#and though I definitely have a few gripes and concerns about this season so far... This episode's Ed plot is not one of them.

[candied-cae]

S2E2 Ed's plot my beloved-

I ADORE THIS EPISODE IN HOW IT PORTRAYS ED'S MENTAL HEALTH!!!

TW, this post is going to discuss Ed's suicidal behavior and attempt in depth. It will not be heartwarming, I am agonizing over the details. Please don't open if that reading is going to be damaging at all to you. Protect yourself first, y'all! Anyway...

Every little detail from his time on screen is spent sending hints to the viewer that it's Ed's last day alive.

The first time we see him that morning, he looks refreshed. He's decidedly sober and cleaning up his cabin and he's joking and almost... bright again. He's talkative and seems so calm. And it's because he's finally decided to kill himself.

It's been a long observed point for folks with suicidal thoughts/actions that once they've decided on doing it, there's a certain kind of peace that comes with that. Because it's going to be over soon, you know you'll be able to rest. There's an expiry approaching, and there's a comfort in knowing you've almost reached the end, like getting close to the end of a long work shift.

And so he's cleaning up, so he'd doesn't leave as much of a mess behind (Also something that is well documented from people who attempt). At least, assumably that was the idea, like he hadn't originally planned to take the whole ship down with him, it seems like he was planning to do something smaller for just him as of that morning. So he’s tidying up for the rest of them.

It's both a gesture of kindness to make sure they aren't left with as much of a "hassle" once they find him dead, but it's also a point of "pride" in a way. So when it's all over, they will sweep through a cleaner room and remember him better in that last day, than so much of the mess and stress of the earlier ones.

The second time we see him is when he's figured out Frenchie didn't finish off Izzy. And not only does he offer for Izzy to do it, he tells him that it'd be a good thing for him to do. Like it was a favor, killing him would've been "just what the doctor ordered" to make him feel better.

But Izzy doesn't do it, and he assumes Izzy ends himself after he's left the room.

The third hint is that he's so forgiving with everyone. He doesn't hold a grudge against Frenchie for lying to him and hiding Izzy in the secret room, he doesn't yell at anyone (like Jim or Archie) for conspiring with him, he even tells Frenchie to take the day off and thanks him for the closure.

Again, it's following that motion of peace and contentment, he doesn't have to go into death mad, he can do it calmly. He can let it all go, because soon enough it won't be a problem and he knows he's now decided to take them all down with him. So he might as well let them enjoy their last few hours as much as they can.

And he instead resides to sit at the wheel, turning them sharply right into a dark storm, all the while he wears the softest smile. Because he is calm, he is clear headed, and he is done waiting for something else to kill him. And that's a very common thing for people to want in those last moments. To go clean and sober and content and in peace.

They hit a lot of the MAJOR signs they teach you that someone is about to take their live, the only one I can think of off the top of my head that wasn't explicitly included would've been the giving away of personal possessions.

(But, perhaps even following the idea that originally he was going to go alone, he was going to be leaving everything including the boat to his crew, so maybe that idea was kind of hidden in there. It's just not as direct as personally going to people and handing over things.)

Anyway, I'm sure a lot of these clues were well picked up by the fandom, I'm sure a lot of us have learned about these stages of suicidal action for various reasons ourselves. I just wanted to point out that timeline and how perfectly it seems to fit across the whole episode as this singular, unspoken intent behind every single one of Ed's actions until it comes to a head and the crew on deck can't ignore how drastic everything had turned.

#Cae Has Lots of Feelings About Our Flag Means Death #I love love love this plot of the episode #From the moment it started and we saw how at ease he seemed... I knew what was coming #The suicide plan was officially in motion as far as Edward Teach was concerned #And there is some soft sweetness that he was going to do it all alone originally. #That he had made the decision that there wasn't anything to live for and he was going to just take care of himself in that way. #That he only decided to try and take the whole ship down with him when he was 'scorned' again by his crew. #AHHHHHH! #I just love Ed so much and his character is so beautifully written and played and expressed #That moment towards the end as his crew huddles together - terrified - and they can't figure out why it all seems to backwards #Why he's acting 'better' but steering them right into the violent waters of a sea storm #Because they weren't taught these things. They don't know what it looks like when someone's ending their life like this. #And they are trying to follow the logic of 'Ed is a sailing genius' 'He knows what he's doing' 'He has to' 'But this...' #It's 100% perfection #and though I definitely have a few gripes and concerns about this season so far... This episode's Ed plot is not one of them. #Not in the least. #Our Flag Means Death #OFMD #Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Spoilers #Our Flag Means Death Spoilers #OFMD Spoilers #OFMDS2 #OFMD s2 spoilers #Edward #Edward Teach #Blackbeard #The Kraken

[toosicktoocare]

Ooh, if you're looking for TMA prompts: I'm starved for Tim & Jon friendship content, and I know you love Tim, so maybe something where Jon is sick (migraine? Fever? Up to you!) and everyone thinks he's just in a mood and ignoring/snapping at them. So Tim goes into his office for something and finds him all miserable and is like ":( boss" (if you don't like this one, I can try again! ☺️)

I am here for this! 

Set in season 1 around the Jane Prentiss drama llama. 

Tim’s starting toward the archives to see Jon when he hears a door shut rather loudly. Not a slam, per se, but as close to one as, he expects, Martin can muster within his too-nice core. Sure enough, he spots Martin whipping around the corner, his face pinched together in frustration that contradicts the pain welling in his eyes. 

Martin’s walking fast, eyes cast forward, and he stumbles to a stop right before Tim. Tim arches a brow, cocks his head to the side. 

“Where’s the fire, Martin?” 

“It appears, Tim, that it’s up Jonathan Sims’ arse.” 

Tim doesn’t mean to laugh; he really shouldn’t laugh, but he does, and he brings his fist to his mouth in a poor attempt to cover the laugh with a cough. “What happened?” he asks, clearing his throat, amusement still playing wildly on his face. 

“He’s in a mood,” Martin grumbles, “and he genuinely had the audacity to snap at me because I, god forbid, wanted to inquire about the table that was delivered. The table, I might add, that he’s acting so odd about because of a prevous statement.” 

Tim hums, trying for sympathy, but it falls short for Martin only looks more irritated yet also more defeated, as if he’s just walked from a high school break up. 

“If you’re going to see him, don’t get your hopes up for a pleasant conversation. He snapped at Sasha, too, though she handed it back to him very fast, and he completely ignored Elias.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Tim says, starting past Martin, but Martin latches onto his forearm with an interestingly strong grip, one that catches Tim off guard, and he stops, eyeing the fingers wrapped around his arm curiously. 

“Please don’t tell Jon what I said.” Martin sighs, and Tim looks to see his shoulders slump almosy dramatically. “I’m just tired. Sleeping here is quite.. difficult at times.” 

Tim can only imagine. He nods, and Martin’s hand drops back to his side. 

“Your secret is safe with me,” Tim tries, light-hearted, unsure of how to fully approach this rather curious side of Martin, but Martin only offers a half-smile that falls far too quickly, and he leaves Tim. 

Tim considers dwelling on this, but he has to prod Jon about the follow-up research he gave him two days ago because his work is at a standstill until he hears from Jon regarding his next statement. 

When he gets to the door, he knocks lightly, and when he hears Jon’s dark voice griping about the table and how it doesn’t concern him, he opens the door, offering a small smile and wave. 

“Ah, Tim,” Jon mutters, and Tim leans against the doorframe, arms crossed, and watches as Jon slips his glasses from his face to pinch the bridge of his nose. 

“I thought you were Martin.” 

“Sorry to disappoint,” Tim says around an easy laugh that hides his narrowed eyes. Though Jon’s head is cast down, Tim can see that Jon’s normally, sharp, dark skin looks hollow, dull, and his normally straightened posture has taken a huched look that almost makes Tim’s own back hurt. 

He looks further down, spotting his follow-up notes scattered across Jon’s desk above his current statement, and he frowns briefly and clears his throat. “Hey, boss, if my notes aren’t up to par with your standards, I can try again. No worries.” His easy tone echoes hollowly against the dark, archive walls, and then Jon looks up at him and sighs deeply. 

“It’s fine.” 

Nodding, Tim pushes off against the wall and rubs at the back of his neck. He should leave, but there’s something off with Jon, more than just a mood. It’s too dark in the archives, with only a soft table lamp casting a dim glow across the room, and Jon’s jaw is clenched tightly, sharp angles jutting out and trembling slightly. If he didn’t know any better, he would think Jon’s in pain. 

“Is there something else?”

“Acutally,” Tim draws out, “yeah.” He plugs in missing pieces, pushing the final one in place when Jon absently massages at his temples. “Do you have a mirgaine, Jon?” The dim lighting, apparent headache, the mood, Tim thinks, all make sense. 

“Excuse me?” 

The heat behind Jon’s voice has Tim holding both hands up in a visual show of mock defense. “Sorry, it’s just the lights, your sour mood-”

“-I’m only in a mood because I cannot, for the life of me, get through one single, bloody statement without one of you interrupting me!” Jon rises to his feet, but then one hand flies to his head while the other grips at the edge of the desk.

It takes Tim a good few seconds to realize Jon’s swaying, but once he does, he crosses the room easily, and places a hand to small of Jon’s back, gently easing Jon back to the chair. 

“Easy, Jon,” he says softly, hand moving to the back of Jon’s neck. Subtly, he checks for a fever, finding Jon’s skin cool to the touch. Definitely a migraine, he thinks, pulling his hand back as Jon leans backward in his chair with a groan. 

“Sorry,” Jon mutters through clenched teeth. He moves one hand to cover his eyes. “Perhaps you’re right.” Another sigh. “I feel quite dreadful.” 

Tim’s surprised at the admittance, more so that it’s to him and not to Martin. He slips his hand into his pants pocket, fingers ghosting against his cell phone. 

“When’s the last time you’ve slept?” Tim prods lightly, and Jon removes his hand, a tired look of annoyance washing over his face. 

“I thought Martin was the only one to dote.” 

“It’s just a question,” Tim pushes, cocking one head to the side at Jon’s following silence. “I take it you don’t remember?” He tsks quitely, slipping his phone from his pocket. “I’ll call a cab.” 

“I’m busy-” 

“-Cab or Elias,” Tim interrupts, arching both brows. “No offense, boss, but you look like hell warmed over, and I doubt you’ll be able to concentrate much on anything with a migraine. You’ll be better off at your flat where,” he spares a glance down to see a worm sliding in from under the door, and he smashes it with the heel of his shoe, “you’ll be free of worms and pesky interruptions.” 

Jon almost snarls at the remenants of the worm, and he nods. Tim’s face lights up, and he quickly phones for the nearest cab. 

“It will be just a few minutes,” Tim relays when he ends the call. “Do you think you can make it to the front door by yourself?”

“Of course I can,” Jon snaps. “I’m not an invalid.” 

“Right,” Tim says, laughing lightly. “Well, I’ll be sure to send Martin if I hear you fall.” He laughs louder at the sharp look Jon shoots him as he turns toward the door. He stops, one hand resting on the door frame, and he looks over his shoulder. 

“Oh, and Jon?” 

“Yes?”

“Do feel better, yeah? Give a ring if you need anything. I’ll be sure to let Elias know you’ve gone home for the day.” 

Jon nods, an unclear expression pulling across his face. “Of course. Thank you, Tim.” 

Tim starts back to his desk, pretending to work until he hears Jon’s office door close. He decides, then, that it would be a good time to head toward the entrance, maybe take a brief walk outside, get some fresh air, not, he tells himself, only leaving the building at the same time as Jon to ensure his boss doesn’t topple to the ground. 

Definitely not. 

#tma #the magnus archives #sickfic #whump #jonathan sims #tim stoker #my writing #my tma writing #my the magnus archives writing #whumpfic #i really love Tim #and loving him scares me #(really liking anyone scares me lol) #except Jon #like i'll be shook if he ends up dying

[tsunmercenary]

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸

The ticking of the clock was deafening in this silence. Gloved fingers tapped endlessly at the steel of her sleeves along with the rhythm of the clock’s ticking. Her feet shifted periodically to rest atop the other as they found no refuge from the cold floor beneath. Her toes curled and eyes wandered around the waiting room, anxious for the upcoming interview. The Hoshidan noble faced down the likes of bandits, enemy soldiers, and the likes of her father’s hideous abomination of a form, yet a simple interview seemingly intimidated her. Perhaps she should’ve allowed her older brother to accompany her like he asked, yet Corrin was adamant in proving she was adult enough to go alone.  It wasn’t that she lacked the maturity, yet, she lacked the social skills to uphold her confidence in front of an audience. What if she answered a question wrong? What if they’re overly strict? 

“Corrin?” The voice of the interviewer called out, the sound snapping her out of whatever inner dilemma she was griping with. Quick to not keep them waiting, she stood to her feet, brushing her royal blue cape backwards, before walking to greet them. Corrin’s gloved hand extended out to meet the interviewer’s, who met her’s halfway. 

“Right this way, please.” 

The interviewer seemed polite enough, which eased most of her fears, though the anxious anticipation of what questions would be asked of her still remained in full. After being led down the hall, Corrin entered the office of the interviewer. The male gestured her to sit across from his desk, which she obliged. Lifting the ends of her cape to tuck them back, she took her seat, a soft breath exhaling from her lips. 

Slipping glasses upon his face and a pen in one hand, the other holding the clipboard, the interviewer cleared his throat, looking to the princess. Surely he could tell how nervous she was, considering her slightly stiff posture. He simply offered a soft chuckle before showing a reassuring smile across his lips, his voice coming out relaxed, “Just breathe. I’m only going to ask you a few questions. Just be truthful, don’t overthink, and let it flow. Alright?” 

“Yes, I can do that. Apologies for being so stiff, I’ve never done an interview before.” She offered up her own laugh, which shook a bit as it came out. 

“Not a problem at all. Interview anxiousness is more common than you think.” 

Those words offered up a bit more relief to the princess, allowing her to finally settle into her chair. As they loosened, her muscles lightly ached due to being tensed for so long. 

“What has led you to where you are today?” 

Her hands came together, fingers interlocking with one another as she pondered the first question presented. “Right, my past is a bit..complicated I should say. As a young girl, I was raised within my native kingdom, Hoshido. Hoshido is a beautiful land, filled with blossom trees, bright green grass as far as the sea, and a breeze that always felt so warm across my face, no matter the season. There, I was raised by a beautiful woman, who’s voice could lull any rampaging dragon to sleep.. and a man who’s sword held just as much weight as his wisdom and kindness. At least, that is what I was told.” 

She smiled just a bit, the happier memories flooding her mind with warmth until it began to lower and fade into that of darkness. “The neighboring kingdom of Nohr often held conflict against Hoshido, so much so that war seemed inevitable. That was, until my father agreed on a peace treaty with King Garson himself. He set out with myself to meet him at the border. Being an innocent child, naive to the criticalness of the situation, I held my father’s hand, just like I did time and time again. Who knew it’d be the last.. Neither of us could’ve predicted what was to come next.” 

Crimson Irises lowered to the table as vague memories began to come rushing back like a raging tidal wave. The sounds of arrows piercing flesh and the screams of her father echoed out as if he stood mere meters away from her chair. What was once happy, warm-felt memories, now cooled into dark and cold nightmares, which swallowed them up within shadows. It was as if her thoughts manifested into a dark entity, gripping onto her wrist with malicious intensity. Corrin could hear the cries of her younger self, being dragged away from her father’s dying corpse by a monster shrouded in darkness. Slightly, yellow stained teeth and predatory eyes stared down at her. It took another few, agonizing moments to finally snap from her thoughts, shaking her hand free of what she now realized to be her own grasp. Her hand seemingly tightened with anxiety and fear from reliving that moment. So much so that they shook upon release. 

The interviewer was about to voice his concern, yet she shook her head in dismissal. 

“Sorry.. it’s quite the harsh memory.. scary even. After I was taken, I was raised in Nohr for about ten years. The land of Nohr was vastly and terrifyingly different from what I was used to. Dead trees that seemed like ragged, wilted hands rising from the dirt to grasp whatever was in sight. It was always cloudy, and dark, with a bit of rain. I spent just about all of my time there within a tower, training to become a knight to show my worth to the king.. to my “father.” Looking back, I believe I was nothing more than a trophy, flaunted as a slap in the face to Hoshido.” 

Her eyes wandered up towards the male, widening upon seeing his expression. He looked intently, as if interested. His eyes didn’t seem dull from boredom, but alert. Though, she worried she was taking too long to finish.

She shook her head once more, brushing a strand of silver hair back and behind her ear, “I’m going on far too long, I should wrap up. Uhm, sorry sorry, it’s really long-“

“No no! There’s no rush, lady Corrin, please continue. Take your time.” The interviewer reassured. 

Corrin took a breath to recompose herself, “Despite being so miserable in Nohr, I had my own family there. Siblings that cared for me, served as the somewhat parental figures that I lacked. War broke out between the two kingdoms and when it came down to choosing sides, I went back to my homeland, to fight along side my true siblings.” 

There was a moment of silence between the two as her face contorted a bit, trying ever so desperately to hold in her emotions. Despite her best efforts, however, she couldn’t help but become overwhelmed by grief. When she finally did speak, her voice was higher pitched and slightly strained. 

“It broke my heart to break away from siblings that truly loved me in Nohr and I loved them as well..” A tear gently fell down her cheek, leaving a trail as it traveled downward to finally fall from her face. “I’ve physically been with them longer than anyone. I’ve played with them, cried with them, they were damn near my family as well but I couldn’t just stand by and allow Nohr to mercilessly attack and destroy a kingdom that only wanted peace! Leaving them was the hardest decision of my life. And to see the look of heartbreak, betrayal, and eventually anger upon their faces have truly haunted me ever since.” 

The interviewer kindly offered some tissue, which the princess gratefully took in hand, wiping her tears. When she felt she could continue again, she continued,

“ After what felt like an eternity of war, I’m here now after it finally reached its end. It was my brother’s idea in sending me here to sort of recover and cope from the horrors of war without having to be constantly reminded of the blood I’ve shed myself. Some time away from the kingdom would be good for my mental and I can agree. I believe I should lend my strength and support to Fodlan. Perhaps through my deeds, I can heal.”

The interviewer nodded, writing down notes before moving to the next question.  

“What are your strengths and weaknesses?” 

“Ah, my strengths are definitely my sword fighting skills. I was trained ever since I was about ten years old, after arriving in Nohr. I’m rather efficient with that and I tend to use my draconic form to aid in battle as well. Though, my most notable strength has to be my motivation in uniting everyone. Keeping all safe and together. I’ve seen what war brings and the last thing I want is for it or needless violence to erupt again. Unfortunately, it serves as a double edged sword.. my pacifist ways have endangered lives before and I’ve had to gripe with that. I’ve been told that I’m over-trusting at times. Although it’s gotten better and I’ve developed into that of a more defensive fighter upon the confrontation of any threat, I’m not the one you should consider sending first into battle if it’s for.. preemptive measures.” 

 “Alright,” the interviewer breathed, his pen lowering down to the last question, tapping it with the tip. 

“If a story were to be written about your life, what role would you play?” 

This question stomped her, her eyes lowering to the table. She pondered for a minute or two, eyes shifting from the table, down to her hands, which were once again, enclosed within one another. Finally, with a deep breath, she looked to the interviewer before speaking, “None. If there were to be a story written about me, I’d opt to not be apart of it or even attend.” 

This took the interviewer by surprise. He would imagine if someone weren’t to participate in a performance of their life, at least they would attend.

 “You wouldn’t attend at all?” 

She merely shook her head, her smile returning as she laughed, a bit embarrassed that she bewildered the interview in such a way. 

“I mean, I’d be flattered, don’t get me wrong. But I wouldn’t want to attend. I’ve made so many mistakes, made turns where if I took another route, others would still be alive. Reliving such events wouldn’t bode well with me, honestly. I’m not someone who should be honored in anyway, shape, or form. I can’t change the path I’ve taken, but I can at least strive to look forward with optimism and work to make life better.. for everyone. But, I’d happily attend another’s, especially if they asked.”

The interviewer wrote his last notes down before standing to his feet, quickly followed by Corrin. He extended a hand out with a smile, Corrin meeting his half-way and shaking it. 

“I believe we’re done. I’ll contact you on your application process, lady Corrin. It’s been a pleasure meeting you.”

“It was a pleasure to speak with you, and I thank you for your consideration. I truly am honored to have such an opportunity.”  

@theofficersacademy

[mst3kproject]

The Strange World of Planet X

The Strange World of Planet X, also known as Cosmic Monsters, was released on a double bill with The Crawling Eye and stars Forrest Tucker of the same.  It’s got a giant spider and a deep-voiced 50’s narrator droning about the terrors of the atomic age, in a film so dry all my plants shriveled up and my contact lenses adhered to my eyeballs.

Mad Dr. Laird, with the help of his assistants Gil and Michele, is baking things in intense magnetic fields in order to rearrange the molecules and turn metal into putty – the general idea is that someday this will allow them to melt enemy planes right out from under their pilots. Would that melt the pilots, too? Gross.  At the same time and perhaps related, flying saucers are being sighted over Britain and a mysterious man named Mr. Smith is wandering around in the woods and getting worryingly chummy with local children.  After a lot of standing around and talking, Smith reveals that he is from outer space and has come to warn us that Laird’s magnetic fields are tearing apart the Earth’s ionosphere, letting in cosmic rays that will mutate humans into murderers and insects into giants!

Since my last ETNW was fairly well-paced and entertaining, the law of averages tells us that this one’s gonna be a real turd, and sure enough… remember all my griping about how Radar Secret Service was literally unwatchable, as in I could not force myself to keep looking at it?  The Strange World of Planet X is like that but with a British accent.  Most of it is just ugly gray people in ugly gray rooms, droning on about whatever at far greater length than necessary.  Everybody sounds like they’re reading their lines off cue cards, the photography was awful to begin with and the degraded print makes it really hard to tell what the hell is going on. Fuck this movie.

The film’s general insufferability is made all the worse because normally giant bug movies are among my favourite types of crappy old sci fi.  What could possibly be more fun than giant grasshoppers crawling all over postcards of Chicago?  If the bug bits were fun, that would go a long way towards saving this one, but of course, they’re terrible.  It’s mostly too dark to even see the giant insects, and when we do see them, they’re nothing but close-ups of live (and sometimes dead) roaches and grasshoppers.  Only a couple of shots even attempt to composite them in with live actors and those are so dark and blurry that it frankly wasn’t worth the effort.

The other main ‘effect’ in the movie is a couple of flying saucers.  These are unidentifiable white blobs when far away, and ridiculous tinfoil models dangling from strings up close.  The pie pans in Plan 9 from Outer Space are worse… but not by much.

What should be the most exciting part of the film is the battle in the woods between the soldiers and the giant bugs, but it’s mishandled in the same sort of way as the supposedly climactic fight in Invasion of the Neptune Men.  There’s no narrative or any characters we care about – just soldiers running around shooting at things.  Where are they?  How close are they to the town?  Are there civilians in peril?  We don’t know.  To be effective on screen, a battle needs a story.  The battle in Army of Darkness is about the need to protect the Necronomicon.  We can see the Deadites getting closer to the tower, as Ash pulls out more and more ridiculous secret weapons to keep them back.  The Strange World of Planet X is just random people and bugs, not even in the same shot.

There is some half-decent magnetosphere science in the movie, I guess.  The Earth’s magnetic field does protect us from the harsh radiation of outer space, although all the most harmful components of that come from the sun rather than from further afield, and such radiation can damage DNA.  This is why the ozone layer was such a big deal in the 80’s. This space radiation is much more likely to give bugs cancer than to make them grow huge, but in a movie I can handle that.  The really weird thing here is that, because they say it screens out the heaviest of the cosmic rays, they call the ionosphere the ‘heavyside layer’.  I would not have thought it possible that Cats could make less sense and yet here we are.

If you want some proper Crap Movie Science, there’s their explanation of how the monsters grew so big – mutations for size were able to pile up quickly because insects breed fast and therefore evolve fast.  I guess this makes more sense than individuals growing out of control as a result of whatever… but they appear to have applied it to a whole range of creatures regardless of their actual life cycles. Some insects do breed quickly, but quite a few of them have specific seasons and conditions for it.  This feels like a nitpick, though… I mean, by watching a giant bug movie I’ve already accepted that they can become huge so I should probably just shut up.

As an interesting note, Smith mentions that on his home planet there are giant dragonflies.  He doesn’t say how giant, though he implies they’re big enough to ride on. Firstly, man, I wanna ride a giant dragonfly!  Second, this tells us that Smith’s home planet has more oxygen in its atmosphere than Earth, because the reason insects can’t get bigger than they do is because they don’t actively breathe, but have to let oxygen diffuse into their tissues on its own (this is why there were six foot millipedes during the Carboniferous era — more oxygen in the air). The writers, sadly, do not seem to have known or cared about this, since Smith himself shows no signs of having to adjust to our atmosphere.  Missed opportunity there.

Since this is me, of course I’m gonna talk about how the movie treats women. Click the back button now. There are several female characters in The Strange World of Planet X, and while they're pretty bland they do manage to have conversations with each other about things besides men, and the honest impression I get is that the writers are trying really hard not to be assholes.  The first woman we meet is Michele, who has been assigned as Dr. Laird’s new computer operator after the previous one was electrocuted in a lab accident.  When he learns that the replacement is a woman, Laird complains about it loudly, protesting that ‘this is skilled work!’, and Gil gripes that female scientists are dour and unattractive.  Michele, of course, proves them both wrong – she is both brilliant and pretty, the latter mostly so that she can be Gil’s love interest but also at least in part to shatter the stereotype. It's thanks to movies like this setting the precedent that modern films are up to their eyeballs in hot but useless science women… but like I said, they tried.

The script is actually at great pains to emphasize that Michele is intelligent, educated, and the equal of any of the men, at least where science is concerned. Unfortunately, its way of going about it is to have them praise her for every little thing she says and does, to the point where it starts to sound awfully patronizing.  They call her ‘clever girl’ like she’s six years old and it frequently comes across as their complimenting her intelligence in order to deflect when she asks awkward questions.

Naturally there’s a love triangle in this movie.  It appears only to be immediately and peacefully resolved, and Gil’s rival for Michele’s affections is dead shortly thereafter. Why fucking bother?

A tad better-treated is Jane, the little girl fascinated by arthropods (she describes them as ‘bugs’, saying all insects are bugs, but not all bugs are insects.  While entomologically incorrect, this same definition of bug was used by David Attenborough in Micro Monsters, so I’m okay with it).  One of the reasons I think the writers were earnestly trying to be feminist is because they place a girl in this role rather than a boy.  Susan Redway isn’t any better than any of the other actors, but the character was definitely written by somebody who knew what appeals to children.  I love the bit where Jane promises to show her new teacher her favourite type of beetle, delightedly informing her, “they’re horrid-looking!”

The teacher, Miss Forsyth, is another attempt to buck a stereotype. Jane complains that she hated her previous teacher, who was appalled by her interest in crawly things.  Miss Forsythe makes a good first impression by encouraging her instead.  Again, this feels like the writers really were trying.  They want to say that the right thing to do here is to support Jane’s interests and ambitions, and someday perhaps she’ll be a talented entomologist, just as Michele is a computer whiz.

From a twenty-first century point of view, this makes for an odd contrast with one of the other notable features of how women are portrayed in this movie – they don’t come alone.  Adult women in The Strange World of Planet X must have a male partner, and if they don’t start out with one they will be assigned one! Michele pairs up with Gil, and Miss Forsythe accepts a date with the man who saved her from one of the mutants.  This second budding relationship has no effect on the story and indeed is never referenced again, it’s just there.  All the other women we meet are either dating or married… although now that I think of it this may be less sexist than it is a way to make a point of Dr. Laird’s single-minded obsession with his work. Everybody else, even scientists, has time to be a human being – but not him.

I should also discuss one more interesting tidbit offered by Smith. He says his people have been watching humanity and studying us basically since we invented ourselves, and they have never interfered before now.  Why now? Out of ‘enlightened self-interest’, he says – this is the closest humans have yet come to destroying ourselves, but it’s also the closest we’ve come to being a threat to our extraterrestrial observers.  One of Dr. Laird’s experiments, intended to destroy enemy planes, brought down a flying saucer instead!  The fact that Smith is willing to admit this suggests that he is extremely confident about the aliens’ ability to strike back if humanity should decided to start shooting down saucers on purpose.  The finale then bears this out… although it also left me thinking that the film could have ended very differently if only hacking had been a thing in the fifties!

So yet another instance of good ideas, unexplored and badly executed.  Also yet another black and white movie… what is that, six in a row?  Yikes.  See you in ten days, when I promise I will have something for you in colour.  It’ll be like slogging through the beginning of Season Eight and then finally arriving at The Giant Spider Invasion!

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the strange world of planet x #cosmic monsters #fuck this movie #50s #tw: spiders #giant arthropod hours

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Longest Memory II:  Living Like Oz

@miki-13​ Hey Miki-chan. Funny story. I was actually writing up this new Pinehead headcanon in response to your last question about Ozpin being Oscar’s Pilot when I saw your new messages last night. So I decided to combine my answers to your questions in this one post since ironically, the ideas for these actually lined up perfectly with this headcanon I have so I hope you enjoy it.

miki-13 asked “What do you think of Ozpin= The Pilot from The Little Prince?”

Let’s start with my views on Oz being the Pilot in Oscar’s Little Prince story. From what I read up on the Pilot Character from the Little Prince, he was also the narrator of the story. He was essentially the character through which the reader learnt of the Prince’s journeys after leaving his home planet. It was through the Pilot that we learnt of the Prince’s story and the wisdom he imparted on the Pilot during their time together in the dessert.

I also remember you telling me that the Pilot was another character that the Prince shared a close relationship with other than his Rose and the Fox.

From what I read up on the Pilot, it seems like the lessons about responsibility that the Prince learnt from the Fox and embracing the things you loved as a child was what the Prince imparted onto the Pilot and was what he mostly remembered about him from their time together.

When I look at it from that perspective, I can see where Oz can play the Pilot in Oscar’s Little Prince story. It makes me think back to my Oscar’s Journey to Oz headcanon where Oscar deep dives into his mind to bring Ozpin back. Somehow I can imagine the reconciliation between the two souls paying homage to the Little Prince’s encounter with the Pilot with the two just meeting in a part of Oscar’s mind that takes the form of a place from either Oscar’s memories or perhaps Oz? And the two just sit there within this memory talking to one another about their lives, their experiences and more importantly of all, where they both go from where they currently stood, y’know what I mean?

It’s moments like this that makes me wish we had gotten just a few more seasons with Oscar and Oz growing closer before we got the inevitable separation in V6. It probably would’ve been twice as more impactful if Oscar and Oz shared a deeper connection than what we know them to have canonically.

From the moment Oscar met Oz, their relationship suffered a rocky start with Oscar’s whole apprehension of leaving home to go to Mistral on behalf of Oz and everything he told him regarding his sudden change in fate.

Even up to the moment where Oscar first meets Qrow, Oscar still harboured a snarky attitude towards Oz’s presence. Sure things started softening up between them during what little we saw of their interactions during V5, but in hindsight, it’s very evident that Oz and Oscar still have way to go before they can live in harmony with one another like the Wizards before them.

I will admit this though. I was pretty nice to hear Oscar acknowledge Oz as a part of him in V7CH7. It makes me wish we had gotten more moments like that with him just sitting around thinking about Ozpin and the potential of them reconnecting. I guess this is one of my gripes for this season in regards to Oscar’s side of things. Here we are yet again with the PLOT not taking the opportunity to further flesh out Oscar’s character and his relationship with Ozpin by presenting Oscar attempting to reconcile with Oz within his mind and bring him back while working together with Ironwood.

We don’t even really know how Oscar even feels about Ozpin coming back since the show focuses so little on him and how he’s been taking in everything and even when it does focus on Oscar, a lot of it seems to only hint at Oz without really addressing him.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see more examples of Oscar being his own person by having him express how he feels about certain topics rather than it be him trying to mimic Oz in some way. I like that a lot. However, at the same time, I feel like the show is having Oscar almost ignore Ozpin in a way. Despite implying that he’s a part of him, we don’t get to really see how much Ozpin’s absence has affected Oscar in the sense of how this has affected Oscar’s overall relationship with the old soul. We’ve gotten one or two glimpses of it here or there but nothing really grounding as yet, at least in my opinion.

Often at times, I can’t help but feel as if the PLOT avoids the characters talking about Ozpin and just writes around him, if that makes sense. Like it’s evident that his presence and the result of his actions are spearheading the events currently happening in the narrative at the moment. However at the same time, I feel like the characters are addressing Oz without really addressing Oz; y’know what I mean? Like they mention him in passing but they don’t really go in depth with how feel about learning of his past. 

The closest thing we’ve received to that thus far is with Ruby confessing to Maria back in V6 that she’s still unsure of how she felt about Oz after the truth was revealed. This was later repeated again when Ruby voiced her concerns to Qrow that she might be mirroring Oz in her actions toward their trust in Ironwood---highlighting that what Oscar’s words to her at the start of CH3 did weigh on her ---only for Qrow to brush it off with an air of indifference. Qrow is another character with whom the PLOT has portrayed adamantly avoiding addressing his true feelings in relation to his affiliation with Oz. 

I actually think Qrow’s stubbornness to talk about Oz is what’s irking me the most given their longstanding history together. At the least the show has highlighted how much Ironwood would like for Oz to return as well as Oscar’s willingness to accept Oz coming back should he chose to come back of his own accord.

But Qrow---Qrow I would say is a tough case since, even if V7 ends with Oz making a comeback with all of our young heroes wishing to give Oz a second chance and bury the hatchet, I’m not so sure about Qrow. I think Qrow might take a long time to get over his resentment towards Oz right now.

Seriously Qrow, Oz wasn’t just the man your sister once claimed you blindly followed for several years of your life. He was also your friend. Quit acting like he doesn’t exist to you anymore, for Pete’s sake.

It’s moments like these that made me wish we could’ve gotten at least one or two episodes of V7 where the main drivers of the chapter were Ironwood, Oscar and Qrow. With all the stuff going on with Watts and Tyrian, the politics surrounding Atlas and Mantle, Jacques and his wicked schemes in pursuit of power, the construction of Amity Arena and so forth---there’s just not enough time to focus on these three guys.

And that’s a feels bad moment right there since I honestly feel like this volume should’ve had Ironwood, Oscar and Qrow be the three focal characters of this season. I mean, in some ways they kind of are…but…not really? I mean it’s subtle if you squint your eyes but more definitely needs to be done for these three since they are the people closest to Oz right now.

Ruby’s part in all of this is important too since I believe she’ll be needed to convince the others as our titular spark of hope but, I dunno, I guess bottom line what I’m trying to say is that I could’ve used just a smidge more focus on the General, Oscar and Qrow talking about their true feelings in relation to their respective ties to Ozpin. But who knows? Maybe there’s still hope for me to get my wish a little bit. We do still have 5 more episodes left before this season ends so we’ll see.

In meantime, let’s go back to the Ozpin Pilot connection. So I’ve already shared my views on Oz being Oscar’s Pilot, however I’d like to present to you another consideration m’dear Miki-chan. Have you ever considered the thought of perhaps…Oscar could be the Pilot to Ozpin’s story?

Similar to how the Pilot’s encounter with the Prince changed his perspective on the world, you can say the same was done for Oscar since meeting Oz sparked his journey to becoming a huntsman. However that’s not the angle I’m really going for. As I mentioned earlier, it was the Pilot who relayed both the Prince’s story and his time with the Prince to the reader. 

So imagine if we got a similar scenario in RWBY where we finally learned of Ozpin’s story ---the man who he used to be before he joined Ozma’s lineage and became the man we know as Professor Ozpin---through Oscar?

For the sake of my theory, I’m going to refer to original Oz by my fanon idea for his true name---Zoroaster Ozpin or simply ‘Zo’ for short.

What if…somehow, someway, Oscar is the one to reveal Zo’s past to us as the audience, highlighting his journey and struggles from the day he became a Wizard of Light to the moment he became the man we know as Professor Ozpin all concluding with the moment we never got to see---the moment Oz died and was eventually paired with Oscar.

One curious question that I have been pondering about for some time now was why was Oscar the one specifically chosen to be Oz’s successor? Everything I’ve gathered on Oscar right now seems to point to him being different than past Wizards.

Let’s start with the first clear indicator---Oscar’s age. Even after learning of the Lost Fable, Oscar is still clearly the youngest Wizard in Ozma’s lineage. For the most part, each of Ozma’s descendants has been adult men (possibly in their mid to late twenties or so) who all appeared no older than Ozma was when he died in his first life. I’d like to think that even Ambroise---the withering old man we saw depicted in Ozma’s line following Diggs’ death---was probably a young adult when Diggs soul was paired with him and what the Fable mainly portrayed was how the previous wizard lived with their successor up even in old age.

In my RWBY Musing #57 discussing the Ozma Cycle, my theory was that the age that all Wizards were chosen was 28 years old. I also mentioned the possibility that the Wizards were each reincarnated a consecutive amount of years apart. My hunch is that the Wizards were all reborn half a century apart so each time they return, it’s in a completely different time period in Remnant’s history from their predecessor. I strongly believe that Oscar is the first instance where a Wizard was resurrected ‘prematurely’ within the same era as the last one and my rationale behind this thought was due to the villains’ reaction to Oz being back so soon.

Not to mention how Oz stated back in V5 that he left specific instructions with his trusted lieutenants in the event of his death. If the way the Ozma Cycle worked was that the Wizards were reborn immediately then why the need to leave detailed instructions with trusted advisors? I don’t think Oz was supposed to be back. At least, probably not for another couple of decades buying his advisors enough time to live out the tasks Oz had entrusted him with before he returned down the line---probably when all of them were dead.

Although Oz didn’t seem to react at all to being reborn so soon despite his enemies reacting that way, it doesn’t denounce the fact that Oscar is somewhat of an anomaly within the cycle. Not only is he the youngest Wizard shown to record but the shortest rebirth with Oz being paired with him shortly after his death during the Fall of Beacon. Oscar is meant to be different than all the other Wizards. There is an air of intrigue surrounding him and his fate with the Merge and why I bring this up is because I have a hunch that Oscar might be curious as to why he was chosen to be a part of Ozma’s cycle.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Oscar may have questions surrounding his fate, particularly with what will happen to him one day with the Merge. Or rather, I wonder if there is a part of Oscar that wonders how Oz previously handled his inevitable fate before. 

How did Oz---or rather Zo- take to learning that one day he was just going to disappear and become someone else that he might not recognize or might not even know that he’s changed into?

I bring this up because the show has subtly dropped some hints to Oz’s past as Zo and his experience with the Merge. It was teased through Ironwood with his apparent affiliation to Ozpin both during his lifetime as headmaster and formerly as Zo.

I can’t help but shake this feeling that the PLOT could potentially be leading us into learning more about the true nature of the Merge with Ozpin’s backstory. 

I think there is a golden chance for both the audience and Oscar to learn more about Ozpin and I think a way this can potentially be done is if Oscar lived through Ozpin’s memories, both in his life as Zo and his life as the man we knew he became.

This is the section of this post where I’m going to go into my answer to your recent message from yesterday. 

miki-13 asked:

“ So I just had an absolutely awful idea. You mentioned the possibility of Oscar and Ruby arguing and Ruby saying she doesn't trust Oz, and by extension Oscar, and how that's the final straw that pushes Oscar away from her. You also had the headcanon of Ruby having nightmares where Oscar uses the relic to reveal everything they did and what they learned in Volume 6. And Oscar brought the relic with them to the Schnee Manor in episode 8.

What if the argument happens at the manor and Ruby's emotions over everything finally boil over and she says something she regrets immediately? This could be the final straw that makes Oscar decide to tell Ironwood the truth and Ruby, in a fit of fear, grabs him to stop him. While they two struggle against each other, the lights go out and they hear screams. Tyrian has shown up and starts attacking people like at the rally.

In the dark as they try to get their footing and try to get the lights back on, Ruby hears Tyrian whisper in her ear, "An eye for an eye~" and raises his tail to attack her... only for Oscar to push her out of the way and take the blow for her. The lights come back on, Tyrian is gone and Ruby can only stare horrified at the bloody wound Oscar has suffered as he falls unconscious.”

What you call absolutely awful, I call brilliant since I had a similar thought, m’friend. In a nutshell, yes to everything that you wrote. 

I like your idea of Oscar confronting Ruby and her accidentally saying something that she’ll regret later. I like it since I shared the same concept in my Oscar’s Longest Memory headcanon. It was even on my Bingo Card for CH8 but we both know how that went...Hurumph! 

Basically, my version of this concept was that Ruby and Oscar would get into a fight over revealing the truth to Ironwood and during that fight, Ruby lets it slip that she doesn’t trust Ozpin.

Heck, I even have this imagined scenario where Ruby lets her emotions get the best of her like you said and she goes as far as to say that she HATES Ozpin.

Like it’s a moment where Ruby outright says she hates Ozpin because she blames him for everything---blames him for hiding the truth about Salem from everyone; making them fight a war he knew fully well that they couldn’t win.

Blames him for then leaving them behind in the dark on what to do next while saddling Ruby with that burden considering that since Ozpin left, she’s the one whose been forced to carry the full weight of everything on her shoulders with everyone looking to her for guidance. 

It’s a moment of genuine frustration for Ruby that she just unloads on Oscar in the rawest of unapologetic anguish since she’s been doing her best to make up for all of Ozpin’s many, many mistakes so Oscar accusing her of being just like him hurts more than anything since from Ruby’s point of view, how can she be like Oz when she’s the one who’s actively been trying to fix the mess Oz made. It’s all on her now! Or y’know something like that.

I can see this being a really heated argument beween Ruby and Oscar---the most we’ve seen since Yang and Raven. Oscar calls out Ruby for her actions and Ruby in turn takes out her frustration on Oscar ultimately culminating in her saying that she hates Oz---a remark that this time, Oscar takes heavily to heart just as how Oz took Qrow’s remark from V6 and he makes the same perplexed, broken expression of utter shock.

After all, Oz is a part of Oscar and this is how Oscar sees him too. The PLOT even acknowledged that in V7CH7. So if Oscar sees Oz as a part of him then Oscar will take any animosity directed at Oz onto himself. 

So if Ruby says she hates Ozpin then naturally Oscar would take that to mean that she hates him too by extension.

Then again, perhaps Ruby yelling that she hates Oz might be too harsh. On a slightly more light-hearted tone, let’s say...Ruby reveals that she doesn’t trust Oz since she blames him for everything. And since trusting in love or love and trust going hand in hand seems to be a theme for this season, let’s say Ruby implying that she doesn’t trust Oz is synonymous with her saying that she hates him in a way. At least, that’s how it’s treated through Oscar’s reaction.

So the thing Ruby ends up regretting later is her yelling in Oscar’s face that she doesn’t trust Oz with him taking it to mean that she doesn’t trust him either. After all, Ruby can’t trust only half of Oscar especially if the idea, by Oscar’s impressions, is that he is supposed to disappear one day while Oz takes his place.

If Ruby doesn’t trust Oz then she basically doesn’t trust Oscar too. And although we get a scene where Ruby might probably attempt to redact her statment, let’s say…Oscar retorts by asking Ruby if she trusted him wholeheartedly meaning all of him, not just the part of him that’s still himself.

It ends up being a question that Ruby is unable to answer since she’s conflicted on her trust in Oscar and her trust in Oz. However in the end, Ruby doesn’t need to answer since her hesitation was all Oscar needed to solidify the truth---if Ruby doesn’t trust Oz then she doesn’t trust him either.

So just like in your idea, the argument between the Rosebuds ends on a sour note. The scenario then worsens with Tyrian showing up after Ruby and Oscar fight and Oscar getting hurt afterwards. I even like your idea of Oscar pushing Ruby out of the way and taking the killing blow for Ruby. 

See, it’s like adding salt to the wound. It hurts because it burns and in Ruby’s case, an idea like this could give her another reason to feel guilty afterwards for her actions.

As the lights turn back on, there is Ruby standing over Oscar with her hand hard pressed against bleeding chest where he had been punctured as Oscar struggles to breathe and say something to her. 

Let’s say...Tyrian got Oscar straight through the chest---it’s a bad enough wound for it to be seen as life threatening but Oscar still survives through it in the end because let’s say Tyrian missed him Oscar’s heart by an inch. However it doesn’t stop the poison.

Ruby is there, hands shaking and tears falling from her face as she did her best to keep Oscar alive. She even yells for Jaune multiple times to help. Immediately Jaune is at Oscar’s side ready to pump aura into him to save him. 

However it took a few minutes for Jaune to actually get Ruby to move away since she was so scared that Oscar could die before her eyes. It wasn’t until, Yang or maybe Weiss gently takes her away from Oscar when Jaune was allowed to do his thing to help Oscar long enough until the medics came. Or something like that.

Continuing off your idea, let’s say this leads to Oscar being hospitalized in a comatose state; warded at the same medical facility we saw Winter take Weiss in CH5.

From here, we can get the story building up the prospect of JNR_RWBY reconciling with Oz by having what happened to Oscar weighing heavily on all of everyone emotionally.

Ruby is especially devastated the most by this incident since the last thing, according our theories, the last thing she told Oscar before he got seriously hurt was that she basically doesn’t trust him. 

In Ruby’s mind, Oscar could potentially die and the very last thing Ruby told him is the equivalent of saying I hate you after he risked his own life to save hers. Right after he tried to stop her from making a big mistake.

Let’s say...Ruby blames herself for what happened to Oscar and who knows? Perhaps this type of scenario could even lead into Penny helping Ruby. 

Imagine if...it’s a scenario where Oscar is in the hospital but Ruby hasn’t been to visit him since the night he got attacked. She’s been avoiding seeing Oscar; instead choosing to distract herself with huntsmen duties since the loss of the heating in Mantle and the uproar of its citizens has been causing more and more Grimm activity which means all huntsmen on deck.

Let’s say...the others notice Ruby’s reluctance to see Oscar but it’s Penny who goes to speak to her. Ruby has always been very understanding of Penny and her emotions, offering her a listening ear whenever needed.

It’d be nice to see this reflected in Penny with her helping Ruby deal with her feelings and guilt over what happened to Oscar. Y’know have Penny help Ruby understand her emotions for a change, if you get what I mean while sticking another pin in the growth of the Nuts and Dolts friendship.

If something were to happen to Oscar again, I can see it sparking another chain reaction that affects the other members of the hero team leading into everyone potentially rethinking their actions and how they might've been treating each other (or other people they’re affiliated with) in the recent times (or even in the past) since they got to Atlas.

Let’s say…since Oscar’s coma causes Weiss to recall what her mother told her in regards to Whitley’s well-being leading to her rethinking her entire relationship with her baby brother; might even lead into some more Schnee Family discussions between Weiss and Winter, this time about Whitley.

Maybe it also sparks Ren finally coming clean to Nora about how he’s been feeling since his whole spiel this volume is his inability to express how he feels; apparently. 

And from there, perhaps it can lead into Nora finally talking about herself and explaining why she’s been so hot and bothered over the affairs of the People of Mantle.

For Yang and Blake, perhaps we might receive another example of them talking about what transpired back in Argus surrounding Adam which could potentially lead into them discussing their relationship as a whole.

Not necessarily in a romantic sense but just in general since, as the PLOT keeps hammering in our faces for this season, these two have been through a lot together and haven’t really had a breather to talk to each other about it, y’know what I mean

I can see a subplot like this leading into some really solid character building for everyone. Particularly Oscar. 

Why? Because other than the rest of the group, I can easily see this idea presenting an opportunity to peer into Oscar’s mind and learning more about him through his memories. It can even lead into us learning more about Oz and his life as Zo?

This brings me to the meat of my post.

What if…while in a comatose state, Oscar ends up living through Ozpin’s memories, experiencing them either as if he was an invisible spectator watching them play out in front of him or perhaps it’s a case where Oscar opens his eyes to find himself standing in Ozpin’s body. 

In the memory, Oscar is Ozpin playing through his life as if he was Ozpin, making all the decisions that Oz once made in the past while going through all the emotions as Oz once experienced themas if they were his own.

Consciously Oscar is fully aware that he is still himself but since it’s Ozpin’s memories that he’s living through, he neither can help but feel the way Oz felt in those scenarios nor can he actively do stop the outcomes of certain choices Oz was forced to make in those moments even if he wanted to.

It is in this sense where Oscar can become Ozpin’s Pilot---steering us through Ozpin’s backstory as he learns it himself by living it. 

Oscar even lives through the same Oz memory that Ironwood told him about in CH7---where he was the one who suggested that Atlas use the Relic of Creation to lift the kingdom into the sky. It was the day Oz first brough the Relic of Creation to Atlas.

Imagine if…through Ozpin’s memories, Oscar meets a different James Ironwood--- a past version of the man we know him to become.

Imagine if…this memory was Ozpin’s first time meeting with James and during this encounter, Oz was accompanied by a different Leonardo Lionheart who was there to assist Oz in recruiting Ironwood in a sense.

Oz did say back in V6 that our heroes didn’t know the man Lionheart used to be before Salem got to him and since we never got to see more of Leonardo, maybe Oz’s memories of him from the time he was still his trusted friend can be the PLOT’s chance to help shed a different perspective on Leo.

Not necessarily trying to redeem him of the cowardly man turned traitorous villain we knew he becomes but more so to highlight how Leo was from how Oz saw him and how Oz felt about him at the time.

We can even meet a younger Qrow Branwen, touching on the memory of when Oz first met Qrow---showing how Qrow used to be as a teenager training to become a huntsmen at Beacon while explaining why Qrow chose to believe in Oz for so long. It’s a chance to show the spark of Qrow and Oz’s relationshop, justifying why Qrow cherished it for so long while simultaneously rationalizing his resentment towards Oz now. 

Who knows? Perhaps… we can even learn more details on Summer Rose and her disappearance through Ozpin’s memories of her? 

 In V7CH4, it was heavily implied by Qrow during his conversation with Ruby that Oz might’ve been keeping something on Summer as well.

“…Her last mission, was that another Oz secret?”

“ There were a lot of those back in our day, but this one was a Summer secret. When she didn’t come back, Ozpin seemed just as in the dark as myself and your father. Still, who knows what he may have hidden from us over the years…”

If there are more secrets to be learnt then the next key to uncovering them would be in Ozpin’s memories. Memory is the key. 

Last time we learnt Ozma’s memories and his biggest kept secret via Jinn and the Relic of Knowledge. 

Although we didn’t learn everything since we never got to see Ozpin’s side of the story and as Qrow told Ruby in V7CH4, there is more to be uncovered about Oz.

So yeah. Basically what I’m saying here in a nutshell is in the event of Oscar becoming another unfortunate victim of Tyrian at Schnee Manor, I can see it leading into us learning more about Oz by having Oscar live through all of Ozpin’s memories unveiling any more secrets he might’ve hidden over the years, including any info on what became of Summer Rose.

More than that, it’s a chance for Oscar to learn about Oz by literally being in his shoes and living through his life. Who knows? Perhaps we might even learn more about the night Oz died during the Fall of Beacon revealing how and why Oz ended up with Oscar of all people in the first place and why so soon.

And from this experience, not only will Oscar walk away understanding Oz more than he ever did before but maybe the audience will as well. 

Maybe this experience could even lead into Oscar finding Oz deep within his mind.

Maybe by the time Oscar meets Oz again, he is so overwhelmed by all that he experienced through learning of his full life and all of his personal hardships that the most the young farm boy could so is just embrace Oz in solidarity. Because now he understood.

 Now Oscar understood Oz. 

Thus…this leads into the two souls finally being able to mend their relationship properly thus sparking a more collaborative path toward Oscar and Oz finally living together in harmony since now, Oscar knows Oz’s life because he’s lived it. Oz’s life and journey is now a part of Oscar.

And who knows…perhaps from this experience Oscar receives the answers that he’s been looking for in regards to the Merge. From living through Oz’s experience with Merge, he learns that he is going to be okay or at least he gains an understanding of Oz that he no longer feels apprehension of becoming a part of him in the end. Or something along those lines.

This type of story is a chance to really have Oscar and Oz come together in true camaraderie and be a real chance to flesh them both out.

I know most Pineheads are hyped for Oscar’s potential semblance reveal. 

However for me, y’know my anticipation has mostly been directed towards learning more about Oscar as a person and/or seeing him and Ozpin reconcile while inside of Oscar’s mind.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get something like this in the canon at all. If I’m being completely honest, I kind of doubt it. However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think this was a possibility given some of the breadcrumbs dropped as set up from the last few episodes.

But in the event that Tyrian doesn’t attack Schnee Manor and Oscar walks away fine and dandy, I do have a Plan B alternative to this theory where we can have Oscar unlock more on Oz through the Relic of Knowledge. 

However, I’ll save that for it’s own separate post for the New Year since this post is already long as it is.

Overall, I hope you liked this post Miki-chan. If you’re able to shoot me a comment on what you think of this post, let me know. If not, that’s alright. 

I hope you liked it either way and I hope it answers your questions at least. I know I wrote a lot XD

That being said, with this officially being my last Pinehead headcanon for 2019, gonna wish you and all my fellow Pineheads a Happy New Year and see you guys in 2020 for more Oscar- worthy theories from the squiggle meister!

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#miki-13 #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #professor ozpin #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby volume 7 spoilers #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons

[aeon-wolf]

Legends 4x15

Last episode before the season finale and I think it was a reasonable one all things considered. 

I generally do think that Legends has escaped the S4 Arrowverse curse (Supergirl has as well from what I’ve heard). I definitely don’t think it’s their best season as far as pacing and story cohesion is concerned, but I don’t think the season has been bad. 

My few gripes with the show are usually compensated for by how much I love Legends in general and I’m very much willing to overlook some things that I might otherwise hate on another show that I wasn’t as invested in. 

- I think the whole Gary storyline has been... weird but also it does make sense. And I’m glad that everyone is coming around to realizing that Gary has been kind of abused by the team and the bureau, basically forever. Gary isn’t my favorite character, I kind of find him more annoying than anything, but I think it was an important lesson for the Legends (and Ava) to learn. 

- I think Mona has become a much more relatable character in the past few episodes and I hope they continue to improve her character, whilst still keeping her Mona. I will admit I have been rather turned off by her personality, but I thought that it was more a personality clash with my own, rather than disliking her. Like I’m not a huge fan of overly optimistic, love conquers all, bubbly characters in general. Gary is probably a prime of example of that. I tend to relate to and enjoy characters more like Sara or Zari. Or even Mick. But I think her character has been far more relatable and well balanced in the last few episodes than she was early on. And I do hope she stays for S5. It sounds like she probably will since Ramona was saying on Twitter that she’s heard people’s criticisms of her character and will continue to improve or whatever it was. 

- The fairy godmother plotline thing... Okay I think it was a cute idea and a good premise, but I also wish that it had been at least teased earlier. I don’t count 4x02 because we didn’t really learn anything about her in regards to how it’s transferred, who she was prior to being a fairy godmother, etc, etc. I did like the small snippet of backstory that Tabitha was just a fairy godmother in 4x02 and I guess time passes differently in the real world and Hell and that she had been there for centuries and Neron saved her. It makes the storyline make a bit more sense than it has imo. Nora being the fairy godmother now is interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing how they rectify that in the finale. I have a suspicion that it’ll be something similar to Aladdin where Gary (or whoever her charge is) might be able to wish her free? Or she might trick Tabitha into taking it back. Or something like that. Who knows at this point. And then I’m not entirely sold that Tabitha and Neron aren’t going to backstab each other at some point. 

- The Neron plotline, I kind of hate that it’s the penultimate episode and only now are we really finding out what Neron’s endgame goal is. That he’s collecting souls to become the king of Hell. That was apparently teased earlier in the season, very briefly according to Zari, but I feel like the Neron thing has been so disjointed all season that expecting that to be a satisfactory way to foreshadow this is a bit of an ask. I don’t have anything against the actual plotline. I think it’s kind of cool, but I wish we had known about it earlier as to build more suspense, rather than just accepted confusion on what the fuck was going on in regards to Neron. 

- John... I don’t know a lot about John’s backstory since I didn’t watch the solo Constantine show, so I don’t know if those demons he met were cameos or what, but it was interesting to find out a bit more about the workings of hell. I’ve done a bunch of research on demons myself for a fic I’ve been writing and for him to namedrop Satin, Belial and Beezelbub was kind of cool to me. I kind of want to be mad at him for choosing Astra over Ray, but a part of me sort of understands why he did it. Astra has haunted him for a long time, and we got a few snippets of it in the episode. And it was kind of sad (though not surprising) to see that Astra wasn’t the small child he envisioned anymore. 

- If they kill off Charlie’s character in the finale I’m going to cut someone. I really do want Charlie to stay for S5. Watching her basically sacrifice herself for all the magical creatures and Mona was a nice character development moment (though I do feel like she’s been neglected in this manner since the mid-season finale). It’ll be interesting to see how her shapeshifting powers will play into the finale. 

- And young Zari finding the dragon egg... ooo that’s going to be spicy for the finale. I wonder if because she intervened in her own past, that present-day Zari might have a grown dragon after the timeline settles into the ramifications of leaving it there. It seems that Zari is going to be our ultimate MOTHER OF DRAGONS. I wonder if the reason that Jes was laughing so hard about the mother of dragons thing at Caity during Clexacon was because Caity had expressed her interest in that but they made that Tala’s role instead. I don’t know, but I really do want to hear the rest of that story once the season is over. Someone should ask that at ComicCon. 

- Caity and Jes tap dancing was kind of hilarious. I was a tap dancer for a good ten years of my life so it was kind of nostalgic for me. I know Caity has said she dislikes it and thinks she’s not too good at it, but her timesteps and pickups and whatnot were pretty good. Jes’ as well. 

Honestly, I’m really hyped for the finale, but at the same time don’t want the season to be over. But then also excited for what the finale will bring us for S5. I do kind of hope they go back to their roots and perhaps tone the magical creature stuff back a bit. Obviously not get rid of all of it because I want Nora and Charlie to stay, but find another reason for anachronisms. I think the idea of meshing time travel with magic was good in theory but ended up being a bit messy in practice. 

#legends of tomorrow #4x15 #analysis #thoughts #review

[babywarg]

ironstrange multipart fic: Settling for a Miracle [6/?]

Chapter Summary: Stephen stops drawing power from the Dark Dimension a second time, out of concern for a friend with something to hide. Things are said over the phone.

Chapter Notes: Still takes place during Avengers: Age of Ultron. Man, a lot of things happen during that show!

Originally on AO3.

“...Stephen?”

When Stephen drifted back to attention, he found Christine’s hand on his.

Christine was seated beside him at a table in the hospital cafeteria, while Christine’s on-call neurologist, Nic West, sat across from the two of them, and was staring at him expectantly.

“Were you even listening, Stephen?” Nic demanded. “I mean, you know, it’s no big deal, it’s just a human life we’re talking about here.”

“Of course he was listening,” Christine retorted, doing her best to sound like she believed it.

Stephen gripped Christine’s hand momentarily, before releasing it. She withdrew her hand, satisfied with the acknowledgement.

“Okay. Sorry, Nic.” He passed a hand over his brow. “Truth is, I didn’t get enough sleep last night. It’s messing with my concentration.”

Nic didn’t seem impressed, or convinced. “You’re going into surgery like that?”

“Nic,” Christine again. Her voice was firmer this time. Nic rolled her eyes at her.

(Stephen understood. “Tired” was never an excuse among his colleagues. It was a mild gripe, at best, but never a way to get out of things.)

“I’ve gone into surgery in worse states, my patients still made it out of the operating theatre minus their tumors.” It was a bad, bad argument to make, but Stephen was in knee-jerk defense mode and was in no mood to keep his mouth in check. “Look...I’ll take a look at his records and get back to you. I just can’t be pressured into giving an opinion right now.”

“Yeah, guess that’s the best we can hope for.” Nic glared at Stephen. “It’s funny, though - back in the day, you gave your opinion whether or not it was solicited.” He stood, sighing loudly. “Next time, I’m consulting with someone who gives a shit.”

Nic left without another word. Stephen let him go, feeling like he deserved to be walked out on.

He stood to leave. Christine stood and kept pace with him.

“You do give a shit,” she said quietly to him. “We both know this. So what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing.” He was aware that he sounded as tired as he felt.

“If it’s a problem with a patient, you can tell me.”

“It’s not.”

“Or with the super-secret Stark project?”

Stephen mirthlessly chuckled. “I’m fine, Christine. I just haven’t had enough sleep.”

Christine stopped him from walking by laying a hand on his shoulder.

“Stephen, I hope I know you well enough for you to let me say this,” she said in the same low, careful voice, “but something’s been different about you these past few months. You’ve changed for the better, for the most part. I think you’ve met somebody.”

Stephen scoffed, “I think I’d know if that were the case...”

“But have you?”

Stephen held his tongue.

“Met” isn’t quite the right word for it, I’m afraid, Christine. “Thrown together” feels more accurate.

By fate or by something else, I still can’t tell.

Christine sighed, took her hand off his shoulder. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me. I just want you to know...if this person ever gives you something to lose sleep over, you can talk to me.”

She sounded so sincere. Of course she did. Christine never faked affection.

“I can always talk to you, Christine,” he said to her with a smile. “Thank you.”

He was about to say more, but his cell phone rang. He took a look at the display.

Tony.

“Gotta take this,” he said apologetically.

“Go for it.” Christine punched him lightly in the arm. “Make sure to tell them they’re answerable to me.”

She left Stephen’s side to check up on some of her patients recovering in the wards nearby.

Stephen accepted the call.

“Hi, I’m returning a call from Dr. Stephen Strange, genius neurosurgeon and future hottest piano bar player in New York?”

“Very funny.” Tony sounded fine: a fact for which Stephen was genuinely thankful. “Sorry about that, Tony. I think I butt-dialed you at around 2 AM this morning. Fell asleep with my phone on my bed and rolled over on it by accident.”

“Is that all? Good. I was afraid you were partying too hard without me, got wasted, fell into a gutter somewhere and needed someone to drag you out.”

Also funny. They’d mutually agreed that they were done with their share of hard partying. They were seasoned professionals; there were more productive ways to get their adrenaline fix.

“Actually, it’s a good thing you called,” Tony continued before Stephen could speak. “I wanted to tell you I’ll be heading back to New York soon, but I may not be coming back to the apartment. Something came up. I’ll be staying in the Avengers Tower until it’s done.”

Stephen had to admit to himself he was mildly disappointed, but he decided not to let on. “Not a problem. I have my hands full here with new patients, too. I guess our research will have to be stalled a bit longer?”

“Yeah...I think that’s going to have to take a backseat. What I’ve got on my hands now - much, much more important.”

He recognized that confidence - it was the same as the one Tony employed when speaking to him about his med-tech projects.

Whatever this new project was, Tony was fired up over it. It must really be huge.

And, Stephen guessed: Tony wasn’t up to discussing the dream with him. In that case, he wasn’t in a position to push.

Thanks for robbing me of sleep for nothing, douchebag, he thought fondly. Keep this up, and I'm telling Christine on you.

“Wish I could say you’re welcome to visit,” Tony continued, “but I can’t promise I’ll be able to entertain you. This thing is probably going to take up all of my waking hours.”

Christine passed Stephen by, on her way to another ward. As she caught his eye, she pointed to the back of her wrist, as if pointing to a wristwatch.

Stephen nodded at her and waved distractedly to show he understood.

“But I’ll definitely, definitely want to see you when I’m done. In a few days. I hope you’ll free up your schedule.”

“Sure thing,” he said, still looking after Christine to make sure he hadn’t missed any more non-verbal cues. “Let me know when you’re available, and take care of yourself. Lots of water, no skipping meals. Love you.”

As soon as the last two words left his lips, his hand shot up to cover them.

His eyes went wide.

His face started to slowly, thoroughly grow hot and red.

“What?” the voice on the other end of the line was tickled pink. “Say again? I missed that last part.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

He’d hissed the words out. He was blushing. He was painfully aware of it. He hid his face from people passing by even if he didn’t know them.

There was a loud, hearty laugh on the other end of the line.

“Okay, then, guess I’ll just drink the water and not skip the meals.” Tony’s voice held a happy lilt. “Love you, too. Asshat.”

Any hyperventilation that was starting in Stephen was arrested by the casual tone with which those words were spoken.

He replied with a grateful chuckle.

Then he ended the call, to spare both of them any further awkwardness.

Stephen wondered if, on the other end of the line, Tony was blushing, just like he was.

He rather liked thinking about that. He’d seen Tony blush, after all. Under more considerate lighting.

He took a moment to compose himself after the call. Then he went off to prep for the upcoming surgery. There would be time to bask in this game-changing moment later.

It was amazing, how a few minutes on the phone with Tony could turn his whole day around.

He’d been feeling light-headed from lack of sleep earlier. Now, after that one call, he was wide awake and ready for anything.

***

“So you carry this over to here,” Stephen droned, “and when you’re done, you - Peter, are you listening?”

The boy’s mind was clearly far away. Stephen had brought it back to earth with those simple words.

“Huh?” Peter’s hand had been propping up his chin. He brought down that hand guiltily. “Oh...sorry, Dr. Strange. Yeah, I was listening. I swear.”

The irony did not escape Stephen; he’d been too distracted to listen to Nic West earlier in the day. Peter being similarly listless now must be some sort of karmic payback.

“In that case, please show me how to balance this equation, per what I just said.”

Peter made a show of knitting his brows in concentration. Approximately 24 seconds of pretense later, he wrote down the correct answer on the practice sheet.

But the thing was, Stephen hadn’t even taught him how to do the equation correctly yet.

In short, Peter didn’t really need a tutor.

Stephen put down his pen.

“Peter,” he said in a low, serious voice, which he hoped did not sound threatening, “I want you to tell me what’s really going on.”

Peter Parker stared at his brand-new science tutor with alarm and trepidation. Like a deer in headlights.

“I-I don’t know what you mean, doc,” he said softly. He folded his arms over his chest protectively - a move that, unexpectedly, reminded Stephen very much of Tony. “Did - did I do it wrong? Maybe we can go through it again? I’m sorry, I drifted off a bit back there. I know you’re trying your best, but science is just - “

“Is someone hurting you?”

Peter’s motor mouth stopped abruptly, and Stephen made a sincere effort to sound gentler.

“Maybe someone at your school? A bully, or an authority figure, someone you trust...”

“No,” Peter quickly answered. “Why - why would you think someone was hurting me? Do I look - do I come across as someone who was...hurting?”

“Not exactly,” was Stephen’s straightforward answer. “If anything, you look...like you’re in better shape. And more confident. Like whatever had been hurting you before, had stopped hurting you all of a sudden. But something’s bothering you, and I’d like to understand.”

As Peter scrambled for an answer, Stephen took stock of what was right in front of him:

Peter was always a gangly boy, initially fated to grow lanky and thin, like someone Stephen knew (he’d gone through his own high school years teased for having a “giraffe neck,” among other hurtful things).

But this current Peter seemed...different. Bulkier.

Stephen always did his best to stay up to date on the newest medical technologies. And, as far as he knew, a child didn’t change from a thin frame to a well-muscled one nearly overnight. Not even with Stark tech.

Maybe Peter had been secretly going to the gym? Taking vitamin supplements, protein shakes?

Or...worse?

It would make sense if he had a health problem: that would mean Peter came to Stephen simply because he needed a doctor. An expert who would be able to tell him if he was taking drugs that weren’t good for him.

It made him feel a bit sad. He’d accused Tony once upon a time of wanting to get close to him just because he wanted a personal physician. Tony had shot him down.

Now here was a young man who was, by all appearances, doing exactly that.

Stephen brushed the disappointment aside. He was not inclined to refuse help, if he could give it. He was going to help Peter however he could.

“Pain’s an old friend, Peter,” he assured the boy. “I can tell you’re in pain. I just need to understand what kind of pain it is and how you got it. You can trust me.”

Upon hearing this, Peter clammed up, quite visibly. Stephen hoped that meant he had gotten to the heart of the matter.

“I...” He wanted to talk. Stephen could tell that he did. He wanted to trust Stephen, very badly.

But in the end, he chose not to.

“...I have to go, Dr. Strange. It’s late. May’s gonna worry.” He gathered his books, notebooks and pens in a clear hurry, stuffed them back into the backpack he’d brought them in. “I’m really sorry. I can’t...maybe next time.”

He all but fled Stephen’s apartment.

As he heard the door close, Stephen sighed and leaned back in his chair.

Kids were never his forte. He wondered if perhaps Tony, with his more easygoing air, would have gotten farther with Peter...

Whatever it was that was bothering the boy, it seemed serious. And urgent.

Stephen could only see this one way: if he could do something about it, and he didn’t, he was at fault.

He had to do something.

At the very least, he had to find out what was wrong.

***

So, late that night, when he was sure most everyone else in the immediate vicinity was asleep, he projected his astral form into the Parkers’ apartment.

(It was the second time in a week that he’d had to end the dark ritual to perform a standard spell. Stephen knew the occasion merited it, but he sincerely hoped it wasn’t becoming a habit.)

He’d never been invited into the Parkers’ apartment, and it felt like an intrusion - a necessary one, but an intrusion nonetheless.

The place was...cozy. Cozier than his current residence, certainly. Stephen had always hired designers for his previous homes, but he couldn’t exactly afford one now even if he wanted one...and looking at other people’s apartments was a surefire way to remind himself that he couldn’t DIY his own apartment’s interior worth shit.

His first objective was to check on May. She was peacefully sleeping in her bed. Not that it mattered if she was sleeping or not, because he would remain invisible to her, unless 1) she was psychically sensitive, 2) she was specially trained to detect spiritual anomalies, or 3) Stephen wanted her to see him.

Stephen noticed the framed photo of May and a man on her nightstand. Perhaps her departed husband?

He decided not to think too much about it. Satisfied that May wasn’t going to pose a problem, he moved on to Peter’s bedroom.

There was no one there. The window was open. A light breeze blew through the thin curtain. Had Peter snuck out?

It was past midnight, and an empty bedroom that belonged to a teenager would normally be cause for worry.

But Stephen decided to treat it as an opportunity. He looked around for clues that might lead him to understand what was going on.

On the walls were pretty standard, down-to-earth stuff - vision boards, dream colleges, dream travel destinations, band posters, post-it “notes to self” on a pinup calendar - and in one corner was a janky old-school desktop computer with a CRT monitor.

It didn’t seem like a store-bought model - in fact, it seemed highly customized, made up of very well-used and not-quite-rust-free parts.

Peter built his own computer. Stephen wondered if Tony would be interested to know that.

One of the “notes to self” on his calendar said “Apr 25 - first session with Dr. Strange” and beneath it, in tinier, barely legible scrawl, was: “he’s awesome. if anyone can help, he can. DON’T CHICKEN OUT.”

That wasn’t very helpful. It just confirmed his observation that Peter was hiding something.

As he was thinking, he heard a scratching sound from outside.

It sounded...like something big was making its way along the exterior wall, toward the window.

A window that was seven stories off the ground.

Stephen scowled, stepped back into the shadows on impulse. He knew he couldn’t be seen, but he also knew there was no harm in taking extra precaution, in case the intruder happened to be psychic.

From the shadows, he watched as a human being crawled into the window.

CRAWLED.

Stephen was morbidly fascinated. It reminded him of a horror movie he’d seen once - where a long-haired ghost crawled out of a well, and out of the television screen.

But this wasn’t a ghost. This was a human - a young person - who crawled on hands and knees into the window, up the wall and across the ceiling - then flipped and landed neatly on his feet as if he weighed nothing.

Like a skilled gymnast.

Or an insect.

If this was a thug or a robber, he wasn’t dressed like a typical one. The getup looked like a costume of sorts, with black goggles over the red cloth that covered his entire face. (Could he even see with those?)

He was also carrying a backpack.

The same backpack Peter had carried into Stephen’s apartment earlier.

There wasn’t much Stephen could do as an astral projection. He could move light objects and make himself visible - but that was it.

It occurred to him to spook the intruder off the premises, but he decided to wait and see what he was going to do first.

The intruder, obviously completely unaware that he wasn’t alone in the room, set down his backpack, and took off his mask.

It was Peter.

He didn’t even seem out of breath. Stephen imagined that making one’s way up seven stories and across a ceiling would take a lot out of a person, even a young person like Peter - but the boy showed no sign of tiredness or distress.

It was as if he’d just stepped out, bought something from the store, and come back indoors. No big.

Still wearing his baggy, multi-colored costume, Peter unloaded the contents of the backpack. Most of it were vials of a shimmery, milky liquid that Stephen couldn’t identify on sight.

But Stephen’s first instinct, as a doctor, was to think it was something recreational and not quite legal. It was, after all, snuck into a young person’s bedroom in the dead of night, while his guardian was fast asleep.

Oh, Peter...

But to his relief, Peter showed no signs of ingesting the liquid, or taking it into his body any other way. He had a makeshift device of some sort hidden in a dresser drawer. Peter carefully installed one vial into that device, then just as carefully fitted the device around one of his wrists.

It didn’t look to Stephen like the device had a way of injecting the liquid into Peter’s bloodstream. It looked completely external.

Peter took a deep breath.

“Here goes,” he said softly to himself.

He lifted his arm, palm up, and pointed the device toward a blank spot in his vision board wall.

He bent his wrist backwards and pressed down on a button on his palm with his middle and ring fingers.

(Stephen noticed with some amusement that this gesture was similar to one commonly used by Masters of the Mystic Arts for spellcasting. He doubted Peter knew that, though. It was simply the easiest way to firmly press down on a button on one’s palm.)

A stream of white liquid shot out from the device on Peter’s wrist.

It landed on the wall and formed -

- a web?

Stephen didn’t know how else to describe it. The liquid scattered against the wallpaper and solidified into an intricate pattern that looked very much like a spiderweb.

Impressive.

Peter let out a joyous whoop.

“Oh my God,” Peter whispered breathlessly. “Oh my God, it works! It works, I did it, I -- “

He clamped his hands over his mouth. He jumped up and down in place and soon, around his room, careful not to make too much noise as he celebrated.

Stephen still wasn’t sure what was happening. But he was sure of one thing: Peter definitely didn’t need help with “science and stuff.”

Peter dropped onto his bed, still giddy. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling he had just crawled on, breathing hard as the excitement wound down.

Stephen then understood what kind of pain Peter was suffering from:

It was the pain of having to keep a mind-blowing secret to himself.

Peter wasn’t in trouble - not yet, at any rate. He was just dying to tell someone about his newfound powers, but was still a little overwhelmed by them.

Perhaps he was afraid of the repercussions of telling someone - like how his and his aunt’s life would change, how his friends would see him, how his schoolwork might be affected...

How he could be seen as a freak. Something to be feared.

Peter shouldn’t be hurried. That much was clear to Stephen. The boy had to decide for himself whom to tell and when.

But there was one thing Stephen could do to help that along...

He waved his hand once, and a post-it note detached itself from Peter’s wall calendar.

It was the one that said “first session with Dr. Strange.”

Peter jumped up out of bed as soon as the note peeled off. He caught it before it hit the ground.

Stephen’s eyebrow rose. The boy’s senses and reflexes were amped up. Part of his newfound powers, no doubt...

For a long time, Peter stared at the note on his hand thoughtfully.

Stephen had already dropped his hint and learned enough: it was the right time to make his exit.

Peter’s bedroom faded from view. Stephen returned to his tired body and his shaking hands, and willed himself to rest.

***

He would hear about it on the morning news a couple of days later: the top floors of the Avengers Tower suffered major damage from a terror attack that occurred late the previous evening.

Manhattan residents were assured, however, that the terrorists had fled, the city was safe, and that the Avengers were on the case.

Commentators on Stephen’s news feed said it was likely not a simple terror attack. Insiders reported that Tony Stark’s Iron Legion and a deadly "programming bug" were somehow involved, stoking paranoia on the airwaves.

But “terrorists” was all the news would say.

“Need to be out of town again for a few days,” Tony supplied over the phone, sounding snippy and rushed, and even less willing to give out hard facts than journalists were.

“I know the work, Tony,” Stephen answered. “But I hope you also know I can’t help worrying about you.”

“I don’t need you worrying about me. Everything’s fine.”

It was an unexpectedly hostile response. Stephen didn’t answer.

He heard Tony draw in a long breath. He imagined Tony hanging his head apologetically.

“Look. I’m sorry. It’s just...to be honest, things are bad. And I don’t know how they got this bad. It’s pissing me off, but I can’t afford to let it get to me right now.”

“You can’t even tell me how bad things really are, can you.” It was an accusation, and it probably came across to Tony as such.

“Why would I do that?” was the cold response. “If you knew, what exactly can you do about it?”

Oh.

That stung.

Instead of dragging the conversation out into what was likely going to be their first full-blown fight, Stephen decided to end the call as civilly as he could. Though gruff, Tony still sounded somewhat apologetic as he said goodbye.

A few days ago, they had professed their love for each other over the phone.

And then, before they could say the words to each other in person, terrible things happened and suddenly the distance between them became very real.

Tony was off to another life-threatening mission. Another one that Stephen was not welcome to be part of.

And couldn’t be part of, even if he was.

It was amazing, how a few minutes on the phone with Tony could turn Stephen’s whole day on its head.

He had never before felt that way about anyone.

And a part of him was terrified.

#ironstrange #tony stark #stephen strange #peter parker #strangeiron #iron man #doctor strange #spider-man

[janeykath318]

Christmases With Bones

This is my Star Trek Holiday Fic Exchange gift for @bubblegum-star-trek

Hope you enjoy!!  (Bones x Reader)  

Five Christmases with Bones 1. (first meeting) You were spending the winter break at the academy when you first met Dr. Leonard McCoy. It was your second year and you had no way or desire to go home for the holidays, so you worked extra shifts in the small campus cafe to pass the time. Most  of the human and about half of the alien student body had gone home and you were left with a fairly peaceful campus, though not really quiet due to the amount of winter holiday parties going on and overall relief of getting a break. You were working in the cafe late one evening, when a tired looking man came in. He was wearing medical scrubs and you judged he’d finished a shift at the hospital. He had scruffy brown hair and a face that was handsome, though lined with exhaustion. 

“Can I get a decaf coffee?” He asked. “Sure! Anything else?” You asked, as he slumped onto one of the stools. “Nope. Just need to wind down before I crash. It’s one of those days.” “Ah. You’d think there’d be less injuries with the holidays and less people around,” you commented, as you poured his cup, not envying the stressful hospital environment the man likely worked in. “Yeah, you’d think so, but unfortunately the holidays also bring out the idiots and over enthusiastic partiers,” he informed you. “Also a lot of Stress induced heart trouble from the craziness and drama that happens this time of year. Me, I’d rather work on the holidays. It’s all one big commercial racket, anyway.” He sounded rather bitter and you felt a pang of sympathy for him. You weren’t the only one not enjoying the season. “Here you go!” You said, handing him the steaming cup. “Hope it hits the spot.” He took a sip and a look of bliss smoothed out the stress lines on his forehead. “Yes, it does. Haven’t had a brew this good in weeks. They making you work over break?” “No, I’m avoiding family drama,” you replied, feeling safe talking to this guy. “I’m staying on campus and volunteering at a shelter Christmas Day. In the meantime, I’m working here. It’s kind of peaceful right now and I can actually unwind during the break from class.” “You sounds like a woman who uses her time well,” the man smiled, taking another gulp. “I try,” you said modestly. “You sound like a man who has a heart for fixing people.” “I try,” he echoed, with a half pained smile. “Some days are better, others, well....you just gotta survive.” “Hmm,” You hummed in agreement. “Well, it’s time for me to close things down here, much as I’ve enjoyed talking to you....” “Leonard McCoy,” he supplied, draining the rest of his coffee and tossing the cup in the trash. “And I’ve enjoyed chatting wit you too.....Y/N.” (He read your name off the tag on your navy blue uniform shirt.) You started wiping down counters and tables as he gathered his things to go. Pausing in the doorway, he stated, “I’ll definitely be back. Best coffee and service around.” You stared as his tall, broad shouldered form disappeared from sight, already anticipating the next encounter. 2.On a xeno archaeological dig. As fate would have it, you never really had time to really get to know Leonard McCoy well. He was usually in a tearing hurry when he came by the cafe and barely had time to grab his drink and pay before scurrying away. Evidently, that first night had been an anomaly. You didn’t end up seeing him again until after the Nero crisis and the World saving done by Jim Kirk and the Enterprise. His face was all over the news along with Jim’s and you were secretly very proud of having met him. The man had broken a load of rules to smuggle Kirk on board, which ended up saving the world, and performed an emergency surgery that saved Captain Pike’s life and and kept him from being permanently paralyzed. After graduation, which you thanked your Stars you’d loved to see, You shipped out to your first archeological assignment on The desert planet Thyra. Three months in, You were deep in the study of the ancient culture of Thyra and loving your work, when it was announced the USS Enterprise would be bringing more supplies and scientists within the week. A couple of them were good friends and you made plans to hang out together over the holidays. As you were hanging out in a popular club, talking about the dig, you saw a familiar face walk in beside the famous Captain James T. Kirk. Your heart skipped a beat as you recognized Leonard McCoy, the coffee shop regular.   “It’s him!” You hissed to your friends. “Who?” “Leonard! The hunky Doctor I served at the Academy cafe!” Sadly, your friends were more interested in the smiling presence of James T. Kirk and abandoned you to flirt with him. Seizing the opportunity, You sauntered over to the Doctor, who was scowling at the loud throng and looking very out of place in the flashy club. “What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?” You asked suavely. “My idiot best friend dragged me here—-wait, Y/N? Is that you?” His griping was interrupted by the shock and disbelief of recognizing you so far from earth. He hadn’t seen you since before Nero and had suspected you hadn’t survived. “Yes, it’s me,” You said cheerfully. “Long time no see, Leonard McCoy.” “You too. I’d thought you might have died in one of the ships that first responded to Nero,” he admitted, accepting your offered bear hug. “I was sick that day and got grounded,” you said, face growing sad at the awful memory of finding out so many of your classmates were dead along with billions Of Vulcans. “I still deal with feeling guilty about it sometimes.” “I know the feeling,” he replied sympathetically. “But I’m extremely grateful you’re still around. Speaking of which, what are you up to nowadays?” You happily explained the Xenoarchaeology dig and the ancient city you were currently studying. Unlike others, his eyes didn’t glaze over during your long winded explanation and he seemed genuinely interested. “That’s pretty interesting,” he said. “What do the locals think?” “They’re very invested,” You explained. “They want to learn more about their history, but just didn’t have the resources and enough trained scientists. Being in the Federation means they can get plenty of both. How are you finding space?” He shuddered visibly and did that cute scowl again. “As nasty, dangerous, and unpleasant as ever. Aliens keep trying to take over our minds, Jim keeps tryin’ to give me heart attacks and grey hairs at every opportunity and I’m always dealin’ with idiots trying to stick stuff where it was never, ever, EVER meant to go!” You covered your mouth to prevent the giggle from coming out. Starship crew did have a reputation for reckless experimentation at times and you’d heard your fair share of stories. “Oh, dear. Sounds like you deserve some nice quality shore leave, Doctor. I can show you some cozier spots if you want to escape from this madness.” The doctor glanced over at Captain Kirk, who was surrounded by giggling beings, including your friends. “Don’t think Jim’ll miss me much,” He said, turning back to you with a pleased grin. “Lead the way, darlin.’” You ended up spending Christmas Eve cozied up to Leonard in a cheery little pub, reminiscing about Christmas traditions, and bemoaning family angst. “My stepmom is a nightmare and she’s turned my dad against me,” you admitted. “I look for every reason to not go home for the holidays.” “Thus, the cafe job when I first met you?” “Yep,” you sighed. “And since then I’ve only spent one Christmas at home. I love how you happened to show up just as I was starting to get wistful.” “That’s me, Mr. Perfect Timing,” Leonard teased with a bow. “Thanks to you, I won’t be stuck being Jim’s wingman.” 3.Five Year mission It would be another three years before you saw Leonard in person again, though the two of you made efforts to keep up communication. The Enterprise was on a Deep Space Mission And you were busy traveling about going from dig to dig, so messages were unfortunately few and far between. You were staying on the Yorktown during the Krall crisis and were crushed at the news the Enterprise was lost. The thought of Leonard dying before you’d had a chance to have more than a long distance relationship was crushing. You couldn’t find any information for days and resigned yourself to the worst after the terrifying invasion that was finally thwarted by Captain Kirk. Then you were distracted by cleanup efforts until one day you heard a familiar voice arguing loudly with a calmer voice nearby. “I still say you shouldn’t be up yet, Spock! For Pete’s sake, man, you almost died!” “Your concern is noted, Doctor, but I assure you, I am adequately healed to allow light activity. The Yorktown physicians and Vulcan healer have assured me of that fact.” “Hmmph! I’m still not letting you out of my sight.” Whirling around, you couldn’t help yourself from yelling his name. “Leonard McCoy!” He started and looked around, eyes lighting up when he saw you coming toward him. He hugged you so tightly your feet left the ground and you clung to him almost in tears, gently scolding him for scaring you so much and the lack of communication. “I’m so sorry, darlin’” he apologized. “It’s been a crazy couple days with Spock’s injury and dealing with the aftermath and getting locked in long meetings with the Fleet. Let me make it up to you and I’ll tell you the whole story.” “If The Commander doesn’t mind me stealing you away,” you replied, looking at Spock. On the contrary, you thought he looked relieved. “I do not mind. I am quite capable of seeing myself around the starbase without Dr. McCoy’s presence.” Len rolled his eyes, but waved the Vulcan away and soon the two of you had found a cozy little cafe to do your catching up in.  And boy did you catch up. By the end of the day, you’d heard his whole story and were thanking your stars he’d survived. “And you managed to fly an alien ship, swoop in to save Jim and land it? What a hero.” He shuddered. “If you call a near crash landing, that is. Jim’s in the doghouse for the next twenty years for tricking me into flying that. I’m a Doctor, not a pilot.” “I’m thankful you’re still around,” you said quietly. “I was so terrified.” “Me too, darlin. When I heard they were aiming at destroying Yorktown, I just about had a heart attack. That was too close for comfort.” You and Len dated quite regularly during the time on the Yorktown and when the new Enterprise left on its maiden voyage, you were on board as a ship historian and cultural expert. There would still be digs when you got back, you reasoned. The long distance was just too much to deal with. That next Christmas, you and Leonard were enjoying a raucous party thrown by Jim and Scotty with food and booze and goofy games aplenty. Also: mistletoe, which you didn’t notice until you were standing directly under it and your sneaky boyfriend was pointing it out with a gleam in his eyes. “I do believe that’s mistletoe, darlin’. You know what that means right?” “It means you want a kiss, you scheming rascal,” you told him with a grin. “Got a problem with that?” He challenged, leaning closer to you. “None At all, babe,” you said with a pleased smirk. “Merry Christmas.” Seconds later, your lips met in the best kiss of your life. Leonard was a master and soon you’d completely melted against him. Holly, Jolly Christmas Indeed. 4.After the memorable way you and Leonard tended to spend holidays, it was only natural that you decided to have a Christmas wedding. Despite still being in space, the Enterprise A did not lack for suitable venues and enthusiastic friends who helped put the event together. Sulu supplies greenery and flowers and Carol and Christine added red and gold ribbons and drapery and arranged everything to make a breathtaking Christmastime backdrop for the ceremony. Jim was pleased to be able to perform the ceremony—Spock standing in as the groomsman. You’d heard plenty of Leonard bickering with the first officer in your time on the ship and thought it was hilarious how much they actually liked each other, despite both denying it vehemently. Thanks to the replicators, the quartermaster, and a genius friend who happened to be very gifted at sewing, you had a lovely dress to wear, rather than your dress uniform. There was a touch of red at the floor length hem to tie it in with the Christmas theme and you were stunned at how lovely it turned out in it’s simplicity. There wasn’t any train to deal with and you could happily dance the night away without getting tangled. Len seemed to appreciate it, judging by his face when you made your grand entrance and the many, many compliments he gave you during the course of the wedding festivities. The Captain, resplendent in his own dress uniform, couldn’t stop smiling the entire time he officiated the ceremony and he led the cheers when Len kissed you. “Best Christmas Ever!” You breathed, after he’d left you properly weak in the knees. “I can’t disagree with that statement, Mrs. McCoy,” he said low in your ear, causing you to giggle and go hot with delight at the term. You’d make sure he never griped about celebrating the holidays for the rest of his life. @outside-the-government

@yourtropegirl @star-trekkin-across-theuniverse

@medicatemedrmccoy

@southernbellestatues

#its beginning to look a lot like Star Trek 2017 #leonard mccoy x reader #bones x reader #holiday fic exchange #the fluffiest fluff to ever fluff

[verscorch]

Recent events got me wondering why I deal with some people.

It’s no secret that I am a very focused, driven individual, and when it comes to leadership, I hate playing tug-of-war. There are proven, effective ways of doing things that I believe ought to be kept in mind as guidelines even if not adhered to letter-for-letter:

Be willing and able to communicate issues, whether they’re “actual” issues or “perceived” issues, with those who you work with. This is the golden rule, part one. If you’re not willing to put yourself out there then no conversation will ever happen. The issues will perpetuate.

Be willing and able to listen and put to meaningful thought into issues as they’re brought up. This is the golden rule, part two. Communication is a two-way street. You can send all you want but it’s pointless if there’s no one there to receive it. The meaningful thought part is especially important here. Sometimes you have to sit and let words digest instead of going with your knee-jerk reaction. This can be difficult, and is much easier to do via text than it is to do via voice.

Be motivated and show enthusiasm. If the leaders are motivated and enthusiastic about what they’re doing, then others will follow. Positive mindsets, just like negative ones, are contagious.

If you expect the worst, you will usually get it.

In most situations I have been in, these guiding principles have worked incredibly well. These principles guide each and every interaction with my Ebonguard officers, who are absolutely fantastic. People are busy and that’s understandable, but every one of them is a joy to work with and I’m lucky to have them around. (I’d like to make some additions to the team to fill other roles, since most of us are oriented towards the actual administration of the group: looking over apps, chatting with recruits, overall making sure that we can keep the lights on. I would specifically like to add some dedicated RP officers, but this gets tricky when very few members of the LS are self-starters. I think if we get volunteers then we can make it work though as long as the new officers understand what is expected of them.)

I think I can chalk this up in part to the simple fact that the Ebonguard officers are good at what they do. The two most active members of the team have prior experiences, both good and bad I’m pretty sure, with running groups, which makes their insight invaluable and their opinions informed. We can actually sit down and have conversations. We do actually sit down and have conversations. And these conversations are productive! We pin-point problems. We suggest solutions. Sometimes we even plan RP, although schedules occasionally conspire to make that part a little difficult because the most active chunk of the team is comprised of a student, someone who travels like every other week for their job, and an Australian with no sleep schedule. (I wouldn’t have them any other way though!)

This is a very, very stark contrast to these assholes.

I am, for practical intents and purposes, the de facto leader of two seperate groups. One, just mentioned, is good. The other. Is not.

Take everything that makes my Ebonguard officers great and flip it, and you have the Artifice’s officer team.

Dealing with the Artifice team is a special exercise in both patience and masochism. To be completely frank, it didn’t used to be as bad as it is right now, and I have no idea when it got so bad. I know when exactly all the shit came to the forefront and precipitated into the situation that we’ve been living with for the past three and a half months. Before the New Year, we were all bright-eyed and motivated. We had a game-plan. We were going to work together. We were going to use the strong foundation that we built in order to make something truly great. We had a vision. We knew what we had to do, basically, to make it a reality.

... And then nothing happened.

We took December off for Finals season and holidays, as is kind of scheduled and expected, and I can only assume that during that time, something changed. When the clock struck twelve on New Years Day, something changed and it didn’t change for the better. A day passed. A week passed. No word of any change of plans. I rewrote the lore doc like we planned to do. Silence, maybe a grudging pat on the back. I spruced up the interior of the house, providing us with a shiny new space with which to run public events, which has since been used only once, and it wasn’t for strictly FC purposes. We were going to have a linkshell to help us network with people outside of our immediate circle, and although we have it now, it’s a far cry from anything we actually discussed doing and in pushing for it to actually get done -- I cannot and will not be responsible for everything -- I got demoted.

When we got to actually going over what happened in that particular instance, it felt productive at the time. Someone else stepped in to mediate the issue, though at the time I was definitely putting some serious thought into burning the group and moving on with my life. It’s no overstatement to say that I am the primary if not the sole creative force behind everything the FC is and does. I wrote the lore. My character is the last full-time leader of the FC, the other officers having all rerolled into characters who are not only wholly incapable of leading, but who don’t really mesh with the fabric of the group at all (even taking into account the idea that antagonistic relationships between characters within a group can be interesting and can very well be driving forces behind character development!). They do nothing. They affect nothing. They just kind of exist, and the only reason why they haven’t been fired yet is because that would be unfair on an OOC level even if it would be completely reasonable and in-character for my character to fire them or otherwise penalize them for not being useful to the company as a whole.

Unfortunately, it just popped up again. They cite passive-aggression as the precipitating factor despite being completely and totally unwilling to point out passive-aggression as it happens, and frankly since the way that I interface with the group has not changed since way, way back when I still actually liked them, I’m inclined to believe that it’s not necessarily an issue with how I interface but with how they perceive. They aren’t in a mindset that’s conducive to actually getting things done. All they do is ignore things as they’re brought up, or shut them down as being unnecessarily nitpicky, unimportant, or harsh, not even bothering to consider the fact that I don’t pipe up and say things for no reason. If I feel like it’s important enough to bring up, then chances are I have a good reason for it, those reasons ranging from “this is counter-productive” to “this hurt my feelings or made me angry for like five minutes and I would like you to stop doing that thing or take steps to handle similar situations differently in the future.”

But quite literally every time, one or the other chimes in to put the concern down without spending more than a hot 30 seconds considering what I’m trying to get at, and the overwhelming majority of the time they don’t ask me to clarify if I was being unclear, either. One just doesn’t seem to care. The other’s first reaction to anything I try to say that they don’t happen to agree with or like is immediate, intense anger which makes getting anything done impossible. For example, this person went off just the other day and, rather than even considering what I had said or was trying to say at quite literally any point in time, instead went on to characterize me as “having the weight of the world on their shoulders!” and being “easily replaceable.” To be fair, I lashed out first, but I made maybe one or two jabs at the two of them as a pair -- as officers, not even as people. This rant must have gone on for a solid seven to ten minutes.

Both of which I feel aren’t entirely true.

For the first count, it’s true that I voluntarily take on a lot of responsibility in running the company and making things work. I run the designated company plotline. I lead company meetings, in AND out of character because, again, my character is the only full-time leader of the FC. I’ve even started planning and slapping together some OOC shindigs like map parties and movie nights. But I don’t do this because I want an excuse to gripe. I do it because I like doing it. I like writing stories and I like seeing how people interact with the narrative I make. I enjoy playing a character in a position of power, although frankly it sucks that it also means I’m the only member of the officer team who is technically qualified to do the shitty, shitty job of hiring people IC. (There is a very good reason why IC play-ins are no longer a thing for Ebonguard, and its because I despise them. They are never anything but forced and robotic. Leon stops being Leon and starts being Officer Bot 5000 because, again, there’s no prerequisite or allowance for him to just not hire people who don’t leave a good impression on him; by this point in time people are already accepted into the FC on whatever character they applied with, and their character not being hired because my character is an asshole is a little unfair.)

The source of my gripes is not and never has been “I DO EVERYTHING!” in fact quite frankly I’m of the opinion that life would be a lot easier if I did, in fact, do everything. If I did everything then that would mean that everything is done to my (relatively high) standards and specifications, and not only that but they are done in a timely manner. The source of my gripes is, instead, that I’m sitting over here working my ass off while for all intents and purposes, they pick their noses. I’m pretty understanding of prior obligations and life getting in the way of things; it’s not an issue at all with my Ebonguard team even though the breakdown of time available to spend on doing stuff ends up being relatively the same. But their current reasoning does not hold up when taking the entire picture into account. I’m more than willing to and capable of understand/ing when you have to deal with a continuing family emergency. But what I’m not is a mindreader. 

One is pretty good at communicating when obligations arise and I respect him for that. My problems don’t usually start with him and in fact if I were in charge I would probably keep him around in the same capacity.

The other? At no point in time did she ever even make the slightest attempt to communicate to me, or the officer team as a unit, that she had some personal issues to deal with. The people closest to her as a person? Sure. I’m not in that group. But the officer team as a unit? Never.

Even discounting the current situation, it neither explains nor excuses the perpetual state of apathy they’ve basically been stuck in since Thanksgiving. One of them used to chip in and DM scenario events from time to time which was a pretty cool gig, and then he stopped. The other used to have a plot chain she was also running, and then lost the motivation for since they can’t manage large stories like I can. She at one point wanted to tie her plot into what I had so that I could continue/finish what she started, but she never gave me the notes and she never followed through on actually doing that. (This is what has happened to every event chain, whether heavy on story or not, that I’ve ever seen her try to run from the start of me being in the FC. It’s not the first time, and I guarantee that it won’t be the last.) This one also told me to my face not too long ago that she didn’t actually have any desire to be a leader and occasionally wondered what it would be like if she passed it off and then joined another FC just to be a member without all the responsibility.

And frankly, I wonder that too; if you don’t want to be a leader and/or don’t have the time or mental energy to dedicate to being a leader, then chances are pretty good that you should step aside and hand someone else the reigns. I would be absolutely willing to provide compensation for material assets and just straight-up buy the FC and take it off her hands. I could probably fix every single issue that the FC has within the span of 72 hours or less.

I also do not like this person as a person because they don’t treat me with respect and yet expect it in return, which is a MAJOR button of mine (I also have a general contempt for authority figures I guess), but it’s 2AM and that is a story for another time.

#mid.txt #salt on main

[syndianites]

The Family You Make

Ship: Syndianite (Tom x S1 Dianite)

Summary: Dianite always kept a close eye on his followers. Some he felt little connection to, in an ironic twist where they focused too much on seeking power or always asked for favors with no returning sacrifices. Others he held a nearly unbreakable bond with. With these followers, they seemed to group together. Perhaps part of their connection to him, or a kindred ship from their unique outtakes on being a Dianitee, brought them together. When he looks at those Tom had gathered around him, he knew they would raise hell for him. And he would do the same

AN: I was (trying) working on my tshirt design for a school thingie, and I was passively rewatchin season 1 in Tom’s POV, and the comradery between Tom and Nade and the Modesteps (and, amusingly, Champwan) reminds me so much of a band of brothers. Its adorable.

 Dianite was supposed to be working on paperwork (Goddammit Jared, he thought with a touch of fondness for the problematic child). On one hand, he could just bullshit it all and charm people to believe it was perfect. On the other, he could just remove the problem altogether. (It was the same damned Mianitee causing trouble for Jared, trying to force him to leave the city. Though it might upset his brother, he would probably just take the dipshit out. She wasn’t that important)

Though he was mostly confined to the Nether (the recent disagreement with Mia left Ianite with little choice but to keep them in separate worlds until it smoothed over) it would be no trouble to remove one Maria Stevoi from Stricker’s Reach. (He made a note to have Addison check up on Jared, he hadn’t been doing well since his parents left him). However, his biggest concern was his dear champion, once more finding himself in trouble.

Like the angry little child he liked to be, he had waged a war against the local Mianitees. He had been doing rather well, at one-point fighting on behalf of his brothers, until his opposition found his house. Not only had they taken Skeletor from the zombie (though he had since returned the horse to his temple), they had removed many of his instruments for war. Needless to say, his champion had not been faring terribly well last he had seen.

He wasn’t too keen on entering the Overworld, Ianite wasn’t one for losing the peace she installed, so he made his way to his mirror room. Now, those who had seen the room (as is Furia) would believe it was his room of obsessing over the lives of his followers. (It is not Furia, fuck you. These lava pools are special enchanted to keep track of set personnel for security reasons). Each pool was honed in on the location of particular followers of his, though he had a few exceptions with potential enemies. Through these, he often entertained himself keeping up with his savage following.

After sparing a glance at Jared’s mirror (He was laying down a trap that was fundamentally flawed. He gave it a quick fix), he settled in his cushion (It is not a cushion for mother, I swear I will smite your ass Furia) facing Tom’s pool. (It had been an interesting challenge to keep them vertical, though the glass he added a nice visual effect). The sight that greeted him was not unusual.

The zombie was holed up in Nade’s house, plotting his next move. (He found it rather amusing how he preferred being referenced to as Nade, though he was aware of the past that haunted the name Matt). The two were adamantly making new war preparations, Tom dragging the unconfident OpTic along. Despite his recent string in failures against their foes (Had Tom not gotten revenge for him, the Mianitees would have faced much dire consequences. The Captain would have received a different, more subtle consequence, to avoid upsetting his sister) he was still determined to help in any way.

It was well into the night, the two starting to feel the hours, when two more mortals appeared. Tony and Josh Modestep came bearing a bag of food. (Many are confused when they first meet the older brother, unable to discern whether he was in fact a penguin for not. This came as a great source of foolery for them, as they could keep the charade up for months before the bewildered people would figure it out, or politely be corrected. The costume wasn’t particularly convincing, most people were just unaware what a real penguin looked like). They had been AWOL for a long time, but were never far. Once they heard the of the events passed they were quick to set up many plans for pranks. (An Ianitee was not going to be thrilled in the coming future).

Though they brought no items for battle, along with the food Josh was hefting a large bag over his soldier. He gently placed it on the ground, and let the contents fall out. The relaxed figure of Champwan sat on the ground, completely unconcerned with being surrounded by Dianitees. (Despite his allegiance with the priest, who was most definitely allied with Mianite, Champwan had basically adopted by the Dianite crew. The Nether god himself had found himself with a growing attachment for the priest’s assistant). After helping Tom, and the Modesteps (though few knew of this happening), he was graciously accepted as a pseudo brother.

(As Dianite took more interest in his unofficial follower, Furia even gained respect for the small man. He proved to be fierce in battle, far more skilled then any of the inhabitants of the land, and the closest in skill to the fiery demon. Though he would never admit it, he was impressed by the small human. At some point, the Nether god considered offering Riley the position of his priest. Declan would have to live with losing his understudy.)

The group chose to enjoy each other’s company, bitching about the Mianitees, getting drunk (though Champ seemed to hold his liquor well, completely unaffected), and confessing their deepest secrets. (“Nade, my main man, I must say, I just, love, love your fine ass, fine ass base.” The tipsy zombie draped himself across his lap, “And that bootay.” He snickered. “Dia’s is better though.” This brought a chorus of laughs, and a small smirk from Riley. “Well,” Josh continued the thought, “We should get a real professional,” he exchanged a smirk with Tony, “One of them real fancy ones,” he broke out into giggles, “And have them make us a banner with his ass on it.” He lost all pretense of composure, “We could go into battle, and destroy everyone. They’d be too in awe of his divine booty to fight!” Champ made a mental note to tell Dec about that one.)

They stayed up well into the morning, before Tom passed out drunk, wrapped around Riley, an unfortunate victim to his octopus cuddling method. (He didn’t mind though. At the same time he knew he could easily kill Tom, he also knew the zombie wouldn’t willingly hurt him). Nade came across two extra beds (specifically meant for the Modesteps) and set them at the end of the two there already. With some help, they managed to get Tom and Riley onto the bed (the zombie would not let go, and Riley didn’t have the heart to push him off). The group piled on top of each other and were content to sleep off the rest of the day.

Dianite spent this time watching them, as well as his other children, followers, dammit Furia. He made certain the accommodations for his past knight were up to the highest standard. (In reality, she had been his champion, but he couldn’t call her that, not when he was still working so hard on bringing Tom back. She understood. Felicia had chosen the title herself, despite the previous placeholders going for something more entitled (one had tried for Lord, but was amusedly shot down. He stuck with baron). Felicia had been the High Knight for many years, starting at the ripe age of 23, ending her reign at age 61. Twenty years later, she can still kick your ass. The god knew she didn’t care, but he wanted to let her live the rest of her life in luxury. Overall, she was grateful he still cared. (Even Furia made the occasional visit, if only to spread some gossip to her. Then to gripe about how this generation is worse than hers).

The rest of the time, beyond eavesdropping on his beloved and his family, he fucked around with the fools who chose to inconvenience his other followers. Beyond the situation with a drunkard attempting to make a move on little Daniel, (He was barely 9, yet he had seen more shit than many men see in their lifetime. Born and raised as a sex slave, he lost his tolerance once his mom was beaten to death. Dianite never asked for anything in return from the child), there was little trouble they couldn’t handle. (Said drunkard was a pile of ashes, and his child, yes Furia, I will admit to that one being my child, was happily walking away with a fresh batch of cookies.

Still, the immortal was bored. His agents of chaos were rather tame today, though he knew Tom and Nade were ready to roll in destruction, and even Furia being domestic. (He was working on his garden, filled with both exotic and mundane vegetation. Though it was difficult to cultivate some of the weaker plants without water, the fire entity managed it). In a fashion better suited for his people, he followed the whim of one of his lesser ideas.

Red and Gold dye in hand, Dianite sent himself to the base of Nade. The slumbering people, minus Riley, who slept light due to his disaster of a past, were innocently unaware of the event about to take place. He surveyed the items the god held, and whispered to him, “You should draw a dick on Tony’s butt. It’ll either take days to find it, or he won’t be the first to see it.” Champ wiggled his eyebrows and shifted the sleeping Tom to a better position for assault. With a smirk, the god set to work.

 (In their confused hungover agony, Champwan took great pleasure in the expressions that littered their faces as they noticed the marks left on them. He claimed innocence, and they knew better than to fight him on it. Nade sported lovely racooned eyes, one red, one gold, with a reddened neck to complete the look. Tony sported the words ‘BOTTOM BITCH’ across his forehead, to which he swore up and down he would always be top. Josh’s face was littered with flowers, sparkles, and hearts. He wasn’t terribly bothered by it, but rather the constant teasing his brother kept going. Tom sported a dusting of gold freckles (an inside joke of sorts), and many dicks spread out on his cheeks. He would later find the finely scrawled ‘Mine’ at the very bottom of his back. Despite many attempts to scrub the letters off, they refused to be removed for nearly two weeks.”

(AN: Sorry for the suuuuuuper late upload. I was working on my t-shirt thing. Mostly thumbnails right now, gonna start the rough draft after work tomorrow. Then I can pretend it looks good, and figure out if I want to marker it, or color pencil it 😊. I think this is my longest fic so far. I’m simultaneously proud, and pretty sure I went on the most tangents in this one. Oh well. )

#Syndiante #Diacate #TomxDianite #DianitexTom #SyndicatexDianite #DianitexSyndicate #Mianite #MianiteS1 #I'm slacking #Gotta finish that graveyard one tomorrow #And get more ideas