#gotta knock the dust off...(pun intended HEH)

[ooc-miqojak]

Miles and miles of red dust stretched out from the city that had, twice-over now, been laid siege to in quick succession.

She hated it here.

The red dust choked one's nostrils - caked the throat, dried the eyes. The heat then baked the dust into one's skin, and sweat smeared it along the clothes, forever ruining that which wasn't made for wear in such a harsh climate.

Durotar had only ever been a pleasure when there'd been the ship, and the crew - and even those memories had come to be about as welcome as a red, sweat-smeared streak of dust. She tried to hold the warm ones close... but even those held the specter of the one who'd broken his word. His promise. The words that she had taken up, in his stead.

Once crew, always crew.

The sick irony of it would have made her chuckle, but for the dust in her throat - even with all the changes she'd endured, she was not immune to being parched.

The orcs, themselves... even this many years later, even knowing now, somewhat how their clans work - it was hard to forgive. Orcs had burned the lands of her people... and they'd enslaved dragons sworn to protect life to do so. What could be more perverse than taking life in such a heinous fashion?

And then, in the war against the Lich King, Erythraestrasz had come into her life. They'd known war together - but they'd known a friendship that transcended species, and he had chosen to continue on with her, traveling and seeing the world - experiencing what life had to offer alongside someone who valued and cherished life as much as he did.

And now... being so close with a member of the red flight? Well - who wouldn't be angry at the thought of their friend's family being enslaved and forced to commit war crimes? Elves and dragons both had long memories, and no doubt the Reds would forgive the Orcs before she did.

He was fresh in the woman's mind, however, as she nodded to the Sin'dorei mages who held the portal open, and stepped through - abruptly manifesting into the clean, cool autumnal air of Quel'thalas - the drake had reached out via comms earlier, and sounded... harried? Rushed. Worried, and excited both.

He'd wanted her to return to the estate, he'd said - there was something "exciting" to share, and she couldn't help but worry, frankly - it was rare for him to need to use the comms personally, unless it was an emergency.

Long legs carried her down the ramp, and towards the towering fountain at its base... and the city beyond - there was no point in wasting time on worries soon soothed or confirmed, at any rate.

#dragonflight #durotar #elves #dragons #WoW RP #rambly but it's a thing #gotta knock the dust off...(pun intended HEH) #fuck titles #I hate coming up with titles #I waste too much time on it #and now I sleep off like the most migraine-fueled week yet #part two will come soon I guess #when a dragon lives on your estate it's hard to miss the news about the Dragon Isles

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 210 Review: Absolute Evil

Story

The story opens with a whisper as menacing as the sibilant hiss of an angry snake. At a glance, the cover tells us what there is to know. God in his lunar peeping hole beaming approvingly down at his latest avatar as Garou comes striding out of the sea. The perfectly mirrored waves add to the unnaturalness of it and the skeletal remains of fish, birds, and mammals frame the lower half of the image, heralding only destruction.

The events of the story back it up. The Narrator is back; I generally don't welcome him but today he's got some contextual information worth having. Straightaway we learn that Garou's parlayed his miraculous talent for learning and Bang's teachings on utilizing the flow of energy into acquiring the very flow of the universe.

And what does he use it for? Cure cancer? As if! There's a pesky baldy to attack! He starts barraging Saitama with a flurry of fists, each of which literally splits atoms and creates a massive explosion. Over on the stranded warship, the automated decontamination procedures have started, indicating that this is no drill: those really are nuclear blasts going off. Sufficiently far away not to be shredded, but close enough to feel the wash, the heroes are buffeted by the dust, spray, and wind. A tattered Psykos watches with wonder at the size of those balls (no pun intended). Alas, its only effect is to annoy Saitama as his clothes are tattered.

I say alas because Garou ups the ante in the creepiest way. He has never asked Saitama his name and knows him only as the overpowered bald guy, but suddenly, here we are with Saitama's face looking out of the hole in Garou's face, calling him Saitama.

And then he mirrors Saitama's Consecutive Normal Punches perfectly, culminating with them punching each other in the face. They're both knocked into the sea and come back up. Saitama looks at his glove and notes that he's got a bit of a nosebleed, which makes him a little regretful that he's not kept his promise to Tareo in that regard. Not that he has time to worry about it because Garou does even worse: he powers up and unleashes something horrible. Seeing what's going to happen, Saitama jumps up so that he, and not the planet, can receive the brunt of the gamma ray burst that comes shooting out. Saitama is swept away...

...leaving the field clear for Garou to indulge in his favourite obsession: tormenting heroes. He loved doing it when he didn't have that much power and now that he does, oh ho ho ho, is he here to show them. Glowing with high-energy radiation, he appears before them and all gathered know that this is Very Bad News Indeed.

The Blizzard Group and Tank Toppers start to flee in terror, the S-Class heroes look transfixed with horror, but what's this? One lone figure is crawling towards the dread apparition. It's Bang, and he asks Garou what's happened to him, who has done this to him? To which Garou recounts his conversion story before thanking Bang for all his help in training him to prepare him for his destiny. Mentally bidding Tareo goodbye, Garou walks forward to cause what despair he can.

Meta

This image inserted so fans stop bugging me

Yes, Genos is alive and (sorta) safe. He's even with it, following Saitama's actions up in the heavens with extreme interest. You can stop bugging Murata now.

Puri Puri is also accounted for and he's not sneaking off somewhere to do unspeakable things to heroes who aren't in a position to defend themselves.

Heh, you gotta love what fans latch onto.

This image also inserted to stop fans bugging me

Yes, Flashy Flash has taken a liking to Manako and won't let her come to any harm.

...more cynically, you can just hear the *clink* of wineglasses as ONE and Murata toast the successful launch of another line of plushies...

You get leukemia, and you get leukemia, and you get leukemia -- you ALL get leukemia!

With all due apologies to Oprah, Garou is literally toxic right now as he spews radiation everywhere. I would have loved to see a reveal of his 'life annihilation fist' technique to be just him being edgy but the Godz Okkie and its crew know a thing or two about nukes but nothing about Garou and have no reason to play along -- it's as bad as it sounds.

Garou's pretend evil is pretense no longer: turns out that when you knock on enough doors asking to see the Devil, he eventually answers. God (no ID) is not to be mocked; Garou pretending to be taken in but slapping His hand away was all He needed.

There's a great parallel between Garou and Homeless Emperor in what God told them. He has no interest in micro-managing his avatars. Instead, He likes to find unstable individuals, grant them catastrophic power, sit back and enjoy the chaos.

Garou believes himself fully in control of himself and his abilities, but as he advances, only death emanates from him. Like the cover image of a toxic slick poisoning all in its wake, Garou isn't just going to be punching heroes, he's poisoning them too. I thought God (no ID) simply didn't like human beings, but it looks like He's not too careful of the Earth either. Maybe when you can see a billion years into the future like it's next week, the loss of all complex life on a planet is a mere hiccup as new forms will inevitably re-evolve and fill the new ecological niches.

A lot of people ask how One-Punch Man is not a shonen, and it's this: the story is not about how to get what you want. Oh no, no, no. If you chase after it, you will almost certainly catch whatever it was you were after. The real story in OPM is how do you live with what you wanted? And that's a very adult problem, even if it's often cast in fantastical terms. Beefcake's lament is a potted cautionary tale that repeats across the story:

Garou wanted to be the Symbol of Fear? Well, he's got it. At the cost of destroying everything that made it worth his while to seek to be that symbol in the first place.

The S-Class heroes don't look like they're going to run, but they know it's hopeless. Someone needs to stop him before he destroys life on Earth. Blast? Saitama? Anybody?

#OPM #review #update 210 #Saitama #God (no ID) #Garou #the high price of achieving your dreams #heroes