fortunate for it to have followed right after she survived being dropped from the air too.

Also how the fuck did none of the crew members notice the Six or MJ’s battle with them until they were this close?

Where the Hell have the X-Men robots disappeared to?

And what the fuck are three civilians like Diperna and Mallorie doing getting involved? Diperna is surely the oldest and probably weakest person there and he’s posed opposite the fucking Rhino!

On the next page Mallorie and Kangaroo beat up Tarantula. Master Matrix dismantles Scorpion’s armour. Beck checks on MJ and upon learning Vulture hurt her, suits up eager to pay him back.

Tarantula’s defeat is totally believable since he’s the most ‘normal’ of the Six. Master Matrix’s victory is also believable if he has control over technology (I can’t say if he does or does not). But what isn’t, is the fact that he could probably solo them on his own if that is the case. He’s the most durable, he can defy gravity and he could dismantle and use both Vulture and Scorpion’s tech against them. So why is he only fighting Scorpion.

Also more shitty White Knighting by Mysterio. Isn’t he ust so lovable for defending the honour of his friend Mary Jane? If only Gwyneth had been his friend.

Beck uses his illusions to fight Vulture. In spite of this and in spite of beck appearing before him in costume, unmasked, with his real face showing Vulture doesn’t believe he is really Mysterio. He still insists that Beck is really Cage McKnight and that there is a master mind behind this. With that he flies away.

Vulture being jealous I can buy. Vulture being so arrogant and so stupid as to believe he could never be fooled by Beck’s tricks not so much. Beck’s master of illusion is legendary. He’s worked with Beck and other Mysterios multiple times. He’s seen how effective the illusions are up close. Vulture is arrogant but also crafty. When someone is obviously using an illusion on you, is dressed as Mysterio and has Quentin Beck’s face to continue to insist it can’t be Mysterio because you are too smart to fall for his tricks is asinine.

He’s not even claiming he can’t be tricked in general, but rather not by one of Beck’s illusions. Except Beck has major pedigree within the criminal underworld for his illusions. Goddam Norman Osborn hired him for fuck’s sake. It’s public knowledge that he fooled like a dozen heroes back in ASM v5 #1. Being fooled by that guy’s illusions isn’t something anyone would be ashamed about any more than they’d regard being outsmarted by Doctor Doom.

And why would Beck admit it is he who is the director? Why blow his cover after all he’s been through to get this movie made? I get that they are within an illusion so no one else can see or hear their conversation. But he’s just told the guy who’s determined to ruin his movie (which is his lifelong dream) that he’s really a criminal in disguise. In doing that he’s handed Vulture the self-destruct button for his movie. He’s unbelievably lucky Vulture is stupid enough to not believe the blindingly obvious evidence.

On the final page all the other villains are just gone with no explanation, just a vague implication they might have run away. So everyone goes out for sushi and we have a last panel that feels out of an 80s sitcom ending.

Because Williams is such a great writer she ingeniously left the fate’s of the other members of the Savage Six to the reader’s imaginations.

We don’t see them running away. We don’t see them knocked out or tied up. They are just gone. Since none of them are teleporters it stands to reason they used the same van they came in. Which is weird since the implication seemed to be that it belonged to Charlie and that he left after dropping them off. If that wasn’t the case where did he go and why didn’t Master Matrix use his powers to subdue them using the van?

Or maybe they just ran away. Makes sense. I mean sure the five of them alone have collectively more than enough power to kill everyone there except for maybe Master Matrix but I guess Sonny Diperna the aging actor sucker punched the Rhino, the wardrobe girl kicked King Cobra in the nuts and Screwball did a hand stand on Stegron making him run away in fear.

Of course the real reason we don’t see what happened to the other members of the Six is because there was no reasonable way for them to have been defeated on panel so Williams and/or Gomez just cheated and didn’t show them at all. Much like how using the X-Men robots from the start or in the final battle would’ve ruined what they wanted to do.

God forbid they figure out a reasonable and logical way to resolve their story.

Nope. The super villains just disappeared with no explanation.

And since there is no evidence of them being apprehended by the authorities that means that the situation hasn’t changed at all. The Mysterio movie is still in production, the Six are still out there. They have suffered a setback but they’ve not been dealt with. There is nothing to stop them trying again and this time being better prepared since they know some of the costumed types within the crew.

Even if most of the Six decide that this is more trouble than it is worth, the Vulture definitely hasn’t. There is nothing stopping him on his own from trying again or from recruiting new people to help him.

Worse is that now Six super villains have a grudge to bear against Mary Jane specifically. So now MJ and her loved ones could be in the crosshairs of super villains. Vulture in particular has a tendency to hold a grudge and MJ knows this from his encounters with both Spider-Man and even Aunt May. There are reasons Peter wears a mask and one of the biggest ones is that his enemies hold grudges and will try to attack him through his loved ones. Instead of taking off her earrings did MJ not think to try and disguise herself at all? You know protect the crew but also her loved ones if she makes it out alive?

But nah. Let’s just celebrate this as a huge win right? At least we protected Mysterio’s vanity project?

What a fucking train wreck. I feel disgusted that I supported this title.

I was always apprehensive of an MJ mini-series especially when it had the option of turning into an ongoing.

I disagree with an MJ ongoing on principle. But with this series I thought it would be at least decent even if I didn’t agree with it.

But it wasn’t.

It’s existence as an ongoing inherently removes Spider-Man’s best supporting character AND it has damaged Mary Jane, Mysterio and several other characters at the same time.

It needs to be discontinued as soon as possible and Leah Williams should not be allowed to do more Spider Work in the future.

Sorry, not sorry for being the only reasonable voice here, apparently the only person in the fandom who can see this series is garbage unworthy of the great characters its misrepresented.

Next time we push on into a new arc. God help me.

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Master Post

#Leah Williams #Carlos Gomez #Amazing Mary Jane #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #Spider-Man #The Rhino #Rhino #Alex O'Hirn #Peter Parker #Stegron #X-Men #Mysterio #Quentin Beck

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thoughts-of-a-stagemanager · 5 years

Text

The day my dream job died

In February I was sitting in a room listening to one my superiors talk about crap that had nothing to do with anything important. I had recently finished a show that wrecked so much havoc on my mental health just the sight of the director of that show made my jaw clench. We had a guest in that room who used to work my dream job. That job, I am not going to say because I don’t want to watch someone else’s dream job die because of me. I’ve always loved theatre and I wanted to pursue Stage Management professionally. At least, that’s what I thought. But as I was sitting in that room, listening to the guest who used to have my dream job talk, I was soon horrified at the stories she told. About how she was treated, how the actors were treated and how crew was treated. As she was talking I felt the metaphorical path of my life I had so carefully paved out crumble beneath my feet and I was falling. I was trying to grasp something. Some sort of hope that I could still get my dream job and be happy doing it. But I had already fallen and landed hard on the rubble of the path. My ASM for my next show looked over at me and saw the perplexed look on my face. She gave me a sheepish smile and just said ��it is a big company. Those things happen unfortunately.”

I remember calling my mom that night and telling her everything. I felt so defeated. She simply said “There’s lots of other theatre companies who would want you. You’re really good at your job.”

Call me overdramatic if you must.

But perhaps its because every single show I have worked in my Stage Management career has wrecked havoc on my mental and physical health.

Perhaps its because every single show I have worked during my Stage Management career I only had one director that didn’t treat me and my crew like servants. But with just my luck, during that show I was harassed by an actor.

I remember my first big show I worked, the director was very verbally abusive toward me. Causing me to have a breakdown at least twice a week after rehearsals. It takes a lot to break me. But so quickly, I was beat down to a weak mouse who could barely stand on her own two feet. I remember I went to my boss and asked her multiple times “Why can’t I stand up for myself and the actors/crew because we all know this is wrong?”

She simply said, “It’s not your place. This director is a control freak, get over it.”

This was the biggest slap in the face to me during the whole production. How helpless and silenced I felt because I was new and didn’t know what to do. It was tech week for this show when I started the Tumblr blog. I needed somewhere to vent. During the post mortem for this show the director (who had already directed many shows, but it was their first show at our theatre), said in front of the entire board, designers, everyone, “You know, I was new and (my name here) was new and you know, she’ll be good next time.”

I froze, speechless, tears instantly coming to the back of my eyelids. This director who insulted me, verbally abused me and used me as their scape goat the entire show just wrongfully put me on blast in front of everyone. After I had held up her show on my shoulders with little help from anyone. I looked around the room to see a few designers shaking their head at me in disagreement. However as the ‘new’ stage manager, this absolutely crushed me and made me mad at the same time.

The next show I worked, the director had general ideas of what they wanted, constantly changed things on me (and the designers), then proceeded to use me as their personal assistant while scolding me for being supportive to actors. Yes, you read that right, I was scolded for being a kind and caring stage manager. This director also changed the schedule on me and the actors so many times that it got to the point I just wanted to say, “here is the schedule, you can change it everyday yourself and confuse the actors so they understand its fully you messing up all this work.”

This director would call designers to run throughs then proceed to waste an hour or more of everyone’s time working scenes instead of doing the actual run through causing us to run late. This director would be incredibly rude to my ASM’s and myself right in front of actors. This director threw things like their keys at me. Would respond to me trying to be helpful with “Well duh” or since they changed the schedule so much would respond to the call list for the day with “Uh no, that’s definitely not what we’re doing.” This making it look like to the actors I had no idea what was going on. But I think they [actors] knew. However, shockingly, this director treated me much better than the previous one I had mentioned and now the sight of them doesn’t fill me with dread, because shockingly this show was the best show I’ve ever worked.

I am exhausted. I am so sick of being used as a pin cushion and the scape goat for all the directors and actors I’ve worked with.

I am sick of working with actors who are full of hot air and think they are better than everyone else.

I am sick of working with directors who think so highly of themselves they don’t care who they destroy in their path of building their ‘reputation’.

I’m here to say. I need a break. Stage Management has exhausted me. I am exhausted.

Please, please, please, please do not let this ruin your perception of the theatre world. If you want to be a professional Stage Manager or something else in theatre, go. Pursue that dream. I was simply delt a crappy hand. I worked my ass off yet people continued to treat me like their scape goat, like complete and udder shit and it has not faired well on me. I am still incredibly grateful for the amazing down to earth people I did get to work with and appreciative of the opportunities I had, the things I have learned, the friends I have made and the fun stories I have to tell. I am incredibly grateful for the awesome support team behind me who have helped make stage managing possible while dealing with my chronic illness. I am incredibly thankful for my mom who let me call her and just vent so many countless times. I am incredibly thankful for my fur children who were always a pleasant face to see when I came home. Lastly, I am incredibly grateful for my amazing friends and ASM’s who kept me sane during tech rehearsals and were a witness when things got sticky with vindictive directors.

If I have learned anything from my time as an SM. It’s to speak up for yourself. Call people out (nicely) when they are being rude, vindictive and unfair. Anyone who tells you it’s not okay to speak up for yourself and concerns for your own/crew/actor safety is not someone who you should be working with.

So this is me, signing off. I need a break. I am simply exhausted. I am emotionally, physically and mentally drained.

I am making a career change (hopefully), I got a temp job while tying loose ends in the current city I am living and moving back home next year to pursue a true passion and dream of mine I’ve had since I was six that has nothing to do with theatre. Stage Management has always been a back up plan of mine anyway (ironic, right?). I won’t be gone forever and I’ll check the blog frequently for your asks. I will post funny stories as I remember them or as they are submitted. I’m not abandoning you all. I’m simply stepping down from Stage Management for a while, perhaps permanately if my dream job takes off. I just need some time off from theatre. I need time to heal. I need time to recover.

Thank you all for being the best group of followers I could ever ask for. I’m still here for you. I still look forward to reading your submissions and answering your asks.

Talk soon.

~Admin <3

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traincat · 5 years

Note

i don't ask this with intention of being like One is Better that the Other, but more like understanding them better; how would you say peter's relationships are different form each other, in a nutshell? (or just with gwen and mj?)

That’s a valid question because they are very different relationships and while I don’t like talking about them with the view that One Woman Is Better For The Man Than This Other Woman, Therefore Other Woman Is Terrible, I do think it’s important to acknowledge those differences and they’re interesting to talk about.

Here’s the thing: in 616, I think it’s very important that Peter and Mary Jane aren’t each other’s first relationship. We don’t know as much about her relationship history as we do about Peter’s – we know she’s seen other people, including Harry, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that for the majority of her life, since she was fourteen years old in canon, she’s known Peter was Spider-Man and for a long time kept that secret to herself. (We also know as per ASM #259 that serious relationships justifiably scare her – but I’ll get to that in a moment.) But Peter seriously dated Betty Brant when he was in high school, and, though I don’t think it gets talked up enough in discussions about Peter and Gwen, before Gwen’s death she and Peter were very much planning to get married.

(Amazing Spider-Man #103)

Cut for length.

(Peter had also briefly thought about proposing to Betty Brant at the end of high school. He’s a marriage monster.)

If I had to use one word to sum up Peter and Gwen’s relationship it would be “passionate.” And not always in a good way. They have a very fast connection in comics, but initially, they don’t really like each other that much.

(Amazing Spider-Man #35)

They’re on the same wavelength – that wavelength just happens to be “this hot person pisses me off so bad.” But then John Romita sweeps in and things get romantic as opposed to Ditko’s more prickly, vampier Gwen take, and Peter and Gwen start to get closer. That Mary Jane enters the picture and is seeing Peter probably doesn’t hurt Gwen making a more aggressive move on him. One thing I want to clarify that in modern day the word “dating” conjures up, first to mind, a serious image when we talk about fictional relationships, but Peter and MJ were very casually seeing each other after they first finally came face to face, something that seemed to annoy Peter actually:

(Amazing Spider-Man #44) In Webspinners #1′s backup story, The Kiss, Peter describes MJ at this point in time as mercurial and indirect, and says that’s one of the reasons he was more attracted to Gwen at the time. Gwen’s very direct, very passionate, and very open with her emotions, whereas Mary Jane and Peter both have their own secrets. It makes a certain amount of sense that Peter would be drawn to that openness. Peter and Gwen also have a keen interest in the sciences in common, which I also think is a pretty important factor in their early courtship when you consider part of the reason Peter felt isolated in high school was that his classmates didn’t share his interests:

(Amazing Spider-Man #53)

Once Peter and Gwen are together, things get pretty serious pretty quickly, with lots of sappy love declarations and both of them bringing the other around their parents.

(Amazing Spider-Man #68) Like I said, one of the things I often see overlooked in discussions about Peter and Gwen is just how serious the relationship was at the time of Gwen’s death. They were if not officially engaged then definitely pre-engaged and making plans for marriage. Peter had even wrangled his way into a staff position at the Daily Bugle specifically with his future marriage to Gwen in mind.

(Amazing Spider-Man #99) Peter used to be super good at this whole responsibility thing, in both his costumed and uncostumed lives.

This isn’t to say Peter and Gwen didn’t have problems – while people paint an image of the college days before Gwen’s death as being some big MJ/Peter/Gwen love triangle, that’s not really true. MJ had a tendency to flirt with Peter, especially in front of Gwen and also Harry, who MJ was seeing at the time, but it was Peter who was at times irrationally jealous of Flash’s flirting with Gwen.

(Amazing Spider-Man #72)

(ASM #80) Poor Flash really suffered as the least dramatic member of this friend group. It’s a little ironic that Peter got so heated up about Flash of all people because, while Flash does at one point profess more than friendly feelings to Gwen, he’s exceptionally gentle about it and never actually tries to threaten her relationship with Peter.

(Amazing Spider-Man #107)

On Gwen’s side of things, Peter’s frequent disappearances troubled her, and she often begged him to stay with her in times of danger – when he was trying to slip out and discreetly change into his Spider-Man costume – so that Peter would prove to her that he wasn’t a coward. (Look, it was the 60s and 70s in superhero comics and machismo was a big deal.) She could be insecure – Peter’s disappearances sometimes made her think he didn’t love her anymore, a feeling which was compounded when she accidentally lost her temper and yelled at Aunt May about her tendency to coddle Peter, causing May to put some distance between them, and after the death of her father, for which she initially blamed Spider-Man.

(Amazing Spider-Man #91) It was that hatred of Spider-Man that made Peter hesitate proposing to her initially, and she briefly left to stay with her uncle and aunt in England thinking that he didn’t care for her as much as she did for him. All those are, when you get down to it, far more serious issues in the relationship than the notion that Mary Jane and Gwen were constantly fighting over Peter.

I said if I had to pick one word for Peter and Gwen’s relationship it would be “passionate” – but I think that’s in part because Gwen herself is a very passionate character. For all her emotional openness compared to Mary Jane’s at the time party girl facade, Gwen felt very deeply about everything, especially about her relationship with Peter. I don’t doubt that if Gwen had lived, she and Peter would have gotten married – it was the natural progression for their relationship at the time. However, I’m not sure they would have stayed married, and not for any “selling the marriage to the devil” reasons. I’m sure they would both have tried very hard to make it work, and I don’t think separating would be easy for either of them, but I’m just not sure if I see them as a successful long term relationship. (Which, for the record, doesn’t make me ship them less.)

With that in mind, I also don’t know if I think PeterMJ happens without Gwen’s death – at least, not in the specific way it does in comics. While he was definitely initially attracted to her – it’s a running joke before Mary Jane appears on panel that Peter desperately tries to avoid meeting her because he thinks that, because Aunt May approves of her and says she’s a nice girl, that she’ll be ugly, which is where Mary Jane’s famous “face it, tiger” line comes in when she reacts to his surprise at the door – the further in love Peter falls with Gwen, the less intrigue Mary Jane seems to hold for him. Before Gwen’s death, he’s even disapproving of her advances, and dislikes the fact that she hits on him in front of Harry when she and Harry are dating.

(Amazing Spider-Man #97)

(ASM #106)

At the time of Gwen’s death, Peter’s impression of Mary Jane isn’t the most favorable in the world: he thinks she’s a flighty, irresponsible party girl – which, to be fair, is the impression Mary Jane has put some serious effort into cultivating. This changes with Gwen’s death with one very important scene that signifies – not necessarily to Peter, who is lost in his grief at the moment, but to the readers – that that’s not who Mary Jane is at all, and it’s the door scene from Amazing Spider-Man #122.

I’ve noted before that Peter has a tendency to lash out verbally towards the people in his life when he’s in the depths of grief, and he can be very good at hurting people, like here when he accuses Mary Jane of not caring that Gwen’s dead and telling her to get out.

And she doesn’t. If I had to pick a scene that I think is the most pivotal turning point in any Marvel comics relationship, it would be this one.

Peter and Mary Jane have a more complicated build up to their romance than Peter and Gwen did. Unlike Gwen, who was very much a heart on her sleeve girl, Mary Jane has secrets of her own, something Peter doesn’t really seem to realize when they do launch into a romance of their own, and when Mr. Marriage pops the question to her the first time Mary Jane ends up turning him down.

(ASM #183)

Mary Jane’s commitment issues are seated deep-seated. Gwen, as far as we know, had no reason not to believe in true love. Mary Jane has many.

(ASM #259)

I love Amazing Spider-Man #257-259 because they totally recontextualize everything about Mary Jane and throw all her previous actions into a sharp and different new light that just makes the most perfect sense. ASM #257-259 reveals two very important things. The first is that Mary Jane knew the whole time, since before Peter ever laid eyes on her, that he was Spider-Man, and that she’s been walking around the whole time carrying this secret.

(Spider-Man: Parallel Lives)

The second is that, with Mary Jane having told Peter she knows his biggest secret, she makes it an even trade and tells him her own, letting him know the details of her childhood that shaped her into the person she is. It’s really worth reading for yourself if you haven’t already and in my opinion it’s one of the best backstory reveals ever written.

(ASM #259)

Peter and Mary Jane enter into a weird stage in their relationship at this point in time. Mary Jane is, essentially, the only person Peter can confide in once he learns she’s known his secret all along. Mary Jane, on the other hand, finds the nitty-gritty details of Spider-Man’s life difficult to deal with, even as she tries to be there for Peter. One thing I see a lot in Mary Jane vs Gwen discourse is that while Mary Jane loves Spider-Man, Gwen loves Peter, which is a completely movie-based fabrication – in 616, Mary Jane frequently wishes Peter wasn’t Spider-Man and worries about him risking his life. They have a very strong emotional – and physical – connection at this point, but they’re not officially romantically together, and during this point in time Peter is still involved in a tumultuous on-and-off relationship with Felicia Hardy.

(Spectacular Spider-Man #116)

“I’ve just ruined a perfectly good lie.” (Spider-Man vs Wolverine)

They don’t officially get together again until Peter proposes marriage – again. Although Mary Jane initially turns down his offer again, she later calls him from her sister’s home in Pittsburgh asking him to come down and help her.

(ASM #291)

Hearing about Mary Jane’s past is one thing, but Peter’s confronted with it when he finds himself supporting Mary Jane as she tries to figure out what to do when her father’s schemes have landed her estranged sister in jail. It’s a really great lead up to the marriage: Peter has to learn to trust Mary Jane to make decisions, and Mary Jane takes the reigns when she needs to help out in a Spider-Man fight. At the end, in the airport, she agrees to marry him.

(ASM #292)

It’s not magically perfect after that – in ASM Annual #21, the wedding issue, Peter worries about Mary Jane’s more lavish lifestyle and how she’ll handle his more staid one in addition to his fears over what his enemies could do to his new wife, Mary Jane struggles with the concept of committing after so many years of running from that, and the ghost of Gwen still hangs over them both.

They do both end up making it down the aisle, of course, though:

(ASM Annual #21)

One of the things I love about Peter and Mary Jane is that, while I truly do think the characters are soulmates, they’re not perfect – they have relationship problems as big as Mary Jane worrying Peter’s identity as Spider-Man will get him killed or about what effects his irradiated blood might have on any children she might have, to as small as Peter having a crisis over Mary Jane paying his bills for him:

(Web of Spider-Man #37)

And of course Peter and Mary Jane have a much more complicated and complex relationship than Peter and Gwen did, but that’s because Peter and Mary Jane had hundreds of issues over which it develops and deepens, even after their marriage, whereas Gwen Stacy wasn’t even in 100 issues after her first appearance before she died. So I think Peter and Gwen have much more of an instantaneous love connection, which is aided by Gwen’s own emotional openness, whereas Peter and MJ are more of a slow burn, with a lot of stops and starts along the way that end up being the foundation for a very strong love.

#peter parker #mary jane watson #gwen stacy #marvel comics #*replies #long post/#traincat talks comics #petermj #petergwen #this ended up just being gwen and mj because if i tackled everyone it'd be sooooo long

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smokeybrand · 4 years

Text

Bad Manager

Story time. All this talk of Karens has got me reminiscing about my time in retail. Way back in the wild of my youth, before my chick and i really started getting heavy into out relationship and she mellowed me out, I was a manager at the most ghetto Gamestop in the greater Sacramento area. I actually got the job like i got most things back then; After an argument over Dragon Ball Z. That’s actually how i met my chick, and argument over DBZ, but i digress. I had a thirty minute debate with the assistant manager at the time and he immediately gave me an interview with the store manager. This is, of course, before i found out how sh*tty Gamestop corporate is in real life. In about a year, I worked my way up from seasonal part-time, all the way to Store Manager and i have a Karen story for each phase of my brief career.

Seasonal Part-Time: When you’re a part timer at the ‘Stop, you are basically house b*tch. They make you do the most mundane bullsh*t. Clean the bathrooms, take out the garbage, vacuum the stores, etc. B*tch sh*t. The most mundane task you have, though, is f*cking alphabetizing the goddamn game racks. I HATED that sh*t. it was tedious and f*cking stupid. Once, it took me my entire four hour shift just to properly arrange the PS2 rack. Sh*t was whack, son!

So i finish this sh*t early one day, probably about an hour and a half before i’m off, and this Karen comes in with her kid. He wants a PS2 game. Fine. This little asshole f*cks up the entire system because he can’t find his game. I kept telling the little sh*t that everything was in alphabetical order but he ain’t care. He’s an idiot. After about ten minutes of watching this bundle of cooties and Capri Sun ruin my hard work, i ask him if he knows what “Alphabetize” means and his mom blows up! She accuses me of being cruel and how i had no right to chastise her child and that she would have my job.Obviously, this dumb b*tch escalated the scenario and i had to get my manager. She actually demanded a free game because i asked if her kid understood the order of his ABCs.

Full-Time: Once you graduate to full-time, you get to be looked upon like you are a responsible individual and not house b*tch anymore. There’s usually new part-timers for that. I became third key, a person who’s basically management but gets no management pay, after the ASM who hired me, left. Everyone moved up a rank after that. I started getting opening shifts and sh*t. This is before i was disillusioned with work life and still applied myself for faceless conglomerate who see you as expendable numbers. Don’t worry, we’ll get there soon. Since i’m Third Key, i get opening shifts now. Still don’t do payroll or take corporate calls, but i do everything else management does. As such, thee are days when it’s just me in the store. I’m the proxy manager because the two others above me make too much hourly and it’s cheaper for me to act as management instead of paying actual management.

It’s, like, six minutes before the store closes. My pat-timer is winding down their ABCing busy work because corporate decreed it so. I’m closing out one o the registers and setting the alarm on the safe to open because that sh*t takes, like, 30 minutes and my ass wants to go home ASAP. We are breezing, man, and about to be out this b*tch in record time. NOPE! Six minutes, man. I remember very distinctly because i glanced at the little clock on the register. Six minutes. This wild Karen rushes my door with her four goddamn crotch spawns six goddamn minutes before lock up! They destroy my store. My part-timer and eye can only watch in dismay. all that work. all that prep. all of it, mute. The f*cked up thing? This b*tch ain’t even buy nothing. We were located next to a Togos.She had the audacity to walk up and small talk at me about how they were waiting for their sandwiches to finish and just needed to kill time.

I tell her that we were closing and she told me, and i quote, “Not with me and my kids in the store.” 9 rolls around and tell her we have to lock the doors and she’s like, “Go ahead.” I explain to her that i’m not legally allowed to lock up the store with customers on the premises. She looks me dead in the eyes and says, “ Well i guess you’re gonna get some OT tonight then, right?” I’ll never forget that sh*t. That was the first time i felt Retail Rage. I wanted to murder this b*tch. Straight up keelhaul this hoe and set her little monsters on fire. I maintained my composure and after about forty extra minutes, they left. I ended up finishing the close by myself because i had to sen the part-timer home. that’s ABCs, Shelving, closing registers, re-timing the safe, etc. I didn’t get ot of that store until about 11 pm. And had a morning shift at 7. All because a Karen turned my store into a waiting room/playground six minutes before close.

Assistant Manager: My Store Manager got into some sh*t with corporate and they fired him on straight BS. Probably time card fraud, i dunno. I do know he had been with the company for eleven years so f*ck em. I got bumped up to Second Key. Got a little it of a raise. Made schedules now, officially, even though i’d been doing that sh*t since i was Third Key. It’s fine. I can do refunds now and give discounts. I’m “The Manager” and, boy, do you hear about it!

Gamestop is about money. They never want to lose a sale. As such, we have a POS system that let’s you look up merchandise throughout the district. If we don’t have something, we can send you to another store that does. That’s how this story starts. I get a call from another store asking about a game. We have one copy left. They tell me to hold it because someone is coming to get it. Fine. Karen comes in a backpack full of trade-in to pay for this game and get a few extra credits for a birthday gift. Whatever. Back then, we had to test every game that came i. This b*tch had, like, 30. Fine. She also had an old, ratty, PS1. The rectangle ones. That was going to be an argument because she was only getting, like, four dollars for it. She kept gloating about how she got it at launch when she was young and what not. Motherf*cker was as old as Jesus. Also, it rattled. We found out later that was because there was dead roaches in it but that’s a story for another day.

I finish this ridiculous trade in; Tested all the games, made sure they read on both PS2 and PSOne. a few were too scratched to read so i had to run them through the disc cleaner and they ended up being viable after. I trade all of this sh*t in, and the b*tch gets upset when i tell her she’s walking out with less than a hundred in credit and even less than that in cash. She blows up on me, demands to see my manager. I tell her i am the manger, and she just starts going in. I immediately disengage and become visibly indifferent because, if i don’t, i would have beat that b*tch up in front of her children. Like, straight up curb stomp cunts and sh*t. She berates me for being an hourly employee and how she makes more than i do the entire year in a week and all this other sh*t. She just kept getting more and more upset at the fact that i was indifferent to her bullsh*t. B*tch even drops the n*gga wit hte hard “R” a few times, like i didn’t notice. I maintain through all of this racist disrespect. That ain’t what she expected and it definitely wasn’t the reaction she wanted. She demands the corporate number, takes all her games, leaves the Sony RoachMotel, and storms out. I get written up a week later for being an asshole to the customer. I literally just stood there while she turned bright red racist hulk, all over my person, but i’m in the wrong. Okay, Karen.

Bad Manager: My Senior ASM quits because Gamestop is on that bullsh*t so now i’m big man on campus. My DM is forced to promote me to acting Store Manager. Basically, i’m responsible for everything the actual manager does, but i don’t get paid what the manager i pad. It’s that Third Key bullsh*t but, you know, not. By now, it’s been about six months and i do not care. Full on disillusioned and well on my way to outright militant. That’s what Retail does to you. It slowly kills your joy and makes you hate people. I already hated people but this? This sh*t just effortlessly validated why. So it’s me and the other ASM in the store. I hire some regular to round out the staff an change literally everything about the store.

First thing to go was that whack ass dress code. I believe you do your best work when you’re comfortable so it had to go. The next thing i nixed was the ABCs. That sh*t was stupid and a waste of time. As long as the helves were neat, we were good. The next thing i did was spread the reserve and sh*t around. I held a meeting and everyone agreed that was best for the entire store. Numbers were met and no one straggled. Everyone got to keep their jobs and i didn’t have to cut hours. The last major change i instituted was letting staff play games, in store, during downtime. If everything was legit int the store and it was slow, go ahead, pop one of the used titles in a test station, and have a blast. I don’t care. Just don’t be a dick to customers because i don’t want to get hassled. I don’t want you to get hassled. No one wants t get hassled. The time that i was in charge of that store, our numbers were spectacular and we killed even the richest stores in the district. It’s dope how well a team works together when they have high morale ya dig.

One day, i get a call from my new Third key. He and his part timer, his wife at the time, were opening. I wasn’t scheduled to come in that day but he was hysterical. Apparently, this Karen didn’t like her trade in quote and called the f*cking cops. Sac PD was in my store, intimidating the sh*t out of my staff, all because this b*tch thought she deserved more than 20 dollar for her used Gamecube or some sh*t. I walk my ass all the way to work, on my day off, and diffuse the situation with the cops. I explain that prices are set by corporate and there was nothing we could do about the trade in value. I then ask way the f*ck they were even giving validity to this crazy b*tches allegations when she freely admits nothing of hers was actually stolen. Cops didn’t like my questioning their motives and hassled us for another thirty minutes but whatever. They left eventually. I left. The Karen left. The it came back.

This b*tch was in my store for a total of three f*cking hours, trying to sabotage every transaction throughout my Third Key’s shift. Eventually, he clocked out and left. His wife stayed for a few extra hours and this Karen b*tch took the opportunity to just assault her with insults. My part-timer maintained a strong facade. I was so proud of her, man. A lot of the sh*t said was very cruel personal attacks about my part timer’s heritage and status. She was a Ukranian refugee, came over to escape Russian aggression. Gorgeous chick, for real. Very funny. Very affable. Bluest eyes i’ve ever seen on a person. They were unnervingly clear and mad piercing. She was also dummy thicc. Like, she had that super stronk Snow Bunny charm. Let’s just say i made sure to schedule her for a full shift when the Madden and 2K reserves went live.

Anyway, the actual scheduled ASM just hid in the back room while this assault was occurring because he was weenie. Sweet kid, total puss. Karen was going in on how immigrants were the worst and that since she couldn’t understand my part timer’s accent she didn’t deserve to be in the country or have this job. She effectively called her a slut, several times, by insinuating she probably “F*ck your big black boss for this job.” My part timer endured for hours. When she took her break, she immediately called me in tears. She filled me in on the situation. I couldn’t make it back to my store fast enough, man. i blew up on this Karen. I called her out on her elitist bullsh*t, her classist ignorance, and the fact that we didn’t need her stupid f*cking business. I attacked her appearance. infantilized her entire lifestyle. I told her she was a depleted cum-dumpster jealous that my part timer was so vibrant with because her genuine shine reminded the Karen of everything you lost by being a suburban cliche. A middle class punchline. I banned her for being a toxic b*tch. She left my store in gross, sobbing, tears. No one f*cks with my crew like that. I got written up again.

The next day, i was on shift and the Karen bought her husband in to “speak” with me. Part timer and i opened and this big ass, corn-fed, white boy, walks in, bobbing his head around like a rooster. I’m half-sleep behind the register because insomnia, so i let my part timer do her thing. I’m over yonder, full Sith mode, Decepticon hoodie full cowl and bad attitude, wishing a motherf*cker would. And a motherf*cker did. This motherf*cker is right red, trying to assail my part timer, again, just like his wife did before.Speaking of Karen, she’s out front, pacing the entrance like a shark, expecting the fireworks her beau was supposed to bring. Not today, Satan. My part timer was standing her ground, using a lot of firm language, but this motherf*cker is big and i start seeing him using that size to intimidate.

I, immediately, physically step between dude and my part timer. He’s about three inches taller than i am so he presses my gangster. I pull back my hood, and tell him i’m the manager of the store but i can clock out and just be a n*gga in the street if he wanted the Smoke. He didn’t want the Smoke. I called him a b*tch to his face, his wife a cock-gobbling hoe, and his mother a slut. He still did not want the Smoke. He bailed. His wife started gassing on him for being a b*tch as they both shrunk away like the cowards they really were. Never saw either one after that. I didn’t get written up for that though. No f*cks given. Bad Manager life. Gang gang, n*gga.

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thisisabouta · 5 years

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This is About a... Downfall.

It’s happening. I’ve been taking Lamotrigine consistently for 8 months or so. Maybe longer. This is the longest i’ve consistently taken medication in a long time. It’s Lamotrigine along with Doxepin, Hydroxyzine and Gabapentin.

This is where my head has been during these last 8 or so months. I was driving on the freeway, about to merge and as I saw my car getting closer to the concrete barrier, I decided to go faster instead of slowing down for the car that had the right a way. I was about to crash into the side of this fucking car but I just kept going. The car to my right had to slam their brakes and I waited to hear the loud crash from the cars behind them because there was no way this wasn’t about to be a 5 car pile up.

God was there because nothing happened but that was way too fucking close to a catastrophe. The car that I cut off trailed me for awhile and pulled up next to me, I’m sure they were trying to cuss me out, flip me off, something... Whatever they did, I didn’t see it but it was justified. I would’ve been fucking heated if it had been the other way around. I cut people off all the time. I drive like an asshole, whatever. This was different.

I’ve been disassociating for weeks now. In that moment, I could see everything that was happening but my brain was not telling my body the correct way to react. I knew to slow down but I couldn’t. Everything i’ve been doing lately has had a delay. 1 minute. 5 minute. 10 minutes. My processing is delayed. My speech stumbles out of my mouth and doesn’t make sense. I’ve been blacking out and losing moments of time for years now but not to this severity. Now it’s like i’m blacking out and not fully coming back from it.

I’m around people constantly. I’m in a position of “leadership” at work so I have to direct and plan, be on alert at all times. My work day now consists of getting asked questions that I can’t comprehend fast enough so I stand there with a blank stare on my face, slowly losing my credibility. It’s worse because some of the things i’m being asked, I absolutely know the answer to but my brain just cannot get there. I can’t focus on ANYTHING. I know i’m walking around in circles (literally) and I know other people see it but I can’t stop. This circling shit happens a lot but it’s picked up in frequency. After I realize what i’m doing, it’s already done. People are trying to get my input and ideas and all I can do is squeeze my hands together and stare straight ahead, hoping my brain will figure out that I need it to work.

When I try to read, I can’t. This isn’t all the time but it happening occasionally is already too much. Words are not always making sense to me. I cant understand what i’m seeing and I have to go over things multiple times. It’s the same with counting. I shouldn’t have to use a calculator to add 30 and 20 or hold five $5 bills in front of me and stare at them until I realize what it is that i’m looking at. It’s embarrassing to even acknowledge that this is happening.

I’ve been losing things more and more everyday. I’ve had a habit of losing my keys. I lost my work keys at my last job, three times. My new job, i’ve already lost my keys once and it hasn’t even been 2 months that i’ve been working there. When my coworker texted me telling me that she found them, I just wanted to cry. That sounds ridiculous but having those keys is a huge fucking responsibility. I can get fired for losing them. Somehow I escaped that at my last job but it was a constant fear that I had. This last time, I hadn’t used the keys at all that day and I still managed to lose them. I retraced my steps and I had not taken them off of my keychain. Things like that don’t help me overcome this engrained idea I have that the universe is against me. Those keys represent me trying to do everything I can to keep it together while everything still managing to fall apart.

I’ve been forgetting to pay bills that i’ve been paying on the same day, every month for years. I’ve been forgetting people’s names. I can’t always comprehend what people are saying when they’re talking to me... that’s been a big one. I had a customer walk to my register at work. I was looking down at something when he asked if he could pay for his merchandise (I found out later on). That’s not what I heard. It came out as mumbling so I just assumed he was making a comment about something that was left on the counter. From what I remember, I said “Oh... yeah...” and went back to what I was doing. He looked at the Associate next to me and she told him that there were registers at the front where he could pay (she was already helping someone). He walked to the front and it took me about 2 or 3 minutes to realize that he was asking if I could ring him up. And to add to that awesome moment, he glared at me for the rest of the time he was in the fucking store. Yes, one small incident but that’s nowhere near how many times something like that has happened. Someone will be talking to me and i’m literally catching about every third word they’re saying. You can only ask “what?” so many times before that person looks at you like you’re the dumbest person they’ve ever met.

Writing things down... i’ll go back and read over my notes. They make no sense. Things are spelled incorrectly. Everything’s scattered. Like someone else wrote it. I walk around feeling like i’m not apart of my surroundings. My surroundings are not reality, like walking through a Fun House with no fun in sight. It’s like i’m seeing everything in those mirrors that make everything look distorted. All I can do is stare and try to figure it out. I can only imagine what that looks like from the outside. People walking around me while I just stare. Standing there trying not to cry because i’m in public.

I’ve been hallucinating. That comes and goes. I’m still forgetting why I picked certain things up, or why I walked to a certain room or what I was going to tell someone. Things a lot of people do but usually with somewhat immediate recall. I’m not remembering these things til days later, if at all. That’s the more frustrating part. Very small, seemingly insignificant things are happening over and over and over again. It’s no longer an insignificant mishap, this shit is snowballing and affecting everything. I can’t manage a store if I can’t function like a normal, fucking human being. I talked to my Probation Officer about some of the things that were happening and she asked me what medications I was taking and if any of them were used to treat seizures. Gave her the list and two of them just so happen to be used to treat seizures. I already knew that was the case but didn’t think that they would cause this long, intense stream of side effects. I know all about the side effects of medicine. You’ll basically die if you take it and die if you don’t.

I’ve experienced the lighter ones. Nausea, dizziness, dry mouth. The usual shit. Not forgetting how to read a fucking sentence. To my POs knowledge, those drugs do cause a lot of neurological problems, much that make it feel like i’m disassociating. Most of these things had been happening prior to taking the medications but it got much worse over time. I read up on the side effects in detail when I got home and everything aligned. So [because I will control this situation as much as I possibly can] I stopped taking the two that were the main issue. Should anyone ever just stop taking their medicine without consulting their physician first? No. Did I do it anyway? Yes. Now i’m going thru the withdrawal. Besides me losing my fucking mind, the Lamotrigine was actually working. It was the first medication I had taken for my Bipolar that has ever had that positive of an effect on me. But that was at the expense of me literally going insane. It’s not going to matter if I feel better when i’m dead because I crashed my car into a wall. The risk does not outweigh the reward. It did not cure anything. It did not solve even half of my problems but it did make me feel better. Not taking the Gabapentin doesn’t make a difference.

Now i’m going thru the withdrawal. I have 11 drafts on here that i’ve tried to complete and publish over the past few months and they’re just sitting in there. I know the only reason i’m able to write this one is because i’m not on the meds right now. Now my heart hasn’t felt off beat for the past few days (that’s a difficult feeling to describe) but in return, i’m the angriest i’ve been in awhile. I got in an argument with one of my employees this morning and did not feel bad at all. I got into it with another ASM a few days ago. I feel my temper coming back.

I made an appointment with a new MD for next week. I need to start over. I made an appointment to see my current Psychiatrist and cancelled it. I’m done with that guy. He keeps throwing these random pills at me and it’s not working. Not that the next doctor isn’t going to do the same, exact thing but I made an appointment at a facility that offers “Advanced Integrative Medical Care”. Basically, they’re on some new age shit. I’ve been reading up on Ketamine Therapy for over a year and even though it scares the shit out of me, i’m not completely against the idea. They also offer Medical Marijuana. I am officially now in my last 3 month stretch of my house arrest and this shit has finally gotten difficult. The first few weeks were hard because I was still trying to figure out what I could get away with and apparently it’s a lot but now, I just need this shit to end. I’m getting restless. I’m scared too tho.

I’m still going to be on supervised probation for a year (based on good behavior) but I need to get back to... something. I can’t be sober and I don’t want to be. Weed has been fine. Good, enough. I’ve grown a liking to it and found some that actually relaxes me. Alcohol. I miss alcohol. I’ll forever miss alcohol. I’ll miss it even if (when) I start drinking again. It’s that important. Watching movies, seeing people drink to have fun, to relax, to be brave, to socialize. And yet, I shouldn’t engage in that. I know I can engage in good things but the drinking is what i’ve been told I should stay away from. I’m not going to stay away from it. Alcohol makes things better. I know it, the people who tell me not to drink know it. It’s there and I need it. Yes, the problem is that I abuse it. I don’t know if I can overcome that problem. I’m going to try. That sounds crazy and insane so... it’s just going to have to be crazy and insane.

There are other ways to deal with my problems and i’m trying to implement them and hang onto them. I need those things too but I can’t walk thru the world with this open wound that is my life, unarmed. Chemicals... drugs... my brain chemistry will never be right and if I know there’s something out there that will give me temporary relief, i’m taking it. I just have to put the recklessness aside. This time around was a lot. I pray that it was enough to set me straight. Or at least to keep me out of jail for the second time.

#depression #mental illness #bipolar disorder #mental health #pain #relate #disappointment #sadness #pills #prescriptions #psychiatry #ketamine #weed #marijuana #manic depressive #therapy #focus #crash #chemistry

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huntertales · 5 years

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Part Four: The Queen Saves Herself in This One. (LARP and the Real Girl S08E11)

Episode Summary: Sam, Dean and the reader investigate the mysterious deaths of two LARPers who were engaged in a game involving an actual fairy. While digging deeper into the game, the boys discover the queen of Moondoor is a familiar face they met just a few short years ago, an I.T. woman named Charlie Bradbury. Word Count: 5,433. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

Maybe it was your changing hormones, maybe it was your overworking imagination that was making you grow extremely antsy and bitchy. Time was starting to slip away from you now that it was dark outside when you and the boys, along with Boltar and the stupid shadow orc, traveled through the woods to find the shadow king to make your trade. Sam lingered behind in the small crowd with you, trying to reassure you that everything was going to be fine. You knew in the back of your mind that he was doing all he could to keep you from panicking. And while any other day you would have appreciated his help, you weren’t in the mood. You responded in the most mature way possible by rolling your eyes and scoffing his overly optimistic attitude that was starting to test your ever thinning nerves.

You had no idea do where Charlie could be. For all you knew she could be lying face down in a ditch. She could be dead. Worse, she was being tortured by whatever thing that was hurting and killing off players. Or...she could have simply been playing the game and these shadow orcs knew where she was.

Sam’s idea to try and make you stop from ripping through the woods and making yourself so stressed out. You threw him a dirty look, the kind to tell him to shut up if he knew what was good for him. Sam knew mood swings were a symptom of pregnancy. It was one of the red flags that got him thinking there was something going on with you. You were only eight weeks into this, making him slightly fearful how you were going to be when you got farther along.

"I swear, if anything happened to her..." You whispered to yourself. Your lips stretched into a frown as you roughly shoved a branch out of your way, only you did it with so much force, you broke it off the tree and let it fall to the ground. You deliberately stomped on the wood, letting your weight break it in half. Sam almost rarely saw you so worked up like this. The times that he did see you looking like you were ready to tear someone's throat out was when someone you cared about was in trouble.

“Y/N, we checked all the tents. We'll talk to these guys. We'll find her.” Sam reassured you once again. You turned your head to give him yet another annoyed glare from his calming words. He noticed that Dean was walking a few feet ahead of you, giving the both of you a bit of privacy to talk freely about something he didn’t know about just yet. “You can’t stress yourself out like this. I’m sure she’s fine. Just relax.”

“Word of advice for the future Sammy, don’t tell a very hormonal pregnant woman to relax.” You nearly hissed out at him. Sam raised his hands slightly to show you that he was doing this to try and make you feel better. You forced yourself to inhale a deep breath to try and calm down. “I’ll be fine when we know Charlie is okay. I should have went with her back to camp. All of this could’ve been avoided.”

You could have walked back with her or not, but you knew it probably wouldn't have changed much of anything. Maybe getting yourself in the same kind of danger she had. All of you stopped in the middle of the woods when you spotted a clearing, giving you some space for the prisoner exchange. The orc did what he was supposed to for his freedom, calling out to his fellow fictional species by using the special call they made up. Your face scrunched up slightly in confusion when you heard him starting to made a cawing sound. A few seconds later you heard an echoing noise come through the other side of the forest.

Three men stepped out from behind the trees, all of them dressed in black. You spotted the familiar tree of pain printed in the front and center of the king's outfit. “Greetings, heretics.”

You crossed your arms over your chest when the shadow king attempted to be powerful and almighty when he dramatically threw back his cape and attempted to speak in a gravely tone of voice. But it was barely possible to understand him from the horrible fake teeth he was wearing. "You should kneel before me, cur."

“All right, why don’t you let me—” Dean attempted to do his part by taking control of the situation, but he was quickly cut off by Boltar before he could let out another word. The older man almost forgot he was a simple handmaiden and had no voice in this very serious exchange, let alone, a voice for politics he wouldn’t understand.

“Silence! Now, before we exchange, a few announcements.” Boltar cut off the older man. He leaned forward slightly as the king knew that it was talk of taking a quick break to become their real selves. The shadow king took out his teeth and took a few steps forward to hear what Gerry needed to say. “Um, there is a peewee-league soccer playoff game tomorrow on the alpha field. We don't want to freak out the mundanes, so we got to move the Battle of Kingdoms to the beta field.”

“All right. That's it. You know what?” You muttered to yourself, going from beyond pissed to down right seeing red in your vision. “I'm gonna do this the old-fashioned way.”

“Y/N, don’t.” Sam warned you.

But you didn’t listen to him. Dean turned his head slightly when he heard Sam trying to stop you from doing something stupid. He had no idea what you were doing until he felt your hand slip into his pouch to grab something. Dean saw a flash of silver when the metal of his gun reflected in the light, making him realize you were about to do something drastic. Before anyone could stop you and Gerry told you there were rules that needed to be followed, you chose to ignore all of them. You were now standing in front of the men with a loaded gun pointed at the king.

“All right. I need real answers. This here is a real gun, see?” You demonstrated your fancy new toy that wouldn’t be invented for another couple hundred of years by shooting off a round. But instead of aiming it at the orcs, you warned them you weren’t fooling around when you shot it at the ground. The loud noise made the men jump a few inches in the air, making some kind of twisted satisfaction spread through you. Your lips stretched into a smirk asm the king threw his hands up in the air when you pointed the loaded gun in his direction. “Now, I suggest you start talking.”

“What is your problem, lady?!” The shadow king nearly yelled at you.

“Oh, you know. The usual. I have to pee. My feet hurt. These pants are too tight. I’m wasting my time talking to a grown man playing dress up.” You said, shrugging your shoulders. “Now, I’m gonna tell you how this is gonna go. You have five seconds to tell me where the hell the queen is, or so help me God, something you cherish is gonna get blown off!”

"I don't know!" He said, you weren't falling for that little lie.

“Yeah, well,” You waved the gun slightly as you pointed it at the symbol on his outfit. “Your little family crest there tells us a different story, pal.”

"This? Uh, I got sick last month after this thing just appeared on my arm." The shadow king explained the origin . He pulled off one of his leather gloves as he pulled up his sleeve to show off the familiar symbol on his forearm. "I thought it looked really cool, so I turned it into my family crest. I mean, after my dermatologist said it wasn't malignant."

"Y/N, he's not our guy." Sam said. You lowered the gun as you rolled your eyes, knowing he was right. "He's just another vic."

"My name is Max Hilby. I'm an attorney. I have no idea where the queen is, but if you let me go right now, I won't press charges." Max said in the most calm voice he could use right now. You weren't really going to do anything to hurt him, but it was sort of satisfying to see him cower in fear. You narrowed your eyes slightly on him. "I promise."

You admitted your defeat when you were about ready to give the gun back to Dean, who was nothing more than pissed himself at what you did. Max tried to win you over by taking off his fake ears and handed them over to you, as if that was supposed to mean something. You gave him a baffled expression from why he would do such a thing. You didn't want his stupid ears. You told them to go. But he stared at you, unsure if that was really what you wanted. You rolled your eyes and waved your gun forward in the direction where they came from, yelling at them in a more louder and aggressive tone to get out. You let out a sigh as you watched the three men disappear into the woods.

You turned around in your spot to face the brothers and the two others who were part of the game. You gave them all a look when they were staring at you with a mixed expression of slight anger and fear. "What?" You asked them. Dean gave you an annoyed look at your drastic move, you mocked him. "What? Not like any of you were doing anything to move this show along."

"Is the queen really in danger?" The orc timidly asked after he took out his teeth to properly speak. You couldn’t help yourself by giving him a sarcastic look before nodding your head to answer his question. "Okay, look, I-I noticed something odd down by the creek. It's this weird tent. It's not one of ours. It's kind of creepy."

"Why are you being helpful all of a sudden?" Sam asked him.

“Look, I harbor an epic crush on the queen.” The orc admitted his reason why. You gave him a look of disbelief at his way of thinking that Charlie would ever be into someone like him. “Maybe you could put in a good word for me when you find her.”

"I hate to break it to you, dude,” You said. “but I don't think you're her type."

You walked forward to the brothers so you could finally hand back the gun you stole from Dean. He shoved it out of your hands and put it back where you got it from. As you followed behind the boys to continue on your search for Charlie, that orc was still in the dark about why he would never have a shot at the queen. "What? You mean she's not into orcs?"

You wanted to tell him the truth about why Charlie would never be interested in someone like him, but you didn't have time right now with her still missing. You were sure he'd get the picture when he caught the queen mingling around with one of the fellow lady friends she caught the eye of just earlier today. You and the boys focused on continuing your search through the woods to find the tent that the orc was talking about. This was the last tent you knew of that she could possibly be in. and if she wasn't in this one, you were back at square one.

“Why don’t you take off, Bolty? We got it from here.” You reassured the knight, knowing you were doing him more of a favor so he wouldn't get himself in any kind of danger.

"A handmaiden and a traveler rescue the queen? Not to mention, a knight who has 'hormonal' issues, I presume? And you must wonder why few women are given such power.” Boltar said with a slight chuckle. You felt your hand tightening to into a fist at his snarky tone of voice that made you want to make him regret those words. Before you could start swinging, Sam placed a hand on your shoulder, trying to get you to calm down. “I think not, kind lady.”

"Look, this isn't a game, Boltar. The queen, our friend, is in real danger." Sam warned the young man. "You could get hurt."

“I will not leave my queen in peril.” Boltar stated. You rolled your eyes, mumbling underneath your breath that it was his funeral if something happened to him. You walked a few more steps before he spotted a tent just across the way and pointed towards. "Look there."

"We haven't checked that tent." Dean said.

You and the boys headed to the tent to see if you might be able to find the missing red head that had been the reason why you were being so trigger happy. You stepped into the tent after the boys and looked around the place to see that it was almost like stepping into an actual room. The place was decked out with a fireplace and everything, along with candles and...a bed that a familiar face was occupying. You stopped in your tracks when you spotted Charlie herself, along with a woman you've never seen before...heavily making out.

You raised your brow slightly as your jaw opened up, as if you were about to say something. The woman you had spent the past few hours picturing in every kind of worse case scenario and hunting down all through the woods, even threatening people who had no clue what was going on, was actually perfectly fine. She was more than fine from the noises she was making. You crossed your arms over your chest as you cleared your throat, breaking her and who you could only guess was the fairy from their session. Charlie pulled away as she turned her head to see the brothers were staring at her with a slightly shocked expression while you narrowed your eyes slightly on her, wondering what the hell was going on here.

“Dudes.” Charlie muttered to you. “If the tent is rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.”

You gave the woman a look, knowing the real reason why you were here in the first place was not to block her from getting some action, but because she'd been missing over the past few hours. And making out with the very thing that was causing all of this trouble. However the fairy wasn't here willingly, it seemed someone was pulling her strings, forcing her to do heinous things. Your eyes wandered away from Charlie and to her when she jumped out from the bed, fear creeping into her expression at the sight of a familiar face.

"No, it's him!" She exclaimed in a panicked tone. She clutched the bed post as she stared at someone standing behind you. "My master! Run!"

You turned around to see who was responsible for all of the accidents and two murders that were the reason why you came here in the first place. It was someone you had been interacting with all day, who you should have known was the problem all along. You watched as Boltar, who must have snuck into the tent when you weren't looking, lifted down his hood to reveal his face. You rolled his eyes at the flare for dramatics as the boys wasted no time in drawing out their guns before he could do something to try and hurt either one of you. But it seemed all of you were thinking too logically here. You needed to get your head in the game if you wanted to win.

“No guns in Moondoor, gentlemen.” Boltar reminded the boys. “Gilda, if you please?”

All Gilda needed to do was wave her hand for the weapons to disappear right in front of your very eyes. You watched as they burst into feathers, taking you slightly off guard. But you were admitting your defeat just yet. You could easily win in a fist fight with this little dweeb. Even if he did have a fairy working for him against her will. There were ways around this.

“Well, now what, Gerry?” Dean sarcastically asked the man.

"My name is Boltar the Furious!" He reminded the older Winchester of what his real name was when he lost his temper, shouting his name at the top of his lungs. You weren't the least bit scared. Hell, it was making you pissed off all over again. "My plan was, after getting rid of all of my competition, to win the battle tomorrow, convincing the queen that I should be her king. But then you three idiots showed up, and I was forced to improvise. Rescue the damsel in distress from orcs, become king, kill you three—that’ll work, too.”

"So why did you go from hobbling to murder?" Sam asked the man stuck in his own fantasy of the jump from a violent crime to ending someone's life. There was always a reason why. Maybe he wanted revenge, to get more power.

"Greyfox and Thargrim became part of the honor guard. They got close to the queen, but they did it by breaking the rules—paying off players with real money, rather than Moondoor currency." Boltar explained his reasons why that sounded logical in his head. But it only painted him more of a crazy person stuck in his own fantasy that he'd do anything to punish those who didn't follow the rules. "They were cheating."

“Oh, and using magic isn’t?” You wondered, thinking there was a lap of judgement in his thinking process.

"Magic is part of Moondoor." Boltar reminded you. It was as if that alone justified what he did to all those poor people and dragged something powerful into this to get what he wanted. Because it was part of the game that he wanted to live in and make his own reality.

“What is your problem? Why would you hurt people?” Charlie couldn’t help herself but ask him. She was taken back herself at how dramatic and terrible of a human being she was discovering the man she once called a friend and a fellow player. “This is just a game.”

"There is no game! There is only Moondoor!" Boltar screamed on the very top of his lungs, losing control of himself when all of you tried to talk him out of the reality he wanted to live in. "I came here to be different, to get away from my crappy life, to be a hero, and guess what."

"What, you were a loser in the real world, and you're a loser here?" You guessed. Your lips stretched into a smirk when you got a chance to try and knock him down a peg. "Shocker."

“Would a loser track down a real book of spells and compel a fairy to do his bidding?” Boltar asked you. You weren’t the least bit impressed at what he managed to do. It only fueled your desire to beat the crap out of him and put an end to this mess.

“It depends.” Sam said. “How’d you get it?”

Boltar fell silent for a moment as he found himself growing slightly awkward for the answer that didn’t sound as cool like he wanted. "eBay."

"Look, it doesn't have to be like this, Boltar." Sam, always the one at trying to be the voice of reason, attempted to for Boltar to see that things might be able to end not so painful for him if he cooperated. "Just hand over the book of spells. We can work this out."

"This will all work out...after I move you from the playing field and wipe her memory." Boltar said, telling all of you how it was going to be. He stepped back to grab his sword that was nothing more than memory foam wrapped up in duct tape. While it might not have looked threatening right now, he was already one step ahead to get the real thing. "Gilda?"

Gilda unwillingly listened to her master, granting his wish for a real sword to help take down his enemies. Not that she wouldn't make it a fair fight. Sam went for a sword when he saw one just across the tent, not too far from where he was standing. Boltar immediately knew what he was trying to do, and with another verbal command, the younger Winchester found himself being choked from behind by a suit of armor with its arms wrapped around his neck. Dean thought quick on his feet, grabbing a sword he found and shoved the shield in your direction to protect yourself.

Charlie, who had prior experience before with sword fighting in her time of larping, tried to take down the man, but she wasn't strong enough, and went flying back to the bed. Dean thought he was more than capable of taking down Boltar. He went charging at the man, thinking his sword was in fact real. However he came to the conclusion that it was good as the wooden one he was carrying around when Boltar's blade sliced right through Dean's, cutting it in half.

Thinking quick on your feet, and before Dean could get hurt, you jumped in front of the man and used the shield to block out the swing. You managed to block out three or so swings from Boltar, tiring him out just enough to get an advantage. You used the shield to shove him slightly backwards. When he was caught off guard from the move, you lowered the shield and did something you wanted to all day, you quickly swung up your fist and knocked him directly in the face. The blow was enough for him to go stumbling backwards and the book that caused all of this mess to drop to the ground. When you saw Charlie come out from the corner of your eye, you pulled out the only weapon that could fit into your outfit, a knife. You tossed it over to Charlie when you saw her going for the book to try and help save the day. You looked over at Gerry, who thought he was going to end up the hero at the end of all of this.

“Bet you didn’t see this one coming,” You taunted the man. “You misogynistic prick.”

“Hey, Gerry.” Charlie called out to the man to get his attention for what she was about to do. “I’m the one who saves the damsels in distress around here.”

Charlie wasted no time in stabbing the book to destroy it like how Gilda told her to do in order to break the spell. You quickly shielded your eyes from the sudden burst of light as Gerry yelled in anger at what the woman had done. Sam was free from the suit of armor, letting him breathe once more as the sword that Gerry was holding returned back to normal. But that wasn't going to stop him from trying to wipe off the smirk of victory that crossed your face at what you did. Gerry attempted to swing the sword in your direction, but Dean was faster than him.

The older Winchester grabbed the sword by the blade and yanked it right out of Gerry's hand. And did the proper thing of punching the man so hard, he knocked Gerry out cold. He stared down at the man, waiting for any kind of sign to strike down at him again, but the man was out cold. Dean threw the foam sword to the ground. You raised your brow slightly at his heroic effort that you wouldn’t admit to him you always secretly found impressive. There was nothing you loved more than Dean being all protective over you and threatening to the bad guy, not that you couldn’t defend yourself.

“What?” Dean asked. “Told you I’d knock anyone if they tried anything on you.”

You shook your head as you gave him a wink when nobody was looking. "My hero."

Dean wasn’t the only who helped save the day. Charlie got up from her feet and went straight to Gilda to make sure she was all right. “I’m free from the spell. You saved me. The hollow forest is forever in your debt.” Gilda told the woman. You turned your attention to the ending that almost seemed like it was out of a fairy tale. Heroine saves the damsel from the evil monster. But Gilda couldn’t stay. “I must return those green hills now. I will take my former master with me. He must face a fairy tribunal for his sins.”

Charlie understood what needed to be done. And she wanted nothing more than for justice to be served on the dick who caused so much suffering and pain. But before Gilda could go, the redhead wanted one last thing before the fairy went. Charlie pulled the fairy into another kiss, wanting to give one last one that she'd remember for a while. Gilda pulled away with a smile on her lips, giving one final farewell before vanishing from your sight. Charlie was left all alone, hopeful that maybe Gilda had phones where she lived to get in contact with her. Well, a girl could wish for a happy ending that involved a little fun.

+ + +

Now that the problem around Moondoor was solved and people could freely play their game without having to worry about any "accidents" from happening, it was time for you and the boys to hit the road. Charlie was a bit sad to see all of you go after only spending a day and a half together. But there was still work that needed to be done. You and the boys were back in your normal clothes while you walked around the grounds with Charlie, wanting to make sure she was all right before you left her. Lucky for you, both of her arms were perfectly fine. At least you kept up with your promise of not letting that happen to her again.

“So what’s next for you, Charlie?” Sam curiously asked the young woman. “New town ? New identity?”

"If the last twenty-four hours have taught me anything, it's that escaping isn't what it used to be. No more replacement characters for me I got to face reality from now on. Sadly, reality actually includes monsters, but what are you gonna do?" Charlie said. You smiled slightly at her decision you knew wasn’t easy to come to realize. There was nobody better out there but yourself. And Charlie had to come to the conclusion the hard way. “If I can ever be of help to you guys, let me know.”

“Will do.” You reassured the woman. Charlie gave you a warm smile before taking a step to head off to her pressing matters in Moondoor that were calling her attention. But before she could go, you stopped her, wanting to make sure she was all right. "And you, you're good?"

“Apart from the fact that you blocked me from banging a fairy, and I’m about to lose my crown in battle, thanks to my army being decimated? Yeah. Totally good.” Charlie said. She chuckled to herself at how cheerful she sounded, despite the suckish her life was about to be. As the woman began to make her exit, she made it a few feet before she turned around to face you and the boys, flashing you a familiar Vulcan salute. “Smell you later, bitches.”

"Hey, Red. Where do you think you're going so fast?" You called out to the woman, getting her attention. She stopped in her tracks and looked over at you. "I don't get a hug goodbye after the ass kicking we did last night?"

You headed over to Charlie to embrace the woman into a tight hug at all help she was. You mumbled another thank you to her as the both of you were momentarily distracted in your own personal talk, leaving the boys to wait behind for you to wrap up your goodbyes. Sam watched for a moment as you stood with a smile on your face, a genuine kind that he hadn't seen in so long. It seemed you and Charlie had grown to become fast friends when you handed her your phone so she could give you her contact information to keep in touch.

“So, what’s next? ‘Cause no fun, right?” Dean asked his little brother. He reminded himself of how Sam wanted things to be for now, and much as it sounded like sarcasm, he understood the feeling of life letting him down. "Look, before you say anything, I get it. No amount of fun is gonna help you get over what you gave up. You just need time, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks. And you're right. Having fun won't help me." Sam said. The younger man realized that wallowing in his own pity at what he had to give up wasn't going to help anything. It wasn't going to make him get over Amelia if he kept thinking about what could be. Because his life was about to change. And was reminded by you that life could change in an instant. Soon all of you weren't exactly going to have an opportunity to have fun like this. You and Dean were his family, and in order to heal for the future, he had to let loose. "It'll help the both of us. Shall we?”

Dean figured out what his brother was suggesting, and it took all of his will power not to break out into a smile. You headed back to the boys just a few short moments after Sam was willingly about to take part of the fight to defend her crown. You were about to open your mouth to say that you were ready to hit the road, but you found yourself asking where the hell Dean was going when he bolted forward to Charlie's tent, needing to get himself ready for battle.

+ + +

You've faced a lot of enemies in your time as a hunter, fought a lot of battles with monsters. But never in your time had you participated in one with foam swords while dressed in face paint and your hair pulled back out of your face. But you were having a damn good time, more than you had ever been before. And you were helping out your new friend, Charlie, keep her crown. You were back in your costume you were wearing yesterday with some accessories to help win the fight. And you were dead set on it. Dean felt like he was in his rightful place at the front of the crowd of Charlie’s army, getting them all pumped up to face battle like

"And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance—"

Charlie, who was standing next to you and Sam, leaned over slightly when she found herself wondering why the older Winchester’s speech sounded so familiar to her. “Isn’t that the speech from—”

“It’s the only one he knows.” You whispered to her, Charlie nodded her head.

“Just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they make take our lives, but they will never take…” Dean was about to conclude the speech from Braveheart, but before he could, something came floating through the air, disrupting him.

You almost forgot you were at a public park when a man came running up to fetch his frisbee that accidentally floated over to where the battle was about to take place. The guy apologized for the incident and went running off to continue on his game with his friends. Once he was gone and out of the way, Dean was allowed to finish his speech with a victorious ending that pumped up Charlie’s army. You felt a grin spreading across your lips as you let yourself become engrossed into the fight as you charged forward, forgetting about all the worries and troubles in the rear future. Charlie was onto something with this whole LARPing thing. It was fun to pretend to be someone else for a little while. And kick some ass that didn't leave anyone hurt...too much.

[Next Part]

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bulletsandsecondchances-blog · 5 years

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Hiatus: I need to mend

I’m writing this to update everyone on what is going on with me as I am sure many will be concerned. I hurt myself at work last night by doing something I normally can do without problem. I will have this post tagged and likely under a read more as it may get lengthy.

AKA: I’m getting too old for some of this junk lol

Long story short, I work for a retail ag company called Tractor Supply. We sell al sorts of hardware things, animal feeds, car/tractor/lawn mower batteries, ect. Well, last night a customer asked for help with a lawn mower battery and I was the one to give her a hand. The batteries are up high on the rack and I picked it up as I normally do and something twinged in my spine.

I was able to help the woman get it to her car and put on a facade to keep strong in front of customers but I immediately went to grab the register as soon as I got back into the building. I could not stand straight or walk properly and it had my coworkers very concerned. I collapsed at the register to stay still for a few minutes as one employee gave me some advil to help get something in my system for it.

After that I managed to hobble to the office after the new re-hire saw me. He immediately got concerned and told me what I was already going to do. Nonetheless, he stepped up to the plate and handle the multitasking beautifully while i retreated to the office to call in my ASM. She eventually got back to me and came in to close so I could go home. My mother came and got me and brought me home.

Fast forward to today, I woke up screaming in pain from trying to get up because of stiffness. I called work an told them what was going on. I also retrieved paperwork for work comp from work as my mom had to go down and pick up my truck since I left it in the parking lot. Once that was done, I took a trip to the ER to be looked over to cover my ass. I got xrays taken and waited to hear what to do. I was given medication and slips of paperwork saying I cannot bend, twist, or turn or do any heavy lifting or lifting in general for work if I go back to work. I am to be on very light duty and I will have to see a work comp doc an go from there.

I’ve never gone through this before and to say it was stressful is an understatement. I’m not good with asking for help or dealing with things. Maybe this is a step in the right direction though. Either way, I need to focus on healing and tackling the tasks ahead. I will do my best to keep people posted. I’m hoping it’s a quick recovery but back injuries even with muscle can be tricky.

#hw: ooc #injury tw #emergency room mention tw #swearing tw

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ethans-a-nerd · 6 years

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Chicago | Crankgameplays

Hello! Could I request a Ethan x reader where she's on Broadway, (in the musical 'Chicago') But still a part of teamiplier, so everyone goes to see her? And she's in Cell Block Tango and so when the show is done she's goes and sees the boys and there like... intimidated? But Ethan is intimidated and like...oddly attracted to her? And that's what leads to them confessing their feelings for each other? Sorry if it's such a long request!

Yes. I love this. It's beautiful. Ironically, I wrote this when playing sound cues at a rehearsal for the musical my high school is preforming. It's kinda long so strap in. Sorry it took so long imma working on something really ace for this account :3.

Word Count: 1193

Enjoy- not Alice

"Y/N! Five minutes 'till C.B.T!" You tried your hardest to not roll your eyes at the ASM (assistant stage manager). The boy in question being a good friend of yours.

"You don't say!" You whisper yelled at him. Candace, the wardrobe mistress was giving your costume to the dressers as they took your clothes off hastily, but carefully. The small, lacy, and very reviling set of lingerie that was your costume for C.B.T was pulled over your body. Greg the ASM ushered you to the side wings of stage left.

"Sound cue hold" you held your head up and plastered on a big smirk.

"Sound cue go" the music started and you forced yourself to look pissed.

"Pop" Tina walked out from in front of you.

"Six" Louise strutted out and sat on her respected chair.

"Squish" Abigail moved her hands and joined the other two girls.

"Uh uh" Jacqueline said the rosery prop clutched in her hand.

"Cisero" You said putting your revealed leg out first. You sway forward and you glare at Annalise, the actress who played Roxie.

The song continued, flowing easily. As the other "merry murderes" sang their stories you swayed your hips, body rolled, 'smoked a cigarette', and looked fucking pissed.

Jacqueline finished her beautiful Hungarian song and you stepped up.

"My sister, Veronica and I had this double act. And my husband, Charlie, traveled round with us" you took a 'drag' from your prop cigarette. Keeping the grin from overcoming your face you continued to talk.

"I completely blacked out, I can't remember a thing. It wasn't until later,

when I was washing the blood off my hands. I even knew they were dead"

As the chorus hit you revealed your fury as Velma. You danced with James and Lisa, who played your husband and Veronica. You were dipped, twirled, and carried, the lingerie did little to cover you. You kept singing as you moved into the triangle position with the other girls.

The song ended as Megan sang "Lipschitz". The lights faded to black and you rushed off the stage along with the other girls to change costume. The rest of the show went on without a hitch and by the time it was over you were overwhelmed with pride. Walking out 'Roxie' and 'Big Mamma' you three took a bow.

"Y/N! Holy shit!" Someone said coming up to you once you were backstage again. You grinned as Amy as she gushed about your dancing.

"Thank you so much. It means so much to me that you all flew up here to see me" you blushed as they all stared at you, amazed.

"It's your debut on BROADWAY like fuck we wouldn't come see you!" Kathryn said pulling you into a hug.

You adjusted your robe from slipping. The only thing on underneath was the last numbers revealing outfit. Being onstage was one thing but you weren't flashing anyone close up.

The boys still hadn't said a word just looked shocked.

"What?" You said look from Tyler to Mark, to Ethan. "Never seen a friend of yours dance around in their lingerie." You joked. This caused Mark and Tyler to snap out of it.

"I never expected to be intimidated by a musical" Tyler said and you laughed. Mark nodded agreeing with him.

"You guys were intimidated by me? You guys are fucking nerds!" You cried out laughing.

Ethan stayed quite as you laughed heartily with everyone else. He couldn't help but to replay Cell Block Tango in his head as he looked at you. Taking a shaky breath he gulped. He was pulled out of his intense gaze on you by a nudge.

"Tell her congratulations" Amy whispered noting Ethan's rare silence.

"Ah fuck" Ethan mumbled out causing you to laugh again.

"I've rendered Ethan speechless! Now that is my greatest accomplishment" you smiled at him but turned away, someone calling you. Candace was mock glaring at you and you looked down.

"Oh shit! I gotta change out of my costume. Wait here I'll be right back" you rushed into your dressing room and it closed behind you.

"Really Ethan?" Any and Kathryn said. Mark and Tyler looked over to the three. "You could even tell her how great she did"

Ethan looked down. His erratic heat beat calming down with you being gone. "You know that little crush I had on Y/N when she first joined the team? Well it came back"

The others froze and looked at one another.

He can't tell her Mark thought. If things get ugly she'll remember this night as the night she lost Ethan's friendship. She deserved to be so happy, she just accomplished her dreams.

Amy and Mark exchanged glanced, their minds thinking the same thing.

"Ethan hun" Amy began. She looked at Ethan's defeated expression and looked to the others for help.

"Wait 'till after she's been doing the show at least a week before you tell her" Mark said putting a hand in Ethan's shoulder. "Y/N has a lot on her mind. If you really like her respect her mental health"

At this moment Y/N came bounding back. A pair of shorts and a shirt with a button up opened on her.

"You guys want to go get something to eat? I'm starving" you asked rubbing your stomach. You glanced up and noticed everyone's awkwardness. You have a questioning look to Ethan then to Kathryn.

"Me too, we should go to that one pizza place that still makes healthy stuff" Tyler said looking at you. You smiled and nodded. Ever since you got the part as 'Velma' you had been working out and watching your figure.

"Come on guys" You said looping your arm with Tyler and Amy. They laughed at you and the six of you walked out of the theatre.

You chatted excitedly about the show and the rest laughed and asked questions when appropriate.

"Wait you have people rip off your clothes and then dress you?" Kathryn asked as you told her about the quick changes.

You nodded "it was really weird the first time but I mean they're doing they job and they're helping the show go along"

The others digested that as you all walked some more. The red lights of the restaurant lite up the night and you ran to it excited.

#crankgameplays x reader #crankgameplays imagine #crankgameplays #stay cranky #cranky crew #ethan nestor darling #ethan nestor imagine #ethan nestor x reader #ethan nestor #teamiplier x reader #teamiplier

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fuck-customers · 6 years

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TLDR: Im ready to quit because of ONE coworker even though I love the rest of my department and new manager. Sorry for a long rant but it's been a long time coming. This is a fuck coworkers. I work in the bakery as a Baker n main weekly closer, at the grocer of rotten, been at this hell hole for about 5.5-6years, and I've only quit once n came back to because of one coworker whom we will call H. Now before H came back I had heard stories about her n her craziness. I tried shrugging it off, after all how could I judge someone I'd never met based upon one bakers comments? I was dead wrong. She started out nice, acting like I was her buddy. We hung out a few times, n little by little she would snitch to our bakery manager things i "wasn't" doing or saying false things to her that "I"had said about outmr manager, who was a raging jerk who made so many people quit under her as well. She would also unload all her work on me in various ways, " oh I couldn't get WXYZ, I know you have a lot do but can you do those for me too?" on an almost daily occurrence. I eventually had enough of H and her backhanded, lying, and manipulative ways, along with my jackass manager that I eventually put in my 2weeks. I was free and happy, got about 6 months away from there before I got a text from H. She was miserable now that I was gone and our manager was making her the newest target for her hatred. She was allowed to transfer to bulk, but they had to have a replacement for her and she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown that would lead to self harm if she couldn't get out of the bakery. Reluctantly I agreed to come back, but with almost top pay because if I had to dressn with our manager again I'd be at least paid to deal with her bullshit. H was happy, she thrived in bulk, and eventually was promoted to scanning n signs, cool beans, whatever. I stayed in bakery, went through evil manager, another manager who was a fellow baker(dumb as a rock n stoned out of her mind half the time but as long as we had hours n product not my problem.) Stoned manager eventually gets into enough trouble having only been the manager maybe a little over a year and is demoted for various reasons: So many people quit because of her as well, her shrink was always too high, inventory wa never on par with what Corp wanted, she wa leaving early, etc. We get our newest manager, J. She's fabulous, she's willing to work with everyone n give them a weekend off of they want, she always tells you that you're doing a great job, how much she appreciates you, lets us giggle talk n listen to music n we are in general a much more upbeat bunch now. Well this changed when H was forced to step down n be relocated to bakery due to whatever reason (rumor mill says she was sleeping with an ASM, which I can believe because I already know she slept with an ex ASM when she was still in bulk, n such relationship was reported to HR). Our SM n H are bff, she's kissed enough ass since she came back to the store that she can do no wrong in his eyes. So he moves her instead if firing her, claiming it was to help us since we were incredibly short staffed at the time. We also got an extra clerk, a guy who was a cashier, so it seemed like a general SM move. H gets put on coldcase, which kind of pissed me off because I'd been trying my hardest every night to maintain the damn thing, n get backups done to prove I should be coldcase. H isn't bad at the job, just knows how to waste huge amounts of time on one task n over fills the case every week. But everything looks nice so management doesn't call her out on it. I stop helping make backups cause fuck it that's her job now and she's here 5 days a week for 8hours, that's enough time to have everything you need done right??? NOPE APPEARNTLY NOT. She constantly leaves stuff off, doesn't clean up her area, leaves passive aggressive notes about "I need you to do this for me" leaves early or calls out on some days only to come in on her days off to "make up"her hours, is constantly using products we aren't supposed to use on things we make, n gives customers whatever they want on such short notice, but will give attitude to customers if she's in a bad mood, and overfills the coldcase with so much product that I eventually dump days later. The most I dumped one week (all on one day) was over $350 from her bullshit. And once again this gross waste of Corp time and money goes without a shit given. Last night (8/21)was the last straw however. I came in n a guy from grocery immediately tells me H was screaming and yelling and talking shit about me to our new ASM, n telling him "SHE NEEDS TO DO THESE THINGS FOR ME, I WANT YOU TO MAKE A LIST FOR HER." Like BITCH REALLY!? You're 👏not👏my👏supervisor👏 So I plug in the few missing items cause I have nothing to do til I can start pulling items from our self serve anyways, but I notice on the list at the bottom " make backups of cupcakes and out of stock items" n ya'll I lose my shit. I was ready to cry out of anger. I told our ASM I refused to do backups for her, the last time I did she didn't use anything but the cupcakes and honestly i'm not making shit if she's gonna waste it on overfilling the case, and that she's here 5days a week for 8hours, NOT my problem that she can't find time to do that. I also pointed out she came in Sunday for about 4 hours on HER DAY OFF to make up hours n bullshited like 3 large fruit tarts when she could have actually done backups (I had even pointed that out to her). He just nodded n said ok (which I'm kinda scared I'll get in trouble for saying no) Like im going to have a LONG talk with our bakery manager when she gets back from vacation about how I feel, n maybe transfer to bulk to help the specialist there cause she has hours n its just her. I love helping her package candy up when I close(I seriously have nothing to do most nights since we hired a new girl for midshifts), n I get to nibble on any leftover candy(with in reason). Its super relaxing and smells so good, it really is the only reason I haven't just quit on the spot.

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool #1, Venom vol. 4 #17, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1, Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1 Thoughts

I’m trying very hard to both cover Absolute Carnage in reading order and also not bog down said coverage of the tie ins, i’m hoping to give the main book and ASM tie-ins my full attention but for all the other ones handle them less comprehensively. Obviously that depends upon their respective content.

The Deadpool issue had great art, funny dialogue, a brisk pace, some clever moments and a refreshing acknowledgment that the Peter/Wade dynamic is stupid.

Having Carnage acknowledge Deadpool as the motherload of codexes because of his bonding with the 4 Life Foundation symbiotes (a.k.a. also collectively referred to as the Hybrid symbiote) from Wade and Kasady’s last encounter was a great use of continuity. My hope is the lack of acknowledgement of his time with the Venom symbiote (see Deadpool’s Secret Secret War and Deadpool: Back in Black) confirms that those stories are not to be taken seriously as canon, at least as far as Spidey or Venom continuity is concerned.

The only real problem is that, whilst the start of the story technically precedes Absolute Carnage, when we get to the symbiote stuff it happens during Absolute Carnage #2 and thus really is best read after that comic as it does give a few minor spoilers for it.

Venom #17 was fantastic!

Now, as I said in my Absolute Carnage #2 post, the plotting is out of whack. Venom #17 should be read BEFORE Absolute Carnage #2!

The story itself, whilst basic, is effective. The Maker is as morally grey (or flexible if you like, get it!) as ever. Dylan is characterized well, believable as the son of Eddie Brock. Normie is underserved but this isn’t his story. Something that did bug me though is that the art depicts them as probably about the same age with Dylan dominating their dynamic. But really Dylan should be younger. Dylan was born between Venom Along Came a Spider (1996) and Anne Weying’s death in like 2000 or 2001. Normie meanwhile was born in the mid-1980s!

That’s a small complaint though and easily No. Prized.

Now as for the rest of the comic Cates pulls off a masterstroke in how he’s structured this event, at least in relation to the Venom book.

Absolute Carnage seems set to be the book where all the thrust of the story happens, that’s where you go to see Carnage and I suspect going forward where you will go to follow Brock/Venom. Meanwhile the actual Venom book is going to be following Dylan, who’s been adequately built up by this point. It helps make the Venom book relevant but not demand that you go other the same events twice or ping pong between it and Absolute Carnage to see the next part of the story, it’s happening adjacent to the main events but it’s also not a meaningless side quest!

There is also a lot of great use of established continuity in this book. Venom himself might not be in it much, but his LEGACY is. Dylan is his son (and remember he’s as much the son of the symbiote as he is Anne and Eddie) and so are the Life Foundation symbiotes. The Sleeper symbiote also shows up.

I confess I’m only vaguely familiar with Sleeper because I didn’t read Venom: First Host but I believe he’s strongly connected to Venom’s past, I think he is maybe literally the first host of the Venom symbiote.

There is also an interesting angle in this story because the lead is Dylan, the sidekick if you will is Normie and the antagonists are the family from Separation Anxiety, 2 of which are also little kids. I hope this factors in somehow as it seems there is a theme of family underlying this corner of the event! You could even extend that to Normie as the theme of family, especially dysfunctional family, is very relevant to the Osborns and is obviously now relevant to Venom/Brock’s immediate ‘family’ as well as the Separation Anxiety nuclear family.

The ar is also stellar. It’s not Stegman good but it’s still beautiful eye candy and looks enough like Stegman that the change isn’t jarring. I’m very happy Coello did the War of the Realms tie-ins as a taster and ‘warm up’ for this in fact.

Just great, I’m loving this one!

Lethal Protectors #1 was one of the tests for me about the strength of this event.

See of all the tie-ins this was the one I was least interested in. I don’t hate Cloak, Dagger, Iron Fist or Morbius, but I’m also fairly indifferent to them. I only liked Morbius in the 1994 cartoon (though I hear his 90s stories were quite good) and to me Iron Fist is dull outside of when he’s hanging out with Luke Cage.

So I checked this out but only out of a desire to be a completist.

I was fully braced for this issue to be what derailed the event’s thus far strong batting average.

Nope.

Even this issue delivered.

Granted it also kind of DIDN’T deliver since the cover characters aren’t even mentioned at all. Instead the closest thing to a protagonist is Misty Knight. Now I have no hate for Misty Knight but to my recollection her connection to the symbiotes began only in the Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage issue that this continues off from. I suppose having a vibranium arm makes her an obvious combatant against symbiotes, but she’s got less connection to the lore. She seems more like the vehicle to introduce the above mentioned ‘lethal protectors’ into the story. And I guess that’s fine but either include her on the cover or feature the title characters in the issue.

That’s mostly a nitpick though, the rest of the issue is great. More fun violent horror stuff with a creepy romance added on for good measure in the form of Carnage and Shriek’s toxic relationship.

The reintroduction of Demo/Demagoblin was interesting. I knew it was coming and I knew it would be a new female version but the fact that it was Shriek took me by surprise, I was sure it was going to be Lily Hollister a.k.a. Menace. Truth be told I’m disappointed it wasn’t as that would’ve been an organic use of a pre-established character and wouldn’t have swapped out Shriek (who is also very interesting) for Demagoblin.

It’s not a BAD direction but I’d have preferred the Carnage family from Maximum Carnage be reassembled differently. But seeing Demagoblin and Carnage make out is delightful in how over the top nuts it is!

They mention reintroducing Carrion and I really, really hope that happens!

The art, whilst not being as good as in other tie-ins is still doing a solid job!

Much like the other tie-ins this series is opening up a new front in this event and exploring it quite well thus far, so I’d recommend this too!

And as a plus they remember to tell you when this happens in relation to the main event book.

Miles Morales sadly...was the first slip up in this event.

Now I’ve made my criticisms of Miles (in the comics) vocal before and I don’t want to sit here and tell you this issue sucked shit or it was bad because Miles was bland in it. To be honest MOST of the protagonists of Absolute Carnage are fairly bland. Miles for instance was a knotch more interesting than Misty Knight.

In fact I wouldn’t call this issue BAD at all.

There were just some things wrong with it.

The most noticeable of these was how the events depicted towards the end don’t quite jive with the end of Absolute Carnage #2. If you just wrote them down on paper they would seem to. Miles and Scorpion are fighting Carnage cultists, Carnage/Osborn is there in charge, Scorpion breaks away from the fray, Venom shows up, Miles stands alone but is overwhelmed, he is taken over by the symbiotes.

However when you compare the art and dialogue of the two comics there are a number of discrepancies which is annoying because up until now you could make everything fit together one way or another.

Among the discrepancies, and this is a nitpick, is that the Carnage cultists are wearing their Ravencroft uniforms, which IIRC they don’t do in any other appearance. A more contrived aspect to them though is Gargan recognizing the tattoo of one of them. How? They are all covered head to toe in symbiote their tattoo’s would be obscured!

I also didn’t like how the Carnage Cultists were treated as so disposable. My impression was they each have a bona fide symbiote bonded to them so would be on a similar power level to Venom at least, so Scorpion impaling them wouldn’t be a big deal, they could heal from that. But they come off more as just super strong zombies, and not even as strong as Venom at that.

Grant that’s an issue perhaps with the event as a whole but it was most noticeable here.

The other problem with this book is that half of it is little more than a standard superhero fights super villain yarn until halfway through when it abruptly becomes an Absolute Carnage tie-in. It even kind of does that at the very start of the issue where the recap page randomly interrupts the story in progress for no reason, putting it ahead of the first page wouldn’t have spoiled anything.

It seems like a waste especially since the cliffhanger is identical to the cliffhanger of Absolute Carnage #2, it doesn’t progress the story at all it simply provides some preamble and not particular plot relevant preamble at that. It’s not that difficult to deduce Miles was probably fighting Scorpion before they were attacked.

What’s even more annoying, but not a problem with this book per se, is that the comic discloses that this should be read after Absolute Carnage #2 but similar disclaimers weren’t made for other tie-in issues. I don’t even think reading this between AC #1 and #2 would make much difference. There aren’t any spoilers for AC #2 because it simply depicts the same events regarding Miles in greater detail.

My final problem with the issue is one that’s more a problem with Miles in general regarding his status in the 616 universe. Let’s put aside how it inherently undermines the character for a moment, the recap page alone shows you how problematic it is to have him migrate to Earth 616. The blurb summarizing Miles’ backstory has to be so ridiculously generalized and use dialogue implying he might be from another universe but could equally be taken as poetic hyperbole. I don’t blame Ahmed, I even sympathize that he kind of HAS to write it that way. It’s just stupid is all and undermines the emotional resonance of Ultimate Venom being associated with the death of Miles’ mother. But then again DID she even die now? See what a mess this is?

I don’t want this to sound like this issue was terrible, it wasn’t it was just okay at best though sans the art. Absolute Carnage has thus far had good to great art and this issue is no exception.

As a standard Spidey v. Scorpion rumble goes this was fine, it was fun and got the job done, standard superheroics so I can’t complain too much. The only contentious part was Miles’ ineffective Venom Blast.

It didn’t work because Scorpion’s suit was insulated.

This is a double edged sword when it comes to analysis.

On the one hand that is inconsistent with the Venom Blast’s established power. It can work against electrical powered foes like Electro AND extremely powerful demonic beings like Blackheart. But you telling me some rubber lining enables Scorpion to just shrug it off? Bullshit.

On the other hand though...Miles having a cheat code power like that has always been reductive to his character.

The final thing I have to say on the comic is that the editors weirdly hype up the issue. In other tie-ins they praise Ahmed for reinvigorating the Scorpion, for even making him scary and a straight up killer. Putting aside how he was a fucking cannibal in Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers, Ahmed honestly didn’t do anything like that.

Scorpion is a standard supervilalin who DGAF about innocent life or killing, he just wants to preserve his own life and make a payday. He lands some effective hits on Miles and is a threat but...there is nothing revolutionary or reinvigorating about it. It’s not tired and bad it’s just standard and effective that’s all.

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mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker · 6 years

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On the topic of the proposal not being out of the blue

I was going to do a similar post as the OP, going through various issues of ASM, Spec and Web that show that whether or not the writers and editors of Spider-Man in the lead up to ASM Annual 21 satisfactorily set up Peter and MJ as a marriable couple, the writers and editors post ASM Annual 21 clearly had no idea what to do with the marriage and Peter and MJ as a wedded couple. But while that would be tempting (what will happen with MJ’s bulimic cousin Kristy? Should MJ pose for racy photo shoots? Will MJ ever be able to complete her psychology degree? Is Aunt May going to walk in on Peter and MJ while they’re getting amorous? The numerous times MJ demands Peter quit being Spider-man? ) I will highlight one salient example. A few years ago I did a big reread of ASM and getting near the end of the Michelinie run there was a corner box on the cover of issue 385 that read “Been worries about Mary Jane’s addiction? Read this issue!” My wife saw the cover while we were reading in bed and asked “what is Mary Jane addicted to?” And when I told her there was a multi-year line storyline about MJ trying to quit smoking cigarettes, she laughed out loud. Even J.M. DeMatteis, my personal favorite Spider-man writer and avowed fan of the marriage, included a scene a few issues later where Mary Jane wrestled FOR SEVERAL PAGES whether to light up a cigarette. It was laughably bad. Both my maternal grandparents smoked and died of smoking-related illnesses; my point is not to make light of the dangers of smoking. But using quitting smoking as a dramatic storyline in a superhero comic book just shows how bereft of ideas these otherwise brilliant and creative writers were when it came to making the marriage between Peter and MJ interesting. I think this is lost in all the discussion* about ASM Annual 21 and OMD: whether or not Peter or MJ should have been married is in large part related to whether that marriage led to any good stories and I think the answer to that is “it did not.” THAT’S what people get wrong about the Spider-marriage.

I'm another reader who was buying off the rack at the time and felt that the marriage came out of nowhere. When I found out about the whole newspaper strip tie in the rush job made more sense to me. Nothing wrong with a good publicity stunt. Their relationship was a long running thing, true, but it was jarring to have such a long running plot point take such a jump (getting married) with no direct buildup. It was like if in one issue of Wolverine in the early nineties Wolvie just got his memories back, out of nowhere. Yes, they were both long running plot points, but usually the payoff to those things gets more than an issue.

Exactly. Back then there was no internet or article in Wizard magazines to make the weeding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane look less rushed that it looked to me back then. The relationship of Peter and Mary Jane was on and off for years,and a few issues before they got married,Mary Jane actually refused the mariage proposal of Peter Parker. Thus my surpirse while Reading back then that all of the sudden they actually got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual#21. Of course i did not knew it was a publicity stunt,just many years later i knew about why the marriage was so rushed in the stories during that time.

I think the "It had been being built up for years" argument works against itself in some ways. When something gets circled around, picked up and dropped over a long course of time I start to see it as just a long term status quo with no real chance of payoff. So when a payoff comes out of nowhere it is extra surprising. There is also a huge difference between buying the issues each month in the eighties and reading the whole run in one chunk now. Besides the things you pointed out, the time frames get warped. By that I mean when we say "and only 18 issues later" now, it doesn't seem like much. We can read 18 issues in no time. But that was a whole year and a half to me. The way those things feel is totally different and I think that gets overlooked sometimes.

You ever read something that’s so wrong, so ignorant and so just...aggressively stupid you like...shake.

You shake because you re so angry that anybody could be this fucking blind, this fucking idiotic, this fucking...my god...it’s happening now.

I’ve run out of adjectives to describe the levels of how just wrong these jackasses are and how wrong it is that there are even people who could BE this nuclear levels of wrong

#Spider-Man #Peter Parker #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker

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blackmoon437565-blog · 6 years

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Who I Am

Ok so this is my first piece of writing which I have worked on for Tumblr, none of the major characters have been introduced yet so I have not gone too far into depth with any of my characters. In future chapters I will also get more into depth about the protagonists relationship with his family but for now that will have to wait. Please tell me what you think about this first chapter but don’t judge too harshly.

Chapter 1

Honestly who even likes moving? Leaving your friends, your home, your school, and all for what? Well I mean my parents do work in the military but if a family really enjoys where they are living can’t they just stay? In the end families who move get replaced so what’s the point?

I thought of all of this during the plane ride to Thessaloniki and I knew I couldn’t ask my parents all these questions since I would get the same responses every time. “Its just how it is,” my mother would always say. “It’s a chance to have a clean slate and start all over,” my father always said. My parents often tell me about how they used to live in small towns and how they always dreamed of traveling the world and how I should be grateful. They may have always wanted to travel the world but that doesn’t mean I want to as well.

When we arrived at the airport we did the usual routine: Show security our passports, grab our luggage, eat something at the airport, and go to our rental car. We had a ton of luggage, as always, and I always found putting the luggage in the car quite fun. It was as if we were playing Tetris and tried to find which positions of our luggage worked best. The not so fun part was when we actually had to get in the car with luggage everywhere and having to sit in the most uncomfortable positions. This was at least for my brother and me since the luggage was always at the back at the car and never where my parents were sitting in the front.

The car ride to Macedonia was silent, the plane ride to Thessaloniki did take 11 hours and my parents always liked my brother and I to stay quiet after flights like these. We arrived at the hotel we would be staying in until our new home would be ready for us. We got our room key from the secretary and headed for our room.

“We made it family,” my mother said as soon as we walked into the room.

“I’m ready to go to sleep,” my father said in a sleepy way.

So much for jetlag, I thought to myself.

I got my toothbrush and toothpaste from my luggage and entered the bathroom to brush my teeth.

“God my hair looks like a mess,” I said in a low voice as I looked at myself in the mirror.

I had black curly hair, which I always had to cut every three weeks, or else I would have a full-blown Afro. Whenever my parents noticed my hair was getting to long they always would pretend I was a microphone and sing above my hair. It was annoying at times but it always at least got a small smile or chuckle out of me. I hated cutting my hair though so I would always push my hair down and put it into tight curls which I applied gel on to keep it together. When I did my hair like that it would seem as if it weren’t growing at all and I could avoid getting haircuts for a bit. Only for a bit though and eventually I wouldn’t be able to keep it into such tight curls and doing my hair would be much harder.

After brushing my teeth I headed to the bed, which I unfortunately had to share with my brother since there were only two beds in the hotel room. My brother always moves around a lot making it difficult to sleep but I managed to sleep with him anyway.

I had moved to Macedonia in the middle of the school year so about a week after I arrived I started to go to ASM (American School of Macedonia)

“I hope you have a wonderful first day at your school boys,” my mother said as she dropped us off.

“Thanks mom” my brother and I said

We gave our mom a big hug and off to school we went.

The school had separate buildings for elementary, middle, and high school. We walked to the middle school counselor’s room and a tall but seemingly nice man greeted us. He welcomed us and he started to talk to us about how nice the school was and what they had to offer. I honestly paid no attention to him but pretended as if I were listening. After what seemed like an eternity the counselor dropped me off at my Literature class and I had to depart.

“I’ll see you at lunch Jack,” I said to my brother

I walked into the class (this was my Literature class) and was greeted by my teacher. She had long curly Ginger hair, which I adored, and a sweet smile. She wore glasses and had nice brown eyes. I could tell I was going to like this teacher.

“Everyone this is Finn, give him a nice warm welcome!”

“Hi Finn,” the whole class said

I could tell the class said it in a non-caring way as they only greeted me when the teacher told them to. The teacher sat me next to a girl named Britney who had long and straight black hair, wide and narrow black eyes, and a ton of make-up.

“Hiiiiii I’m Britney nice to meet you,” she said as she sat down.

I said hello back with a smile on my face

“Now Finn why don’t you tell us about yourself,” the teacher said.

I hated introducing myself, why couldn’t I just sit down and let the class do its lesson.

“I’m Finn as you all know and I like to play games, bake with my mother, and play the guitar. I like to play volleyball even though I’m not good at it and I hope to make some awesome friends here.”

I hope to make some awesome friends here, who says that?

“Aw your so cute,” Britney said to me as I sat down.

“Uh thanks,” I replied awkwardly.

“Alright let’s begin with the lesson then,” the teacher said.

I went on with my classes and I had to introduce myself all over again in every single one. Why do the teachers keep making me introduce myself, don’t they know I already did in my previous classes. Then again there are different students in every class so I suppose that may be why but it still annoyed me.

When lunch rolled around Britney wanted me to sit with her group and one look at them and I could tell she was pretty popular. I mostly sat next to Britney as she talked to all of her other friends and I felt practically invisible. I was an introvert and it wasn’t the first time no one really wanted to talk to me. Well I suppose it works both ways, it wasn’t like I was talking to anyone else either but I felt awkward with the group as if I was an outsider. Then a guy named Landon, who sat next to me in my math class, walked up to me and asked me the question everyone had always asked me at my previous schools.

“Hey so I was wondering, are you uh…you know…gay?”

The word gay made my mood change in an instant. The whole world turned red for me. In all honesty I never learned what the word gay meant but whenever I heard it hatred brewed up inside me. In my previous schools there were always some who called me by that term and often bullied me because of it. “Look it’s the gay fag,” they would say. I used to live in Africa and I used to get beat up because of it but never bothered to learn what it meant, I didn’t need to for all I knew it was bad and that’s all I needed to know.

“Please excuse me,” I said trying to repress all the anger inside of me.

“What’s wrong, its just a question,” Britney asked.

For the rest of the school day I avoided Britney’s group and went home without a word to anyone else.

In the future I would learn to regret not knowing fully what the term meant, since soon there would be a guy who would change everything.

-End Chapter 1

So what did you think? I really hope you liked it and I know I may not be the best writer but thats why I came onto Tumblr, to improve my writing.

#First piece of writing #don't judge me to harshly #hope you like it

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